Presidents of the United States
1801-1809: Thomas Jefferson (Republican)
1800: (with Aaron Burr) def. John Adams/Charles C. Pinckney (Federalist)
1804: (with George Clinton) def. Charles C. Pinckney/Rufus King (Federalist)
1809-1817: James Madison (Republican)
1808: (with George Clinton) def. Charles C. Pinckney/Rufus King (Federalist)
1812: (with Elbridge Gerry) def. Charles C. Pinckney/Rufus King (Federalist)
In office, Madison broadly continued the policies of his predecessor. He continued Jeffersonian economic policy, and in this period the Federalists collapsed. The First Bank of the United States was allowed to lapse. While tensions with the United Kingdom proved worrying to some, with impressment and British alliances with the Shawnee in the Old West, ultimately nothing came of them. However, he was faced with much tensions - Spanish control over Louisiana and with it New Orleans led to Kentucky and Tennessee feeling semi-detached from the republic, and though the Wilkinson conspiracy was uncovered and halted, dissatisfaction continued. Nevertheless, Madison left office a general success.
1817-1825: James Monroe (Republican)
1816: (with Daniel D. Tompkin) def. Rufus King/John E. Howard (Federalist)
1820: (with Daniel D. Tompkin) def. DeWitt Clinton/John E. Howard (Federalist)
At first, Monroe continued to follow Republican doctrine, and he proved more of a rigid constructionist than Madison ever was. Republican dominance over the nation's politics continued - but that changed when, in 1820, over the Aroostook dispute in Maine, violence broke out and war seemed imminent. This sparked much resent in New England, deeply tied to the British economy, including discussion of secession among some Federalists. The 1820 election saw a slight Federalist revival, but afterwards tensions with Britain cooled and the Federalists in practice became a regional New England party. Monroe sought to unify the nation and end partisanship, and to many it was a goal he seemed to be successful in. But the 1824 election chaos proved this wrong.
1825-1829: William H. Crawford (Republican)
1824: (with Nathaniel Macon) def. John Quincy Adams/Samuel Smith (Republican), Smith Thompson/Samuel Smith (Republican), John C. Calhoun/Nathan Sanford (Republican)
In this election, the congressional nominating caucus failed to impose its selection of Crawford as the official Republican candidate, and instead state conventions nominated their own candidates. The resulting chaos ended up with a hung Electoral College, and in the ensuing contingent election Crawford got elected by the House as President. This controversy would result in the Thirteenth Amendment, which amended the presidential election process so that the president was elected by "presidential districts" carved out by each state, the electors were abolished entirely, and both the president and vice president were simply elected by a joint session of Congress.
Crawford's tenure was immediately met with tensions; not only did British impressment return with its war with France in this period, but more pertinently Spain closed New Orleans to American access. With Secretary of State Henry Clay a firm expansionist, this came to be regarded as a reason for war, and Clay successfully got a resolution of war through Congress. American troops swiftly crossed the Mississippi and took over Saint Louis from Spanish forces. An attempt at a more southern approach to New Orleans at first succeeded, but Spanish ships took it back; the United States lacked the fleet to combat this. A Spanish bombardment of Charleston scared many, even if an attempt at landing troops failed. But nevertheless, a great number of towns in Luisiana were taken over by American troops, even if the Spanish remained firm in the lower region. An American charge into the Floridas proved a great deal more successful, Spanish control always being more tenous. This war proved to be a victory, even if more hard-fought than expected; in the peace settlement, Spanish negotiators attempted to keep Lower Luisiana, while American negotiators attempted to get a Rio Grande border for Luisiana; these efforts were met in compromise when the Sabine was agreed to be the border between American Luisana and Spanish Texas.
This election also changed the party. The flaws of the Jeffersonian system were exposed with the war, and Secretary of State Henry Clay in particular changed from being a strict constructionist to a supporter of a restored Bank of the United States, internal improvements, and a tarriff. A stroke in 1828 meant Crawford ruled out a second term; this left its result for grabs.
1829-1837: Henry Clay (Republican, then Reform)
1828 (with John Sergeant) def. John C. Calhoun/Nathan Sanford (Republican), Thomas Hart Benton/Philip P. Barbour (Republican)
1832 (with John Sergeant) def. Thomas Hart Benton/Francis Granger (Old Republican), Solomon Southwick/William Jackson (Anti-Catholic), John C. Calhoun/None (Nullifier)
Winning on his successful record prosecuting a war as Secretary of State, Clay also had support from Federalist remnants for his newly nationalist agenda. His tenure saw much industrial growth as the Market Revolution and the full benefits of Mississippi access were achieved. Clay made Orleans, known to the Spanish as Lower Luisiana, a state with a striking guarantee of Catholic rights. Furthermore, in 1830, with Britain ruled by a newly revolutionary regime, Clay launched into negotiations with it, and in a convention successfully set the border between the United States and British North America west of the Lake of the Woods at the 49th Parallel, and the border between Maine and Nova Scotia to include the entire Aroostook region. He wrapped up his supporters as the "Reform Party", and successfully restored the Bank of the United States. He also established a quite high tariff, which South Carolina was quick to attempt to nullify. He also attempted to attract Irish voters, who came as refugees following the famine of the 1820s, but this effort failed. The 1832 election saw Henry Clay win over an opposition consisting of Martin Van Buren's unification of anti-Clayite interests, the Anti-Catholic Party that emerged as nativist backlash, and a Nullifier Party. South Carolinian interests were mollified when Clay got passed a less high tariff.
In the wake of this election, Henry Clay sought to unify with the Anti-Catholic Party. He sought to redirect Irish immigrants to Orleans to blunt the impact of their immigration and Anglify the state, but in the long term they turned French and Spanish. In practice this process did succeed, and the Anti-Catholics did merge with the Reformers. Clay's tenure proved successful. But then, in 1836, during the routine admission of Missouri as a state, an antislavery congressman added a rider requiring it manumit its slaves; it passed the House amidst controversy, but died in the Senate. This controversy ultimately forced Clay himself to speak on the issue. Though he was anti-slavery, he was a slaveowner and a Southerner, a fact which was already clear when he looked the other way when he looked the other way at the South illegally exporting slaves to Portuguese Brazil. And this came here as well. He asserted the "inviolability of this species of property", spoke of the contendedness and "convenience" of slaves in Kentucky, favourably compared the "black slaves" of the south with the "white slaves" of the north, and asked gentlemen if they would "set their wives and daughters to brush their boots and shoes, and subject them to the menial offices of the family". It proved alienating to the North, and it resulted in the Reform party convention being ill-attended; instead northern states agreed on their own presidential slate.
1837-1841: Zebulon Pike (Old Republican, then Patriot)
1836: (with Martin Van Buren) def. John Quincy Adams/Richard Rush (Northern Reform), Willie Person Mangum/Richard M. Johnson (Southern Reform)
The Old Republicans, later known as the Patriots, were a party formed out of the opposition to Henry Clay, and it was formed ultimately thanks to Martin Van Buren's great skills as a party leader. Finding Zebulon Pike, a hero of exploration and of war, Van Buren ensured that he would be the leader of this new party, intended to oppose Clay's "neo-Federalism". It proved successful amid the Reform split and Pike's popularity. But first of all, it needed to resolve the Missouri issue. Henry Clay, having returned to Congress, proved far more conciliatory and he proposed a compromise according to which Missouri would be made a free state in exchange for slavery in Arkansaw Territory being assured upon its statehood, as well as a stronger Fugitive Slave Law. Pike also immediately became controversial when he proposed removing Indians east of the Mississippi, in contrast to Clay's support of letting them be killed by settlers. To prevent Southern interests from being irked further, he also ensured they'd be expelled in the north of the remaining Luisiana Territory rather than in the area adjacent to Arkansaw. This proved very controversial, and very brutal towards the indigenous peoples themselves, but he got this act passed.
However, Pike proved less successful when it came to the Bank of the United States. He failed to get reforms of it past Congress, and when an economic panic hit, caused by overspeculation in the new western territories, bad relations with the Bank of the United States were pointed to as a cause. Pike was defeated in the next election, but nevertheless he remained a very well-respected man for his career prior to his presidency.
1841-1849: Daniel Webster (Reform)
1840: (with John Bell) def. Zebulon Pike/Martin Van Buren (Patriot)
1844: (with John Bell) def. John Tyler/George M. Dallas (Patriot)
In power, Webster restored Clay's economic policies to their full extent. He focused on foreign policy far more in practice during his tenure. He attempted to buy San Francisco, but Spain rebuffed this offer quite harshly, believing it would be the first step towards an American conquest of their empire. But still wanting a Pacific port, he instead moved on to Britain, attempting to get a piece of the Columbia region despite the Southern interest wanting no part in this. Furthermore, the United States had little claim, of discovery or otherwise, over the region. But after much skillful negotiation, Webster got Britain to agree to giving the United States a perpetual lease over the Olympic Peninsula in return for a payment; Webster nevertheless hoped to bring the rest of Columbia under American rule through migration, to that end helping carve out a trail to the Rockies. This immediately boosted American commerce in the Pacific. It is generally considered a success.
In his second term, however, the southern slaver interest sought its own expansion. It organized a filibuster attempt in Cuba, which included support from some American troops volunteering, with the alleged aim of stopping a race war. But this filibuster failed. Webster had those who participated prosecuted, which proved controversial among those southerners who supported it. But other Southerners viewed Spain as fellow slaveowners and thus a natural ally, and they found new reasons to align themselves with the Reform Party as a result. It helped ensure a Reform victory in 1848.
1849-1853: John J. Crittenden (Reform)
1848: (with Rufus Choate) def. Levi Woodbury/John A. Quitman (Patriot)
Crittenden's term was mired by a large corruption scandal related to the Bank of the United States, and though he immediately attempted to fix the issue, many alleged the issue was fundamentally deeper. It crashed his popularity, as well as the Bank of the United States more generally; furthermore, a sudden influx of gold from the California Gold Rush occurring in the Viceroyalty of New Spain after 1851, made the Bank of the United States look a lot less necessary. The boom this gold influx caused was one which the Reformers received little credit for. It all resulted in a defeat to a popular Navy man.
1853-1861: Robert F. Stockton (Patriot)
1852: (with Thomas Jefferson Rusk) def. John J. Crittenden/Rufus Choate (Reform)
1856: (with Thomas Jefferson Rush) def. John McLean/Millard Fillmore (Reform)
Stockton was already a well-known name. He fought in the Luisana War in a hopelessly outmatched navy, and later he fought against slavers in Liberia in accord to his very moderate antislavery principles. He was also a member of the fiercely expansionist Young America movement. In power, he reformed and de-emphasized the Bank of the United States in accord with Patriot principles, which the gold influx from California made much more viable, while at the same time backing internal improvements and helping to create a railroad boom that he himself was invested in. American ships in this period went around the world, all the while Stockton talked a big game about international revolution, including sending a fleet to Buenos Aires to prevent Spain from reconquering it during the Third Platinean War of Independence. He also sought expansion, in accord with elements of the slave interest despite his separate goal of American prestige; to that end, after an American ship was seized in Galveztown by Spanish authorities, Stockton ignited an outrage and successfully had the Neutrality Act repealed to allow filibusters, in practice often consisting volunteers from the American army, to be done legally. Filibuster attempts failed in Spanish Texas when the semi-Hispanicized Irish population dominant there refused to participate, while in Cuba the disarray they caused resulted in slave revolts. The South immediately backtracked, especially after Stockton alleged it could be used to stop the trans-Caribbean slave trade. After some discussions, Spain agreed to giving US some basic basing rights, which Stockton treated as a grand victory. But Stockton nevertheless won in 1856 by his party portraying his opponent as a "radical abolitionist".
In his second term, however, the railway boom crashed as it became clear many railway companies with booming prices were unprofitable, and this caused an economic panic. At the same time, Stockton's investments did well, leading to many dirty accusations. Furthermore, Illinois banning slavery in 1858 resulted in the South becoming increasingly disgruntled at Stockton's belief in eventual abolition of slavery. This caused the Patriots to lose in 1860, even if the result was closer than many expected.
1861-1865: Edward Bates (Reform)
1860: (with Henry Gardner) def. James Guthrie/Daniel S. Dickinson (Patriot)
Perhaps Bates was elected less for what he was than what he was not. He was not a Patriot in a time of economic freefall. It was less a mandate than it was a vote against the other party. Despite his party losing cohesion due to Stockton's adoption of some of their policies, Bates nevertheless passed policies. He ended the suspension of the Neutrality Act and opposed further filibuster attempts. Despite being a slaveowner, he was also something of an antislavery man, beyond just the extent of Clay, and his party, already facing weak cohesion, bickered and bickered as a result. Bates found it hard to manage. With the prior death of Clay, the Reform Party lost their erstwhile leader, this weakened cohesion yet further, and Bates did little of note.
However, in 1864, the Internal Provinces of New Spain, that is Texas, New Mexico, the Californias, and the Sierra Madre, declared their independence from Spain as "Buenaventura"; it also banned slavery, as a result of slavery in the region primarily being the purview of regime-aligned people. This included attacks on the plantations of East Texas, in many ways an extension of Cuban plantations. Bates nevertheless declared his support for Buenaventura, horrifying many in his party who viewed it as an attack on slavery. The Reform Party refused to give Bates the nomination in the next election; though he accepted this, much of his party did not, and the damage was done.
1865-1869: Joseph Lane (Patriot)
1864: (with Andrew Johnson) def. Richard Taylor/Robert C. Winthrop (Reform), William H. Seward/Salmon P. Chase ("Free Soil"/"Republican"/"Justice"/"People's")
Winning against vote-splitting between the Reform Party and the hastily formed alliance between Reform splitters and existing antislavery elements, the doughface Lane immediately declared neutrality in the Buenaventuro War of Independence and revoked. Despite it, American volunteers from the North joined up with the "Comunero" rebels in considerable numbers, making the Buenaventura issue controversial within the halls of Congress itself, and Lane was accused of being an agent of the Slave Power. With the South horrified by Buenaventura fighting a war against slavery itself, it sought to prevent any American aid whatsoever, and to that end Lane prosecuted American volunteers harshly for violating the Neutrality Act despite not treating southern aid for Spain with any of the same attention; juries often nullified such trials. The South, immediately worried at slavery's potential defeat, sought to expand it within American borders. East Florida and Cimarron were admitted as states despite clearly fradulent referenda that included many non-resident voters. Furthermore, the Kansas Territory was opened to slave settlement, and after a court case, slaves were allowed "free transit" across states, to allow slaveholders to cross Missouri. It was all massively controversial and furthered the organization of antislavery elements. After Buenaventura won its independence, Lane harshly criticized it as a rebel regime, to the anger of the North, and Kansas became the sight of mass violence as veterans of the Buenaventura conflict sought to settle there and shot their guns once more. It was all too much, and it made Lane the epitome of the doughface. It led to a decisive Patriot defeat in 1868. Many feared for the sparks flying. And on February 10, 1868, they did.
1869-1869: Andrew Johnson (Patriot)
(with None)
1869-1877: Henry Winter Davis (Justice)
1868: (with Benjamin Wade) def. William M. Gwin/Jefferson Davis (Patriot), Emerson Etheridge/Thomas Ewing (Unionist)
Note: After a mob occupied the capitol, a rump Congress convened on February 10, 1868, decertified the results of the 1868 election, and in a "contingent election" declared Gwim as president
When Justicialists won the election, many southerners declared the result illegitimate, pointing to violence associated with it, and they plotted secession or coups. Lane himself cast doubt on the election, and he talked with southern Fire-Breathers, for he agreed with the Southern cause. South Carolina hastily declared its secession from the United States, all the while the southern-dominated outgoing administration all but sympathized with them. On February 10, 1869, Southerners interrupted the counting of the electoral vote, and under their guard Southerners and Lane-style doughfaces met. Getting around the constitutional quorum requirement by creatively interpreting Article I Section V to allow them to expel nonattending congressmen, they invited South Carolina back into the union. Finding the certificates for the election mysteriously misplaced, they threw out the results of the election entirely, and in a contingent election declared William Gwin the next president of the United States.
In the North many called about fraud and unconstitutionality, and the real victor of the election, Henry Winter Davis, convened the rest of Congress in Philadelphia a week later. Here, meeting all constitutional quorum requirements they certified Davis as the legitimate winner, and also impeached Lane from office, allowing his fiercely constitutionalist vice president to take power for less than a month. Under Johnson, the first few battles were fought, preventing raids from Kentucky into the Midwest. And on March 4, in Philadelphia, Henry Winter Davis became president.
Henry Winter Davis was an unusual choice for the leader of an antislavery party. He was a Marylander, and though he hated slavery, it was only in the Henry Clay sense, and he often spoke ill of "rabid abolitionists". But he did support recognition of Buenaventura and trumpeted their struggle as like America's own, along with opposition to the Kansas Act and the statehoods of Cimarron and East Florida. His nomination was a moderate measure. But that did not keep the South from seeing blood, and after he won a long and complicated campaign, they nevertheless attempted to abrogate his election. The ensuing American Civil War proved to be long and tough. And though he began an extremely moderate-minded man, the Civil War very quickly radicalized him, surprising everyone.