Halbert E. Paine

Halbert Eleazer Paine (February 4, 1826 – April 14, 1905) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He served as the 21st United States Commissioner of Patents (1878–1880), appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes. He earlier served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Wisconsin's 1st congressional district from 1865 to 1871. Before his political career, Paine served as a Union Army general in the western theater of the American Civil War.

His first cousin, Eleazar A. Paine, was also a Union Army general in the Civil War.

Biography Paine was born in Chardon, Ohio, in February 1826. After attending the common schools, Paine graduated from Western Reserve College in 1845. He moved to Mississippi for a year to teach school but returned to Cleveland to read the law. In 1848 he passed the bar exam and established a practice. He married and started a family.

In 1857, Paine took his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he continued his legal career. Beginning 1859, his law partner was Carl Schurz, though, with Paine's encouragement, Schurz took more of an interest in politics and public speaking than law.

American Civil War With the outbreak of the Civil War, Paine entered the Union army as the colonel of the 4th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. On April 9, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Paine brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1863. The President had nominated Paine for the promotion on March 12, 1863, and the U.S. Senate had confirmed the appointment on March 13, 1863.

Politics Paine, a Republican, was elected to the 39th, 40th and 41st Congress from Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, serving from March 4, 1865, till March 3, 1871. He was a delegate to the 1866 National Union Convention in Philadelphia, which was attempting to encourage support for President Andrew Johnson in advance of the mid-term elections. Some attendees hoped to found a new political party, but this did not take place.

In 1869, Paine championed the passage of a bill that provided for taking meteorological observations in the interior of the continent. He served as chairman of the Committee on Militia (Fortieth Congress), and the Committee on Elections (Forty-first Congress). After the expiration of his third term in Congress, he retired from politics and chose not to accept renomination.

Law After serving in Congress, Paine practiced law in Washington, D.C., for several years, having established residency there. In 1879, he was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes as the United States Commissioner of Patents, serving in that post for two years. While there, he promoted adoption by Federal agencies of useful innovations, such as typewriters. and Contested Election, United States Senate: William H. Clagett v. Frederick T. Dubois, based on his argument before the Committee on Privileges and Elections. These were related to his work in Washington, DC.

In addition, he wrote a memoir of his Civil War years, reflecting on the complexities of its issues as a man of the North. Entitled A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country: The Civil War Reminiscences of a Union General, the memoir was published for the first time in 2009, in an annotated edition edited by historian Samuel C. Hyde, Jr. It is described as "less celebration of the grand cause and greater analysis of the motives for his actions—and their inherent contradictions."

Works Halbert E. Paine, Contested Election, Territory of Utah: George R. Maxwell V. George Q. Cannon, (1888) Contested Election, United States Senate: William H. Clagett v. Frederick T. Dubois : before the Committee on Privileges and Elections : argument of Halbert E. Paine, counsel for contestee, Gibson Brothers (1891) A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country: The Civil War Reminiscences of a Union General, ed. by Samuel C. Hyde, Jr., Louisiana State University Press, 2009