However, his enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had alienated many Northern Whigs, who supported either Scott or secretary of state Daniel Webster.

In the general election, Scott and Graham were defeated by the Democratic candidates, Franklin Pierce and William R. King, who took office the following March 1853.

The congressional Whig caucus, led by Senator Willie P. Mangum, a supporter of Scott, met on April 9, 1852, to decide the date and location for the 1852 convention.

President Zachary Taylor, a Southern Whig, had tried to avoid the issue altogether by proposing that California and New Mexico be admitted as free states immediately.

After Taylor's death in July 1850, Fillmore, a moderate Whig, had supported Clay's compromise and was instrumental as president in its passage.

Just days before the convention was scheduled to begin, Southern Whigs warned that they would not support Scott unless he pledged to disavow the Free Soilers and to exclude them from his administration if he was elected.

Encouraged by Fillmore's professed lack of desire to pursue the Whig nomination, Webster launched another campaign for the presidency in 1851.

Two weeks before the Whig convention was set to begin, the Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce, a northerner from New Hampshire.

Southern delegates submitted a platform, but it was rejected in favor of a relatively weak one which caused little controversy and was easily passed by a vote of 227 to 66.

Although both Webster and Fillmore were willing to withdraw in favor of the other, their respective delegates at the convention were unable to unite around either candidate during the weekend adjournment.

The convention was deadlocked, and a number of delegates unsuccessfully moved to allow a nomination with a plurality, rather than a majority, of votes.

Scott was finally nominated on the next ballot, obtaining a majority when several delegates from New England and Virginia switched their support.

Former representative Edward Bates and navy secretary William Alexander Graham were the two main candidates for the nomination.

Bates led on the first ballot at the convention[11] and even had an editorial endorsement from a fellow Missourian who was just starting his career, Mark Twain.