Favorable or Unfavorable #174: Jacob Collamer

[vcczar]

Jacob Collamer of VT was considered an anti-slavery, conservative GOPer.

I must confess a lack of acceptance for the word "conservative" to describe any non-states rights politician at this time. The Whigs and the GOP were pushing for more programs, more investment, more government in the economy, infrastructure, education, Civil Rights, voting, etc. Collamer was part of all this, as was just about every Whig or Republican north of the Mason-Dixon sign. In short, they were progressive in the sense of moving toward the future, and not trying to keep things the same or revert back to the way things were. They could be applying it only to the protective tariffs, because the free market is often called "liberal." But those are such outdated terms. In fact, the term "conservative" was almost never mentioned until 1840 and didn't really become common parlance until the New Deal, although it was used occasionally in the Progressive Era. This was one of the more difficult things when crafting ideologies for AMPU. I had to use ideologies that make sense to use to cover all of US History. 

His actions:

Collamer, Jacob	1844	Gives his Wool and Woolens speech favoring a high tariff, that raises his profile among Whigs
Collamer, Jacob	1849	Confirmed PM Gen for Taylor, resigning when Fillmore becomes president in 1850
Collamer, Jacob	1849	Introduces the permanent system of using postal stamps in US mail, while as PM Gen
Collamer, Jacob	1856	Receives votes for VP at GOP conv
Collamer, Jacob	1860	Rep candidate for pres
Collamer, Jacob	1860	Strongly opposes the Crittenden Amend't aim at diffusing tension in the South
Collamer, Jacob	1861	Authors bill giving Lincoln new war powers and Congressional approval for war
Collamer, Jacob	1862	Leads 10 GOP Sen group trying to persuade Lincoln to replace Seward at state, but fails
Collamer, Jacob	1863	presses Lincoln to be more radical
Collamer, Jacob	1865	Opposes both Lincoln's, and then Johnson's, Reconstruction plans, but he, like Lincoln, dies this year.

[vcczar]

He gives me no real reason to vote against him, but I'm also not strongly supportive of anything he did. 

[Pringles]

I guess I lean favorable. I'm such a fan of Lincoln that I don't like his opposition to Lincoln's reconstruction plan and his pushing for him to be more radical.