Robinson, he
Says he won't vote for Governor B."
The Governor B. was Governor George N. Briggs, with whom Robinson had
a quarrel about the year 1845.
Henry Wilson, afterwards Senator and Vice-President of the United
States, was a member of the House in 1842 and 1843. He had risen to
notice in the campaign of 1840. He was engaged by the Whig Party as
one of its speakers and announced as the "Natick Cobbler."
He had worked in the trade of a shoemaker, and as the shoe interest was
already a large interest in the State, it was a matter of no slight
importance to give distinction to a representative of the craft.
Wilson's family were destitute of culture, and although he had had the
advantage of training at an academy for a year, perhaps, his
attainments were very limited. I recollect papers in his handwriting
in which the rule requiring a sentence to commence with a capital
letter was disregarded uniformly. His style of speaking was heavy and
unattractive. This peculiarity remained to the end. In those days
Wilson was known as an Anti-Slavery Whig. In some respects Wilson's
political career was tortuous, but in all his windings he was true to
the cause of human liberty.
Although I was acquainted with Wilson from 1842 to the time of his
death, I could never so analyze the man as to understand the elements
of the power which he possessed.
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