Springfield Weekly Republican

The Folly of the Wise.—It may justly be doubted whether twenty years hence, in Virginia, the name of Brown or Wise will bear the heaviest reproach in connection with the Harper's Ferry affair. Already the first excitement is so far subsided that Virginians dare to arraign Gov Wise for having aggravated the affair at the expense of the state, in order to make political capital for himself. The Lynchburg Virginian, after stating that the appropriation of $150,000 for the expense of hanging John Brown had been exhausted, without paying the volunteers, says:—

"It need, therefore, occasion no surprise if Gov Wise's folly in the Brown affair cost the state two hundred thousand dollars. And all this for the satisfaction of 'training his boys,' when he did not anticipate the rescue of John Brown! With all the revelations that subsequent events have brought to light, we do not hesitate to say that there never was a more wanton and wicked attempt to make capital out of an event, sad enough in itself, than has been evinced in the conduct of Governor Wise throughout this entire affair. The whole country was kept in a tempest of excitement, and sectional animosities were stimulated to the highest pitch; troops were marched and counter-marched, brought home, and straightway ordered off again, for no necessity whatever."