32 Facts About Jacob Collamer

Jacob Collamer was an American politician from Vermont.

Jacob Collamer served in the US House of Representatives, as Postmaster General in the cabinet of President Zachary Taylor, and as a US Senator.

President Taylor selected Jacob Collamer to serve as Postmaster General following the 1848 presidential election.

Jacob Collamer served until shortly after Taylor's death when he resigned to allow Taylor's successor, Millard Fillmore, to name his own appointee.

Jacob Collamer was elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1855, shortly after the formation of the new party.

Jacob Collamer 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, Jacob Collamer advocated congressional control of the Reconstruction process.

Jacob Collamer died in Woodstock and was buried at River Street Cemetery in Woodstock.

Jacob Collamer received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Vermont in 1810, and after additional study, UVM later upgraded Collamer's degree to Master of Arts.

Jacob Collamer studied law in St Albans, Vermont with Asa Aldis, Asahel Langworthy, and Benjamin Swift.

Jacob Collamer then relocated to Randolph, Vermont, where he completed his legal studies with attorney William Nutting, and he was admitted to the bar in 1813.

Jacob Collamer served as an officer in a Vermont Militia unit during the War of 1812.

Jacob Collamer was fired on by American sentinels, but was uninjured.

Jacob Collamer remained a resident of Royalton for 20 years, practicing law in partnership with James Barrett.

Jacob Collamer served in local offices, including Register of Probate, Windsor County State's Attorney, and member of the Vermont House of Representatives.

From 1833 to 1842 Jacob Collamer was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, succeeding Nicholas Baylies.

From 1839 to 1845 Jacob Collamer was a Trustee of the University of Vermont.

Jacob Collamer was Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures and the Committee on Public Lands.

Jacob Collamer resigned shortly after Taylor's death to enable President Millard Fillmore to name his own appointee.

Jacob Collamer was succeeded on the bench by Abel Underwood, who served until the state Circuit Court was abolished in an 1857 court reorganization.

Jacob Collamer was a longtime trustee of and lecturer at the Vermont Medical College in Woodstock and served as President of the Board of Trustees.

In 1855 Jacob Collamer was elected to the Senate as a conservative, anti-slavery Republican.

In 1856, Jacob Collamer received several votes for Vice President at the Republican National Convention.

Jacob Collamer 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.

Jacob Collamer's 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.

At the 1860 Republican National Convention, Jacob Collamer received the favorite son votes of Vermont's delegates and withdrew after the first ballot.

In 1861, Jacob 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.

Jacob 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.

Again a member of the majority once the Democrats from the southern states left the Senate during the war, Jacob Collamer was Chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads and the Committee on the Library.

Jacob Collamer died at his home in Woodstock on November 9,1865 and was buried in Woodstock's River Street Cemetery.

In 1881, the state of Vermont donated a marble statue of Jacob Collamer created by Preston Powers to the US Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.

In 1817, Jacob Collamer married Mary Stone, who died in 1870.