They cared nothing for Fillmore's lead in votes, obtained as they thought in large degree from the use of patronage.

They scouted it as an argument not fit to be addressed to the friends of Mr.Webster.

Such considerations belonged only to men of the lower grades, struggling in the dirty pools of political strife, and were not to be applied to a statesman of Mr.Webster's rank and character.

They felt, moreover, that all the popularity which Fillmore had secured in the South, and to a certain degree with the conservative and commercial classes of the whole country, had come from Mr.Webster's presence and pre- eminent service in his cabinet.

In short, Mr.Webster's supporters felt that Mr.Fillmore, so far from earning their respect and deserving their applause, was merely strutting in borrowed plumage, and deriving all his strength from their own illustrious chief.
This jealousy was of course stimulated with consummate art and tact by the supporters of Scott.