[5] He supported Martin Van Buren's candidacy as the Free Soil Party's nominee for president in 1848,[6] and was an unsuccessful Free-Soil candidate for election to the Thirty-First Congress.

[1] In 1861, Nye was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to be Governor of the newly created Nevada Territory.

Nye wasn't particularly witty in debate, and the speeches of Proctor Knott, McCreery, or Sam Cox were funnier than his; neither had he any Senatorial dignity whatever.

He had, in its place, a vast store of humor and genial humanity—better articles, that brought him in love all that he lost in respect.

In Sketches Old and New he gave an account of their parting, which occurred after Twain supposedly wrote ridiculous letters to constituents following Nye's instructions not to address controversial issues.