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Thanks to the US having gone over at some point to choosing Presidential Electors in single-member districts, no candidate gains a majority in 1860. The Senate promptly chooses Joseph Lane for VP. The House takes several ballots, but eventually all the slave states line up behind Breckinridge, and plus a couple of free ones he secures a narrow majority. They are both duly sworn in on March 4.

What happens next? He is supposed to bring in a Slave Code for all the Territories, but that's even more of a no-hoper than Radical Reconstruction will be. In Kansas, the pro-slavery cause is lost beyond recall. Does he just keep it a Territory, or grudgingly admit it, perhaps paired with New Mexico as a Slave State?

Are any other new states likely? Iirc there was a move to make Southern California a separate state, but the Civil War aborted it. Could it now go ahead?

One thing he will get to do is appoint the next Chief Justice, and at least one Associate Justice. Who might Taney's successor be? Caleb Cushing? Reverdy Johnson? Judah P Benjamin? And will a Tenth Seat still be created, or was that a purely Republican idea?

And can he win again in 1864, or will the Republicans be able to carry an extra dozen or so Districts, and unseat him?

Thoughts?
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