Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/407

Rh the desire of peace among the business community, prevailed upon many Northern Whigs, who might otherwise have strayed away, to acquiesce in the compromise. But the tendency adverse to it was, with a great many other Northern Whigs, too strong to yield to management.

When the thirty-second Congress assembled in December, 1851, an effort was made to unite the Whig members of the House in declaring the compromise a “finality;” but of the eighty-six Whig members only forty or fifty attended the caucus, and of these one third voted to lay the resolution on the table. Although it was adopted, only a minority of the members committed themselves in its favor. Similar efforts were made in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the principal effect of which consisted in a revival of the slavery discussion. The Southern Whigs were willing to accept the compromise as a “finality” until it should be found that slavery needed more protective legislation, while a large portion of the Northern Whigs refused to see in the compromise any adjustment at all. When on the 9th of April the Whig members of Congress held a caucus to fix upon time and place for the National Convention, and a “finality” resolution was laid upon the table, several members seceded from the meeting; and on the next day eleven Southern Whigs published an address declaring that no candidate for the presidency could have their support whose principles were not plainly defined, and who