With unaffected gratitude for your Speech, I pray you will
not pause upon it, but keep the bill to its passage through
both Houses of Congress. I know you would if you could see
the destitution of instruction, and the poverty which cant
pay for it, on the Consecrated peninsula of Jas Town, York
Town, and Williamsburg. Ah! tear down every parapet of War--
cruel War, wanton war call it if you will--but for the Past,
for Piety's sake, for Learning and Moral's sake let Old Wm
& Mary stand a Beacon Light for the guide of the Future.
Very sincerely
Yrs
HENRY A. WISE
Governor Wise had a very conspicuous career in the United
States House of Representatives. He was a very zealous supporter
of the Southern doctrine before the War. He was regarded
as a good deal of a fire eater. He was Governor of Virginia
when John Brown was executed. But in spite of the horror
and indignation that the people of the South felt for John
Brown's raid he did full justice to the heroic quality of
the man. He declared him "the gamest man" he ever saw.
I served in my second term on the Committee on Elections under
the Chairmanship of George W.
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