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Not long ago, I started a thread asking what other possible choices were available for the Whig VP nomination in 1839, and one of the names proposed was North Carolina senator Willie Person Mangum (pronounced WY-lee PAR-son MANG-um, I believe). He was a stauch Clay supporter, and would almost certainly have enacted the policies the Whig were in support of, such as the creation of a new national bank and increased tariffs. On the issue of Texas, it seems he wouldn't have been completely opposed to it, but neither would have pursued Tyler's aggressive annexationist stance. While this is an odd thing to include, I'd like to see how Prussia buying California from Mexico could affect American expansionism, implauisbile though it may be.

What would be the results of a Mangum presidency, and how does this affect the election of 1844 and onwards? Delaying territorial expansion may put off the sectional strife over slavery, but it may still occur.

To keep David T from having to repeat himself, here's his post on Mangum from the earlier thread:
Two things about Mangum:

(1) Unlike some other southern Clay loyalists, it is not clear he would have declined the vice-presidential nomination in 1839. To quote an old post of mine:

"We have had a lot about Willie Mangum becoming President if the explosion on the *Princeton* had killed Tyler, but by then much of the damage to the Whig party (through Tyler's vetoes) and to North-South relations (through the introduction of the Texas issue) had already been done. But what if Mangum had instead become president in 1841? At first I took it for granted that he like other southern Clay men had declined the vice-presidency at the 1839 Whig convention out of loyalty to Clay, but it seems that the situation was actually a little bit more complicated:

"'Before breaking up, the convention needed to name a vice presidential candidate. Hoping to balance the ticket with a Clay man, the Harrison Whigs turned to the Kentuckian for suggestions. Feeling betrayed by his party and unimpressed with Harrison, Clay refused to help. Left with no alternative, representatives from the two camps met secretly to consider the possibilities. They first approached John Crittenden of Kentucky, but he declined out of loyalty to Clay. Benjamin Watkins Leigh of Virginia turned down the next proffer for the same reason. After taking himself out of the running. Leigh suggested Willie Mangum. He too felt obliged to Clay and instructed his agents in Harrisburg to reject the offer. Later, Mangum said that had he been there in person he might have accepted. His wife's bout with scarlet fever had kept him home. Rather than blame her for this lost opportunity, he joked that it was an outdated wardrobe that prevented him from going to Harrisburg. 'If I had had a new suit,' he quipped after the eventual nominee John Tyler had ascended to the first office, 'Mr. Tyler perhaps had not been President.'' http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00003610/00001/302x

"Perhaps Mangum's "had I been there in person I might have accepted" should be taken with a grain of salt--it was after all said after he knew he had blown a chance of becoming President. (Or Acting President? Would the Whigs have objected to the Vice-President describing himself as President after Harrison's death if it had been a man they agreed with politically? ) Still...what if he was telling the truth? Presumably patronage is handled in a way very favorable to Clay. (This incidentally differentiates a Mangum presidency not only from Tyler's but also from Harrison's--Mangum was worried before Harrison's death that Harrison was showing too much deference to the Webster wing of the party, whom Mangum called the "old Federal[ist] clique to the North." http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00003610/00001/318x Presumably there is no veto of the Bank or other Whig nationalist legislation. The Whigs probably do much better in the 1842 and 1843 congressional and state elections than in OTL, when the split with Tyler hurt them enormously. He would probably not press for annexation of Texas--in OTL in 1844 he underestimated the potency of the Texas issue in the South. And presumably he is a one-term President, making way for his friend Clay to get the Whig nomination in 1844. Harrison's inaugural address had strongly advocated a one-term presidency [1], so it might be accepted as Whig doctrine."

https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...s-almost-got-president-mangum-in-1841.349475/

(2) One slight modification of the above post: While Mangum in OTL in 1844 went along with Clay in opposing immediate Texas annexation (and underestimated the damage this position would cause Clay in the South), he had not previously opposed annexation. A dissertation on Mangum's life summarizes his views as follows:

"Before 1844, North Carolina Whigs generally favored the idea of bringing Texas into the Union. When Secretary of State Abel Upshur first broached the subject to Mangum in January 1844, the President Pro Tempore expressed his regret that the bill would be credited to Tyler instead of Clay. Mangum had no philosophical objections to the idea, only to the fact that Tyler would reap the benefits of it. After the Raleigh letter, however, [in which Clay announced his opposition to the treaty of annexation] he led the Tar Heel Whigs in denouncing annexation. Only then did they voice their concerns for the country's honor, the risk of war, or the threat to cotton prices brought on by overexpansion. In the end it was Clay's desire to maintain good ties with his northern allies and his wish to see Tyler fail, not an abiding concern for Mexico's sovereignty or America's honor, which prompted him to declare against annexation. Similarly, Mangum and most southern Whigs voted to reject the treaty out of loyalty to Clay, not to uphold a sacred principle or avoid war." Joseph Conan Thompson, *Willie Person Mangum: Politics and Pragmatism in the Age of Jackson* pp. 336-7. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00003610/00001/345j

So a President Mangum might indeed have favored annexation--but would likely have backed off if his friend Clay warned him it would hurt the Whigs in the North.
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