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Thomas Addis Emmet, Judge Story, Williams, and others of that calibre, when to maintain one's position in the forensic arena was no child's play. And he occupied the bench too at a time when it was the reward of deep study and great ability, not as now, often obtained as the result of successful political chicanery.

His brother, Charles Fenno Hoffman, has occupied in the literary world, both as a brilliant poet (he has written some of the sweetest things in our language), and as a novelist, a position of enviable notoriety. But to return to Ogden, the subject of our present sketch. Who, among the inhabitants of New York, does not recollect the sensation that occurred in the minds of the people in the good old days of Andrew Jackson and old-fashioned democracy, when the news was spread abroad that Ogden Hoffman and Dudley Selden, members of Congress from this city, had refused "to go the whole hog," but had come out flat-footed, uncompromising whigs? Deep was the chagrin of the b'hoys, and as great the transport of their opponents. And to this day, wherever there is a whig gathering, and the masses are to be stirred up with soulbreathing eloquence, there will be heard the trumpet voice of Hoffman, urging them to do their duty as men, and to vote as becomes freemen.

The great power of Hoffman is before a jury. There is a sweetness, a pleasantness about his eloquence that is very difficult to withstand, and when excited his powerful voice will ring like a clarion, and at one moment he will draw tears from your eyes for the sorrows of his client, and at another

convulse you with indignation for the wrongs he has suffered. The famous Richard P. Robinson, in the Helen Jewett case, no doubt owed his acquittal to his matchless eloquence.

Mr. Hoffman we should judge to be about fifty years of age, of medium height, rather inclining to be stout. He has a noble forehead and finely-formed head, from which (from too much mental application probably), the hair is worn off on the back part. He has fine, expressive eyes, and a countenance generally denoting kindness and benevolence of heart. He is a gentleman in every sense of the word, urbane in his manners, and polite in his address, and has drank deep at the fountains of both law and general literature. No man in this part of the country is more deservedly popular. He now holds the responsible office of Attorney-General of the State of New York.

It is truly refreshing to find a man whose solid learning, sound sense, and professional ability have been appreciated, while so many shams and pettifoggers are angling in every petty quarrel or political puddle for the fish which has the tribute money.

E. L. SNOW.

THE HON. E. L. SNOW, who has won an enduring reputation as a consistent and conscientious temperance man, was born in Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, where he was educated and honored with various positions of public trust. He represented one of the wealthiest wards in the Puritan

city in the Common Council, and held high office in the Fire Department.

In 1830, he left Boston and commenced business in the city of New York. Ten years afterwards, when the Washingtonians began that reform which revolutionized the drinking usages of society, he attended their meetings, became convinced of the illegitimacy and wickedness of the rum-traffic, in which he was engaged-affixed his signature to the pledge, and forthwith discontinued the disreputable business.

From that time he has been a constant and efficient advo cate and promoter of Temperance. In 1842, he assumed the editorial management and proprietorship of the New York Organ, one of the ablest journals devoted to the temperance enterprise. On the 29th of September, 1842, he, with fifteen others, instituted the order of the Sons of Temperance, and he had the distinguished honor of being chosen the first Worthy Associate of that order. In 1846, as a compliment to him for his invaluable services in spreading the principle of the Sons of Temperance, his friends instituted the order of the "Snow Social Union "a society composed of ladies and gentlemen.

Colonel Snow was unanimously chosen commander of the first temperance military company known in the United States or the world" The New York Temperance Guards," a noble body of men, numbering sixty guns. For several years this gentleman was connected with the New York police establishment, and in 1844 he was appointed Mayor's Marshal by the Hon. James Harper, and soon after received from the Common Council the appointment of Clerk of Police.

He

opened a pledge-book at his desk, and during the four years of his clerkship he obtained upwards of ten thousand names to the total abstinence pledge. In November, 1851, he was - nominated for the Assembly, and after a severe contest, was elected by a majority of three votes. His election was contested before the Board of Canvassers, and declared duly elected. In January he took his seat in the Legislature. But his opponent followed him to Albany, and a committee from the Assembly heard the evidence and counsel from both sides, and reported that he was entitled to his seat. Afterward, however, at five o'clock in the morning, when the House had been in session all night, and some of his friends were absent, and many of his enemies were intoxicated, or bribed, or both, his seat was declared vacant. But he still continues an active and able expounder of our principlesbeing an able debater and a forcible writer. He is six feet three inches in height, stoutly built, handsomely framed, and erect as a liberty-pole. He has the voice of a Stentor, and can fill the ears of twenty thousand hearers.

Success to him, and honor to his cause.

THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER.

THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER, the eloquent Irish Nationalist, is a native of Waterford. He was born August 3d, 1823. His father, the present representative of that borough, in the British Senate, was a merchant, extensively engaged in the Newfoundland trade, from which he realized a fine fortune.

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