What if John Tyler died in 1844?

On February 28, 1844, US President John Tyler was aboard the USS Princeton, during a gun practice a cannon exploded, killing the Secretary of state and secretary of defence.


What if Tyler had been killed by the explosion too?
 
Does Mangum get the Whig nomination for president or is he eschewed in favor of Clay? Would Mangum be more likely than Clay to win the election? A quick search on Wikipedia says the Whig convention was on May 1, two months after the accident and Mangum taking power.

Texas wouldn't be annexed by a President Mangum, and that might change things significantly. After all, the official casus belli for the Mexican-American War was that Mexican troops attacked a US patrol in the Nueces strip. Even if Polk is still elected and he tries to annex Texas early into his administration, it'd still probably delay the war a bit - and if Mangum (or Clay) is elected, then war should be avoided at least through 1848.
 
Does Mangum get the Whig nomination for president or is he eschewed in favor of Clay? Would Mangum be more likely than Clay to win the election? A quick search on Wikipedia says the Whig convention was on May 1, two months after the accident and Mangum taking power.

Texas wouldn't be annexed by a President Mangum, and that might change things significantly. After all, the official casus belli for the Mexican-American War was that Mexican troops attacked a US patrol in the Nueces strip. Even if Polk is still elected and he tries to annex Texas early into his administration, it'd still probably delay the war a bit - and if Mangum (or Clay) is elected, then war should be avoided at least through 1848.

Clay was the dominant whig leader, I think he could get the nomination. And without the unpopular tyler as president, he might have won the election
 
My as-yet-to-be posted TL has this very POD. The butterflies of this event and a Mangum Presidency allow for many interesting possibilities.

So anyways, one huge butterfly would be the Texas Treaty, finished just days before the disaster iOTL. Mangum would probably not even had submitted it and Martin Van Buren has a better chance of securing the Democratic nomination. It would still be hard for him because by then he had made an enemy out of the godfather Andrew Jackson.
 
Top