and Adams in the canvass of 1848. One of the prominent officers
of the convention was the author of many of the most extreme anti-
slavery declarations put forth at Buffalo.

WHIG NATIONAL CONVENTION.

The Whigs met at Baltimore a fortnight after the Democratic convention
had adjourned. The slavery question, upon which the Democrats of
all shades had so cordially coalesced, was to the Whigs a dividing
sword. Mr. Fillmore was a candidate, supported with almost entire
unanimity by the Southern Whigs. Mr. Webster was a candidate, and
though in his fear for the Union he had sacrificed more than any
other man for the South, he could secure no Southern support.
General Scott was a candidate, and though born and reared in
Virginia, he was supported by anti-slavery Whigs of every shade in
the North, against the two men of Northern birth and Northern
associations. On the first ballot, Fillmore received 133 votes,
Scott 131, Webster 23. Fillmore received every Southern vote,
except one from Virginia given to Scott by John Minor Botts. Scott
received every Northern vote except twenty-nine given to Webster,
and sixteen given to Fillmore. The friends of Mr. Webster, and
Mr. Webster himself, were pained and mortified by the result.
Rufus Choate was at the head of the Massachusetts delegation, and
eloquently, even passionately, pleaded with the Southern men to
support Mr. Webster on a single ballot. But the Southern men
stubbornly adhered to Fillmore, and were in turn enraged because
the twenty-nine votes thrown away, as they said, on Mr. Webster,
would at once renominate the President in whose cabinet Mr. Webster
was at that moment serving as Premier. This threefold contest had
been well developed before the convention assembled, and one feature
of special bitterness had been added to it by a letter from Mr.
Clay, who was on his death-bed in Washington. He urged his friends
to support Mr. Fillmore. This was regarded by many as a lack of
generosity on Mr. Clay's part, after the warm support which Mr.
Webster had given him in his contest with Mr. Polk in 1844. But
there had been for years an absence of cordiality between these
Whig leaders, and many who were familiar with both declared that
Mr. Clay had never forgiven Mr. Webster for remaining in Tyler's
cabinet after the resignation of the other Whig members. Mr.
Webster's association with Tyler had undoubtedly given t