THE PIERCE-SCOTT CONTEST

1852

While the Whigs were apprehensive as to General Taylor’s fidelity to an aggressive Whig policy both before and after his election, when he came to the selection of his Cabinet he quieted all doubts by appointing a positive Whig Cabinet, with John M. Clayton, one of the ablest of the Whig leaders of that day and an eminently practical politician, to the Premiership. Taylor had little fitness for responsible civil duties, and charged his Cabinet, that was made up of eminently able men, with the administration of their different departments. The slavery question was uppermost in the politics of the day, and the Taylor Cabinet finally decided upon a policy to solve the delicate problem by admitting none of the newly acquired Mexican possessions as Territories, but leaving the question of slavery to be determined by themselves when they came to admission as States.

This policy was antagonized by the ultra antislavery people, who wanted the distinct prohibition of slavery in Territorial organizations, and also by the extreme slavery Whigs, who desired them admitted as Territories without any expression on slavery, believing that slaves could be taken into any Territory south of the Missouri Compromise line unless prohibited by the organic law. Clay had returned to the Senate, and being neither more nor less than human, he had little inclination to harmonize with an accidental Whig President who filled the position to which Clay felt he was justly entitled. As opposed to the policy of the President, Clay came in as pacificator and proposed what then became known, and what have since been known as the Compromise Measures of 1850. It is doubtful whether either the administration or the Clay Compromise policy could have been successful had the President lived. Certainly the Compromise bill would have failed, but it is uncertain whether the administration could have wielded sufficient power to carry its policy through Congress. Its policy was a negative one, postponing the slave issue in the new acquisitions until the people could act in their sovereign capacity in the creation of States.

President Taylor died July 9, 1850, and Millard Fillmore became President by virtue of his office as Vice-President. Taylor’s death changed the political purposes of the administration in the earnest struggle then in Congress to meet the question of slavery in the newly acquired territory. Fillmore, like nearly all Vice-Presidents, was not in harmony with the President, and when he became President himself he reversed the policy of the administration.

It was on this issue that Webster wrecked himself. He was in the confidence of the Taylor administration, and was chosen to be the champion of its policy for meeting the slavery issue in the Territories. He personally conferred with the Cabinet forty-eight hours before he delivered his memorable seventh-of-March speech, in which he cast his lot with Clay and the pro-slavery wing of the party, and neither the President nor any Cabinet officer had any notice of his purpose to change until they were astounded by hearing the views he expressed in his speech. William M. Meredith, of Philadelphia, was then Secretary of the Treasury, and he was so much offended by what he regarded as Webster’s perfidy that he never spoke to him thereafter.

Fillmore was the second Vice-President who had succeeded to the Presidency by the death of the President, and, like Tyler, he reversed the policy of the party, and estranged the Whigs of the North very generally from him. After he became President the Compromise Measures were revived, and Clay made the last great battle of his life as pacificator. With the power of the administration added, the Clay Compromise Measures passed both branches of Congress, and were promptly approved by the President. They declared, first, against the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; second, in favor of the admission of California as a Free State; third, in favor of a severely stringent Fugitive Slave law; fourth, for the payment to Texas of $10,000,000 for yielding her claims to New Mexico, and fifth, in favor of the admission of Utah and New Mexico as Territories without restrictions as to slavery.

The passage of the Compromise Measures practically united the Democratic party, as the friends of slavery extension had won a substantial triumph, and the Democrats of the North were generally in harmony with that policy, but it greatly weakened the Whigs in the North without strengthening them in the South, and Fillmore, and Webster, then Secretary of State, became rival candidates for the Whig nomination, while the anti-Compromise or antislavery element of the Whigs united on General Scott.

When the Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore, June 1, 1852, the leaders were entirely confident of electing their candidates. John W. Davis, of Indiana, was made President, and the two-thirds rule reaffirmed. The sessions of the convention were protracted, lasting six days, but there was little angry dispute as to either candidates or measures. There were 49 ballots for President, Cass and Buchanan being the leading competitors at the start. The Virginia delegation, that was always potential in Democratic conventions, had become weary of the hopeless contest between the candidates, and on the 35th ballot cast a solid vote for Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, whose name had not up to that time been before the convention. The friends of Cass made an earnest rally, but were unable to concentrate sufficient strength to approach the two-thirds vote, and Marcy finally loomed up as the leading competitor of Pierce. The following table gives the detail vote on each ballot:

BALLOTS.Cass.Buchanan.Douglas.Marcy.Butler.Houston.Dodge.Lane.Dickinson.Pierce.
1116932027283131—
2118952327163131—
3119942126173131—
4115893125173131—
5114883426183131—
6114883426183131—
7113883426193131—
8113883426193131—
911287392718—131—
1011186402718—141—
1110187502718—131—
129888512719—131—
1398885126110—131—
1499875126110—131—
1599875126110—131—
1699875126110—131—
1799875026111—131—
1896855625111—131—
1989856326110—131—
2081926426110—131—
21601026426139—131—
22531047726159—131—
233710378261911—131—
24331038026239—131—
25341018126249—131—
263310180262410—131—
2732988526249—131—
28289688262511—131—
29279391262512—131—
30339192262012—131—
31647992261610——1—
329874802618——1—
3312372602526——1—
3413049532315——16—
3513139524415——115
3612228435815——130
3712028377015——129
3810728338415——129
3910628338515——129
4010627338515——129
4110727338515——129
4210127339115——129
4310127339115——129
4410127339115——129
459627329715——129
467828329715——144
477528339515——149
487328339016——155
492—2—2————282