Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-11-17


ries illustrative of the culture of oysters, as
well as that of o salmon,
The Early Life Of Senator Wilson.
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes in
the Boston Watchman and Reflector an inte-
resting sketch of Senator Wilson, of Massa-
chusetts. She says of his early life:
Henry Wilson our present United States
Senator, was born at Pennington, N. H.,
February -, 1918, of very poor parents,
At the age oe ten lie was bound to farm
er till he was twcnty-one. Here he had
the usual lot of farm boy--plain, abundant
food, coarse, clothing, incessent work, and
a few weeks schooling at the district school
in Winter
In these ten years of toll, the boy, by
twilight, freight, and on Sundays, had
read over one thousand volumes of history,
geography, biography and general literature,
borrowed from the school libraries and from
those of general individuals.
at twenty-one he was his own master,
to begin the world, and in looking over his
inventory for starting in life, found sound
and healthy body, and q mind trained to
reflection by solitary thought. He went to
Natlck, Mass. to learn the trade of a shoe
maker, at which, working two years, he
saved enough money to attend the academy
at Concord and Wolfsborough, N. HI. But
the man with whom he had deposited his
hard earnings became insolvent; the money
he had toiled so long for vanished, and he
was obliged to leave his studies, go back
to Natick and make more. Undiscouraged,
he resolved still to pursue his object, uniting
1t with his daily toll. He formed deba-
ting society among the young mechanics of
the place; investigated subjects; read;
wrote and spoke on oil the subjects of the
day, as the spirit within him gave him ut
terance. Among his fellow mechanics some
Others were enkindled by his influence, and
are now holding high places in the literary
and diplomatic world.
In lS40 young Wilson came forward as q
public speaker. He engaged in the Har-
iison election campaign and made sixty
speeches in about four MONTHS and was
we'll repaid by his share in the triumph of
the party. He was then elected to the Mas
sachusetts Legislature as representative from
Natick.
Having entered life on the workingman's
side, and known By his own experience tho
working mans trials, temptations, and hard
struggles, he felt the sacredness of poor
mans labor, and entered public life with
heart to take the part of the toiling and tho
oppressed.
VI SouioC uC was uuiCh W icCi tuul tuo
great question of our time was the question
| of labor, and its rights and rewards. He
was quick 20 fee, the 'irrepressible conflict"
which Seward so happily designated be-
tween the two modes of society existing in
America, and to know that they must fight
and struggle till one of them throttled and
| killed the other; and prompt to feel this,
he made his early election to live or die on
the side of the laboring poor, whose most
expressed type was the African slave.
In the Legislature he introduced a motion
against the extention of slave territory, and
in 1s45 went with Whittier to Washington
with the remonstrance of Massachusetts
against the admission of Texas as a slave
| State.
When the Whig party became inefficient
in the cause of liberty, through too much
Difference to the slave power, Henry Wilson
left it, and become one of the most ener-
getic efficient organizers in forming the
Freesoil party of Massachusetts,. In its
interests he bought a daily paper in Boston,
which for some time he edited with great
ability.
| Meanwhile nc rose to one step of honor
after another in his adopted State he be-
came President of the Massachusetts, BE-
nate, and at length, after we'll contested
election, was sent to take the place OF the
accomplished Everett: in the United States
Senate.