AH Vignette: Rotten-Oak George

As in Spoons Butler? I mean, i know there was another Ben Butler as well, but if not him, then mind = blown?

Before the Civil War Benjamin Butler was a Democrat, and pushed Jefferson Davis as their party's nominee in 1860. Then the secession winter happened and the War began and Butler went full blown radical Republican.
 

Japhy

Banned
Ah, the other xenophobic New York tycoon!

Like the ambiguity at the end, leaving us to wonder what is meant by "overtook".

Well-written, and a nice use of a neglected political figure (within the period).

Thank you, yes he's an interestingly forgotten fellow, but thats because his biggest impact IOTL was pretty much getting bought out by Vanderbilt. Didn't have much of a leg to stand on, very much a flash in the pan kind of guy. Which of course, makes him fantastic for AH.

And yeah "overtook" can go in quite a few ways on review. I mostly meant that far more so than any of IOTL Lincoln's predecessors, he's rather doomed to be be shat on by history, mostly because its well earned.

I liked it. The idea of a George Law presidency in 1856, and the assorted things that goes with it is a fun one. Free Soil Douglas, President Stockton, and etc.

I like these vignettes, I should read more of them.

I would definitely recommend reading more of them certainly. And yeah, I wanted to throw in a few things that were considered possible at the time but didn't happen. I've always thought Third Parties rather push things to get crazy.


As in Spoons Butler? I mean, i know there was another Ben Butler as well, but if not him, then mind = blown?

Yes, the Major General who the South accused of theft because getting rich on the illegal cotton trade was too problematic to bring up. He spent the entire 1860 Democratic Convention being the one delegate voting for Jeff Davis over dozens of ballots.

Before the Civil War Benjamin Butler was a Democrat, and pushed Jefferson Davis as their party's nominee in 1860. Then the secession winter happened and the War began and Butler went full blown radical Republican.

After blackmailing the state of Massachusetts into giving him command of the first troops rushing to Washington, least they not be able to secure the loans they needed to equip the militia. Marvelously interesting fellow.
 
I don't particularly frequent Before 1900 but a Japhy vignette is a Japhy vignette. I've always found tales of late stage pre-Civil War American politics to be both disturbing and entertaining and I'm not surprised that it's a setting for your style to thrive in. One thing I do find curious is the idea of anti-Catholicism as a unifying national force, I thought in this era it was something of a consensus anyway?
 

Japhy

Banned
I don't particularly frequent Before 1900 but a Japhy vignette is a Japhy vignette. I've always found tales of late stage pre-Civil War American politics to be both disturbing and entertaining and I'm not surprised that it's a setting for your style to thrive in. One thing I do find curious is the idea of anti-Catholicism as a unifying national force, I thought in this era it was something of a consensus anyway?

I'd be lying if I said I frequented Pre- much anymore myself but it seemed like a fun piece to write. Glad It was disturbing and entertaining.

It is rather surprising that the Know Nothings were able to enter the national stage in the late 1840's remain there up to the late 1850's but the thing is their Anti-Catholicism was both more fanatical --- most folks were Anti-Catholic but it wasn't a priority, it was with the "Native Americans" --- and served as a bit of a band aid to cover up the problems of slavery, slums and the complete lack of social reform. Add to that their proto-party was showing up just as the Whig party was collapsing and being replaced by an Anti-Slavery Party and they had a brief moment in the lead of up to 1856 to shine. Old Whigs, Middle Class Business-owners, the rural community and Southerners not keen on joining the Democrats all had a place to show up.

It wouldn't have been very good at unification Nationally, especially as immigration wasn't the big issue of the day and could never be, but I figure eight states in 1856 is the furthest they can do, I figured that by tossing them every state they were very close in in the South, which was pretty easy since they generally lagged by just a few thousand votes, and in the North gave them 1/3rd of the GOP vote in states where the GOP win was not dependent on the German vote, which is a hell of a lot, but you'll note it only swung two states, and the GOP was in its infancy anyway. Its enough to break the electoral college at least, which opens the door to someone more or less buying the race.

IOTL Fillmore was massively unpopular in 1856, and the middle class core of the Know-Nothing movement wasn't particularly keen on having a disgraced ex-Whig as their leader, much like how the Lib-Dems or NDP lost ground by offending their core base of support by going moderate, the same happened with these bigots. I figured their champion, tossing money around freely and buying up newspapers in a bid to purchase the White House probably invigorates that wing of the Party, instead of turning them into the dying Whigs/proto-Constiutional Unionists that they became.
 
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