ter was not based upon hostility to slavery and the
slave trade, it was positive, highly patriotic, and in a measure
satisfactory to the anti-slavery Whigs. "We are at the flood," Seward
wrote Weed; "our opponents at the ebb."[337] The nomination of Wright
had greatly strengthened the Democratic ticket, but the nomination of
Polk, backed by the Texas resolution, weighted the party as with a
ball and chain. Edwin Croswell had characterised Van Buren's letter to
Hammit as "a statesmanlike production," declaring that "every American
reader, not entirely under the dominion of prejudice, will admit the
force of his conclusions."[338] This was the view generally held by the
party throughout the State; yet, within a month, every American reader
who wished to remain loyal to the Democratic party was compelled to
change his mind. In making this change, the "slippery-elm editor," as
Croswell came to be known because of the nearness of his office to the
old elm tree corner in Albany, led the way and the party followed. It
was a rough road for many who knew they were consigning to one grave
all hope of ending the slavery agitation, while they were resurrecting
from another, bitter and dangerous controversies that had been laid to
rest by the Missouri Compromise. Yet only one poor little protest, and
that intended for private circulation, was heard in opposition, the
signers, among them William Cullen Bryant, declaring their intention
to vote for Polk, but to repudiate any candidate for Congress who
agreed with Polk. Bryant's purpose was palpable and undoubted; but it
soon afterward became part of his courage not to muffle plain truth
from any spurious notions of party loyalty, and part of his glory not
to fail to tell what people could not fail to see.

[Footnote 337: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 1, p. 699.]

[Footnote 338: Jabez D. Hammond, _Political History of New York_, Vol.
3, p. 441, _note_.]

As the campaign advanced, the Whig side of it resembled the contest of
1840. The log cabin did not reappear, and the drum and cannon were
less noisy, but ash poles, cut from huge trees and spliced one to
another, carried high the banner of the statesman from Ashland.
Campaign songs, with choruses for "Harry of the West," emulated those
of "Old Tip," and parades by day and torch-light processions by night,
increased the enthusiasm. The Whigs, deeply and personally attached to
Henry Clay, made mass-meetings as common and nea