Henry Wilson (February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was a Senator from Massachusetts and the eighteenth Vice President of the United States. He was a leading Republican who devoted his enormous energies to the destruction of what he considered the slavocracy, that is the conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and block the progress of liberty.

Wilson was born Jeremiah Jones Colbath in Farmington, New Hampshire. In 1833 he had his name legally changed by the legislature to Henry Wilson. Henry Wilson moved to Natick, Massachusetts in 1833 and became a shoemaker. He attended several local academies, and also taught school in Natick, where he later engaged in the manufacture of shoes. He was a member of the state legislature between 1841 and 1852, and was owner and editor of the Boston Republican from 1848 to 1851.

Henry Wilson's shoeshop in Natick, Massachusetts.

Wilson was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1852 to Congress. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1853 and was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1853. In 1855 he was elected to the United States Senate by a coalition of Free-Soilers, Americans (aka Know Nothings), and Democrats to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Everett. He was reelected as a Republican in 1859, 1865 and 1871, and served from January 31, 1855, to March 3, 1873, when he resigned to become Vice President. He was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia and the Committee on Military Affairs. In 1861 he raised and commanded the Twenty-second Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

Grant/Wilson campaign poster

References

• Henry Wilson, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 2 vols. (Boston: J. R. Osgood and Co., 1873-77)

Trivia

• His desk was the desk used by Richard Nixon during his administration. Nixon really wanted the desk used by Woodrow Wilson, and when he asked for a "Wilson desk", he received the desk used by Henry Wilson. Nixon didn't figure out about this mistake until later on.^[1]

See also

• Henry Wilson Shoe Shop

References

1. ↑ Urban Legend Page

External links

• Retrieved on 2008-02-15
• Retrieved on 2008-02-15
• ''History of the antislavery measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United-States Congresses, 1861-64'' by Henry Wilson at archive.org
• ''History of the reconstruction measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-68'' by Henry Wilson at archive.org
• ''History of the rise and fall of the slave power in America'' Vol 1 by Henry Wilson at archive.org
• ''History of the rise and fall of the slave power in America'' Vol 2 by Henry Wilson at archive.org
• ''History of the rise and fall of the slave power in America'' Vol 3 by Henry Wilson at archive.org

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