William Stevens Robinson

William Stevens Robinson was born 7 December 1818 at Concord, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts.^1,3,4,5,6 He married Harriet Jane Hanson, daughter of William Hanson and Harriet Browne, 30 November 1848.⁷ He died 11 March 1876 at Malden, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts.⁸ He was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts.^9,10,11

In 1837 William joined hs brother at the Norfolk Advertiser of Dedham, a strong temperance paper. In 1839 he became editor of the Yeoman's Gazette, later The Republican of Concord. This was Whig paper, and as an ardent Whig he was a delegate to the 1840 Whig Convention in Baltimore.

Two years later he became assistant editor of the Lowell Courier and Journal, acting for a time as it's Washington corespondent. In 1845 he went to Manchester, New Hampshire to edit The American, but soon returned to the Lowell Courier, where his strong anti-slavery views began to attract attention among the radicals of Massachusetts. His vigorous condemnation of slavery and caustic comments on Massachusetts politics and politicians finally cost him his job.

In 1848 he moved to Boston to succeed Charles Francis Adams as editor of the Boston Daily Whig, later the Boston Daily Republican, which he held through the 1848 presidential campaign. That year he also served as secretary of the Free-Soil Convention which met at Worcester. Again, he lost his jobs because of his vigorous opinions on slavery and Massachusetts politics. He returned to Lowell to start the Lowell American. He ran it for nearly four years and became recognized as on of the most radical of Massachusetts anti-slavery journalists.

In 1852 and 1853 he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature and in 1853 was clerk of the constitutional convention. The Lowell American failed in 1854 and he then joined the editorial staffs of The Commonwealth and the Boston Telegraph and violently oposed the rising tide of Know-Nothingism in Massachusetts.

In 1856 his "Warrington" letters on Massachusetts politics and politicians began to appear in the Springfield Republican and at once attracted state-wide attention because of their thorough knowledge of Massachusetts politics and their frank personal comment on the public men of the state. Similar letters over the pen name "Gilbert" were sent to the New York Tribune. In 1859 he declined an offer from them, feeling his best work could be done in Massachusetts.

He was a friend of Charles Sumner, John A. Andrew, Henry Wilson, John G. Whittier and other Massachusetts radicals and was associated with the early fortunes of the state Republican party. In 1861 as the Civil War began, he aided in editing The Tocsin, a Republican campaign paper.

In 1862 he was chosen clerk of the state House of Representatives. He held the position for 11 years and became known as the "Warwick" of Massachusetts politics. In 1863 he was made secretary of the Republican state committee which he held until 1868, writing many of the addresses and memorials of the committee during the critical years of war and reconstruction.

The strength of his political power was perhaps most evident in 1871 and 1872 when he successfully led the opposition to Benjamin F. Butler in his attempts to be elected governor. This came a cost, for he lost his clerkship in 1873 and felt that Butler had a great deal to do with it.

He served for a short time on the Boston Journal, but increasing ill health caused him to take a European trip with his wife and son in 1874. He returned to complete and publish a handbook of parliamentary law, "Warrington's Manual" in 1875.

His health continued to decline, but the exact nature of the disease was not disclosed in any published works I could find. However, Massachusetts death records for 1876 reveal the cause was "Softening of the Brain." Websters (1913 edition) defined it as: "localized softening of the brain substance, due to hemorrhage or inflammation. Three varieties, distinguished by their color and representing different stages of the morbid process, are known respectively as red, yellow, and white, softening."^12,8,13