American lawyer and politician
Jacob Collamer
|
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|
|
|
In office
March 4, 1855 ? November 9, 1865
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Preceded by
| Lawrence Brainerd
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Succeeded by
| Luke P. Poland
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In office
1850?1854
|
Preceded by
| Seat established
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Succeeded by
| Abel Underwood
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In office
March 8, 1849 ? July 22, 1850
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President
| Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
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Preceded by
| Cave Johnson
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Succeeded by
| Nathan K. Hall
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In office
March 4, 1843 ? March 3, 1849
|
Preceded by
| William Slade
|
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Succeeded by
| William Hebard
|
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|
In office
1833?1842
|
Preceded by
| Nicholas Baylies
|
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Succeeded by
| William Hebard
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|
In office
1820?1824
|
Preceded by
| Asa Aikens
|
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Succeeded by
| Isaac Cushman
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|
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Born
| (
1791-01-08
)
January 8, 1791
Troy, New York
, U.S.
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Died
| November 9, 1865
(1865-11-09)
(aged 74)
Woodstock, Vermont
, U.S.
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Political party
| Whig
(Before 1854)
Republican
(1854?1865)
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Spouse
| Mary Stone
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Children
| 7
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Education
| University of Vermont
(
AM
)
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Allegiance
| United States
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Branch/service
| Vermont Militia
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Years of service
| 1812?1815
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Rank
| First Lieutenant
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Unit
| 4th Regiment, Vermont Detached Militia Brigade
2nd Brigade, 4th Division
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Battles/wars
| War of 1812
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|
Jacob Collamer
(January 8, 1791 – November 9, 1865) was an
American
politician from
Vermont
. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as
Postmaster General
in the cabinet of
President
Zachary Taylor
, and as a U.S. Senator.
Born in
Troy, New York
, and raised in
Burlington, Vermont
, Collamer graduated from the
University of Vermont
, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1813. After service in the militia during the
War of 1812
, he became active as an attorney, first in
Royalton
, and then in
Woodstock
. Highly regarded in the legal profession, he became a respected prosecutor, legislator, and judge.
Elected to the House of Representatives in 1842, Collamer became a prominent
Whig
leader and advocate of the anti-slavery cause. President Taylor selected Collamer to serve as Postmaster General following
the 1848 presidential election
. Collamer served until shortly after Taylor's death when he resigned to allow Taylor's successor,
Millard Fillmore
, to name his own appointee.
Collamer was elected to the Senate as a
Republican
in 1855, shortly after the formation of the new party. He became a respected voice against slavery and a prominent supporter of the
Lincoln administration
during the
American Civil War
. An advocate of more stringent postwar
Reconstruction
measures than those that were favored by Lincoln and his successor,
Andrew Johnson
, Collamer advocated congressional control of the Reconstruction process. He died in Woodstock and was buried at River Street Cemetery in Woodstock.
Early life
[
edit
]
Jacob Collamer was born in
Troy
,
New York
on January 8, 1791, the son of Samuel Collamer and Elizabeth (Van Arnum) Collamer, and his family moved to
Burlington, Vermont
in 1795.
[1]
He received a
Bachelor of Arts
degree from the
University of Vermont
in 1810,
[2]
and after additional study, UVM later upgraded Collamer's degree to
Master of Arts
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
He
studied law
in
St. Albans, Vermont
with
Asa Aldis
, Asahel Langworthy, and
Benjamin Swift
.
[6]
He then relocated to
Randolph, Vermont
, where he completed his legal studies with attorney William Nutting,
[7]
and he was
admitted to the bar
in 1813.
[6]
During the
War of 1812
, Collamer was appointed a deputy U.S. tax collector for the district that included
Orange County, Vermont
, and was responsible for collecting levies in support of the war effort.
[8]
Military service
[
edit
]
He served as an officer in a
Vermont Militia
unit during the War of 1812.
[9]
Appointed as an
ensign
in the 4th Regiment commanded by William Williams,
[10]
he served first with an artillery unit on Vermont's border with
Canada
.
[6]
After promotion to
first lieutenant
, Collamer served as
aide-de-camp
to
Brigadier General
John French, commander of the militia's 2nd Brigade, 4th Division.
[11]
[12]
French's unit left Orange County for upstate New York in September 1814 in response to warnings of an imminent
British invasion
from
Canada
.
[6]
When the brigade was crossing
Lake Champlain
en route to
Plattsburgh
, Collamer was sent ahead in a boat to inform Vermont Militia commander Samuel Strong that French's troops were on their way.
[6]
Collamer was fired on by American sentinels, but was uninjured.
[6]
Strong informed Collamer that the
Battle of Plattsburgh
had taken place the day before, and the British had retreated, so French's troops returned home.
[6]
Early career
[
edit
]
In 1816, he moved to
Royalton, Vermont
, where he continued to practice law.
[6]
He remained a resident of Royalton for 20 years, practicing law in partnership with
James Barrett
.
[13]
Among the prospective attorneys who
studied law
under his supervision was
Lyman Gibbons
, who later served as a justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court
.
[14]
Collamer also served in local offices, including Register of
Probate
,
Windsor County
State's Attorney
, and member of the
Vermont House of Representatives
.
[15]
While serving in the House, Collamer was the main proponent of the legislation that created the
Vermont Senate
in 1836.
[16]
From 1833 to 1842 Collamer was an associate justice of the
Supreme Court of Vermont
, succeeding
Nicholas Baylies
.
[17]
[18]
In 1836 he moved to
Woodstock
.
[19]
From 1839 to 1845 Collamer was a Trustee of the
University of Vermont
.
[20]
House of Representatives
[
edit
]
Elected to the
US House of Representatives
in 1842 as a
Whig
, Collamer served three terms, from
1843 to 1849.
[21]
He opposed the extension of slavery, the
Texas Annexation
, and the
Mexican?American War
; supported high tariffs to help American manufacturers and received national recognition for his "Wool and Woolens" speech on tariffs.
[22]
[23]
Collamer was Chairman of the
Committee on Manufactures
(
Twenty-eighth Congress
) and the
Committee on Public Lands
(
Thirtieth Congress
).
[24]
Postmaster General
[
edit
]
Collamer served as
Postmaster General
under President
Zachary Taylor
. Appointed at the start of the
Taylor's administration
in 1849, he served until resigning in July 1850.
[25]
Collamer resigned shortly after Taylor's death to enable President
Millard Fillmore
to name his own appointee.
[26]
As Postmaster General, Collamer was criticized by Whig partisans of the
spoils system
because he was reluctant to remove local
Democratic
postmasters
en masse
so they could be replaced by Whigs.
[27]
Among his accomplishments was the introduction of a permanent system for using
postage stamps
; Collamer sent the first letter using one, a note addressed to his brother in
Barre, Vermont
in which he recommended saving the stamp because if the system worked, it might be valuable to collectors.
Beyond politics
[
edit
]
Upon returning to Vermont, Collamer was appointed a judge of the newly-created state Circuit Court, where he served until 1854.
[29]
He was succeeded on the bench by
Abel Underwood
, who served until the state Circuit Court was abolished in an 1857 court reorganization.
[30]
Collamer was a longtime trustee of and lecturer at the Vermont Medical College in Woodstock and served as President of the Board of Trustees.
[31]
Senator
[
edit
]
In 1855 Collamer was elected to the
Senate
as a conservative, anti-slavery
Republican
.
[32]
In his first term, Collamer was Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills (
Thirty-fourth Congress
).
[33]
In 1856, Collamer received several votes for
Vice President
at the
Republican National Convention
.
[34]
In the Senate, he defended his positions vigorously even when he was in the minority.
When the
Committee on Territories
, chaired by
Stephen A. Douglas
, recommended passage of the
Crittenden Amendment
, which proposed resubmitting for popular vote the pro-slavery
Lecompton Constitution
for
Kansas
, Collamer and
James R. Doolittle
of
Wisconsin
refused to vote in favor but instead crafted a persuasive minority report explaining their opposition.
Collamer also represented the minority view in June 1860, when the select committee chaired by
James Murray Mason
issued its report on
John Brown
's raid on
Harper's Ferry
.
[37]
Mason argued that Brown's raid was the work of an organized abolitionist movement, which needed to be curtailed with federal authority.
[38]
Collamer and Doolittle countered that Brown and his followers had been caught and punished and that further government action was not necessary.
[38]
Collamer's years on the bench helped develop his reputation as the best lawyer in the Senate.
[39]
His colleagues were known to pay close attention to his remarks on the Senate floor even though he spoke infrequently and even then too quietly to reach the entire chamber or the galleries.
Charles Sumner
referred to Collamer as the "Green-Mountain
Socrates
"
and called him the wisest and best balanced statesman of his time.
[41]
Civil War
[
edit
]
At the
1860 Republican National Convention
, Collamer received the
favorite son
votes of Vermont's delegates and withdrew after the first ballot.
[42]
Reelected to the Senate in 1861, he served until his death.
[43]
In 1861, Collamer authored the bill to invest the President with new war powers and give Congressional approval to the war measures that
Abraham Lincoln
had taken under his own authority at the start of his administration.
[44]
Collamer was the lead senator of the nine Republicans who visited Lincoln in 1862 to argue for change in the composition of his cabinet by persuading him to replace his
Secretary of State
,
William Henry Seward
.
[45]
Having been encouraged to confront Lincoln by claims of cabinet disharmony from Lincoln's
Secretary of the Treasury
,
Salmon P. Chase
, the senators changed their minds during the meeting after Chase was maneuvered by Lincoln into backtracking on his initial argument.
[46]
Again a member of the majority once the
Democrats
from the southern states left the Senate during the war, Collamer was Chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads (
Thirty-seventh
to
Thirty-ninth Congresses
) and the Committee on the Library (
Thirty-eighth
and Thirty-ninth Congresses).
[47]
After the war, Collamer opposed the
Reconstruction
of plans of Presidents Lincoln and
Andrew Johnson
and was an advocate of Congressional control over the process of readmitting former
Confederate
states to the Union.
[22]
Death
[
edit
]
Collamer died at his home in Woodstock on November 9, 1865
[21]
and was buried in Woodstock's River Street Cemetery.
[48]
[49]
Awards and honors
[
edit
]
Collamer received the
honorary degree
of
LL.D.
from the University of Vermont in 1850 and
Dartmouth College
in 1855.
[50]
In 1881, the state of
Vermont
donated a
marble statue of Collamer
created by
Preston Powers
to the
U.S. Capitol
's
National Statuary Hall Collection
.
Each state is represented by two statues, and Vermont's are likenesses of Collamer and
Ethan Allen
.
[52]
[53]
Family
[
edit
]
In 1817, Collamer married Mary Stone, who died in 1870.
[54]
Their children included Elisabeth, Harriet, Mary, Edward, Ellen, Frances, and William.
[55]
Home
[
edit
]
Collamer's home at 40 Elm Street in Woodstock is part of the
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
's Civil War Home Front Walking Tour.
[56]
[57]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Barrett, James (1868).
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Jacob Collamer
. Rutland, VT: Tuttle & Co. pp.
4
?14.
- ^
"Commencement at Burlington"
.
The Washingtonian
. Windsor, VT. October 1, 1810. p. 3 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Bishop, Morris (1962).
A History of Cornell
. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. p. 154.
ISBN
9780801455377
.
- ^
Thayer, William Roscoe (1915).
The Life And Letters Of John Hay
. Vol. I. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. p. 28.
- ^
Thompson, Zadock (1842).
History Of Vermont, Natural, Civil And Statistical
. Burlington, VT: Chauncey Goodrich. p.
149
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Jacob Collamer
, p. 4.
- ^
Nickerson & Cox (1895).
The Illustrated Historical Souvenir of Randolph, Vermont
. Randolph, VT: Nickerson & Cox. p. 19.
- ^
"Payment Notice by Collector Thomas Leverett"
.
The Washingtonian
. Windsor, VT. November 20, 1815. p. 3 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
James V. Marshall,
The United States Manual of Biography and History
, 1856, page 613
- ^
"U.S. War of 1812 Service Records, 1812-1815, Entry for Jacob Collamer"
.
Ancestry.com
. Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com LLC
. Retrieved
June 16,
2019
.
- ^
Child, Hamilton (1888).
Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888
. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Journal Company. pp. 128?129.
- ^
Vermont General Assembly (1816).
Journals of the General Assembly of the State of Vermont
. Montpelier, VT: Vermont Secretary of State. p. 147.
- ^
Taft, Russell Smith (July 1, 1901).
"Hon. James Barrett"
.
New England Historical and Genealogical Register
. Boston, MA: New England Historical and Genealogical Society. p. 295.
- ^
Amherst College,
Obituary Record: Roll of Graduates deceased during the Year 1879-1880; Deaths Not Previously Reported
(1880), p. 187.
- ^
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Jacob Collamer
, pp. 4?5.
- ^
Kelly, Mary Louise (1944).
Jacob Collamer: Woodstock's U.S. Senator
. Woodstock, VT: Woodstock Historical Society. p.
4
– via Internet Archive.
- ^
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Jacob Collamer
, p. 5.
- ^
Thompson, Zadock (1842).
History of Vermont, Natural, Civil and Statistical
. Burlington, VT: Chauncey Goodrich. p.
124
.
- ^
Tinkham, O. M. (July 1, 1900).
"Jacob Collamer"
.
The Vermonter
. St. Albans, VT: Charles Spooner Forbes. p. 234.
- ^
University of Vermont,
Catalogue of the University of Vermont
, 1890, page 9
- ^
a
b
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Jacob Collamer
, p. 12.
- ^
a
b
John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand, Ralph H. Orth, editors,
The Vermont Encyclopedia
, 2003, page 91
- ^
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Jacob Collamer
, p. 13.
- ^
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Jacob Collamer
, p. 14.
- ^
Marshall, James V. (1856).
The United States Manual of Biography and History
. Philadelphia, PA: James B. Smith & Co. p.
613
.
- ^
McCook, Anson G. (1887).
Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States
. Vol. VIII. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. p. 205.
- ^
K. Jack Bauer,
Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest
, 1993, page 262
- ^
Charles C. Little and James Brown (Boston),
The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year 1852
, 1851, page 234
- ^
Child, Hamilton (1888).
Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888
. Vol. Part 1. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Journal Company. p. 113.
- ^
University of Vermont,
University of Vermont Obituary Record
, Volume 1, pages 23-24
- ^
Garrison, William Lloyd; Ruchames, Louis (1975).
The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: From Disunionism to the Brink of War
. Vol. IV. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge, MA. p. 397.
ISBN
978-0-674-52663-1
.
- ^
Historian of the United States Senate (2015).
"Chairmen of Senate Standing Committees, 1789-present"
(PDF)
.
senate.gov/
. Washington, DC: U.S. Senate. pp. 20, 45, 54.
- ^
Republican National Committee,
Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions
, 1893, pages 63-64
- ^
West Virginia Culture and History,
Senate Select Committee Report on the Harper’s Ferry Invasion
, retrieved December 17, 2013
- ^
a
b
"Mason Report"
.
www.wvculture.org
.
- ^
Bogue, Allan G. (2009).
The Earnest Men: Republicans of the Civil War Senate
. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. p. 32.
ISBN
978-0801475696
.
- ^
Barber, A. D. (November 5, 1896).
Vermont as a Leader in Educational Progress
. Montpelier, VT: Vermont Historical Society. p. 107 – via
Google Books
.
- ^
The Vermonter magazine,
Incidents in the Life of Lincoln
, January 1909, page 5
- ^
William Lloyd Garrison,
The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison
, 1976, page 397
- ^
Jacob G. Ullery,
Men of Vermont Illustrated
, 1894, pages 121-124
- ^
Chester G. Hearn,
Lincoln, the Cabinet, and the Generals
, 2010, pages 139-143
- ^
Hearn, Chester G. (28 March 2018).
Lincoln, the Cabinet, and the Generals
. LSU Press.
ISBN
9780807137338
– via Google Books.
- ^
Chairmen of Senate Standing Committees, 1789-present
.
- ^
U.S. Government Printing Office,
Addresses on the Death of Senator Jacob Collamer
, 1866, pages 61-62
- ^
Robert I. Vexler,
The Vice-Presidents and Cabinet Members: Biographies Arranged Chronologically by Administration
, Volume 1, 1975, page 185
- ^
University of Vermont,
University of Vermont Obituary Record
, Volume 1, 1895, pages 23-24
- ^
United States Congress, Joint Committee on the Library,
Legislation Creating the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol
, 1916, page 25
- ^
Glenn Brown,
Glenn Brown's History of the United States Capitol
, 1900, page 530
- ^
Reno, Conrad (1900).
Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England
. Vol. 1. Boston, MA: Century Memorial Publishing Co. p. 26.
- ^
Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England
, p. 26.
- ^
National Park Service,
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park, Civil War Home Front Walking Tour
, retrieved December 17, 2013
- ^
Patricia Harris and David Lyon, Boston Globe,
Civil War History Still Breathes Down the Years
, July 11, 2010
External links
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Post Office and Post Roads
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Civil Service and Retrenchment
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Civil Service
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