WILLIAM

See also:

• BOYD, ANDREW KENNEDY HUTCHISON (1825—1899)
• BOYD, ROBERT BOYD, LORD (d. c. 1470)
• BOYD, ZACHARY (1585?-1653)

BOYD

See also:

• WILLIAM BOYD ALLISON (1829-1908)

ALLISON (1829-1908)  , American legislator, was born at Perry, Ohio, on the 2nd of March 1829 . Educated at Allegheny and Western Reserve Colleges, he studied law, and practised in Ohio until 1857 . In that year he settled in Dubuque, Iowa, where he took a prominent part in Republican politics; and in 186o he was a delegate to the national convention at Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency . In 1861 he was appointed a member of the staff of Governor Samuel J . Kirkwood (1813-1894), and was of great service in the work of equipping and organizing the Iowa volunteers . From 1863 until 1871 he served with distinction in the House of Representatives; in 1873 he was elected to the United States Senate, and re-elected in 1878, 1884, 189o, 1896 and 1902 . Here he became one of the highest authorities on questions connected with finance, and from 1897 he was a member of the Senate committee on finance . In 1881-1893, and again from 1895, he was chairman of the committee on appropriations, in which position he had great influence . He declined offers of the secretaryship of the treasury made to him by Presidents Garfield and Harrison . He was a prominent candidate for the presidential nomination in the Republican national conventions of 1888 and 1896 . In 1892 he was chairman of the American delegation to the International Monetary Conference at Brussels . He died at Dubuque, Iowa, on the 4th of August 1908 .