Molding the Clay: An American Timeline

From: Joining the Union, A History of New States, James Bauer, 1979

The State of Washington was admitted February 9, 1948. The territory was largely underpopulated, and under normal circumstances would have been admitted later, but Congress wished to maintain the balance of free and slave states after the admission of Iowa.​

From: North vs South, Before the War, George York, 1999.

The division of the Florida territory was clearly a ploy to allow for a balance in congress. Unfortunately, the peace did not last long. Soon after Iowa was admitted, the Wisconsin territory began pressing for statehood. The debate ran through party lines, weather to allow Wisconsin to be a state because of popular sovereignty, or wait until a territory for a slave state had gained enough settlers. In the end, neither side won. The entirety of the Wisconsin Territory was admitted as a state, but along with the sparely populated territory of Florida.

Even this agreement, spearheaded by the Great Compromise himself, was only temporary, and everyone new that. President Clay was a strong supporter of keeping the Missouri Compromise intact, and thus the only territory that could possibly be a slave state was the Indian territory, which nobody wanted into the union. It was only a matter of time before another northwestern territory wanted statehood and caused the whole system to fall apart.​

Below, a map of the decision of the Florida territory. Red is Washington and blue is Florida.

1948?

Washington gains statehood in 1948?

Best,

Thank you for that and also not immediately tearing apart my timeline. Fixed

SuperFrog said:

From: History of American Elections by John Freeman, 2007

The election of 1844 was extremely close. The Democrats nominated James K. Polk, and staunch believer in Manifest Destiny, while the Whigs elected Henry Clay, a candidate who preferred an anti-war policy and focused on internal issues. Both parties voter turnout increased by almost 20 percent. In the end, Clay's policy against the annexation of Texas gained him the strategic state of New York, allowing him to win with 146 votes, as opposed to Polk's 129. [1]

The Election of 1844​

From: America's Presidents, Joseph Gomez, 2012

Henry Clay and his Whig Party were known for focusing on internal improvements rather than expansion and foreign policy. Thus, the first term of the Clay Administration was mostly quiet, focusing on building up infrastructure and the economy. Clay's economic policy would be to continue the "American System" he helped design back in the early 1800s, allowing American factories and the manufacturing sector to grow and challenge British and other European companies. Clay managed to get Tariffs up to 15-20 percent in some areas, allowing American manufactured goods to be cheaper than imported ones. While the south was generally opposed to this, many cotton mills would open up inside the southern states, allowing the south to, slowly but surely, move towards a more industrial economy. Clay established a Third Bank of the United States, allowing the country to move towards a more unified economic policy. Another important part of Clay's first term was the creation of many public transportation systems, such as roads, canals, and railways.​

From: History of American Railways, Bobby Horace, 1997

Henry Clay's presidency was instrumental to the fast growth of the railroad industry. Under Clay, the American government funded the building of railways and helped push the industry into the west. Clay allowed for railroads into part of the Oregon Trail, and though it hardly went the entire route, it was at least partially responsible for the huge influx of American settlers in the Oregon Country.​

From: America's Presidents, Joseph Gomez, 2012

As far as Clay's foreign policy goes, he mostly attempted to peruse friendly relations with Great Britain and the Latin American states, especially Mexico. He worked to broker a peace deal between Mexico and Texas, allowing Texas all of her claims exluding the Nueses Strip. He also recognized and supported the independence of the Dominican Republic from Haiti.​

[1]So, to better explain how Clay won. Their are two big reasons. One is that the Whigs had a much better turnout, about the same as the Democrats (for comparison, OTL the turnout only increased 5%). Another reason is Clay turning hard against the annexation of Texas as opposed to waffling about it.

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Interesting start here! I assume the U.S. only narrowly avoided a war with Mexico, given the peace treaty between Mexico and the Texians(for now)? That said, though, I don't see Manifest Destiny dying out anytime soon-in fact, by the late 1840s IOTL, it was actually more supported by Free Soiler and other anti-slavery types than pro-slavery types(who mainly just wanted Texas).

(Contrary to what's believed in some circles, btw, Polk didn't actually engineer the OTL conflict out of whole cloth.....even if he did take advantage of Manifest Destiny for the political benefits, especially as he just happened to come in at the right time)

Indeed the us is not done expanding. For one thing, the Oregon County is still a condominium right now. And yes, Polk isn't responsible alone for annexing Texas, but Clay wouldn't want that to happen, especially ITTL when he campaigned harshly against it.

One point, about Washington state:

In OTL, the entire Oregon Territory was still under the joint administration of both the US and Britain. If Washington is going to be admitted for statehood, Clay is going to first have to negotiate with Britain for that territory. He might very well be willing to do so, but it would be interesting to see how those go; especially with the absence of Polk's bellicose ranting about 54-40 or fight.

Secondly, even with an increase in population (you hinted at a larger migraition) I'm not sure Washington would have the population to move to statehood that quickly.

Finally, in OTL, the Oregon Territory didn't even have an organized territorial government until 1848. The bill to organize a territorial government had staled in Congress due to the perennial reason everything stalled in Congress during the antebellum period: slavery. Northerns wanted the Oregon Territory to disallow slavery from the get go, and Southerns wanted to bring their slaves to the Pacific Northwest. It took the Whitman Massacre in OTL to get Congress to organize the territory. Up til that point, the only government in the region was the Provisional Government of Oregon anchor had been organized by settlers themselves a few years prior and which wasn't recognized by the federal government.

And since Clay certainly isn't going to get the US involved in a war with Mexico (there is no need or reason without the Texas annexation) I think the fight over Oregon might be worse in the ATL; with no Mexican territory to expand into, there is no hope at all for the South to maintain parity in the Senate is Oregon is a free territory. I would expect Southrons to fight tooth and nail to prevent Oregon being organized as a free territory, let alone it becoming a state.

And Clay can't just rely on his party to back him, since the Whigs had southern and northern wings. Hell Clay was a slave holder himself.

Washington isn't otl Washington. It's western Florida.

From: A History of the Democratic Party, Katy Fuller, 1987

The Democratic Convention in Baltimore proved to be hard fought, with five ballots having to be cast before a final winner was chosen. At first, it seemed like Michigan Senator Lewis Cass would win easily. However, as the polling went on, other candidates began to leave and throw their weight behind another. In the end, it was this candidate, moderate Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, who gained the nomination. John A. Quitman, governor of Mississippi, would win the V.P. nomination. He was chosen because of his southern state, the democrats hoping to capitalize over Clay's loss of support in the deep south. However, his pro-slavery stance also drove abolitionists and compromisers away from the Democrats.​

From: "Race's Through History", the History Networks Show. Original Episode Aired July 9, 2011. Narration

The race of 1848 was based on attacks by the Democrats and the Whigs defending themselves. Woodbury said that the Fiscal Bank and high Tariffs were destroying American economic freedoms and Clay came back at him with saying that it helped grow American industry. Neither side attempted to talk much at all over the issue of Slavery...​

The decisive states proved to be Ohio and the South. Ohio was a very close race. Possibly if the Democrats could have capitalized on their former strategy of expansion and manifest destiny, they could have gained the state, but their moving to domestic views caused Ohio to go Whigs. Clay also was pushed into the office by his ability to gain a few southern states, being Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Washington...So Clay was put into a second term...​

Map of the Election of 1848
(Credit goes to the lovely Rebecca AKA UpvoteAnthology)

Interesting Clay timeline. And you have avoided the pitfalls of a war.

Actually, have you said anything about Texas. Because the election of 1844 was kinda a referendum on that and even Clay has to accede that he would probably need to bring Texas into the Union eventually. Hell, Tyler signed the legislation in his last few months.

Darth_Kiryan said:

Interesting Clay timeline. And you have avoided the pitfalls of a war.

Actually, have you said anything about Texas. Because the election of 1844 was kinda a referendum on that and even Clay has to accede that he would probably need to bring Texas into the Union eventually. Hell, Tyler signed the legislation in his last few months.

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Texas was discussed, yes. Clay didn't annex it but hopes to keep good relations, the US brokered a peace between them and Mexico.

Sorry for the extreme lack of updates...there will be a new one soon. Any feedback?

The Whig Party should be a lot more secure; Clay will have used his presidency to partisanly increase the party's power and positions, versus Tyler's focus on creating a personal following.

I'm trying out a new style of updates here. I feel like the original style of updates were to short to be reasonably from a book in this TL. So instead you just get short and sweet Dominion of Southern America style updates. Hope you enjoy


[1] Scott is not the obvious choice here as there was no Mexican American War (though he will show up later), and Denial Webster seemed like a good choice due to his similar economic views to Clay.

[2] This happened OTL too, though he was replaced later. Here, with him winning the Whig nomination, the know-nothings want in on that.

EDIT: Fixed the map

SuperFrog said:

I'm trying out a new style of updates here. I feel like the original style of updates were to short to be reasonably from a book in this TL. So instead you just get short and sweet Dominion of Southern America style updates. Hope you enjoy

The Election of 1852​

As the democrats gathered in Baltimore to once more decide the fate of their party, the nomination was up in the air. Franklin Pierce and Lewis Cass were favorites of many, but in the end it wasn't either of these two who won. That honor went to James Buchanan, the former Secretary of State from Pennsylvania. While it took over 50 ballots to decide the Presidential nominee, the big issue was finding a running mate. The Democrats had decided that they're big base was in the south now the the Whigs were more popular in the North, but there were no southern candidates. In the end, Stephen Douglas of Illinois was chosen for the south, as he was for allowing slavery wherever the settlers wanted it, a philosophy that became known as Popular Sovereignty.

The Whigs also had to choose their candidate, as Clay naturally turned down the offer of a third term. They, without much dispute, backed Daniel Webster [1] and Millard Fillmore as President and Vice President respectively.

There were also a few other parties that affected the result of the election. The know-nothings would nominate Webster on another ticket [2], despite him not allowing it and hardly caring about their main issue, netivism. The Southern Rights Party, a political group advocating a free southern nation,nominated George Troup. The most important third party, however, was the Free-Soil Party, coming into the election with a recent merger with the Liberty Party. They nominated John Hale.

At first, it seemed as if Webster might have won. In fact, many historians would argue Webster WOULD have won. Their was just one problem though. Webster died of a cerebral hemorrhage in late September, and Fillmore had to step up and take the presidential nomination. He failed to organize his campaign within the two months he had, and the Democrats had won the election. Buchanan and Douglass had managed to win some areas in the north, and Ohio due to the fact that many Whig voters went to the Free Soil party, which had its largest turnout by far, even managing to win Wisconsin.
​

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Ok. Clay is not the obvious choice because he is most likely dead by the time of the convention, which you outlined in your earlier post, so he can't do a third term anyway.

And um, Buchanan and Douglas are both northern democrats who were practically owned by the South. Of course Douglas is more like Cass in that popular sovereignty equals the will of the people, so i would actually say he is more neutral, and think his choice as VP is rather well made. But Buchanan will pander directly to the South. You have pretty much chosen two pro-slavery Democrats...

Darth_Kiryan said:

[/INDENT]
Ok. Clay is not the obvious choice because he is most likely dead by the time of the convention, which you outlined in your earlier post, so he can't do a third term anyway.

And um, Buchanan and Douglas are both northern democrats who were practically owned by the South. Of course Douglas is more like Cass in that popular sovereignty equals the will of the people, so i would actually say he is more neutral, and think his choice as VP is rather well made. But Buchanan will pander directly to the South. You have pretty much chosen two pro-slavery Democrats...

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The Clay thing is fixed, I had a brain fart.

And Indeed I did two pro-slavery democrats. Nonetheless, Buchanan is still a northerner and is treated as such. The democrats are a southern-based political party at this time, though that might change. We will see...

So the Americans trade Texas for the rest of the Oregon country? I'm okay with this. If only because of the fact that I'd have to cross a border to visit my aunt and uncle in Kelowna. I'm guessing that the extreme US claim of 54-40 could be divided up into about 4 states. Though I'm guessing that OTL borders aren't going to happen. One of these states should be called "Jefferson". Mostly because Washington is already taken and "Jefferson" is pretty much the best state name to never be used.

After some thinking, I've decided to continue this timeline. The original plan was to reboot it, but I've decided that since nothing would change besides the quality of writing, it wasn't worth it. Needless to say, I've spent a longer period of time on this chapter, and hope to get better as I progress.