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Part Eight: The Election of 1844
And now, another update!
Part Eight: The Election of 1844
Election of 1844:
Both conventions of 1844 highlighted the troubles faced by both parties of thattime to unify a country that was growing ever more sectionalized. The Democats were looking to recover the Presidency after the loss to Harrison, while the Whigs still had internal disputes with the power-hungry Clay.
The Whigs were divided as to whether to renominate Harrison, the incumbent, or Clay, who had run previously and was an expert speaker. At the nomination, after five rounds of ballots, the votes were about half and half between Harrison and Clay. After four more rounds of ballots, Harrison got the nomination, but an embittered Clay never announced his support for Harrison. The nomination of Harrison would also end Henry Clay's congressionial career, for he had resigned his position in the senate during his run for the nomination.
The Democrats were also divided on their candidates, but their trouble was how to regain the executive office instead of a power struggle. The two major candidates for the nomination, former President Calhoun and New York governor Martin van Buren, were both from opposite ends of the country but neither would accept the Vice Preisdential seat. At the convention, the two remained at a deadlock after many rounds of ballots. Van Buren's insistance on immediate negotiation with Britain over the Oregon Country made him a pacifist in the eyes of the public, while Calhoun was seen as being too southern of a candidate and his failure to win reelection in 1840 had hurt his standing with the party. In addition to this, Lewis Cass, a Michigan senator, still had a few dozen votes that were blocking the supermajority necessary for either to get the nomination.
During a meeting between rounds of voting, discussion turned to a compromise candidate. After great deliberation, various Democrat party memebrs introduced the name of James K. Polk, speaker of the House and a representative from Tennessee. Talks with Polk began, and after his agreement to run for the nomination and Cass throwing his support behind Polk and solely running for Vice President, the momentum toward Polk had begun. After two more ballots, Polk had become the clear nominee and was nominated, with Cass as the Vice Presidential candidate.
The election itself was less intense as the two primaries, but it was still a hard-fought election. Polk laid out a clear platform for his campaign, that made four points. Polk's goals were to get some or all of the Oregon Country, bring Texas into the United States, get rid of the National Bank, and establish an independent treasury system that would separate the government funds and revenues from the national banking systems. Harrison tried to compete with Polk but found it difficult without Clay to support him on the campaign. Harrison could not claim that he was the western candidate because both he and Polk hailed from western states. Harrison attacked Polk that he was not baptized because his father was a deist, to which Polk responded that Thomas Jefferson and many of the founding fathers were also deists. Harrison also attacked Polk's relative obscurity within the political scene, but to no avail. In the election, Polk defeated Harrison and won the presidency, carrying much of the South and the key states of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Also, the Congressional elections of 1844 gave the Democrats a majority in the Senate.