William B. Allison
William Boyd Allison (March 2, 1829 – August 4, 1908) was an American politician. An early leader of the Iowa Republican Party, he represented northeastern Iowa in the United States House of Representatives before representing his state in the United States Senate. By the 1890s, Allison had become one of the "big four" key Republicans who largely controlled the Senate, along with Orville H. Platt of Connecticut, John Coit Spooner of Wisconsin and Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island.
"Senator Allison" redirects here. For other uses, see Senator Allison (disambiguation).
William B. Allison
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Born in Perry, Ohio, Allison established a legal practice in Dubuque, Iowa and became a prominent member of the nascent Iowa Republican Party. He was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention and won election to the House of Representatives in 1862. He served four terms in the House and won election to the Senate in 1872. He became chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, serving for all but two years between 1881 and 1908. Four different Republican presidents asked Allison to join their Cabinet, but Allison declined each offer. A significant number of delegates supported his presidential nomination at the 1888 and 1896 Republican National Conventions.
Allison emerged as a centrist and pragmatic leader in the Senate, and he helped pass several important bills. The Bland–Allison Act of 1878 restored bimetallism, but in a less inflationary manner than had been sought by Congressman Richard P. Bland. A prominent advocate of higher tariffs, Allison played a major role in the passage of the McKinley Tariff and the Dingley Act. He also helped pass the Hepburn Act by offering the Allison amendment, which granted courts the power to review the Interstate Commerce Commission's railroad rate-setting. Allison sought a record seventh term in 1908, but died shortly after winning the Republican primary against progressive leader Albert B. Cummins.
Early life and career[edit]
Born in Perry, Ohio, Allison was educated at Wooster Academy.[1] Afterward, he spent a year at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, then graduated from Western Reserve College (then located in Hudson, Ohio) in 1849. He then studied law and began practicing in Ashland, Ohio. While practicing law there from 1852 until 1857, he was a delegate to the 1855 Ohio Republican Convention and an unsuccessful candidate for district attorney in 1856.[1] In 1857, he moved to Dubuque, Iowa, which would serve as his hometown for the last fifty years of his life.
While in Ohio, Allison's rise in politics coincided during a period of time where the Whig Party was facing collapse due to internal divisions over slavery. An abolitionist and supporter of business interests, he served in conventions to the newly formed Republican Party as well as the Know Nothing Party.[2]
Although serving in the 1856 Know Nothing national convention, Allison left the party and joined the Republicans.[2] Following an unsuccessful bid for county attorney, he moved to Dubuque, Iowa, where his older brother resided. Although the city was a stronghold for the Democratic Party at the time, Allison's ties with a law partnership and a Presbyterian church proved to successfully propel him into the state GOP leadership.[2]
Civil War[edit]
After his arrival in Dubuque, Allison took a prominent part in the politics of the nascent Republican Party. He was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago,[3] which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States.
During the subsequent Civil War, he was on the staff of Iowa Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, who ordered him to help the state raise regiments for the war. He personally helped raise four regiments. He was given the rank of lieutenant colonel during the war, although it was unlikely he actually served in uniform.
In 1862, in the midst of the war, Allison was elected to the United States House of Representatives as the representative of Iowa's newly created 3rd congressional district.[4] As a congressman and member of the House Ways and Means Committee,[1] he pushed for higher tariffs.
The Census of 1860 led to an increase in Iowa's congressional district seats from two to six. In the 1862 midterms, Allison ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from the third district which included Dubuque, challenging incumbent Republican congressman William Vandever.[2] Benefiting from connections to Kirkwood in addition to railroad interests, he denied Vandever renomination and won the general election.[5]
In the House, Allison sided with the powerful Radical Republican wing of the party which frequently opposed President Lincoln's policies as being too moderate,[2] instead favoring a harsher treatment of the Confederacy. After being re-elected in 1864,[6] he was a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, in addition to emerging as a leading expert on protective tariffs and railroads.[2] His tariff viewpoints were described as having "not always pleased" constituents.[7]
The Radical Republicans were not unified on ideological issues aside from their advocacy of harsher Reconstruction policies to ensure and safeguard the constitutional rights of blacks. Indeed, Allison broke from the factions' more staunchly conservative members in maintaining a moderate stance on tariff policy.[2] However, he strongly represented railroad interests,[8] on which he was accused of conflicts of interests.