Although now almost unknown, Nathaniel Pitcher Tallmadge was one of the leading political figures of the Jacksonian era. He was born February 8, 1795, in Chatham, New York. After completing work in local schools, he enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and graduated with honors from Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1815. He began reading law in the office of his cousin, General James Tallmadge, in Poughkeepsie and was admitted to the New York bar in 1818.
Under his cousin's mentorship Tallmadge became active in local politics during the mid-1820's. Little is known about Tallmadge's political affiliations during this complex period in New York political history except that he supported parts of Clay's American system, such as internal improvements and protective tariffs, also espoused by men who later affiliated with the Whig party.
In 1828 voters in his local district elected Tallmadge to the state Assembly. Thanks to his abilities as an orator and legislator, he soon ranked among the most prominent assemblymen and in 1829 was elected to the state Senate without opposition. A staunch supporter of Governor De Witt Clinton's construction of the Erie Canal, Tallmadge served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Canals. In this capacity he also developed an interest in railroads, and prophetically urged construction of a railroad from New York to Albany.
By 1832 Tallmadge had become a convert to the Jacksonian Democratic party. In February, 1833, Democratic supporters in the legislature elected him to the vacant New York seat in the United States Senate. Tallmadge was the youngest member of the Senate when he assumed his seat in December, 1833; yet despite his youth and the presence of such oratorical luminaries as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John Calhoun, he soon won attention. In 1836 he attained national prominence in the slavery debates with Calhoun for his strong defense of the freedom to petition Congress.
During his early years in the Senate Tallmadge supported the administration's hard money and states' rights policies. He favored the Maysville Road veto and the attack on the Second Bank of the United States. However, he disagreed with the policies expressed in the Specie Circular and Van Buren's plan for an independent treasury because he feared that these actions would increase the power of the federal government and also because he had ties with New York banking interests. By 1837, in cooperation with Senator William Rives of Virginia, Tallmadge emerged as a leader of the conservative Democratic and Whig opposition to the Jacksonian monetary policies.
Hints of this new role can be seen in 1836 in Tallmadge's reply to Thomas Hart Benton on distribution of the surplus national income in which Tallmadge concluded with a strong statement in favor of the national credit system. Although he cooperated with Rives in an unsuccessful attempt to repeal the Specie Circular, Tallmadge did not press this issue because he hoped that Van Buren's election might mean a relaxation of the hard money policies. However, Van Buren called a special session of Congress to present his plans for severing all ties between federal funds and state banks through the establishment of an independent treasury. Alarmed that this would endanger the national economy and “excite the worst passions of the people,” Tallmadge and Rives began work immediately to defeat the treasury bill. They helped Tallmadge's friend, Thomas Allen, launch the Madisonian to present the conservative Democratic view and organized the opposition for the special congressional session. Despite their close cooperation, the Senate debate revealed important differences in the thinking of the two senators on the question of separation. While Tallmadge objected to what he felt would be an increase in the power of the federal government, Rives argued for a more powerful executive and charged that diminishing the state banks' powers would decrease the means for controlling the economy. Failing in their attempt to defeat the president in the Senate vote, Tallmadge and Rives then turned their attention to the House, where conservative Democratic friends headed by Representative Hugh Legate of South Carolina were able to force a postponement of the vote.
Tallmadge's leadership of the opposition to Van Buren in Congress had a definite effect on New York politics. Although it is impossible to establish precisely when Tallmadge became a Whig, by June, 1837, he had renewed his friendship with the New York Whigs, and in the fall elections he led his conservative Democratic followers into the Whig camp. Thus he was responsible for weakening the old political alliances and, to a certain extent, for establishing New York politics on class lines.
At the regular congressional session in 1838 Van Buren again presented his request for an independent treasury. Again Tallmadge and Rives were able to stand firm against anything except the resurrection of the old deposit system. Until the 1840 session their continued opposition and Van Buren's political mistakes combined to prevent passage of the treasury bills which the Jacksonians considered the keystone of their economic legislation.
Opposition to Van Buren's monetary policies brought Tallmadge into the forefront of Whig politics. Prominently mentioned as a vice-presidential choice on a ticket with Henry Clay, Tallmadge attempted to secure the vote of the New York delegation for Clay in 1839. However, after an internal power struggle Tallmadge lost control of the delegation, and New York's support at the convention went to William Henry Harrison. Regardless of his earlier support for Clay, Harrison offered Tallmadge the vice-presidential nomination. Tallmadge, however, preferred to work for a Whig victory in New York and declined in favor of John Tyler. Thus, because of his lack of personal ambition, Tallmadge missed succeeding to the presidency after the death of Harrison in 1841. Both Harrison and Tyler offered Tallmadge cabinet positions as a reward for his efforts during the campaign, but Tallmadge accepted only the reward offered by New York. In January, 1840, appreciative New York Whigs elected him to a second term in the Senate.
During the Tyler administration Tallmadge was prominent in the legislative debate involving re-establishment of a national bank as the government fiscal agent. A strong supporter of a national bank, Tallmadge wrote one of the Treasury Committee bills to re-establish the national exchequer. Although he differed strongly with Tyler on this issue and the tariff question, this difference of opinion apparently did not affect Tallmadge's personal relationship with the president.
During the 1830's Tallmadge, like many others across the country, speculated in western lands. He invested in land in Illinois, but this venture apparently failed. Through the influence of his former congressional colleague, James Duane Doty, he visited Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1843 and joined Doty in an investment in the area. Thereafter he used his position as chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Lands to advance their investments, thus becoming prominently known in Washington for his interest in Wisconsin. When Doty's term as territorial governor expired in 1844, Tyler appointed Tallmadge to fill the office. Aware that he had little chance for re-election to the Senate from New York because of his changing political allegiances, he accepted.
Tallmadge's term as governor of Wisconsin Territory was extremely brief--September, 1844 to May, 1845. The new Democratic president, James K. Polk, wasted little time in replacing him with Democrat Henry Dodge. Although few of Tallmadge's programs were enacted into law during his eight months in office, his administration was characterized by an attempt to end the bitter controversy which had marked Wisconsin politics. In his message to the legislature on January 6, 1845, he advocated the construction of internal improvements, opposed the lengthy period of naturalization advanced by the nativist faction, and recommended establishment of agricultural societies, schools, and pattern farms.
After refusing an appointment to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Tallmadge retired to his farm near Fond du Lac in 1845. He came out of retirement briefly to help settle the Stockbridge Indian land dispute and to campaign for General Zachary Taylor for the presidency. His correspondence indicates that he was keenly interested in the Wisconsin constitutional convention in 1846. However, Tallmadge generally devoted his declining years to an investigation of spiritualism, during which he communicated with his late colleagues, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. Near the end of his life Tallmadge moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he died November 2, 1864.
