AHC: President Daniel Webster

It's fairly well established that Daniel Webster had designs on the presidency. Indeed, twice he was offered the vice-presidential nomination; twice he declined; twice, the men offering him the second spot died in office, whereupon someone else (John Tyler and Millard Fillmore) succeeded to the presidency.

Thus: how do we get a duly elected Webster presidency?
 
That'll work to have him attain the presidency by succession; I was thinking more in terms of having him elected outright from the start (hence the phrase "duly elected").
 
That'll work to have him attain the presidency by succession; I was thinking more in terms of having him elected outright from the start (hence the phrase "duly elected").

Ya. If he runs a competent presidency, after ascending from VP, then he could easily get elected in his own right. IMO.
 
Harrison dies in war of 1812 and not around to.run


Or he dies a year earlier before getting nominated

Webster would not have been nominated for president in 1840 (actually, the Whig national convention was in 1839). If Harrison were not available, it would either be Clay or Scott. Webster's biggest problem was that he had been a Federalist--he would simply give credibility to the Jacksonian charges that the Whigs were "blue light Federalists" and "Hartford Convention men" (even though Webster did not attend the Hartford Convention). And there was the related problem of his image as an aristocrat.
 
Webster would not have been nominated for president in 1840 (actually, the Whig national convention was in 1839). If Harrison were not available, it would either be Clay or Scott. Webster's biggest problem was that he had been a Federalist--he would simply give credibility to the Jacksonian charges that the Whigs were "blue light Federalists" and "Hartford Convention men" (even though Webster did not attend the Hartford Convention). And there was the related problem of his image as an aristocrat.

What if the Democrats run James Buchanan (at once a Penn. Federalist in his youth) in, say, 1848, and Webster snags the nomination later that year (the Democrats had their convention in May, the Whigs in June)? Obviously we'd need to butterfly away the Mexican-American War, so maybe Clay 1844 then Webster 1848?
 
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