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ANN KENEVAN on February 17, 2024

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ANN KENEVAN

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY February 16, 2024 Henry Wilson, the Republican who Wrote the DC Emancipation Act the 18th Vice President of the United States, born February 16th 1812. On being emancipated from indentured servitude, Jeremiah Colbath changed his name to Henry Wilson. He worked as a shoemaker, ... View MoreON THIS DAY IN HISTORY February 16, 2024 Henry Wilson, the Republican who Wrote the DC Emancipation Act the 18th Vice President of the United States, born February 16th 1812. On being emancipated from indentured servitude, Jeremiah Colbath changed his name to Henry Wilson. He worked as a shoemaker, then taught elementary school. Shocked by a slave auction while visiting Washington in 1836, Wilson became an abolitionist. This young Whig served several terms in the Massachusetts legislature and six years as brigadier general of the state militia. He bought a newspaper, the Boston Republican, and co-founded the Free Soil Party, serving as its national chairman. In 1852, Wilson lost for the U.S. House of Representatives, and the next year, for Governor. In 1855, a coalition of the Free Soil and American parties along with a scattering of Democrats elected him a U.S. Senator. He joined the Republicans when the Bay State GOP arose later that year. Outbreak of civil war, Wilson recruited the state’s 22nd Volunteer Infantry, but Senate obligations forced him to resign its colonelcy. Radically pro-freedom, he was a leader of the Radical Republicans and chaired the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. This conscientious Senator wrote the District of Columbia Emancipation Act, which, against unanimous Democrat opposition, freed all slaves in the nation's capital. He also introduced the first-ever federal civil rights legislation, to outlaw the Democrats' Black Codes. In a postwar speech at New Orleans, Wilson said: "I do not want to see a white man's party nor a black man's party. I warn you tonight, as I do the black men of this country everywhere, to remember this: that while a black man is as good as a white man, a white man is as good as a black man. See to it while you are striving to lift yourselves up, that you do not strive to pull anybody else down." He served as Vice President during Ulysses Grant's second term, until death in 1875. "Henry Wilson was ambitious, but his ambition was ambition to serve, to bear burdens, to meet responsibilities, to perform labors; to stand in the front rank — not so much that he might lead, as that he might take the hard knocks of a leader; that he might somewhere and at some time, anywhere and at any time, do the country yeoman service." https://rumble.com/v4dsm4c-henry-wilson-from-indentured-servant-to-vice-president.html

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Henry Wilson, from Indentured Servant to Vice President rumble.com

1 February 17, 2024