WISE, HENRY ALEXANDER (1806-1876), American politician and soldier, was born at Drummondtown (or Accomac), Va., on Dec. 3, 1806. He graduated from Washington (now Wash ington and Jefferson) college, Pa., in 1825, and began to practise law in Nashville, Tenn., in 1828. He returned to Accomac county, Virginia, in 1830, and served in the National House of Representa tives in 1833-37 as an anti-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
he was minister to Brazil. In 1855 he was elected governor of the State (1856-60) as a Democrat. John Brown's raid occurred during his term, and Wise refused to reprieve Brown after sentence had been passed. He strongly opposed secession, but finally voted for the Virginia ordinance, was commissioned brigadier-general in the Confederate army and served throughout the war. He died at Richmond, Va., on Sept. 12, 1876. He wrote Seven Decades of the Union 5790-1860 (1872).
See the Life of H. A. Wise, by his grandson, B. H. Wise (1899).