Early Life and Career
Wheeler was born in Malone, New York, and attended Franklin Academy and the University of Vermont, although monetary concerns forced him to drop out without graduating. He was admitted to the bar in 1845, practiced law in Malone, and was District Attorney of Franklin County from 1846 to 1849. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Franklin Co.) in 1850 and 1851; and of the New York State Senate (17th D.) in 1858 and 1859.
He was elected as a Republican to the 37th United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1863. He was President of the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867-68. He was elected to the 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 44th United States Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1869, to March 3, 1877.
Wheeler was also President of the New York Northern Railroad.
When Congress voted a pay raise in 1873 and made it retroactive for five years, Wheeler not only voted against the raise, but returned his salary adjustment to the Treasury department.
Wheeler's reputation for honesty was celebrated by Allan Nevins in his introduction to John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage. Roscoe Conkling, a Senator and a political boss offered "Wheeler, if you will act with us, there is nothing in the gift of the State of New York to which you may not reasonably aspire." Wheeler declined with "Mr. Conkling, there is nothing in the gift of the State of New York which will compensate me for the forfeiture of my self-respect." (John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage (New York, 1956), p. xiv.)
Wheeler was President of the New York State Constitutional Convention which met from June 1867 to February 1868. His acceptance speech gave a ringing endorsement for racial equality:
"e owe it to the cause of universal civil liberty, we owe it to the struggling liberalism of the old world,...that every man within, of whatever race or color, or however poor, helpless, or lowly he may be, in virtue of his manhood, is entitled to the full employment of every right appertaining to the most exalted citizenship."
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