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Henry Wilson Quotes

Henry Wilson was the 18th vice president of the United States and a senator from Massachusetts . Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading Republican, and a strong opponent of slavery. Wilson devoted his energies to the destruction of the "Slave Power" – the faction of slave owners and their political allies which anti-slavery Americans saw as dominating the country.

Originally a Whig, Wilson was a founder of the Free Soil Party in 1848. He served as the party chairman before and during the 1852 presidential election. Wilson worked diligently to build an anti-slavery coalition, which came to include the Free Soil Party, anti-slavery Democrats, New York Barnburners, the Liberty Party, anti-slavery members of the Native American Party , and anti-slavery 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 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. 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 at times unpopular, including workers' rights for both blacks and whites and the abolition of slavery. Massachusetts politician George F. 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. Wikipedia  

✵ 16. February 1812 – 22. November 1875
Henry Wilson photo
Henry Wilson: 8   quotes 1   like

Famous Henry Wilson Quotes

“I believe that every human being has the right to his life and to his liberty, and to act in this world so as to secure his own happiness.”

Henry Wilson

"Debate with Jefferson Davis"

“We are strong and powerful now, able to drive into the ocean any power on earth that should step, with ostile foot, upon the fsoil of the republic. But it was not always so. In our days of weakness, the men of this wronged race gave their blood freely for the defense and liberties of the country. The first victim of the Boston Massacre, on the 5th of March 1770, which made the fires of resistance burn more intensely, was a colored man. Hundreds of colored men entered the ranks and fought bravely on all the fields of the Revolution.”

Henry Wilson

Source: Speech (June 1853), p. 80

“I believe in the equality of rights of all mankind.”

Henry Wilson

"Debate with Jefferson Davis"

“The natural equality of all men I believe in, as far as rights are concerned.”

Henry Wilson

"Debate with Jefferson Davis"

“The idea which pervades our Constitution; that all men of every race are equal before the laws.”

Henry Wilson

Source: Speech (June 1853), p. 79

“I would give to all men, of every clime and race, of every faith and creed, freedom and equality”

Henry Wilson

As quoted in Colored Patriots of the American Revolution https://books.google.com/books?id=Jy8OAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107 (1855), by William Cooper Nell, p. 107
Speech (June 1853)
Context: A colored battalion was organized for the defense of New Orleans, and General Jackson publicly thanked them for their courage and conduct. When the country has required their blood in days of trial and conflict, they have given it freely, and we have accepted it. But, in times of peace, when their blood is not needed, we spurn and trample them under foot. I have no part in this great wrong to a race. Wherever and whenever we have the power to do it, I would give to all men, of every clime and race, of every faith and creed, freedom and equality before the law. My voice and my voice shall ever be given for the equality of all of the children of men before the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States.

“Equality before the law of all men, no matter where they born, or from what race they sprung, is the sentiment of the people.”

Henry Wilson

Source: Speech (June 1853), p. 79

“When the Union needs my poor support, in peace or in war, I induge the hope that I shall not fail in the performance of any duty which may be required me. At any rate, I hope not to fall behind that class of men who are, on all occasions, blurting their devotion to the Union into the unwilling ears of the country.”

Henry Wilson

Source: Speech (June 1853), p. 78

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