William N. Bilbo (circa 1815–1867) was an American attorney, journalist, and entrepreneur. He lived in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

until 1864, when he moved north. Bilbo is best remembered for helping Secretary of State

William H. Seward William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined oppon ...

lobby for passage of a constitutional amendment banning slavery.

Lawyer, journalist, and entrepreneur in Tennessee

Born in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, Bilbo became a prosperous lawyer in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, where he was among the leaders of the

Know-Nothing Party The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

. He also worked as a journalist with the ''Nashville Gazette'', and was briefly the proprietor of the paper. Bilbo purchased a large amount of coal country, and persuaded a group of New York financiers to help establish a coal mining company in Tennessee, called the Sewanee Mining Company; Bilbo then sold his land to the company at a profit.Cox, LaWanda and Cox, John. ''Politics, Principle, and Prejudice, 1865–1866'' (Free Press of Glencoe 1963). Bilbo was apparently a loyal member of the Confederacy until 1864, when he suddenly moved north. He knew

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

's Secretary of State (

) from their days in the Whig Party.Vorenberg, Michael. ''Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment'', p. 182 (Cambridge U. Press 2001).

Lobbyist for Thirteenth Amendment

Via Seward, Bilbo offered his lobbying services to Lincoln, on behalf of congressional approval for the Thirteenth Amendment, which ultimately banned slavery throughout the United States. With Seward's approval, Bilbo went to drum up support for the Amendment in New York. Bilbo told Seward: "I promised you the requisite votes, and neither energy, time or money shall be wanting on my part to attain our end..." Bilbo was arrested on suspicion of being a rebel spy, but Lincoln ordered his release. It is not clear that Bilbo succeeded in swaying many opinions regarding the pending amendment. The lobbying group that Seward organized (the "Seward Lobby") doggedly pursued Democratic votes, using questionable, maybe even corrupt methods. Besides Bilbo, Seward's lobbying group included three other Democratic operatives: Emanuel B. Hart, Robert Latham, and George O. Jones, who all worked on New York congressmen for their support. Bilbo had some success with Congressman Homer A. Nelson, who ended up voting for the amendment. At the end of his congressional term, Nelson was offered a foreign post in appreciation for his support, but declined.

Death and portrayal

Bilbo died of

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

in August 1867 and was interred at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, leaving his wife Martha W. Bilbo and three children.''Tennessee Chancery Reports'', Volume 2, p. 147 (G. I. Jones 1877). In the 2012 film ''

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

'', the character of William Bilbo is portrayed by actor

James Spader James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor. He has portrayed eccentric characters in films such as the drama ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' (1989) for which he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, the action scie ...

. No photos or portraits of Bilbo are known to exist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bilbo, William 1815 births 1867 deaths People from Nashville, Tennessee American abolitionists Tennessee Know Nothings Tennessee Whigs 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American lawyers