born in Christian County, Kentucky, June 3d,
1808; graduated at West Point in 1828; was an officer in the United
States Army, 1828-1835; was a Representative from Mississippi,
December 1st, 1845 to June, 1846, when he resigned to command the
First Regiment of Mississippi Riflemen in the war with Mexico; was
United States Senator, December 4th, 1847, to November 1851; was
defeated as the Secession candidate for Governor of Mississippi in
1851 by H. S. Foote, Union candidate; was Secretary of War under
President Pierce, March 7th, 1853, to March 3d, 1857; was again
United States Senator, March 4th, 1857, until he withdrew, January
21st, 1861; was President of the Confederate States; was captured
by the United States troops, May 10th, 1865, imprisoned two years
at Fortress Monroe, and then released on bail.

CHAPTER XXXIII.
PLOTTING FOR THE PRESIDENCY.

The first session of the Thirty-second Congress, which began on
the 1st of August, 1852, was characterized by sectional strife,
and was devoted to President-making. President Fillmore, who had
traveled in the Northern States during the preceding summer, felt
confident that he would receive the Whig nomination, and so did
Mr. Webster, who "weighed him down"--so Charles Francis Adams wrote
Henry Wilson--"as the Old Man of the Sea did Sinbad." Meanwhile
Mr. Seward and his henchman, Mr. Weed, were very active, and the
latter afterward acknowledged that he had himself intrigued with
the Democratic leaders for the nomination of Governor Marcy, who
would be sure to carry the State of New York, and thus secure the
defeat of the Whig candidate. "Holding President Fillmore and his
Secretary of State, Mr. Webster, responsible for a temporary
overthrow of the Whig party," says Mr. Weed, "I desired to see
those gentlemen left to reap what they had sown. In other words,
I wanted either Mr. Fillmore or Mr. Webster to be nominated for
President upon their own issues. I devoted several weeks to the
removal of obstacles in the way of Governor Marcy's nomination for
President by the Democratic National Convention."

General Cass, Mr. Douglas, and Mr. Buchanan were equally active in
the Democratic ranks, and their respective friends became so angry
with each other that it was an easy matter to win the nomination
with what the politicians call "a dark horse."

The sessions of the National Democratic Convention were protracted
and stormy, and on the thirty-fifth ballot the name of