aw.

I have been assured by many Southern men that that measure,
and the report and speech in which I advocated it, had a very
strong and wide influence in restoring good feeling toward
the Union in the minds of the people of Virginia. Several
of the graduates of William and Mary who afterward became
Republicans have assured me of this with great emphasis. I
was much pleased to get the following letter from Governor
Henry A. Wise, the eminent Virginia statesman, who was, with
two or three exceptions, the most powerful and influential
advocate of secession in the South.

RICHMOND VA
Feby 13th 1872.
HON MR HOAR
OF MASSTS.

_Honored Sir._

I write for no reason but one of pure feeling of respect--
not even for a reply. I am a visitor of Wm and Mary College
--truly of the most venerable of the "Mothers of Thought"
--and have read your excellent appeal to the H. Reps: in
her behalf. It was worthy of that Grand old Comth, Massts,
the elder sister of this once glorious Comth, which hailed
her heartily in the Night of Revolution against Tyrrany.
It was worthy of sweet memories--worthy of Letters--it was
pious and patriotic. Let me just add a sentence more, to
say that if Rebellion and Sectional Hate are to be eradicated--
and I hope they are--_that is the way to do it._ Your speech
& the passage of such bills, catholic in every sense of love
& charity, will do more to heal our Country's wounds than
all the caustic of reconstruction which can be applied.

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 just