Mr.Van Buren, with the aid of the more populous North, had indeed secured a majority of the convention, but an instrumentality was at hand to overcome this apparent advantage.

In the two preceding national conventions of the Democratic party, the rule requiring a two-thirds vote of all the delegates to make a nomination had been adopted at the instance of Mr.Van Buren's friends in order to insure his victory.
It was now to be used for his defeat.

Forseeing the result, the same zealous and devoted friends of Mr.Van Buren resisted its adoption.

Romulus M.Sanders of North Carolina introduced the rule, and was sustained with great vigor by Robert J.Walker of Mississippi, and George W.Hopkins of Virginia.

The leading opponents of the rule were Marcus Morton of Massachusetts, Nathan Clifford of Maine, and Daniel S.Dickinson of New York.