152 
Indiana Ufiiversity 
than principles/®® Acts, such as his vote against the Salt 
Tax^®i and Pre-emption, did him harm in the West/®^ 
Publicly, Clay simulated satisfaction with the result. 
That convention was composed of as enlightened and as respectable 
body of men as were ever assembled in the country. They met, deliber- 
ated, and after a full and impartial deliberation, decided that William 
Henry Harrison was the man best calculated to unite the Whigs of the 
union against the present executive. General Harrison was nominated, 
and cheerfully and without a moment’s hesitation I gave my hearty con- 
currence in the nomination, from that moment to the present, I have 
had but one wish — one object — one desire — and that is to secure the elec- 
tion of the distinquished citizen who received the suffrages of the con- 
vention.^®* 
Henry Wise said Clay’s private remarks were different. 
When Clay heard of his failure to secure the nomination, he 
raved and swore like a mad man. “My friends are not 
worth the powder and shot it would take to kill them”, he 
shouted. “He mentioned the names of several, invoking upon 
them the most horrid imprecations.”"®^ 
The nomination was not immediately popular.^®® Clay’s 
friends were disappointed and angry. This accounts for the 
choice of an extreme State Rights man for the vice-presi- 
dency.^®® The southern Whigs did not like the choice of 
Harrison ^®' and Calhoun predicted that the nomination would 
throw off the southern wing of the Whig party.^®® 
Clay increased his popularity and strengthened the ticket 
by coming out in open support of the nominee.^®® The Whigs 
held state and local conventions indorsing the action of the 
convention and the campaign was on. 
Schui-z, Life of Henry Clay, II, 175. 
The Globe, September 6, 1839. 
Speech of Richard M. Young of Illinois, in U.S. Senate, January 8, 1839. 
Niles’ Register, LVIII, 158. 
164 Wise, Seven Decades of the Union, 171. 
Jenkins, History of Political Parties in Ne?v York, 432. 
166 Weed, Autobiography, I, 482. 
167 Prentiss, Memoirs, II, 150. 
Jameson (ed.), Com-espondence of Calhoun, 435; ibid., 438. 
Tuckerman (ed.), The Diary of Philip Hone, II, 4. 
