WILSON, Hon. James F. - 1890 Bio (1828-1895)

WILSON, BRAMBLE, BLAIR, JEWETT

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 9/5/2007 at 18:44:42

Portrait and Biographical Album of Jefferson and Van Buren Counties, Iowa, Printed 1890 by Lake City Publishing Co., Chicago
Pages 169-172

Hon. James F. WILSON, United States Senator from Iowa.

Among the many eminent statesmen of America who have won prominence and distinction through their own unaided efforts, rising from humble stations in life where educational advantages where limited, to high places of public honor and trust, must be classed the Senator whose name heads this sketch. The story of the successful growth in political influence and power of such men as Lincoln, Garfield, Henry Wilson, Kirkwood, and James F. WILSON, with numerous others, touches the honest pride of the true American heart and rouses to a spirit of emulation the ambition of those who, conscious of the possession of superior talents and natural ability, find themselves hampered by the accident of birth in advantages of education.

James F. WILSON was born in Newark, Ohio, on the 19th of October, 1828, and is a son of David S. and Kitty A. (BRAMBLE) WILSON. His father, a native of Morgantown, Va., was born in 1800, of Scotch (sic) ancestry, and was a contractor and builder by trade. In Newark, Ohio, he married Miss Kitty A. BRAMBLE, who was born in Chillicothe, of that State, on the 16th of November, 1810. His death occurred in 1839, leaving three small children to the care of the mother. The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. WILSON taking an active part in everything that pertained to the advancement of the cause. Politically, he was a Whig. Their family numbered five children but only three lived to mature years, namely: James F., Mary J., wife of Dr. BLAIR, and David B. The mother died at the home of her daughter in Fairfield, January 28, 1875.

As our subject was the eldest of the children, at the death of his father, although then but eleven years of age, he was required to assist his mother in providing for the support of the family. Soon after his father's death, he was apprenticed to a saddle and harness maker, serving a term of several years. Under those circumstances, his educational advantages were necessarily limited, but by persistent effort and self culture and with the aid of several friends giving him private instructions at their homes, he succeeded in acquiring a good education, including some of the languages. His ambition was to qualify himself to enter the profession of the law and that fact coming to the knowledge of W. B. Woods, afterwards one of the Associated Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, he took a warm interest in the future of the young harness-maker, loaned him books and acted as his instructor. Mr. WILSON pursued his early law studies as he had his literary studies -- while working at his trade. In 1851, he quit the bench to devote his time to preparation for his chosen work. In 1852, he was admitted to the bar in his native town and there began the practice of his profession.

Thence Mr. WILSON was also married on the 25th of November, 1852, the lady of his choice being Miss Mary A. K. JEWETT, a native of Newark, Ohio, and a daughter of Alpheus JEWETT. Soon afterward he removed with his wife to Iowa and settled in Fairfield where he entered upon the practice of his profession. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. WILSON, two sons and a daughter -- Rollin J., the eldest, is the senior partner of the law firm of WILSON & Hinkle of Fairfield; Mary Blair, the only daughter, was educated at Fairfield and resides with her parents; James F., Jr., was born May 23, 1867, educated at Parsons College, in Fairfield, and in October, 1889, engaged in the boot and shoe business in that city. All were born in Fairfield. The Senator and his family attend the Congregational Church, of which Mrs. WILSON and the children are members.

In addition to his law practice, Mr. WILSON, soon after coming to Fairfield, participated in the editorial charge of the organ of his party and the able and vigorous manner in which he wielded the pen soon attracted attention and favorable comment from the public. He rapidly won prominence both as a lawyer and a writer, and in 1856, was chosen a member of the convention to revise the State Constitution of Iowa and proved one of the most active and useful members of that body. In 1857 he was appointed by the Governor of Iowa, Assistant Commissioner of the Des Moines River Improvement, then the most important work of the interior public improvements in the State. During the same year he was chosen to represent his disrict in the Lower House of the State Legislature and was made chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. In 1859, he was elected a member of the State Senate and served on the Judiciary Committee through whose hands passed the revision of 1860. In 1861 he was chosen President of the Senate and during the same year was elected to Congress to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Samuel R. Curtis. After serving the unexpired term of Gen. Curtis, Mr. WILSON was re-elected without opposition in any of the nominating conventions, to the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses and declined a further renomination. When he entered Congress he was placed on the Judiciary Committee of the House of the Thirty-seventh Congress, and in all probability was the youngest man ever placed on that committee, being only thirty-three years of age at that time. He continued to serve on that committee during the succeeding terms of his membership in the House and for six years was chairman of the committee. During that period the important judicial questions arising from the late war and consequent reconstruction of the relations between the States lately in rebellion and the government, made the duties of the Judiciary Committee more arduous and important than at any time since the formation of the government. How ably and faithfully he discharged the duties which devolved upon him is a matter of history. That he remained uninterruptedly at his head and that no measure favorably reported on by the committee failed in the House, is the best assurance of that that (sic) confidence placed by Congress in his work.

Originaly an anti-slavery Whig, Mr. WILSON joined the anti Nebraska party on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and soon afterwards took an active part in the organization of the Republican party in Iowa. He at once took prominence in the new party and was recognized as one of its most zealous and consistent adherents. "During his whole political career, whether in contests in his own State or the councils of the Nation, he has been a pronounced an unswerving friend of equal rights to all, without regard to race, color, or creed. He was an original advocate of the proposition to erase the word "white" from the State Constitution and persevered in his efforts in that direction until the final triumph of the measure in the canvass of 1868." "On December 7, 1863, the first day of the session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, Mr. WILSON gave notice in the House of his intention to introduce a joint resolution for an amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery. This was the first notice looking to that end ever given in the Congress of the United States. Shortly after he reported the resolution from the Judiciary Committee and on the 19th of March following, sustained it by a speech in the House, considered one of his ablest and most effective efforts." Mr. WILSON advocated, also, during this Congress, the employment of negro troops. He had no prejudices to conquer in this direction and was anxious to accept the services of the blacks in defense of the Union. He was a zealous and efficient worker in behalf of the repeal of the fugitive slave law, as of all other measures calculated to do away with the institution of slavery. Shortly after the assembling of the Thirty-ninth Congress, he reported, from the Judiciary Committee, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution to forever forbid the payment of any portion of the rebel debt. The resolution passed the House and although it was not acted upon in the Senate, its substance was imbodied (sic) in the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment." "Hatred of oppression, sympathy with the lowly, is as firmly ingrafted into Mr. WILSON's nature as it was in that of Lincoln or Garfield and springs as naturally as theirs from the rugged experiences of his early struggle with poverty and toil."

On entering Congress in December, 1861, the first resolution offered in that body by Mr. WILSON was one to instruct the committee on military affairs to report an additional article of war, prohibiting the use of of the United States forces to return fugitive slaves. The first bill ever reported to Congress for the enfranchisement of the colored people of the District of Columbia was reported by him. He reported and carried through the House a bill giving freedom to the wives and children of colored union soldiers. He reported and carried through the House the great Civil Rights Bill and fought earnestly, untiringly and successfully to engraft upon the constitution and to make alive and active in the Nations's statutes the principles of political and civic equality. In the second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, when the question of the impeachment of President Johnson came up for consideration and was continued in the Fortieth Congress, Mr. WILSON, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, reported on behalf of the minority against impeachment and carried his proposition through the House after a spirited debate. When the subject came again before the House on new charges, Mr. WILSON was made one of the managers appointed by the House to carry the articles of impeachment that were found against the President before the Senate, and to prosecute them there. In this instance, there was, in his judgment, no doubt about the power and duty of Congress. In his view a penal enactment of Congress had been violated, clearly, knowingly, intentionally and defiantly. Acting upon his convictions he gave to the prosecution of the case his most earnest and active efforts.

On the 4th of March, 1869, when U. S. Grant was inaugurated President, James F. WILSON was serving his last day in Congress, and had determined to retire to private life. But on that day the new President sent for him and tendered him the first place in his cabinet, that of Secretary of State. After consideration, becoming so important a proposition and of certain circumstances bearing on the subject of which it is not necessary here to speak, Mr. WILSON declined the appointment. President Grant pressed him to accept one of two other cabinet positions but he declined to serve in either and returned to private life.

One of the principal reasons given by Mr. WILSON for refusing such an honorable appointment was that he wished to spend his time with his family from whom he had been so long separated while in the public service. Accordingly, in the spring of 1869, he returned to his home in Fairfield and resumed the practice of his profession. Shortly afterwards he was appointed by Grant as one of the Government Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad Company and served eight years in that capacity. He enjoyed during the succeeding twelve years after leaving Congress, a large and lucrative law practice and accumulated a comfortable fortune. While refusing to accept public office he took an active part in campaign work and was prominent and influential in the conventions of his party. In 1881, he announced himself as a candidate for United States Senator, and in support of his claims made one of the most remarkable canvasses known in the political history of the country. It was a novelty in Iowa politics, or of any other State, for a candidacy for the Senate to be, not a fusilade between rival candidates, but a process of public education. Mr. WILSON delivered eight written addresses on subjects of deep interest to the people, on topics scientific, literary, theological, historial and political. The character of these several addresses suggested thorough study, deep research and a broad and diversified knowledge that enlightened the people of Iowa as to the capabilities of the man, and won for him an election to the Senate of the United States without opposition. At the close of his term of office he was re-elected unanimously and is now serving his second term in the highest branch of the National Congress. To the liberality and personal efforts of Mr. WILSON, is largely due the perfection and importance of the Fairfield Public Library, the largest library of miscellaneous works in the State and one which possesses a museum of cultural curiosities, Indian relics, Roman antiquities, etc. which is not equaled in the variety or extent west of the Mississippi. The library contains one of the most complete set of public documents, including reports of Congressional proceedings from the Continental Congress to the present time.

Mr. WILSON not only contributed liberally in time and means to the cause, but through his influence secured generous contributions from people outside of Iowa. He has also taken an active interest in support of the cause of temperance, and the friends of reform in this direction in Iowa, have never had reason to doubt his sincerity, but have always been sure of his earnest co-operation. He is the author of the bill which recently passed the Senate and is known in common parlance as the original package bill. He reported said bill from the judiciary committee of which he is a member and had charge of its consideration in that body and until its first passage. He is always to be found in the van of every movement of great public interest, which has the welfare of the people as its object. By the purity of his life, both public and private; his splendid talents as a statesman and his industry and fidelity to every trust reposed in him, Mr. WILSON was won a place in the hearts of the people of which his friends may well be proud.

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

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