Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/319

Rh in New York, attempted to organize a movement against Taylor with Clay at its head. But Clay peremptorily forbade the use of his name.

Clay was by no means alone dissatisfied with Taylor's nomination. The Whig politicians, who expected to make for Taylor an easy “star-and-stripe campaign,” found unforeseen difficulties in their way. Many of the old Whigs continued to believe that their party should remain the representative of certain principles; that it still had a mission to perform; and that it should be led by statesmen. The bestowal of its highest trust and honor upon one who, whatever his merits as a soldier and a gentleman, frankly confessed himself ignorant of the great duties to the discharge of which he was to be commissioned, provoked their anger and contempt. Not only a large number of Clay's friends were so affected, but of Webster's too. Webster himself declared that Taylor's nomination was “one not fit to be made,” and only at a late period of the campaign he was moved by unceasing party pressure to make a few speeches for the Whig candidate.

Of greater significance was the defection of a portion of the anti-slavery element in the Whig party, who in Massachusetts went by the name of “Conscience Whigs,” and who counted strongly also in New York and Ohio. But, while this defection was avowedly intended to punish the Whig party and to defeat Taylor, the turn which the anti-slavery movement took in the campaign served