ends to nominate
him; but, in that event, several prominent delegates threatened to
bolt. It was an anxious moment. The success of the Whig party and the
ascendancy of Weed's leadership in New York were at stake. It was
urged by the anti-slavery men with great vehemence that Taylor was a
"no-party man," and that as a born Southerner and large slave-holder
he could not be trusted on the slavery question. But when the five
candidates were finally placed in nomination, and a single ballot
taken, it was found, as Weed had predicted, that the hero of Buena
Vista was the one upon whom the Whigs could best unite. With few
exceptions, the friends of Clay, Webster, Scott, and John M. Clayton
could go to Taylor better than to another, and on the fourth ballot,
amidst anger and disappointment, the latter was nominated by sixty
majority.

For the moment, the office of Vice President seemed to go a-begging,
as it did in the convention of 1839 after the defeat of Henry Clay.
Early in the year Seward's friends urged his candidacy; but he gave it
no encouragement, preferring to continue the practice of his
profession, which was now large and lucrative. John Young, who thought
he would like the place, sent a secret agent to Mexico with letters to
Taylor. Young's record as governor, however, did not commend him for
other honours, and the scheme was soon abandoned. As the summer
advanced Abbott Lawrence of Massachusetts became the favourite; and
for a time it seemed as if his nomination would be made by
acclamation; but, after Taylor's nomination and Clay's defeat, many
delegates promptly declared they would not have "cotton at both ends
of the ticket"--referring to Taylor as a grower and Lawrence as a
manufacturer of cotton. In this crisis, and after a stormy recess,
John A. Collier, a leading lawyer of Binghamton, who had served in the
Twenty-second Congress and one year as state comptroller, suddenly
took the platform. In a stirring speech, in which he eloquently
pictured the sorrow and bitterness of Clay's friends, he hopefully
announced that he had a peace-offering to present, which, if accepted,
would, in a measure, reconcile the supporters of all the defeated
candidates and prevent a fatal breach in the party. Then, to the
astonishment of the convention, he named Millard Fillmore for Vice
President, and asked a unanimous response to his nomination. This
speech, though not pitched in a very exalted key, was so subtile and
telling,