The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1872-06-12
GRANT AND WILSON.

GRANT AND WILSON.
The National Republican Conven-
tion has been held, and its work well
done. 1t has given us ticket worthy
Of support, and certain of success
General GRANT is known of all men
and his good works speak forth his
praises. His grand success as a
great military leader and a wise
statesman is written on the pages of
his country's history. He has been
tested, tried and approved as safe
ruler and good man, and he cannot
fail of an election, despite all oppo-
sition.
HENRY WILSON, Of Massachusetts,,
is almost as equally as well known
and esteemed bv the nation at large,
a. is ULYSSES 5. GRANT, and his
nomination is everywhere hailed with
intense satisfaction. He sprang from
the ranks of lowliest poverty, and by
his unaided efforts has earned name
and station second to that of no
statesman in the nation. A true rep
resentative Of labor and home indus
try, and Republican without blem.
ish, he adds great strength to the
ticket on which he has been placed.
We print the following brief sketch
of his career, taken from the Pitts
burgh Gazette:
Henry Wilson was born at Farm
ington, \. H., February l6, lSl2-
His parents being extremely poor, he
was apprenticed at ten years of age
to farmer in his native town, with
whom he continued eleven years,
during which period he was sent to
school at irregular intervals, amount
ing in all to twelve months. He
early formed a taste for reading, and
from private library in the neigh
borhood borrowed and read on Sun
dav and in the evening by freight
and moonlight, in the course of his
apprenticeship, nearly one thousand
volumes, chiefly of history and biog-
raphy. On attaining his majority he
quilted Pennington, and with all his
possessions in q pack on his back,
walked to Natick Mass, where he
hired himself to a shoemaker until he
learned his trade, at which he work
ed for two years, when, having accu-
mulated some money, he returned to
New Hampshire and studied for
while in the academies at Stafford,
Wolfsborough and Concord. His
plan of education was cut short by
the insolvency of the person to whom
he had entrusted his savings, and he
returned to Natick and resumed work
as a shoemaker in 1888. In 1910 he
took an active part in the Presiden-
tial canvass, and made upward of
sixty speeches in favor of General
Harrison, the Whig candidate. IN
the next five years he was three
times elected a representative from
Matte to the Legislature, and twice
to the Senate from Middlesex county.
In the Legislature he was soon known
as an active and jealous opponent of
slavery, and in lS45 he was selected
in conjunction with the poet Whit
or, to carry to Washington the great
anti-slGvery petition from Massachu-
setts against the annexation of Tex
as. In the same year he introduced
in the Legislature a resolution de-
claring the unalterable hostility of
Massachusetts to the further exten-
sion and longer continuance of sla-
very in America, and her fixed deter
mination to use all constitutional and
legal means forits extinction. He
supported this resolution in a speech,
which was pronounced by the lead
ing anti-slavery journals to be the
fullest and most comprehensive on
the slavery question that had yet
been made in any legislative body in
the country, and 7 was adopted in
the House by ninety-three majority.
He was delegate to the Whig Nation
al Convention of ls4S, and on the re-
lection of anti-slavery resolutions by
the Convention, he withdrew from it
and took prominent part in organ
izing the free-soil party. he pur-
chased at this time the Boston RepuJ-
Goan, a daily newspaper, which he
edited for two years. In lS49 he was
chosen chairman of the Free Soil
State Committee of Massachusetts,,
post which be actively filed for four
wears. In 1850 and again in 1851
he was chosen State Senator, and
during both terms was President of
the Senate. In 1852 he was made
President of the Free Soil National
Convention at Pittsburgh, and Chair
man of the National Committee Of
the party. In the same year he was
the Free Soil candidate for Congress
ia the Eighth district of Massacku-
setts, where the majority against the
Free Soilers exceeded 1900, and
failed of an election by only ninety
three votes. He was elected to the |
National Convention Of 1858, not 1
only by his own town Of Natick, but
by the town Of Berlin, and took a
prominent part in he deliberations of
that body. In the same year be- was
the Free Soil candidate for Governor, |
and was defeated. In 1855 he was
elected to succeed Edward Everett
in the United States Senate, and
shortly after taking his seat made
speech advocating the repeal Of the I
fugitive slave law and the abolition Of
slavery in the District of Columbia
and the territories. He has ever
since been conspicuous in the Senate
as an earnest advocate of anti-slavery
measures. For a brief period in
1855 he was associated with the
American party; but on the adop-
tion of a pro-slavery platform by the