's letter, were to
escape obedience to their instructions to vote for him. Robert J.
Walker, then a senator from Mississippi, a man of interesting history
and large ability, led the Southerners. He quoted the precedent of
1832 when Van Buren had been nominated for the Vice Presidency under
the two-thirds rule, and that of 1835, when he had been nominated for
the Presidency. These nominations had led to victory. In 1840 the rule
had not been adopted. Without this rule, he said amid angry
excitement, the party would yield to those whose motto seemed to be
'rule or ruin.' Butler, Daniel S. Dickinson, and Marcus Morton led the
Northern ranks.... Morton said that under the majority rule Jefferson
had been nominated; that rule had governed state, county, and township
conventions. Butler admitted that under the rule Van Buren would not
be nominated, although a majority of the convention was known to be
for him. In 1832 and 1835 the two-thirds rule had prevailed because it
was certainly known who would be nominated; and the rule operated to
aid not to defeat the majority. If the rule were adopted, it would be
by the votes of States which were not Democratic, and would bring
'dismemberment and final breaking up of the party.' Walker laughed at
Butler's 'tall vaulting' from the floor; and, refusing to shrink from
the Van Buren issue, he protested against New York dictation, and
warningly said that, if Van Buren were nominated, Clay would be
elected."--Edward M. Shepard, _Life of Martin Van Buren_, p. 408.]

The adoption of the rule, by a vote of 148 to 118, showed that the
Democratic party did not have a passionate devotion for Martin Van
Buren. Buchanan opposed his nomination; leading men in other States
did not desire him. The New England States, with Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, had
instructed for him; yet sixty-three of these instructed delegates
voted for the two-thirds rule, knowing that its adoption would defeat
him. The rule received thirty majority, and Van Buren, on the first
ballot, received only thirteen. On the second ballot he dropped to
less than a majority; on the seventh he had only ninety-nine votes.
The excitement reached a climax when a motion to declare him the
nominee by a majority vote, was ruled out of order. In the
pandemonium, the New Yorkers, for the first time, seemed to unloose
themselves, letting fly bitter denunciations of the treachery of th