Chapter VI: Henry Wilson

Lincoln, Chase and Wilson as Illustrations of Democracy--Wilson's
Birth and Boyhood--Reads over One Thousand Books in Ten Years
--Learns Shoemaking--Earns an Education Twice Over--Forms a
Debating Society--Makes Sixty Speeches for Harrison--Enters
into Political Life on the Working-Men's Side--Helps to form
the Free Soil Party--Chosen United States Senator over Edward
Everett--Aristocratic Politics in those Days--Wilson and the
Slaveholding Senators--The Character of his Speaking--Full of
Facts and Practical Sense--His Usefulness as Chairman of the
Military Committee--His "History of the Anti-Slavery Measures
in Congress"--The 37th and 38th Congresses--The Summary of
Anti-Slavery Legislation from that Book--Other Abolitionist
Forces--Contrast of Sentiments of Slavery and of Freedom--
Recognition of Hayti and Liberia; Specimen of the Debate--Slave
and Free Doctrine on Education--Equality in Washington Street
Cars--Pro-Slavery Good Taste--Solon's Ideal of Democracy
Reached in America. 269