General
Franklin Pierce was brought forward, for the first time, by the
Virginia delegation. Several other States voted for the New
Hampshire Brigadier, but it did not seem possible that he could be
nominated, and the next day, on the forty-eighth ballot, Virginia
gave her vote for Daniel S. Dickinson, of New York. It was received
with great applause, but Mr. Dickinson, who was a delegate pledged
to the support of Cass, was too honorable a man to accept what he
thought belonged to his friend. Receiving permission to address
the Convention, he eloquently withdrew his own name and pleaded so
earnestly for the nomination of General Cass, that he awakened the
enthusiasm of the audience, and received a shower of bouquets from
the ladies in the galleries, to which he gracefully alluded "as a
rose-bud in the wreath of his political destiny."

The Convention at last, on the forty-ninth ballot, nominated General
Pierce (Purse, his friends called him) a gentleman of courteous
temper, highly agreeable manners, and convivial nature. He had
served in the recent war with Mexico; he had never given a vote or
written a sentence that the straightest Southern Democrat could
wish to blot; and he was identified with the slave-power, having
denounced its enemies as the enemies of the Constitution. William
R. King, at the time president _pro tempore_ of the Senate, was
nominated for Vice-President, receiving every vote except the eleven
given by the delegation from Illinois, which were for Jefferson
Davis. Cass and Douglas were at first much provoked by the action
of the Convention, but Buchanan gracefully accepted the situation.

Daniel Webster felt and asserted that he was entitled to receive
the Whig nomination. More than thirty years of public service had
made him the ablest and the most conspicuous member of his party
then on the stage, and neither Fillmore nor Scott could compare
with him in the amount and value of public services rendered. He
had worked long, assiduously, and faithfully to deserve the honors
of his party and to qualify himself for the highest distinction
that party could bestow upon him. He must receive its nomination
now or never, as he was then upward of sixty years of age, and his
vigorous constitution had shown signs of decay. He engaged in the
campaign, however, with the hope ad the vigor of youth, writing
letters to his friends, circulating large pamphlet editions of his
life and of his speeches, an