Presidential Candidates:: Containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860Bartlett, D. W. (David W.)
History
Presidential Candidates:: Containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860
Bartlett, D. W. (David W.)
Statesmen -- United States; United States -- Biography
In 1840, Judge McLean lost his wife, and in 1843, married his present
wife, Mrs. Sara Bella Gerrard of Cincinnati. In his personal
appearance, Judge McLean is imposing, for he is tall and well
proportioned, and his face is one of the finest among the list of
American jurists. As a judge, he is above reproach; and as a
Christian--he is a member of a Christian church--he has won the
esteem of all who know him in that relation.
HENRY A. WISE.
Governor Wise is certainly one of the ablest of the southern
democrats. He may lack judgment and that balance of character which
is necessary in the truly great man; but he is a decided genius.
Whatever he has attempted he has accomplished, thus far, from his
wonderful energy and activity. Whether he has reached that bound
in his political triumphs beyond which he cannot pass, remains to
be seen. We will very briefly glance at his past history and his
present views upon the great political issues of the country.
Henry A. Wise was born in Drummond Town, Accomack County, Virginia,
December 3, 1806. He was a precocious lad, for he graduated at
Washington College, Pa., when he was but nineteen years old. He then
studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Winchester, Va., in 1828.
With a western fever in his bones, and desirous of a new field in a
new country, he emigrated to Nashville, Tennessee, where he practised
law for two years. He soon grew homesick for old Virginia, and
returned to Accomack County. The district showed its estimation of the
young man by returning him to Congress in 1833. He continued to
represent it in the House of Representatives for ten years. In 1843,
he resigned his place and took the mission to Brazil. He remained
there for a Presidential term. In 1848, he was a Presidential elector
in Virginia; in 1850, was a member of the Reform Convention which
adopted the present constitution of the State. In 1852, he was again a
Presidential elector, and in 1855 was nominated by his party as their
candidate for Governor. This caucus will always be remembered and will
give him unfading political laurels. The contest was probably one of
the most exciting, close, and bitter, which ever took place, even in
Virginia. The Know Nothings, or Americans, were then in the height of
power and were sanguine of success. Mr. Wise took the stump with the
prophets against him, and in fact with a general impression abroad
that he would be defeated. He carried on the year's canvass as no
other man beside Henry A. Wise could have done it. He bearded
Americanism in its den--forced it upon its own territory--and
triumphed in the popular vote by thousands. However rash and
extravagant his speeches were, he had that overwhelming enthusiasm and
vigor, which carried down all opposition, and placed him in the
Governor's chair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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