1852 U.S. Presidential Election

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

1852! President Charles F. Adams and Vice President Gerrit Smith are running on the Union ticket for re-election. Coming into office, Adams promised to maintain the troop presence in the South, stemming the tide of withdrawal that began in Van Buren's second term. In one of his most significant accomplishments, he negotiated the annexation of the Oregon Territory. This would be dubbed the "Compromise of 1850". One of his first appointments to the office of Governor of the Oregon Territory would be John W. Geary, who would resign early on to join the burgeoning Whig party. A tariff increase near halfway through Adams' first term would fail to prevent the Panic of 1851. Triggered by the hope that a trans-continental railroad would be built and Adams' subsequent veto of the Douglas Railroad Act, failed land speculation would lead to an economic collapse, not helped by a dearth of cheap goods caused by Adams' import duty increases. While the nation is recovering, it remains unhappy with the Union leadership. With this in mind, Joseph Smith is hoping that his third and final run will be successful.

However, Smith wouldn't be the only choice the nation has in the election. The Whig Party, a creation of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, is running Davy Crockett and Abraham Lincoln for President and Vice President, respectively. While Crockett and Lincoln hail from different wings of the party, they've coalesced around a number of key issues. The Whigs were created as an expansionist party, with the intention of seeing the U.S. annex Texas, California, and all the land in between. Crockett is a relative newcomer to the United States. Following Adams' election, the Congressman, an ardent expansionist, decided to make a new life in Texas. Serving for several years in the Texan military and legislature and with combat experience fighting Santa Anna's Mexicans, Crockett returned in 1847, hoping to convince America to at last join hands with Texas. Despite the Republic having sided with the CAS during the War of Secession, Crockett, along with several other Texan leaders such as Sam Houston, opposed such a move. With political agitating having failed to convince the successive administrations of Van Buren and Adams to annex Texas, Crockett took an interest in Benton's Whig party. At the convention, held in early 1852, his status as an experienced politician, military man, and activist won him the nomination in a landslide. The party chose one-term Congressman Abraham Lincoln for Vice President. While Lincoln stands with a number of Eastern Unionists on trade issues, he is with the party wholly on matters of internal improvements and annexation, though he opposes the use of military force against Mexico. A former National who briefly joined the Union party during the 1840's, Lincoln was a state legislator for several years before his exodus to the status of country lawyer. It would be in 1850 that he would run on the Whig line and win his own seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Should Lincoln lose this race, he has little to worry about as he is now well known nationally and has been nominated by the Whigs for Governor of Illinois.

Three days.

[Goldwater]

Crockett/Lincoln!

[Senator Spiral]

Adams, I suppose.

[ElectionsGuy]

Crockett

[Senator Spiral]

The Redeemers got no votes during the conventions, so did their party just suddenly implode in this timeline or something?

[TDAS04]

Crockett/Lincoln. 

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The Redeemers got no votes during the conventions, so did their party just suddenly implode in this timeline or something?

Much like how the RL Anti-Masons disappeared, the Redeemers nominated Crockett and folded into a party that would play well in the South while not being tainted by proto-Confederates.

[Donerail]

Adams, I suppose.

[Lief 🗽]

Why would we want to annex Texas? Where do you think all the slaveholders would have immediately immigrated to with their slaves in tow if a Civil War had happened twenty years early while Texas was still independent?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Why would we want to annex Texas? Where do you think all the slaveholders would have immediately immigrated to with their slaves in tow if a Civil War had happened twenty years early while Texas was still independent?

Texas' approval of the U.S. constitution would involve approving the 13th and 14th amendments. The majority of Texas' leadership is willing to accept these terms, but a small and very vocal group are unwilling to yield to this.

[Peter the Lefty]

Crockett.

[Dr. Cynic]

Crockett/Lincoln... If for no other reason than the Union Party had a poor term and they've been dominating the Presidency for a long time.

[Zioneer]

Cmon, let's go for Smith! There's plenty of other opportunities to have a president Davy Crockett, but this is the last time Smith can be a candidate!

Plus he and Brigham Young would have to stand down from leadership of the LDS Church if successful. You could have some interesting side effects that way.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

The King of the Wild Frontier!

[Deus Naturae]

Adams, I suppose.

[PJ]

Crockett/Lincoln

[Enderman]

Crockett/Lincoln!

[Dancing with Myself]

Crockett/Lincoln

Such an epic ticket there.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Voting ends tonight, dawgs.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Well, Davy Crockett's been elected. bitches.

[Zioneer]

Sad. Oh well, maybe Brigham Young runs for president next? Or Lorenzo Snow?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The 1852 United States Presidential Election
With the Panic of 1851 still fresh on everyone's minds, and the nation's expansionists still unsatisfied, it was little wonder why the new party, promising "a new birth of freedom in the American West" and cheap land prices for the depressed nation would sweep to victory, winning the biggest popular vote majority since 1840, and reducing Adams' Union Party to a mere 30% in the polls. In Joseph Smith's final run for the presidency, he failed to take any state, though his strong showing in the North-West denied Crockett majorities in Illinois--Lincoln's home state--and Iowa. Nevertheless, the combined strength of the two "Western parties" gave Adams severely reduced totals throughout the Mid- and North-West. In the South, surprisingly, the popularity of the Whigs with veterans was able to overcome the Union Party's strength there, leaving Adams with only Florida out of several states that had once been seen as solidly for the incumbent party. Florida, as it were, was nevertheless thoroughly saturated with enough former slaves and soldiers so as to be the only remaining Southern state to deliver Adams a majority.

Former Congressman Davy Crockett (Whig-Tennessee)/Congressman Abraham Lincoln (Whig-Illinois) 263 electoral votes, 52.9% of the popular vote
President Charles Francis Adams (Union-Massachusetts)/Vice President Gerrit Smith (Union-New York) 25 electoral votes, 29.4% of the popular vote
Mayor Joseph Smith (Manifest-Illinois)/Congressman Brigham Young (Manifest-Iowa) 0 electoral votes, 17.6% of the popular vote