AHC: Have 5-7 Families Control the US Presidency

As the tin says, with a POD of the founding of the Republic, have 5 to 7 families dominate the Presidency in such a way that it is assumed that one of them will be President at any given time. You cannot change the Constitution to guarantee one of the families is in power, it just has to be a de facto thing. For purposes of this, both Washington's adopted children/their descendants and the descendants of his siblings may count toward the same Washington/Custus family.
 
Is it five to seven at any one time, or does it need to be the same five to seven in the 2000's that it would have been in the first half of the nineteenth century?
 
Is it five to seven at any one time, or does it need to be the same five to seven in the 2000's that it would have been in the first half of the nineteenth century?

The same 5-7 families from the beginning to the present. However, the "dynasty" can be expanded through marriage. So an alternate REL that marries an alternate Curtis girl would be considered part of the Washington-Custis political family, just a Lee branch of it.
 
The same 5-7 families from the beginning to the present. However, the "dynasty" can be expanded through marriage. So an alternate REL that marries an alternate Curtis girl would be considered part of the Washington-Custis political family, just a Lee branch of it.
Could one of the families rule for the first time in, say, the late nineteenth century, provided they repeatedly produced subsequent presidents?
 
Could one of the families rule for the first time in, say, the late nineteenth century, provided they repeatedly produced subsequent presidents?

Sure. But they might see the need to marry a woman from one of the established dynasties in order to appear "legitimate" that late in the game.
 
Unless they're brought to prominence by a war. The Grants, for example.

A war hero might still want to marry one of his heirs into an established dynasty, especially in the latter half of the 1800s when this custom has been going on for almost a century.
 
So an alt Grant or alt Roosevelt might want to marry an Adams/Clinton/Hamilton (whichever is an established Presidential family)
 
So an alt Grant or alt Roosevelt might want to marry an Adams/Clinton/Hamilton (whichever is an established Presidential family)
The Clintons are not likely to get into the White House under these circumstances unless you meant the New York family.
 
Maybe we should start a list of prominent enough families t further this discussion?

The Randolphs of Virginia
The Harrisons of Virginia
The Clintons of New York
The Adamses of Massachusetts
The Washington-Custis-Lee families of Virginia
The Pinckneys of South Carolina
 
The most interesting effect about your scenario is the possibles rivalries and conflicts that arise as the time progress between the families, i can see with time a country contaminated by a extreme political polarization. That will be very fun to read timeline.
 
I also wonder what effect this has by expansion of lack of it. For example, this 5-7 families idea is easier to do if the U.S. stops at the Mississippi.
 
How would America's Whigs (since their Tories left for Canada after the ARW) react to this - especially since the new republic would be more like the Venetian Republic than say the ancient Greek ones? And also, might the Jeffersons, the Pattersons and the Carrolls make a showing? (The Pattersons since they had conections to both the Bonapartes and the Wellesleys)
 
Maybe we should start a list of prominent enough families t further this discussion?

The Randolphs of Virginia
The Harrisons of Virginia
The Clintons of New York
The Adamses of Massachusetts
The Washington-Custis-Lee families of Virginia
The Pinckneys of South Carolina

Other option could be either the van Rensselaers of New York (exceedingly wealthy and married with the Schuyler's who were ARW hereos and connected to the Hamiltons via marriage)
 
Other option could be either the van Rensselaers of New York (exceedingly wealthy and married with the Schuyler's who were ARW hereos and connected to the Hamiltons via marriage)

I just looked at the Schuyler family tree and if there were a Hamilton-Schuyler-Van Rensselaer dynasty it could be connected to the Roosevelts as well since they married a Schuyler girl at some point which counts OTLs Teddy Roosevelt as one of the descendants of the Schuyler Roosevelt marriage.
 
The Randolphs of Virginia
The Harrisons of Virginia
The Clintons of New York
The Adamses of Massachusetts
The Washington-Custis-Lee families of Virginia
The Pinckneys of South Carolina

The Roosevelts don't make the list? I thought they were very prominent very early. Perhaps not Revolutionary, but prominent. Isaac was a Whig who served in Congress, and James was in the state assembly.
 
The Roosevelts don't make the list? I thought they were very prominent very early. Perhaps not Revolutionary, but prominent. Isaac was a Whig who served in Congress, and James was in the state assembly.

That's why I think having them be an extended part of the Schuyler-Hamilton family connection along with the Van Rensselaers would work.
 
(Whoops, in trying to meet this challenge I accidentally wanked the Federalist Party.) Washington is persuaded to run for a third term. A tumultuous relationship with revolutionary France absorbs much of his time and energy in his third term. The debates over the Alien and Sedition Acts over-tax his failing health, and he passes away shortly after vetoing them in 1798. John Adams assumes the presidency determined to support Washington's dying wishes, despite the grumblings of some Federalists. Democratic Republicans argue that Adams is only Acting President and suggest a special election in 1799, but Adams's strength of will and support of Federalists in Congress overrules them. After resolving tensions with France, Adams is elected to a full term by a nation that sees him as fulfilling Washington's legacy. The charge that the DRs attempted to politicize Washington's death to grab power haunts the party for years. In 1803, Adams's Secretary of State, John Marshall (a great-grandson of William Randolph, founder of the powerful Virginia family), successfully negotiates a treaty with France to purchase the Louisiana territory for $18 million. Adams is handily re-elected to a second full term in 1804 over his Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, who serves a second term as the VP and continues to extend that office's legislative influence as President of the Senate. The Democratic Republicans attempt to win the presidency by running a northerner instead of a Virginian in 1808, but George Clinton loses a close election to the popular John Marshall, who is elected to a second term in 1812 amidst brewing conflict with Great Britain. The United States army and navy, well-equipped and well-trained after more than a decade of Federalist administrations, acquit themselves well in the Great Lakes War (1812-1814), and much of Upper Canada is ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Ghent (many historians laud President Marshall's decision to appoint disgraced former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as commanding general of US forces during the conflict; Hamilton's strategies are widely credited with US success in the Canadian theater). The Democratic-Republican party nominates anti-war, states-rights Congressman John Randolph of Virginia for President in 1816, but many pro-war Democratic-Republicans, including westerner Henry Clay and Senator James Madison of Virginia, instead back the Federalist ticket of Henry Lee III and Dewitt Clinton. The 1816 election is the most lopsided since Washington's re-election in 1796, and Randolph places a distant third in electoral votes behind Lee and Clinton. Having failed to win the presidency after more than two decades or even retain the vice presidency, the DR party collapses and the so-called "Era of Good Will," a period of political stability and big-tent Federalist dominance begins. The various factions within the Federalist party (northern and southern, looser and stricter construction, etc.) generally agree on a balanced ticket for President and VP and let the two factions "take turns" heading the ticket.
1. George Washington (I), 1789-1799
2. John Adams (F), 1799-1809
3. John Marshall (F), 1809-1817
4. Henry Lee III (F), 1817-1818
5. Dewitt Clinton (F), 1818-1827
6. Henry Lee IV (F), 1827-1833
6. John Quincy Adams (F), 1833-1841
7. William Henry Harrison (F), 1841-1844
8. Philip Hamilton (F), 1844-1853
This would give us a Washington-Lee-Custis dynasty, an Adams dynasty, a Randolph dynasty (via Marshall), and the potential for Clinton, Harrison, and Hamilton-Schuyler-etc. dynasties.
 
The Roosevelts don't make the list? I thought they were very prominent very early. Perhaps not Revolutionary, but prominent. Isaac was a Whig who served in Congress, and James was in the state assembly.
I was not trying to exclude any. I should have been clearer; my intent was to start compiling a list of plausible political families. Incidentally, it turns out the Adamses are related to several figures not obviously related.
 
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