Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-12-02
Death of Vice President Wilson.

VICE PRESIDENT, Hon. HENRY
WILSON died at Washing ton on the
morning of Monday, the 22d inst.
This blow to the nation comes not
wholly unexpected as Mr.. Wilson's
health has been precarious for years,
and particularly SO the past twelve
months. The cause of his decease,
though attributed to brain disorder
and apoplexy. was undoubtedly the
result of we exertion and severe men
tai labor. The great work upon which
he has been engaged the past decade /:
"The Rise and Fall of the Slave Pow
er," of which two volumes were pub
lished last year, and a third largely
prepared for publication, has undoubt~
edly been the means Of fastening his
death. In the life of Henry Wilson
and in the grand success browning that
life is to be found something which
the young men Of the n alton may look
towards and strive to emulate In his
life we find the exemplifcation of the
one granl idea or principle which so
clearly distinguishes ours from a mon
archical government. The dead Vice
President was a plebian, born in the
humblest circumstances, still he attain
ed to next the highest position in the
gift of the people. Whether as a
farm laborer, CIR as a shoemaker work
ing at the bench while others looked
down upon him as a despised mechan-
ic, he maintained always that. true dig
nifty which characterizes true manhood.
looking toward the goal of his aspira-
tons with a determination to win the
prize which was seemingly far away,
but which was successfully reached
though only after years of struggling
and frequent disappointments.
The following from the Sentinel
gives a brief history of the political
record of Mr.. Wilson.
The Presidential campaign of 1910
found him working as a journeyman
at the trade that gave him the appella-
ton, ''the Natick cobbler',-an ap-
pellstion that his opponents, with a
singular misconception of the spirit of
American institutions and the sympa-
thies of the American people, IN
times applied to him in derision. He
was a jealous Wing, and entered into
that contest with great spirit. The
following year he was chosen a mem
Der of the State Legislature, and from
that time until his death there was
scarcely an interval in his public SER
vice. After being repeatedly a mem
Der of the Senate and Assembly of
Massachusetts, and after serving IN the
Constitutional Convention of 1858.
he was chosen in 1855 to succeed Ed
ward Everett in the Senate of the
United States. In this position he
was continued by successive r~e-elec-
tons until the 4th of March, 1873,
when he left his seat upon the floor to
take the chair as vice-president.
The grand feature of the life Of
Henry Wilson was his consistent and
unrelenting opposition to slavery. In
this fight he permitted no truce and
accepted NJ compromise. Party ties
failed utterly to restrain him. An
earnest Wing, he withdrew form the
National Convention of 1S4S when it
refused to pass anti slavery resolutions,
and joined the Free-Soil party. He
owed his election to the Senate to the
support of Know-nothings, but he
spurned that party when it adopted a
pro-slavery platform. Upon the
breaking out of the rebellion, he dedi-
Gated all his energies to the Federal
cause; but it was to him more than a
war for the preservation of the Union.
it was a crusade against human slavery.
The cause of the emancipation and
r elevation of labor has had few more
devoted champions than Henry vii
t son.
5 In the minds of the American PEG.
0 pie, the deceased is associated indisso.
f lubly with Salmon ?. Chase and Hor
ace Gree}y, and he shared the ambi