sympathy with the Southern movement. In Louisiana, the governor's
proposal to send delegates was blocked by the Whigs.[32]
"Missouri", in case of the Wilmot Proviso, "will be found in
hearty co-operation with the slave-holding states for mutual
protection against . . . Northern fanaticism", her legislature
resolved.[33] Missouri's instructions to her senators were
denounced as "disunion in their object" by her own Senator
Benton. The Maryland legislature resolved, February 26: "Maryland
will take her position with her Southern sister states in the
maintenance of the constitution with all its compromises." The
Whig senate, however, prevented sanctioning of the convention and
sending of delegates. Florida's governor wrote the governor of
South Carolina that Florida would co-operate with Virginia and
South Carolina "in any measure in defense of our common
Constitution and sovereign dignity". "Florida has resolved to
resist to the extent of revolution", declared her representative
in Congress, March 5. Though the Whigs did not support the
movement, five delegates came from Florida to the Nashville
Convention. [34]

[32] White, Miss. Valley Hist. Assoc., III. 283.

[33] Senate Miscellaneous, 1849-1850, no. 24.

[34] Hamer, p. 40; cf. Cole, Whig Party in the South, p. 162;
Cong. Globe, Mar. 5.


In Kentucky, Crittenden's repeated messages against "disunion"
and "entangling engagements" reveal the danger seen by a