1848Whereas Clay's 1st term largely contained few diplomatic actions, his second contained many. He negotiated the Oregon border with Britain and both sides agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to extend the pre-existing border between the 2 nations all the way to the Pacific. Many northerners felt betrayed by the "Claitor" who had annexed all of Texas and half of Oregon. In order to prevent the South from seceding however, Clay believed it was both necessary and fair.
War with Mexico soon followed after several border incidents and America pummeled the larger nation and took much of the land to the Southwest. The Nationalists did as the Democratic-Republicans had done with the war of 1812 and turned it into a national movement. The Democratic Party, already weak from several presidential losses began to tumble and made huge losses in the midterms, the United party however, made many gains.
Vice President Webster quickly ruled out running and wished to return to the Senate. This left the nomination wide open and in the ensuing power grab 2 names stood above all others: Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor. Both men were fresh War heroes with extremely high popularity and so the nomination was close. However, at the Convention Scott narrowly beat out Taylor who put on a brave face and reconciled with his military counterpart. For his Vice Presidential Nominee Scott decided to go with what appeared to be balanced and chose the new, moderate member of the party Lewis Cass as his Vice Presidential Nominee.
The Barn-burners, led by the retired Martin Van Buren, refused to end their stint as a party and made it clear the Northern and Southern factions of the Democratic Party would not be unified for quite some time. At their convention they announced a moderate approach to slavery and moved to the center on many issues in order to win over border states. They christened themselves the United Party to show that they wanted to keep the Union together at almost any cost with a moderate approach to slavery. They nominated a quasi-Van Buren William L. Marcy who chose the moderate John Tyler as his Vice Presidential Nominee.
Whereas the Barn-burners moved closer to the center the Democrats moved further to the right. They were quickly becoming a regional party and so they embraced a much more pro-slavery, southern, approach to their platform. To embody their new found sense of Conservatism the Democrats nominated the state's rights champion John C. Calhoun who dutifully chose Senator John McKinley as his Vice Presidential Nominee.
The campaign was brutal and the border states were heavily contested. General Scott narrowly triumphed in the Electoral College but dominated the Popular Vote due to extremely high total in the Northeast. The National was to continue its rule under "Scott and that goddamn Democrat in sheep's clothing". Many Nationalists still were suspicious of Cass' true political leanings.
Winfield Scott [NA-NY]/ Lewis Cass [NA-MI] 151 EVs (53.33%)
William L. Marcy [UN-NY]/ John Tyler [UN-VA] 65 EVs (24.23%)
John C. Calhoun [DE-SC]/ John McKinley [DE-AL] 74 EVs (20.44%)
Mr. William Garrison [LI-NY]/ Mr. James Birney [LI-MI] (2.01%)