Stephen Van Rensselaer

Stephen van Rensselaer III (November 1, 1764 – January 26, 1839) was Lieutenant Governor of New York and a member of the United States House of Representatives, as well as a soldier, businessman and landowner. The heir to one of the largest estates in New York, his holdings made him the tenth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP. He founded the institution which became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Early life

Van Rensselaer was born in New York City, the eldest child of Stephen Van Rensselaer II, the ninth patroon of Rensselaerswyck, a large land grant in upstate New York awarded by the Dutch to his ancestor Kiliaen van Rensselaer. His mother was Catharina Livingston, daughter of Philip Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His family was very wealthy, and the Van Rensselaer Manor House was a rich childhood environment for the young boy to grow up in. However, his father died in 1769 when Van Rensselaer was only five.^[3]

Van Rensselaer was raised by his mother and stepfather, the Rev. Eilardus Westerlo, whom his mother married in 1775, and his Livingston grandfather.^[4] His uncle, Abraham Ten Broeck, administered the Van Rensselaer estate after the untimely death of Van Rensselaer's father. At an early age, Van Rensselaer was raised to succeed his father as lord of the manor.^[3] Stephen's younger brother Philip S. Van Rensselaer (1767–1824), later served as Mayor of Albany from 1799 to 1816 and again from 1819 to 1820.

Van Rensselaer began attending Princeton College; since it was near to battles of the ongoing American Revolution, he was later sent to Harvard College, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa^[5] in 1782.^[6]

Career

On his 21st birthday, Van Rensselaer took possession of Rensselaerswyck, his family's 1,200 square mile (3,072 km²) estate, and began a long tenure as lord of the manor.^[7] Van Rensselaer desired to profit from the land, but was extremely reluctant to sell it off.^[8] Instead, he granted tenants perpetual leases at moderate rates; Van Rensselaer derived a steady rental income from his property, while would-be landholders were able to become successful farmers without having to pay a large purchase price up front.^[9] This meant that they could invest more in their operations, which led to increased productivity in the area. Over time, Van Rensselaer would become landlord to over 3,000 tenants, and proved a lenient and benevolent landowner.^[10]

In the First Census of the United States in 1790, it was noted that he owned fifteen slaves.^[11] By the time of the 1830 Census, he had none, in keeping with New York's gradual emancipation law, under which all slaves in the state were freed by 1827.^[12]

Early political career

A Federalist, Van Rensselaer was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1789 to 1791, and the New York State Senate from 1791 to 1796. He was elected as an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati in 1781.

He was Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1795 to 1801, elected with Governor John Jay. Van Rensselaer, over his time in politics, acquired a reputation as something of a reformer, voting in favor of extending suffrage and going against much of New York's upper class in doing so. In 1801, Van Rensselaer was the Federalist nominee for Governor of New York, and lost to George Clinton, 24,808 votes to 20,843.^[13] Members of his extended family served in Congress including Jeremiah van Rensselaer (1741–1810), Killian K. van Rensselaer (1763–1845), and Solomon van Rensselaer (1774–1852).^[3]

He was one of the first to advocate for a canal from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes and was appointed to a commission to investigate the route in 1810.^[14]

War of 1812

In 1786, Van Rensselaer was appointed a major in the militia. Though the military was not Van Rensselaer's major pursuit, he was a major general by 1801. This experience led to Van Rensselaer's appointment to command troops during the War of 1812. When war was declared on Great Britain in June 1812, Van Rensselaer was a leading Federalist candidate for Governor of New York. Democratic-Republican Party leaders, including President James Madison and incumbent New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins devised a way to remove Van Rensselaer from the campaign by offering him command of the Army of the Centre, U.S. militia and regular Army troops massing in upstate New York for an invasion of Canada. If Van Rensselaer declined a military leadership role during a time of war, he would lose esteem in the eyes of the voters. If he accepted, he would be unable to run for governor.

Van Rensselaer accepted; despite having held high rank in the militia, he was largely inexperienced at leading large bodies of troops. As a condition of his acceptance, his more soldierly cousin Solomon was appointed his aide-de-camp. But the Army of the Centre consisted largely of untrained, inexperienced militiamen; under the Constitution, they did not have to cross from upstate New York into Canada to fight.

The British were in the process of fortifying the Queenston Heights that Van Rensselaer would have to attack, and his officers were itching for action despite their general's desire to delay until his troops were better trained and organized. To make matters worse, Brigadier General Alexander Smyth, Van Rensselaer's subordinate, had a large force of regular Army troops that was theoretically under Van Rensselaer's command, but Smyth refused to subordinate himself to a militia officer. With some of his officers planning to try and force him from command, Van Rensselaer decided to act without Smyth.

On October 13, 1812, Van Rensselaer launched an attack on the British position that would evolve into the Battle of Queenston Heights, in which Van Rensselaer's forces were badly beaten by the British generals Isaac Brock and, after Brock's death, Roger Hale Sheaffe. Van Rensselaer's preparations and his plan of attack were clearly a major reason for the scale of the defeat. He was unable to secure the element of surprise, he did not procure enough boats for his men to cross easily, and he was even unable to supply his soldiers with sufficient ammunition. Despite significantly outnumbering the British in the early stages of the battle, the American soldiers, untried and untrained, sometimes refused to cross the river. Van Rensselaer was not even able to coax the boatmen into going back over to rescue the doomed attack force.

The defeat at Queenston Heights spelled the end to Van Rensselaer's military career; after the battle he resigned his post. Despite his military setback, Van Rensselaer was still the Federalist candidate for governor in April 1813; he lost to Tompkins 43,324 votes to 39,713.^[13]

Later career

c. 1835, Engraved by G. Parker, from a miniature by C. Fraser

Van Rensselaer served on the canal commission for twenty-three years (1816 – 1839), fourteen of which he served as its president. In 1821, he was a member of the New York State Constitutional Convention.

In 1822 he was elected by special election to the seat in the House of Representatives that his cousin Solomon had vacated. He served from February 27, 1822 to March 3, 1829, during the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Congresses; during the last three sessions, he was the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture.

Role in deciding 1824 presidential election

In 1825 Van Rensselaer cast the vote that likely decided the presidential election in favor of John Quincy Adams. Because none of the four candidates received a majority of electoral votes in the 1824 presidential election, the U.S. House had to choose from the top three finishers—Adams, Andrew Jackson, and William H. Crawford. House members voted first individually by state, and then each state cast one ballot for the candidate who received a majority of the state's House delegation; a candidate had to carry 13 state delegations to win the election. Van Rensselaer had intended to vote for Crawford, but changed his mind and voted for Adams. His vote gave Adams a majority of the New York delegation; winning New York gave Adams 13 states in the House vote, to seven for Jackson and four for Crawford.^[15]

College founder

Van Rensselaer was a member of the University of the State of New York Board of Regents from 1819 to 1839, and from 1835 to 1839 he was the board's chancellor.^[16] In 1824 Van Rensselaer and Amos Eaton established the Rensselaer School (now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI) "for the purpose of instructing persons, who may choose to apply themselves, in the application of science to the common purposes of life".^[17] Since its founding, RPI has developed a reputation for academic excellence, particularly in the field of engineering.^[18]

Personal life

Van Rensselaer's gravesite in Albany Rural Cemetery

In June 1783, Van Rensselaer married Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler (1758–1801), a distant cousin and the daughter of Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler.^[19] Their marriage resulted in three children, all of whom were baptized at the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany. Only one of their children survived to adulthood:

• Stephen Van Rensselaer IV (1789-1868), became the last patroon of Rensselaerwyck and inherited the manor in 1839 by his father's will. He graduated from Princeton in 1808. He served as major general of militia. During the anti-rent troubles in 1839 he sold his townships, and at his death the manor passed out of the hands of his descendants.
  • Justine Van Rensselaer (1828–1912), who married Dr. Howard Townsend, a noted physician at Albany Medical College

After Schuyler's death in 1801, he married Cornelia Paterson,^[20] the daughter of William Paterson, the 2nd Governor of New Jersey, and later, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.^[21] Together, they had:

• Cortlandt Van Rensselaer (1808–1860), a noted Presbyterian clergyman.
• Henry Bell Van Rensselaer (1810–1864), a politician and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, who married Elizabeth Ray King, a granddaughter of Rufus King.

He was a Freemason, and served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York from 1825-29.^[22]

Van Rensselaer died on January 26, 1839. He was buried in a family cemetery at the Van Rensselaer Manor House, and was later reinterred at Albany Rural Cemetery, Section 14, Lot 1.^[23]

Legacy

The town of Stephentown, New York is named for Stephen Van Rensselaer.

See also

• War of 1812
• List of richest Americans in history
• List of wealthiest historical figures

References

Notes

Sources

•  This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.
• Turner, Wesley B. (2011). The Astonishing General: The Life and Legacy of Sir Isaac Brock. Dundurn Books, 376 pages. 
• Spooner, Walter Whipple (1907). The Van Rensselaer Family (PDF). American Historical Magazine. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stephen van Rensselaer III.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article van Rensselaer, Stephen.

• United States Congress. "Stephen Van Rensselaer (id: V000056)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 
• Stephen van Rensselaer III biography from the New York State Museum
• HISTORY OF THE ALBANY INSTITUTE
• New York history with election result 1813
• van Rensselaer's explanation to Gen. Dearborn as to why the Americans lost the Battle of Queenston

Governors and Lieutenant Governors of New York
Governors	G. Clinton Jay G. Clinton Lewis Tompkins Tayler D. Clinton Yates D. Clinton Pitcher Van Buren Throop Marcy Seward Bouck Wright Young Fish Hunt Seymour Clark King Morgan Seymour Fenton Hoffman J. Adams Dix Tilden Robinson Cornell Cleveland Hill Flower Morton Black T. Roosevelt Odell Higgins Hughes White J. Alden Dix Sulzer Glynn Whitman Smith Miller Smith F. Roosevelt Lehman Poletti Dewey Harriman Rockefeller Wilson Carey M. Cuomo Pataki Spitzer Paterson A. Cuomo
Lieutenant Governors	Van Cortlandt S. Van Rensselaer J. Van Rensselaer Broome Tayler Clinton Tayler Swift Tayler Root Tallmadge Pitcher P. Livingston Dayan Throop Stebbins Oliver E. Livingston Tracy Bradish Dickinson Gardiner Lester Fish Patterson Church Raymond Selden Campbell Floyd-Jones Alvord Woodford Beach Robinson Dorsheimer Hoskins Hill McCarthy Jones Sheehan Saxton Woodruff Higgins Bruce Raines Chanler White Cobb Conway Glynn Wagner Schoeneck Walker Wood Lusk Lunn Lowman Corning Lehman Bray Poletti Hanley Wallace Hanley Moore Wicks Mahoney DeLuca Wilson Anderson Krupsak Cuomo DelBello Anderson Lundine McCaughey Donohue Paterson Bruno Skelos Smith Espada Ravitch Duffy Hochul
Italics indicate acting officeholders

Chairmen of the United States House Committee on Agriculture
Forrest Butler Van Rensselaer Spencer Root Bockee Deberry Anderson White Littlefield Floyd Dawson Holloway Whiteley Butterfield Lovejoy Clay Bidwell Trowbridge Wilson Hays Caldwell Cutler Covert Valentine Hatch Funston Hatch Wadsworth Scott Lamb Lever Haugen Jones Fulmer Flannagan Hope Cooley Hope Cooley Poage Foley de la Garza Roberts Smith Combest Goodlatte Peterson Lucas Conaway

Van Rensselaer family
This list is not complete, and should be taken as a rough guideline depending on the notability of a respective family member.
1st generation	Hendrick Wolter van Rensselaer
2nd generation	Issue of Hendrick Wolter Kiliaen van Rensselaer
3rd generation	Issue of Kiliaen Hendrick van Rensselaer Johan van Rensselaer
4th generation	Issue of Hendrick Kilian van Rensselaer† Maria (van Rensselaer) van Twiller
5th generation	Issue of Kilian Johan van Rensselaer† Jan Baptist van Rensselaer† Jeremias van Rensselaer† Nicholas van Rensselaer (minister)†
6th generation	Issue of Johan Kiliaen van Rensselaer† Issue of Jeremias Johannes (John) Van Rensselaer Kilian van Rensselaer† Hendrick van Rensselaer†
7th generation	Issue of Kilian Jeremias van Rensselaer† Stephen van Rensselaer I†
8th generation	Issue of Stephen I Stephen van Rensselaer II†
9th generation	Issue of Stephen II Stephen van Rensselaer III†
10th generation	Issue of Stephen III Stephen van Rensselaer IV Henry van Rensselaer
†Served as patroon or director of Rensselaerswyck