Wilson /wil-son/ [2 sylls.] as a boys' name is pronounced WIL-son. It is of Old English origin, and the meaning of Wilson is son of William. Surname.President Woodrow Wilson; composer Robert Wilson; Beach Boy Brian Wilson.ilson is a very popular first name for males (#394 out of 1220, Top 32%) and also a very popular last name for both adults and children (#10 out of 150436, Top 1%). (2000 U.S. Census).
The Election of 1860. The presidential election was held on November 6, 1860. Lincoln did very well in the northern states, and though he garnered less than 40 percent of the popular vote nationwide, he won a landslide victory in the electoral college.
When Lincoln sought re-election in 1864, he chose Johnson as his running mate over Vice President Hannibal Hamlin (1809-91), a former U.S. senator from Maine. As a Southern Unionist and âWar Democratâ (the name for those Democrats who stayed loyal to Lincoln), Johnson was deemed a good fit for the ticket.ohnsonâs political career began in 1829, when he was elected alderman in Greeneville. That same year, Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), a fellow Democrat and Tennessean, became the seventh U.S. president. Like Jackson, Johnson considered himself as a champion of the common man.