Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-12-01
Henry wilson's Character and Life.

rison and Phillips and Whittier, who began
the fight before II entered into politics, still
remain. OF late years the burden has fallen
more heavily upon the political leaders than
upon the agitators whose warm work was
done when the civil war began. Then it
was, however, that the most severe labor fell
upon Sumner and Wilson and Andrew
making them prematurely old and giving
them all. sooner or later, their death blow.
Andrew did not long outlive the war, Of
which he was one of the main pillars in New
England. Sumner lived to see rcconstruc-
ton complete, and Wilson enough longer to
bring his party upon the line Of action which
Andrew first and then Sumner had marked
out. Now Wilson is gone, too, and suddenly
at last, like Sumner and Andrew though il
is four or FIVE years since his fatal tendency
toward this disease was noticed by those
about him. In August or September ISL
when Sumner wrote the brief protest, which
he and Wilson signed against Buffers raid
upon the state house, he expressed 10 me the
doubt that both he and Wilson would live
TO the end OF their senatorial terms One or
the other, he thought, would leave his seat
vacant and, in fact. both died before their
term had expired. They were such pair
of Senators as Massachusetts never had be-
fore. and is not likely 10 have again for
they worked together fratomally for nearly
twenty years and each supplied what the
other lacked. Without summers magnif-
cent Indifference to the present, and his firm
faith in the future, Wilson would have wa
vered and hesitated much more than he did
while Wilson's popular instincts and his
daily intercourse with men of all sorts ena-
bled him to help Sumner where he most
needed reinforcement. Let it not be forgot
ten, either, that Wilson, more than any other
man, caused the first election Of Sumner TO
the Senate, and always labored faithfully for
his reelection, no matter how many of his
own party stroyc TO defeat him.
1t was always easy to scott Mt the imper-
fections aud omissions in Wilson's nature,
education and public attitude. lie was not,
like Sumner, q man of Unborn dignity nor
on accomplished man of the world, like Sew
ard nor trained orator aud man Of affairs,
like John Quincy Adams nor had he the I'm.
couth native greatness Of Lincoln, nor the
prodigious learning or the special attain.
inents of m1ny other m.n with whom he
came in contact. lie had read a good deal,
but without method and without culture
hs had mixed much with society but could
never acquire its tone and ease of manner
he was, indeed, an example Of what English
~
the imperfect education of our self-made
men, lie was born like Lincoln, among
the poorest Of the poor--the habits and the
reputation of his family connection, like
those OF Lincoln, would not bear a very scru-
tinizing inquiry, perhaps. lie never went
to school in all, suppose, two years in his
whole life. His early years were given to
hard labor, and there was little poetry or
beauty IN his early youth Yet this man, so
born and bred, stepped at the age Of forty
three, into the place which Edward Everett
vacated, and he more than filed it. Just as
Sumner far more than filed the place of
Daniel Webster Theodore Parker said,
when Mr. Wilson was first elected 10 the
United States Senate There was one
reason why wanted YOU, above all others,
viz | wanted 10 see a shoemaker get right
mp from his bench aud 90 TO the Senate, and
that from Massachusetts,. wish yeu had
never been to any but common school, for
! want the nation 10 see what men we can
train up in the public institutions OF educa-
ton which stand open for ALL" Wilson
was indeed, like Horace Greeley, q good ex-
ample of what New Hampshire can produce
from her rugged soil and with her od-fash.
ioned schools, at which the modern professor
would shrug his shoulders. That little state
Z" the land of cheap gravestones and poor re-
lations.' as somebody has called it-gave
birth and nurture to Webster and Chase, to
Greeley and to Wilson, and nursed them all
in pinchng poverty for high position and
wide influence.
The main portion OF Wilson's public
career was his warfare upon American
slavery, and for that he win be Justly IA
nous. II IS nearly forty years now siuce
Ia t,..i
no doubt, with impulse OF youthful amb-
ton and curiosity, for even thsn Wilson
dreamed of political future) made him at
heart an abolitionist. As soon as he be-
came powerful in the wing party, he used
his power against slavery, and he knew no
other work until the overthrow Of slavery
was Acknowledgement, of course, the incl
dental tasks that inevitably draw aside the
reformer who is also a politician. Perhaps
the young men of the nation, who are now
succeeding TO the labors of Wilson and Sum
ner aud Andrew, do not fully comprehend
what an undertaking it was to abolish
slavery, when Wilson joined with the few
who then contemplated that result. Slavery
was everywhere intrenched-it controlled
both political parties the churches, the col
leges, the markets and the courts; most of
all, its strength lay in the deep-rooted con
Niclion OF our people that it was a necessary
part OF our national eXistence-not TO ho re-
moved without destroying the nation The
force of mind, the heat of conviction, the
unconquerable energy aud persistence of
purpose which finally made emancipation
not only possible, but inevitable have not
yet had full justice done to them, save in
the obscure and loyal sentiment. now SUI
preme in the American heart, that the abo-
litionists were the sayiOrs rather than the
dlsturbers of the country.
The record of his life can spare the praises
that wait upon oratory and literary skill.
Themstoccs could not play the harp, but
he knew how to save his country. Why
should not the old guard of anti-slavery-
the men, young or old, who stood by Wilson
and sumner whom most of those who now
praise them We're dumb or hostile--why
should we not glory little in the record OF
our friend Let the generation that is now
coming forward understand, then, that they
are not to Judge our American statesmen bv
the sordid and aimless squabbles of these
latter years-the quarreling of camp-follow.
ers over the spoils Of yictory-but by the
glorious and painful years that made victory
possible. Here lies the man dead who, with
all his faults, never sought office TO enrich
himself, to reward his friends or punish his
enemies, who died poor as he had lived, in
mn age when it was thought no shame TO ac.
cnmulate fortunes out of the public treasure.
This is he, so faithful 10 the good old cause
that he could allow himself, and was par
doned by his friends, in decorous and un-
chartered freedom of action who yet never
missed a rolcall when the battle was hot.
never turned his back ON the foe, nor refused
to serve in the ranks, whoever might be his
captain or his company. This was man
who persevered TO the end, not because he
was too proud and steady 10 wayer, but be-
cause he felt in his heart the instinct of
Freedom and of popular government that, in
the long run, was sure to bring his compass
right, however the needle might traverse aud
vary, His voyage is ended, his fleet is al,
most disbanded, but the flag floats where he
and his companions planted it. The poet
who laudsd Cromwell rs the hero that
Could by industrious yaor climb
To rain the great work III Time.
And east thu Kingdoms old
Into another mold
would, il living in our time, have seen a vas
Ter work of time happily ruined, aud the old
kingdoms OF oppression cast permanently
into new mold, by the small bands Of
abolltonists among whom Wilson always
ranked himself. Whatever the future Of