AH challenge: The Whig party elects the most presidents, and the "best presidents"

In OTL, the United States "Whig party" is know primarily for only winning the presidency twice, and each time having the winner die in office, and replaced by an embattled or ineffectual accendent VP one termer. Your challenge is to have the whig win the most presidental elections (in OTL the record is held by the Republican party with 20) and to have Whig presidents who are consistantly rated high on oppinion polls ranking US presidents (in OTL, the four whig presidents consistantly rank near the bottom)
 
Lincoln runs as a Whig (although you'd need an earlier POD for this), wins, and then all the [insert your political views here] candidates are Whigs through the 20th century. Or, the Whigs remain similar to OTL Republicans, but more effective. But this is bordering on current politics, so I'll stop.
 
Henry Clay (W) (1845 - 1853)
Lewis Cass (D) (1853 - 1861)
William Seward (W) (1861-1865) *
Abraham Lincoln (W) (1865 - 1873)
Ulysses S. Grant (W) (1873 - 1881)
James Garfield (W) (1881)*
Chester Arthur (W) (1881 - 1885)
History continues with Whigs replacing Republicans throughout history

In 1844, Henry Clay took the bold step of declaring his intent to not annex Texas. Many in his party were concerned about some of the close Southern states such as Tennessee and Louisiana, and rightfully so. But, this announcement did cause the newly formed Liberty party to lose its ground and the Whigs to fill in the void there. It was a nail biter, but Clay would barely win the White House.

genusmap.php


In 1860 the Whigs took up the call for containing slavery by nominating William Seward, many skiddish members of the party began to flee, if not for the choice of Senator Abraham Lincoln as Vice President. The tensions between the North and the South just proved too much after the successful conclusion of the Mexican American War under Cass.

*Died in Office
 

Free Lancer

Banned
In the grand scheme of things the bases of the reason of the Whig party collapse was the rapid infighting, the party at most of the times fought itself more then the other political party.

And as such i believe that is the reason why the majority of the Whig party presidents are rated so low, in the broader sense a politician can always depend on his party to back him up in most of his endeavors to having a defense against the other political party.

In the Whig party this is not so, basically every Whig president the most promising of which usually ended up dead in the beginning years of their presidency and the VP who they selected for the soul express purpose of collecting votes from the other political party block of voters is now president.

In all cases the VP were the odd man out Democratic in all political leanings and so clashed more often then not with what was suppose to be their party and getting along very with what was suppose to be his rival party.

And so got very little done at most times or committed political suicide in regards to their party.

In this question of having brought forward what would be considered a number of top presidents has a lot to do with stability which it never achieved enough to be able to do so before collapsing.

To begin i would go with William Harrison surviving after his inaugural speech he may and may not be a leading figure that may have granted the Whig party to properly stabilize and unite behind him and party lines.

Depending on his success which i believe is very possible following an economic up turn which always earn another term with a newly charted bank of the United States and with an elimination of the spoils system earning good prestige for the Whig party to expand upon.
 
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A good start would be to have Daniel Webster take up William Henry Harrison's VP offer, and be succeeded by Clay. I expect that they would be very good presidents.

Also remember that the Whigs showed their preference for Congress over the presidency by adhering to one terms in office. This tradition can be changed, of course, but in the early days that's one of the party's core principles.

1841: William Henry Harrison
1841-1845: Daniel Webster
1845-1849: Henry Clay
1849-1853: Lewis Class
1853-1857: Winfield Scott
 
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A good start would be to have Daniel Webster take up William Henry Harrison's VP offer, and be succeeded by Clay. I expect that they would be very good presidents.

Also remember that the Whigs showed their preference for Congress over the presidency by adhering to one terms in office. This tradition can be changed, of course, but in the early days that's one of the party's core principles.

1841: William Henry Harrison
1841-1845: Daniel Webster
1845-1849: Henry Clay
1849-1853: Lewis Class
1853-1857: Winfield Scott

Yeah, they did go on about the one term Presidency, but I have a hard time seeing Henry Clay not run for another term. I love the guy, but he did love power.
 
Yeah, they did go on about the one term Presidency, but I have a hard time seeing Henry Clay not run for another term. I love the guy, but he did love power.

Yeah, I had him lose to Cass narrowly, with Whigs defecting to Van Buren and the Liberty Party. Winfield Scott barely manages to oust Cass in '52. The only guy more popular than a successful war president is a war hero.
 

Free Lancer

Banned
A good start would be to have Daniel Webster take up William Henry Harrison's VP offer, and be succeeded by Clay. I expect that they would be very good presidents.

Also remember that the Whigs showed their preference for Congress over the presidency by adhering to one terms in office. This tradition can be changed, of course, but in the early days that's one of the party's core principles.

1841: William Henry Harrison
1841-1845: Daniel Webster
1845-1849: Henry Clay
1849-1853: Lewis Class
1853-1857: Winfield Scott


That would be a good start yes, Daniel Webster would be a very good VP but unlikely to come about given the Whig party odd stance to nominate Democratic leaning VP.

And yes they did prefer congress over the presidency that is another thing that would have to change for the Whig party to grow to a power house akin to the Republican party.
 
That would be a good start yes, Daniel Webster would be a very good VP but unlikely to come about given the Whig party odd stance to nominate Democratic leaning VP.

And yes they did prefer congress over the presidency that is another thing that would have to change for the Whig party to grow to a power house akin to the Republican party.

Daniel Webster happens to be the unlucky soul who was offered the Vice Presidency by William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor. He said, "I do not propose to be buried until I am dead." I imagine he grew to regret those decisions.
 

Stolengood

Banned
Daniel Webster happens to be the unlucky soul who was offered the Vice Presidency by William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor. He said, "I do not propose to be buried until I am dead." I imagine he grew to regret those decisions.
Imagine the controversy if, as in OTL, he also writes the speech long believed to have killed Harrison through its delivery in terrible conditions; one would expect a lot of angry people to accuse Webster of killing Harrison to gain the Presidency! :eek:
 
Imagine the controversy if, as in OTL, he also writes the speech long believed to have killed Harrison through its delivery in terrible conditions; one would expect a lot of angry people to accuse Webster of killing Harrison to gain the Presidency! :eek:

Probably not at the time, but the History Channel would be airing specials about the Coup of 41.
 
Make the ACW break out ten years early after failure to arrive at the Compromise of 1850.

The North still wins, and the Whigs acquire the patriotic aura of being the "Party that saved the Union" as the Republicans did OTL. After that, they probably win more elections than they lose for several generations.
 
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