not acceptable to all the Whigs of Ohio. The hostility to slavery
had grown chiefly out of the acquisition of Texas as a slave state.
An anti-slavery party headed in Ohio by Salmon P. Chase cast 35,354
votes for Van Buren. General Taylor was defeated in Ohio mainly
by this defection, receiving 138,360 votes. General Cass received
154,755 votes. General Cass received the vote of Ohio, but General
Taylor was elected President, having received a majority of the
electoral vote.

General Taylor proved a very conscientious and acceptable President.
His death, on the ninth day of July, 1850, preceded the passage of
the compromise measures of Henry Clay, commonly known by his name.
They became laws with the approval of Millard Fillmore.

It was my habit during this period to attend the annual state
conventions of the Whig party, not so much to influence nominations
as to keep up an acquaintance with the principal members of the
party. I had not the slightest desire for public office and never
became a candidate until 1854. In the state convention of 1850 I
heartily supported the nomination of General Scott for President,
at the approaching election of 1852. In this convention an effort
was made to nominate me for Attorney-General in opposition to Henry
Stanbery. I promptly declined to be a candidate, but received a
number of votes from personal friends, who, as they said, wanted
to introduce some young blood into the Whig party.

I then began seriously to study the political topics of the day.
I was classed as a conservative Whig, and heartily supported the
compromise measures of 1850, not upon their merits, but as the best
solution of dangerous sectional divisions. Prior to this time I
do not remember to have given any study, except through the newspapers
of the day, to the great national questions that divided the
political parties.

In the spring of 1852 I was designated by the state convention as
a delegate at large in association with Honorable Samuel F. Vinton
to the national Whig convention of that year. I was an earnest
advocate of General Scott, and rejoiced in his nomination. Here,
again, the slavery question was obtruded into national politics.
The clear and specific indorsement of the compromise measures,
though supported by a great majority, divided the Whig party and
led to the election of Franklin Pierce. In this canvass I took
for the first time an active part. I was designated as an elector