he was remarkably prompt and effective. His ablest arguments were those he delivered on the trial of Aaron Burr, in the case of McCulloch vs. the State of Maryland, in the Dartmouth college case (see Wheelock, John, and Webster, Daniel), in the great New York steamboat case of Gibbons vs. Ogden, in the Cherokee case, and especially in the defence of Judge Peck, impeached before the U. S. senate. Mr. Wirt was conspicuous for his personal beauty, both in youth and manhood. His manly, striking figure, intellectual face, clear, musical voice, and graceful gesture won the favor of his hearer in advance. In his public addresses he was usually calm, self-possessed, and deliberate. His memory was very retentive, and he excelled in felicity of quotation, sometimes retorting upon an adversary with telling effect a passage inaptly cited by him from an English or Latin poet. A pocket edition of Horace was often thumbed in his journeys; but Seneca was his favorite classic author. Wirt's conversation, enriched by multifarious reading, yet easy, playful, and sparkling with wit and humor, was full of interest and charm. Similar qualities pervade his letters. He was a member of the Presbyterian church, and in his last years took great interest in missionary societies, and was president of the Maryland Bible society.
Wirt's earliest work was the noted “Letters of the British Spy,” which he first contributed to the Richmond “Argus” in 1803, and which won immediate popularity. They are chiefly studies of eloquence and eloquent men, are written in a vivid and luxuriant style, and may be regarded, in spite of the exceptional excellence of “The Blind Preacher,” as rather a prophecy of literary skill than its fulfilment. They were soon afterward issued in book-form (Richmond, 1803; 10th ed., with a biographical sketch of the author by Peter H. Cruse, New York, 1832). In 1808 Wirt wrote for the Richmond “Enquirer” essays entitled “The Rainbow,” and in 1810, with Dabney Carr, George Tucker, and others, a series of didactic and ethical essays, entitled “The Old Bachelor,” which, collected, passed through several editions (2 vols., 1812). These papers were modelled after those of the “Spectator,” and treat of female education, Virginian manners, the fine arts, and especially oratory — a favorite theme of the author. The best of the essays, that on the “Eloquence of the Pulpit,” is a vigorous and passionate protest against the coldness that so often reigns there. In October, 1826, he delivered before the citizens of Washington a discourse on the lives and characters of the ex-presidents, Adams and Jefferson, who had died on 4 July of the same year (Washington, 1826), which the London “Quarterly Review,” in a paper on American oratory, several years afterward, pronounced “the best which this remarkable coincidence has called forth.” In 1830 Wirt delivered an address to the literary societies of Rutgers college, which, after its publication by the students (New Brunswick, 1830), was republished in England, and translated into French and German. His other publications are “The Two Principal Arguments in the Trial of Aaron Burr” (Richmond, 1808); “Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry,” which has been severely criticised both for its hero-worship and its style, the subject of the biography having been regarded by many as a creation of the rhetorician rather than an actual personage (Philadelphia, 1817); “Address on the Triumph of Liberty in France” (Baltimore, 1830); and “Letters by John Q. Adams and William Wirt to the Anti-Masonic Committee for York County” (Boston, 1831). Wirt's “Life” has been written by John Pendleton Kennedy (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1849). — His second wife, Elizabeth Washington, b. in Richmond, Va., 30 Jan., 1784; d. in Annapolis, Md., 24 Jan., 1857, was the daughter of Col. Robert Gamble, of Richmond, Va. She was carefully educated in her native city and in 1802 married Mr. Wirt. She published an illustrated quarto volume entitled “Flora's Dictionary,” which was the first book of its kind in this country, and is described as “at once a course of botany, a complete flower letter-writer, and a dictionary of quotations” (Baltimore, 1829).
WISE, Daniel, clergyman, b. in Portsmouth,
England, 10 Jan., 1813. He was educated at Ports-
mouth grammar-school, came to the United States
in 1833, and, entering the ministry of the Meth-
odist Episcopal church, was pastor of various
churches in 1837-'52, and then editor of " Zion's
Herald " in Boston till 1856. From that time till
1872 he was editor of the Sunday-school publica-
tions of his denomination, and from 1860 till 1872
he was also editor of the tract publications. Since
1872 he has been engaged chiefly in literary work.
Wesleyan university gave him the degree of D. D.
in 1859. Dr. Wise published and edited in 1838-44
the first Methodist Sunday-school paper in this
country. Among his many works, which are chiefly
for youth, are "Life of Lorenzo Dow" (Lowell,
Mass., 1840); "History of London" (1841); "Per-
sonal Effort" (Boston, 1841); "The Cottage on
the Moor" (New York, 1845); "The McGregor
Family" (1845); "Lovest Thou Me?" (Boston,
1846) ; " Guide to the Saviour " (New York, 1847) ;
"Bridal Greetings " (1850) ; "Life of Ulric Zwin-
gle" (1850); "Aunt Effie" (1852); "My Uncle
Toby's Library " (12 vols., Boston, 1853) : " Popu-
lar Objections to Methodism Considered and An-
swered " (1856) ; " The Squire of Walton Hall : a
Life of Waterton, the Naturalist " (1874) ; " The
Story of a Wonderful Life : Pen Pictures from the
Life of John Wesley" (Cincinnati, 1874): "Van-
quished Victors" (Cincinnati, 1876); "Lights and
Shadows of Human Life" (New York, 1878);
" Heroic Methodists " (1882) ; " Sketches and Anec-
dotes of American Methodists" (1883) ; " Our Mis-
sionary Heroes and Heroines " (1884) ; " Boy Trav-
ellers in Arabia" (1885) ; " Men of Renown " (Cin-
cinnati, 1886) ; and " Some Remarkable Women "
(1887). He has used the pen-names of " Francis
Forrester, Esq.," and " Lawrence Lancewood."
WISE, Henry Alexander, governor of Virginia, b. in Drummondtown, Accomack co., Va., 3 Dec, 1806 ; d. in Richmond. Va., 12 Sept., 1876. He was graduated at Washington college, Pa., in 1825, studied law, was admitted to the bar in Winchester, Va., in 1828, and settled in that year in Nashville, Tenn., but in 1830 returned to Accomack. In 1833 he was elected to congress by the Jackson party, and after the election fought a duel with his competitor for the office. He was twice re-elected. In congress he went over to the opposition on the development of Jackson's bank policy, and took strong ground in favor of slavery. In 1837 he was second to William J. Graves, of Kentucky, in his duel with Jonathan Cilley, of Maine, in which the latter was killed. He was a man of undoubted ability, and had great influence in John Tyler's administration, and, says John W. Forney, "Standing between the two great parties in the house, he delighted in his isolation and rioted in the eccentricities of his genius." In 1842 the senate rejected the nomination of Mr. Wise as minister to France, but he was subsequently appointed minister to Brazil, and resided at Rio Janeiro from May, 1844, till October, 1847. In 1848 and
