biography
| name: |
Stewart, William Morris
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1827–1909)
|
| biography:
| Lawyer and public official, born in Goshen, New York, USA. He dropped out of Yale to join the California gold rush (1850), and after a period of prospecting, he settled down to practise law. He made a fortune in legal fees by representing the successful claimants to the Comstock Lode in Nevada (1859), and went on to serve as Republican US senator from Nevada (1864–75, 1887–1905). Always at the service of the silver interests, he endorsed Democrat William Jennings Bryan for president (1896) on the basis of Bryan's support of a silver standard for currency. He was an early supporter of federal aid to reclaim arid lands for agriculture. |
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