President William Henry Harrison Lives

What if President William Henry Harrison had not caught pneumonia and had survived for a full term. Would he have annexed Texas, or gone to war against Mexico. Would he have run for reelection in 1844 and won?
 
This sets the Whigs up to be able to get their third bank and delays or butterflies the Independent Treasury System, for one.
 
He might push for the annexation of the whole of The Oregon where his successors decided to take Texas instead.

Expansion north of the Missouri Compromise line, 1812 veteran, military man...it's a possibility he goes for 54/40 and fights.

Awaiting "BRITAIN IS INVINCIBLE AND ALL MIGHTY, FOOL! YOU'LL BE CRUSHED AND RE-ACQUIRED BY YOUR RIGHTFUL OVERLORDS IN A WEEK!" from the "Imperial Britain is God Incarnate" Mafia in 3...2...1...
 
He might push for the annexation of the whole of The Oregon where his successors decided to take Texas instead.

Expansion north of the Missouri Compromise line, 1812 veteran, military man...it's a possibility he goes for 54/40 and fights.

Awaiting "BRITAIN IS INVINCIBLE AND ALL MIGHTY, FOOL! YOU'LL BE CRUSHED AND RE-ACQUIRED BY YOUR RIGHTFUL OVERLORDS IN A WEEK!" from the "Imperial Britain is God Incarnate" Mafia in 3...2...1...
I support the All-Oregon Movement. To bad they're aren't too many people around here who agree with me.;)
 
Harrison was not a friend of the Indians, or was at least very wary of any dealings with them, having had Tecumseh's uprising start up under his watch as Governor of the Indiana Territory. So there's one thing to have watched out for with him as President, though it's not likely that things would be too different from OTL, since pretty much everyone had the same viewpoint.

I wouldn't expect him to go after Texas, since it was very clearly Mexican territory (recall that Harrison advised Bolívar against aggressive expansion, instead to focus on building a stronger republic). On the other hand, I imagine him going for the 54/40, and likely doing a good job of securing American footholds there.

Outside of any expansion of the US, which I personally think Harrison would be mostly against, he'd be facing a difficult battle politically, and would likely split the Whig party, between supporters of Webster, with whom Harrison was buddy-buddy, and Clay, whom Harrison was often annoyed by. His making enemies of friends would probably also be a result of his appointing jobs based on ability rather than popularity, as under previous administrations.
 
Harrison was not a friend of the Indians, or was at least very wary of any dealings with them, having had Tecumseh's uprising start up under his watch as Governor of the Indiana Territory. So there's one thing to have watched out for with him as President, though it's not likely that things would be too different from OTL, since pretty much everyone had the same viewpoint.

I wouldn't expect him to go after Texas, since it was very clearly Mexican territory (recall that Harrison advised Bolívar against aggressive expansion, instead to focus on building a stronger republic). On the other hand, I imagine him going for the 54/40, and likely doing a good job of securing American footholds there.

Outside of any expansion of the US, which I personally think Harrison would be mostly against, he'd be facing a difficult battle politically, and would likely split the Whig party, between supporters of Webster, with whom Harrison was buddy-buddy, and Clay, whom Harrison was often annoyed by. His making enemies of friends would probably also be a result of his appointing jobs based on ability rather than popularity, as under previous administrations.

I agree with most of this. Although the annexation of Texas seems inevitable, unless the rotation of politicians in Mexico also changes. Let's say Herrera or Gomez Farias stay in power longer or hold power at different key times.
But even then would Harrison or another Whig be elected afterwards? If Polk or any other Jacksonian Democrat is elected president afterwards, the annexation would be inevitable.
The only other way to stop it would be to have Harrison or a Whig push for the all Oregon movement and have the US go to war with Britain. In such a case the US is pretty much screwed. ALthough they might end up annexing Oregon (very unlikely) Britain (as it did on OTL) would court Texas to stay independent.

But I think one of the neatest butterflies of this is that the precedent for a vice-president to succeed a dead president in office would not be set. Thus the debate of wether a vice-president become president or acting president would not be settled. This gives the possibility of an actual Civil War (not a secession) or coup whenever the first president dies.
 
Oh definitely the Jacksonians are going to push for Texian annexation, likely only strengthened in the next election if Harrison refuses.

And yeah, the presidential succession issue will be more fun after Zachary Taylor's death (negating butterflies, of course), since I'm pretty sure Millard Fillmore was not popular in becoming President.
 
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