WILSON, HENRY

(1812-73), vice president of the U.S.A., born at Farming ton, New Hampshire. He was for a time a shoemaker, but in 1840 was elected to the Ma achusetts legislature and state senate, entering the U.S. Senate in 1855. He was chairman of the important committee on military affairs during the Civil War, and in 1873 became vice president with Grant. His chief work was History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872-75; but he also wrote Anti-Slavery Measures in Congre , 1864; and Military Measures tn Congre , 1868.