When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away, the orators of the Ansar rose to speak. Some of them said, "Company of Muhajirun, whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed one of you to a position, he would pair him with one of us. We therefore think this matter should be led by two men, one from you and one from us."The orators of the Ansar continued speaking along these lines.Then Zayd bin Thabit stood up and said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was from the Muhajirun, and the leader can only be from the Muhajirun. We will be his supporters just as we were the supporters of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ."Then Abu Bakr stood up and said, "May Allah reward you well, community of the Ansar, and may He keep your spokesman firm." Then he said, "By Allah, had you done otherwise, we would not have made peace with you."
حدثنا عفان حدثنا وهيب حدثنا داود عن أبي نضرة
لما توفي رسول الله ﷺ قام خطباء الأنصار فجعل منهم من يقول يا معشر المهاجرين إن رسول الله ﷺ كان إذا استعمل رجلا منكم قرن معه رجلا منا فنرى أن يلي هذا الأمر رجلان أحدهما منكم والآخر منا قال فتتابعت خطباء الأنصار على ذلك قال فقام زيد بن ثابت فقال إن رسول الله ﷺ كان من المهاجرين وإنما الإمام يكون من المهاجرين ونحن أنصاره كما كنا أنصار رسول الله ﷺ فقام أبو بكر فقال جزاكم الله خيرا من حي يا معشر الأنصار وثبت قائلكم ثم قال والله لو فعلتم غير ذلك لما صالحناكم
Its isnad is sahih. Dawud is Ibn Abu Hind. Abu Nadra is al-Abdi. This hadith has previously appeared at length in the hadith of the Saqifah, under Abu Bakr and also under Umar.