Background and career
Stephen Van Rensselaer III (; November 1, 1764 – January 26, 1839), was an American landowner, businessman, politician, and militia officer. He took control of Rensselaerswyck, his family's manor in upstate New York, at the age of twenty-one. He encouraged settlement by granting tenants seven years of free rent, although he retained ownership of timber, minerals, and water power. He earned the sobriquet "the Good Patroon" for generally proving to be a lenient landlord; rather than eviction, he preferred to accept partial payment or goods and services in lieu of cash when tenants were in arrears. A Federalist and brother-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, Van Rensselaer served in both houses of the state legislature and as lieutenant governor. After the demise of the Federalist Party, Van Rensselaer was a John Quincy Adams supporter and served in the United States House of Representatives for one partial term and three full ones. Van Rensselaer was a supporter of higher education; he served on the board of trustees for several schools and colleges and was the founder of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was also a civic activist and philanthropist and was a founder of Albany's public library and the city's Institute of History & Arts. Long active in the militia, Van Rensselaer attained the rank of major general; he commanded troops on the New York–Canada border during the War of 1812, but resigned his commission after defeat at the Battle of Queenston Heights. After Van Rensselaer's 1839 death, efforts by his sons to collect past due lease payments led to the Anti-Rent War, and the break up and sale of the manor. As the heir to and then owner of one of the largest estates in New York, Van Rensselaer's holdings made him the tenth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP.
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 to his ancestor Kiliaen Van Rensselaer by the Dutch Republic when the region was part of the colony of New Netherland. 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. He grew up with the men on his maternal side and became very interested in the sciences such as mathematics, biology and chemistry. Van Rensselaer was raised by his mother and stepfather, the Reverend Eilardus Westerlo, whom his mother married in 1775, and his Livingston grandfather. His uncle, Abraham Ten Broeck, administered the Van Rensselaer estate after the untimely death of Van Rensselaer's father. From an early age, Van Rensselaer was raised to succeed his father as lord of the manor. 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 the College of New Jersey (later Princeton); 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 with an A.B. degree in 1782.
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. Van Rensselaer desired to profit from the land, but was extremely reluctant to sell it off. Instead, he developed the land by granting perpetual leases at moderate rates; Van Rensselaer derived a steady rental income from his property while retaining timber, water, and mineral rights, while tenants were able to become successful farmers without having to pay a large purchase price up front. This meant that they could invest more in their operations, which led to increased productivity in the area. Over time, Van Rensselaer became landlord to more than 80,000 tenants. He generally proved to be a lenient landlord; he accepted produce such as grain and firewood in place of cash for rent payments, and when tenants found themselves in financial difficulty, he usually preferred to accept late or partial payments rather than evict them. One facet of the leases Van Rensselaer granted was the "quarter-sale"—tenants who sold their leases were required to pay Van Rensselaer one fourth of the sale price or one additional year's rent. Over time, this requirement became a point of contention between Van Rensselaer and the tenants, which in part led to the Anti-Rent War. In the 1790 United States census, it was recorded that he owned fifteen slaves. By the time of the 1830 census, he had none, in keeping with New York's gradual emancipation law, under which all enslaved people in the state were freed by 1827. Van Rensselaer later became an advocate of enabling African Americans to emigrate to colonies in Africa, such as Liberia, and he served as a vice president of the Albany Auxiliary Society and the American Colonization Society. In 1791, Van Rensselaer was one of the incorporators of the Albany Library, which evolved over time into the Albany Public Library, and he was chosen to serve on the board of trustees. In 1797, Van Rensselaer was an organizer of the Albany and Schenectady Turnpike Company, and served on its board of directors.
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 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 presided over the state constitutional convention, was the Federalist nominee for Governor of New York, and lost to George Clinton, 24,808 votes to 20,843. 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, reporting favorably to the Assembly in 1811. Van Rensselaer served on the Erie Canal Commission for 23 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 won the special election for the seat in the House of Representatives from which his cousin Solomon had resigned. 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.
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.
In 1786, Van Rensselaer was appointed a major in the Albany County Regiment of the New York militia. He became commander of the regiment two years later as a lieutenant colonel, and was subsequently promoted to colonel. In 1801 he was promoted to major general as commander of the state militia's cavalry division.
