804 



WHEELER, WILLIAM ALMON. 



of political conventions, the punishment of 

 corruption and bribery at elections, and the 

 establishment of the boundary between the 

 State and Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- 

 ginia. No mention was made regarding the 

 election of a United States Senator, and the 

 session apparently had no authority to act 

 upon that question. Nevertheless, on May 3 

 both houses voted to ballot for United States 

 Senator, and W. H. H. Flick received 9 votes 

 and Camden 10 in the Senate, with 4 votes 

 scattering, and Flick 23 and Oamden 29 in the 

 House, with 13 votes scattering. Seven joint 

 ballots were taken thereafter, with no choice, 

 but on the eighth Charles J. Faulkner obtained 

 48 votes, and Flick 31, with 10 scattering, and 

 Faulkner was declared elected by the presiding 

 officer. Governor Wilson refused to sign the 

 certificate of his election, but his claim to the 

 office was presented to the Senate on the meet- 

 ing of Congress in December, and that body 

 decided in his favor. While the Senatorial 

 contest was pending, the Legislature passed 

 the regular appropriation bills, accepted and 

 adopted the acts of the several commissions 

 appointed to establish the Pennsylvania, Mary- 

 land, and Virginia boundaries, fixed the allow- 

 ance for lunatics in prison at not over 60 cents 

 a day, and limited the liability of the State in 

 criminal prosecutions to payment for five wit- 

 nesses in its behalf in ordinary cases. 



State Institutions. The following appropria- 

 tions for the year ending Sept. 30, 1887, were 

 made: State Normal School, $13,200; State 

 University, $23,036 ; Institution for the Deaf, 

 Dumb, and Blind, $25,000; Insane Asylum, 

 $100,000. For the care of lunatics in jail, 

 $20,000 was appropriated, and $90,000 for 

 the costs of criminal prosecutions. 



WHEELER, WILLIAM ll.MOV an American 

 legislator, born in Malone, Franklin County, N. 

 .Y., June 30, 1819 ; died there, June 4, 1887. 

 He prepared himself for college, entered the 

 University of Vermont, in 1833. and pursued 

 his studies there for two years, when he began 

 studying law in the office of Asa Hascall, in 

 Malone. In 1845 he was admitted to the bar, 

 and in the following year, when Mr. Hascall, 

 who had held the office of district-attorney of 

 Franklin County for several years, was com- 

 pelled by failing health to resign it, Mr. Wheel- 

 er was appointed his successor for the remain- 

 der of the term. His brief conduct of this 

 office was so satisfactory that in 1847, at the 

 first election by popular vote under the Consti- 

 tution of 1846, he was chosen to fill the office 

 for the full term of three years. At this time 

 his political sympathies were with the Whig 

 party, as whose candidate he was elected a 

 member of the State Assembly in 1849-'50; 

 but in the early part of the Fr6mont campaign, 

 in 1856, he gave his support to the newly- 

 formed Republican party, and remained in un- 

 swerving allegiance to it till the close of his 

 life. In 1851 an affection of the throat threat- 

 ened to impair his practice as an advocate, and 



he abandoned the law. The same year a bank 

 was organized in Malone, of which lie became 

 cashier, continuing in charge of its financial 

 interests for fifteen years. About the same 

 time, also, he was elected president of the 



WILLIAM ALMON WHEELER. 



Northern New York Railroad Company, and 

 for twelve years he was the supervisory mana- 

 ger of the line from Rouse's Point to Ogdens- 

 burg. He was a member and president pro 

 tern, of the State Senate in 1858-'59, and dis- 

 played special aptitude for the duties of presid- 

 ing officer of a deliberative body. He was 

 elected a Representative in Congress from the 

 Sixteenth District in 1860, and returned to his 

 railroad and banking interest at the close of 

 the term. In 1867 he was again called to 

 public service, being elected a member, and 

 then president, of the State Constitutional Con- 

 vention, and in 1868 was returned to Congress. 

 From March 4, 1869, till March 4, 1877, he 

 served continuously, holding at various times 

 the chairmanship of the Committee on the Pa- 

 cific Railroad, and membership in the commit- 

 tees on Appropriations and Southern Affairs. 

 He was the first member in either House to 

 cover his back pay into the Treasury after the 

 passage of the back-salary act, and was the 

 author of the famous "compromise" in the 

 adjustment of the political disturbances in 

 Louisiana, by which Mr. Kellogg was recog- 

 nized as Governor, while the State Legislature 

 became Republican in the Senate and Demo- 

 cratic in the House. In 1876 he received the 

 nomination for Vice-President of the United 

 States in the Republican National Convention, 

 and after the declaration by the Electoral Com- 

 mission of the election of the Republican can- 

 didates, took his seat as presiding officer of the 

 Senate, March 4, 1877. On the expiration of 

 the term, March 4, 1881, he returned to his 

 home in Malone, and passed the remainder of 

 his life in retirement. 



