Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-11-26

The Late Henry Wilson.
We copy from the Chicago 7ri-
6une the following bret summary of
events in the life of the dead Vice
President:
Born in 1912, in poverty, he was
to farmer at 10 years of
age, and served laboriously until his
majority, in 1888. With little oppor-
tunity for schooling, he found the
means, even in those days, when
books were not as plentiful or as &C
cessible as now, to read a great many
volumes of history and biography
As soon as he had completed his ap-
premiership on the farm, he walked
to Natick, Massachusetts, where he
engaged at shoemaking, at which he
worked diligently, practicing temper
ance and rigid economy, until he had
accumulated some five hundred dol
lars. He then tried to improve his
limited education by attending an
academy in New Hampshire, but the
depository of his savings having be-
come insolvent, he returned to shoe
making at Natick. His good habits
and his natural abilities, however,
made him conspicuous among his as
sociates, and in 1910 he was enlisted
in behalf of Gen. Harrison's election
to the Presidency, he making great
many speeches. From that time to
the present he has been conspicuous
in American politics. He was almost
continuously member of either one
or the other branch of the State Leg
islature, and frequently the presiding
officer. He was an active Anti-Sla-
very man, and opposed the annexa-
ton of Texas. In ls4s he left the
Wing National Convention when it
rejected the Anti-Slavery platform,
and united with the Free-Soil party.
For two years he edited an Anti-Sla-
very paper in Boston, serving also in
the Legislature. In 1852 he presided
at the Free-Soil National Convention
in Pittsburg. In 1853 he was the
Free-Soil candidate for Governor of
Massachusetts, but was defeated
When the Know-Nothing organiza-
ton elected Gardner Governor of
Massachusetts,, Mr.. Wilson was a
member of that party, but when that
party, bsequently, rejected an Anti
Slavery platform, he abandoned it.
In 1852 he was elected to the United
States Senate i'll place of Edward
Everett, resigned, and continued by
successive elections member of that
body until 1873, when he resigned to
become Vice-President, to which
place he was elected in 1872.
, Mr.. Wilson has been a laborious
public officer. For thirty-tive years
he has held elective offices, and in all
of them had borne himself honorably
and creditably. From the humble
position of an uneducated farm hand
and a journeyman shoemaker he had
progressively assembled in public
favor and confidence to the second
office of the Republic. He began
his public life as determined oppon-
ent OF slavery, and at once was in
sympathy with the popular sentiment
OF his State. But it was not merely
because he was on the popular side
that he was successful; his success
was due to the earnestness and the
ability, the perseverance and energy
with which he advocated the right
and opposed the wrong. His success
did not prove too great for him to
bear. He was not SO dazzled by his
honors, nor overcome by his unex-
pected eminence, as to follow the ex-
ample of so many in Ike circum-
stances. He preserved his personal
integrity, preserved his strictly tenn.
perate, abstemious habits, and to
these circumstances, as we'll as to his
natural ability, are due the popular
respect and confidence he has so long
enjoyed.
Mr.. Wilson was an ardent supper
ter Of the War, and, as Chairman of
the Committee on Military Affairs in
the Senate, strongly aided the Gov
eminent in the organization of the
army and its successful maintenance.
He was also an active participant in
the Reconstruction policy of Con-
gress. Mr.. Wilson was an able and
an earnest speaker. He was not a
snowy orator. HIS speeches were i'm
pressive, because they were earnest,
and their impression on the reader is
as strong as that upon them who
heard them.
Since the reconstruction of the
Southern States, Mr.. Wilson has
been conspicuous for his appeals for
harmony, Cancellation, and a forget
fulness OF the War. He paid several
visits to the Southern States, and was
everywhere welcomed and greeted
with respect and hospitality by the
Southern people.
Mr.. Wilson has written a history
Of the Slave Power in America, OF
which, however, several volumes
have never been completed, and his
speeches and public papers will
make several volumes.