William Bigler was an American statesman and politician. He also was president of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad Company.
Background
William Bigler was born on January 1, 1814, at Shermansburg, Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania, United States. His parents, Jacob and Susan (Dock) Bigler, Pennsylvania Germans, decided soon after his birth to attempt to lift the burden of poverty from their shoulders, purchased a large tract of wilderness land in Mercer County, and migrated thither. But misfortune pursued them: the title to the tract was bad, and they lost their investment. For a few years Jacob Bigler attempted to support his family on a small farm, but discouragement and labor were too much, and he died when William was small.
Education
William received little formal education; he studied informally under his elder brother John Bigler.
Career
At fourteen William entered the printingoffice of his brother John at Bellefonte, Center County. In 1833 he decided to set out for himself; so, acquiring a second-hand printing outfit and borrowing twenty dollars, he moved to Clearfield, where he established the Clearfield Democrat. In 1836, he married Maria J. Reed, daughter of a local magnate, and soon thereafter sold his paper and entered a partnership with his father-in-law, in which he amassed a fortune as a lumberman.
In 1841 Bigler was elected to the state Senate, where he served six years, twice as speaker. In the legislature he was mainly concerned in keeping the state solvent and in providing adequate railroad transportation to the westward counties. His political influence reached its high point in 1851 when he was nominated and elected governor. As executive he pursued a course in opposition to wholesale chartering of banks, in one message vetoing eleven bank charters. He also was successful in his fight against "omnibus" bills, the legislature passing a law which provided that each bill should deal with only one subject. He was renominated in 1854 but the Know-Nothing enthusiasm made his reelection impossible. He was immediately made president of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad Company, and a year later he was elected to the United States Senate, January 14, 1856, as a vindication which he demanded for his sorry defeat in 1854.
Bigler promoted the nomination of Buchanan, who had become estranged from him during the governorship largely because Bigler saw fit to recognize Buchanan's enemies and to remain inactive in 1852 when the latter was endeavoring to obtain the presidential nomination. In the Senate he was more active in committee than on the floor. He favored Buchanan's Lecompton policy after a visit to the Territory of Kansas in the summer of 1857. He was active in behalf of a Panama canal and a Pacific railroad and was opposed to the tariff of 1857. In the trying days of 1860-1861 he protested against secession and favored the Crittenden compromise, serving as one of the committee of thirteen appointed in the Senate. His retirement in 1861 was of course inevitable. Most of the last twenty years of his life, however, were spent as a railroad promoter and capitalist in Clearfield.
Achievements
Politics
Bigler remained a Democrat as long as he lived, made one campaign for Congress, attended most of the national conventions, and was one of the visiting statesmen who went to Louisiana after the election in 1876 to look after Tilden's interest. He was also prominent in the state constitutional convention of 1872-1873 and active in the promotion of the Centennial in 1876.
Personality
Bigler's stature was commanding and his face full and genial; he has been characterized as wise rather than brilliant, a politician destroyed by the disaster of 1861 which he had so long labored to prevent.