AHC: One-party Whig government in USA

Simple AHC: make the Whig party the only party that matters in U.S. politics by 1900. This could be literally (i.e. no other parties exist, perhaps because they have been outlawed) or de facto (there are one or more opposition parties, but they are weak, fragmented, or always in the minority in some way or another)--just make the Whigs the only guys (or maybe there are some women running/getting elected in it?) that count. :p

Bonus points if you can either butterfly away or severely alter the inception and execution of the U.S. Civil War.


MalcontentRex
 
The Free Soilers seize control of the Whigs, short-circuiting the development of a separate Republican Party. The US Civil War happens on schedule.

The Democrats then remain stuck in perpetual Dixiecrat mode, essentially becoming the de facto political wing of the Klan. The Whigs, by contrast (and unlike the nineteenth century Republicans) become open to ethnic diversity, and end up with competing wings: a conservative business wing and a progressive radical wing. The Democrats are just plain agrarian conservatives.

By 1900, the major competition is between the two wings of the Whig Party, with the Democrats isolated to the old Confederacy.
 
The first thing to tackle is the United States presidential election, 1836, in this election the party was unable to agree on a single candidate.

If the party was able to come to a compromise eg. William Henry Harrison as president and Hugh Lawson White, they could have easily won the election. Whitewill then die, during his term as vice president.
With William Harrison having one full office before dying after 32 days in his second term with John Tyler taking office.

John Tyler runs for a second term, determined to see a full annexation of Texas, with Zachary Taylor as Vice President and Henry Clay as Treasury.

The party as a whole works out a better "Compromise of 1850."

Keep the republican party small so that, Abraham Lincoln and Rutherford B. Hayes, stay as Whigs instead of switching to the Republican Party.

This would be the first steps to making the Whigs stay together till the 1900s.
 
I think, for the Whigs, having John Tyler as Presudent rally messed them up. If they had an actual Whig, that probably would have been better.
 
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