| HON. WILLIAM B. ALLISON. Not alone through the
development of its material resources has Iowa gained a national
reputation, but since its organization as a state it has contributed
to our country many of its most eminent statesmen and gifted men,
who in its administrative councils, and in both Houses of Congress,
have reflected honor upon and given marked distinction to our state.
What is true in a national sense is also true as respects the
management of our state affairs, which have been so conducted as to
maintain the honor and integrity of our state at home and among our
sister states. Among the number of influential men, none are more
widely or favorably known than the subject of this review, whose
long public service in the House of Representatives and in the
Senate has brought him into a constantly increasing prominence among
the people. The events in the life of a public man are always read
with interest, and this is especially true when, as in the career of
Senator Allison, he has labored to promote the advancement of the
best interests of the people as he understood those interests. He
has a well earned reputation for industry and activity in the great
bodies of which he has been a conspicuous member.
The ancestors of Senator Allison were of Scotch-Irish origin.
Both of his grandfathers migrated to Pennsylvania from the North of
Ireland just after the close of the War of the Revolution, where his
father, John Allison, was born in 1798. That state was also the
birthplace of his mother, who bore the maiden name of Margaret
Williams. In 1824 John Allison, then married, settled in Perry
Township, Wayne County, Ohio, on eighty acres of land, where he
built a house of rude logs and cleared a farm, which was afterwards
enlarged to one hundred and sixty acres.
In this log cabin and on this farm, March 2, 1829, the subject of
this sketch was born. In his early life he had the advantage of an
excellent common-school education; afterward he spent a year at
Allegheny (Pa.) College, and another year at Western Reserve
College, then located at Hudson, but now at Cleveland, Ohio. On
leaving college he read law at Wooster, Ohio, whence in 1852 he
removed to Ashland and began the practice of law. He continued thus
engaged with reasonable success until the spring of 1857, when he
removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and here he has since resided. He
practiced law in Dubuque with good success until he entered the
House of Representatives, March 3, 1863, having
been elected from the Third District of Iowa in the fall of 1862.
During 1861 and 1862 he was a member of the staff of Governor
Kirkwood, and as such had full authority to raise troops for the war
in the northern part of the state. He complied with the wishes and
executed the orders of the Governor with fidelity and success,
raising four regiments for the field. He was the first to suggest to
Governor Kirkwood the importance of calling an extra session of the
Legislature to authorize Iowa soldiers in the field to vote. Since
March, 1863, with the exception of the years 1871 and 1873, he has
been a member of the House or Senate. He left the House March 4
1871, and entered the Senate March 3,
1873, and when his present term n the Senate expires, March 4, 1897,
he will have served twenty-four years in that body. At the beginning
of his second term in the House, March 3, 1865, he was appointed a
member of the Ways and Means Committee and so continued during the
remainder of his service in the House, being one of its most
conspicuous members on all questions relating to tariff, internal
taxation and other questions of a financial character. Some of the
most important legislation of that period bears the impress of his
guiding hand.
Senator Allison always advocated a tariff so adjusted as to
afford protection to American industries and American labor, but did
not always follow the leaders of the party into what has been termed
extreme protection, and some of his earlier speeches upon this
subject have been criticized by his party friends and quoted by the
opposing party as hostile to the policy of protection. In 1873 he
entered the Senate, and four years later was placed on the Finance
Committee, and from that time has taken a prominent part in all
financial legislation. He was chairman of a sub-committee that
revised the laws relating to the administration of the tariff, and
framed the legislation now on our statute books relating to the
collection of duties, and which was not disturbed in the revision of
the tariff made in 1894. He was chairman of the sub-committee that
framed the Senate substitute for the Mills bill in 1888, and had
charge of the bill in the Senate.
To currency legislation, and especially the silver question,
Senator Allison devoted considerable attention, and was the author
of the law of 1878 which provided for limited coinage of silver on
account of the Government. These suggestions were brought forward in
the form of amendments to the free coinage bill proposed by Mr.
Bland, and were adopted by both Houses and passed over the veto of
President Hayes. This measure was probably the most
conservative that could have been passed at that time, and, though
much criticized, has borne the test of time. It remained unchanged
until it gave way for the Sherman act of 1890. Senator Allison has
always been a bimetallist in the true sense of that word, believing
that both silver and gold, as full legal tender money, are necessary
to the commerce of the world.
In 1888 Senator Allison's name was brought forward as a prominent
candidate for the Presidency and was favorably received. During his
entire service in the Senate, he has been a member of the important
Committee on Appropriations, and for twelve years, when the
Republicans were in the majority, and up to March, 1893, was
chairman of the committee. Always careful in regard to details, he
favored liberal and fair appropriations for every essential public
purpose, and always held the confidence of his associates respecting
these details. He was twice tendered the position of Secretary of
the Treasury, first by President Garfield in 1881, and again by
President Harrison in 1889. He declined both offers, preferring to
remain in the Senate.
Outside of his official capacity, Mr. Allison is known and
esteemed as a generous, benevolent man, an agreeable companion,
considerate friend and progressive citizen. Starting in life with
nothing but his own energy and ability and upright character with
which to make his way, he has achieved success beyond most of his
fellows and secured for himself an important place in the history of
his state and country. Though absorbed in great national questions,
he has never failed to give full attention to every interest of his
state, and no one ever sought his services from Iowa that did not
find him ready and
willing to render such aid as was in his power.
Mr. Allison has been twice married. In 1855 he was united with
Anna Carter, who was a daughter of Daniel Carter, Esq., of Ashland,
Ohio, and died in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1859. In 1873 he married Miss
Mary Neally, of Burlington, Iowa, a niece and adopted daughter of
the late Senator Grimes. She died in 1883. Senator Allison, though
in comfortable circumstances, has never turned his attention to
money making, as his whole time since he entered Congress has been
absorbed in public and political affairs. |
Dubuque
County IAGenWeb