Hey, sorry for not posting much. Midterms are kicking my ass.
Also sorry for not having the other interludes out yet. I didn't plan on this coming first but I just had to unwind.
Part XVIII: The President Who Was Never Meant to Be
When the late President Peyton Randolph had selected Oliver Wolcott Jr. to be his Vice President, he had never imagined that the man would take office. Wolcott himself had likely never thought he himself would live in the Seaward Wing of the Presidential Mansion. Wolcott’s ascendency would come with much political support from the mourning of Randolph, which would have great lasting effects on American politics. You see, Wolcott, while being a member of the Republican Party and ally of such figures as Harrison and Calhoun, was always a Federalist at heart. The Federalist Party, which had previously been very marginalized, was brought in far more by his administration, most notably with the rise of Alexander Macomb to the position of Secretary of War. Macomb was notable due to his history of serving in the Army of Patriotic Americans, as well as his personal dislike of Harrison and Randolph. Macomb’s dislike of them stems from a battle outside of Westport during the Irish Revolution, where he had reportedly called for reinforcements from his allies, who were resting in Dunmore before continuing on their northern campaign, but none came. Defeated and embittered, Macomb held a lifelong dislike of the men and would have unprecedented influence for a man of his office in trying to keep the living one, Harrison, out of the administration.
Oliver Wolcott Jr. approached the presidency with two clear goals in mind, a reduction of the power of the Republican Coalition over American foreign policy, and a reduction of the power of the presidency over the operation of the states. Since 1816, the presidency had become far more powerful than anybody could have anticipated. Harrison and Randolph had greatly expanded the de facto power and influence that the president wielded in ways that worked for the Republican Party’s ideology but did not work for a growing number of Americans. They wished to see a time where the Congresses played a far more prominent role in government and the new president shared that sentiment. There had been a strong consensus that lead to the rise of the rather authoritarian military men who had run the country for a little over a decade, and now a powerful reaction against that was beginning.
In the Federalist Party, the traditional ideological pillars had long since eroded away as they became more marginalized and had to adapt to even continue existing. The party had mainly become a coalition of isolationists, laissez-faire capitalists, those who opposed the Freemasons, which made up a significant number of American politicians, and those who feared the Papal influence of the Catholic majority territories taken by the United States in the Caribbean and the former British North America. With its headquarters at the Hamilton Hall in Boston, the party leaders, Governor Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, Representative John Randolph of Virginia, and Representative John Sergeant of Pennsylvania met to discuss President Wolcott and how to use his more moderate positions in their favor. The Federalist Party, making up a minority in the three houses of the two Congresses, had done very little to prevent or even slow their slip from power.
It was at this point, that all changed. In 1827, the Federalist Party began a massive transformation of their structure. They maintained their same political leanings but would take on a more popular message against the international, expansionist, centralized focus of the Republican Party. This is disputed by historians, but many believe they were inspired by the Truest Patriots, panting the Republicans as secret monarchists hellbent on turning the United States into a kingdom.
With all of this in mind, it came as a surprise when the Federalist National Committee overwhelmingly endorsed Oliver Wolcott Jr., the sitting Republican President, for the 1832 election. Wolcott was facing numerous challengers for his own nomination. Many believed that he would get it unless William Henry Harrison stepped up and they were right, Harrison decided not to run that year and Wolcott received both the Federalist and the Republican nominations. The isolationist, small-government dominated Federalist Party was not the entirety of the Federalist Party that remained and two men from this Traditional Wing broke rank with the party itself to run for president against Wolcott, Martin Van Buren and W.P. Mangum. Van Buren, a Representative in the Confederationist Congress from New York and Mangum was a Senator in the Constitutional Congress from North Carolina. Mangum opposed Van Buren and Wolcott, seeing both as destructive to the economic structure of the South. The Traditional Wing of the Federalist Party was supporting Martin Van Buren over Mangum and asked him to resign, which he adamantly rejected doing.
On the campaign trail, Wolcott would call upon support from the mainstream of the Federalist Party and the Republican Party, having people such as William Henry Harrison and Henry Clay endorsing him and even giving speeches on his behalf. In Van Buren’s camp, there was only really James Monroe, who would die of illness before the campaign was over. Mangum only had other Southerners on his side. This election showed the beginning of the political break between John C. Calhoun and Clay and Harrison. Calhoun grew to become more regionally prideful over the past decade and would become even more so following the bitterness of this election and the beginning of slavery becoming a national argument. Harrison, while not openly an abolitionist yet, began to test the waters and campaigned for representatives and local officials who had more anti-slavery leanings. Henry Clay grew into his role of the political moderate of the remaining Republicans and can really be credited with keeping the party and movement united for as long as it was.
The result of the 1828 Election were astounding. The raise turned out to be far closer than expected, especially with the two major parties endorsing one candidate. Wolcott ended up victorious while only winning Virginia, North Carolina, Franklin, and Cuba among the Southern states. Martin Van Buren was only able to pull a victory off in Vermont, losing every other Northern state to Wolcott. Mangum, who had won by overwhelmingly margins in Mississippi and South Carolina, being the only candidate to win over fifty-five percent of the vote in any state. Despite his loss, Mangum benefitted greatly from his presidential run, earning John C. Calhoun as a close friend and ally and being propelled to the national stage, where he would remain for quite some time.
Wolcott’s presidential victory spelled a future much different than what the American people were expecting. The ways he disagreed with what the men before him had established was not as widely known as the ways he agreed and his presidency, although shorter than the ones before him, would be just as important.