Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/412

402 The Whigs held their National Convention at the same place on June 10. It first adopted a platform declaring “that the series of acts of the thirty-first Congress — the act known as the fugitive-slave law included — are received and acquiesced in by the Whig party of the United States as a settlement, in principle and substance, of the dangerous and exciting questions which they embrace; and, so far as they are concerned, we will maintain them, and insist on their strict enforcement, until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation, to guard against the evasion of the laws on the one hand, and the abuse of their powers on the other, not impairing their efficiency;” and, further, to frown down “all further agitation of the question thus settled, as dangerous to our peace,” etc. This was the platform as the Southern Whigs desired it; and then, after many ballots, the results of which were peculiarly humiliating to Webster, who never received more than thirty-two votes, and among them not one from the South, the convention nominated for the presidency General Scott, the favorite of the anti-slavery Whigs. Thus the South had the platform, and the North the candidate; and by such means the party was to be held together. But no sooner was the result known than several Southern delegates declared that they would not agree to support the candidate unless he unequivocally accepted the platform together with the nomination.