He received no support from Mr.Fillmore's administration, was indeed secretly betrayed by it everywhere, and quite openly by its officials in the Southern States.

He did not receive the strength of his party, and the strength of his party would have been insufficient to elect him.

But overwhelming as was the defeat, it did not necessarily involve destruction.

The Whigs had been beaten almost as badly when Clay ran against Jackson in 1832, and yet the party had rallied to four earnest contests and to two signal victories.
The Democracy, now so triumphant, had been disastrously beaten in the contest of 1840, but in the next election had regained strength enough to defeat Mr.Clay.

The precedents, therefore, permitted the Whigs to be of good cheer and bade them wait the issues of the future.