nor
and Charles O'Conor for lieutenant-governor. Neither was a popular
nomination. Walworth was the last of the chancellors. He came into
notice as an ardent Bucktail in the days of DeWitt Clinton, and, upon
the retirement of Chancellor Kent in 1828 succeeded to that important
and lucrative office. He was a hard worker and an upright judge; but
he did not rank as a great jurist. The lawyers thought him slow and
crabbed, and his exclusion from the office at the age of fifty-nine,
after the adoption of the new Constitution in 1846, was not regretted.
But Chancellor Walworth had two traits which made him a marked figure
in the Commonwealth--an enthusiasm for his profession that spared no
labour and left no record unsearched; and an enthusiastic love for the
Church.

Of Charles O'Conor's remarkable abilities, mention occurs elsewhere.
His conservatism made him a Democrat of the extreme school. In the
Slave Jack case and the Lemmon slave case, very famous in their day,
he was counsel for the slave-holders; and at the close of the Civil
War he became the attorney for Jefferson Davis when indicted for
treason. O'Conor's great power as a speaker added much to the
entertainment of the campaign of 1848, but whether he would have
beaten his sincere, large-hearted, and affectionate Whig opponent had
no third party divided the vote, was a mooted question at the time,
and one usually settled in favour of the Chautauquan.

The Whigs had reason to be hopeful. They had elected Young in 1846 by
eleven thousand, and, because of the Barnburner secession, had carried
the State in 1847 by thirty thousand. Everything indicated that their
success in 1848 would be no less sweeping. But they were far from
happy. Early in June, 1846, long before the capture of Monterey and
the victory of Buena Vista, the Albany _Evening Journal_ had suggested
that Zachary Taylor was in the minds of many, and in the hearts of
more, for President in 1848. Thurlow Weed went further. He sent word
to the brilliant officer that he need not reply to the numerous
letters from men of all political stripes offering their support,
since the presidential question would take care of itself after his
triumphant return from Mexico. But, in the spring of 1848, the
question became embarrassing. Taylor was a slave-holder. Many northern
Whigs were deeply imbued with anti-slavery sentiments, and the action
of the Free-soilers was increasing their sensitiveness. "What plagues
me m