Mr. Van Buren was the nominee. This could not be. I chose to run
no hazard, but to raise the banner of Texas, and convoke my friends
to sustain it. This was but a few weeks before the meeting of the
Convention. To my surprise, the notice which was thus issued
brought together a thousand delegates, and from every State in the
Union. Many called on me on their way to Baltimore to receive my
views. My instructions were, 'Go to Baltimore, make your nomination,
then go home, and leave the thing to work its own results.' I said
no more, and was obeyed. The Democratic Convention felt the move.
A Texan man or defeat was the choice left, and they took a Texan
man. My withdrawal at a suitable time took place, and the result
was soon before the world. I acted to insure the success of a
great measure, and I acted not altogether without effect. In so
doing I kept my own secrets; to have divulged my purposes would
have been to have defeated them."

The National Whig Convention assembled at Baltimore, and Henry Clay
was nominated with great enthusiasm, ex-Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen,
of New Jersey, being nominated as Vice-President. The next day a
hundred thousand Whigs, from every section of the Republic, met in
mass convention at Baltimore, with music, banners, and badges, to
ratify the ticket. Mr. Webster, with true magnanimity, was one of
the speakers, and advocated the election of Clay and Frelinghuysen
with all the strength of his eloquence. The Whigs were jubilant
when their chosen leader again took the field, and the truants
flocked back to the standard which they had deserted to support
John Tyler. Harmony once more prevailed among the leaders and in
the ranks, and the Whig party was again in good working order.

Three weeks later the National Democratic Convention met in Baltimore
and remained in session three days. A majority of the delegates
advocated the nomination of ex-President Van Buren, but he was
defeated by permitting his opponents to pass the two-thirds rule,
and on the third day James K. Polk was nominated. Silas Wright
was nominated as Vice-President, but he positively declined, saying
to his friends that he did not propose to ride behind on the black
pony [slavery] at the funeral of his slaughtered friend, Mr. Van
Buren. Mr. George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was then nominated.

Governor Fairfield, of Maine, on his return from Philadelphia on
the first of June, 1844, whither he had go