Henry L. Wilson was born on November 3, 1857, at Crawfordsville, Indiana, the son of James Wilson and Emma Ingersoll, and the descendant of a well-to-do Scotch-Irish family that emigrated from Londonderry to western Virginia about 1730.
His father was a representative in Congress from Indiana, 1857- 1861, and an officer in the Civil War, and died in 1867 while serving as minister to Venezuela.
Education
The boy received a public school education and graduated from Wabash College in Crawfordsville in 1879. He studied law in the office of President Benjamin Harrison at Indianapolis.
Career
From 1882 to 1885 Wilson was editor and owner of the Journal of Lafayette, Indiana.
The next eleven years he spent in Spokane, Washington, practising law and engaging in banking and real estate operations. He lost virtually everything in the panic of 1893. While in Washington he entered politics, successfully managing the campaign of his brother, John Lockwood Wilson, for the federal Senate in 1895 and representing the state on the committee that notified William McKinley of his nomination for president.
In 1889 President Harrison appropriately offered him the appointment as minister to Venezuela, but he declined it.
McKinley appointed him on June 9, 1897, minister to Chile, and he served with ability for seven rather uneventful years, declining the offer of the post of minister to Greece in 1902. He was considered as having been instrumental in averting differences between Chile and Argentina in 1900 and received a popular demonstration of approval at Santiago.
Immediately after the termination of his service in Chile he spent several weeks, at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt, in ascertaining political feeling in several states during the campaign of 1904. In response to his request for a European post, he was appointed minister to Belgium on March 8, 1905. During his four years at Brussels he served as American representative at a conference held in April 1908 "to revise the arms and ammunitions regulations of the General Act of Brussels of 1890, " and he represented the President at the coronation of King Albert of Belgium in December 1909.
On December 21, 1909, he was appointed ambassador to Mexico, an important and turbulent post. During the period of the overthrow of the Diaz régime and the revolutionary period that followed he was a vigorous defender of American interests. Although his course received the approval of President Taft, he was quite generally believed to have played an improper part in the Huerta-Diaz coup, as an aftermath of which President Madero was assassinated. He urged both the Taft and Wilson administrations to recognize the Huerta government, but without success. There was considerable hostility in Mexico towards him, and President Wilson's lack of confidence in the ambassador, whom he had retained in office, was evidenced by his decision to send John Lind to Mexico as a special commissioner. In view of the strained situation Wilson tendered his resignation on two occasions, but it was not accepted until the latter part of August 1913, to take effect October 14, 1913.
Although in practical retirement after 1913, he was by no means inactive. During 1915, 1916, and 1917 he served as president of the World Court League, the Security League, and the League to Enforce Peace. In 1923 President Coolidge offered him the appointment as ambassador to Turkey, but there were delays, the appointment was never made, and Wilson applied himself to recouping financial losses suffered over the period of his diplomatic career. His Diplomatic Episodes in Mexico, Belgium and Chile appeared in 1927. He died on December 22, 1932, at Indianapolis, Indiana.