ing several
Abolitionists upon the ticket, nine-tenths of that party also joined
the combination. But the spirit of the Free-soiler was absent. The man
whose genius and whose eloquence had been the most potent factor in
discrediting the Hunkers now had no anti-slavery speeches to make and
no anti-slavery resolutions to present. John Van Buren's
identification with the great movement, which he prophesied would
stand so strong and work such wonders, was destined, after he had
avenged the insult to his father, to vanish like a breath. Nor did the
coalition of Hunkers, Barnburners, and Abolitionists prove so numerous
or so solid that it could sweep the State. It did, indeed, carry the
Assembly by two majority, and with the help of a portion of the
Anti-Renters, who refused to support their own ticket, it elected four
minor state officers; but the Whigs held the Senate, and, with
majorities ranging from fifteen hundred to five thousand, chose the
comptroller, the secretary of state, and the treasurer. Washington
Hunt, the popular Whig candidate for comptroller, led the ticket by
nearly six thousand, a triumph that was soon to bring him higher
honours.

The Whigs, however, were to have their day of trouble. The election of
Taylor and Fillmore had fired the Southern heart with zeal to defend
slavery. More than eighty members of Congress issued an address, drawn
by John C. Calhoun, rebuking the agitation of the slavery question,
insisting upon their right to take slaves into the territories, and
complaining of the difficulty of recovering fugitives. The Virginia
Legislature affirmed that the adoption and attempted enforcement of
the Wilmot Proviso would be resisted to the last extremity, and that
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia would be a direct
attack upon the institution of the Southern States. These resolutions
were indorsed by Democratic conventions, approved at public meetings,
and amplified by state legislatures. In Missouri, Tennessee, and
Kentucky the feeling quickly reached fever heat; in the cotton States
sentiment boldly favoured "A Southern Confederacy." Sectional interest
melted party lines. "The Southern Whigs want the great question
settled in such a manner as shall not humble and exasperate the
South," said the New York _Tribune_; "the Southern Democrats want it
so settled as to conduce to the extension of the power and influence
of slavery."

In the midst of this intense southern feeling