Winfield Scott of Indiana.
The Second Grand Council of the Confederation of North America was elected to a five-year term in February 1848. Sobel does not mention the partisan makeup of the Second Grand Council or even make any mention at all of the 1848 elections, but presumably the Unified Liberal Party maintained its majority. Incumbent members of the First Grand Council who were re-elected included former Cabinet member Bruce Harrison of the Unified Liberals and William Johnson of the National Conservative Party.
The Second Grand Council's Unified Liberal majority elected General Winfield Scott of Indiana to a second term as Governor-General. It is not known who was chosen as Majority Leader, but Willie Lloyd of the Southern Confederation was chosen by the National Conservatives as Minority Leader. Scott's Cabinet included Henry Gilpin of Pennsylvania as Minister of War.
The Rocky Mountain War between the C.N.A. and the United States of Mexico continued throughout the Second Grand Council's term of office. In the course of the first year of the term a North American army suffered defeat in Mexico del Norte, and a second army was dislodged from its foothold in the Mexican port of Tampico. Gilpin became dissatisfied with Scott's prosecution of the war, and in April 1849 he publicly accused Scott of incompetence and a lack of dedication to the troops. Lloyd, seeing an opportunity to bring down Scott's government, called for a vote of no confidence. Gilpin's followers in the U.L.P. joined them, and Scott lost the vote.
Henry Gilpin of Pennsylvania.
Scott refused to dissolve the Grand Council and call new elections; instead, he spent three weeks attempting to form a coalition government with the N.C.P. Lloyd refused Scott's overtures, and Scott finally resigned on 14 May after the Unified Liberals voted to expel him from the party. Lloyd's hopes for new elections were dashed when Gilpin managed to persuade a pro-war faction of the N.C.P. to support his own bid for governor-general. The next day, Gilpin received a vote of confidence by a narrow 78 - 72 majority.
Once he was in control of the government, Gilpin launched a new offensive, sending a North American army under General David Homer west from Vandalia in an effort to seize control of the capital of California, San Francisco. Homer's campaign failed, and ultimately led to the disastrous Battle of Williams Pass, in which two North American armies were decimated along with two Mexican armies.
Newly-elected Mexican President Hector Niles offered in September 1850 to negotiate a peace settlement, which Gilpin rejected. Instead, Gilpin launched a new series of offensives, all of which failed. By the end of 1852, Gilpin had lost control of the U.L.P. caucus in the Grand Council, which chose Harrison to lead the party in the 1853 Grand Council elections. Harrison led the Liberals to defeat, and Gilpin retired from public life at the end of the Second Grand Council's term.
| C.N.A. Grand Councils |
|---|
| First • Second • Third • Fourth • Fifth • Sixth • Seventh • Eighth • Ninth • Tenth • Eleventh • Twelfth • Thirteenth • Fourteenth • Fifteenth • Sixteenth • Seventeenth • Eighteenth • Nineteenth • Twentieth • Twenty-first • Twenty-second • Twenty-third • Twenty-fourth • Twenty-fifth • Twenty-sixth |