Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-12-02
Death Of fvicc.President Wilson.

Hon. Henry Wilson, Vice-President
of the United States, who died at
Washington yesterday from the effects
of spinal disease, partly superinduced
by OverwOrk, was born at Pennington,
New Hampshire, February IS, 1872,
and Was consequently in the sixty
:ourth wear of his age. He was what
Is called "a self-educated man." and
owed his creditable advancement and
distinction almost solely to his own un-
aided efforts. There waS much in the
history of his earlier life that resem-
bled the earlier life of Abraham Lin
coin; his lowly birth, his humble tolls,
his Unsuitable taste for reading, his per-
sistent struggle to obtain an education,
his brave and resOlute battling with
adverse circumstances, his conspicuous
advocacy of the rights of the poor and
lowly, and the Gnstained manhood aid
integrity which he carried into all the
places of public trust and position that
he ever filled. As farm apprentice,
shoemaker, student, editor, publicist,
historian, State legislator, UGited States
Senator, and Vice-PiesIuent of the
United States, he always used his pow
ers and opportunities Tor the benefit of
his cOuntrymen and the advancement
of the best interests of the race. Graz
died in the anti-slavery faith, his name
is indiJsOluhly connected with every
constitutional and legal measure taken
for the extirpation of 1.-THE sum of all
villanies AS long ago AS 1855, while
yet hardly mcre than boy, he advO-
Gated the emancipation of the slaves,
and in 1915, coDjOintly with the poet
Whittier, he was delegated by the
Massachusetts Legislature to carry to
Washington the mammoth hanti-sIavery
petition Ct the citizens of that State
against the annexation of Texas. In
the same year he introduced and car
rieJ through the Legislature a resolu-
tion declaring the iDfieXible opposition
OF the old Bay State to the further ex-
tension of slavery in any part of the
country. Three years later he with
drew from the Whig National COnven-
tiOn on account of its refusal to embOdy
an anti-slavery plank in its PLATFORM
He bore a prominent part in the or
ganizatiOn of The Free Soil party in
1S4S, and for four years thereaftet filled
the position of Chairman of lis Massa-
chusetls Committee. He Was elected
Chairman of the Free Soil National
Convention which assembled in this
city in August, 1852, whose platform
denounced slavery as "a sin against
God, aid a crime against man, which
no law nor usage can make right" and
on whose banner, in the ringing words
of one of its resolutions, was inscribed
the lofty motto, "Free Soil, Free
Speech, Free Labor and Free Men,
He WAS subsequently Chairman of the
National Committee of the party, and
| in 1855 he was elected to the United
States Senate from Massachusetts, his
maiden speech in that body being
powerful argument for the repeal of the
Fugitive Slave Law, and the abolition
of slavery in the District Of Columbia
and the Territories. His course in the
Senate during the bloody insurrectiOn
OF the slave power. in Kansas was
marked by the same uncompromising
devotion to freedom, and his answer to
the famous, or rather infamous mud
sill" speech of Senator Hammond, of
South Carolina, in 1856, wBS one of the
nOblest vindicatIonS of the essential
dignity Of labor ever made. During
the war he was Chairman of the Com
mittee on Military Affairs, in which
capacity he rendered valuable service
to the national cause. No man was
more regardful of the claims OF our
private soldiers, or more indefatigable
in trying to secure for them the boun-
| ties, back pay, pensions asd other
rights which they had so dearly earned.
Nor had the freedmen of the South
truer friend at heart, or one whose ac-
Eiions manifested more unselfish and
helpful sympathy. In a word, from
the beginning of his public career until
it's close, he labored steadily, according
to lights, for the vindicatiou of the
rights of manhood and of labor. and fer
the improvement and elevation OF ai
classes and conditions of society, with
out distinction of race, creed or COLOR
What more need be said: "Well done,
good and faithful servaDtm
BY his death Senator Ferry, of Michi-
gan, becomes acting, g,,Vice-President, he
being President pro tenn. of the Senate.
l-[PHts. Com. 23d.