 Despite Scott's support for the Compromise of 1850, he became the chosen candidate of William Seward, a leading Northern Whig who objected to the Compromise of 1850 partly because of the fugitive slave act.By early 1852, the three leading candidates for the Whig presidential nomination were Scott, who was backed by anti-Compromise Northern Whigs, President Fillmore, the first choice of most Southern Whigs, and Secretary of State Webster, whose support was concentrated in New England.The 1852 Whig National Convention convened on June 16, and Southern delegates won approval of a party platform endorsing the Compromise of 1850 as a final settlement of the slavery question.