Editing Henry Wilson (section)

===Equal rights activism===
{{further|African Americans in the Civil War}}
On December 16, 1861, Wilson introduced a bill to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C., something he had desired to do since his visit to the nation's capital 25 years earlier.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}} At this time fugitive slaves from the war were being held in prisons of Washington, D.C., and faced the possibility of return to their owners. Wilson said of his bill that it would "blot out slavery forever from the nation's capital".{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}} The measure met bitter opposition from the Democrats who remained in the Senate after those from the southern states vacated their seats to join the Confederacy, but it passed.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}} After passage in the House, President Lincoln signed Wilson's bill into law on April 16, 1862.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|pp=316–317}}

[[File:DutchGapb.jpg|thumb|right|African American Union soldiers, Dutch Gap, Virginia, November 1864]]

On July 8, 1862, Wilson drafted a measure that authorized the President to enlist African Americans who had been held in slavery and were deemed competent for military service, and employ them to construct fortifications and carry out other military-related manual labor, the first step towards allowing African Americans to serve as soldiers.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=315}} President Lincoln signed the amendment into law on July 17.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=315}} Wilson's law paid African Americans in the military $10 monthly, which was effectively $7 a month after deductions for food and clothing, while white soldiers were paid effectively $14 monthly.<ref name=N&H_2009_pp441-442>John G. Nicolay and John Hay (2009), ''Life of Abraham Lincoln'' Volume VI, pp. 441–442</ref>

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln's [[Emancipation Proclamation]] freed all slaves held in bondage in the Southern states or territories then in rebellion against the federal government. On February 2, 1863, Congress built on Wilson's 1862 law by passing a bill authored by Pennsylvania Congressman [[Thaddeus Stevens]], which authorized the enlistment of 150,000 African Americans into the Union Army for service as uniformed soldiers.<ref name=Bogue_Dec1987_p329>Allan C. Bogue (December 1987), "William Parker Cutler's Congressional Diary of 1862–63," ''Civil War History'', p. 329 (February 2, 1863)</ref>

On February 17, 1863, Wilson introduced a bill that would federally fund elementary education for African American youth in Washington, D.C.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=326}} President Lincoln signed the bill into law on March 3, 1863.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=326}}

Wilson added an amendment to the 1864 [[Enrollment Act]] which provided that formerly enslaved African Americans from slave holding states remaining in the Union who enlisted in the Union Army would be considered permanently free by action of the federal government, rather than through individual emancipation by the states or their owners, thus preventing the possibility of their re-enslavement.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=331}}  President Lincoln signed this measure into law on February 24, 1864, freeing more than 20,000 slaves in Kentucky alone.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=331}}

[[File:Lincoln2ndInauguration.jpg|thumb|left|African American Union Troops at Lincoln's second Inauguration, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1865. Wilson successfully authored legislation granting them equal pay in June 1864]]

Wilson supported the right of black men to join the uniformed services. Once African Americans were permitted to serve in the military, Wilson advocated in the Senate for them to receive equal pay and other benefits.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Rives |editor-first=John C. |date=1864 |title=The Congressional Globe |series=Congressional globe (Permanent edition) |volume=38th Congress, 1st session, Volume 2 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c109461348&view=1up&seq=911 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Congressional Globe Office |pages=1805–1806 |via=[[HathiTrust]]}}</ref> A Vermont newspaper portrayed Wilson's position and enhanced his nationwide reputation as an abolitionist by editorializing "Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, in a speech in the U.S. Senate on Friday, said he thought our treatment of the negro soldiers almost as bad as [[Battle of Fort Pillow#Massacre|that of the rebels at Fort Pillow]]. This is hardly an exaggeration."<ref>''The Burlington Free Press''. "Our Colored Soldiers." April 29, 1864: 2.</ref>
[[File:Sgt. Samuel Smith, African American soldier in Union uniform with wife and two daughters.jpg|thumb|right|African American Union soldier and his family&nbsp;... circa 1863–1865]]
On June 15, 1864, Wilson succeeded in adding a provision to an appropriations bill which addressed the pay disparity between whites and blacks in the military by authorizing equal salaries and benefits for African American soldiers.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=334}} Wilson's provision stated that "all persons of color who had been or might be mustered into the military service should receive the same uniform, clothing, rations, medical and hospital attendance, and pay" as white soldiers, to date from January 1864.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=334}}

Wilson introduced a bill in Congress which would free in the Union's slave-holding states the still-enslaved families of former slaves serving in the Union Army.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=335}} In advocating for passage, Wilson argued that allowing the family members of soldiers to remain in slavery was a "burning shame to this country&nbsp;... Let us hasten the enactment&nbsp;... that, on the forehead of the soldier's wife and the soldier's child, no man can write "Slave".{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=335}}  President Lincoln signed the measure into law on March 3, 1865, and an estimated 75,000 African American women and children were freed in Kentucky alone.{{sfn|Nason|Russell|1876|p=335}}