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TLIAW (or longer) - Webster Takes A Stand

Untitled one with Webster President in 1841

A/N: As if there aren’t enough from this time period, I decided to try a different take and hopefully not be too close to Wilcoxchar’s excellent “Union and Liberty.” Well, I can’t be since I don’t get that detailed. But, things will get interesting. However, it’s hard to pin down a specific POD as to why Webster refused or why he doesn’t in this TL, so since it seems to have been a tough decision for him, we’ll just presume that he does accept the VP spot. However, while it started as a verys hort one, it might go longer or at least come back after a while if I stop it at the point I had planned.

Part 1: The Presidency and Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster was always, if nothing else, outspoken.

The joke was made during the 1840 campaign that, while someone else had toasted, “Our country, may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong,” Webster had countered with, “Our country, may she always be in the right, and where she is not, may I make her right!”

He could – and often did - rub people the wrong way. However, history is kinder to him in retrospect because of one simple fact. He hated slavery.

Many speculative histories have been written about what would have happened if some other man had had a slow change of heart, from someone who simply wanted to limit it to freeing the slaves. Martin Van Buren has been used, of course, as have others; and, he is the most logical. Perhaps a man from the generation after Webster would have been more likely to do it that way, say from the election of 1860.

But, as it happened, the man whose fate it was to start the country on a path to freedom was one who had always abhorred slavery. There had been some concerns that he might turn people away from the Whigs when the party offered him the Vice Presidential nomination, and that a Southerner was needed. However, Webster successfully argued that William Henry Harrison, born in Virginia, could just as easily be considered a Southerner.

Others, of course, pointed to the fact Harrison promised to serve only one term and that Webster might be the presumptive nominee in 1844, but that was downplayed; Clay or someone else would be found when the time rolled around.

It was, of course, possible Webster would refuse. And, it’s not quite clear what caused him to accept – he really didn’t’ like Harrison one bit. However, a number of things can be argued to have come into play – influence he could have as VP, a clear shot to win in 1844 since Harrison pledged to serve only 1 term, and maybe even rumors that John Tyler, a Southerner and closer to a Democrat, was going to be Harrison’s pick. He almost refused anyway, but he ws convinced by party leaders to take the job.

Needless to say, nobody ever expected a two-hour speech to kill the new president within a month of his taking office.

And yet, that’s just what it did. Because, Harrison refused to wear a coat and spoke for two hours to prove his good health and, some say, to prove that there would be no problem with Webster in the V.P.’s chair. Suddenly, on April 4, 1841, Webster was President.

The other Whigs in Congress didn’t mind for the most part. Webster showed in his first few weeks that he would act like he really was President, not just Acting President, but after all, he’d strongly support the National System of Internal Improvements and the Bank of the United States. He might even be willing to work out a compromise allowing states to opt out, which pleased several factions, a compromise which would be reached.(1)

Still, there was the slavery issue. Not only did Webster oppose annexation of Texas unless it promised to be a Free State, he made no bones about his opposition to slavery, period, and quickly pushed for a law outlawing slavery in “any territory that the United States might acquire now or in the future,” thus ensuring that the Missouri Compromise line should end where the Louisiana Purchase border stopped.

Of course, having a virulently anti-slavery man in the White House wasn’t the end of everything for the growing “slavocracy,’ as some termed it. However, Webster’s candor caused him to make statements which were not allowed to be uttered in Congress, thanks to a rule that John Quincy Adams had been fighting for several years.(2) (Indeed, some speculate that some incident involving this had tipped the scales toward Webster choosing to accept the V.P slot.) Webster’s attacks on “those who wish to abandon reason and eliminate the Freedom of Speech which is one of the basic First Amendment rights of all citizens” became more vocal as time went on, while at the same time, his National System became to some conspiracy theorists a means of industrializing the North to overpower the South.

Things became so fierce that – when the Second Bank of the United States was re-established in August, 1841 – the Democratic minority had a few calling for a riot; mostly the Southerners.(3) And, Webster only reluctantly considered signing a bill encouraging people to move into Florida because he realized that when Iowa and then Wisconsin entered the Union, free states would have a majority. However, he dragged his heels on it as long as he could.

As he dragged his feet, though, the House of Representatives would see a shift to Democratic control in the 1842 midterms, though the Senate remained Whig. And, the Democratic Party began to change as well.

Martin Van Buren came out against the annexation of Texas as well. His reasoning was that sectional rivalries had developed and that annexing Texas would just create more of a rift. This was why some in Congress opposed it as well. However, this caused Van Buren to be painted with the same brush some were painting Webster with. As 1843 wore on, Lewis Cass became the most likely Democratic candidate for President.

Van Buren still wanted his old job back, though. The Free Soil Party contacted him and asked if he would consider running for them if the Democrats failed to nominate him.

He didn’t utter a total refusal as some might have expected. He was starting to see the growing power of the Southern Democrats and become concerned. He wasn’t as anti-slavery as Webster, but he was starting to think that it might be best if all future territory was, in fact, free.(4)

Of course, some Free Soilers - in these days when a couple parties could each nominate the same man - thought Webster might be good, whether or not the Whigs nominated him.

1844 was going to be an interesting year, not just in the United States but in Texas, where their Presidential election could have an influence on the American one. And, several other states that were in the U.S. would also make things very interesting.

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(1) Such a compromise was posed OTL and seems like a fair compromise.

(2) A rule that ended in 1845 in OTL.

(3) In OTL the other side rioted when Tyler vetoed the bill.

(4) A feeling he had by 1848 when he did run; Webster just causes Southerners to become more vocal and show their colors earlier.
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