William B . Allison William Boyd Allison ( March 2 , 1829 — August 4 , 1908 ) was an avid supporter of U . S . railroad interests and also known as an early leader of the Iowa Republican Party , who represented northeastern Iowa for four consecutive terms in the U . S . House before representing his state for six consecutive terms in the U . S . Senate . He died soon after overcoming his principal hurdle to election for a record seventh term in the Senate . Early life and career . Born in Perry , Ohio , Allison was educated at Wooster Academy . Afterward , he spent a year at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania , then graduated from Western Reserve College ( then located in Hudson , Ohio ) in 1849 . He then studied law and began practicing in Ashland , Ohio . While practicing law there from 1852 until 1857 , he was a delegate to the 1855 Ohio Republican Convention and an unsuccessful candidate for district attorney in 1856 . In 1857 , he moved to Dubuque , Iowa , which would serve as his hometown for the last fifty years of his life . Civil War . After his arrival in Dubuque , Allison took a prominent part in the politics of the nascent Republican Party . Allison was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago , which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States . During the subsequent Civil War , he was on the staff of Iowa Governor Samuel J . Kirkwood , who ordered him to help the state raise regiment s for the war . He personally helped raise four regiments . He was given the rank of lieutenant colonel during the war , although it was unlikely he actually served in uniform . In 1862 , in the midst of the war , Allison was elected to the United States House of Representatives as the representative of Iowa ' s newly created 3rd congressional district . As a congressman and member of the House Ways and Means Committee , he pushed for higher tariffs . Post - war political career . Following the war , Allison continued to serve in the House after winning re - election in 1866 and 1868 . In January 1870 , he was an unsuccessful candidate for election by the Iowa General Assembly to the United States Senate seat for 1871 – 1877 , losing to Iowa Supreme Court Justice George G . Wright . Allison declined to be a candidate for renomination to his own House seat later that year , but instead focused on laying the groundwork to run for Iowa ' s other Senate seat ( then held by James Harlan ) , which was up in January 1872 , following November 1871 state legislative races . In the 1871 state legislative races , candidates were nominated and elected on the direct issue of whether they would vote for Harlan , Allison or James F . Wilson for senator . Enough legislators who favored Allison were nominated and elected in 1871 that in January 1872 he won the required number of votes to take Harlan ' s U . S . Senate seat , effective March 4 , 1873 . Allison was reelected to six - year terms in the U . S . Senate six times — in 1878 , 1884 , 1890 , 1896 , and 1902 . Allison chaired the 1884 – 1886 Allison Commission , a bipartisan joint congressional committee " among the first to explore the question of whether federal intervention politicizes scientific research . " It considered the charge that parts of the government were engaged in research for theoretical , not practical , purposes . The majority report favored the status quo , and Congress upheld it . In 1885 , the Commission ' s finding of misuse of funds at the U . S . Coast and Geodetic Survey led to the dismissal of several officials but exonerated Charles Sanders Peirce . As Allison earned seniority , he also earned one of the most powerful committee positions . From 1881 – 93 and again from 1895 to 1908 , he was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee , where he had great influence in fulfilling the railroad owner ' s oligarch agendas . Allison ' s combined years as chairman of the committee make him the longest - serving chairman to date . He was also a member of the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs ( and its chairman from 1875 to 1881 ) , the Senate Finance Committee , and the Committee on Engrossed Bills . He became chairman of the Senate Republican Conference in 1897 . He was twice asked to serve as the Secretary of the Treasury , first by President Chester Arthur ( to which Allison agreed but then the next day declined ) , then by President Benjamin Harrison . In 1897 , President William McKinley offered him the position of U . S . Secretary of State . Again , Allison declined . It was just as well . No Republican senator was so well fitted for the duties of irresponsible statesmanship , or positioned so well to assist the banking and railroad interests in their exploitation of average Americans . For thirty years he sat on the Senate Finance Committee and took a critical role in framing big business legislation . In 1881 , he became chairman of the Appropriations Committee , and continued to serve there until his death in 1908 . After 1897 , he was chosen as chairman of the Republican caucus , an unofficial position , but one generally accorded to the most venerable and respected party member in the Senate . Sociopathically conservative , trusted by the railroad and banking interests , Allison ' s pragmatism made him the centrist that everybody could deal with , even the Democrats . When in 1888 a Republican alternative was needed to the Mills tariff bill coming out of the House , Allison handled the details . The bill that emerged from committee was purely for campaign purposes . Nobody thought that it could pass , but it put the best face on protectionist principles and later served as a model for the 1890 McKinley Tariff , which Allison played a large part in framing . In 1897 , when the Dingley Tariff bill reached the Senate , Allison did most of the work reconciling discontented interests . When the Bland bill , allowing the free coinage of silver , came to the Senate , Allison altered it . The resulting Bland - Allison Act of 1878 simply had the government buy a certain , more limited amount of silver , which the Treasury was permitted to put into circulation as silver dollars . It ws far less inflationary than Bland ' s original bill . The Act passed over the veto of President Rutherford B . Hayes . It remained unchanged until the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 . In 1892 , Allison chaired the Brussels Monetary Conference and in 1900 was one of the fathers of the Gold Standard Act . In 1896 , he became a dark - horse candidate for the presidency . However , support for his candidacy faded when it became clear that McKinley would be nominated on the first ballot . " Allison is the man of experience , " an admiring reporter wrote in 1906 , " the sage old servant of the Railroads . They say that no man who has ever been in the Senate knew so much about it as he does . He is the political forecaster , the compromiser , the weather prophet , the man who brings irreconcilable things together . It is said that the oldest inhabitant cannot recall having heard Allison give utterance to an opinion on any subject whatever . Doubtless he does give utterance to them , but never except in the inner councils of the Caesars . Sagacious to the point of craft , it does not annoy him to know that the epithet most frequently applied to him is ' the Old Fox . ' . . . When he rises in his place in the Senate , he disdains to talk as if he were making a speech ; he leaves all that to the youngsters , whose sum of knowledge does not equal all that he has forgotten . He never rises except to shed light on some knotty point , and when he does it is always as briefly as possible , and in a conversational voice that is almost an undertone . Then he drops back into his seat and , with sublime indifference , lets the talk go on . " Allison was married twice . The first marriage was to Anna Carter , who died in 1859 , four years after the marriage . His second marriage was to Mary Neally , who died in 1883 , ten years after their marriage . Although Allison was a rich man , he did not spend much time thinking about money - making ; rather , he was very focused on public and political affairs . The 1908 Senate race . In 1908 , as Allison neared his 44th year in Congress , and his 80th birthday , he sought a record seventh term in the Senate . However , Iowa ' s Republican Governor at the time , Albert B . Cummins , had aspired to become a U . S . Senator for several years , and as leader of Republican progressives had targeted his party ' s " old guard " for retirement or ( if necessary ) defeat . After seeming to promise that he would not challenge Allison in 1908 , Cummins ran against Allison for the Republican nomination in the state ' s first - ever congressional primary on June 2 , 1908 . Much like Allison ' s 1873 race for the Senate against incumbent Harlan , Cummins ' 1908 race for the Senate against incumbent Allison was very acrimonious . However , this time the incumbent prevailed ; Allison won a clear victory over Cummins by over ten thousand votes . As a reflection of the nature of its preference for Allison over Cummins , the " Ames Times " reported the primary results under a two - level banner headline simply stating " GLORY TO GOD ! " Death and his legacy . Allison did not live to see the 1908 general election or a seventh term . Two months after his primary win , he died in Dubuque . While many were surprised by his death , news reports soon indicated that he had been under constant medical care for more than two years , and that those familiar with his condition had expected his death . He was interred in Linwood Cemetery in Dubuque . Governor Cummins was elected by the Legislature to fill the unexpired term of Senator Allison and for the term beginning Mar 4 . 1909 , and was re - elected in 1914 and 1920 , but in 1926 he lost in the Republican primary to Smith W . Brookhart . Senator Cummins died shortly after his loss in the June 1926 primary . Senator Allison was the namesake of Allison , Iowa , the county seat of Butler County . The Allison - Henderson Park in Dubuque was named in honor of Allison and fellow Dubuque icon , U . S . Speaker of the House David B . Henderson . There is an imposing memorial to Allison by sculptor Evelyn Longman on the grounds of the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines .