[1] Originally working as a priest of Albany, New York, he came to Philadelphia and was admitted to the diocese by the diocesan administrator.
According to James Loughlin, he was a man of fine personal presence, an affluent talker, and a born demagogue.
Following his excommunication, Hogan managed a circus, studied law, and married twice, before reemerging in the 1840s as a leading voice of anti-Catholicism.
He went on the lecture circuit, wrote belligerent essays in popular journals, and published in 1851 a book entitled Popery as It Was and as It Is.
The general tone of the latter is conveyed in the following statement: "I am sorry to say, from my knowledge of Roman Catholic priests ... that there is not a more corrupt, licentious body of men in the world.