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William B. Allison
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Allison
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Allison
Allison

William B. Allison

American politician
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Also known as: William Boyd Allison
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Quick Facts
In full:
William Boyd Allison
Born:
March 2, 1829, Ashland, Ohio, U.S.
Died:
Aug. 4, 1908, Dubuque, Iowa
Also Known As:
William Boyd Allison
Title / Office:
United States Senate (1873-1908), United States
Political Affiliation:
Know-Nothing party
Republican Party
Whig Party
Role In:
Free Silver Movement
See all related content

William B. Allison (born March 2, 1829, Ashland, Ohio, U.S.—died Aug. 4, 1908, Dubuque, Iowa) was a U.S. representative (1863–71) and senator (1873–1908) from Iowa, cosponsor of the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which expanded U.S. Treasury purchase of silver bullion and restored the silver dollar as legal tender.

Allison practiced law in his hometown of Ashland, Ohio, and (from 1857) in Dubuque, Iowa. In the House of Representatives he was a partisan of railroad interests, but as a senator he helped to pass the Hepburn Act (1906), a railway rate-regulation bill, on behalf of President Theodore Roosevelt. Although identified with the silver-purchase act, which he cosponsored, he was more important as a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and as chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. With Nelson W. Aldrich, Orville H. Platt, and John C. Spooner, he made up “the Four” who dominated the Senate in the early 1900s. He twice (1888, 1896) was a contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.