After nominating General Taylor for president in 1848, the Whigs have a hard
time deciding on a running mate. It has to be a northerner, but who?

Abbott Lawrence, Thomas Ewing, and the New York rivals William Seward and
Millard Fillmore are all considered but none can get a majority. Eventually,
the convention turns to a "dark horse"--retiring congressman Abraham Lincoln
of Illinois, a former Clay man who had backed Taylor. His longtime record as
a partisan Whig and his antiwar and antislavery positions will help mollify
northern Whigs upset at the nomination of a slaveholding general without a
clear Whig background. Yet he is no extremist--he voted appropriations for
the war he denounced Polk for starting, warned that the promulgation of
abolition doctrine "tends to increase rather than abate" the evils of
slavery, and said that while Congress had the power to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia, it should not exercise it except at the request of the
people of the District. Some southerners are still a bit concerned about him,
but Alexander Stephens reassures them on Lincoln's moderation. Still, some
southerners worry that as vice-president Lincoln could break a tie vote in
the Senate on the Wilmot Proviso. However, leading Taylor men assure the
South that if Taylor is elected the whole Proviso will be moot--slavery can't
really take root in the Southwest anyway, and Taylor will find some way of
getting the Southwest into the Union without the humiliating Proviso.

Taylor and Lincoln are elected, and Taylor dies on schedule in 1850...

--
David Tenner
dtenner@ameritech.net

On 6/6/22 1:07 PM, David Tenner wrote:
> After nominating General Taylor for president in 1848, the Whigs have a hard
> time deciding on a running mate. It has to be a northerner, but who?
>
> Abbott Lawrence, Thomas Ewing, and the New York rivals William Seward and
> Millard Fillmore are all considered but none can get a majority. Eventually,
> the convention turns to a "dark horse"--retiring congressman Abraham Lincoln
> of Illinois, a former Clay man who had backed Taylor.

Interesting idea - but Lincoln is only 39. Of course, only
eight years later, the Democrats nominated John Breckinridge,
who was only 36.

So maybe it is possible.

Presumably, Lincoln signs off on the Compromise of 1850, as
Fillmore did.

I don't know enough about what else happened during the Fillmore
administration to say what Lincoln would have done differently.

He might seek re-election, and might have a better chance than
Fillmore.

--
Nous sommes dans une pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdés.
--- General Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot at Sedan, 1870.

On Tue, 7 Jun 2022 00:19:00 -0500, Rich Rostrom <rrostrom@comcast.net>
wrote:

>On 6/6/22 1:07 PM, David Tenner wrote:
>> After nominating General Taylor for president in 1848, the Whigs have a hard
>> time deciding on a running mate. It has to be a northerner, but who?
>>
>> Abbott Lawrence, Thomas Ewing, and the New York rivals William Seward and
>> Millard Fillmore are all considered but none can get a majority. Eventually,
>> the convention turns to a "dark horse"--retiring congressman Abraham Lincoln
>> of Illinois, a former Clay man who had backed Taylor.
>
>Interesting idea - but Lincoln is only 39. Of course, only
>eight years later, the Democrats nominated John Breckinridge,
>who was only 36.
>
>So maybe it is possible.
>
>Presumably, Lincoln signs off on the Compromise of 1850, as
>Fillmore did.
>
>I don't know enough about what else happened during the Fillmore
>administration to say what Lincoln would have done differently.
>
>He might seek re-election, and might have a better chance than
>Fillmore.
>
I think it's a very interesting idea and agree with your guesses.