Excerpt from Pen-Pictures of the Officers and Members of the House of Representatives of the Twenty-Sixth General Assembly of Missouri

Few possess in a more eminent degree the qualities that combine to make a good Speaker than the gentleman upon whom it has devolved to preside over the deliberations of the popular branch of the present As sembly. An accomplished parliamentarian, correct and always impartial in his rulings, an excellent judge of human nature, of suave and pleasant manners and at the same time of unmistakable firmness and decision of character, indispensable to the enforcement of order and discipline it can be said without disparagement to any of his illustrious predecessors, that a better presiding officer has never been placed in the chair he occupies. The unanimity with which he was selected by his party associates upon the organization of the House was a compliment and mark of confidence in his abilities and fitness for the place, which his course since has shown to have been deservedly bestowed. As the first Democratic Speaker of the House since the war he has reflected scarcely more credit upon him self than unon the party to which he has been a lifelong adherent, and from which an acknowledgment of his faithful services was justly due. While a Democrat of the strictest school, however, I believe those who differ most widely with him politically, will agree with me in the assertion that so far as his course as an officer is concerned, he has in every instance ignored party and partisanship, and invariably shown that deference and indulgence due the minority of the body. Mr. Wilson is a native Mis sourian, and at present a resident of the populous county of Platte.

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