The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-10-18
Former Representative I'm Congress
and Postmaster General Under
Grover Cleveland.
HE FAVORED FREE TRADE
WAS THE AUTHOR OF A FOR
REVENUE ONLY, MEASURE.
Bill That Was Revised Ont of Recog-
milton I'm the S~enate-Later
President of a University.

| LEXINGTON, Va, Oct. I.-William l..
Wilson, president of Washington and Lee
University and ex-postmaster general, died
| suddenly at 800 o'clock this morning of
congestion of the lungs. He had been fall
ing ever since his return from Arizona.
His son, DIR. Arthur Wilson, of ~Lynchburg,
visited him on Sunday and left on Monday.
Then came the sudden change. Mr.. Wilson's
attending physician did not give up hope
OF his rallying until late last night. He
was confined to the house from Tuesday a
week ago, but was thought TO oe improved
when his son left him. He was conscious
until the last. BY his bedside were his
| wife. his daughters. Misses Mary and Bet
tie Wilson, and one son, William III. Will
son.
Mr.. Wilson'S funeral will take place at
CharlestOwn. Jefferson county, West Viz
| ginia. Friday morning at 10 o'clock. The
remains will leave Lexington that morning
over the Baltimore * Ohio at 4 o'clock, &C
companied by the family. Harry st. George
Tucker, chairman of the faculty of pro-
~feSsors, Sial Nelson and H.. +. Willis, a
committee of the faculty. William A. An
derson and A T. Barclay, of the board or
| trustees, and a committee of twelve stu
dents. Services will be held tomorrow
afternoon in Lee Memorial Chapel at the
| university, conducted by Rev. I. A. Hall,
of the Lexington Baptist Church, and Rev.
DR.. James A. Quarles, of the university
All duties were suspended to-day in the
university. The remains are lying I'm state
at the presidents home.
William l.. Wilson was born I'm Jeffer-
son county, Virginia NOW West Virginia),
May 3, 1s43. He was educated at Charles
town Academy and at Columbian College.
now Columbian University, in the District
of Columbia, from which institution he
| graduated in 1860, and at the University Of
Virginia. He served as a regimental Of
ficer in the Confederate army, and for sew
eral years was professor of Latin in the
Columbian College.
On the overthrow of the lawyers test
cath in West Virginia in 1871. Mr.. Wilson
resigned his professorship and began the
practice of law in Charleston, w. Va. He
left that profession after eleven years of
active work. In 1880 he was a delegate to
the national Democratic convention at Gin
cinnati and was afterward chosen as an
elector for the State at large on the Han
cock ticket. He was permanent presiding
officer of the national Democratic conven-
ton at Chicago in 1892.
In 1882 Mr.. Wilson was selected as pres
ident of the University of West Virginia,
and began his duties Sept. 6; but on the
10Th of the same month he was nominated
as a candidate for the Forty-eighth Con-
gress on the Democratic ticket and was
elected. He resigned the presidency of the
university in June, 1883. The same year
he was created a doctor of laws by. the
Columbia College, and three years later
was given the same honor by the Hamp-
den-Sidney University. He was appointed
regent of the Smithsonian Institution at
Washington in 1884. and was reappointed in
1886, serving two terms of two years each
in the position. He was a member of the
House of Representatives from 1888 to 1895,
but was defeated in the Republican land
slide of 1894.
Mr.. Wilson was chairman of the COM
mittee on ways and means i'm the Fifty
third Congress. and had charge of the
tariff bill which bore his name. AS cham
very prominently before the people. and
in the struggle over the Senate revision,
his ability as a leader was further demon
strated. He ~determinedly refused to accent
the Senate revision. and in a speech on the
floor of the House, about the middle of
July, he caused to be read a letter from
President Cleveland in which the chief
executive denounced in unmistakable terms
the measure which had passed the Senate.
In this remarkable letter Mr. Cleveland
declared that the promoters of the Senate
revision were dishonorable and traitorous
TO the Democratic party, but he expressed
his approval of the act which had passed
the House late in January of that year.
1t had not been in accordance with prece-
dent for an American President thus to
intervene in the work of Congress, and in
tense Indignation was aroused in the Sem
ate: 1t was considered that the letter was
meant to personally apply to Mr.. German,
and that in the remainder of the struggle
the question must be settled whether the
MARYLAND senator or the occupant of the
the Democratic party. 1t soon became evil
dent that Senator German and his friends
were preparing themselves to carry their
revision through in its totality or prevent
any tariff legislation at all in that session
of Congress. Senator Smith, of New Jer-
sey; and Senator Vest, of Missouri, also
spoke in favor of this policy.
The deadlock continuing in the confer
ence room, Senator Hill. of New York.
finally precipitated a crisis by moving that
the Senate demand an immediate report
from its conferees and resume possession
of the bill. Mr.. Wilson and the House
ways and means had been seek
securing a compromise with the Senate.
But matters were fast approaching the
point where the Senate was certain to ter
inmate the conference and either to recon-
slider and defeat its own measure or else
to postpone the entire tariff question. At
this juncture Speaker Charles f. Crisp as
sumed the management in the House. called
a caucus of the Democratic members and
secured a vote in favor of complete sur
man-Brice bill exactly as it had originally
| gone to the conference committee some
five or six weeks previously.
The House without delay acted on Sneak
| er Crisp's caucus plan. and the tariff meas
| ure, which admittedly favored the sugar
trust and the whisky trust, lacked only the
| signature of the President TO make II the
law of the land. 1t was a victory for Mr..
German over President Cleveland. The
House was compelled TO swallow it's prin-
ciples under the plea of party necessity.
Immediately after taking this action the
House passed five or six small bills plac-
ing the products on the free list which
the Gorman-Brice revision had put on the
dutiable list. 1t was n farcical proceed
ing. for the bills, which were known as
'.popgun acts" amounted TO nothing.
1t was in this way that Mr.. Wilson saw
the bill, which he had been largely in
strumental in framing. totally deprived of
its essential parts, leaving virtually none
of the important provisions which he had
SO strongly urged. He knew that the Presi-
dent would not veto the bill. for Mr.. Cleye-
Wilson read before the House that II was
perhaps all that could be expected under
the circumstances. But in so strongly
urging free trade and the passage of the
tariff bill as first reported to the House
Mr.. Wilson alienated a number of friends
among his constituents In West Virginia.
so that he was defeated as a Candidates
for reelection in the fall OF 1891.
In February. 1895. when Postmaster Cen
eral Bissell resigned his Office President
Cleveland Immediately rendered the posi-
nomination was confirmed by the Senate
Soon after the expiration of his term of
Office he was offered the presidency of
Washington n Lee University. which
position he held until recently. when he
retired on account OF i'll health.
CharIes C.. Everett