Editing Henry Wilson (section)

===U.S. Senator (1855–1873)===
[[File:Hon. Henry Wilson, Mass - NARA - 528305.jpg|right|thumb|U.S. Senator Henry Wilson, photograph by [[Mathew Brady]]]]
In 1855 Wilson was elected to the [[United States Senate]] by a coalition of [[Free Soil Party|Free-Soilers]], [[Know Nothing]]s, and anti-slavery [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]], filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of [[Edward Everett]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Anbinder |first=Tyler |date=1992 |title=Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lWlRyjY7EvwC&pg=PA147 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=146–147 |isbn=978-0-19-507233-4}}</ref> He had briefly joined the Know-Nothings in an attempt to strengthen their anti-slavery efforts,<ref>{{cite book |last=McPherson |first=James M. |date=1988 |title=Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era |url=https://archive.org/details/battlecryoffreed00mcph |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/battlecryoffreed00mcph/page/139 139] |isbn=978-0-19-503863-7}}</ref> but aligned himself with the Republican Party at its creation, formed largely along the lines of the anti-slavery coalition Wilson had helped develop and nurture.<ref>{{cite book |last= Smalley |first=Eugene Virgil |date=1896 |title=A History of the Republican Party from its Organization to the Present Time |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2EPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA94 |location=St. Paul, MN |publisher=E. V. Smalley |pages=94, 97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gienapp |first=William E. |date=1987 |title=The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWtZnsxMCDEC&pg=PA135 |location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=135–139 |isbn=978-0-19-504100-2}}</ref> Wilson was reelected as a Republican in 1859, 1865 and 1871,<ref>{{cite book |last=LeMay |first=Michael C. |date=2013 |title=Transforming America: Perspectives on U.S. Immigration |volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HvAHGE4n-EC&pg=PA230 |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=Praeger |page=230 |isbn=978-0-313-39644-1}}</ref> and served from January 31, 1855, to March 3, 1873, when he resigned in order to begin his vice presidential term on March 4.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Byrd |first1=Robert C. |last2=Wolff |first2=Wendy |date=1993 |title=Senate, 1789–1989: Historical Statistics, 1789–1992 |volume=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PeHByMYxVm8C&pg=PA262 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=262 |isbn=978-0160632563}}</ref>

{{further|Abolitionism in the United States}}
In his first Senate speech in 1855, Wilson continued to align himself with the abolitionists, who wanted to immediately end slavery in the United States and its territories.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|pp=323–324}} In his speech, Wilson said he wanted to abolish slavery "wherever we are morally and legally responsible for its existence", including Washington, D.C.,{{sfn|Haynes|1936|pp=323–324}} Wilson also demanded repeal of the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], believing the federal government should have no responsibility for enforcing slavery, and that once the act was repealed tensions between slavery proponents and opponents would abate, enabling those Southerners who opposed slavery to help end it in their own time.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|pp=323–324}}

{{further|Bleeding Kansas}}
[[File:Preston Brooks-SC2 crop.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Preston Brooks challenged Wilson to a duel in 1856.]]
On May 22, 1856, [[Preston Brooks]] brutally assaulted Senator [[Charles Sumner]] on the Senate floor, leaving Sumner bloody and unconscious. Brooks had been upset over Sumner's ''Crimes Against Kansas'' speech that denounced the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]].{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} After the beating, Sumner received medical treatment at the Capitol, following which Wilson and [[Nathaniel P. Banks]], the [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]], aided Sumner to travel by carriage to his lodgings, where he received further medical attention.<ref>{{cite book |last=Phelps |first=Charles A. |date=1872 |title=Life and Public Services of Ulysses S. Grant |url=https://archive.org/details/lifepublicservic00phela |location=New York|publisher=Lee and Shepard |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifepublicservic00phela/page/362 362]}}</ref> Wilson called [[Caning of Charles Sumner|the beating by Brooks]] "brutal, murderous, and cowardly".{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} Brooks immediately challenged Wilson to a duel. Wilson declined, saying that he could not legally or by personal conviction participate.{{sfn|Haynes|1936|p=324}} In reference to a rumor that Brooks might attack Wilson in the Senate as he had attacked Sumner, Wilson told the press "I have sought no controversy, and I seek none, but I shall go where duty requires, uninfluenced by threats of any kind."<ref>{{cite news |date=June 11, 1856 |title=A telegraphic Lie Nailed |url=https://www.genealogybank.com |work=Massachusetts Spy |location=Worcester, MA |page=4 |via=[[GenealogyBank.com]]}}</ref> The rumors proved unfounded, and Wilson continued his Senate duties without incident.

The attack on Sumner took place just one day after pro-slavery Missourians killed one person in the burning and sacking of [[Sacking of Lawrence|Lawrence, Kansas]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Willard |first=Emma |date=1866 |title=History of the United States: or, Republic of America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YHJTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA486 |location=New York, NY |publisher=A. S. Barnes & Co. |page=487}}</ref> The attack on Sumner and the sacking of Lawrence were later viewed as two of the incidents which symbolized the "breakdown of reasoned discourse." This phrase came to describe the period when activists and politicians moved past the debate of anti-slavery and pro-slavery speeches and non-violent actions, and into the realm of physical violence, which in part hastened the onset of the [[American Civil War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://inthecornermumblinganddrooling.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/the-july-crisis-part-3-excuses-for-treason/ |title=The July Crisis Part 3: "Excuses" for Treason |last=The Contrarians |date=August 8, 2013 |website=In the Corner}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/The_Caning_of_Senator_Charles_Sumner.htm |title=May 22, 1856: The Caning of Senator Charles Sumner |website=US Senate History, 1851–1877 |publisher=Historian of the United States States Senate |access-date=July 17, 2016}}</ref>
[[File:WMGwin.jpg|thumb|right|upright|In 1858, Wilson was challenged to a duel by California Democratic Senator William M. Gwin.]]
In June 1858 Wilson made a Senate speech in which he suggested corruption in the government of California{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}} and implied complicity on the part of Senator [[William M. Gwin]], a pro-slavery Democrat who had served as a member of Congress from Mississippi before moving to California.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=g000540 |title=Biography, William McKendree Gwin |last1=Historian, U.S. House of Representatives |last2=Historian, U.S. Senate |website=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress |publisher=United States House of Representatives and United States Senate |access-date=November 13, 2015}}</ref> Gwin was backed by a powerful Southern coalition of pro-slavery Democrats called the Chivs, who had a monopoly on federal patronage in California.{{sfn|Richards|2007|pp=93, 183–184}}  Gwin accused Wilson of demagoguery, and Wilson responded by saying he would rather be thought a [[demagogue]] than a thief.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}  Gwin then challenged Wilson to a duel; Wilson declined in the same terms he used to decline a duel with Preston Brooks.{{sfn|Hornellsville Weekly Tribune (06-24-1858)|page=3}}  In fact neither Gwin nor Wilson wanted to follow through,{{sfn|Shelden|2013|p=31–32}} and commentary about the dispute broke down along partisan lines. One pro-Gwin editorial called the insinuation that Gwin was corrupt "a most malignant falsehood",{{sfn|Washington Union 1858|page=2}} while a pro-Wilson editorial called his reluctance to take part in a duel evidence that he was "honest" and "conscientious", and had "more respect for the laws of this country than his adversary".{{sfn|Hornellsville Weekly Tribune (06-24-1858)|page=3}}  After several attempts to find a face-saving compromise, Gwin and Wilson agreed to refer their dispute to three senators who would serve as mediators.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}} [[William H. Seward]], [[John J. Crittenden]] and [[Jefferson Davis]] were chosen, and produced an acceptable solution.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}  At their instigation, Wilson stated to the Senate that he had not meant to impugn Gwin's honor, and Gwin replied by saying that he had not meant to question Wilson's motives.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}  In addition, the mediators caused to be removed from the Senate record both Gwin's remarks about demagoguery and Wilson's suggestion that Gwin was a thief.{{sfn|Myers|2005|page=384}}