Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/383



first Clay's expectations as to the pacificatory effect of the compromise seemed to be justified. The strain of popular excitement, which had been long and severe, was followed by a reaction of lassitude, in many cases degenerating into the very fanaticism of repose. In November, 1850, the adjourned Nashville Convention met again, and passed resolutions which, although unfavorable to the compromise, were comparatively temperate in tone. Moreover, the number of states represented, as well as that of the delegates representing them, was small. The governors of South Carolina and of Mississippi carried on an animated correspondence about the steps to be taken to sever their states from the Union, but the friends of the compromise appealed to the people and defeated the disunionists in the elections. In Georgia a state convention adopted a platform which did, indeed, not wholly approve of the compromise, but accepted it as a basis of settlement and pacification, and spoke much of fidelity to the Union, while, at the same time, resolving that either of five things — namely, the abolition of slavery in