Writ in Burnished Rows of Steel: America 1836-1860

A day late, but better late than never, yeah?
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Noah Noble, re-elected by a wide margin (having secured 23.7% more of the popular vote than his next closest opponent), took the election of 1840 to be a mandate to continue to promote Whig policies. 1841 was a Whig year - Whigs were sitting in most of the gubernatorial positions, the US House was overwhelmingly Whig, and the Senate was Whig by a five vote margin. Noble's first act of his second term was to urge Congress to pass tax breaks on the poor and middle class, which was done in late November. The new tax structure was as follows: the wealthy paid 33%, the middle class paid 28.9%, and the poor paid 28.1%, some of the world's lowest tax rates. Noble hoped that the low taxes would encourage immigration, especially from Ireland, Poland, and the various German and Italian states. The Democrats did not voice any real opposition to the tax cuts, but the Liberty Party, led by Martin van Buren (although its most prominent congressional member was Johns Hopkins, of Maryland, an outspoken abolitionist and philanthropist) voiced concern that the tax burden was somewhat unfair, as the wealthiest Americans were paying only a 5% percentage more than the poorest.

Meanwhile, tensions were high in American Venezuela, where the US forces stationed to protect the US property there were constantly facing belligerent mobs armed with rocks, bottles, and bricks. Things reached a breaking point in January of 1842, when soldiers opened fire on a man they believed was attempting to set the barracks on fire. His death led to outrage in Coro, and an armed uprising against US forces began. The revolt was easily quashed, but Noble was rattled by it, the first real internal threat America had faced in decades, even if it was just a colonial uprising.

Noble felt the need to appoint a strong governor to American Venezuela, someone who would be able to maintain order and provide a valuable link between the White House and the local government in the colony. After much discussion with his cabinet, he settled on Millard Fillmore, a forty two year old New Yorker with a reputation for being a tough legislator and competent judge of character. Noble's decision was a clever political move, as well - despite being a Whig that usually voted the party line in House votes, Fillmore was known for his anti-Irish sentiments, something that did not sit well with Noble, given the push to attract immigrants to America. By giving Fillmore a lucrative post as a colonial governor, Noble removed an internal foe and strengthened his party's unity.


Millard Fillmore, colonial governor of American Venezuela


In May 1842, Noble again went to congress asking for support for a change in policy. This time he sought to raise the national tariff, an act he thought would supplement the treasury to make up for the lost money brought about by his tax cuts. He proved himself to be a capable compromiser - upon being rebuked by many in his own party, he turned to Johns Hopkins, the most prominent member of the Liberty Party in congress, and to James K Polk, an up and coming Democrat from North Carolina. The pair, along with Noble's VP, John Bell, sat down to work out a way to get the tariffs passed. An agreement was finally reached - the Liberty Party representatives would vote for the bill if taxes on the rich were raised by 1%, and Polk promised his party's support if he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Texas, the highest diplomatic position in the US Embassy in Texas. Noble, upon being informed of the deal, agreed that it was unfortunate but approved of it. Enough Whigs were strong-armed into voting for it, and the tariff bill passed and was signed into law in May of 1842.


Johns Hopkins (Liberty Party) and James K Polk (Democratic Party)


Several months later, in March 1843, at the urging of Governor Fillmore, President Noble again went to congress, this time requesting funding to build forts in both provinces of American Venezuela, as well as money being set aside for the construction of a naval base in one of the two provinces upon the completion of the forts. Congress agreed, although many Democrats cried foul, arguing that it was a ploy to make the Whig party look strong on foreign policy matters when in reality they had just co-opted the Democratic plan for the war in the first place. Construction began as soon as the funds were appropriated and the building materials arrived in American Venezuela.

In late Spring 1843 the election campaign for 1844 kicked off. Noble announced that he would not run for a third term, maintaining the tradition set by George Washington of retiring after the second term. Interestingly enough, there were no clear frontrunners for the candidacy of either of the two major parties. Fillmore, Bell, and Clay were names that were floated by the Whigs, while the likes of Polk, Woodbury, and King were prominent Democrats likely to seek the nomination. Meanwhile, the Liberty Party was the only party secure in its candidate - Martin van Buren would not seek election as President, but would instead run in the New York gubernatorial election, leaving Johns Hopkins as the clear candidate.

The Whigs tremendous popularity (hovering around 60% in most opinion polls), was bad news for the Democrats and Liberty Party, and there was a general sense that the real election would be the Whig's nomination battle, with the winner being almost ensured victory in the general election. That being said, none of the other parties were willing to give up without a fight, and the stage was set for the election season of 1844.

The party conventions of 1844 proved to be a pivotal moment in the development of America. The first major convention was the Liberty Party National Convention, held in mid-May, in Bangor, Maine. Martin van Buren’s decision to run for governor of New York instead of the presidency sent shockwaves through the party and left many Liberty Party voters feeling abandoned. The party was divided – there were those who wanted to run Johns Hopkins and Nathaniel Hawthorne as a complete ticket, but there was an increasingly vocal faction that called for a deal to be cut with the Whigs, in which the Liberty Party would endorse the Whigs in exchange for the Whigs trimming their party of pro-slavery activists, anti-immigration supporters, and anti-Catholics. The convention was marred by a boycott by those in favor of the deal with the Whigs, leaving only a fraction of electors casting ballots in the nomination. To keep some semblance of party unity alive, a consensus was reached – the party would reach out to the Whigs, and if they would be willing to expel their racist and anti-Catholic members, the Liberty Party would join the Whig party as an affiliated faction.

The Democrats had the next convention date, in the first week of June, held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Several heavy hitters made speeches to those assembled, including William King, former candidate for presidency, Levi Woodbury, a known moderate and former Secretary of the Navy and Treasury in the Jackson administration, and James K Polk, architect of a compromise that made him Minister Plenipotentiary to Texas, a coveted diplomatic position. King was the early front-runner, and finished in first place in two straight ballots, while minor players were eliminated. Polk, ever the wheeler and dealer, jockeyed his way into the second place position, ahead of the cool-headed and stately Woodbury. After several more ballots, on the three were left in contention.


Polk, Woodbury, and King


After hours of deadlocked negotiations between the three, a compromise was reached, with Polk being the primary beneficiary of the deal. He would be made the nominee, in exchange for Woodbury being the running mate. To get King on board with the deal, he promised King his pick of Secretary of State or Secretary of War should the Democrats capture the White House. The electors were informed of the arrangement and voted accordingly, creating a Polk/Woodbury ticket to contend with the Whigs.

The Whig nomination wasn’t until the end of June, three weeks after the Democratic nomination. With the incumbent, Noah Noble, honoring the tradition of retiring after two terms, the party had no clear successor lined up. John Bell, the Vice President, was not trusted by many of the more established Whig Party leaders, who viewed him as something of a Democratic sympathizer and a Whig only in name. In order to spare himself the embarrassment of being rejected at the convention, Bell announced that he would return to Tennessee and run for a seat in the US House of Representatives, where he was almost guaranteed a victory.


Outgoing Vice President John Bell


The Whig Party National Convention, held in Providence, Rhode Island, was widely held to be a two-man race, between Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, two of the most prominent political figures of the past few decades. Both, however, agreed to go along with the Liberty Party offer, and ordered the most prominent anti-Catholic member of the Whig Party, Millard Fillmore, to formally sever ties with the party. On the eve of the first ballot, however, Henry Clay became violently ill. The voters feared for his health – an almost unanimously selected Daniel Webster as the Whig Party nominee. The VP ballot was more complex – there were no real candidates. In the end, the party ended up going with a dark horse candidate – General Winfield Scott, the hero of the Colombian-American War, known in newspapers of the day as the Smuggler War.


Webster and Scott


The stage was set for the election of 1844, with the election returning to the familiar two-party battle: the Democrats, represented by the Polk/Woodbury ticket, against the Whigs, running a Webster/Scott ticket.

@ Prawnstar: Aye, 1844 will be a two party election - but I'm willing to wager it will be the last two party election in the course of this AAR. I'd love to be mistaken, though, to make things more interesting.

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Heading into the 1844 campaign, the Whig Party looked poised to continue its string of impressive victories, and had built its voting base quite steadily in each election since 1836. With Noble leaving the White House, it offered a chance for fresh blood to reenergize the party even more - except in this case, the blood was that of Daniel Webster, a longtime Whig and one of the most respected men in the American political arena. His running mate, Winfield Scott, had proved himself to be a capable military commander and a popular figure amongst the common people of America, many of whom were wary of Webster, who they deemed to be a New England elitist. The ticket was balanced (sporting a lawyer from Massachusetts and a general from Virginia) with both Webster and Scott complementing each other well, and coupled with the support of the members of the now-defunct Liberty Party, the pairing would be a formidable force come election day.

The Democrats, on the other hand, were reeling from a major defeat in 1840, on the heels of a much narrower loss in 1836. The party bosses and higher-ups blamed both of those elections on bad candidates, and felt that their chances, although grim, were better in 1844 than in the previous election, largely thanks to the excitement surrounding the rising star of the party, James K Polk, from North Carolina. His running mate, the scholarly and mild-mannered Levi Woodbury was, due to his New Hampshire heritage and moderate views, on the ticket to assuage concerns that the Democratic Party was becoming too one-dimensional and focused on Southern politics.


As seen on this map, the geographic backgrounds of the candidates were nearly identitical in each of the parties, merely reversed - a Northern presidential candidate for the Whigs, while the Democrats ran a Southern candidate, with both VP candidates representing the opposite region

The focus of much of the debate in 1844 was on militarism and the military budget. Both parties were in favor of a strong military in terms of both manpower and budgetary appropriations, but the Democrats took things a step further – Polk, demonstrating his clear jingoist tendencies, promised that if elected he would fulfill the promise of manifest destiny and declare war on Mexico in order to gain the western reaches of North America. Polk’s appeals were popular in the west, and his popularity surged in key battleground states like Missouri and Tennessee.

Webster was more subdued on the matter, and was reluctant to commit to a war with Mexico, as he was afraid that the provinces gained would be exploited by slaveholders and used as a new frontier for slavery, a practice that he found morally appalling. His VP candidate, Winfield Scott, was an invaluable asset to his campaign. His military background allowed him to speak with more substance on the matter than could his political opponents, and he quickly became an authority on the matter. He was tentatively in favor of military action, but only after all diplomatic channels had been exhausted, and warned that Mexico would not be a push-over in the same way that Venezuela had been in the most recent American war.


An idealized image of how Polk hoped the Mexican-American War would look, should he win election. His campaign commisioned countless of such images as propaganda devices.

The economy was on the upswing following the Panic of 1837, and that played into the hands of the incumbents. Webster had the benefit of being a part of the former president Noble’s cabinet, which meant he was a more visible figure than Polk or Woodbury, and was associated with the economic resurgence, leading to great popularity in important merchant states – Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.

Polk, on the other hand, was something of an unknown in terms of his economic policy, which unsettled many of the merchants and traders, who preferred the known economic policies of the Whigs to the uncertainty that would be brought by a change of governing party. The common people of the west and south rallied heavily behind Polk, though, and they felt that his quasi-protectionist policies would help support the growth of local economies in rural regions.


Boston Harbor, one of the most important ports in America, was once again busy bringing goods into and out of the United States, having recovered from the Panic of 1837.

As the nation headed to the polls, the Whigs were confident that their domination of the government would continue, and many newspapers throughout the nation were predicting a Whig victory in a landslide. The Democrats were unwilling to give up without a fight, though, and Polk's appeal to the common man of America, a demographic that greatly boosted both former presidents Jackson and Noble, made it clear that the election might be closer than anticipated. With much, including a war with Mexico, hanging in the balance, the nation headed to the ballot boxes.

I have the next few updates played out, but my CK AAR is taking priority, at the moment. I do plan to continue this, though, although I cannot promise regular updates until the end of March. I hope, though, to have one up by next week some time.

PrawnStar said:

Sounds like you need writer's Viagra

Click to expand...

That is exactly what I need! I have no shame in saying it. I don't think it's writers block as much as sheer laziness on my part.
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The election of 1844 was yet another victory for the Whig Party, with Daniel Webster being sent to the White House and Winfield Scott become Vice President. The election was closer, though, as Polk performed better than expected, especially in the mid-Atlantic, where it was clear the Whigs were beginning to wear out their welcome.

Results:

Electoral College:
Whigs: 173
Democrats: 102

Popular Vote:
Whigs: 54%
Democrats: 46%




President-elect Webster wasted no time in getting his cabinet in order. He upset the Whig establishment by selecting a prominent non-whig to act as his Secretary of the Treasury - Johns Hopkins, a former leader of the Liberty Party and known abolitionist. He retained several key holdovers from the Noble administration, chief amongst them Henry Clay as Secretary of State. Another key appointment was the announcement of John Quincy Adams, the former president and statesman, to the post of Attorney General. Despite his old age, Adams had one of the most brilliant -and experienced - legal minds of the era.

The Key Players in the Webster Cabinet:
Sec. of State: Henry Clay (Whig, KY)
Sec. of War: John Tyler (Whig, VA)
Sec. of Treasury: Johns Hopkins (Liberty, MD)
Attorney General: John Quincy Adams (Whig, MA)

Webster, before taking the oath of office, regularly convened meetings with his soon-to-be cabinet, meeting at his house in Massachusetts to discuss goals for the presidency and to prepare for what many felt was inevitable - the coming of a war against Mexico. Webster and Clay remained adamantly opposed to the prospect of war, although they recognized that hawkish elements of Congress, as well as Mexican provocation, might soon force war upon America. Secretary of War John Tyler was tasked with assessing the readiness of troops in Louisiana, Arkansas, and the rest of the southwest in case of a declaration of war early in Webster's presidency.


Webster's Massachusetts estate, where unofficial cabinet meetings were frequently held


By the time Webster was ready to take the oath of office, America seemed balanced on the tip of a knife. A resurgent Democratic Party was seeking to plunge the USA into a potentially bloody war against Mexico, the Whigs were losing steam and the giants of the party, although still in power, were growing old. Drama was not lacking - the stage was set for a showdown.

@ volkmarschall: Webster has always been one of my favorite American political figures of all time, alongside his counterpart Clay. I, too, hope he fairs better in my timeline than in yours!

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The early years of the Webster presidency were overshadowed by three dark clouds. The greatest of these clouds was the prospect of war with Mexico, an issue that had dominated the election of 1844. The debate was by no means a cut and dry situation, and divisions were seen within both parties of the subject of war.

The Democrats, who had come close to retaking the House in 1844, were led chiefly by James K Polk, an up and coming star of the party and the candidate in 1844, and Franklin Pierce, a citizen of New Hampshire who represented the interests of the northern Democrats. Both leaders were steadfast in their support for a war against Mexico, and for unabashedly expansionist purposes – both candidates wished to annex the land between Texas and the Pacific. Not all Democrats held pro-war positions, however – Levi Woodbury, a former cabinet in the Jackson administration and the Vice Presidential candidate in the failed Polk/Woodbury ticket was firmly opposed to the prospect of war with Mexico.


Franklin Pierce, the star of the northern Democrats

The Whigs had a less coherent party position on the question of Mexico. The split within the party can best be described as a split between the old guard (Webster, Clay, and Adams) and the up and coming future leaders of the Whigs (Winfield Scott, John Tyler, and John Bell). Webster did not waver in his opposition to the prospect of war with Mexico and he would often direct the elderly John Quincy Adams, the former president and his Attorney General, to write anti-war letters to the various newspapers of repute along the eastern seaboard. Webster was no fool, however, and he knew that it was entirely possible that war would be forced upon him. As such, he directed Secretary of War John Tyler to work closely with Vice President Winfield Scott, himself a hero of the Venezuelan-American War, to draw up plans for war, should things get to that point.

Meanwhile, another storm was brewing, this one domestic in nature. The massive influx of immigrants from Ireland and Poland had incited a burning hatred in the hearts of many New Yorkers and Philadelphians (two locations where many Irish settled). These xenophobes and anti-Catholics, who came to be known as the Know Nothings, were boisterous and very visible, due in large part to the efforts of their leader, Andrew Jackson Donelson, the nephew of the late President Jackson. Donelson had worked closely with the Polk campaign in 1844, but had broken with the Democrats over their failure to address what he regularly referred to as “The hordes of papist peasants flocking to our shores.” The movement gained steam quickly, especially in New York City, where anti-Irish sentiment had reached a breaking point.


Andrew Jackson Donelson, leader of the Know Nothings

Martin van Buren, who had recently been elected Governor of New York on the Liberty Party ticket (his victory, it should be noted, was achieved largely due to splits within both the state organizations of the Whigs and the Democrats), took notice of the situation. He appealed to the State Legislature, calling for redistricting (which was not done following the 1840 census) to prevent the Know Nothings from gaining seats in the US House of Representatives. Neither the Whigs, nor the Democrats, and especially not the remnants of the Liberty Party in the New York Legislature, wished to see the Know Nothings in a position of power, and the Legislature agreed to take up the matter of redistricting.

This led to Governor van Buren becoming the target of tremendous vitriol and anger. Tragedy would strike in early June of 1845, brought about by the Governor’s stance on the rise of the Know Nothings. As van Buren was leaving the church he attended each Sunday morning, a young Know Nothing radical leapt forward and shot the Governor twice. He died later that night. When word of the assassination reached Washington, President Webster, a staunch opponent of van Buren for many decades, was overcome with grief. Van Buren was neither an ideologue nor a man unwilling to compromise and work alongside his opponents – and Webster, despite his political differences with van Buren, considered him a genuinely good man. He became the first Governor to lie in state under the dome of the Capitol, and was given a state burial. Frederick Douglass, a freed slave and writer of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, gave a brilliant eulogy and the funeral, and was thrust into the national limelight.


Frederick Douglass, a young man who would soon become one of the most prominent abolitionists in America