ODGDEN, AARON (Dec. 3. 1756-Apr. 19, 1839), soldier, lawyer, United
States senator, governor of New Jersey, steamboat operator, was born at
Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), NJ, where his ancestor, John Ogden, had
been a pioneer settler in 1664 after emigrating from Hampshire, England,
to Long Island in 1640. Aaron was the son of Robert, at one time speaker
of the colonial House of Assembly, and Phebe (Hatfield) Ogden. At
sixteen he was graduated from the College of New Jersey (later
Princeton) in the class of 1773 with "Light-Horse Harry" Lee and a year
behind Aaron Burr, a boyhood companion. For three years he taught
school, first at the Nassau Hall Grammar School and then at Barber's
Grammar School in his native town. He had an active military career in
the Revolution. His first exploit, with some Elizabethtown volunteers,
was the capture of a British supply ship off Sandy Hook. From Nov. 26,
1776, until 1783, he was a "regular" officer in the 1st New Jersey, a
line regiment of which his brother Matthias was finally colonel. .Aaron
rose from first lieutenant to brigade major, serving all the way from
Brandywine to Yorktown, where he led the van of Hamilton's regiment in
storming a redoubt. He bore to Clinton Washington's proposal to exchange
Andre for Arnold. At the close of the war he studied law with his
brother Robert, becoming successively attorney, counselor, and
sergeant-at-law.
In the years between the two wars with England, he was reckoned as one
of the leaders of the New Jersey bar. He had "strong analytical and
logical powers of mind," unusual industry and thoroughness, and
considerable effectiveness as an orator, revealing intimate acquaintance
with the classics. The title of "colonel" which was generally attached
to him came from the French war scare between 1797 and 1800 when he
commanded the provisional 15th Infantry and , was lieutenant-colonel of
the 11th Infantry, as wel1 as deputy quartermaster-general of the army.
For a number of years he was clerk of Essex County. A prominent
Federalist, he was chosen United States senator in 1801 to fill the
remaining two years of an unexpired term. He served as one of the
commission which, in 1807, discussed the boundary between New York and
New Jersey. His principal activity, however, was legal. He resided in
Elizabethtown, where on Oct. 27, 1787, he had married Elizabeth,
daughter of Judge John Chetwood. She bore him two daughters and five
sons. In the fall of 1812, Ogden was elected governor of New Jersey on a
peace ticket, but a year later the war party rallied and elected William
S. Pennington. Madison nominated Ogden major-general in 1813, intending
probably to give him a command in Canada. He declined the appointment,
however, saying that he preferred to remain in command of the state
militia for defense purposes.
The war period marked a turning point in Ogden's career. He turned from
the law to a steamboat venture which wrecked his fortune. In 1811 he
built the steamer Sea Horse, with engines designed by Daniel Dod, to run
between Elizabethtown Point and New York City. In 1813, however, the New
York legislature, upholding the Fulton-Livingston monopoly, barred his
boat from New York waters. The New Jersey legislature's attempts at
reprisal were unsuccessful, so in 1815 Ogden submitted to the monopoly
and paid heavily for a ten-year monopoly of steamboat navigation between
his native town and New York. That soon brought him into conflict with
the rival line of the irascible Georgian, Thomas Gibbons. Both men were
stubborn fighters and the monopoly case was fought from the New York
courts, where Ogden was successful, to the United States Supreme Court,
which in 1824 reversed the decision, giving the occasion for Marshall's
celebrated opinion. The expensive litigation wrecked the fortune which
Ogden had accumulated in law. His only satisfaction came when Gibbons
came to his home with a challenge for a duel, whereupon Ogden won five
thousand dollars in a trespass suit. In 1829 Congress created specially
for him the post of collector of customs at Jersey City, which was
thereafter his home. He was soon imprisoned for debt in New York, but,
thanks apparently to Burr, the New York legislature rushed through a
bill prohibiting the debt imprisonment of Revolutionary veterans. Ogden
continued as collector until his death. He was a man of powerful
physique and massive features, with an expression fully as truculent as
that of his antagonist Gibbons.
Malone, Dumas, editor, Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 13.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. 636-637.
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