Wilson, HENRY

Wilson, HENRY, vice-president of the United States, was born the son of a farm-labourer at Farmington, New Hampshire, in 1812, and himself worked for eleven years on a farm. Born Jeremiah Jones Colbaith, he got rid of the name when he came of age, worked for a time as a shoemaker at Natick, Massachusetts, became prominent as an Abolitionist in the '30's, addressed sixty meetings for Harrison in 1840, and was elected to the Massachusetts legislature and state senate. He was an active leader of the Free-soilers (q.v.), assisted to form the new Republican party, and in 1855 entered the United States senate. There he sat for eighteen years, only leaving its floor to assume its presidency as vice-president of the United States in 1873. During the civil war he had been chairman of the important committee on military affairs, and had rendered great services in the matter of organising the army and raising and equipping troops. But in 1873 he had a stroke of paralysis, and died on 22d November of that year. Of his many writings the chief is his History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, completed by another hand (3 vols. 1872-75). See the Life by T. Russell and the Rev. E. Nason (1872).