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echo, and when he first mentioned the name of our great General, the bouquets poured upon him from the galleries without stint. His concluding eulogy upon the old soldier left the convention in a perfect whirlwind of excitement.

"But the most gratifying of all was, after the fiftythird decisive ballot, when the president had declared General Scott duly nominated as the Whig candidate for the Presidency of the United States. A resolution was offered that the nomination be made unanimous. And State after State, whose delegates, it had been declared, would secede from the convention if he was nominated, gave in their cordial adhesion, pledging all their Whig constituents to an enthusiastic support of the ticket. The whole convention would sometimes be upon their feet, and North Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee were specially cheered. The scene was one worthy of the painter's pencil, if he could only transfer the exuberant enthusiasm upon the canvas.

"Finally the convention, after five days' session, adjourned, with hearty good feeling prevailing in every section of it, and with an union and harmony in behalf of the ticket, presenting a strong contrast with the closing scenes of the conventions of 1840 and 1848."

CHAPTER V.

GENERAL SCOTT-WHIG PARTY-CAUSE OF ITS DEFEATHOPE FOR THE FUTURE-STEADFASTNESS-THIRTYTHIRD CONGRESS-SENATE TERRITORIAL COMMITTEEREPEAL OF MISSOURI COMPROMISE REPORTED.

GENERAL SCOTT, however, did not prove the victorious leader of the Whig party that he had been of the armies of his country. Of the defeat of the Whigs in that contest and the future of their party, Mr. Colfax thus wrote:

THE WHIG PARTY.

"The official returns of the late Presidential election are not yet fully made up, California, Texas, etc., being behind; but their summing up will be in round numbers about as follows: Pierce, 1,500,000 votes; Scott, 1,300,000; Hale, 150,000; Troup, Southern Rights, 5,000; Broome, Native American, 2,000; Webster, Union, 8,000. The total vote of the nation will foot up about 3,000,000; of which General Pierce will have about one-half, or more probably, a very small fraction over half.

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"We dissent in the furthest degree from those in our ranks, who, since the defeat last month, speak of the Whig party as dead.' It is galling, we know, to see, as Mr. Greeley saw, thousands of men, who called themselves Whigs, vote directly for Pierce and the ascendancy of Locofoco principles, in order, as they openly avowed, to revenge themselves for their defeat at the

National Convention. But this shameless recreancy does not in the least impair the value of genuine Whig principles, the necessity for a Whig party, or the duty of Whig voters. A great party, a great cause, may be stricken down by foul treachery. But the sleepless clock of time ticks on, and brings around at last the

hour of retribution.

"The Whig party has passed through bitterer reverses than the one which has just overtaken it. When its champions declared manfully their resistance to Executive power, and the popularity of General Jackson rolled like a huge wave over the country, destroying nearly all who opposed him, those fearless defenders of principle quailed not, faltered not, yielded not. In those days, as now, the office-seekers, the camp-followers of the party, deserted to the ranks of the victorious chieftain; but the faithful champions of Whig principles, undismayed by the cheerless prospect, stood fast.

"That dynasty passed away. Its powerful and popular head, whose iron will had bound his party together in unity and in triumph, issued his farewell address to his countrymen, declaring that he left this great country free, prosperous and happy, designated his successor, and retired from the Executive chair. In that campaign of 1836, the prospect was even more forbidding. The members of the Whig party, almost disbanded, certainly disunited and hopeless, fought in different sections of the country, like the Bunker Hill riflemen, on their own hook. The Southwest rallied under Hugh L. White, the Northwest under Harrison, the Northeast under Webster, and Martin Van Buren came in by a large majority over all. The State of New York he carried by over 28,000 majority, larger than she gives now to

Pierce, who has but one thousand votes over half the total number of her electors, and yet the defeated Whig party stood fearless, resolute as ever. A single year passed by the Conservatives, incensed at the destructive policy of the administration, forsook it, and the more readily because they saw that the great Whig party maintained its organization and would stand by them effectively in the position which they took. The overwhelming majority of New York was reversed in a single year-the Empire State repudiated her own 'favorite son,' as he had been called, and struck a blow, that paved the way for the triumph of 1840.

"The fruits of the victory of that celebrated year were turned into ashes as the body of Harrison mouldered in its tomb; and his successor, like the viper, stung the party which had warmed him into political life and power. But despite that signal treachery, with all the official patronage of the administration they had elected turned malignantly against them, and recreant Congressmen aiding the defection by going over to the enemy, this noble party rallied again, purged as it was of its camp-followers, and would have elevated its chosen leader, Henry Clay, to the Presidency, but for the fatal influence of his own Texas letters to Alabama.

"Mr. Polk entered the Presidential mansion. The Mexican war followed. The Whig party generally took the ground that it was unnecessary and could have been avoided. For this they were unjustly denounced in Congress and out of it, as traitors to their country, as preferring the triumphs of the Mexicans to those of our own arms; and every attempt was made, in every way, from the message of the President to its echoes on the stump and in the press, to array public prejudice against

it.

Yet in 1848, with all the prestige of that war, and of its annexation of California, New Mexico, etc., against us, it again achieved a national triumph, and the administration of Mr. Polk was succeeded by one thoroughly Whig in all its departments.

"If others can see no hope in the future, we, with this retrospect before us, confess that our vision is more sanguine. There is yet work for the Whig party to accomplish-there are yet victories for it to achieve, if it remains faithful to its principles and its organization. In the hey-day of prosperity the name of Democracy is potent, and its candidates ride on the topmost waves of popularity.

“Each petty hand can steer a ship becalmed.' But when the horizon is overcast with clouds, when experiments upon the currency or the peace of the country cause revulsions or disasters, financial or national, the people look instinctively to the Whig party and its conservative policy for relief. When the Democracy in power are tested by their acts rather than by their name, the contrast enures to Whig success. Thus was it from 1836 to 1840-thus was it from 1844 to 1848and thus it will be again.

"The Democratic party has triumphed at the recent election because, aided by divisions in our own ranks, it has drawn to its embrace the most discordant materials ever leagued together to achieve a triumph over a common foe. Thus we have seen the Wilmots and Van Burens of the North, and the Soules and the South Carolinians of the South, regardless of the vast difference in the views they professed to hold on slavery, leagued together in the same party. Thus also the Protective Tariff Democrats of Pennsylvania and the pro

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