Posted on 12/03/2007 8:23:35 PM PST by Coleus
ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY:
On Dec. 3, 1756, Aaron Ogden was born in Elizabethtown, the son of a legislator who would rise to a public service career of his own.
Ogden, who served in the military during the American Revolution and the undeclared war against France, grew into a skilled orator and debater. He served in Congress from 1801 to 1803 and was elected governor of New Jersey in 1812.
Ogden, who also had business interests in steamboat machinery, later became embroiled in a Supreme Court case concerning the monopoly of steamboat service in New York waters. Drained of his resources from legal bills, Ogden faced bankruptcy and watched his home and assets seized.
He was briefly sent to debtor's prison in 1829, but his friend Aaron Burr quickly had a law passed that exempted all Revolutionary War veterans from imprisonment for debt. Once freed, Ogden went on to serve as a trustee of the College of New Jersey and the collector for Jersey City.
--The New Jersey Historical Commission contributed to this report.
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