The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-11-23


as came before the country, Mr.. Wilson Joined
the anti-slavery wing of the Wings and with
the poet Whittier was deputed to carry to
Washington the protest of 10000 citizens of
Massachusetts against the admission of Texas
as slave state. In 184S Mr.. Wilson was
elected to the Whig National Council, but fall
ing to carry the Wilmot proviso through the
National Convention which nominated Gen.
Taylor, he with several others withdrew and
called meeting of the few delegates who
sided with him, the result of which was the
Buffalo convention and the Free Soil party. In
September OF the same year Mr.. Wilson pur-
chased the Boston Republican and edited 1t till
1851, when be retired with the loss of $1,000
and convinced that editing a newspaper was
not his forte. In 1849 he was elected by the
Free Soil party to the Massachusetts House,
and in 1850 and 1851 was chosen to the Senate
and elected its President. In 1851 he was
elected delegate at large to the Free Demo-
cratic National Convention at Pittsburg and
was afterwards chosen President of that body
and also chairman of the National Committee.
He was nominated for Representative to Con-
gress but was defeated. In 1852 he was mem
Der of the Massachusetts constitutional con-
vention, and in the same year, was the Free
Soil candidate for Governor, but was defeated.
In the year 1854, during the agita ton pro-
duced by the repeal of the Missouri cornpro-
mise, Mr.. Wilson again became the guberna-
torial candidate of the Free Soil party, but was
again defeated. The next year, however, when
Edward Everett resigned his seat in the Senate
of the United States, Mr.. Wilson was nomi-
mated to succeed him, and elected by both
branches of the legislature. Mr.. Wilson's
first speech in the Senate was made on Mr..
Toucey's bill to 'protect persons executing the
fugitive slave act from prosecution by state
courts, which was frank and fearless avowal
OF bis opposition to American slavery, views
for the reiteration of which the Kansas
question gave him abundant opportunities.
He denounced the assault on Mr.. Sumner on
the floor of the Senate as "brutal, cowardly
and murderous," for which language be was
challenged by Brooks, but refused to accept as,
to use his own language, he regarded dueling
"as the lingering relic of barbarous civiliza.
tion"
MIR. Wilson took an active part in the cam
paign OF 1856, supporting John G. Fremont.
When he resumed his seat in the Senate after
the election of Buchanan, be brought in the
bill to organize the the territories of Kansas
and Nebraska accompanying it with power
full speech. 1t was about this time that he
made his celebrated reply to Mr.. Hammond of
South Carolina, which was defence of fire
labor and was widely circulated at the North
In 1859 he was reelected to the Senate and on
the nomination of Mr.. Lincoln for the Presi-
dency threw his whole force into the campaign
which followed, to promote his election. On
the breaking out of the war Mr. Wilson be-
came chairman of the committee on military
affairs-the most arduous position in Congress.
His labors here were most severe and were
performed with singular ability and fidelity,
and no man not actually in the field contribut-
ed more to the successful issue..of the great
war of the rebellion. But his labors at that
period were not confined to the halls of Con-
gress alone In the summer of 1861 during
the recess Of Congress he returned to Massa-
chusetts and began recruiting and in forty
days raised 2300 men. He was commissioned
as colonel by the governor and went into camp
with his regiment in Virginia, but resigned in
the latter part of October, and returned to his
duties in the Senate and continued to perform
those duties till the close of the war. In 1872
he was nominated for Vice, President on the
ticket with Gen. Grant, since which time his
failing health has somewhat Withdrawn him
from public duties. Mr.. Wilson has written
four works, the "History of the Anti SLAYER
Measures of the 37th and 38th Congre sses,"
military Measures of the U. S. Congress"
'History of the Reconstruction Measures of the
39th and 4Oth Congresses" and his more
elaborate work the "History of the Rise and
Progress of the Slave Power in America
though the latter was MT quite completed at
the time of his death.
Mr.. Wilson was married in 1910 to Miss Har-
riet NJ Howe of Natick, who died in May,
1870. The only son, soldier in the Union
army, died at Austin, Texas, Dec. "a, 1866.
Few public men have closed a career more
spotess and with fewer chapters which, diving,
they could wish to be blotted out than Henry
Wilson. The most brilliant achievements of his
life were won in the noble struggle against Afri-
can slavery. In the Senate be stood by the side
of his colleague, Mr.. Sumner, and fearlessly
denounced that iniquity and its advocates. In
this fight he never wavered till the victory was
won, and that darkest page in the history of
the Republic was torn out His integrity was
above suspicion, and no taint of corruption has
eve- attached to his name. He was conspicu-
GUS in a class of statesmen which is becoming
too scarce. Many greater men the country
has produced, but none more true, more up
right, more uniiring in its service than the dead
Vice President