Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/189

Rh upon compare notes in general committee through their committees of three; and then, if no majority was at once apparent, ballot again and compare notes, and so on, until a majority should be obtained, which fact should then be reported to the convention. Thus all the important business was to be done in secret by a select body of men, and the convention, in its public session, was only to ratify what had been “cut and dried” for it. This contrivance worked as desired. On the first balloting, Clay received 102 votes, Harrison 91, and Scott 57. After several secret decoctions and filtrations occupying several days, a majority for Harrison was evolved. The bulk of the Scott vote, embodying a large part of the Webster influence, had gone over to Harrison, according to programme. Scott himself discovered that the “assurances of eventual support,” with which he had been “approached,” had not made him as serious a candidate as he had imagined; and Clay found, on the decisive ballot, little more on his side than votes from slave-holding states.

When the result was determined, Clay's friends were not only “disappointed and grieved, even to tears,” but also indignant. The managers became alarmed. Speeches praising Clay to the skies were made by men who had voted against him, and it was at once determined that the nomination for the vice-presidency must be given to one of Clay's most pronounced friends. Watkins Leigh of Virginia, a very honorable and able man, was