According to his biographer, Scarry: "Fillmore concluded his Congressional career at a point when he had become a powerful figure, an able statesman at the height of his popularity". Thurlow Weed deemed Congressman Fillmore "able in debate, wise in council, and inflexible in his political sentiments". Out of office, Fillmore continued his law practice and made long-neglected repairs to his Buffalo home. He remained a major political figure, leading the committee of notables that welcomed John Quincy Adams to Buffalo. The former president expressed his regret at Fillmore's absence from the halls of Congress. Some urged Fillmore to run for vice president with Clay, the consensus Whig choice for president in 1844. Horace Greeley wrote privately that "my own first choice has long been Millard Fillmore"; others thought Fillmore should try to win back the governor's mansion for the Whigs. Seeking to return to Washington, Fillmore wanted the vice presidency. Fillmore hoped to gain the endorsement of the New York delegation to the national convention, but Weed wanted the vice presidency for Seward, with Fillmore as governor. Seward, however, withdrew before the 1844 Whig National Convention. When Weed's replacement vice presidential hopeful, Willis Hall, fell ill, Weed sought to defeat Fillmore's candidacy to force him to run for governor. Weed's attempts to boost Fillmore as a gubernatorial candidate caused the former congressman to write, "I am not willing to be treacherously killed by this pretended kindness ... do not suppose for a minute that I think they desire my nomination for governor." New York sent a delegation to the convention in Baltimore pledged to support Clay, but with no instructions as to how to vote for vice president. Weed told out-of-state delegates that the New York party preferred to have Fillmore as its gubernatorial candidate, and after Clay was nominated for president, the second place on the ticket fell to former New Jersey senator Theodore Frelinghuysen. Putting a good face on his defeat, Fillmore met and publicly appeared with Frelinghuysen, quietly spurning Weed's offer to get him nominated as governor at the state convention. Fillmore's position in opposing slavery, but only at the state level, made him acceptable as a statewide Whig candidate, and Weed saw to it the pressure on Fillmore increased. Fillmore had stated previously that a convention had the right to draft anyone for political service, and Weed got the convention to choose Fillmore, who had broad support, despite his reluctance.