Civil War
After his arrival in Dubuque, Allison took a prominent part in the politics of the nascent Republican Party. Allison was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States.
During the subsequent Civil War, he was on the staff of Iowa Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, who ordered him to help the state raise regiments for the war. He personally helped raise four regiments. He was given the rank of lieutenant colonel during the war, although it was unlikely he actually served in uniform.
In 1862, in the midst of the war, Allison was elected to the United States House of Representatives as the representative of Iowa's newly-created 3rd congressional district. As a congressman and member of the House Ways and Means Committee, he pushed for higher tariffs.
Read more about this topic: William B. Allison
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“One of the greatest difficulties in civil war is, that more art is required to know what should be concealed from our friends, than what ought to be done against our enemies.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)