Anti-Masons joined the Whigs, regarding the new party as the best alternative to Jackson and Van Buren, and enabling Weed to assume a leadership role in a larger and more orthodox political organization. His Evening Journal became the main Whig newspaper, and by the 1840s it had the largest circulation of any political newspaper in the United States. Weed and other Whigs worked to blame Van Buren and the Democratic Party for the Panic of 1837. In 1838, he was one of William H. Seward's main supporters in Seward's successful campaign for governor, and was largely credited with Seward's victory. Weed was also a main supporter of William Henry Harrison's successful presidential bid in 1840, in which Harrison defeated Van Buren to become the first Whig president. In the 1830s and 1840s, Weed became active in the abolitionist movement. When former slave Stephen Myers of Albany began creation of a transportation network and system of safe houses for escaping slaves, Weed was among the prominent individuals to whom he turned for financing. In addition, Weed and his wife made their own home available to fleeing slaves as part of the Underground Railroad. Political organizer Weed was generally seen as the "boss" of New York's Whig Party, using the same tactics as the Regency—patronage and political favors—to attract supporters and keep order in the ranks, efforts he was able to reinforce through the Evening Journal. Under Weed's leadership, the Whigs became the dominant force in state politics for several years, and Weed was arguably the most powerful politician in New York. As a practical politician, Weed was a pragmatist, rather than an idealist, always taking care to avoid controversial issues and positions that would decrease Whig support on election day. One exception was the issue of slavery, a subject on which Weed made public statements in opposition while trying to avoid the most radical language of those seen as uncompromising abolitionists. Harrison died in April 1841, only a month after taking office, and was succeeded by John Tyler, a former Democrat, who disappointed Weed by abandoning Whig policies. Weed backed Clay in 1844, but his frustration continued when Clay was narrowly defeated. Following the Mexican–American War, Zachary Taylor emerged as a likely Whig candidate for president, and Weed supported his successful effort. But Taylor, like Harrison, died in office. Weed played a leading role in the passage of New York's Consolidation