Speech of Mr. J. Collamer, of Vermont, on the annexation of Texas: delivered in the House of Representatives, U.S., in Committee of the Whole, January 23, 1845.
(Originally published in 1845. 16 pages. This volume is pr...)
Originally published in 1845. 16 pages. This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
President's message: speech of Hon. J. Collamer, of Vermont : delivered in the Senate of the United States, December 9, 1856, The
(Originally published in 1856. 16 pages. This volume is pr...)
Originally published in 1856. 16 pages. This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
Speech of Hon. Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, on affairs in Kansas
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
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Jacob Collamer was an American politician. He served as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Vermont from 1843 to 1849 and as a United States Senator from Vermont from 1855 to 1865.
Background
Jacob Collamer was born on January 08, 1791 in Troy, New York, United States. He was the third of the eight children of Samuel Collamer, member of an early Massachusetts family, and Elizabeth Van Ornum, of colonial Dutch descent. The family moved to Burlington, Vermont, when Jacob was about four.
Education
Collamer was prepared for college in Burlington under members of the faculty, and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1810. At once he began the study of law at St. Albans, Vermont, under Mr. Langworthy and later under Benjamin Swift, afterward senator and was admitted to the bar in 1813.
Career
Collamer enlisted in militia during the War of 1812. He served as lieutenant of artillery and as aide to General French, with whom he went to Plattsburg, arriving in the evening after the battle was over. About 1813 he practised at Randolph Center until he removed to Royalton in 1816. He served four terms in the legislature as representative of Royalton, and was one of the assistant judges of the supreme court of Vermont from 1833 until 1842 when he declined reelection. In 1836 he took part as delegate to the Vermont constitutional convention. This year he moved to Woodstock, Vermount, his home for the rest of his life.
His national career began in 1842 when, after a close and hotly contested election, he was chosen member of the House of Representatives for the 2nd Congressional District. Reelected in 1844 and 1846, he declined a fourth election. As representative he made speeches on the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, and the tariff, his address on “Wools and Woolens” attracting most attention. Recommended for a cabinet position by a legislative caucus, he became postmaster-general in the cabinet of President Taylor (1849). His service was short, for upon the death of President Taylor in July 1850 he resigned with the rest of the cabinet.
A few months after his return home, the Vermont legislature elected him, under the recently remodeled judicial system, circuit judge for the 2nd judicial circuit. In 1854, a candidate of the young Republican party as an anti-slavery Whig, he was elected senator. As a Republican he belonged to the conservative wing. In the Thirty-fourth Congress he served on the Committee on Territories under the chairmanship of Senator Douglas, and on March 12, 1856 made a vigorous minority report on the disorders in Kansas, defending the character of tire free- state leaders.
In 1860 Vermont presented his name to the Republican convention for the presidential nomination, but after the first ballot, on which he received ten votes, his name was withdrawn. In the same year he was reelected to the Senate “with almost unprecedented unanimity. ” He and Fessenden refused to vote against the Crittenden compromise of the winter of 1861, though they did not vote for it. He drafted the bill, enacted July 13, 1861, which, according to Senator Sumner, “gave to the war for the suppression of the rebellion its first congressional sanction and invested the President with new powers”. On the problems of Reconstruction he held that Congress should control. While not an orator, and rarely speaking in the Senate, he was always listened to with attention, the logic of his arguments commanding respect.
From June 1855 to October 1862 he was president— the last—of the Vermont Medical College at Woodstock, in which he had lectured on medical law. He died at his home in Woodstock after a brief illness.
(Originally published in 1856. 16 pages. This volume is pr...)
Politics
Collamer was a member of the Republican Party. He actively supported the movement to substitute a state Senate for the old Governor’s Council. He was one of three New England senators to vote against the tariff bill of 1857. He opposed the extension of slavery, the Texas Annexation, and the Mexican-American War.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
“His mind was made up of a clear and ready perception, acuteness of discrimination, a facile faculty of analysis, an aptness and ease in rigid and simple logic, excellent commonsense, and withal a most tenacious memory of facts. ” - Judge James Barrett
Connections
Collamer married Mary N. Stone of St. Albans, daughter of Abijah Stone, on July 15, 1817.