by the disappointment,
and especially wounded when he was informed that Mr. Clay had
advised the Southern delegates to support Mr. Fillmore.

A nomination was finally made on the fifty-third ballot, when twenty-
eight delegates from Pennsylvania changed their votes from Fillmore
to General Scott. That evening a party of enthusiastic Whigs at
Washington, after serenading President Fillmore, marched to the
residence of Mr. Webster. The band performed several patriotic
airs, but some time elapsed before Mr. Webster appeared, wearing
a long dressing-gown, and looking sad and weary. He said but a
few words, making no allusion to General Scott, and when, in
conclusion, he said that, for one, he should sleep well and rise
with the lark the next morning, and bade them good-night, the
serenaders retired as if they had had a funeral sermon preached to
them. Thenceforth Mr. Webster was a disappointed, heart-stricken
man, and he retired to Marshfield profoundly disgusted with the
insincerity of politicians.

The noisy rejoicings by the Whigs at Washington over the nomination
of General Scott disturbed Henry Clay, who lay on his death-bed at
the National Hotel, attended only by one of his sons, Thomas Hart
Clay, and a negro servant. The "Great Commoner" was very feeble,
and a few days later he breathed his last, as a Christian philosopher
should die. His hope continued to the end, though true and real,
to be tremulous with humility rather than rapturous with assurance.
On the evening previous to his departure, sitting an hour in silence
by his side, the Rev. Dr. Butler heard him, in the slight wanderings
of his mind to other days and other scenes, murmuring the words,
"My mother! mother! mother!" and saying "My dear wife," as if she
were present.

"Broken with the storms of life," Henry Clay gave up the ghost,
and his remains were escorted with high funeral honors to his own
beloved Commonwealth of Kentucky, where they rest beneath an imposing
monument. Twice a candidate for the Presidency, and twice defeated,
his death was mourned by an immense number of attached personal
friends, and generally regretted by the people of the United States.

The Whigs were greatly embarrassed by General Scott, who persisted
in making campaign speeches, some of which did him great harm.
Their mass meetings proved failures, notably one on the battleground
of Niagara, but they endeavored to atone for these discouraging
events by a profuse