WILSON, HENRY ( iSi 2-75). An American political leader. Vice-President of the United States in 1873-73. He was born at Farmington, N. II., and his original name was Jeremiah Jones Colhaith, but when he reached manhood he legally assumed the name of Henry Wilson. From the age of ten till that of twenty-one he served an ap prenticeship to a fanner. lie then learned the shoemaking trade al Natick, Mass., and in two .tears earned enough money to enable hinm to at tend academies at Stratford, Wolfhorough, and Concord, in New Hampshire. The loss of some of his money through the insolvency of a friend foreed him to tel to Natick, where he once more took up the shoe business, and soon estab lished a prosperous manufactory. In 1840 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Rep resentatives as a Whig; was reflected in the fol lowing year; and then served two terms in the State Senate. About this time he began to be an active opponent of slavery, and in 1848 he bought the Boston Recorder and edited it in the inter cst.s of the l?rev.Soil Party. in 1850 be NUS again elected to the State Senate, and Wit chosen presi dent of that body. In 1852 he presided over the Free-Soil Convention at Pittsburg. in 1555 he was chosen IT a combination of Free-Soilers and Americans or Know-Nothings to sneeeed Edward Everett in the United States Senate, and re tained his scat until 1873. He denounced the assault of Preston It. Brooks upon Charles Sum ner, and was challenged IT Brooks, but declined, although he expressed his deter Initiation to de fend himself if attacked. Before the Civil War
he was eonsidered one of the most ers against slavery, and one of the foremost lead ers of those who believed in lighting that insti tution through the maellinery supplied by the Federal Constitution. In Mart& DM, he was made chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. After hostilities began he raised the Twenty-second Massachusetts Regiment and took it to the field, serving on the staff of General McClellan until Congress met. In 1872 he was nominated for the Vice-Presideney by the Repub licans on the ticket with Grant and was elected. In the following year lie was stricken with paralysis, and died two years later. He was widely known during his political career as the 'Natick Cobbler.' a nickname given to him in allusion to his early life. Among his published works are: History of the Anli-Sla very Measures of the Thirty.srventh and Thirtmeiyhth Congresses, 1861-(ij (1864) ; History of the Re construction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-68 (1508) ; and the almost completed History of the lase and Fall of the Slave Power in A inerica ( 1572-77 ), an exceedingly valuable work. Consult: Russell and Nason, Life and Public of Henry 'Wilson (Boston, 1872) ; and Stowe, Men of Our Times (Hartford, 1868).