View source for Henry Wilson

{{Short description|Vice President of the United States from 1873 to 1875}}
{{about other people|the vice president of the United States}}
{{good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Henry Wilson
| image               = Henry Wilson, VP of the United States.jpg
| caption             = Wilson in 1873
| order1               = 18th
| office1              = Vice President of the United States
| president1           = [[Ulysses S. Grant]]
| term_start1          = March 4, 1873
| term_end1            = November 22, 1875
| predecessor1         = [[Schuyler Colfax]]
| successor1           = [[William A. Wheeler]]
| jr/sr2              = United States Senator
| state2              = [[Massachusetts]]
| term_start2         = January 31, 1855
| term_end2           = March 3, 1873
| predecessor2        = [[Julius Rockwell]]
| successor2          = [[George S. Boutwell]]
| office3             = Chair of the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services|Senate Military Affairs Committee]]
| term_start3         = March 4, 1861
| term_end3           = March 3, 1873
| predecessor3        = [[Jefferson Davis]]
| successor3          = [[John A. Logan]]
| office4             = [[President of the Massachusetts Senate]]
| term_start4         = January 2, 1851
| term_end4           = January 6, 1853
| predecessor4        = [[Marshall Pinckney Wilder (politician)|Marshall Wilder]]
| successor4          = [[Charles Henry Warren]]
| office5             = Member of the [[Massachusetts Senate]] from [[Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Middlesex County]]
| term_start5         = January 2, 1851
| term_end5           = January 6, 1853
| predecessor5        = Multimember district{{efn|Wilson's district was previously represented by Charles Choate, [[Joseph T. Buckingham]], John W. Graves, Charles Thompson, Edwin Whitney, and Arnold Hutchinson}}
| successor5          = Multimember district{{efn|Wilson's district was subsequently represented by Benjamin Adams, G. Washington Warren, Sanford B. Perry, Winthrop E. Faulkner, Allen Cummings, and Samuel D. Davenport}}
| alongside5          = Multimember district{{efn|Wilson served in the state senate with Joseph T. Buckingham (1851), John W. Graves (1851), John Boynton (1851), Luke Wellington (1851), James M. Usher (1851), Charles C. Hazewell (1852), Ithamar W. Beard (1852), [[Anson Burlingame]] (1852), Joseph Fuller (1852), and [[Samuel E. Sewall]] (1852)}}
| term_start6         = January 3, 1844
| term_end6           = January 1, 1846
| predecessor6        = Multimember district{{efn|In the previous term, Wilson's district was represented by James Fuller, Frederick Robinson, [[Josiah Gardner Abbott|Josiah G. Abbott]], Thomas J. Greenwood, Jonathan Hartwell, and Francis R. Gourgas}}
| successor6          = Multimember district{{efn|Wilson's district was subsequently represented by James P. Whitney, Thomas Hopkinson, [[Ebenezer R. Hoar]], Eli Rice, Thomas Emerson, and Alfred Allen}}
| alongside6          = Multimember district{{efn|Wilson served during this state senate term with Stevens Hayward (1844), Asa F. Lawrence (1844), Isaac Livermore (1844, 1845), Charles Choate (1844, 1845), Royal Southwick (1844, 1845), Stephen Hayward (1844, 1845), and James P. Whitney (1845)}}
| office7             = Member of the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]] from [[Natick, Massachusetts|Natick]]
| term_start7         = January 5, 1841
| term_end7           = January 3, 1843
| predecessor7        = None (position not filled)
| successor7          = John Travis
| birth_name          = Jeremiah Jones Colbath
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1812|2|16}}
| birth_place         = [[Farmington, New Hampshire]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1875|11|22|1812|2|16}}}}
| death_place         = Washington, D.C., U.S.
| resting_place       = Old Dell Park Cemetery, [[Natick, Massachusetts]]
| party               = {{ubl|[[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] (before 1848)|[[Free Soil Party|Free Soil]] (1848–1854)|[[Know Nothing]] (1854–1855)|[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (1855–1875)}}
| spouse              = {{marriage|Harriet Howe|October 28, 1840|1870|end=d}}
| children            = 2
| signature           = Henry Wilson Signature2.svg
| allegiance          = {{tree list}}
* [[Massachusetts]]
* [[United States]]
** [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]
{{tree list/end}}
| branch              = {{ubl|[[Massachusetts National Guard|Massachusetts Militia]] (MM)|[[Union Army]] (UA)}}
| serviceyears        = {{ubl|1843–1852 (MM)|1861 (UA)}}
| rank                = {{ubl|[[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier general]] (MM)|[[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] (UA)}}
| commands            = {{ubl|1st Artillery Regiment (MM)|3rd Brigade (MM)|[[22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry]] (UA)}}
| battles             = [[American Civil War]]
}}
'''Henry Wilson''' (born '''Jeremiah Jones Colbath'''; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was the 18th [[vice president of the United States]], serving from 1873 until his death in 1875, and a [[United States Senate|senator]] from [[Massachusetts]] from 1855 to 1873. Before and during the [[American Civil War]], he was a leading [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]], and a strong opponent of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]]. Wilson devoted his energies to the destruction of "[[Slave Power]]", the faction of slave owners and their political allies which anti-slavery Americans saw as dominating the country.

Originally a [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]], Wilson was a founder of the [[Free Soil Party]] in 1848. He served as the party chairman before and during the [[1852 United States presidential election|1852 presidential election]]. Wilson worked diligently to build an anti-slavery coalition, which came to include the Free Soil Party, anti-slavery [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], New York [[Barnburners and Hunkers|Barnburners]], the [[Liberty Party (United States, 1840)|Liberty Party]], anti-slavery members of the [[Know Nothing]]s, and anti-slavery Whigs (called [[Conscience Whigs]]). When the Free Soil party dissolved in the mid-1850s, Wilson joined the Republican Party, which he helped found, and which was organized largely in line with the anti-slavery coalition he had nurtured in the 1840s and 1850s.

While a senator during the Civil War, Wilson was considered a "[[Radical Republican]]", and his experience as a militia general, organizer and commander of a [[Union Army]] regiment, and chairman of the Senate military committees enabled him to assist the [[Abraham Lincoln]] administration in the organization and oversight of the Union Army and [[Union Navy]]. Wilson successfully authored bills that [[District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act |outlawed slavery in Washington, D.C]]., and incorporated [[African Americans]] in the Union Civil War effort in 1862.

After the Civil War, he supported the Radical Republican program for [[Reconstruction Era of the United States|Reconstruction]]. In 1872, Wilson was elected vice president as the running mate of [[Ulysses S. Grant]], the incumbent president of the United States, who was running for a second term. The Grant and Wilson ticket was successful, and Wilson served as vice president from March 4, 1873, until his death on November 22, 1875. Wilson's effectiveness as vice president was limited after he suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1873, and his health continued to decline until he was the victim of a fatal stroke while working in the [[United States Capitol]] in late 1875.

Throughout his career, Wilson was known for championing causes that were unpopular, including [[workers' rights]] for both blacks and whites and the abolition of slavery. Massachusetts politician [[George Frisbie Hoar]], who served in the [[United States House of Representatives]] while Wilson was a senator and later served in the Senate himself, believed Wilson to be the most skilled political organizer in the country. However, Wilson's reputation for personal integrity and principled politics was somewhat damaged late in his Senate career by his involvement in the [[Crédit Mobilier scandal]].

==Early life and education==
Wilson was born in [[Farmington, New Hampshire]], on February 16, 1812, one of several children born to Winthrop and Abigail (Witham) Colbath.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=322}} His father named him Jeremiah Jones Colbath{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=322}} after a wealthy neighbor who was a childless bachelor, vainly hoping that this gesture might result in an inheritance.{{sfn|Abbott|1972|page=1}} Winthrop Colbath was a militia veteran of the [[War of 1812]]{{sfn|New Hampshire Adjutant General 1868|p=203}} who worked as a day laborer and hired himself out to local farms and businesses, in addition to occasionally running a sawmill.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=322}}

The Colbath family was impoverished; after a brief elementary education, at the age of 10 Wilson was [[Indentured servitude|indentured]] to a neighboring farmer, where he worked as a laborer for the next 10 years.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|pp=322–323}} During this time two neighbors gave him books and Wilson enhanced his meager education by reading extensively on English history, American history and biographies of famous historical figures.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} At the end of his service he was given "six sheep and a [[yoke]] of [[oxen]]." Wilson immediately sold his animals for $85 (about $2,200 in 2021), which was the first money he had earned during his indenture.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}

Wilson apparently did not like his birth name, though the reasons given vary.{{sfn|Myers|2005|p=8}}{{sfn|McKay|1971|p=11}} Some sources indicate that he was not close to his family, or disliked his name because of his father's supposed intemperance and modest financial circumstances.{{sfn|McKay|1971|p=11}} Others indicate that he was called "Jed" and "Jerry," and disliked the nicknames so much that he resolved to change his name.{{sfn|Myers|2005|p=8}}{{sfn|Abbott|1965|p=8}}{{efn|That his name change resulted from disrespect of his father or lack of closeness with his family are belied by the fact that some of his relatives followed him after he relocated to [[Natick, Massachusetts]], including brother George A. Colbath.{{sfn|"Current events: George A. Colbath, a brother of the late ex-Vice President Henry Wilson, died at Natick, Massachusetts"|page=2}} In addition, Winthrop and Abigail Colbath moved to Natick in 1848.{{sfn|Abbott, Vol. 2,|1965|page=353}} Winthrop died in Natick in 1860,{{sfn|"The Grave (From the Boston Traveler)"|page=1}} and Abigail died there in 1866.{{sfn|"Henry Wilson's Funeral: Burial at Dell Park Cemetery"|page=5}}}} Whatever the reason, when he turned 21 he successfully petitioned the [[New Hampshire General Court]] to legally change it.{{sfn|Scales|1914|p=501}} He chose the name Henry Wilson, inspired either by a biography of a [[Philadelphia]] teacher{{sfn|Abbott|1972|page=6}} or a portrait from a book on English clergymen.{{sfn|Abbott|1972|page=6}}

==Career==
[[File:Henry Wilson shoeshop.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Henry Wilson's shoeshop in [[Natick, Massachusetts]]]]
[[File:A gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts - with numerous illustrations (1890) (14580448908).jpg|thumb|right|Henry Wilson's Natick home.]]
After trying and failing to find work in New Hampshire, in 1833 Wilson walked more than one hundred miles to [[Natick, Massachusetts]], seeking employment or a trade.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} Having met William P. Legro, a shoemaker who was willing to train him, Wilson hired himself out for five months to learn to make leather shoes called [[Brogan (shoes)|brogans]].{{sfn|Giddings|1889|p=551}}  Wilson learned the trade in a few weeks, bought out his employment contract for fifteen dollars, and opened his own shop, intending to save enough money to study law.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} Wilson had success as a shoemaker, and was able to save several hundred dollars in a relatively short time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bateman |first=Horatio |date=1871 |title=Biographies of Two Hundred and Fifty Distinguished National Men |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zgEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA164 |location=New York |publisher=John T. Giles & Co. |page=164 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> This success gave rise to legends about Wilson's skill; according to one story that grew with retelling, he once attempted to make one hundred pairs of shoes without sleeping, and fell asleep with the one hundredth pair in his hand.{{sfn|Hide and Leather 1919|page=36}}  Wilson's [[shoemaking]] experience led to the creation of the political nicknames his supporters later used to highlight his [[Working class in the United States|working class]] roots—the "''Natick Cobbler''" and the "''Natick Shoemaker''".{{sfn|Winks|1883|p=362}}

During this time Wilson read extensively and joined the Natick Debating Society, where he developed into an accomplished speaker.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} Wilson's health suffered as the result of the long hours he worked making shoes, and he traveled to Virginia to recuperate.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} During a stop in Washington, D.C., he heard Congressional debates on slavery and [[abolitionism]], and observed African American families being separated as they were bought and sold in the Washington slave trade.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} Wilson resolved to dedicate himself "to the cause of emancipation in America,"{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} and after regaining his health returned to [[New England]], where he furthered his education by attending several New Hampshire academies, including schools in [[Stratford, New Hampshire|Strafford]], [[Wolfeboro, New Hampshire|Wolfeboro]], and [[Concord, New Hampshire|Concord]].{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}

Having spent part of his savings on his traveling and schooling, and having lost some as the result of a loan that was not repaid, Wilson worked as a schoolteacher to get out of debt and begin saving money again, intending to start a business of his own.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} Beginning with an investment of only twelve dollars, Wilson started a shoe manufacturing company.{{sfn|McKay|1971|p=16}} This venture proved successful, and he eventually employed over 100 workers.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}

==Political career==
{{see also|72nd Massachusetts General Court (1851)|73rd Massachusetts General Court (1852)}}
Wilson became active politically as a [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]], and campaigned for [[William Henry Harrison]] in 1840.{{sfn|National Cyclopedia 1895 |p=14}}  He had joined the Whigs out of disappointment with the fiscal policies of Democrats [[Andrew Jackson]] and [[Martin Van Buren]], and like most Whigs blamed them for the [[Panic of 1837]].{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} In 1840 he was also elected to the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]], and served from 1841 to 1843.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}

Wilson was a member of the [[Massachusetts State Senate]] from 1844 to 1846 and 1850 to 1852.{{sfn|Congressional Serial Set 1913 |p=1125}}  From 1851 to 1852 he was the Senate's [[President of the Massachusetts Senate|President]].{{sfn|Garrison|Merrill|1979|page=141}}

As early as 1845, Wilson had started to become disenchanted with the Whigs as the party attempted to compromise on the slavery issue, and as a [[Conscience Whigs|Conscience Whig]] he took steps including the organization of a convention in [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]] opposed to the annexation of [[Texas]] because it would expand slavery.{{sfn|Thayer|1895|page=253}} As a result of this effort, in late 1845 Wilson and abolitionist [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] were chosen to submit in person a petition to Congress containing the signatures of 65,000 Massachusetts residents opposed to Texas annexation.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}

Wilson was a delegate to the [[1848 Whig National Convention]], but left the party after it nominated slave owner [[Zachary Taylor]] for president and took no position on the [[Wilmot Proviso]], which would have prohibited slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the [[Mexican–American War]].{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=viii}} Wilson and [[Charles Allen (Massachusetts politician)|Charles Allen]], another Massachusetts delegate, withdrew from the convention, and called for a new meeting of anti-slavery advocates in [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], which launched the [[Free Soil Party]].{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}

Having left the Whig Party, Wilson worked to build coalitions with others opposed to slavery, including Free Soilers, anti-slavery Democrats, [[Barnburners and Hunkers|Barnburners]] from New York's Democratic Party, the [[Liberty Party (United States, 1840)|Liberty Party]], the anti-slavery elements of the Whig Party, and anti-slavery members of the [[Know Nothing]] or Native American Party.{{sfn|Foner|1995|page=113}} Although Wilson's new political coalition was initially castigated by "straight party" adherents of the mainstream Democratic and Whig parties, Wilson was successful in an effort to broker an alliance between the minority Free Soil and Democratic parties in the state elections of 1850, notably resulting in the election of [[Charles Sumner]] to the Senate.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}

[[File:Pioneers of Freedom (Free Soil Party Leaders).jpg|thumb|left|135px|Abolitionist and Free Soil Party leaders [[Charles Sumner]], [[Henry Ward Beecher]], [[Wendell Phillips]], [[William Lloyd Garrison]], [[Gerrit Smith]], [[Horace Greeley]], and Henry Wilson.]]
From 1848 to 1851 Wilson was the owner and editor of the ''Boston Republican'', which from 1841 to 1848 was a Whig outlet, and from 1848 to 1851 was the main Free Soil Party newspaper.{{sfn|Diller|1996|page=1545}}

During his service in the Massachusetts legislature, Wilson took note that participation in the state militia had declined, and that it was not in a state of readiness. In addition to undertaking legislative efforts to provide uniforms and other equipment, in 1843 Wilson joined the militia himself, becoming a major in the 1st Artillery Regiment, which he later commanded with the rank of [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]]. In 1846 Wilson was promoted to [[Brigadier General (United States)|brigadier general]] as commander of the Massachusetts Militia's 3rd Brigade, a position he held until 1852.{{sfn|Bolino|2012|pages=77–78}}{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|page=52}}

===Free Soil Party organizer===
In 1852, Wilson was chairman of the Free Soil Party's national convention in [[Pittsburgh]], which nominated [[John P. Hale]] for president and [[George Washington Julian]] for vice president.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Spooner |first1=Walter W. |last2=Smith |first2=Ray B. |date=1922 |title=National Political Parties with their Platforms |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=67E3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA139 |location=Syracuse, NY |publisher=The Syracuse Press |page=139}}</ref> Later that year he was a Free Soil candidate for [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]], and lost to Whig [[Tappan Wentworth]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hurd |first=Duane Hamilton |date=1890 |title=History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m74TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR90 |location=Philadelphia|publisher=J. W. Lewis & Co. |page=lxxiv}}</ref> He was a delegate to the [[Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853|state constitutional convention]] in 1853, which proposed a series of political and governmental reforms that were defeated by voters in a post-convention popular referendum. He ran unsuccessfully for [[Governor of Massachusetts]] as a Free Soil candidate in 1853 and 1854, but declined to be a candidate again in 1855 because he had his sights set on the U.S. Senate.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barnes |first=William Horatio |date=1871 |title=History of Congress: The Fortieth Congress of the United States, 1867–1869 |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFwfAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA134 |location=New York|publisher=W. H. Barnes & Co. |pages=134–135}}</ref>

===U.S. Senator (1855–1873)===
[[File:Hon. Henry Wilson, Mass - NARA - 528305.jpg|right|thumb|U.S. Senator Henry Wilson, photograph by [[Mathew Brady]]]]
In 1855 Wilson was elected to the [[United States Senate]] by a coalition of [[Free Soil Party|Free-Soilers]], [[Know Nothing]]s, and anti-slavery [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of [[Edward Everett]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Anbinder |first=Tyler |date=1992 |title=Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lWlRyjY7EvwC&pg=PA147 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=146–147 |isbn=978-0-19-507233-4}}</ref> He had briefly joined the Know-Nothings in an attempt to strengthen their anti-slavery efforts,<ref>{{cite book |last=McPherson |first=James M. |date=1988 |title=Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era |url=https://archive.org/details/battlecryoffreed00mcph |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/battlecryoffreed00mcph/page/139 139] |isbn=978-0-19-503863-7}}</ref> but aligned himself with the Republican Party at its creation, formed largely along the lines of the anti-slavery coalition Wilson had helped develop and nurture.<ref>{{cite book |last= Smalley |first=Eugene Virgil |date=1896 |title=A History of the Republican Party from its Organization to the Present Time |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2EPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA94 |location=St. Paul, MN |publisher=E. V. Smalley |pages=94, 97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gienapp |first=William E. |date=1987 |title=The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWtZnsxMCDEC&pg=PA135 |location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=135–139 |isbn=978-0-19-504100-2}}</ref> Wilson was reelected as a Republican in 1859, 1865 and 1871,<ref>{{cite book |last=LeMay |first=Michael C. |date=2013 |title=Transforming America: Perspectives on U.S. Immigration |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HvAHGE4n-EC&pg=PA230 |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=Praeger |page=230 |isbn=978-0-313-39644-1}}</ref> and served from January 31, 1855, to March 3, 1873, when he resigned in order to begin his vice presidential term on March 4.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Byrd |first1=Robert C. |last2=Wolff |first2=Wendy |date=1993 |title=Senate, 1789–1989: Historical Statistics, 1789–1992 |volume=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PeHByMYxVm8C&pg=PA262 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=262 |isbn=978-0160632563}}</ref>

{{further|Abolitionism in the United States}}
In his first Senate speech in 1855, Wilson continued to align himself with the abolitionists, who wanted to immediately end slavery in the United States and its territories.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|pp=323–324}} In his speech, Wilson said he wanted to abolish slavery "wherever we are morally and legally responsible for its existence", including Washington, D.C.,{{sfn|Haynes|1936|pp=323–324}} Wilson also demanded repeal of the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], believing the federal government should have no responsibility for enforcing slavery, and that once the act was repealed tensions between slavery proponents and opponents would abate, enabling those Southerners who opposed slavery to help end it in their own time.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|pp=323–324}}

{{further|Bleeding Kansas}}
[[File:Preston Brooks-SC2 crop.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Preston Brooks challenged Wilson to a duel in 1856.]]
On May 22, 1856, [[Preston Brooks]] brutally assaulted Senator [[Charles Sumner]] on the Senate floor, leaving Sumner bloody and unconscious. Brooks had been upset over Sumner's ''Crimes Against Kansas'' speech that denounced the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]].{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} After the beating, Sumner received medical treatment at the Capitol, following which Wilson and [[Nathaniel P. Banks]], the [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]], aided Sumner to travel by carriage to his lodgings, where he received further medical attention.<ref>{{cite book |last=Phelps |first=Charles A. |date=1872 |title=Life and Public Services of Ulysses S. Grant |url=https://archive.org/details/lifepublicservic00phela |location=New York|publisher=Lee and Shepard |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifepublicservic00phela/page/362 362]}}</ref> Wilson called [[Caning of Charles Sumner|the beating by Brooks]] "brutal, murderous, and cowardly".{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} Brooks immediately challenged Wilson to a duel. Wilson declined, saying that he could not legally or by personal conviction participate.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} In reference to a rumor that Brooks might attack Wilson in the Senate as he had attacked Sumner, Wilson told the press "I have sought no controversy, and I seek none, but I shall go where duty requires, uninfluenced by threats of any kind."<ref>{{cite news |date=June 11, 1856 |title=A telegraphic Lie Nailed |url=https://www.genealogybank.com |work=Massachusetts Spy |location=Worcester, MA |page=4 |via=[[GenealogyBank.com]]}}</ref> The rumors proved unfounded, and Wilson continued his Senate duties without incident.

The attack on Sumner took place just one day after pro-slavery Missourians killed one person in the burning and sacking of [[Sacking of Lawrence|Lawrence, Kansas]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Willard |first=Emma |date=1866 |title=History of the United States: or, Republic of America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YHJTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA486 |location=New York, NY |publisher=A. S. Barnes & Co. |page=487}}</ref> The attack on Sumner and the sacking of Lawrence were later viewed as two of the incidents which symbolized the "breakdown of reasoned discourse." This phrase came to describe the period when activists and politicians moved past the debate of anti-slavery and pro-slavery speeches and non-violent actions, and into the realm of physical violence, which in part hastened the onset of the [[American Civil War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://inthecornermumblinganddrooling.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/the-july-crisis-part-3-excuses-for-treason/ |title=The July Crisis Part 3: "Excuses" for Treason |last=The Contrarians |date=August 8, 2013 |website=In the Corner}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm |title=May 22, 1856: The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner |website=US Senate History, 1851–1877 |publisher=Historian of the United States States Senate |access-date=July 17, 2016}}</ref>
[[File:WMGwin.jpg|thumb|right|upright|In 1858, Wilson was challenged to a duel by California Democratic Senator William M. Gwin.]]
In June 1858 Wilson made a Senate speech in which he suggested corruption in the government of California{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}} and implied complicity on the part of Senator [[William M. Gwin]], a pro-slavery Democrat who had served as a member of Congress from Mississippi before moving to California.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=g000540 |title=Biography, William McKendree Gwin |last1=Historian, U.S. House of Representatives |last2=Historian, U.S. Senate |website=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |publisher=United States House of Representatives and United States Senate |access-date=November 13, 2015}}</ref> Gwin was backed by a powerful Southern coalition of pro-slavery Democrats called the Chivs, who had a monopoly on federal patronage in California.{{sfn|Richards|2007|pp=93, 183–184}}  Gwin accused Wilson of demagoguery, and Wilson responded by saying he would rather be thought a [[demagogue]] than a thief.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}  Gwin then challenged Wilson to a duel; Wilson declined in the same terms he used to decline a duel with Preston Brooks.{{sfn|Hornellsville Weekly Tribune (06-24-1858)|page=3}}  In fact neither Gwin nor Wilson wanted to follow through,{{sfn|Shelden|2013|p=31–32}} and commentary about the dispute broke down along partisan lines. One pro-Gwin editorial called the insinuation that Gwin was corrupt "a most malignant falsehood",{{sfn|Washington Union 1858|page=2}} while a pro-Wilson editorial called his reluctance to take part in a duel evidence that he was "honest" and "conscientious", and had "more respect for the laws of this country than his adversary".{{sfn|Hornellsville Weekly Tribune (06-24-1858)|page=3}}  After several attempts to find a face-saving compromise, Gwin and Wilson agreed to refer their dispute to three senators who would serve as mediators.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}} [[William H. Seward]], [[John J. Crittenden]] and [[Jefferson Davis]] were chosen, and produced an acceptable solution.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}  At their instigation, Wilson stated to the Senate that he had not meant to impugn Gwin's honor, and Gwin replied by saying that he had not meant to question Wilson's motives.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}  In addition, the mediators caused to be removed from the Senate record both Gwin's remarks about demagoguery and Wilson's suggestion that Gwin was a thief.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}

==Civil War==
[[File:Colonel Henry Wilson (Massachusetts Senator, U.S. Vice President).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Wilson as colonel and commander, 22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.]]
During the [[American Civil War]], Wilson was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, and later the Committee on Military Affairs. In that capacity, he oversaw action on over 15,000 War and Navy Department nominations that [[Abraham Lincoln]] submitted during the course of the war, and worked closely with him on legislation affecting the Army and Navy.<ref>Herndon, William H. and Jesse Weik. Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis (Editors) ''Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements About Abraham Lincoln'' (1998), § 444, p. 561.</ref>
[[File:Smn Cameron-SecofWar.jpg|thumb|upright|After his 1862 resignation as Secretary of War, [[Simon Cameron]] praised Wilson's work aiding the War Department.]]
In the summer of 1861, after the congressional session ended, Wilson returned to Massachusetts and recruited and equipped nearly 2,300 men in forty days. They were mustered in as the [[22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry|22nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry]], which he commanded as a [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] from September 27 to October 29, an honor sometimes accorded to the individual responsible for raising and equipping a regiment.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}}{{sfn|Miller|2013|pages=264, 267}} After the war, he became an early member of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the [[Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Nicholson |first=John P. |date=1887 |title=Register of the Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania from April 15, 1865 to May 5, 1887 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=24NHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA6 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Pennsylvania Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States |page=6}}</ref>

Wilson's experience in the militia, service with the 22nd Massachusetts, and chairmanship of the Military Affairs Committee provided him with more practical military knowledge and training than any other Senator.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} He made use of this experience throughout the war to frame, explain, defend and advocate for legislation on military matters, including enlistment of soldiers and sailors, and organizing and supplying the rapidly expanding [[Union Army]] and [[Union Navy]].{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}}

[[Winfield Scott]], the [[Commanding General of the United States Army]] since 1841, said that during the session of Congress that ended in the Spring of 1861 Wilson had done more work "than all the chairmen of the military committees had done for the last 20 years."{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}}  On January 27, 1862, [[Simon Cameron]], the recently resigned [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]], echoed Scott's sentiments when he said that "no man, in my opinion, in the whole country, has done more to aid the war department in preparing the mighty [Union] army now under arms than yourself [Wilson]."{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}}

=== Greenhow controversy ===
[[File:Rose O'Neal Greenhow.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Rose O'Neal Greenhow and her daughter]]
In July 1861, Wilson was present for the Civil War's first major battle at [[First Battle of Bull Run|Bull Run Creek]] in [[Manassas, Virginia]], an event which many senators, representatives, newspaper reporters, and Washington society elite traveled from the city to observe in anticipation of a quick Union victory.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}  Riding out in a carriage in the early morning, Wilson brought a picnic hamper of sandwiches to feed Union troops.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}  However, the battle turned into a Confederate rout, forcing Union troops to make a panicky retreat.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} Caught up in the chaos, Wilson was almost captured by the Confederates, while his carriage was crushed,{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} and he had to make an embarrassing return to Washington on foot.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}  The result of this battle had a sobering effect on many in the North, causing widespread realization that Union victory would not be won without a prolonged struggle.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}

In seeking to place blame for the Union defeat, some in Washington spread rumors that Wilson had revealed plans for the Union invasion of Virginia to Washington society figure and Southern spy [[Rose O'Neal Greenhow]].{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}  According to the story, although he was married, Wilson had seen a great deal of Mrs. Greenhow, and may have told her about the plans of Major General [[Irvin McDowell]], which Mrs. Greenhow then conveyed to Confederate forces under Major General [[P. G. T. Beauregard]]. One Wilson biography suggests someone else—Wilson's Senate clerk Horace White—was also friendly with Mrs. Greenhow and could have leaked the invasion plan, although it is also possible that neither Wilson nor White did so.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=662&subjectID=2 |title=Visitors from Congress: Henry Wilson (1812–1875) |website=Mr. Lincoln's White House |publisher=The Lehrman Institute |access-date=October 7, 2015 |archive-date=September 5, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905182313/http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=662&subjectID=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{sfn|McKay|1971|p=233}}{{clear}}

===Equal rights activism===
{{further|African Americans in the Civil War}}
On December 16, 1861, Wilson introduced a bill to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C., something he had desired to do since his visit to the nation's capital 25 years earlier.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}} At this time fugitive slaves from the war were being held in prisons of Washington, D.C., and faced the possibility of return to their owners. Wilson said of his bill that it would "blot out slavery forever from the nation's capital".{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}} The measure met bitter opposition from the Democrats who remained in the Senate after those from the southern states vacated their seats to join the Confederacy, but it passed.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}} After passage in the House, President Lincoln signed Wilson's bill into law on April 16, 1862.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}}

[[File:DutchGapb.jpg|thumb|right|African American Union soldiers, Dutch Gap, Virginia, November 1864]]

On July 8, 1862, Wilson drafted a measure that authorized the President to enlist African Americans who had been held in slavery and were deemed competent for military service, and employ them to construct fortifications and carry out other military-related manual labor, the first step towards allowing African Americans to serve as soldiers.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=315}} President Lincoln signed the amendment into law on July 17.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=315}} Wilson's law paid African Americans in the military $10 monthly, which was effectively $7 a month after deductions for food and clothing, while white soldiers were paid effectively $14 monthly.<ref name=N&H_2009_pp441-442>John G. Nicolay and John Hay (2009), ''Life of Abraham Lincoln'' Volume VI, pp. 441–442</ref>

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln's [[Emancipation Proclamation]] freed all slaves held in bondage in the Southern states or territories then in rebellion against the federal government. On February 2, 1863, Congress built on Wilson's 1862 law by passing a bill authored by Pennsylvania Congressman [[Thaddeus Stevens]], which authorized the enlistment of 150,000 African Americans into the Union Army for service as uniformed soldiers.<ref name=Bogue_Dec1987_p329>Allan C. Bogue (December 1987), "William Parker Cutler's Congressional Diary of 1862–63," ''Civil War History'', p. 329 (February 2, 1863)</ref>

On February 17, 1863, Wilson introduced a bill that would federally fund elementary education for African American youth in Washington, D.C.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=326}} President Lincoln signed the bill into law on March 3, 1863.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=326}}

Wilson added an amendment to the 1864 [[Enrollment Act]] which provided that formerly enslaved African Americans from slave holding states remaining in the Union who enlisted in the Union Army would be considered permanently free by action of the federal government, rather than through individual emancipation by the states or their owners, thus preventing the possibility of their re-enslavement.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=331}}  President Lincoln signed this measure into law on February 24, 1864, freeing more than 20,000 slaves in Kentucky alone.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=331}}

[[File:Lincoln2ndInauguration.jpg|thumb|left|African American Union Troops at Lincoln's second Inauguration, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1865. Wilson successfully authored legislation granting them equal pay in June 1864]]

Wilson supported the right of black men to join the uniformed services. Once African Americans were permitted to serve in the military, Wilson advocated in the Senate for them to receive equal pay and other benefits.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Rives |editor-first=John C. |date=1864 |title=The Congressional Globe |series=Congressional globe (Permanent edition) |volume=38th Congress, 1st session, Volume 2 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c109461348&view=1up&seq=911 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Congressional Globe Office |pages=1805–1806 |via=[[HathiTrust]]}}</ref> A Vermont newspaper portrayed Wilson's position and enhanced his nationwide reputation as an abolitionist by editorializing "Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, in a speech in the U.S. Senate on Friday, said he thought our treatment of the negro soldiers almost as bad as [[Battle of Fort Pillow#Massacre|that of the rebels at Fort Pillow]]. This is hardly an exaggeration."<ref>''The Burlington Free Press''. "Our Colored Soldiers." April 29, 1864: 2.</ref>
[[File:Sgt. Samuel Smith, African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters.jpg|thumb|right|African American Union soldier and his family&nbsp;... circa 1863–1865]]
On June 15, 1864, Wilson succeeded in adding a provision to an appropriations bill which addressed the pay disparity between whites and blacks in the military by authorizing equal salaries and benefits for African American soldiers.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=334}} Wilson's provision stated that "all persons of color who had been or might be mustered into the military service should receive the same uniform, clothing, rations, medical and hospital attendance, and pay" as white soldiers, to date from January 1864.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=334}}

Wilson introduced a bill in Congress which would free in the Union's slave-holding states the still-enslaved families of former slaves serving in the Union Army.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=335}} In advocating for passage, Wilson argued that allowing the family members of soldiers to remain in slavery was a "burning shame to this country&nbsp;... Let us hasten the enactment&nbsp;... that, on the forehead of the soldier's wife and the soldier's child, no man can write "Slave".{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=335}}  President Lincoln signed the measure into law on March 3, 1865, and an estimated 75,000 African American women and children were freed in Kentucky alone.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=335}}

===Creation of the National Academy of Sciences===
{{further|National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine}}
In early 1863, [[Louis Agassiz]], one of a group of Cambridge, Massachusetts scientists interested in establishing an academy of sciences modeled on the Royal Society and the French Institute, approached Wilson with the idea of establishing such an academy. On February 11, 1863, a Permanent Commission, which comprised Admiral Charles Henry Davis and the scientists Joseph Henry and Alexander Dallas Bache, was appointed within the Navy Department and given the task of evaluating and reporting on the inventions and other ideas submitted by citizens in order to aid the war effort. The establishment of the Permanent Commission prompted Davis to suggest that "the whole plan, so long entertained, of the Academy could be successfully carried out if an act of incorporation were boldly asked for in the name of some of the leading men of science, from different parts of the country."<ref>Charles Henry Davis, letter  of February 24, 1863, to his wife; quoted in Cochrane, Rexmond, The National Academy of Sciences, the First Hundred Years 1863-1963 (Washington, DC, The National Academy of Sciences, 1978), pp. 52-53.</ref> Just prior to the establishment of the Permanent Commission, Agassiz had written to Wilson suggesting that a "National Academy of Sciences" could be established and recommending that if Wilson were favorable, Bache, "to whom the scientific men of the country look as upon their leader…can draft in twenty four hours a complete plan for you…"<ref>Louis Agassiz, letter of February 5, 1863, to Senator Henry Wilson; quoted in Cochrane, Rexmond, The National Academy of Sciences, the First Hundred Years 1863-1963 (Washington, DC, The National Academy of Sciences, 1978), p. 53.</ref>
On February 19, Agassiz came to Washington from Cambridge to accept appointment, upon Wilson's nomination, to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Agassiz went directly from the train to Bache's house, where he met with Bache, Wilson, and the scientists Benjamin Apthorp Gould and Benjamin Peirce. Working from plans laid out by Bache and Davis, the group drafted a bill for the establishment of a National Academy of Sciences, to be put before Congress.<ref name=Agassiz>Cochrane, Rexmond, The National Academy of Sciences, the First Hundred Years 1863-1963 (Washington, DC, The National Academy of Sciences, 1978), p. 53.</ref>
On February 20, Wilson introduced the bill in the Senate. Just before adjournment on March 3, 1863, Wilson asked the Senate "to take up a bill…to incorporate the National Academy of Sciences."<ref name=Agassiz/> The Senate passed the bill by voice vote; later that day it was sent to the House of Representatives, which passed it without comment. President Lincoln signed it into law before midnight that same day.<ref>Cochrane, Rexmond, The National Academy of Sciences, the First Hundred Years 1863-1963 (Washington, DC, The National Academy of Sciences, 1978), p. 56.</ref>

==Reconstruction and civil rights==
{{further|Reconstruction Era|Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|African Americans in the United States Congress}}
[[File:President Andrew Johnson.jpg|thumb|upright|Wilson voted to convict President Andrew Johnson]]
When [[Andrew Johnson]] assumed the presidency after President Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Senators Sumner and Wilson both hoped Johnson would support the policies of the Republican Party, since Johnson, a Democrat, had been elected with Lincoln on a [[National Union Party (United States)|pro-Union ticket]].{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=353–354}} After the Civil War ended with a Union Victory in May 1865, the defeated former Confederacy was ruined. It had been devastated economically and politically, and much of its infrastructure had been destroyed during the war.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=353–354}} The opportunity was ripe for Congress and Johnson to work together on terms for Southern restoration and reconstruction.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=353–354}} Instead, Johnson launched his own reconstruction policy, which was seen as more lenient to former Confederates, and excluded African American citizenship. When Congress opened the session which began in December 1865, Johnson's policy included a demand for admission of Southern Senators and Representatives, nearly all Democrats, including many former Confederates. Congress, still in Republican hands, responded by refusing to allow the Southern Senators and Representatives to take their seats,{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=353–354}} beginning a rift between Republicans in Congress and the President.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=353–354}} Wilson favored allowing only persons who had been loyal to the United States to serve in positions of political power in the former Confederacy,{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=354–355}} and believed that Congress, not the president, had the power to reconstruct the southern states.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=354–355}} As a result, Wilson joined forces with the Congressmen and Senators known as [[Radical Republicans]], those most strongly opposed to Johnson.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}}
[[File:Revels, Schurz and Sumner.jpg|thumb|upright|150px |Henry Wilson (far left) defended Hiram Revels, the first African American U.S. Senator.]]
On December 21, 1865, two days after the announcement that the states had ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, Wilson introduced a bill to protect the [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] of African Americans.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=355}} Although Wilson's bill failed to pass Congress it was effectively the same bill as the [[Civil Rights Act of 1866]] that passed Congress over Johnson's veto on April 9, 1866.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=355}}

The rift between the Radicals, including Wilson, and President Johnson grew as Johnson attempted to implement his more lenient Reconstruction policies.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} Johnson vetoed the bill to establish the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], as well as other Radical measures to protect African American civil rights—measures which Wilson supported.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} Wilson supported the effort to impeach Johnson, saying that Johnson was "unworthy, if not criminal" in his conduct by resisting Congressional Reconstruction measures, many of which were passed over his vetoes.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} At the 1868 Senate trial Wilson voted for Johnson's conviction, but Republicans fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to remove Johnson from office. (With 36 "guilty" votes needed for removal, the Senate results were 35 to 19 on all three post-trial ballots.){{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}

On May 27, 1868, Wilson spoke before the Senate to forcefully advocate the readmission of Arkansas.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=95}} Taking the lead on this issue, Wilson urged immediate action, saying that the new state government was constitutional, and was composed of loyal Southerners, African Americans who were formerly enslaved, and Northerners who had moved south.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=95}} Wilson said he would not agree to Congressional adjournment until all Southern states with reconstructed governments loyal to the United States that adopted new constitutions were readmitted.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=95}} The ''New York Tribune'' called Wilson's speech "strong" and said that Wilson steered the Senate away from "legal hair-splitting".{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=95}} Within a month the Senate had acted, and Arkansas was readmitted on June 22, 1868. President [[Ulysses S. Grant]], who succeeded Johnson in 1869, was more supportive of Congressional Reconstruction, and the remaining former Confederate states that had not rejoined the Union were readmitted during his first term.{{sfn|Coffey|2014|page=128}}  Federal troops continued to be based in the former Confederate states, allowing Republicans to control state governments, and African Americans to vote and hold federal office.{{sfn|Coffey|2014|page=128}}

In 1870 [[Hiram Rhodes Revels|Hiram Revels]] was elected to the U.S. Senate by the reconstructed [[Mississippi Legislature]].{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=129}}  Revels was the first African American elected to the Senate, and Senate Democrats attempted to prevent him from being seated. Wilson defended Revels's election,{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=129}} and presented as evidence of its validity signatures from the clerks of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]] and [[Mississippi State Senate]], as well as that of [[Adelbert Ames]], the military [[Governor of Mississippi]].{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=129}}  Wilson argued that Revels's skin color was not a bar to Senate service, and connected the role of the Senate to Christianity's [[Golden Rule#Christianity|Golden Rule]] of doing to others as one would have done to oneself.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=129}}  The Senate voted to seat Revels, and after he took the oath of office Wilson personally escorted him to his desk as journalists recorded the historic event.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=129}}

==1868 vice presidential campaign==
{{further|1868 Republican National Convention|1868 United States presidential election}}

Prior to the presidential election of 1868, Wilson toured the South giving political speeches.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} Many in the press believed Wilson was promoting himself to be the Republican presidential candidate.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} Wilson, however, supported the Civil War hero General [[Ulysses S. Grant]].{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} During Reconstruction Grant supported Republican Congressional initiatives rather than President Johnson's, and during the dispute over the [[Tenure of Office Act (1867)|Tenure of Office Act]] which led to Johnson's impeachment, Grant served as temporary Secretary of War, but then returned the Department to Radical ally [[Edwin M. Stanton]]'s control over Johnson's strong objection, making Grant a favorite to many Radicals.{{sfn|Coffey|2014|p=101}}
[[File:Ulysses Grant Henry Wilson campaign poster 1872.jpg|thumb|left|The working-man's banner. For President, Ulysses S. Grant, "The Galena Tanner." For Vice-President, Henry Wilson, "The Natick Shoemaker."]]

Wilson actually desired to be vice president.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} During his speech-making tour of the South, Wilson moderated his tougher Reconstruction ideology, advocating a biracial society, while urging African Americans and their white supporters to take a conciliatory and peaceful approach with Southern whites who had favored the Confederacy.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}{{sfn|Diller|1996|p=1545}} Radicals, including [[Benjamin Wade]], were stunned by Wilson's remarks, believing blacks should not be subject to their former white owners.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} At the [[1868 Republican National Convention|Republican Convention]], Wilson, Wade and others competed for the vice presidential nomination, and Wilson had support among Southern delegates, but he failed to win after five ballots. Wade was also unable to win the convention vote, and Wilson's delegates eventually switched their votes to Speaker of the House [[Schuyler Colfax]], who won the nomination and went on to win the general election with Grant at the head of the ticket.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} After Grant and Colfax won the 1868 election Wilson declined to serve as [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] in Grant's cabinet due to his desire to spend more time with Mrs. Wilson during her lengthy final illness.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}

==1872 vice presidential campaign==
{{further|1872 Republican National Convention|1872 United States presidential election}}

[[File:Grant-Wilson-campaign-poster.jpg|thumb|right|Grant/Wilson campaign poster]]
In 1872 Wilson had a strong reputation among Republicans as a principled but practical reformer who supported African American civil rights, voting rights for women, federal education aid, regulation of businesses, and prohibition of liquor.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} In 1870, incumbent Vice President [[Schuyler Colfax]], said he would not run for another term, creating the possibility of a contested nomination.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ball |first=W. S. |date=February 1, 1872 |title=Grant and Colfax |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/63212516/ |newspaper=The New North State |location=Greensboro, NC |page=2|url-access=subscription |quote=It is now stated by authorities that Mr. Colfax, while not desiring renomination, would not decline were it tendered.}}</ref> In addition, some Republicans, including Grant, desired another vice presidential nominee because they believed Colfax had presidential aspirations and might endanger Grant's reelection by bolting to the [[Liberal Republican Party (United States)|Liberal Republican Party]],{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} which had formed because of opposition to charges of corruption in the Grant administration and Grant's attempted [[Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo|Santo Domingo annexation]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Tulloch |first= Hugh |date=2006 |title=The Routledge Companion to the American Civil War Era |url=https://archive.org/details/routledgecompani0000tull |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://archive.org/details/routledgecompani0000tull/page/45 45] |isbn=978-0-415-22953-1}}</ref> The Liberal Republican convention, held in Cincinnati in April, and headed by [[Carl Schurz]], desired to replace Grant because of corruption in his administration, end Reconstruction, and return Southern state governments to white rule. They nominated [[Horace Greeley]] for president and [[Benjamin Gratz Brown|B. Gratz Brown]] for vice president.{{sfn|White|2016|p=532}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Etheredge |first=Robert C. |date=2011 |title=The American Challenge: Preserving the Greatness of America in the 21st Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IXGrCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 |location=Orinda, CA |publisher=Miravista Press |page=42 |isbn=978-0-9665804-4-0}}</ref>
[[File:Grant-Chase-1873.jpg|right|220px|thumb|Wilson standing behind Grant at Grant's second Inauguration<br />March 4, 1873]]
The Republican convention opened on June 5 in Philadelphia and the delegates were in an enthusiastic mood.{{sfn|White|2016|p=532}} For the first time in party convention history, telegraph operators communicated minute-by-minute proceedings to the nation.{{sfn|White|2016|p=532}} The Republican platform supported amnesty for former Confederates, low tariffs, civil service reform, Grant's Indian Peace policy, and civil rights for African Americans.{{sfn|White|2016|p=532}}{{sfn|Republican Party Platform of 1872}} Grant was unanimously renominated on the second day, to the loud cheers of the convention crowd.{{sfn|White|2016|pp=532–533}} Wilson was popular among Republicans for the vice presidential nomination, with an appealing [[Rags to riches|rags-to-riches]] story that included his rise from indentured servant to owner and operator of a successful shoe making business.{{sfn|White|2016|p=533}} On the first ballot, he defeated Colfax, who by then had become an active candidate by renouncing his 1870 pledge and informing his supporters that he would accept renomination if it was offered.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}{{sfn|White|2016|p=533}} The Republicans believed Wilson's nomination, as a politician of integrity coming from the anti-slavery movement, would outflank the anti-corruption argument of the Liberal Republicans, who counted Sumner among their members.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zuczek |first=Richard |date=2006 |title=Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era |volume=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H80eQweo0V4C&pg=PA719 |location=Westport, CT |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=719 |isbn=978-0-313-33074-2}}</ref> Both Grant and his new running mate Wilson were idealized by Republican posters, which depicted Grant "the Galena [[Tanning (leather)|Tanner]]" and Wilson "the Natick Shoemaker" carrying tools and wearing workmen's aprons.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} (Grant's father operated a tanning and leather goods manufacturing business, and before the Civil War Grant had clerked in his father's [[Galena, Illinois]], store.)<ref>{{cite book |last=Kionka |first= T. K. |date=2006 |title=Key Command: Ulysses S. Grant's District of Cairo |url=https://archive.org/details/keycommandulysse00kion |url-access=registration |location=Columbia, MO |publisher=University of Missouri Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/keycommandulysse00kion/page/30 30] |isbn=978-0-8262-1655-7}}</ref> In July, in an unprecedented political party fusion influenced by Schurz, the Democrats adopted the Liberal Republican platform and endorsed that party's candidates.{{sfn|White|2016|pp=533–534}} Grant's personal popularity proved insurmountable in the general election, and Grant and Wilson went on to overwhelmingly defeat Greeley and Brown in both the popular and electoral college votes.{{sfn|White|2016|p=532}} Wilson's nomination for Vice President had been intended to strengthen the Republican ticket, and was seen as a success.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}}

===Crédit Mobilier scandal===
During the 1872 campaign, Wilson's reputation for honesty was marred by a September ''[[The Sun (New York)|New York Sun]]'' article which indicated that he was involved in the [[Crédit Mobilier scandal]].{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}<ref>{{cite book |last= Crawford |first=Jay Boyd |date=1880 |title=The Credit Mobilier of America: Its Origin and History, Its Work of |url=https://archive.org/details/creditmobilierof00craw |location=Boston |publisher=C. W. Calkins & Co. |page=[https://archive.org/details/creditmobilierof00craw/page/126 126]}}</ref> Wilson was one of several Representatives and Senators (mostly Republicans), including Colfax, who were offered (and possibly took) bribes of cash and discounted shares in the [[Union Pacific Railroad]]'s Crédit Mobilier subsidiary from Congressman [[Oakes Ames]] during the late 1860s in exchange for votes favorable to the Union Pacific during the building of the [[First transcontinental railroad]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Dickerson |first=Donna Lee |date=2003 |title=The Reconstruction Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1865 to 1877 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXOan-fUeCMC&pg=PA339 |location=Westport, CT |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=339 |isbn=978-0-313-32094-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Purcell |first=L. Edward |date=2010 |title=Vice Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zq3-BuDVQfMC&pg=PA171 |location=York, PA |publisher=Maple Press |page=171 |isbn=978-0-8160-7707-6}}</ref>

After denying to a reporter just a month before the election that he had a Crédit Mobilier connection, Wilson admitted involvement when he gave testimony before a Senate committee on February 13, 1873.{{sfn|The New York Times (02-14-1873)}}  Wilson told members of the investigating committee that in December 1867 he had agreed to purchase $2,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=2000|start_year=1867}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) in Crédit Mobilier stock (20 shares) using Mrs. Wilson's money and in her name.{{sfn|The New York Times (02-14-1873)}}  According to Wilson, his wife and he later had concerns about the propriety of the transaction and had never taken possession of the actual stock certificates, so Wilson asked Ames to cancel the transaction and Ames refunded the $2,000 purchase price to Wilson. Wilson said he then returned $814 to Ames – $748 in dividends and $66 in interest that Mrs. Wilson had supposedly earned as profits, even though she had not taken physical possession of her shares. Wilson further claimed that because Mrs. Wilson had refused to take these proceeds from Ames,{{sfn|McFeely|1974|p=146}} Wilson took it upon himself to pay her $814 from his own funds to compensate her for the profit she would have made if she had kept the stock, which he said he felt obligated to do because his wife had originally agreed to purchase the stock on his recommendation, and had lost money by following his later recommendation to cancel the transaction.{{sfn|McFeely|1974|p=146}}<ref>{{cite book |date=1952 |title=Indiana Historical Collections |volume=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PPEyAQAAIAAJ&q=%22constrained+to+advert%22 |location=Indianapolis |publisher=Indiana Historical Commission |page=405}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Jay Boyd |date=1880 |title=The Credit Mobilier of America: Its Origin and History |url=https://archive.org/details/creditmobilierof00craw |location=Boston |publisher=C. W. Calkins & Co. |page=[https://archive.org/details/creditmobilierof00craw/page/126 126]}}</ref>

Mrs. Wilson had died in 1870, so Senators had to rely on Wilson's word and that of Ames, who corroborated Wilson.{{sfn|McKay|1971|pp=232–233}}  The Senate accepted Wilson's explanation, and took no action against him, but his reputation for integrity was somewhat damaged because of his initial denial and later admission, though not sufficiently enough to prevent him from becoming vice president the following month.{{sfn|McKay|1971|p=233}}

==Vice presidency (1873–1875)==
[[File:Henry Wilson (United States Vice President) Onthank portrait.jpg|thumb|right|Vice President Wilson<br />Onthank portrait, 1875]]
Wilson served as vice president from March 4, 1873, until his death. As vice president, Wilson's years of Senate experience enabled him to perform as a "highly efficient and acceptable" presiding officer.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} During his term he cast one [[List of tie-breaking votes cast by vice presidents of the United States#List of presidents of the Senate by number of tie-breaking votes|tie-breaking vote]], in favor of passing the [[Civil Rights Act of 1875]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Tsesis |first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander Tsesis |date=2004 |title=The Thirteenth Amendment and American Freedom: A Legal History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5EWFF0XypUC&pg=PA68 |location=New York|publisher=New York University Press |page=68 |isbn=978-0-8147-8276-7}}</ref> After his death, the office of vice president remained vacant since there was no constitutional provision to fill an intra-term vice-presidential vacancy until the [[Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-fifth Amendment]] in 1967. This meant that the Senate President Pro Tempore [[Thomas W. Ferry|Thomas Ferry]] was now next in the [[United States presidential line of succession|line of presidential succession.]] Ferry remained next in succession until March 4, 1877.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bomboy|first=Scott|date=August 11, 2020|title=Five little-known men who almost became president|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/five-little-known-men-who-almost-became-president/|website=ConstitutionCenter.org}}</ref>

===Illness and death===
Wilson's ceremonial duties and work on ''[[History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America]]'' kept him extremely busy, working late hours with little time to rest.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=212}} In early May 1873, Wilson attended funeral services for [[Salmon P. Chase]] in New York City.{{sfn|Blue|1987|p=319}}  On May 19, 1873, he suffered a stroke that caused paralysis in his face, general weakness, and impaired speech.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=212}} His doctor ordered him to rest, but Wilson allowed reporters to see him.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=212}} The public first took notice that Wilson was in ill health when he made an appearance in Boston on May 30,{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=212}} and reporters were informed that Wilson was unable to work or handle his correspondence.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=212}}  His health somewhat improved during September and October,{{sfn|Myers|2009|pp=213–214}} and on November 25 Wilson returned to Washington for the opening of Congress.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=215}} He was able to preside over the Senate from December 1 through December 9, 1873, but was unable to speak in public, including when he attended a Boston commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the [[Boston Tea Party]].{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=215}}
[[File:Kalakaua Grant state visit 1874.jpg|thumb|left|Wilson participated in the White House state dinner for Hawaiian King David Kalākaua in December 1874.]]

Wilson remained in occasional ill health into 1874, but was able to attend funeral services for Charles Sumner in March.{{sfn|Puleo|2011|loc=Chapter 9}}  Throughout his remaining tenure, Wilson's Senate attendance was irregular due to his continued poor health.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}} During periods when he was not ill, Wilson was also able to resume some of his ceremonial duties, including participating in a White House party for the King of Hawaii, [[Kalākaua|David Kalākaua]], in December 1874.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 2, 1875 |title=Our Royal Guest |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wj1aAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA343 |newspaper=Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper |location=New York |page=343|last1=Sleicher |first1=John Albert }}</ref> When Free Soil and abolitionist colleague [[Gerrit Smith]] died in New York City on December 28, 1874, Wilson traveled there to view the body and take part in funeral services.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=221}}

[[File:Vice President Henry Wilson funeral procession, New York City.jpg|thumb|Wilson's funeral procession passing New York City's [[St. Paul's Chapel]].  Published in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]''.]]
Wilson continued to go through bouts of ill health in 1875. While working at the [[United States Capitol]] on November 10, 1875, he suffered what was believed to be a minor stroke, and was taken to the [[Vice President's Room]] to recuperate.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}} Over the next several days, his health appeared to improve and his friends thought he was nearly recovered. However, on November 22 at 7:20&nbsp;am, Wilson suffered a fatal stroke while working at the Capitol. His remains were accorded the honor of [[lying in state]] at the [[United States Capitol rotunda]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aoc.gov/nations-stage/lying-state-honor |title= Lying in State or in Honor |publisher=US Architect of the Capitol (AOC) |access-date=September 1, 2018}}</ref>

The subsequent funeral arrangements included military escorts as Wilson's remains were transferred from one train station to another ''en route'' from Washington to Natick, as well as nights lying in state. The route included processions in [[Baltimore]], [[Philadelphia]], New York City, and [[Boston]], and nights lying in state at [[Baltimore City Hall]] and [[Independence Hall]] in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Late Henry Wilson: Arrangements for the Funeral |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=November 25, 1875 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1875/11/25/82421306.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1875/11/25/82421306.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> He was interred at Old Dell Park Cemetery in Natick.<ref>{{cite book |last=Spencer |first=Thomas E. |date=1998 |title=Where They're Buried |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eLWao2lIGTEC&pg=PA95 |location=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Clearfield Company |page=95 |isbn=978-0-8063-4823-0 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Wilson was the fourth vice president to die in office, following: [[George Clinton (vice president)|George Clinton]], who served under both [[Thomas Jefferson]] (1805–1809) and [[James Madison]] (1809–1812); [[Elbridge Gerry]], who also served under Madison (1813–1814); and [[William R. King]], under [[Franklin Pierce]] (1853).<ref>{{cite web|author=HNN Staff |title=How Many Vice Presidents Died in Office? |url=http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/128|publisher=Historical News Network|date=2002}}</ref>

==Historical reputation==
[[File:Henry Wilson Grave - Old Dell Park, Natick.jpg|thumb|right|Grave of Henry Wilson, Old Dell Park Cemetery, [[Natick, Massachusetts]].]]
According to historian George H. Haynes, during his nearly thirty years of public service Wilson practiced principled politics by championing unpopular causes, sometimes at the expense of his personal ambition.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}} The causes Wilson supported included abolition of slavery, and the rights of workers, both black and white.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}}

Wilson was not hesitant to sever ties with old guard politicians and form new coalitions in order to accomplish his objectives, even though this gave him the reputation among opponents of being a "shifty" politician.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}} On the other hand, he was admired by fellow abolitionists for his lifelong dedication to the cause, and workingmen found inspiration in his career, since he had himself risen from a manual laborer's background.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}}

Wilson supported free public schools and libraries.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}} In Massachusetts he supported tax exemptions for the purchase and maintenance of worker's tools and furniture, and the removal of property qualifications for voting rights.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}}

U.S. Senator [[George Frisbie Hoar|George F. Hoar]], a Massachusetts political contemporary, said Wilson was a "skilful, adroit, and practiced and constant political manager" and "the most skilled political organizer in the country" during his career.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|page=324}}

Wilson is also recognized for being a political pioneer in techniques for determining public opinion while he held office.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} In the 20th century, the [[straw poll]] and scientific public opinion polls by companies including [[Gallup (company)|Gallup]] became standard parts of political campaigns and media coverage of elections.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Rhodes |first=Campbell |date=December 24, 2018 |title=A brief history of opinion polls |url=https://www.moadoph.gov.au/blog/a-brief-history-of-opinion-polls/# |magazine=MoAD |location=Parkes, Australian Capital Territory |publisher=Museum of Australian Democracy}}</ref> During his Senate career, Wilson pioneered straw polling by sampling the views of Massachusetts voters through in person conversations and unscientific written surveys before making his own views known.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}} These efforts were credited with helping Wilson build coalitions, win elections, make political allies, and determine the best time to act in the Senate on issues of importance.{{sfn|Hatfield SHO 1997}}

In 1891, the Henry Wilson school, a facility for black students, opened on what was then Central Street in the Washington County portion of the District of Columbia (now 17th Street in the [[Adams Morgan]] neighborhood).<ref>{{cite book|title=Annual Report of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia|date=1904|page=66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1YCygsV4XhgC|access-date=July 13, 2016}}</ref> It was named for him in honor of his role emancipating the district's slaves. The school was closed in 1956 due to its small size, and shortly thereafter converted to the Morgan Annex, a satellite location of the adjacent Thomas P. Morgan School.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Lautier|first1=Louis|title='Every Child Shall be Given a Chance' Miss Lyon Says|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2238&dat=19561002&id=yxNGAAAAIBAJ&pg=922,1152476&hl=en|access-date=July 14, 2016|work=Washington Afro-American|date=October 2, 1956}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=U.S. House of Representatives |date=1965 |title=Hearing Records of the Subcommittees of the Committee on Appropriations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7EtOAAAAMAAJ&q=%22morgan+annex%22 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government Printing Office |page=495}}</ref> The Morgan Annex was later closed; it was sold in 1989, and then reopened as the Morgan Annex Lofts condominiums.<ref>{{cite news |last=Richard |first=Paul |date=June 2, 1990 |title=ART: THE SHAPES OF BLACKBOARD MEMORIES INSTALLATIONS AT THE MORGAN ANNEX |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/06/02/art/d0fd15f8-2536-4cc3-b652-a975f0bd9399/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, DC}}</ref>

Wilson was the subject of a biographical podcast in 2022 titled [https://www.henrywilsonhistory.com "Henry Wilson & The Civil War"]. The series had over 22 episodes and was hosted by Lincoln Anniballi.<ref>{{Cite web |title=MetroWest Daily News |url=https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metrowestdailynews.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2F2022%2F04%2F27%2Fnatick-cobbler-henry-wilson-podcast-covers-civil-war-civil-rights%2F9501752002%2F |access-date=August 5, 2022 |website=www.metrowestdailynews.com}}</ref>

==Personal life==
On October 28, 1840, Wilson married Harriet Malvina Howe (1824–1870).{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}} They were the parents of a son, Henry Hamilton Wilson (1846–1866), who attended the Highland Military Academy in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]].{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=55}} During the Civil War, the younger Wilson attended the [[United States Naval Academy]], but left before graduating in order to accept a commission in the [[Union Army]].{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=55}} He attained success in the 31st and 104th Regiments of [[United States Colored Troops]], and was promoted to [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]] and [[second-in-command]] of the 104th in July 1865.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}  After the war he accepted a commission as a [[Second lieutenant#United States|second lieutenant]] in the regular Army's [[6th Cavalry Regiment]], and served until his death from a ruptured appendix in 1866.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=323}}{{sfn|Heitman|1903|p=1046}}{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=55}}  Camp Wilson, an Army post in Texas was named for Henry H. Wilson; it was later renamed [[Fort Griffin]].{{sfn|Uglow|2001|p=106}}

In 1869 Henry and Harriet Wilson also became the ''de facto'' adoptive parents of a girl, Evangelina (or Evangeline), who was born between 1864 and 1866, and took the name Eva Wilson.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=123}} In a complicated series of events, in 1869 a woman named Caroline Vreeland met Nancy Colbath, wife of Wilson's brother Samuel.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=123}} Vreeland allowed Nancy Colbath to adopt the child, with the understanding that she would be raised by Henry Wilson and his wife.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=123}} The child lived with the Wilsons until shortly before Mrs. Wilson's death.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=123}} Nancy Colbath then kept the child, and received monthly payments from Henry Wilson for her support.{{sfn|Myers|2009|pp=123–124}} Details later emerged which indicated the likelihood that Vreeland had obtained a baby girl from an unknown parent or parents in Boston in 1866 so that her sister could use the baby to extort a man with whom she had had an affair.{{sfn|Myers|2009|pp=123-124}} Vreeland went to prison for a stabbing in the early 1870s.{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=123}} The child continued to live with Wilson, and by 1874 he had asked Nancy Colbath to again be responsible for her.{{sfn|Myers|2009|pp=123–124}} Wilson agreed to provide them a suitable home and financial support, but had not followed through by the time of his death{{sfn|Myers|2009|pp=123–124}}

Wilson requested that the executor of his will, nephew William Leander Coolidge, use most of Wilson's estate to ensure that Wilson's mother in law was cared for, and that Eva receive an education and financial support.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nason |first=Elias |date=July 1, 1878 |title=Biographical Sketch of Henry Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4n1rJz1z8k8C&pg=PA267 |journal=New England Historical and Genealogical Register |volume=32 |location=Boston |publisher=David Clapp & Son |page=267}}</ref> Wilson had given Coolidge oral instructions and letters, and the situation became complicated because Wilson's death occurred before he had incorporated these additional instructions into his will.<ref name="Will">{{cite news |date=February 13, 1889 |title=Henry Wilson's Will |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59817448/will-of-henry-wilson-13-feb-1889/ |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York |page=1 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Coolidge acted as a trustee for Eva, and by 1889, when she was more than 21 years old, she claimed she was entitled to the remainder of Wilson's estate.<ref name="Will"/> Other Wilson family members disagreed; because of the complexity of the details, Coolidge petitioned the Massachusetts courts for guidance.<ref name="Will"/><ref>{{cite news |date=February 13, 1889 |title=The Courts: Supreme Judicial Court – Feb. 12. Devens J.|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/massachusetts/boston/boston-post/1889/02-13/page-8 |newspaper=Boston Post |location=Boston |page=8 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The courts found in favor of Eva, by then married and known as Eva Carpenter, and she received most of the estate, which was valued at approximately $10,000 (about $239,000 in 2021).{{sfn|Myers|2009|p=233}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Henry|title=History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses, 1861–64|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofantislav00wils#page/n5/mode/2up|publisher=Walker, Wise, and Company|location=[[Boston]]|date=1864}}
*{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Henry|title=History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865–68|url=https://archive.org/stream/wilsonsreconstrume00henrrich#page/n7/mode/2up|publisher=Hartford:Hartford Publishing Company|location=[[Connecticut]]|date=1868}}
*{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Henry|title=History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America|volume=1|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofrisefal01#page/n5/mode/2up|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|location=[[Boston]]|date=1872}}
*{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Henry|title=History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America|volume=2|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofrisefal02wils#page/n5/mode/2up|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|location=[[Boston]]|date=1874}}
*{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Henry|last2=Hunt|first2=Rev. Samuel|title=History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America|volume=3|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofrisefal03wils#page/n7/mode/2up|publisher=James R. Osgood and Company|location=[[Boston]]|date=1877|isbn=978-0837112930 }} Reverend Samuel Hunt completed Volume 3 after Wilson's death.<ref>Myers, John L. "The Writing of ''History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America''," ''Civil War History,'' June 1985, Vol. 31 Issue 2, pp. 144–162</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|American Civil War}}
* [[Henry Wilson Shoe Shop]]
* [[Martin Delany]] and [[Thornton Chase]] also in the 104th USCI
* [[List of New Hampshire historical markers (76–100)#98|New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 98]]: Henry Wilson-Vice President of the United States
{{clear}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
===Books===
* {{cite book |last=Abbott |first=Richard H. |date=1965 |title=Cobbler in Congress: Life of Henry Wilson, 1812–1875 |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kLVnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22jed+and+jerry%22 |location=Madison |publisher=University of Wisconsin—Madison |page=8}}
* {{cite book |last=Abbott |first=Richard H. |date=1965 |title=Cobbler in Congress: Life of Henry Wilson, 1812–1875 |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LaxnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22When+the+Colbaths+moved+to+Natick+in+1848%22 |location=Madison |publisher=University of Wisconsin—Madison |page=353 |ref={{sfnRef|Abbott, Vol. 2,|1965|page=353}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Abbott |first=Richard H. |date=1972 |title=Cobbler in Congress: The Life of Henry Wilson, 1812–1875 |url= https://archive.org/details/cobblerincongres0000abbo |url-access=registration |quote=school teacher. |location=Lexington |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-1249-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Blue |first=Frederick J. |date=1987 |title=Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics |url=https://archive.org/details/salmonpchaselife0000blue |url-access=registration |location=Kent, OH |publisher=Kent University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/salmonpchaselife0000blue/page/319 319] |isbn=978-0-87338-340-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Bolino |first=August C. |date=2012 |title=Men of Massachusetts: Bay State Contributors to American Society |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HNiK52D2VjMC&pg=PA77 |publisher=iUniverse |pages=77–78|isbn=978-1475933765 }}
* {{cite book |last=Coffey |first=Walter |date=2014 |title=The Reconstruction Years: The Tragic Aftermath of the War Between the States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9rIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA128 |location=Bloomington, IN |publisher=AuthorHouse, LLC |page=128 |isbn=978-1-4918-5192-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Diller|first=Daniel C.|title=Guide to the Presidency|editor-first=Michael|editor-last=Nelson|publisher=Routledge|location=New York City|date=1996|isbn=1-56802-018-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/guidetopresidenc0000unse}}
* {{cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric|author-link=Eric Foner |date=1995 |title=Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl38uYb85DgC&pg=PA113 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=113|isbn=978-0-1997-6226-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Garrison |first1=William Lloyd|author-link1=William Lloyd Garrison |last2=Merrill |first2=Walter M. |date=1979 |title=The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: Let the Oppressed Go Free, 1861–1867 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOdVUpjJQHwC&pg=PA141 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=141|isbn=978-0-6745-2665-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Giddings |first=Edward J. |date=1889 |title=American Christian Rulers: Or, Religion and Men of Government |url=https://archive.org/details/americanchristia00gidd |location=New York|publisher=Bromfield & Co. |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanchristia00gidd/page/551 551]}}
* {{cite book|last1=Hatfield|first1= Mark O.|author-link=Mark Hatfield |last2= Senate Historical Office |title=Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993 Henry Wilson (1873–1875)|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/henry_wilson.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/henry_wilson.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=233–239|date=1997 |ref={{sfnRef|Hatfield SHO 1997}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Haynes|first=George H.|title=Dictionary of American Biography Henry Wilson|editor-first=Dumas|editor-last=Malone|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York City|date=1936|pages=322–325}}
* {{cite book |last=Heitman |first=Francis Bernard |date=1903 |title=Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RLMX6OOgsAC&pg=PA1046|location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office  |page=1046}}
* {{cite journal |date=June 21, 1919 |title=The Natick Cobbler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpQ7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA136 |journal=Hide & Leather: The International Weekly; Shoe Factories – Tanneries – Allied Industries |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=Hide and Leather Publishing Co. |page=36 |ref={{sfnRef|Hide and Leather 1919}}}}
* {{cite book |last=McKay |first=Ernest A. |date=1971 |title=Henry Wilson: Practical Radical; A Portrait of a Politician |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6aQsAAAAMAAJ&q=%22was+a+drunkard%22 |location=Port Washington, NY |publisher=Kennikat Press  |pages=11, 16, 233 |isbn=978-0-8046-9010-2}}
* {{cite book |last=McFeely |first=William S. |author-link=William S. McFeely|editor1-last=Woodward |editor1-first=C. Vann|editor1-link=C. Vann Woodward |title=Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct |publisher=Delacorte Press |location=New York |pages=133–162 |year=1974 |isbn=0-440-05923-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Richard F. |date=2013 |title=States at War: A Reference Guide for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont in the Civil War |volume= 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WdIVAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA267 |location=Hanover, NH |publisher=University Press of New England |pages=264, 267 |isbn=978-1-61168-324-0 }}
* {{cite book |last=Myers |first=John L.|title=Henry Wilson and the Era of Reconstruction |publisher=University Press of America, Inc. |location=[[Lanham, Maryland|Lanham]], Maryland |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-7618-4742-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Myers |first=John L. |date=2005 |title=Henry Wilson and the Coming of the Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ah2AAAAMAAJ&q=%22jed%22 |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=University Press of America |page=8 |isbn=978-0-7618-2608-8}}
* Myers, John L. [https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/14/article/420229/pdf "The Writing of ''History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,''"] ''Civil War History,'' June 1985, Vol. 31, Issue 2, pp.&nbsp;144–162.
* {{cite book|last1=Nason |first1=Elias|author-link1=Elias Nason|last2=Russell|first2=Thomas|title=The Life and Public Services of Henry Wilson, Late Vice-President of the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandpublicse00russgoog|publisher=B.B. Russell|location=[[Boston]]|date=1876}}
* {{cite book |last=New Hampshire Adjutant General |date=1868 |title=Annual Report |url=https://archive.org/stream/reportofadjutant1868newh#page/n355/mode/2up |location=Manchester, NH |publisher=John B. Clarke |page=203 |ref={{sfnRef|New Hampshire Adjutant General 1868}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Puleo |first=Stephen |date=2011 |title=A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis: Boston 1850–1900 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rYYDAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT245 |location=Boston|publisher=Beacon Press |page=Chapter 9 |isbn=978-0-8070-0149-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Richards |first=Leonard L. |title=The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War |publisher=Vintage Books Random House Inc. |location=New York City |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-307-27757-2 }}
* {{cite book |last=Scales |first=John |date=1914 |title=History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofstraffo00scal_0 |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofstraffo00scal_0/page/501 501] }}
* {{cite book |last=Shelden |first=Rachel A. |date=2013 |title=Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hu-VAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |location=Chapel Hill|publisher=University of North Carolina Press |pages=31–32 |isbn=978-1-4696-1085-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Thayer |first=William M. |date=1895 |title=Turning Points in Successful Careers |url=https://archive.org/details/turningpointsins00thayiala |location=New York |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/turningpointsins00thayiala/page/253 253] }}
* {{cite book |date=1895 |title=The National Cyclopedia of American Biography |volume=IV |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=190DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14 |location=New York |publisher=James T. White & Company |ref={{sfnRef|National Cyclopedia 1895}} |page=14}}
* {{cite book |last=Uglow |first=Loyd M. |date=2001 |title=Standing in the Gap: Army Outposts, Picket Stations, and the Pacification of the Texas Frontier, 1866–1886 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G2_q7_S-4pkC&pg=PA106 |location=Fort Worth |publisher=Texas Christian University Press |page=106 |isbn=978-0-87565-246-7 }}
* {{cite book |date=1913 |title=United States Congressional Serial Set |url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatescon24conggoog |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |ref={{sfnRef|Congressional Serial Set 1913}} |page=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatescon24conggoog/page/n1127 1125]}}
* Wilson, Henry (1872–1877). ''[[History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America]]'', 3 vols. (Boston: J. R. Osgood and Co.)
* {{cite book |last=Winks |first=William Edward |date=1883 |title=Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers |url=https://archive.org/details/livesillustriou00winkgoog |location=London |publisher=Sampson Lowe, Marston, Searle & Rivington  |page=[https://archive.org/details/livesillustriou00winkgoog/page/n390 362]}}
* {{cite book |title=American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant |last=White |first=Ronald C.|author-link=Ronald C. White |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-58836-992-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPNRCwAAQBAJ }}

===Newspapers===
* {{cite news |date=June 24, 1858 |title=Democratic Illiberality |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hornellsville-weekly-tribune-democratic/171925907/ |work=Hornellsville Weekly Tribune |location=Hornelsville, NY |page=3 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]|ref={{sfnRef|Hornellsville Weekly Tribune (06-24-1858)}}}}
* {{cite news |date=July 4, 1858 |title=Senators Gwin and Wilson |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82006534/1858-07-04/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1789&index=7&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Gwin+Senator+Senators&proxdistance=5&date2=1924&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=senator+gwin&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |work=Washington Union |location=Washington, DC |page=2 |ref={{sfnRef|Washington Union 1858}}}}
* {{cite news |date=December 2, 1875 |title=The Grave (From the Boston Traveler) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-grave/171925990/ |newspaper=Atlanta Constitution |location=Atlanta, GA |page=1 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |ref={{sfnRef|"The Grave (From the Boston Traveler)"}}}}
* {{cite news |date=November 21, 1894 |title=Current events: George A. Colbath, a brother of the late ex-Vice President Henry Wilson, died at Natick, Massachusetts |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pharos-tribune-current/171926086/ |newspaper=Logansport Pharos-Tribune |location=Logansport, IN |page=2 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |ref={{sfnRef|"Current events: George A. Colbath, a brother of the late ex-Vice President Henry Wilson, died at Natick, Massachusetts"}}}}

===''The New York Times''===
* {{cite news|ref={{sfnRef|The New York Times (July 6, 1856)}}|title=Brooks and Senator Wilson|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1856/06/07/77050752.pdf |date=June 7, 1856}}
* {{cite news|ref={{sfnRef|The New York Times (02-14-1873)}}|title=Credit Mobilier Senator Wilson|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/02/14/79033501.pdf|date=February 14, 1873}}
* {{cite news |date=December 2, 1875 |title=Henry Wilson's Funeral: Burial at Dell Park Cemetery |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-funeral/171925778/ |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York |page=5 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |ref={{sfnRef|"Henry Wilson's Funeral: Burial at Dell Park Cemetery"}}}}

===Primary===
* {{cite web|title=Republican Party Platform of 1872|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29623|date=June 5, 1872|website=The American Presidency Project|ref={{sfnRef|Republican Party Platform of 1872}}}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{CongBio|W000585}} Retrieved on 2008-02-15
* [https://archive.org/details/antislaverymease00wilsrich ''History of the antislavery measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United-States Congresses, 1861–64''] by Henry Wilson at archive.org
* [https://archive.org/details/wilsonsreconstrume00henrrich ''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'', [https://archive.org/details/risefallslavepow01wilsrich Vol 1], [https://archive.org/details/risefallslavepow02wilsrich Vol 2] and [https://archive.org/details/risefallslavepow03wilsrich Vol 3] by Henry Wilson at archive.org
* {{Cite EB1911|short=x|wstitle=Wilson, Henry |volume= 28 | page= 692}}
* {{Cite NSRW|short=x|wstitle=Wilson, Henry}}
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5fUaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA18 Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Henry Wilson, (Vice President of the United States)]''.  1876.  U.S. Government Printing Office.
* ''[https://archive.org/stream/lifeandpublicse01russgoog#page/n13/mode/2up The Life and Public Services of Henry Wilson, Late Vice President of the United States]''.  1876.  Elias Nason and Thomas Russell.
* ''[https://archive.org/stream/tributetomemoryo01cowd#page/n1/mode/2up Tribute to the Memory of Henry Wilson, Late Vice President of the United States]''.  1876.  Union League Club of New York.
* ''[http://natickma.gov/1115/Henry-Wilson-Memorial-Park Henry Wilson Memorial Park]''
* ''[https://archive.org/details/davidhkimblediar00mich Henry Wilson's Regiment: History of the Twenty-second Massachusetts Infantry, the Second Company Sharpshooters, and the Third Light Battery in the War of the Rebellion]''.  1887.  John L. Parker and Robert G. Carter, authors.  Rand Avery Company (Boston, MA), publisher.
* ''[https://archive.org/stream/memorialaddresse00unit22#page/n9/mode/2up Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Henry Wilson]'' (1876) Washington: Government Printing Office

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Henry}}
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