to hold their own views on slavery; that cooperation in the national convention should depend solely upon the support of Whig principles and measures: "You may compromise' a tariff question, or a land or a money question. But you cannot compromise' a question of human freedom.""It was in accordance with their desires and in order to retain their support that General Scott had refrained from publishing his views on slavery and the compromise.

55

But the southern Whigs were insistent that Scott should make an open, unqualified, and unequivocal announcement of his position. It was not enough that he had favored the passage of the compromise measures from the time of their introduction; it was not enough that he was known to have taken an active part in the great Union meeting in New York at Castle Garden in May, 1850; it was not even enough that he had, after President Taylor's death, been temporarily placed by Fillmore at the head of the war department and in that position had exerted a powerful influence in favor of the compromise measures. Some safeguard for the future was expected and demanded.

This situation was discussed by the southern members of Congress. Cabell, a Florida Union Whig, who, like Stephens, Toombs, Gentry, Brooke, Marshall, and others, had lost faith in the Whig party with its sectional divisions and was preparing to look about for a new and more favorable alignment, began the discussion with a speech on the third of February in which he considered the position of the Union and Whig

54 New York Tribune, Washington Correspondence, April 7, in Washington Union, April 14, 1852.

55 Cf. Winfield Scott to -, March 26, 1851, Washington Republic, Oct. 1, 1851.

parties. Declaring Fillmore to be his choice for the presidency, he admitted that Scott's past attitude toward the compromise had been favorable to southern support. More recent developments, however, had rendered it essential that Scott first, if it was not already too late to extricate himself from his false position, place himself fully and clearly on record. "In his present position, if nominated by the Whig party for the presidency, I do not believe that in my State he would receive fifty votes; and I am quite sure that he could not get the electoral vote of one Southern State."" A month later Humphrey Marshall wrote privately to the editor of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser regarding Scott: "In his present position he cannot obtain the vote of Kentucky any more than he can command the powers of heaven." On the last of March, Williams of Tennessee made substantially the same announcement before the House in regard to the attitude of his own state toward Scott." Stephens and Toombs, like the majority of Georgia Whigs, or Union men as they preferred to call themselves, hesitated whether or not to accept any pledges at this late date." They feared after their experience with Taylor that if Seward controlled Scott now, there could be no reason

56 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 451-457. On March 20, 1852, Cabell wrote to a New York cotton Whig declaring that with the nomination of a sectional candidate over Fillmore by the Whig convention, "the Whig party would and should, as a party, cease in the Southern States". Albany State Register, in Washington Republic, April 3, 1852.

57 April 7, 1852.

58 Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 940; Appendix, 371-373; New York Herald, April 1, 1852.

59 Cf. Milledgeville Southern Recorder, May 11, 1852. Toombs was preparing to support the nominee of the Baltimore Democratic Convention. Toombs to Cobb, May 27, 1852, Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb Correspondence.

to hope for better things after his election. Moreover, a private letter of Henry Clay had been published which revealed his preference for Fillmore as "tried and found true, faithful, honest, and conscientious". This was used to discredit Scott's candidature in the South.

61

Nevertheless, despite all the influences at work, Scott seems to have steadily acquired new strength in the southern states. During January and February, 1852, a number of Whig politicians from the South prepared to give him their support in the presidential contest." His friends among the southern members of Congress came to include a loyal little following made up of Stanly and Senator Mangum of North Carolina, Senators Bell and Jones of Tennessee, and Ward of Kentucky," while others like Cullom of Kentucky held the way clear for the support of Scott, whom they professed to believe unquestionably sound." Stanly wrote a letter intended to reconcile southern Whigs to Scott's nomination, representing him as a strong supporter of the compromise measures at all times. He further stated that the fact that Whig anti-slavery men declared their purpose to support Scott constituted no objection to his receiving the support of the southern Whigs." On April 7 Ward announced to the House his support

60 Clay, Private Correspondence, 628. Also in Washington Republic, March 18; Washington Union, March 19.

61 Charleston Courier, Washington Correspondence, in Montgomery Alabama Journal, Feb. 3, 1852. A caucus of Whig members of the Delaware legislature toward the last of February passed resolutions in favor of his nomination. National Intelligencer, Feb. 28, 1852.

62 Cf. H. Greeley to Weed, April 18, 1852. Memoir of Thurlow Weed,

217.

63 See his speech on May 17, Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., 1 sess., 13821383.

Washington Union, April 10, 1852.

of Scott, contending that his nomination meant the best hope of Whig success." Mangum boldly declared Scott his first choice before the Senate on April 18; although he stated that his candidate could present

66

as clean a bill of political health" as could Fillmore, Webster, or Clay," he was rebuked for his action by a considerable portion of the Whig press of his own state and denounced by many of his party in the lower South." The Richmond Whig had already announced its entire confidence in Scott without pledges and could see nothing discreditable to him if he received the votes of freesoilers or of any one else." The editors of the Louisville Journal and of the Nashville Republican Banner returned home from a visit to Washington prepared to support Scott." The certainty of his nomination was beginning to be realized in the South. Fillmore was the first choice of the Whigs there, Webster undoubtedly the second, but they had to decide on a policy if Scott was nominated. Many accordingly concluded not to burn their bridges behind them, but, conceding the latter's soundness, prepared to support him if a better compromise man was not named."

It is important to notice the general position of the southern Whigs in Congress at this time in connection with their attitude towards Scott's candidacy. Men like Stephens, Toombs, Cabell, Brooke, and Clingman

65 New York Herald, April 8, 1852.

Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., I sess., 1076-1080.

67 See D. Heartt to Mangum, March 31, 1852, Mangum MSS.

68 March 18, 1852. J. M. Botts became a firm supporter of Scott in the Richmond district.

69 Washington Union, May 5, 1852.

70 Nashville Republican Banner, March 9, 11; Montgomery Alabama Journal, March 26, April 9; New Orleans Bulletin, May 25; Memphis Eagle and Enquirer, May 19; etc., 1852.

who had abandoned the party tie in the local contests over the compromise measures, with such men as Marshall of Kentucky, Gentry and Williams of Tennessee, Moore and Landry of Louisiana, Outlaw of North Carolina, and Strother of Virginia-indeed, a considerable majority of the southern Whig members— had become" Southern Whigs" in a special sense, devoted more to the interests of their section than to those of the national party. By testimonials of devotion to the old party principles they showed that they had strayed but little from orthodox whiggery, but they made it equally clear that they had prepared their minds for a breach with northern anti-slavery whiggery. They were fully conscious that the slavery agitation might be renewed at any time. They did not know how soon some bold step by their political associates in the North would provoke them to break off all cooperation; yet they felt that the southern section of the party could endure no further insult from the northern wing. Several southern Whigs had come to Washington expecting to find greater soundness among the northern Democrats than among the northern men of the Whig party and prepared in that event to act with the former. These southern Whigs were always prepared to fall back upon a Union movement" which

Cabell outlined this attitude: "I am a member of the Southern Whig party. I believe it to be the constitutional party--the true conservative party of the country, opposed to all mere abstractions of the South, and to Sewardism, Greeleyism, Van Burenism, and all the other isms of the North. I feel proud of belonging to that party, because, with few exceptions, the members of it are Union men, and as Union men we might, without surrendering any of our principles, act in harmony with the Union Constitutional party. It would be in accordance with the conservative principles of our party to abandon party names and party organizations to act with any man or set of men who, under a new organization, would contribute to the Constitution and the Union." Cong. Globe, 32 Cong., I sess., 451, 452.