The overthrow of Mr.Van Buren was a crisis in the history of the Democratic party, and implanted dissensions which rapidly ripened into disaster.
The one leading feature, the forerunner of important political changes, was the division of delegates on the geographical line of North and South.

Though receiving a clear majority of the entire convention on the first ballot, Mr.Van Buren had but nine votes from the slave States; and these votes, singularly enough, came from the northern side of the line of the Missouri Compromise.
This division in a Democratic National Convention was, in many of its relations and aspects, more significant than a similar division in the two Houses of Congress.
Though cruelly wronged by the convention, as many of his supporters thought, Mr.Van Buren did not himself show resentment, but effectively sustained his successful competitor.

His confidential friend, Silas Wright, had refused to go on the ticket with Mr.
Polk, and George M.Dallas was substituted by the quick and competent management of Mr.Robert J.Walker.

The refusal of Mr.Wright led the Whigs to hope for distraction in the ranks of the New-York Democracy; but that delusion was soon dispelled by Wright's acceptance of the nomination for governor, and his entrance into the canvass with unusual energy and spirit.

It was widely believed that Jackson's great influence with Van Buren was actively exerted in aid of Polk's election.