Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/641

* WILSON. 547 WILSON. lowing year; and then served two terms in the State Senate. About tliis time he began to be an active opponent of slavery, and in 1848 lie bouf>ht the Boston liccordcr and edited it in tlic inter- ests of the Free-Soil Party. In IS.'iO he was again elected to the State Senate, and was chosen presi- dent of that body. In lSr)2 he presided over the Free-Soil Convention at Pittsburg. In ISS.'i he was cliosen by a combination of Free-Soilers and Americans or Know-Nothings to succeed Edward Kvcrett in the thiitcd States Senate, and re- tained his seat until 187;?. He denounced the assault of I'reston K. l!rooks upon Charles Sum- ner, and was challenged l)y P>rooks, but declined, although he ex]n-es.sed his determination to de- fend himself if attacked. Before the Civil War he was considered one of the most efTeelive speak- ers against slavery, and one of the foremost lead- ers of those who believed in fighting that insti- tution through the machinery supplied by the Federal Constitution. In March, IStjl, he was made chairman of the Committee on Jlilitar)- Afl'airs. After hostilities began he raised the Twenty-second Jlassaehusetts Regiment and took it to the field, serving on the staff of General McClellan until Congress met. In 1872 he was nominated for the Vice-Presidency by the Repub- licans on the ticket with Grant and was elected. In the following year he was stricken with paralysis, and died two years later. He was widely known during his political career as the 'Natick Cobbler.' a nickname given to him in allusion to his early life. Among his published works are: History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh, and Thirty-eighth Congresses, lSGl-6'i ('l804) ; History of the Re- constrnction- Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, It-tGo-dH (18(58); and the almost completed History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave I'owe.r in America (1872-77), an exceedingly valuable work. Consult: Kussell and Nason, Life and I'uhlic Services of Henry Wilson (Boston, 1872) ; and Stowe, Men of Our Times (Hartford, 1868). WILSON,, Horace Hayman (178G-18G0). An Engli.sh Sanskrit scholar, born in London, and educated for the medical profession. In 1808 he went to India as assistant surgeon on the Bengal Establishment, and a short time afterwards obtained an appointment in the Calcutta mint as assistant to Leyden. He applied himself diligently to the study of San- skrit, and upon the decease of Hunter in 1811 was appointed to succeed him as secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, on the recommendation of Colebrooke. At Calcutta in 1813 Wilson pub- lished his first work, an edition of Kalidasa's Ucghadnta. His next publication was il Diction- ary, Sanskrit and English (1819-40), which was followed by many other contributions. His works were published in a collective edition of twelve volumes (1804-70). Among them as written, edited, or translated by him are : Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, translated from the Original Sanskrit (3 vols., 1827); The Raghii Vansa, or Race of liaghu, a Historical Foem, by KulidOsa (1832) ; The Vishn'u-Punin'a, a System of Hindu Mythology, translated from the Original Sanskrit (1840) ; An lilt rod action to the Gram- mar of the Sansk-rit Language (1841); Ariana Antiqua, a Descriptive Account of the Antiquities and Coins of Afghanistan (1841); History of liritish India from JS05 to 1835 (1848) ; Rig- Veda-Sanhita (1850) ; .1 Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms, from the Arahio, Fersian. Hin- dustani, etc. (ISSG). He became professor of Sanskrit in Oxford in 1832, and held this position till his ih'atli. WILSON, .Jack. See'WovoKA. WILSON, James (1742-08). An American jurist, and a signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. He was born near Saint Andrews, Scotland, was educated at Saint Andrews, Glas- gow, and Edinburgh, and in 1703 emigrated to Kew Yock, wlience he removed to Philadelphia in 1766. He taught Latin in the Philadelphia Col- lege (now University of Pennsylvania), studied law under .John Dickinson (q.v.), and was ad- mitted to the b;ir in 1707. He was a delegate to the Provincial Convention of 177.'i: was apfiointed Indian commissioner for the middle department in the same year; was a mendjcr of the Conti- nental Congress in 1775-77 and in 1782-83, and of the Confederation Congress in 1785-87; was advocate-general for the French Government from 1779 to 1783; was appointed briga- dier-general of militia in 1782; and, in the same year, was Pennsylvania's counsel in the suit vaVn Connecticut over the possession of the Wyoming Valley. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and took a foremost part in the debates, emphasizing the contention that sovereignty rests ultimately with the peoi)le rather than with the constituent States. Subsequently he was a member of the Pennsylvania Convention, and with Thomas Me- Kean secured the ratification of the Constitution by that State. His opening speech is still re- garded as one of the clearest expositions ever made of the general character of the Con- stitution. Of this and his other speeches in the two conventions James Bryce has said that '"They display an amplitude and pro- fundity of view in matters of constitutional theory which place him in the front raidcs of po- litical thinkers of his age." In 17S!)-t)0 he wa.s a prominent member of the convention ■n'hich re- modeled the State Constitution; in 1791 he be- came professor of law in the Philadelphia Col- lege; and from 1789 until his death he was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He wrote several pamphlets, including Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Government (1774) and An Address to the Citizens of Phila- delphia (1784). His Works have been edited by his son, Bird Wilson (1-803-04), and by James D. Andrews (Chicago, 1890). Consult an article by Justice J. M. Harlan, "James Wilson and the Formation of the Constitution," in the American Laic Review, vol. xx.xiv. WILSON, Jame.s (179.5-1856). A Scottish zoologist. He was a younger brother of John Wilson (q.v.), better known as 'Christopher North.' He was born at Paisley. He studied law and traveled several years in Holland. Ger- many, and Switzerland. He visited Paris and re- ■ turned to buy the Dufresne collection of birds, which he arranged in the museum of Edinburgh University. In 1819 he visited Sweden and from 1820 to 1821 a disease of the lungs compelled him to live in Italy. In 1824 he settled in Wood-