Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/578

Bishop Wilraer was popularly classed with the high church party. He was noted as an eloquent speaker, and a popular pulpit orator.

WILMOT, David, jurist, b. in Bethany, Pa., 20 Jan., 1814; d. in Towanda, Pa., 16 March, 1868. He received an academical education at Bethany and at Aurora, N. Y., was admitted to the bar at Wilkesbarre, Pa., in 1834, and soon began practice at Towanda, where he afterward resided. His sup- port of Martin Van Buren in the presidential can- vass of 1836 brought him into public notice, and he was subsequently sent to congress as a Democrat, serving from 1 Dec, 1845, to 3 March, 1851. Dur- ing the session of 1846, while a bill was pending to appropriate $2,000,000 for the purchase of a part of Mexico, he moved an amendment " that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory." This, which became known as the " Wilmot proviso," passed the house, but was rejected by the senate, and gave rise to the free-soil movement. Mr. Wilmot was presi- dent-judge of the 13th district of Pennsylvania in 1853-'61, a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1856 and 1860, acting as temporary chairman of the latter, was defeated as the Repub- lican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in 1857, and elected to the U. S. senate as a Republi- can, in place of Simon Cameron, who resigned to become secretary of war in President Lincoln's cabi- net, serving from 18 March, 1861, to 3 March, 1863. In that body he was a member of the committees on pensions, claim's, and foreign affairs. He was appointed by President Lincoln judge of the U. S. court of claims in 1863, and died in office.

WILMOT, Lemuel Allan, Canadian states- man, b. in the county of Sunbury, New Bruns- wick, 31 Jan., 1809 ; "d. in Fredericton, 20 May, 1878. He was educated at New Brunswick univer- sity, Fredericton, be- came an attorney in 1830, and two years later was called to the bar of New Bruns- wick. In 1834 he was elected to par- liament by acclama- tion for the county of York. From the first he espoused the side of the Liberals, opposing the Family compact party, and advocating the prin- ciples of responsi-

ble government. He

soon became the acknowledged leader of the Reformers of his prov- ince. In 1836 Mr. Wilmot went to England as a delegate with William Crane on the subject of crown revenues and the civil list. The colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg, received the delegates cordially and drafted a bill granting the reforms that they asked; but the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, Sir Archibald Campbell, withheld his approval, and tendered his resignation. The delegates were again despatched to England, with an address to the king, by whom they were favor- ably received. Sir Archibald Campbell's resigna- tion was accepted, the civil-list bill became law, and a vote of thanks to the diplomats was passed by the legislature. Mr. Crane was called to the ex- ecutive council, and Mr. Wilmot became a queen's counsel. In 1844 he accepted a seat in the execu- tive council, without portfolio ; but when the lieu- tenant-governor, Sir William Colebrooke, without consulting his advisers, appointed his son-in-law to the office of provincial secretary, Mr. Wilmot, with three colleagues, resigned his place in the cabinet. In 1847 Earl Grey, the colonial secretary, declared that the members of the executive coun- cil should hold office only while they possessed the confidence of a majority of the people. In 1848 the New Brunswick house of assembly passed a resolution approving of Earl Grey's despatch, after a long and spirited debate. Mr. Wilmot, who made the great speech of the occasion, was called on to form a government. He accepted the task, and his cabinet became a coalition ministry, with Liberal tendencies. As premier and attorney-gen- eral he became identified with the consolidation of the criminal laws and the municipal law. In 1850 he attended the International railway convention at Portland, Me. In the same year he visited Washington in a similar capacity, on the subject of reciprocity. In 1851-68 he was a puisne judge of the supreme court of New Brunswick, during which time he employed the interval of leisure at his command in lecturing and in forwarding the cause of education, and benevolent and religious institutions. He was elected a member of the sen- ate of the University of New Brunswick, which gave him the degree of D. C. L. When the ques- tion of union arose in 1865, Judge Wilmot was ready to espouse the side of the Unionists, but took no very active part in the contest. After the confederation was consummated he was se- lected to preside over his province as the first native governor. This office he held from 27 July, 1868, until 14 Nov., 1873, when he received a pension as a retired judge. In 1875 he became second commissioner under the Prince Edward isl- and purchase act of that year, and he was also named one of the arbitrators in the Ontario and northwest boundary commission, but death pre- vented him from serving in the latter capacity. — His cousin, Robert Duncan, Canadian statesman, b. in Fredericton, New Brunswick, 16 Oct., 1809, is the son of John M. Wilmot, for several years a member of the provincial assembly. The son, at the age of five years, left his native town with his father to reside at St. John, where he attended school. On reaching manhood he engaged in shipping and milling. Afterward he went to Liverpool, England, where he resided until 1840, when he returned to St. John. He entered the parliament of his province in 1846, and held his seat for fifteen years. He was a strong Protectionist, and an uncompromising advocate of the greenback system of banking. In 1849 he was mayor of St. John. In 1851 he was asked to enter the New Brunswick government, and he filled the office of surveyor-general from that year until 1854. In 1856-'7 he held the office of provincial secretary in the Wilmot-Grey administration. In 1865 Mr. Wilmot opposed the scheme of union, and with his colleagues he succeeded in defeating the administration ; in the new government he held his old portfolio. He attended the Colonial conference in London, England, on the union question in 1866-'7, and when, in 1867, the union was consummated, Mr. Wilmot was called to the senate of Canada by royal proclamation. He holds a patent of rank and precedence from the queen as an ex-councillor of New Brunswick. On 8 Nov., 1878, on the formation of Sir John Macdonald's ministry, he was sworn a member of the privy council of Canada, without portfolio. On the same day he succeeded David Christie as speaker of the senate. This government adopted the policy of protection to Canadian industries, which Mr. Wilmot aided