WISE, HENRY ALEXANDER (1806-1876)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 751 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: WIL-YAK

WISE, HENRY ALEXANDER (1806-1876) , American politician and soldier, was born at Drummondtown (or Accomac), Accomack county, Virginia, on the 3rd of December 18o6. He graduated from Washington (now Washington and Jefferson) College,

Pennsylvania

PENNSYLVANIA
PENNSYLVANIA, UNIVERSITY OF

, in 1825, and began to practise law in Nashville,

Tennessee

TENNESSEE

, in 1828. I-le returned to Accomack county, Va., in 1830, and served in the National

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Representatives in 1833-1837 as an

anti

ANTI, or CAMPA

-nullification Democrat, but broke with the party on the withdrawal of the deposits from the United States Bank, and was re-elected to Congress in 1837, 1839 and 1841 as a Whig, and in 1843 as a Tyler Democrat. From 1844 to 1847 he was minister to Brazil. In 1850-1851 he was a member of the convention to revise the Virginia constitution, and advocated white manhood suffrage, internal improvements, and the abolition of imprisonment for debt. In 1855 he was elected

governor

GOVERNOR (from the Fr. gouverneur, from gouverner, O. Fr. governer, Lat. gubernare, to steer a ship, to direct, guide)

of the state (1856-186o) as a Democrat. John Brown's raid occurred during his

term

TERM

, and Wise refused to

reprieve

REPRIEVE (reprise, from Fr. reprendre)

Brown after sentence had been passed. He strongly opposed secession, but finally voted for the Virginia

ordinance

ORDINANCE
ORDINANCE, or ORDONNANCE

, was commissioned brigadier-general in the Confederate army and served throughout the war. He died at Richmond, Va., on the 12th of September 1876. He wrote Seven Decades of the Union 79o-186o (1872).
His son, JOHN SERGEANT WISE (b. 1846), United States attorney for the Eastern

District

DISTRICT

of Virginia in 1881-1883, and a member of the National

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Representatives in 1883-1885, wrote The End of an Era (1899) and Recollections of Thirteen Presidents (1906).
See the Life of H. A. Wise, by his grandson, B. H. Wise (1899).

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