Nathaniel P. Tallmadge

In 1833, he was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat to the United States Senate for the term beginning on March 4, 1833. In 1838, he was a member of the "Conservatives," a faction of former Democrats unhappy with the policies of Andrew Jackson's successor, Martin Van Buren and Van Buren's grip on New York politics as head of the Albany Regency political machine.[4] The conservatives endorsed the Whig candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, William H. Seward and Luther Bradish, who were narrowly elected over incumbents William L. Marcy and John Tracy.[4] The defection of the conservatives was considered a harbinger for the 1840 presidential election, at which Van Buren was defeated by William Henry Harrison.[4]

By the time of New York's 1839 election for U.S. Senator, Tallmadge had become identified with the Whigs, who nominated him for reelection.[4] Democrats controlled the State Senate, and they objected to Tallmadge because of his decision to abandon Van Buren.[4] By refusing to vote, the Democrats in the State Senate prevented any candidate from obtaining a majority.[4] As a result of the legislature's failure to make a choice, Tallmadge's seat became vacant on March 4, 1839.[4] By 1840, the Whigs controlled both houses of the legislature.[4] On January 13, 1840, they reelected Tallmadge to the Senate, and indicated in their approved resolutions that the effective date was as of March 4, 1839.[4][5] He took his seat on January 27, 1840, and served until June 17, 1844, when he resigned to accept appointment as a territorial governor.[4]

In 1840, Tallmadge was offered the Whig nomination for vice president.[6] He declined, and John Tyler was nominated and elected on the Whig ticket with Harrison.[6] According to published accounts in 1841, Tallmadge also declined a cabinet post and an ambassadorship, because he preferred to remain in the Senate.[6]

In the early 1840s, Tallmadge purchased a large tract of land in what became Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in anticipation of constructing a home for his retirement.[7] In 1844, John Tyler, who had become president following Harrison's death, offered Tallmadge the governorship of Wisconsin Territory.[7] He accepted, and moved to Fond du Lac. The Senate confirmed the appointment in June, and Tallmadge arrived in Wisconsin in August.[7] James Duane Doty, who had been governor since 1841, had a contentious relationship with the territorial legislature.[7] Although legislators were initially suspicious of Tallmadge, who had not lived in Wisconsin prior to his appointment, he won them over by taking a conciliatory approach in his initial message. Promising not to take an overly partisan approach, he advocated for the expansion of railroads, in keeping with the position he had taken as a state legislator and a U.S. Senator.[7] He also argued against extending the naturalization period for Wisconsin citizenship to 21 years, and promoted experimental farms and agricultural societies.[7] The legislature authorized printing and distribution of his message, including 750 copies in German, the first time Wisconsin legislators had ever taken such an action.[7]

The 1844 presidential election was won by Democrat James K. Polk.[8] In April 1845, Polk nominated Henry Dodge to serve as territorial governor.[8] Dodge, who had also been Wisconsin Territory's first governor, was easily confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and assumed his new post on April 8, 1845.[8]

Tallmadge decided to stay in Wisconsin, and built his planned residence in Fond du Lac, where he practiced law while living in semi-retirement.[7] He also maintained a home in Washington, DC, where he frequently traveled to serve as an unofficial ambassador for Wisconsin to the federal government and lobbyist for its interests.[7]

Later in his life Tallmadge became a spiritualist, and was convinced of the existence of the afterlife.[9] He had previously been a believer in premonitions, and claimed he had one that resulted in him narrowly escaped death aboard the USS Princeton when a cannon exploded and took the lives of five people.[9] In the 1840s, he began to claim that he was visited by spirits, and he authored introduction to Charles Linton's The Healing of the Nations, a book which Linton claimed had been dictated to him by ghosts.[9] He also wrote an Appendix to the first volume of Spiritualism by John W. Edmonds and George T. Dexter.[10] After the death of John C. Calhoun, Tallmadge claimed to be visited by his spirit, and said that it could communicate with him.[9] Tallmadge was also reported to be a believer in other supposed spirit communications, including the floor and table rappings that typically accompanied séances.[9]

Through his daughter Mary Louisa Tallmadge (wife of Napoleon Boardman), he was a grandfather of Charles Ruggles Boardman, an adjutant general of Wisconsin.[16]

• Andreas, A. T. (1881). History of Northern Wisconsin. Chicago, IL: Western Historical Company.
• Byrd, Robert C. (1993). The Senate, 1789-1989. 4, Historical Statistics. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. ISBN 9780160632563.
• Edmonds, Michael; Snyder, Samantha (2017). Warriors, Saints, and Scoundrels. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87020-792-1.
• Gutierrez, Cathy (2009). Plato's Ghost: Spiritualism in the American Renaissance. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538835-0.
• Lanman, Charles (1887). Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States. New York, NY: Joseph M. Morrison. p. 489.
• New York State Assembly (1840). Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York (1840). Albany, NY: Thurlow Weed.
• Raymond, William (1851). Biographical Sketches of the Distinguished Men of Columbia County. Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons and Company. p. 86.
• Talmadge, Arthur White (1909). The Talmadge, Tallmadge and Talmage Genealogy. New York, NY: Grafton Press.
• Wilson, Brian C. (2014). Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Religion of Biologic Living. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-01447-4.
• Excelsior Publishing (1894). Portrait and Biographical Record of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Chicago, IL: Excelsior Publishing Company.

• Edwards, E. J. (May 1895). "Tammany: Early Spoilsmen, and the Reign of the Plug-Uglies". McClure's. Vol. IV no. 6. New York, NY: S. S. McClure, Limited.
• Kellogg, Louise Phelps (June 1920). "The Story of Wisconsin, 1634-1848: Chapter VI, Politics and Statehood". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 3 no. 4. Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

• Garrett, Eugene G. (2016). "Photo Description, Brigadier General Charles R. Boardman". oshkosh.pastperfectonline.com/. Oshkosh, WI: Oshkosh Public Museum. Retrieved February 22, 2018.