November 21, 1899: The Death of Garret Hobart

November 21, 1899, 125 years ago: Garret Hobart dies of heart disease in Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey. He was only 55 years old.

He was also the Vice President of the United States -- the only one, so far, from New Jersey. A statue of him stands outside Paterson's City Hall.

The native of Long Branch, Monmouth County, on the Jersey Shore – where President James Garfield died 2 months after being shot in 1881 – had led both houses of the State legislature, as Speaker of the Assembly and as President of the Senate. He was Chairman of the State's Republican Party from 1880 to 1891. He was chosen to run for Vice President on the Republican ticket with William McKinley in 1896.

Hobart's death left the Vice Presidency vacant until Inauguration Day 1901: Until the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1967, there was no legal mechanism for replacing the Vice President until the next Presidential election. Had he lived, Hobart would have been re-elected with McKinley in 1900, and then, upon McKinley's death by assassination on September 14, 1901, Hobart would have become the 26th President of the United States.

Instead, Theodore Roosevelt was elected Vice President in 1900, and became one of the most influential Presidents in the country's history, while Hobart has been forgotten. Had he become President, most of TR's progressive reforms probably wouldn't have happened, and there might have been a more fractious America in the early 20th Century.

Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1886, from Hobart's death on November 21, 1899 until McKinley's 2nd term on March 4, 1901, the man next in line for the Presidency was the Secretary of State, John Hay.