natural taste for politics, [55];
candidate for presidential elector, [87];
Whig leader, [87];
canvassed Illinois in Clay-Polk campaign, [99];
leader of Whigs in Congress, [100];
Whig delegate to National Convention, [104];
seeks appointment as land commissioner, [106]-[107];
little interested in politics until 1854, [147];
building up the Free Soil party, [150];