William Freeman Vilas

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William Freeman Vilas

William Freeman Vilas (born July 9, 1840 in Chelsea , Orange County , Vermont , † August 27, 1908 in Madison , Wisconsin ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . He served on the US Senate and the Cabinet of President Grover Cleveland on.

Life

Vilas, born in Vermont, moved to Wisconsin with his family in 1851. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1858 and from the University at Albany Law School in 1860 . During the Civil War he joined the Union Army . First he served as a captain in an infantry regiment , later as a lieutenant colonel . After the war Vilas taught at his former university in Madison Law . He was a member of the university's governing body from 1880 to 1885 and again between 1898 and 1905.

politics

His political career began in 1885 with the election to the Wisconsin State Assembly . In the same year he was appointed by President Cleveland as Minister of Post to his cabinet . He stayed that way until 1888; then he headed the US Department of the Interior until 1889 . Within the party, Vilas was one of the Bourbon Democrats , a conservative-liberal wing that campaigned for the interests of banks, companies and railway companies.

After Grover Cleveland was defeated by Benjamin Harrison in the 1888 presidential election , William Vilas also left office. As a result, he first became involved in Wisconsin in the fight against the Bennett Law , a law that prescribed the use of English in most schools in the state and thus turned against the German and Norwegian- speaking private schools. The German minority in Wisconsin felt discriminated against by this law. Vilas took their side with success: the law was withdrawn; the Republican Governor William D. Hoard , who had supported it, was voted out.

In 1890 William Freeman Vilas was elected to the US Senate. After a six-year term in office, he failed in re-election and had to leave Congress in 1897.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wisconsin Historical Society: Americanization and the Bennett Law

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Vilas, William Freeman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Chelsea , Vermont
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1908
Place of death Madison , Wisconsin