Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-01-04
The EarIyLife orsepasorwu,o..

sy Hsse ot tsemntorWflsOms
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes in
the Boston Watchmau and Reflector an
interesting sketch Of Senator Wilson, Of
Massachusetts. She says Of his early life:
Henry Wilson, our present United States
Senator was born at Pennington, N. H.,
Feb. IL, 1918, ofvery poor parents. At
the age Of ten he was bound to farmer
till he was twenty.one. Here he had The
usual lot of q farm boy--plain abundant
food, coarse clothing, incesssnt werk, 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, geog-
raphy, biography and general literature,
borrowed from the school libraries and from
those of generous individuals.
At twenty-one he was his own master, to
begin the world; and in looking over his in.
ventory for starting in life, found sound
and healthful body, and mind trained to
reflection by solitary thought. He went to
Natck, Mass, to learn the trade of shoe.
maker, at which, working two years, he
saved enough money to attend the academy
at Concord and Marlborough, N. H. But
the man with whom he had deposited his
hard earnings became iuselvent; the money
he had toiled so long for vanished, and he
was obliged to leave bis studies, 70 back to
Natick and make more. Undiscouraged,
he resolved still to pursue his object, uni.
ting it with his daily toll. He formed de-
batting society among the young mechanics
OF the place; investigated subjects; read,
wrote and spoke on ell The subjects of the
day, as the spirit within him gave him
utteranco. Among bis fellow mechanics
some others we're enkindled by his influence,
and are now holding high places in the lit.
erary and diplomatic world.
In 1910 young Wilson came forward as q
public speaker. He engaged in the Har-
rison election campaign, and made sixty
speeches in about four months, and was well
repaid by his share in the triumph of his
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 the
workingman's trials, temptations and hard
struggles, he felt the sacredness of poor
mans labor, and entered public life with a
heart to take tho part of the toilipg and the
oppressed. .
OF course he was quick to feel that the
great question Of our time was the question Of
labor and its rights and rewards. He was
quick to feel the ''irrepressible conflict"
which Seward so happily designated between
the two modes of society existing in Aneri.
ca, and to show that they must fight and
struggle till one of them throttled and kill
ed 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 op-
pressed type was the African slave.
In the Legislature he introduced a motion
against the extension of slave territory; and
in 1S45 went with Whittier to Washington
with the remonstrance of Massachusetts,
against the admission of Texas as slave
| State.
When the Wing party became inefficient
in the cause of liberty, through too much
Difference to the slave power, Henry Wilson
left it and became one Of the most energetic
and efficient organizers in forming the Free.
soil party of Massachusetts. In its interest
he bought daily paper in Boston, which
| for some time he edited with great ability.
| Meanwhile he rose to one step of honor
after another in his adopted State; he be.
came President of the Massachusetts, Sen.
ate; and at length after well contested
election. was sent to take the place of the
accomplished Everett in the United States
| Senate.