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increasing prominence among the people. The events in the life of a
public man are always read with interest, and this is especially true when, as in the career of
Senator Allison, he has labored to promote the advancement of the best interests of the people as
he understood those interests. He has a well earned reputation for industry and activity in the
great bodies of which he has been a conspicuous member.
The ancestors of Senator Allison were of Scotch-Irish origin. Both of his grandfathers migrated to
Pennsylvania from the North of Ireland just after the close of the War of the Revolution, where his
father, John Allison, was born in 1798. That state was also the birthplace of his mother, who bore
the maiden name of Margaret Williams. In 1824 John Allison, then married, settled in Perry
Township, Wayne County, Ohio, on eighty acres of land, where he built a house of rude logs and
cleared a farm, which was afterwards enlarged to one hundred and sixty acres.
In this log cabin and on this farm, March 2, 1829, the subject of this sketch was born. In his
early life he had the advantage of an excellent common school education; afterward he spent a year
at Allegheny (Pa.) College, and another year at Western Reserve College, then located at Hudson,
but now at Cleveland, Ohio. On leaving college, he read law at Wooster, Ohio, whence in 1852 he
removed to Ashland and began the practice of law. He continued thus engaged with reasonable success
until the spring of 1857, when he removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and here he has since resided. He
practiced law in Dubuque with good success until he entered the House of representatives, March 3,
1863, having been elected from the Third District of Iowa in the fall of 1862. During 1861 and 1862
he was a member of the staff of Governor Kirkwood, and as such had full authority to raise troops
for the war in the northern part of the state. He complied with the wishes and executed the orders
of the Governor with fidelity and success, raising four regiments for the field. He was the first
to suggest to Governor Kirkwood the importance of calling an extra session of the Legislature to
authorize Iowa soldiers in the field to vote. Since March, 1863, with the exception of the years
1871 and 1853, he has been a member of the house or Senate. He left the House March 4, 1871, and
entered the Senate March 3, 1873, and when his present term in the Senate expires, March 4, 1897,
he will have served twenty-four years in that body. At the beginning of his second term in the
House, March 3, 1865, he was appointed a member of the Ways and Means Committee and so continued
during the remainder of his service in the House, being one of its most conspicuous members on all
questions relating to tariff, internal taxation and other questions of a financial character. Some
of the most important legislation of that period bears the impress of has guiding hand.
Senator Allison always advocated a tariff so adjusted as to afford protection to American
industries and American labor, but did not always follow the leaders of the party into what has
been termed extreme protection, and some of his earlier speeches upon this subject have been
criticized by his party friends and quoted by the opposing party as hostile to the policy of
protection. In 1873 he entered the Senate, and four years later was placed on the Finance
Committee, and from that time has taken a prominent part in all financial Iegislation. He was
chairman of a sub-committee that revised the laws relating to the administration of the tariff, and
framed the legislation now on our statute books relating to the collection of duties, and which was
not disturbed in the revision of the tariff made in 1894. He was chairman of the sub-committee that
framed the Senate substitute for the Mills bill in 1888, and had charge of the bill in the Senate.
To currency legislation, and especially the silver question, Senator Allison devoted considerable
attention, and was the author of the law of 1878 which provided for limited coinage of silver on
account of the Government. These suggestions were brought forward in the form of amendments to the
free coinage bill proposed by Mr. Bland, and were adopted by both Houses and passed over the veto
of President Hayes. This measure was probably the most conservative that could have been passed at
that time, and, though much criticized, has born the test of time. It remained unchanged until it
gave way for the Sherman Act of 1890. Senator Allison has always been a bimetallist in the true
sense of word, believing that both silver and gold, as full legal tender money, are necessary to
the commerce of the world.
In 1888 Senator Allison's name was brought forward as a prominent candidate for the Presidency and
was favorably received. During his entire service in the Senate, he has been a member of the
important Committee on Appropriations, and for twelve years, when the Republicans were in the
majority, and up to March, 1893, was chairman of the committee. Always careful in regards to
details, he favored liberal and fair appropriations for every essential public purpose, and always
held the confidence of his associates respecting these details. He was twice tendered the position
of Secretary of the Treasury, first by President Garfield in 1881, and again by President Harrison
in 1889. He declined both offers, preferring to remain in the Senate.
Outside of his official capacity, Mr. Allison is known and esteemed as a generous, benevolent man,
an agreeable companion, considerate friend and progressive citizen. Starting in life with nothing
but his own energy and ability and upright character with which to make his way, he has achieved
success beyond most of his fellows and secured for himself an important place in the history of his
state and country. Though absorbed in great national questions, he has never failed to give full
attention to every interest of his state, and no one ever sought his services from Iowa that did
not find him ready and willing to render such aid as was in his power.
Mr. Allison has been twice married. In 1855 he was united with Anna Carter, who was a daughter of
Daniel Carter, Esq., of Ashland, Ohio, and died in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1859. In 1873 he married Miss
Mary Neally , of Burlington, Iowa, a niece and adopted daughter of the late Senator Grimes . She
died in 1883. Senator Allison, though in comfortable circumstances, has never turned his attention
to money making, as his whole time since he entered Congress has been absorbed in public and
political affairs.
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