[1] Wessels stemmed from an important Orange Free State family clan, dedicated to farming and the Boer way of life.

As a member of the Volksraad he developed his skills as a diplomat and mediator, and was involved in many of the important political decisions the Orange Free State had to make in the 1880s and 1890s.

In 1885, at age thirty-four, Wessels was elected to the Volksraad (the Free State parliament) for the Modderrivier area of Boshof.

[4] In the 1880s, Wessels was also a leading figure in the discussions about the extension of the railway network of the Orange Free State and the direct connections with the Cape Colony and the South African Republic.

The encounter with Muller was a renewal of friendly relations between the two men, who first met in Bloemfontein in 1898, and again in May 1899 in The Hague, when Wessels brought a private visit to the Netherlands.

Wessels was elected to the Assembly for the Bloemfontein-South constituency, and took up the appointment of Minister for Mines, Lands, and Public Works in the new government, led by A.

[6] Afrikaner politics were complicated in the new colonial province, and Wessels fell out with Hertzog about agricultural affairs, the appointment of English-speaking officials in his department, and because of temperamental differences.

He did not shift his allegiance to the National Party like most of his Orange Free State colleagues, and this cost him the parliamentary election of 1914.

[6] In June 1915, the British government appointed Wessels administrator of the Orange Free State, seeing him as a loyal ally.

Nevertheless, Wessels succeeded in making his administration a success, and in 1919, the Union government proposed him for a knighthood,[3] which he received in the 1920 New Year Honours.

Altogether these traits accounted for his natural aptitude for diplomacy and his long and successful political career, although it did not make him a visionary statesman.