On the first ballot, Fillmore received 133 votes, Scott 131, Webster 23.

Fillmore received every Southern vote, except one from Virginia given to Scott by John Minor Botts.

Scott received every Northern vote except twenty-nine given to Webster, and sixteen given to Fillmore.

The friends of Mr.Webster, and Mr.Webster himself, were pained and mortified by the result.
Rufus Choate was at the head of the Massachusetts delegation, and eloquently, even passionately, pleaded with the Southern men to support Mr.Webster on a single ballot.

But the Southern men stubbornly adhered to Fillmore, and were in turn enraged because the twenty-nine votes thrown away, as they said, on Mr.Webster, would at once renominate the President in whose cabinet Mr.Webster was at that moment serving as Premier.