ost of all," wrote Washington Hunt to Weed, "is to think how I,
after all I have said against slavery and its extension, am to look
the Wilmot Proviso people in the face and ask them to vote for a
Southern slave-holder."[378] Yet Taylor was a conquering hero; and,
although little was known of his political sentiments or sympathies,
it was generally believed the Democrats would nominate him for
President if the Whigs did not.

[Footnote 378: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
165.]

As the year grew older it became apparent that Henry Clay was the
choice of a large portion of the Whigs of the country. Besides, Daniel
Webster had reappeared as a candidate; Winfield Scott had the support
of his former New York friends; and Horace Greeley, "waging a quixotic
war against heroes," as Seward expressed it, was sure of defeating
Taylor even if shaken in his confidence of nominating Clay. "I hope
you see your way through this difficulty," Hunt again wrote Weed. "You
are like a deacon I know. His wife said it always came natural to him
to see into the doctrine of election."[379] Weed believed that Zachary
Taylor, if not nominated by the Whigs, would be taken up by the
Democrats, and he favoured the Southerner because the election of
Jackson and Harrison convinced him that winning battles opened a sure
way to the White House. But Thurlow Weed was not a stranger to
Taylor's sympathies. He had satisfied himself that the bluff old
warrior, though a native of Virginia and a Louisiana slave-holder,
favoured domestic manufactures, opposed the admission of Texas, and
had been a lifelong admirer of Henry Clay; and, with this information,
he went to work, cautiously as was his custom, but with none the less
energy and persistence. Among other things, he visited Daniel Webster
at Marshfield to urge him to accept the nomination for Vice President.
The great statesman recalled Weed's similar errand in 1839, and the
memory of Harrison's sudden death now softened him into a receptive
mood; but the inopportune coming of Fletcher Webster, who reported
that his father's cause was making tremendous progress, changed
consent into disapproval, and for the second time in ten years Webster
lost the opportunity of becoming President.

[Footnote 379: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
167.]

When the Whig national convention met in Philadelphia on June 8,
Thurlow Weed did not doubt the ability of Taylor's fri