Jockeying for the American Presidency: The Political Opportunism ...

preferred outcome happens. Van Buren's supporters (and his opponents) understood that sometimes the simplest way to win is to change the rules that define winning. Tellingly, all thirteen of Tennessee's delegates voted to sustain the two-thirds rule, despite Polk's articulated wish that they side with Van Buren until his withdrawal.¹⁵

The day before, on May 27, Van Buren's supporters lost another “gaming” battle. They had wanted Governor Henry Hubbard of New Hampshire to serve as the convention chair, but at about 11:30 a.m. (thirty minutes ahead of when the convention was expected to begin), “a bitter enemy of Van Buren, Romulus M. Saunders of North Carolina…rose in the midst of the hall and…nominated [Hendrick] Wright [of Pennsylvania] for chairman, put the question, declared him elected, and called him to the chair. The Van Buren men, caught off base, had no force they could rally, particularly as they did not dare antagonize Pennsylvania at that ticklish point.” Ergo, before the balloting had even begun, the front-runner had fallen behind. Benjamin Butler, chairman of the New York delegation and Van Buren's point man, described best the situation in a letter to Van Buren: “Plots and anti-plots are so thick you have no idea.”¹⁶

On the first presidential ballot, Van Buren earned 146 of the 266 delegates, whereas Cass picked up 83. The remaining votes were split between other regional favorites, including former vice president Johnson (24); persistent rabble-rouser Calhoun, whose state, South Carolina, had not even sent a delegation in protest of the gathering (6); Buchanan of Pennsylvania (4); and Woodbury of New Hampshire (2). Notably, the delegates from Pennsylvania (26) and New Hampshire (6) held to their prior commitments (made at state conventions earlier in the year) to Van Buren. Virginia (17) and Tennessee (13) gave their votes to Cass. The wholesale Tennessee rebellion against Polk's explicit instructions to support Van Buren occurred because the state voted by unit (Johnson, Pillow, Laughlin, Donelson, and William Childress—Polk loyalists—comprised the minority of the delegation). Although Silas Wright thought that the Volunteers were making mischief, as Borneman noted, it was merely dissension in the ranks. Still, the vote may have served as an object lesson