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312 was nominated for the vice-presidency. The old anti-slavery men present accepted the result. The enthusiasm of the convention had in it a glow of religious fervor quite uncommon before in political gatherings.

But there was after all something grotesque, if not repulsive, in the selection of Martin Van Buren for the leadership of an anti-slavery movement. It no doubt attracted many Democrats whose feelings on slavery would, without it, not have been strong enough to take them out of their party line. But, as soon as the first excitement was over, many anti-slavery Whigs, who had been inclined to favor the Buffalo nominations, began to remember Martin Van Buren's career with regard to the subject of slavery; and they quietly dropped off and rejoined their old party, finding a ready excuse in the fact that anti-slavery men so earnest and able as William H. Seward vigorously supported Taylor, and represented him as a man who, although a slave-holder himself, was by no means disposed to propagate slavery. The Buffalo movement, therefore, making serious inroads into the Democratic party in New York, while drawing comparatively little of its force from the Whigs, redounded to Taylor's benefit.

It produced an important effect in another direction: it frightened members of Congress. The Oregon bill, involving the right of the slave-holder to take his property into that territory, had agitated Congress for months. At last, on August