WISE, HENRY ALEXANDER ( 1806-76 ) . An American political leader, born at Drummond town, Aceomac County, Va., Deeember 3, 1806. Ile graduated at Washington College, Pa., in 1825, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and set tled in Nashville, Tenn.. the same year, but returned to Accomac County in 1830. He was elected to Congress in 1S32 as a ,laeksonian Denmerat and was twice reelected. On the ques tion of the rechartering of the rnited States Bank he liroke with the Jackson Administration, and became a Whig, but was sustained by his constituents. After his first election in 1832 he fought a duel with his competitor for the seat in Congress. Wise was active in securing the nomination of :John Tyler as Vice-President in 18-10. Ile deelined the appointment as Secretary of the Navy under Tyler, but from 1844 to 1847 was Minister to Brazil. After his return he identified himself with the Democratic Party, and in 1855, after a remarkable campaign, he was elected Governor of Virginia over the Know Nothing candidate. During his administration
the John Brown raid occurred, and one of the last acts of his term was the signing of Brown's death warrant. \Vise was a member of the Vir ginia secession convention of 1861, and opposed immediate secession. Upon the withdrawal of the State from the Union, however, he joined the Confederate Ariny as brigadier-general and after wards was promoted to the rank of major-general. He took part in the campaigns of western Vir ginia, commanded at Roanoke Island, and was present at Appomattox. After the war he re sumed his law practice, and wrote an historical work entitled Seven Decades of the Union (1872). lie died September 12, 1876. Consult his Life, (New York, 1899), written by his grandson, B. II. Wise.