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William Boyd Allison was one of Iowa’s longest serving U.S. Senators, a pioneer who was active in the Republican party during its early days, he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for president.

Allison is one in a long line of Ohioan who struck out for Iowa in the years shortly before the Civil War. He was born in Ashland, Ohio, on March 2, 1829, where he had the uncommon luxury for those times of receiving an excellent grade school education. He attended Allegheny College in Pennsylvania for a year before transferring to Western Graduate College in Ohio, where he received a law degree. He practiced law in Ashland from 1852 to 1857 and then moved to Dubuque to continue his legal career.

It didn’t take long for Alison to become involved in Republican politics in Dubuque and was promptly elected a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1860.

During the  Civil War, Allison was an aide to Iowa Gov. Samuel J. Kirkwood, who ordered him to help the state raise regiments for the war (he personally helped raise four regiments). He also served as a
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Allison held senate seat for 35 years
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lieutenant colonel during the war, although it believed he never actually served in uniform.

Allison was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative of the Iowa Third District in 1862, in the midst of the war. As a congressman he pushed for higher tariffs to offset the huge debts of the war.

Following the war, Allison served in the house until 1871, when he declined to be a candidate for renomination, having unsuccessfully sought election to the U. S. Senate.

In 1873 he was elected by the legislature to represent the state of Iowa in the United States Senate and was reelected in 1878, 1884, 1890, 1896, and 1902. From 1881–93 and again from 1895, he was chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he had great influence. He was also a member of the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs, and
the Committee on Engrossed Bills, and was a cosponsor of the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which passed over the veto of President Rutherford B. Hayes. It remained unchanged until the Sherman Act of 1890. In 1892 he was chairman of the American delegation to the International Monetary Conference at Brussels. He became chairman of the Senate Republican Conference in 1897.

He was twice asked to serve as the Secretary of the Treasury, first by President James Garfield, then by President Benjamin Harrison, and his name was occasionally mention as a candidate for President of the United States. A major national figure, he narrowly missed winning the Republican presidential nomination in 1888 and again in 1896.

Allison's extraordinary Senate career began with a stinging political defeat. After losing a race for the post of county attorney in his native Ohio, Allison decided to leave the state in search of a climate more favorable to his political ambitions. He settled in Iowa, joined a small law firm in Dubuque, and built a successful record of defending the interests of the major railroads vital to that region's economic development. That success assured him the financial backing necessary to pursue his public career.

In the Senate, the dignified and unassuming Allison earned a reputation as a master conciliator and political moderate, successfully balancing the antagonistic interests of his state's farmers and railroads. He used his powerful committee assignments to forge and move to enactment legislation responsive to the leading issues of his day: tariff reform, currency stabilization, and railroad regulation.

Allison was married twice. The first marriage was to Anna Carter, who died in 1859, four years after the marriage. His second marriage was to Mary Neally, who died in 1883, ten years after their marriage. Although Allison was a rich man, he did not spend much time thinking about money-making; rather, he was very focused on public and political affairs.

At the time of his death, Allison still held his Senate seat, having been in the Senate for 35 consecutive years. Allison's death in 1908 brought an end to a decade in which he, with Republican senators Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, Orville Platt of Connecticut, and John Spooner of Wisconsin, directed the Senate and shaped the laws of the nation.

To honor Allison's long Senate career, his portrait has been placed at the entrance to the Senate Chamber. He is interred in Linwood Cemetery in Dubuque, Iowa.

William Allison