wo remarkable men had little in common
except lofty ambition and rare mental and social gifts. Their salient
characteristics were widely dissimilar. Seymour was conciliatory, and
cultivated peace. Van Buren was aggressive, and coveted war."--H.B.
Stanton, _Random Recollections_, p. 178.]

The Whig state convention met at Syracuse on September 22 and promptly
renominated Washington Hunt for governor by acclamation. Raymond
wanted it, and Greeley, in a letter to Weed, admitted an ambition,
while a strong sentiment existed for George W. Patterson. Hunt had
veered toward Fillmore's way of thinking. "The closing paragraphs of
his message are a beggarly petition to the South," wrote George
Dawson, the quaint, forceful associate of Weed upon the _Evening
Journal_.[415] But Hunt's administration had been quiet and
satisfactory, and there was little disposition to drop him. He did not
have the patience of Hamilton Fish, but he resembled him in moderation
of speech.

[Footnote 415: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
218.]

William Kent, a son of the Chancellor, received the nomination for
lieutenant-governor. Kent was a scholarly, able lawyer. He had served
five years upon the circuit bench by appointment of Governor Seward.
He co-operated with Benjamin F. Butler in the organisation of the law
school of the New York University, becoming one of its original
lecturers, and was subsequently called to Harvard as a professor of
law. Like his distinguished father he was a man of pure character, and
of singular simplicity and gentleness.

The adoption of a platform gave the Whig delegates more trouble than
the nomination of candidates. A large majority opposed the slavery
plank of the Baltimore platform. But the Seward Whigs, having little
faith in the ultimate result, accepted a general declaration that "an
honest acquiescence in the action of the late national convention upon
all subjects legitimately before it is the duty of every Whig." Horace
Greeley suggested that "those who please can construe this concession
into an approval."

In opening the canvass of 1852, the Whigs attempted to repeat the
campaign of 1840. Scott's record in the War of 1812 was not less
brilliant than Harrison's, and if his Mexican battles were not fought
against the overwhelming odds that Taylor met at Buena Vista, he was
none the less entitled to the distinction of a conqueror. It was
thought proper, therefore, to start his polit