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Part Twenty-Two: A Divided Union
Time for another update!
Part Twenty-Two: A Divided Union
Election of 1856:
With attacks directed toward Douglas late in his presidency over his age and his handling of the violence in Kearny Territory, the Democrats dumped Douglas and Davis from their ticket at the convention in Baltimore. After a month of deliberation, the Democrats went with an even more moderate position with their nomination of former Tejas governor Samuel Houston and senator James Bayard Jr. of Delaware. The moderate stance of the Democrats would help them much in the Upper South and the Mid-Atlantic states where the general opinion on slavery was still in flux.
By 1856, the Whigs had disappeared from the political scene and the remnants were now tasked with building new parties from the ashes. Out of these ashes, the former Whigs generally split into two camps; the northerners who were against slavery and the pro-slavery southerners. These two groups formed the Republican Party and the Liberty Party. The first Republican convention in Miami, Michigan, the first to be held outside the original thirteen colonies, ended with the nomination of New York senator William Seward and Ohio senator Samuel P. Chase. The Republicans were ardently against slavery and used the rising tide of abolitionism in the north to great effect. The Republicans also derided the Democrats' measures regarding the violence in Kearny and desired harsh measures in the territory to make sure that such violence was not repeated.
The Liberty Party[1], on the other hand, ran primarily on a platform of upholding slavery in the south and the preservation of states' rights, although some went further and advocated the expansion of slavery in the territories and to other countires in the Gulf and the Caribbean. At the convention, the Liberty Party nominated Joesph Brown of Georgia and Charles Magill Conrad of Louisiana. The party gained much of its support in the southern states, and gained popularity in Cuba and with immigrants from Mexico after the endorsement of Jackson governor Felipe Trájano de la Vega[2].
The campaign was a bitter affair with slavery now the main issue for most Americans. Ironically, both the Republican and the Liberty parties appealed to the American sense of freedom, with the Republicans talking about the freedom of man while the Liberty Party pushing the freedom of the states from the federal government. The Democrats advocated a central and moderate path, desiring to heal the sectionalism that had afflicted the nation in the last decade. Douglas and Davis, now disgraced, formed their own minor party in a hope to retain some supporters. After the votes were counted, Houston and the Democrats achieved a very narrow majority in the electoral college. Seward gained over twice as many electoral votes as Brown despite winning about the same number of states, showing the population difference between the north and the south. Douglas's party only managed to win the home states of the president and vice president, and the party withered shortly afterward.
Houston/Bayard: 158
Seward/Chase: 91
Brown/Conrad: 45
Douglas/Davis: 16
[1] Yes, there is a Liberty Party in OTL. No, this isn't them. And I'm not putting an asterisk every time they get mentioned.
[2] Another fictional person worth mentioning in the timeline.
Part Twenty-Two: A Divided Union
Election of 1856:
With attacks directed toward Douglas late in his presidency over his age and his handling of the violence in Kearny Territory, the Democrats dumped Douglas and Davis from their ticket at the convention in Baltimore. After a month of deliberation, the Democrats went with an even more moderate position with their nomination of former Tejas governor Samuel Houston and senator James Bayard Jr. of Delaware. The moderate stance of the Democrats would help them much in the Upper South and the Mid-Atlantic states where the general opinion on slavery was still in flux.
By 1856, the Whigs had disappeared from the political scene and the remnants were now tasked with building new parties from the ashes. Out of these ashes, the former Whigs generally split into two camps; the northerners who were against slavery and the pro-slavery southerners. These two groups formed the Republican Party and the Liberty Party. The first Republican convention in Miami, Michigan, the first to be held outside the original thirteen colonies, ended with the nomination of New York senator William Seward and Ohio senator Samuel P. Chase. The Republicans were ardently against slavery and used the rising tide of abolitionism in the north to great effect. The Republicans also derided the Democrats' measures regarding the violence in Kearny and desired harsh measures in the territory to make sure that such violence was not repeated.
The Liberty Party[1], on the other hand, ran primarily on a platform of upholding slavery in the south and the preservation of states' rights, although some went further and advocated the expansion of slavery in the territories and to other countires in the Gulf and the Caribbean. At the convention, the Liberty Party nominated Joesph Brown of Georgia and Charles Magill Conrad of Louisiana. The party gained much of its support in the southern states, and gained popularity in Cuba and with immigrants from Mexico after the endorsement of Jackson governor Felipe Trájano de la Vega[2].
The campaign was a bitter affair with slavery now the main issue for most Americans. Ironically, both the Republican and the Liberty parties appealed to the American sense of freedom, with the Republicans talking about the freedom of man while the Liberty Party pushing the freedom of the states from the federal government. The Democrats advocated a central and moderate path, desiring to heal the sectionalism that had afflicted the nation in the last decade. Douglas and Davis, now disgraced, formed their own minor party in a hope to retain some supporters. After the votes were counted, Houston and the Democrats achieved a very narrow majority in the electoral college. Seward gained over twice as many electoral votes as Brown despite winning about the same number of states, showing the population difference between the north and the south. Douglas's party only managed to win the home states of the president and vice president, and the party withered shortly afterward.
Houston/Bayard: 158
Seward/Chase: 91
Brown/Conrad: 45
Douglas/Davis: 16
[1] Yes, there is a Liberty Party in OTL. No, this isn't them. And I'm not putting an asterisk every time they get mentioned.
[2] Another fictional person worth mentioning in the timeline.
- wilcoxchar
- Word Count: 550