William Almon Wheeler

William Almon Wheeler was a lawyer, banker, railroad president, state legislator, five-term congressman, and the nineteenth vice president of the United States under Rutherford B. Hayes. He was known as "the New York Lincoln." Using newspapers, letters, government reports, county histories, and biographies of Wheeler's contemporaries, the author examines Wheeler's role in shaping state and national public policy. He also discusses some of Wheeler's achievements such as construction of the North Country and transcontinental railroads, the creation of the Adirondack and Niagara Fall state parks, the extension of voting rights in New York, the termination of racial civil war in Louisiana, the curtailment of unnecessary government spending, and helping found the Republican Party.