"farther West." He had heard of the virgin prairies and growing villages of Iowa, not long before won from the Indian tribes, and following an older brother, he cast his fortune with a new people in an adopted state.
During his residence at Ashland, Mr, Allison made the acquaintance of Honorable Samuel J. Kirkwood, who was a practitioner at the bar there, but lived at Mansfield. Mr. Kirkwood went to Iowa three years before Mr. Allison and had come into immediate favor with the people of that state; so much so, indeed, that he was honored with the governorship in 1859, and occupied that office at the outbreak of the Civil war. When hostilities actually began the governor summoned Allison to his staff, with the rank of colonel, to aid in the organization and equipment of the Iowa soldiery for the field. Four regiments were raised under his leadership, and had their rendezvous at a camp established at Dubuque. This work he performed with zeal and energy until he was prostrated by an illness which followed exposure in camp.
In 1862 the old third district of Iowa elected Mr. Allison to the lower house of congress by a very large majority. His services as a national legislator began on March 4, 1863, at a critical and momentous period of our history. Since that time he has seen pass in review all the important measures of reconstruction—both political and economic—and has had a voice in most of our important legislation. He was three times reelected to the house of representatives, serving in that body until 1871, when he declined a renomination. At the beginning of his second term in the house, he was placed on the committee on Ways and Means, which then had charge of all financial subjects relating to taxation, tariff, loans, currency, and the money standard, and all questions of related nature.
Not a full year had elapsed after his retirement from congress when he was elected to a seat in the United States senate, as the successor of Senator Harlan. The continuity of his service in the senate has been unbroken, and his sixth term will expire March 4, 1909. Already he has served longer than any other senator in the history of our country, and so eminently satisfactory and honorable has been the character of his service that it seems probable that the people of his state will give him a life-tenure.
It has been his fortune to serve on the most important committees of the senate, and this has brought him into close contact
