Another of the troubles that confronted the Democracy was the intense factional dispute in New York between what were known as the Hunkers and the Barnburners. The Hunkers were so called in derision by their enemies as men who always hunkered after office, and the Barnburners were so called by their opponents because it was charged that to correct evils in the party, they were ready to follow the foolish farmer who burnt his barn to rid it of rats. Silas Wright, who had lost the Vice-Presidency in 1844 by his devotion to Van Buren, and was finally compelled to run for Governor to save the State, suffered a severe defeat in 1846 when a candidate for re-election. That defeat was charged by Van Buren and his friends to the perfidy of the Hunkers. So intense was the bitterness between these factions that they could not agree on delegations to the national convention, and two opposing delegations were chosen, the Barnburners being antislavery Democrats and the Hunkers the regular or pro-slavery Democrats. The national convention met at Baltimore on the 22d of May, 1848, with every State represented, and New York with a double delegation. Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, was made President, and the two-thirds rule was adopted by a vote of 175 to 78. For two days the convention wrangled over the disputing delegations from New York, and after protracted and angry debate a motion was finally passed by 126 to 124 admitting both delegations, each to cast half the vote of the State. While this was a comparative victory for the Barnburners, they withdrew from the convention, and the Hunker delegation refused to participate in the proceedings. The prominent candidates before the convention for President were Cass and Buchanan, with Cass immensely in the lead and reasonably certain to be nominated before the convention met. He had a large plurality on the 1st ballot, but did not reach the requisite two-thirds vote until the 4th, as is shown by the following table, giving the ballots in detail: ════════════════════════╤════════╤═════════╤════════╤═════════ │ First. │ Second. │ Third. │ Fourth. ────────────────────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────┼───────── Necessary to a choice │ 168 │ 168 │ 169 │ 169 Lewis Cass, Mich. │ 125 │ 133 │ 156 │ 179 James Buchanan, Penn. │ 55 │ 54 │ 40 │ 33 Levi Woodbury, N. H. │ 53 │ 56 │ 53 │ 38 George M. Dallas, Penn. │ 3 │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― W. J. Worth, Tenn. │ 6 │ 6 │ 5 │ 1 John C. Calhoun, S. C. │ 9 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― W. O. Butler, Ky. │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3 ════════════════════════╧════════╧═════════╧════════╧══════════ The convention adjourned after the nomination of Cass to meet in evening session to select a candidate for Vice-President, and without any preliminaries the ballot was had as follows: