Born in New York City, Hopkins attended the Anthon Grammar School and became an iron merchant and broker.

As an Assemblyman he was identified with the Stalwart Republicans, and was accused of using some of his children's inheritance to buy legislators' votes for Levi P. Morton during the 1887 election to succeed Warner Miller.

During his congressional term, there were reports that he was behaving erratically, and observers presumed that he was mentally ill or drinking excessively in response to the death of his wife.

He was found dead by a train crew alongside the railroad tracks near Pleasantville, adjacent to Atlantic City, New Jersey on March 3, 1892.

[9] Because he had not been robbed and there were no signs that he had been murdered, Hopkins was presumed to have committed suicide by poison or drug overdose because of business reverses and alcoholism.