- Hiram Barney
Hiram Barney (May 30, 1811 "-" May 18, 1895) was Collector of the Port of New York from 1861 "-" 1864. He was born in
Henderson, New York ,Jefferson County, New York and graduated fromUnion College inSchenectady, New York , in 1834. Barney wasCollector during the first three years of the administration ofAbraham Lincoln . He resigned and refused an appointment to a foreign mission.Lawyer and abolitionist
In 1830 he served as chairman of the executive committee of the Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society in
New York City . He was associated withJohn Jay , A.C. Coxe,Theodore Weld , andHenry Stanton . 1840 he formed a law partnership with William Mitchell inNew York City . The firm was later continued under the name of Barney, Humphrey, and Butler. Mitchell died suddenly and in March 1849 Barney became associated withBenjamin Franklin Butler (lawyer) and his sonWilliam Allen Butler .In 1840 he was nominated for the
United States Congress by the Anti-Slavery Party. He was a presidential elector when theFree Soil Party was formed in 1848. Barney was a delegate to theRepublican National Convention of 1856, which nominatedJohn C. Fremont . He voted forCharles Sumner rather than Fremont while he was there. He attended the Republican National Convention inChicago, Illinois in 1860. Barney met with Lincoln atSpringfield, Illinois shortly after the convention ended. Barney raised $35,000 inNew York , which he sent to the Illinois State Committee.Lincoln called upon Barney at a hotel in Springfield when he was sent by Republicans of New York to consult with Lincoln regarding his
Cabinet .Lincoln requested that Barney write out a list in pencil of his choices for Cabinet posts. He choseCaleb Smith asSecretary of the Interior andSimon Cameron asSecretary of War , rather than men Barney had recommended.Family and death
His first wife, Susannah Tappan, was the daughter of the abolitionist Louis Tappan. Barney died at
Spuyten Duyvil in 1895, after a long illness. He was 84. ["Obituary Record",New York Times , May 20, 1895, pg. 2.]References
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