Congressman and Future Virginia Governor and Confederate General Henry Wise Explains What Henry Clay Will Have to Do to Win the 1844 Presidential Election Against Assumed Democrat Candidate Former President Martin Van Buren

Henry Alexander Wise was an American diplomat, politician, Confederate general and slave owner from Virginia. As the 33rd Governor of Virginia, Wise served as a significant figure on the path to the American Civil War, becoming heavily involved in the 1859 trial of abolitionist John Brown. After leaving office in 1860, Wise also led the move toward Virginia’s secession from the Union.

Autograph Letter Signed, Washington, February 2, 1843 to M.H. Grinnell concerning the upcoming presidential race the next year. “The committee reported sometime since in favor of Gilbert’s dock and at its last meeting determined to take no further action on the subject. My own opinion is decidedly in favor of an excavated dry dock. The floating dock will prove only a useful auxiliary and fit for smaller vessels. Clay’s friends are daily killing him deader. His only chance was assumption of state debts – fully as good as distribution – but they have cut him off even from that. He has no chance unless he runs single handed against Van & his vanities.”

Clay unanimously won the presidential nomination at the 1844 Whig National Convention, but a minority of expansionist Southern Democrats, encouraged by Tyler’s alternative outline, blocked Van Buren’s nomination at the 1844 Democratic National Convention for countless ballots, until Van Buren withdrew, making place for an unexpected compromise candidate, the future winner James K. Polk. Clay was surprised by Van Buren’s defeat but remained confident of his chances in the 1844 election. Polk, however, proved a more formidable candidate than anyone imagined. Gilbert & Secor company came up with the idea of a floating dry dock but it didn’t come to fruition for some years after this.