United States Congressman & Senator from Vermont

United States Postmaster General

(1791-1865) Born in Troy, New York, he moved with his family to Burlington, Vt., and graduated from the University of Vermont at Burlington in 1810. During the War of 1812, he was appointed a U.S. tax collector, and was responsible for collecting levies in support of the war effort. He then served as an officer in a Vermont Militia unit, and was appointed ensign in the 4th Regiment, commanded by William Williams, and served with an artillery unit on Vermont's border with Canada. 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. General French's unit left Orange County, Vt., for upstate New York in September 1814, in response to warnings of an imminent British invasion from Canada. When the brigade was crossing Lake Champlain enroute to Plattsburgh, he was sent ahead in a boat to inform Vermont Militia commander Samuel Strong that French's troops were on their way. Collamer was fired on by American sentinels, but was uninjured. Strong informed him that the Battle of Plattsburgh had taken place the day before, and the British had retreated. He studied law in St. Albans, Vt., was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Woodstock, Vt. until 1833. He served as a member of the Vermont State House of Representatives in 1821, 1822, 1827, and 1828. He was the State's Attorney for Windsor County, Vt., 1822-1824, and Judge of the Superior Court, of Vermont, 1833-1842. He was a U.S. Congressman, 1843-49, and served as Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, and also served on the Committee on Public Lands. He opposed the extension of slavery, the Texas Annexation, and the Mexican War, and received national recognition for his "Wool and Woolens" speech on American tariffs. He was appointed U.S. Postmaster General by President Zachary Taylor, and served in that position from 1849-50. He was elected U.S. Senator, as an anti-slavery Republican, and served from 1855-65. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills. At the Republican Nation Convention in 1856, at Philadelphia, Collamer received several votes for Vice President. In the Senate, he defended his positions vigorously. When the Committee on Territories, chaired by Senator 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. He also represented the minority view in June 1860, when the select committee chaired by Virginia Senator James M. Mason issued its report on John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Mason argued that Brown's raid was the work of an organized abolitionist movement, which needed to be curtailed with federal authority. Collamer and Doolittle countered that John Brown and his followers had been caught, and punished, and that further government action was unnecessary. His years on the bench helped develop his reputation as the best lawyer in the Senate, and his colleagues were known to pay close attention to his remarks on the Senate floor. Influential Senator Charles Sumner referred to Collamer as the "Green-Mountain Socrates" and called him the wisest and best balanced statesman of his time. In 1861, he authored the bill to invest the President with new war powers and give Congressional approval to the war measures that President Abraham Lincoln had taken under his own authority at the start of his administration. Collamer was the lead senator of the nine Republicans who visited President Lincoln in 1862 to argue for change in the composition of his cabinet by persuading him to replace his Secretary of State, William H. Seward. He was Chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, and the Committee on the Library. After the war ended, he opposed the Reconstruction plans of Presidents' Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Johnson, and was an advocate of congressional control over the process of readmitting former Confederate States back into the Union. Collamer died at his home in Woodstock, Vt., on November 9, 1865, and was buried in Woodstock's River Street Cemetery. In 1881, the state of Vermont donated a marble statue of Senator Jacob Collamer, created by Preston Powers, to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall.

Signature with Place: 5 x 1 1/4, in ink, J. Collamer, Woodstock, Vt.