WI: John Quincy Adams Elected As An Anti-Masonic

In 1833, former President and then Congressman John Quincy Adams ran for Governor of Massachusetts under the Anti-Masonic ticket. He finished with 29%, behind the National Republican (who got 40%), but ahead of the Democrat and Working Men’s nominees (who got 25% and 6%). As no one got a majority, it was brought to the state legislature, but Adams withdrew before a contest began.

But what if Adams won (either by a different system, or by winning in the state legislature)? Would the Anti-Masons be more powerful than IOTL? Could Adams return to the White House in 1836?
 
In 1833, former President and then Congressman John Quincy Adams ran for Governor of Massachusetts under the Anti-Masonic ticket. He finished with 29%, behind the National Republican (who got 40%), but ahead of the Democrat and Working Men’s nominees (who got 25% and 6%). As no one got a majority, it was brought to the state legislature, but Adams withdrew before a contest began.

But what if Adams won (either by a different system, or by winning in the state legislature)? Would the Anti-Masons be more powerful than IOTL? Could Adams return to the White House in 1836?

The answer to the last question is No. If he competed with Harrison in the states where Harrison was the Whig candidate, this would just let Van Buren win more easily than in OTL. And if he competed with Webster in MA, that would mean that Van Buren would probably carry even that strongly anti-Jacksonian state.

The Anti-Masons and National Republicans eventually have to join forces (and even with southern states'-rights men!) to have any chance of winning a presidential election. That coalition, known as the Whigs, had already taken shape by 1836, but it still could not agree on a single candidate. But even if it could, it would not be Adams , who was just not popular enough outside New England.
 

Japhy

Banned
Anyway I'd say that Adams is in a good position to get the nomination in 1836 if he wants it but I'm not sure that puts him in a position to be a viable option.
 
The main problem seems to be that JQA simply doesn't have enough opportunities. He was sixty-nine in 1836, so it was probably his last chance, but Jackson's popularity made Van Buren unbeatable. I guess the first thing is to mess up Jackson's second term, maybe have the Panic of 1837 start a couple of years earlier.

The anti-Jacksonians would be primed for victory, but JQA isn't popular enough in the West and North to unite the Whigs, let alone win outright as an Anti-Masonic candidate. Perhaps the strategy could be similar to OTL 1836: Western and Southern Whigs have their own candidates, but JQA becomes the Anti-Masonic nominee and gets the support of Northeastern Whigs (including New England and hopefully states like New York and Pennsylvania as opposed to just Massachusetts). The election goes to the House, but I'm not sure how he could get elected again there due to his aforementioned unpopularity in much of the country. Maybe it's van Buren vs. Harrison vs. Adams in the House, but Harrison's health problems start showing earlier (like Crawford in 1824). The Western Whigs decide that Harrison is a lost cause and Adams is the lesser evil to van Buren. But that's just a hypothetical; not sure how plausible it is.

As for the power of the Anti-Masonic Party as a whole, from what I understand they were formed partially out of partially legitimate concern for Free Mason practices (such as that their oaths would conflict with their public duties in office), but mostly out of paranoid panic promoted by opportunistic politicians. As a single-issue party, it was unsustainable and would inevitably merge with the Whigs or a similar force. However, the party itself could be strengthened in the short-term, which in turn could make Anti-Masonicism in general a more lasting force. Vermont elected an Anti-Masonic governor in 1831, as did Pennsylvania in 1835, so JQA's election as Massachusetts governor wouldn't be revolutionary, but it would certainly give the party a higher profile.
 
As others have said, the Anti-Masonic Party was already on its way out having little to differentiate itself from the National Republicans or Whigs, and John Quincy Adams himself did not have the political capital or public support to carry the Whig nomination outside of those caucuses held in New England, making him a secondary candidate to Harrison. From there Adams has a fighting chance to make it into the House election as the New England bloc of electors that he can win (33 with MA, VT, CT, RI) is only slightly smaller then those Hugh White will probably carry at that point (35 with TN, GA, MS, LA); if White narrowly loses either Mississippi or Louisiana then Adams can go onto the Congressional ballot as the third Presidential candidate. However the Democrats by the time Congress would meet would have had control of a majority of the State delegations making the whole point moot, and even if they didn't, I believe it would be a struggle to actually get the Whigs to rally behind either Harrison or Adams; many Southern Whigs would feel particularly miffed that Hugh White did not make it into the running and would lay the blame on those who had turned to supporting Harrison after having previously endorsed White (principally the border state Whig Parties), but I doubt that translates into support for Adams.

Honestly I don't see it, even if we were to push the Panic back a year and try and effect the Congressional Elections to engineer major Whig gains.
 
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