So, two things have been brought to my attention in private conversations I've had about this TL, one minor and one quite major: the first is that I've been told that the absence of a Socialist party, as in, a distinct and separate doctrinaire socialist party, is implausible by the time of the 1900s, so that's being retconned as I retool some of the election results from that period; the second, and major, issue is the fallout of the American defeat in the Texan war: the consensus seems to be that, especially as the Whigs ride the war's unpopularity to a more decisive victory in 1848, an earlier civil war is likely and the earlier it happens, the more likely it is that the South might even "win" (meaning winning in becoming an independent nation that preserves and attempts to expand slavery further).
But given the impact of such an outcome on the world in general, and considering how helpful y'all have been as commenters and contributors, I'd like to put the discussion to you: at the moment, the only thing I've decided are certain to happen is that the Whigs win in 1848, and that they do so with a candidate other than Zachary Taylor (given his nomination was a result of his command in the triumphant Mexican-American war). The problem is that either of the two likely Whig candidates - Henry Clay or Daniel Webster - would die before the end of the 1848-1852 term ended IOTL, so the choice of VP becomes very important. The fact that the US fails to obtain the Southwest has even further ramifications, since it makes a Compromise of 1850 essentially impossible: there simply isn't enough territory to make enough potential slave states to keep the balance between the two for much longer unless they attempt to expand to Cuba or the Caribbean, but by that point military expansionism simply becomes another dimension of the slave power, and the result is more intractable opposition to expansionism as it becomes politically intertwined with the cause of slavery.
I'll be honest, I'm hesitant to have the US split up long-term; it's a big deviation from OTL, and it's not necessary strictly speaking from a story-telling point of view. But I admit that it's plausible, though I'm also convinced that the alt-CSA would be a failed state in the long run, with some of its states likely rejoining the USA in the long-run (I'm imagining the Western border states and possibly Louisiana, with Virginia also being a long-shot reincorporation at some point) and others simply striking out on their own due to internal differences. At any rate, I'm interested in discussing these possibilities with all of you and seeing what you guys think.
