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I was reading a biography of James K. Polk the other day, and it seems to me that he was the most effective and able President in the Manifest Destiny era, as well as a large part of the reason that era is named thus. In our timeline, he retired after one term (as was his promise during the campaign), and then died three months later.

So here's my question: what would have happened if James Polk ran for a second term?

It was suggested in an old thread on the topic that a good POD would be him not getting cholera during a trip to the South early in his term, which weakened him and made him vulnerable when he died from it several years later.

It can be safely assumed that Zachary Taylor would stay out of the race; it took the Whigs ages to convince him to run even when he was running against the unknown Louis Cass, and against an incumbent President he would stay out. Therefore, Polk would have won. In order to make this consequential, we'll need to increase his health some, so chalk that up as a second POD. How would he react to the crises of the day, such as free/slave state issues (Compromise of 1850), the revolutions of 1848, etc. Would something like the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty be signed (the treaty established closer relations between America and the UK)? How would he deal with the Mormons? Would he try to open up the Japanese, as Millard Fillmore did successfully?
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