THE COMMENCEMENT OF MR. WISE'S POLITICAL LIFE. HIS FIRST ELECTION TO CONGRESS. DUEL WITH RICHARD COKE. REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. CAPTAIN OF THE AWKWARD SQUAD.

There is no politician who ever lived, who has ever been half as much misrepresented as Henry A. Wise. Born, it is true, like a majority of our early distinguished men, of Federal parents, yet he, as early as 1824, when only eighteen years old, declared himself in favor of Wm. H. Crawford of Georgia, the States Right candidate for President. Owing to indisposition Mr. Crawford was withdrawn from the field, when Mr. Wise declared in favor of General Jackson, and would have voted for him had he been of age. In 1828, John Q. Adams, Henry Clay and General Jackson were candidates for the Presidency. He cast his maiden vote, as we have before mentioned, for General Jackson. He was sent from the York district in 1832 a delegate to the Baltimore National Democratic Convention. In that Convention he supported General Jackson in preference to any man, but when Martin Van Buren received the nomination for the Vice-Presidency, he arose and said, "Mr. President, in the vernacular of the negro's song, if I had had not come here, I would not have been here.' I will not not vote for your nominee for Vice-President, my vote shall be cast for Philip P. Barbour of Virginia for that office." Mr. Wise, with many others, voted for Jackson and Barbour. The electoral college of Alabama did the same thing.

In 1832 and '33 the mania of Nullification raged. Mr. Wise espoused the principle expressed in the celebrated resolutions of 179899, as reported by James Madison; "that each State for itself is the judge of the infraction and of the mode and manner of redress." Consequently he was opposed on the one hand to the Federal heresies of the Proclamation, Force bill, &c., and on the other hand to the remedies of South Carolina. His views in full upon this subject are. set forth in his first address to the York district in 1833.

We will here introduce an extract of a letter, with the comments of Father Ritchie upon the position Mr. Wise occupied at that time.

Extract of a letter, from

"NORFOLK BOROUGH, March 21.

"I was at New Kent Court, this day week, where A. Stevenson delivered an excellent Speech, opposed by Mr. Robertson who also spoke; and from what I could see and hear, Mr. A. Stevenson's Speech was liked much the best. "On Monday last I was at York Court, where I heard more speaking. Mr. Henry

A. Wise from Accomack spoke for three hours, and Mr. Richard Coke replied to him, until he gave out, which was until night. Some parts of Mr. W.'s Speech bore very hard upon Mr. Coke. Mr. W. in the first place asked Mr. C. if he was in favor of Nullification. Mr. C. replied in words to this effect; if a State was oppressed, she had a right to nullify. These might not be the exact words; but they amounted to this. Mr. W. then spoke of some letters which Mr. Coke had written to gentlemen on the Eastern Shore, giving them authority to contradict any report about his being a Nullifier-declaring that he was no Nullifier. Mr. Wise asked, "If you are no Nullifier on the Eastern Shore, where they are opposed to it, and a Nullifier at home, where they are in favor of it, I do not know how you can be both." Mr. Coke then stopped Mr. Wise, and said that he spoke of private letters, and he should consider it as a personal affair, and should treat it as such. Mr. Wise said, " very well, Sir, I am ready for you in any way; but I insist upon it, that these letters were not private, inasmuch as you authorized these gentlemen to circulate what is contained in them; and no matter how disagreeable it is to you at this time, you must bear it." I thought they would have made a personal affair of it, but it turned out differently. Mr. W. also said how many copies of the "Jeffersonian and Virginia Times" had been franked and paid for, and sent to persons in that section who had never ordered it-Mr. W. is opposed to Nullification, and for Virginia State Rights, and in favor of the present Administration. He said he had understood that Mr. Ritchie had declared that he (Mr. R.) did not think he had written his Address-but Mr. W. said that was a small matter, and they could judge of that for themselves. He is a very clever man-about 27 years of age."

We have never uttered the idea that

De Mr. Wise has been misinformed. he has attributed to us. We have not the pleasure of being personally acquainted with him-but every account that we have heard of him, from those in whose opinions we confide, is of the most favorable character. We understand that he possesses talents of a high order. His Address is a masterly refutation of many of the errors of the day-the doctrines of Consolidation as well as of Nullification. We had intended to lay copious extracts of it before our readers -but the long talks of the Orators at Washington have hitherto prevented it. We disagree with him in what he says of a Bank of the United States; though he does not seem to relish the present Bank. Mr. Wise has been bitterly assailed by the Nullifiers-but he is fully able to defend himself. He asks no quarter from them-and he will give none.-EDITORS.

Upon examination we find that Mr. Wise sustained the administration of General Jackson principally to preserve the Union at that time from the threatening attitude of South Carolina, but still condemned the course of General Jackson, thinking that other and milder means should have been used at that particular crisis. Mr. Wise was as much opposed to the cause that brought about Nullification as John C. Calhoun or any other citizen of South Carolina; but after a high protective bill had passed he thought as Mr. Calhoun did, that the bill was unconstitutional, and could be compromised before the ordinance of South Carolina was passed, as it was afterwards. In sustaining the

Proclamation, therefore, he was only supporting the executive of the nation, and nothing more.

In 1833, Mr. Richard Coke of Williamsburg, the former incumbent of the York district in Congress, was a candidate for re-election. Mr. Coke had represented that district as a Jackson Democrat; but after the appearance of the Proclamation, he turned to be a Nullifier. There was an appeal made from the Western Shore, for a candidate to oppose Mr. Coke on the part of the Jackson party from the Eastern Shore. Several gentlemen were solicited, amongst whom was Mr. Wise, and when all others had refused to accept the nomination, he consented to become a candidate, and announced himself as such at Northumberland court, the second Monday in January 1833. He immediately wrote the address which we have before referred to. This document we consider thoroughly States Right, and Democratic in every particular, with the exception of its sanction and advocacy of a United States Bank. Mr. Madison and the Republican party with Mr. Calhoun at their head, adopted a scheme of this sort soon after the war of 1812, not that they considered it constitutional, but because that party considered it expedient and as a matter of sheer necessity. Mr. Wise, from want of experience in legislation, contended that if a United States Bank was necessary and expedient it was constitutional. This opinion was readily and quickly changed after mature reflection. But to find a contrast of leading politicians of the land upon this much mooted question, we have only to cite the hostility of Henry Clay to a United States Bank at one period of his life, and at a later period being its chief advocate. The speech of Mr. Clay, made whilst opposed to the bank, could never be answered by him or its advocates at any time during the popularity of that great engine and vehicle of political corruption. Who is to be censured most, he that advocates a scheme that is thought to be beneficial and wholesome, but finding it unconstitutional and baneful, turns from it with loathing disgust; or he that supports it, knowing it to be by experience and by the laws of political economy the most dangerous, undermining, unconstitutional and corrupting of all measures either State or Federal? This proposition we consider a clear one; hence it can be easily decided who is the most censurable, Henry Clay or Henry A. Wise.

The contest between Mr. Wise and Mr. Coke was severe and acrimonious. The result was the election of Mr. Wise by four hundred

majority and a duel with Mr. Coke. Mr. Wise accused him of great inconsistency, having represented the district four years as a Jackson Democrat, and as soon as Nullification turned up in 1833, denouncing Jackson and going off with Calhoun, and dating his hostility to the administration of the "Old Hero" as far back as the rupture in the cabinet in June 1831. This Mr. Wise considered the grossest inconsistency, when it was a notorious fact that Mr. Coke professed to be a warm supporter of the Jackson administration until the mania of Nullification arose. Upon this point Mr. Coke suffered, and justly, severely. He was so chagrined at his defeat that nothing would atone his grief but blood. Mr. Coke challenged, Mr. Wise accepted. They fought the 25th day of January 1835, over the Eastern branch of the Potomac, on the road leading across the Anacostia bridge, in Maryland, not far from Marlborough. Mr. John Whiting was the second of Mr. Coke, and Mr. John Wray the second of Mr. Wise; both seconds from Hampton, Virginia. Bailie Peyton, Eilbeck Mason and James Love of Kentucky, attended as the friends of Mr. Wise, and Dr. Hall of Washington City, as his surgeon. George Southall attended as the friend, and Dr. Byrd of Gloucester, as the surgeon of Mr. Coke. General Roger Jones of the army attended as the friend of both parties. At one o'clock P. M. they fired, Mr. Wise's ball fracturing the right arm of Mr. Coke, but fortunately not maiming him for life. Thus ended this affair of honor. Mr. Wise was elected to Congress in April 1833, and in the month of October of that year General Jackson removed the public deposits. This act of the executive was looked upon by many of both parties as high-handed and bordering on absolutism. It had the effect of driving from his side a number of his warmest admirers, Nullifiers and Anti-Nullifiers. And amongst these were John C. Calhoun and Henry A. Wise. The excitement following the removal of the deposits was tremendous, long continued, and of a most acrimonious nature. After much discussion and wrangling in the halls of Congress on the subject, seventeen Democrats of the House and several of the Senate filed out of the Jackson ranks. They were called the "Awkward Squad." This was because they could neither go with the administration upon the removal of the deposits, nor with the Federal opposition. This act of General Jackson, although attended at the time with a monetary depression, eventually proved to be one of the best and most judicious. moves any public officer ever made.

RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS IN 1835.

REMINISCENCE OF THE DEATH

OF JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE.

In the spring of 1835, Mr. Wise was again a candidate for Congress. He was opposed the second time by his former competitor Mr. Coke. Mr. Coke was only a candidate for a short time, abandoning the canvass at York, and forever afterwards voting at the polls for Mr. Wise. Mr. Wise has been accused by his enemies of attempting to imitate the eccentric John Randolplf of Roanoke. This is a false accusation. He never attempted to ape any pecularity or the eccentricities of any man. He is a man sui generis. Mr. Randolph, it is true, was elected to Congress in 1833, but died in the City of Philadelphia before the session opened. Mr. Wise never, in all his life, saw Virginia's distinguished orator and biting satirist. We hazard the assertion that an imitator of John Randolph, in the strict sense of the term, never did and never will exist. What Byron said of Sheridan, we think equally applicable to Mr. Randolph:

There was one thing that happened to Mr. Randolph that also happened to Mr. Wise, when they took the oath as members of Congress. Mr. Randolph being, it is remembered, elected at the age of 24, had a very feminine and youthful appearance, so much so that the Speaker enquired of him whether he was of the constitutional age, that is, 25. The tart reply was "Ask my constituents, sir." John Y. Mason introduced Mr. Wise to Mr. Speaker Andrew Stevenson, when he enquired, "Where is Mr. Wise?" Mr. Wise then standing before him, whom he took to be one of the pages of the House. Mr. Mason whispered to the Speaker, and told him "that was the gentleman to whom he had just been introduced." The Speaker smiled, and presented the Bible with a pleasant remark about his youthful appear

ance.

In Mr. Wise's speech upon the removal of the deposits, he quoted a remark of Mr. Randolph, about the "ara avis," the "Black Swan," and alluded, episodically, to the fact, that his death had not been announced in that House, saying it was no fault of his. This called out, a few days afterwards, Mr. Randolph's successor, Judge Bouldin, who took the floor and commenced giving the reasons thus: "I will