True American. [volume] (Steubenville [Ohio]) 1855-1861, 1855-03-22
For the True American
HENRY A. WISE IN VIRGINIA.
MARCH 10th. 1856.

mAhCh 1VIuj AOOO.
Mr.. EDIToR:-The pending contest in
Virginia and the prominent position Of
Mr.. Wise, as the great enemy of the Amer
ican movement, lend an accidental interest
to his name. To-day he addressed the cit
izens of Wheeling. The sons of "Sam"
from our side of the river we're present in
large numbers. The sachems of the anti
progressive Democracy were gathered in
all their strength from "the regions round
about" The Court House was crowded to
its utmost capacity. The crowd present
was variously estimated at from 1900 to
$500.
Mr.. Wise was introduced to the audi
ence by Hon. Sherrard Clemens in one Of
his most brilliant overtures of empty POM
pOsity' In personal appearance Mr.. Wise
is far from prepossessing. Tall, meager,
gaunt, gray-haired, ghastly, and hard
visaged, he looks rather like a surgeons
skeleton escaped, or a troubled spirit wan
dering in search of its grave, than the fiery,
eloquent, erratic, ambitious man he is.
Yet he said he felt as young as when twen-
ty-fve years ago he first lSmeto Wheeling
on "student's spree" from Washington
College, and added, "Iwant to die schen
Ibegin to feel DID," In these days of the
rule of young America, ofice-seekers seem
to have an unconquerable horror of the
dignity of age.
In private Mr.. Wise is affable and pol.
ished in manners, yet his patronizing all
betrays the aristocrat, and his every ac.
ton proclaims the slave-master. As q
speaker he is less of an orator and more Of
a special pleader than we had expected
His eloquence is that of fervid feeling and
impassioned delivery, rather than that Of
lofty thought and irresistible logic. His
forte is invective and sarcasm. Frequent.
ly, however-and especially when he
speaks of his dreaded and "invisible" foe,
Know Nothingism-the ineffable bitter.
ness Of his scorn destroys the sting of the
sarcasm and leaves only the noisy rawlings
of bafaed impotence.
He spoke three hours The first hour
was devoted to various topics. The most
important of these was general glorifca-
tion of Virginia, but an especial one Of
Wheeling. To call it eulogy merely, would
be to misrepresent both the word and the
speaker He called it the "Vulcdn city
Of the Old Dominion. He condoled with
it as an "outpOst jammed in between two
free States.' He limited that they both
had tried to "crush" it, and, in allusion
to the Bridge Case, informed them that he
was states rights man, and, # made their
Governor, they might remember that if
the National Government was deaf to the
voice of justice, they had "a mother State to
Which they might confidently appeal" He
spoke of the unutterable feelings" that
agitated him when he first "came in sight
of this iron-forging city, after an absenc.
of quarter Of a century," until hi,
emotion almost choked his voice. Re
gaining his composure, he dwelt with pa
thetic patriotism on his self-sacrifcing eff
forts for the interests of Western Virgini;
in the Constitutional Convention, in favor
ing "the white basis" and appealed to it
people to trust him now, as he had "dareC
to trust" them then. l have observed tn,
arts of all grades of ofice-seekers, bu
never till to-day had any conception 0
the measureless depth of meaning that i
crowded into the word, DEMAaoGIsM. I
contains the marrow of hundred folios.
Upon the PROSTATE and dependent con
dition Of Virginia, Mr.. Wise spoke wit
real feeling and eloquence. He said ther
were implanted in that State to create
extent than in any other of the Union, th
four great cardinal powers of product an
prosperity: commerce, manufactures, min'
} ing and agriculture. He then asked, wh
it was, that with all these she did not pro
per? This question he left unanswered
but it presses for solution. Why is it, ay
} why is it so? Is it not because such me
as Henry A. Wise have too long borne sws
in her councils? Is it not because sue
leaders, in their struggle for power ar
place, have forgotten patriotism? Is it IN
: because his beloved, but ANT1-AMERIoA
: system of slavery, for which he plead
5 earnestly to-day, has been fastened upc
is the State by such as he, against the yoic
= of Virginia's truest sons, both of the Of
l. en- time and of to-day, and has paralyz
l. industry by degrading labor, blasted fert
10 ity by the curse of unwilling toll, crush
If Progress into stagnation beneath the inc
bus of the fostered barbarisms of da
l ages; driven out her best children in
al fairer fields of enterprise, and leaves t
Of Old Dominion, with her bowed head in t