Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes IV (Do not post Current Politics Here)
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Why are you people not appreciating my effort!
Has anyone said they don't?
Maybe subconsciously, because I couldn't name who he was until looking him up.
My apologies for this being so long. It started as a simple list of Presidents, but i wanted to give faces to the names, then maps to the faces. I’m not entirely sure how plausible the POD is, so I did my best to make it seem at least kind of plausible. Well, here it is:
The death of United States Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall in a carriage accident on September 21, 1919 was a sad loss for the country. However, it was the tragic events that unfolded over the course of the next few weeks that had a truly major effect on the United States of America and ultimately the world. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was always a hard-working individual, often foregoing exercise and relaxation in favor of hard work, despite orders from doctors and hints from his own body to calm down. Wilson did not heed the warnings. Beginning on September 25, the very day after Marshall’s body had been laid to rest back in Indiana, Wilson’s health began to decline after a speaking engagement in Pueblo Colorado in the form of severe headache and twitching face muscles. Signs that not everything was all right soon followed with nausea, intestinal pains, and a looseness on the left side of his mouth – a possible sign of a mini-stroke. Then, on October 2, President Wilson suffered a paralytic stroke – he was now partially blind in the left eye and had limited mobility in his left leg and left arm. First Lady Edith Wilson immediately became protective of her husband, and attempted to limit his amount of contact with staff, members of congress, and even the Cabinet and the public. However, on December 5, President Wilson collapsed during a perfunctory meeting with Senator Gilbert Hitchcock, prompting Edith to quickly return him to the White House for some rest. The incident sparked unwanted attention from the press, and by Christmas Morning, news that the President had suffered a massive, crippling stroke had reached a majority of American ears and eyes.
Another development occurred on December 28, when a White House staff member told First Lady Edith that she had overheard Secretary of State Robert Lansing suggest to a US Senator that President Wilson should resign. With Marshall dead, and thus the Vice-Presidency vacant, this would propel Lansing to the Presidency. Edith was outraged by the betrayal, and she demanded he resigned. He initially refused, stating that she was in no position to give such an order. However, President Wilson personally gave him the exact same letter of resignation to sign just a few hours later, after Edith had reportedly conversed with her husband on the matter. Lansing complied, and left in January 1920.
President Wilson was impressed by how quickly and well his wife had handled the situation, and from that moment on allowed her to sit in on cabinet and US Senate meetings. This allowance was immediately opposed by some members of his cabinet, and the Secretary of the Treasury almost resigned over it. However, Edith famously remarked, “Senators have a long history of bringing their dogs in with them to sit beside them while at their Senate seats. Am I to be denied the same privilege a dog has?” President Wilson, still relying on his darling wife’s assistance throughout his physical ailments, encouraged her to give her own opinion on issues as well as support his own; this allowed her to speak on his behalf so he could rest himself, and allowed her to become more knowledgeable on how the branches of the government worked. Still frail, President Wilson also urged his wife to become much more involved publicly in keeping the country going, as he cared more about the well-being of the country than keeping his condition a secret. To this effect, on February 1, President Wilson announced the First Lady to be the official spokesperson for the President, and she immediately began meeting with members of the press, much to their outrage and bewilderment.
Things came to a head once more when First Lady Edith was photographed sitting between her husband and a confused-looking British Prime Minister David Lloyd George at a diplomatic meeting on February 23, 1920. Over outcries by both Republicans and Democrats that the First Lady was abusing her title, in that she was in no position to legally be an advisor to the President, President Woodrow Wilson, outraged at their “insolent attacks” on his wife, issued an executive order that created a new official cabinet-level position: Head Assistant Attorney General. Being sworn in on March 7, 1920, Edith Wilson took up the charge of trying to get the US into the League of Nations from this new office, travelling across the country by train (the President often with her, resting in a bed or propped up in a chair) to make speeches and meet with numerous women’s clubs for “tea and talk” sessions. This led to an unprecedented amount of attention on the US’s First Lady, and her activities. While divisive in content, some Democrats and pro-Democrat organizations applauded her “activism” for its “stunning and graceful execution.” Edith described the public experience in her memoirs in 1938: “So began my public stewardship, I studied every paper, sent from the different Secretaries or Senators or Ambassadors or publishers or Governors. I did my best to digest, understand and present in tabloid form the things that I had to tell the press and thus the nation, and the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to my new boss, the President, my husband. …I alone was charged with heading the disposition of public affairs, and it was important for me to decide which matters were worthy of presentation to my husband.”
It was the awareness of these activities that led to Edith Wilson continuing her engagement in politics after leaving the White House in March 1921. Immensely impressed by her popularity among certain members of their state’s populace, and the unprecedented level of political involvement for a First Lady, several Democratic Party bosses in Virginia, hoping to woo in the Suffragette vote (as women were finally given the right to vote in 1920), asked Edith in January 1921 to run for Governor of Virginia later that year. Her husband strongly encouraged her to run, telling her “after all I’ve done this year, serving as Governor will be a simple walk in the park for you, Edith.”
Edith Wilson made history by becoming America’s first female governor. Edith and her husband soon moved in to the Governor’s mansion, where the Wilsons continued to rely on each other in order to successfully navigate the cutthroat waters of politics. But Edith did not stop trailblazing there in Richmond.
By 1924, the Presidency of Warren Gamaliel Harding had become increasingly unpopular due to numerous scandals, most notably the Teapot Dome Scandal, and the Democrats believed that Harding would face heavy opposition at the Republican convention, if not in that year’s general election. Some members of the Virginia Democratic Party, meanwhile, impressed by the success of Edith Wilson’s governorship (advancing former Governor Westmoreland “Morley” Davis’s reforms and modernizing several aspects of the state, along with continuing the state’s economic growth), put her name on the ballot in two primary states. However, this was done mainly as a way of testing the electability on “a woman candidate on a more national level for the sake of political curiosity,” as one psephologist puts it. Furthermore, despite Wilson ultimately winning 7.1% of the total primaries’ votes, the actual nominee was always determined at the convention in the summer back then. One of the earlier and more serious supporters of the originally-small draft movement of “Edith for President” joked confidently that “Harding is so hated the Democrats could nominate a wooden spoon and still win!” Woodrow Wilson immediately supported the movement; Edith, meanwhile, thought lightly on the subject, reportedly stating “I do not believe that America will have a female President until at least 50 years from now” on April 7, 1924. Woodrow, however, counter-argued that women had already become mayors, judges, and had even been elected to Congress (Jeanette Rankin, Alice Robertson, Winnifred Huck, and Mae Nolan were all women whom had already been elected or appointed to the House of Representatives at this time). A short time later, on May 28, 1924, William McAdoo, an in-law to President Wilson and former cabinet member under Wilson, announced he would not run for the nomination for President in the summer.
Ultimately, the Democratic Convention came down to Governor Edith Wilson, anti-KKK US Senator Oscar Underwood, Catholic New York Governor Al Smith, and several “favorite son” candidates. Wilson and McAdoo urged Edith to publicly announce her run, which she did right after voting deadlocked on the fifteenth ballot. By promising to pick Underwood to be her Secretary of State, Edith was able to narrowly win the nomination over Al Smith on the 95th ballot. Many conservatives were outraged and some reportedly even contemplated a walkout. However, not only did Wilson’s supporters deliver a fiscally conservative platform in their speeches that wooed some Southern Democrats to her side, but no Southern Democrat opted to lead a third-party ticket, either, fearing it could lead to a Republican victory. The D.N.C. selected U.S. Senator Royal S. Copeland over former Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels (Woodrow Wilson’s preferred choice) and Governor Charles W. Bryan (the preferred choice of the liberal faction of the party) to be her running mate, hoping Copeland would win over his home state of New York in November. Meanwhile, Harding successfully (though narrowly) won re-nomination over his own Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge, and former Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois. Harding then picked US Senator Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin to be his new running mate.
Outraged by the lack of a liberal candidates in the race, U.S. Senator Robert La Follette Sr. of Wisconsin ran on a third-party ticket, which many democrats feared would lure in Democrats reluctant to vote for a female, and thus take away crucial votes from Edith Wilson. During the fall campaign, the Democrats heavily insinuated to male voters that former President Wilson would be the real one in charge at the White House, and that his health was now much better than it was publicly known for being in 1920, despite little evidence to back up this claim. Harding maintained a slight lead in polls taken weeks before the election, and the Wilsons actively campaigned across the country via train in response. In early October, however, 83 of Harding’s love letters to his mistress Carrie Phillips (all written on White house stationary, no less) were published in several newspapers across the country. The scandal sunk Harding’s approval ratings, but did not increase Edith Wilson’s; instead, it improved the polling of La Follette. One La Follette banner famously read, “Won’t vote for a woman? Won’t vote for a Womanizer? Then vote for a Wisconsinite!”
On November 4, Edith Wilson narrowly lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote; as expected, La Follette’s support mainly came from voters disgruntled with the corrupt Republican and female Democratic candidates. Copeland barely managed to win New York, thus keeping the election from going to the House. Immediately, riots, started by people whom not only refused to let a woman be their President, but also a woman whom had lost the popular vote, sprouted up in vehemently anti-Edith parts of the country. In December, three electors attempted to vote for someone other than Wilson, but were replaced before the final vote counts.
In a matter of great misfortune, the Curse of Tippecanoe struck down President Harding before he could leave office. Harding collapsed at the White House and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 5, 1924. Calvin Coolidge, whom would have left the office of the Vice-Presidency in 1925 even if Harding had won re-election, ironically became President for the next three months. Scholars note that, despite serving for a longer period of time than William Henry Harrison, President Coolidge, a "lame duck" President, actually did less while in office than Harrison.
As suffragettes celebrated the incoming 31st President in earnest, others hoped that former President Wilson would be the real person in charge. Those hopes were shockingly lost for them when, on December 27, just one day before his 68th birthday, former President Woodrow Wilson died from the long-lasting effects of the 1919 stroke. Edith was shocked. Wilson’s widow, despite still being in mourning, entered the office of the U.S. Presidency on March 4, becoming America’s first-ever female President. She had just lost her husband and was uncertain of how to go forward. However, she had the support of several key political figures, personal friends (such as Cary T. Grayson, physician and longtime friend of her husband), and her loving family (mainly stepson-in-law William McAdoo, and stepdaughters Margaret, Jessie and Eleanor). While some Republicans secretly hoped that President Edith Wilson would eventually resign to mourn the passing of her husband, Democrats close to her truly believed that things were going to be all right.
President Edith Wilson immediately strived to “make [her] husband proud.” To keep herself from being upset, she kept herself busy by packing her schedules with meetings and often taking tours across the states on train, though remembered not to overextend herself, lest she fall to the same fate as did her husband. A major early foreign policy success was fulfilling her husband’s ambition of getting the U.S. to join the League of Nations, which she accomplished in early 1926 after much campaigning for it for much of 1925. Another foreign policy accomplishment came in 1928 in the form of the Underwood-Briand Pact of 1928. Ratified in 1929, the pact committed signatories, countries both in and out of the League of Nations, to “renounce war and strive for peaceful alternatives to war,” which, while not actually eliminating war, did become an essential part of international law many years later.
President Edith Wilson focused mainly, though, on domestic affairs. While President, she supported the same things she supported while Governor: regulating wages and hours for both urban and rural workers, strongly opposing child labor, and supporting more safety measures in factories and even worker representation on corporate boards. However, she was unpopular among the upper class and D.C. establishment for openly discussing such issues as, in the 1920s, those were considered to be statewide and local responsibilities only. Republicans repeatedly tried to brand her as a tyrannical ruler, imposing federal bureaucracy onto small business. Her critics derogatorily called her “Queen Edith” at times as well. However, Edith was praised for her swift and immediate response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1926-1927, personally visiting the sight of much damage in Louisiana in April 1927. Upon returning to D.C., she publicly called for a federal commission to be in charge of flood mitigation; the Federal Erosion of Waterways Commission (the FEWC) was founded in January 1928. She also won the support of farmers with the passing of the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Act in late 1927. It created the Federal Farm Board, which purchases surplus production in high-yield years and holds it when feasible for later sale or sells it abroad. Upon signing it, Edith famously remarked, “Farmers never have made much money, but I believe that we here can at the least do something about that.”
By late 1927, Edith was still popular among female voters but only slightly popular among male voters and very unpopular among some part of the DC elite. Despite personally believing that she would be denied the nomination at the next summer’s convention, she was convinced by her many supporters to enter her name into consideration anyway. Many Democrats whom opposed Edith Wilson’s policies, along with those of her husband, were called Anti-Wilsonian Democrats. At the 1928 Democratic National Convention held in Texas in June, many Anti-Wilsonian party bosses supported fellow Anti-Wilsonian Al Smith for President; one of them famously shouted “better a Catholic President than a woman President!” However, with the Anti-Wilsonian votes being divided among Smith, US Senator James Reed of Missouri, former US Senator Atlee Pomerene of Ohio, and US Senator Walter F. George of Georgia, President Wilson was able to secure the nomination on the 11th ballot. Anti-Wilsonian Democrats were outraged even further, tough, when she decided to keep Copeland on as her running mate, instead of picking an Anti-Wilsonian to unify the party. This outrage eventually led to a walk-out of Anti-Wilsonian Democrats, whom formed an independent ticket for the Presidential race, comprising of Al Smith for President and US Congressman Charles Gordon Edwards of Georgia for Vice-President.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party was determined to return to power. Former President Calvin Coolidge, to the surprise of many, declined to run for another term, citing the 1926 death of his father and his youngest child being bedridden with a serious illness (which he eventually overcame) as being the reasons. In his announcement in March 1928, he commented, “I do not wish to be another Grover Cleveland. I have spent time as President, and while it is an honor to serve in that position I do not wish to go through the experience again.” Without Coolidge, party bosses searched for a candidate without any connection to the scandalous Warren Harding administration; as a result, former Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover was disregarded by most. The Convention ultimately deadlocked between Frank Lowden, the establishment favorite; US Senator Charles Curtis, whom received the most number of votes in the primaries; US Senator Hiram Johnson, the favorite of the progressive wing of the party; and several favorite son candidates, including Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot, US Senator Walter Evans Edge, former Secretary Herbert Hoover, and US Senator William Borah. With no faction willing to withdraw their candidate, House minority leader (since 1927) and former House Speaker (1925-1927) Nicholas “Nick” Longworth III was offered up as a compromise candidate on the 86th ballot. The deadlock was broken, and House Speaker Longworth was successfully drafted into being the nominee, on the record-breaking 110th ballot. Longworth, a man from the crucial swing state of Ohio, chose Governor-turned-US Senator Walter Evans Edge of New Jersey to be his running mate, as they had gotten along well at the Convention.
In November – due to the good economy and worker conditions, her successful response to the Great Mississippi Floods, and rising accusations of numerous scandalous events concerning Walter Edge – Edith Wilson popular enough with the public to ensure a second term, much to the surprise of many (including Edith herself). Nevertheless, there were accusations of voter fraud in New Jersey, which voted for Longworth/Edge by a .5% margin.
President Wilson began her second term with increasing approval ratings. However, a short time in, cracks began to appear in the nation’s economy. Banks were operating without guarantees to their customers. The middle and lower classes were purchasing appliances on installment plans. The top one percent owned more than thirty percent of all American assets. The situation lead to a small stock market panic in late September of 1929, causing a minor recession. Edith and her allies in the Senate responded by calling for more regulations on the banks and an increase in international trade in order to bring in money from abroad and keep people employed. However, the unchecked and reckless purchases of stock over the years soon led to the Stock Market Crash of January 29, 1930 – also known as Black Wednesday. Wilson, through her connections to Great Britain that she had made all the way back in 1920, got her Secretary of Commerce to hire prominent British economist John Maynard Keynes to help the US better handle the situation. However, the economy continued to slip until the banks officially called it a Depression in March 1930. The era retroactively called Great Depression had begun.
In April 1930, President Edith Wilson called upon the state governments to begin infrastructure projects to help keep unemployment levels down. Wilson’s attempts to mitigate the economic crisis were only moderately effective. Statewide, some Governors complied early and went through the Great Depression relatively unharmed. For instance, Governor Franklin Roosevelt of New York, in office since 1929, began major urban and rural development programs. He worked closely with former Governor Al Smith (whom had since become President of the Empire State, Inc. corporation) to construct the Empire State Building (1930-1931), the Thomas Jefferson Bridge (1931-1933), the Oneida Lake Dam (1932-1936), and other major construction projects. In Louisiana, Governor Huey Long’s “Debt Moratorium Act” prevented foreclosures by giving people extra time to pay creditors and reclaim property without having to pay back-taxes; his personal regulation of the banks allowed for very few banks to fail in his state, even if his critics saw it as a usurpation of power. Republican Governors, however, such as the recent Governor of Iowa, Herbert hoover, took a laisse-faire attitude, and those states’ economies suffered as a result.
With unemployment up to a staggering 7% by November 1930, the Republicans obtained majorities in both the House and Senate during the midterm election. As 1931 progressed, so did the collapses of each bank after another. This made economists realize all too late the fragility of America’s banking system. However, by early 1932, the economic slip had slowed, but the situation for millions of Americans was still dire, and getting neither worse nor better. Unemployment rates began to stagnate at 11% at the beginning of April. The Democrats were now desperate to hold onto office in November 1932, and tried to downplay the recession’s severity while the Republicans claimed they were the only ones able to rectify it. Edith Wilson was the target of most of the criticism, and her approval ratings sank to a level lower than ever before. Realizing that he would not win the 1932 election due to his close connection to the President (and the fact that his first name was “Royal” at a time when poverty was skyrocketing did not help), Vice-President Copeland declined to run. At the Democratic Convention, US Senator Joseph T. Robinson of New York, a close ally of the President, narrowly won the nomination for President on the 5th ballot over the more progressive George Dern. Once more the Wilsonian faction defeated the divided Anti-Wilson Democrats, which, this time around, included Utah Governor George Dern, House Speaker John Garner, Maryland Governor Albert Ritchie, and, once more, Al Smith of New York. However, hoping to win over western states and more liberal/progressive voters, Robinson chose US Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana to be his running mate. The pick led to Ritchie endorsing the ticket, which many Democrats hoped would help in the uphill climb the ticket faced heading into the autumn months.
However, conservative US Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas disliked the ticket due to Robinson’s support of Edith Wilson and his more liberal/moderate views, and announced his decision to run for President on a much more conservative “States’ Rights” ticket one week after the Convention, choosing pro-segregation/pro-KKK Governor Clifford M. Walker of Georgia to be his running mate.
Meanwhile, the Republicans once again sought out someone whom could win over a Wilsonian candidate. Coolidge again declined, along with Lowden. The ultimate candidates were U.S. Senators Hiram Bingham III, John J. Blaine, James W. Wadsworth Jr., William E. Borah and Charles McNary; and Governor Herbert Hoover. Finally, Bingham prevailed as the nominee on the 3rd ballot. Hiram Bingham III was an explorer-turned-politician whom had made public the existence of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in 1911. In 1924, he had won a special election to the US Senate and had won election to a full term in 1926. Bingham chose the more experienced US Senator Guy Goff of West Virginia to be his running mate.
With the Democrats divided and unpopular, the results of the election were very predictable.
As expected, Sheppard’s splitting of the Democratic vote in the south cost Robinson support in several traditionally Southern states.
The countries overseas felt the US’s economic conditions as well. In Germany, for instance, trade with the US was minimal, and the German mark continued to lose value. In that nation’s 6 November 1932 federal elections, SPD candidate Otto Wells narrowly won over NSDAP candidate Adolph Hitler. As a result, President Hindenburg appointed close confidant, Minister Kurt von Schleicher, to be the new Chancellor of Germany. Mr. Hitler’s lawyer and legal advisor, Hans Michael Frank, would die in a train accident later in the year. These events would set the stage for the German Civil War.
On January 7, 1933, Vice-President-Elect Guy Goff’s wife found him dead in their home from heart failure at the age of 66. Following the rules, the office of the Vice-President was left vacant until the 1936 election. Coincidently, the man that Goff had run against for the Vice-Presidency also died before the beginning of the Vice-Presidential term. Senator Walsh, at age 73, died on March 2, 1933, from a heart attack, just two days before the start of the Vice-Presidential term, while on a train headed to Washington for Bingham’s inauguration.
In early 1933, Robinson commented on his 1932 loss with, “in retrospect, it seems appropriate for Edith – whom was personified as the epitome of the woman specimen – to be, after eight long years, succeeded by Bingham, an athletic explorer and intellectual many called ‘the next Teddy Roosevelt’ – the very personification of the ultimate male figure.” Indeed, Bingham showed much vigor upon entering the office of the presidency. Congress passed and implemented a series of economic reform measures throughout 1933. These measures, dubbed the “New Deal” by Governor Roosevelt, helped improve the economy and resurrect consumer confidence through actions such as increasing infrastructure projects and the controversial Savings Security Act of early 1934. Prohibition was finally repeal in March 1934 with the 21st Amendment, which boosted the economy as well. In response to the Dust Bowl and failing farms, Bingham signed the Soil Conservation Act into law on April 10, 1934.
On April 22, 1934, an unemployed Italian immigrant looking for work named Giuseppe Zangara fired three bullets from a close distance at President Bingham during Bingham’s visit to a public water works project site in Corpus Christi, Texas. While Bingham survived unharmed (he famously punched Zangara in the face before Zangara could fire a fourth time), the incident sparked much discussion on adjusting the Presidential Line of Succession. With the Vice-Presidency vacant and Secretary of State John J. Blaine having died in office from pneumonia just six days prior, and with Congress out of session, Senators began to wonder if leaving the Vice-Presidency vacant was unwise. This ultimately led to Congress passing the 22nd Amendment in early 1935, which established the procedure of filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice-Presidency, pending Senate and House approval, and clarified the duties and responsibilities of the Vice-Presidency. Bingham chose retired US Senator Joseph I. France of Maryland to fill the vacancy; Congress confirmed France in May, and he entered office on June 1.
By mid-1935, unemployment rates, which had peaked in late 1933 at 19%, had dropped down to 13%. Over in Europe, Bingham continued American trade with nations such as France, Great Britain and even Germany. This led to Germany’s 12 August 1934 referendum on withdrawing from the League of Nations failing by a 5% margin. Hitler, now Leader of the Opposition, declared the results to be rigged. Records reveal that after this, Hitler began to believe that the only way for him to come to power was to do so by force. Over the course of the next three months, Hitler began the militarization of the NSDAP party, members of which the British soon called “nasdaps” for short. On November 8, 1934, the eleventh anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler and supporters orchestrated a coup against President Paul von Hindenburg, whom, at 87 and already gravely ill from cancer, died from heart failure attempt to flee his Neudeck, East Prussia home. Hitler had the Chancellor von Schleicher murdered and he declared himself Chancellor. While a majority of the military supported the nasdaps, a large faction of loyalist troops opposed the coup under the leadership of army commander Werner von Fritsch and navy commander Erich Raeder. The country began to tear itself apart as each faction claimed territory over the other. In response, the League of Nations condemned both sides but supported the loyalists over Hitler’s radical nasdaps. Over in Italy, Benito Mussolini, the country’s de facto dictator, took the opportunity of the League being busy with Germany to go and invade the country of Ethiopia in early 1936 (note: finally forced out in 1954).
For the 1936 Presidential election, the Democratic Party bosses were determined to keep the party united, unlike in 1932. Governors Albert Ritchie and George Dern (an early frontrunner) died, a car crash killed Newton D. Baker, and doctors diagnosed Governor Floyd Olsen as having cancer, all just months before the convention. In 1934, William McAdoo, at age 71, had lost a bid to unseat Hiram Johnson from the US Senate, losing by a 7% margin and dimming his prospects at obtaining the nomination in 1936, which many called his “final chance to become President.” Al Smith had lost nearly all support from the Democrats, and Royal Copeland, after some consideration, declined to run. Many wanted Governor Roosevelt to be the nominee, but Roosevelt declined as well, stating, “There is still much work to be done here in Albany.” He reportedly told close ally, DNC Chairman James Farley, “I greatly helped President Bingham get this country back onto its feet. I believe it would be bad form for me to stab him in the back by running against him.” The lack of a clear establishment-favorite frontrunner easily allowed a young Senator from Louisiana to enter the race with strong popular support. Huey Long was one of the few Democrats to be elected to the Senate in 1930, and was already a nationally known, albeit controversial, political figure. Demonized by his opponents, his supporters proclaimed him a champion of the people capable of winning states in both the North and the South. Winning the nomination on the fourth ballot over challengers McAdoo, John Garner of Texas, and J. Hamilton Lewis of Illinois, Long chose the calm moderate James Mead of New York (a US Senator since 1929 whom was barely re-elected in 1934) to be his running mate.
Long and Mead campaigned fiercely across the northern and western states. Their support from the poor, along with ethnic minorities such as Catholics, European-Americans and African-Americans, and some labor unions. However, people of the upper classes strongly disliked Senator Long due to his “share the wealth” platform, and subsequently campaigned for President Bingham. The race was unexpectedly narrow going into the fall, with some polls showing Huey Long easily defeating the incumbent. However, on October 10, a scandal began truncating Long’s momentum. On that day, Director of the Bureau of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover, a strong supporter of President Bingham, indicted Senator Long on accusations that he had misused funds by taking money meant for housing projects and labor unions to fund his Presidential campaign and to pay for operating his rich and luxurious home in Washington, DC. Several newspapers nationwide reported on the details of the subsequent investigation over the following days and weeks. Throughout it all, Senator Long claimed innocence, saying, “This whole thing is a frame-job, meant to silence the people of this country, the downtrodden and forgotten who wish to share in the profits of their toil. The oil businesses can’t have this and are trying to silence us!” However, the mounting evidence severely damaged his polling.
Long spent an unprecedented amount of time campaigning across the country in the last few weeks of the election, hoping the voters would think negatively of the last four years and vote out Bingham. However, by November 1936, unemployment had dropped down to 10%, and many were happy with President Bingham’s handling of the economy.
On election night, low voter turnout combined with the scandals and increasing economic conditions allowed for a huge Republican victory. Long failed to win any states outside of the Deep South, which saw South Carolina vote Republican (by a margin of just 134 votes) for the first time since 1876, much to the surprise of many. However, Huey Long lost in 9 states by margins between 10% and 5%, and in 12 states by margins under 5%, making the election actually narrower than it appeared to be. Regardless, Huey Long left the election a defeated man. Having given up running for re-election to the US Senate that year, Huey Long left office in January and immediately began contemplating his options: he could run in the US Senate race in 1938, for Governor again in the February 1940 election, or for President again in November 1940. However, we may never know which direction he would have taken. While eating a “snack” of barbequed ribs with some chicken-and-bacon gumbo on the side while dealing with the BOI investigations and upcoming hearings at his office desk, Huey Long died from a massive heart attack on November 30, 1937. He was 44. Extensive medical exams ordered by his brother Earl Long concluded that the death was not an assassination but in fact the result of poor health – after losing in 1936, Huey Long began drinking and smoking heavily, stopped exercising, and became a glutton for unhealthy food. Long was buried in Baton Rouge, and his funeral was attended to by roughly 50,000.
Meanwhile, President Hiram Bingham continued to pull the United States out of the Great depression while the German Civil War continued overseas. In early 1937, British politician Winston Churchill replaced Joseph Avenol as Secretary-General of the League of Nations. Realizing that the loyalist forces would lose without armed support, Churchill moved for the L.o.N. to form their own military “peace-keeping” forces in order to properly carry out the League’s mission statement of maintaining international peace and cooperation. Churchill argued, “Peace in our time can only be achieved through short but decisive acts of calculated warfare here and there in order to prevent absolutely chaotic and violent warfare.” British, French, and some American forces were assembled and sent into Germany on the League’s behalf in May 1937.
Bingham’s second term also had to deal with foreign policy despite the national mood from 1919 to 1937 being in favor of isolationism. Tensions with Japan had been on the rise since their invasion of Manchuria, China, in 1931. On October 7, 1937, Japanese military attack planes bombed an American Navy vessel, the USS Taft, off the coast of Wenzhou; 32 American soldiers were killed and 10 more were wounded. Despite Japan formally apologizing for the “accidental” attack on what they believed was a Chinese ship, Americans were still outraged by the incident and demanded retribution for the perished American soldiers. Bingham thus responded by demanding the Japanese pay for damages to the US Navy and to the families of those killed. To this, the Japanese refused. Bingham then responded with a trade embargo on virtually all Japanese goods for the next year in lieu of the reparations. However, relations between the two countries only deteriorated even further upon another similar boat-strike incident occurred in March 1938. The US government responded with the Trade Control Act, a containment policy meant to be a warning to Japan that any further military expansion into the rest of Asia would result in even further economic and trade sanctions. However, Japan saw this act as a blockade to counter Japanese military and economic strength. Following the US freezing all Japanese assets in the US and completely shutting down all oil sales to Japan in early 1939 over Japans refusal to withdraw from China, the Japanese believed that “enough insolence has been pushed onto Japan” to justify what occurred on September 11, 1939.
Meanwhile, Hitler’s army was eventually surrounded on all sides by early 1938. Poland and Czechoslovakia supported loyalist forces along the eastern border, and while Austria supported Hitler, they remained neutral during the conflict over fear of being reprimanded by the League (of which they were by now a member). Loyalist forces determined to restore the Republic occupied over 3/4ths of Germany. Hitler was forced to flee from Berlin to pro-nasdap Bavaria in May. Fighting then became more intense as the nasdaps lost supplies and manpower but still refused to surrender. The Battle of Augsburg was the last battle of the German Civil War in which the nasdaps fought on the offense. Finally, Loyalist forces successfully captured Hitler and some of his most loyal supporters in the small village of Immenstadt, near the Austria border, on August 7, 1938, as they attempted to flee into Austria and continue their fight via an external resistance movement.
In the 1938 United States midterm elections, Republicans retained majority in both houses despite Democrats making significant gains. Over in Oklahoma, several Democratic party bosses turned their eyes to Hollywood and contacted famous cowboy humorist Will Rogers. They managed to convince Rogers, a registered Democrat whom supported Bingham (whom was popular in the state), to be their nominee for Governor. While initially expected to lose the Democratic primary to businessman Ernest Marland due to how lightheartedly he campaigned for it, Roger’s huge amount of media attention gave him a narrow victory in the primary, soon followed by a 65%-35% victory over the Republican challenger in November.
Despite the German Civil War being destructive and bloody, the extent of Hitler’s rule was only realized upon closer inspection after the Republican was restored in late November 1938. At the height of Hitler’s control over Germany (late 1936 to late 1937), the NSDAP party had organized a mass extermination of Jewish people living in Germany. Whenever the nasdaps took control of a town, they immediately sought out as many Jewish people as they could find and shot them. Over 1.5 million Germans fled the country, even as both internal and external officials closed and monitored the borders. In the areas around Berlin where Hitler’s rule was more concrete, cleverly concealed from the general public, huge Death Camps were constructed. The Dusseldorf Camp was the most horrific, ruining the image of and even the name of the town seemingly forever. In the end, around 239,000 Jewish people – an astounding 95% of Germany’s pre-civil war Jewish population – were systematically captured and executed, with the remaining population either successfully hiding or fleeing the country. Another 306,000 “enemies of the state” ethnic groups (mainly Slavs, Ethnic Poles, and Romani peoples) plus people this disabilities and even political leftists (both known and suspected) were killed as well, bringing the total up to 564,000. The tragedy became known of the Jewish Genocide of 1934-1938. While not as deadly as the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 (wherein 1.5 million died) or the Greek Genocide of 1913-1922 (wherein 750,000 died) in terms of casualty count, the incident has left a painful scar on Germany’s history that is still solemnly remembered to this day, both in Germany and across Europe. Adding up the 564,000 to the numbers of civilians deaths (2,900,000), League soldier deaths (701,200), and the soldiers killed on both sides of the conflict (4,279,440 nasdaps; 2,204,560 loyalists), reveals that a total of almost 10,649,200 people died in the war – or just over 16% of Germany’s pre-war population of roughly 66,500,000. This figures, however, does not take into account the number of Germans to die from famine and disease in connection to the German Civil War, which, by estimates, raises the percentage to as high as 36% of Germany’s pre-war population. The participants of these atrocities numbers at least 90,000, though that number is highly disputed. Regardless of the specifics, the sheer scale of death and destruction led to Germany developing a much more pacifist social and political philosophy similar to Switzerland shortly after the German Civil War.
In December 1938, Senator James M. Mead died in a train accident; with Huey Long having died in 1937, this marks the only time when both persons on a major party US Presidential ticket died within the term for which they sought election. In January 1939, Vice-President France died in office at the age of 65 from natural causes. Bingham chose US Senator Charles McNary of Oregon to fill the vacancy. Meanwhile, Bingham capitalized on the decline in isolationism in the United States by increasing military spending. This in turn led to weapons manufacturing jobs, which lowered unemployment to just 10% by September 1939. It was at that moment in time when the strained relations between the United States and Japan would reach their breaking point. On September 11, 1939, the Japanese launched a three-wave long-range surprise aerial attack on America’s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (the US had relocated them there just eight months prior). The assault led to 3,109 American citizens, both military and civilian combined, dead. The attack was a major shock to the American people; the next day, President Bingham declared won on Japan, despite the objections of the League of Nations. Because the Japanese had recently attacked the British-owned cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, the British Army sent a large number of British soldiers under the League banner to “assist in Bingham’s peace-keeping efforts in the Pacific.”
Realizing the necessity that he stay in office to ensure American victory in this new war, President Bingham broke with tradition and announced that he would run for a full term. The Democrats convened at their convention to, once more, pick their nominee. The candidates this time around were Congressman/former House Speaker John Garner, US Senator Cordell Hull, New York businessman Wendell Willkie, US Senator Millard Tydings, US Senator William Bankhead, Governor Edward J. Kelly of Illinois, and US Senator Alben W. Barkley. Paul V. McNutt declined to focus on running for a second term as Governor of Indiana. In the end, the 69-year-old Cordell Hull, nicknamed “Dull Hull” by Willkie, narrowly won the nomination (with Willkie coming in second place overall) at the convention, and chose US Senator Fred Herbert Brown of New Hampshire to be his running mate.
In November, Americans voted to keep President Bingham on for an unprecedented third full term. The Pacific War, also called the Japanese-American War but most commonly known as the Great Pacific War or “The Pacific” in the United States, involved the United States slowly advancing into Japanese territory via an “island hopping” method. American and League forces made inroads into Taiwan, southern China and the Ryukyu islands by the beginning of 1941. The US successfully defeated an attempt Japanese invasion of Alaska in late 1941. Many see the May 1942 Battle of Palikir as the turning point of the war in favor of the US-League side. As a result of this, the Soviet Union (not yet a League of Nations member) formally declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-held Manchuria in August 1942.
Domestically, Democrats gained seats in the house and took back the Senate by one seat. Will Rogers left the Governorship at the end of his term and joined the war effort. At 59, he joined the Navy and fought in the Battle of Majuro, but was wounded in the leg and was denied continuing to serve on the front lines. Instead, Rogers supported the war effort by performed at USO shows to boost American morale.
The situation began to look grim for the Japanese when American forces landed in Okinawa and Iwo-Jima in March and April 1943. In May, Soviet forces landed on the Japanese main island of Hokkaido. In turn, the US Navy performed Operation Hurricane, the invasion of Kyushu, in August 1943. It was at this point when the fighting became the most intense. American forces were occupying Japanese villages, towns and cities where the military had nearly all inhabitants taught and trained to fight to the death. League forces began efforts to secure a peace treaty with the Emperor of Japan at this point, which was a contributing factor in the Imperial Army overthrowing the monarchy in November 1943. During the event, Emperor Hirohito was killed by the military forces, but the death was blamed on the Americans, which the Japanese people believed. The new ruler of Japan, Isamu Yokoyama, swore that Japan would “fight until our very last breath – we would rather die a free people than become slaves to Western heathens.” The famous Battle of Hiroshima in January 1944, however, saw the strength of the Japanese people’s will to continue fighting wane considerably. A failed counter-coup against Yokoyama also showed this. The combined Soviet invasion of Miyagi province and American-British-League invasion of Gifu and Aichi provinces in March 1944 seems to have been the final straw for peace-seeking Japanese officials. Yokoyama and some of his closest supporters and allies were collectively assassinated (via poisoned tea and sushi at a meeting, of all things) and his opponents replaced his regime with a constitutional monarchy headed by Prince Naruhiko, whom had survived the anti-monarchy coup of the previous year. They immediately announced a surrender to the American/League/Soviet forces on March 30, and formally and officially signed it on April 12, 1944.
Americans rejoiced in the conclusion of a war that had shook the US out of its isolationist state. Content with how things had worked out, President Bingham declined to run for a fourth term. The frontrunners for the Republican nomination suddenly became Robert A. Taft, Earl Warren, Harold Stassen, John Bricker, and (potentially, until his death February 25, 1944 death) Vice-President Charles McNary. However, Bingham’s preferred choice was his Secretary of State of the last ten years: William Richards Castle Jr. Bingham convinced Castle to run shortly before the convention. Castle won the nomination easily over Bricker. However, he chose Harold Stassen, a war hero and former Governor of Minnesota, to be his running mate in order to unite the party, nullify the age question (Castle would be 66 on inauguration day while Stassen would only be 37) and geographically balance the ticket (as Castle had taken up a residence in Maryland upon becoming Secretary of State back in 1934). Both Bingham and Castle were born in Hawaii, and since Castle had spent much of his career as a diplomat, the Republicans attempted to portray Castle as a continuation of the very popular Bingham.
Domestically, when it came to land perseveration and conservation, Bingham reflected his understanding and appreciation of Native Americans (from his own experience with natives in the Machu Picchu discovery back in 1911) by “giving back” hundreds of acres of land to Native American tribes out west from 1941 to 1943. This is often jokingly pointed to in order to explain why and how the Curse of Tippecanoe (1840-1920) was “broken” in 1940, with Hiram Bingham not dying in office despite being elected in a year ending in a zero.
The Democrats, meanwhile, saw a fierce Convention fight between the liberal Governor Henry A. Wallace, the moderate Governor Paul V. McNutt, and the conservative Senators Harry F. Byrd, Alben W. Barkley, James F. Byrnes, businessman and initial frontrunner Wendell Willkie (whom died shortly after the convention poor health, similar to Huey Long’s demise), and William H Bankhead II. McNutt narrowly won on the fifteenth ballot. Looking to “break new ground,” McNutt chose former Governor Will Rogers to be his running mate. In his acceptance speech at the convention, a formality since Bingham started it in 1932, McNutt called for a platform supporting peace both abroad and at home: “We must stop the internal bickering and divisive rhetoric. We are a stronger and more prosperous nation when we work to help each other. Only through unity and peace can we all achieve our goals – our victory over the Japanese proved this to be true!” Despite McNutt winning the nomination, early polls saw him trailing behind Castle very badly. Many predicted early that McNutt would be unable to win in November due to the popularity of Bingham. Even certain Democrats believed he would lose after saying in a September radio broadcast “American society has made much progress in the past several years. One of America’s top generals in the fight against the Japs was a Black man – Major General Benjamin Davis. He led the forces that drove the Japs out of Alaska, then headed land operations in mainland Japan – a Black man! And American women? Why we had a woman President for eight whole years, for crying out loud! Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if we elected a Black President within the next twenty or thirty years. Think it’s impossible? Well they said the said the same thing about Edith Wilson and they’re saying the same thing about our campaign!” While McNutt was ultimately accurate in when America would elect its first African-American President, the sentiment at the time did not hold well with many Democrats in the South. McNutt lost the support of some conservative Democratic leaders in states such as Florida, Kentucky, and Texas during the final weeks of the campaign (although Senator Truman of Missouri did begin to campaign more heavily for him in his home state).
However, in one of the biggest election upsets in US history, McNutt narrowly won. Many attribute McNutt’s win to his experience as a Governor and frequent radio appearances, which made him better known among rural voters than expected. McNutt had also run a “compromise” campaign focused on fiscally conservative and social liberal philosophies that conservatives in the South and West and ethnic groups in the urban northern and Midwestern cities could support. High voter turnout and Castle’s lack of a clear campaign message (in fact, Castle did very little campaigning at all in the final weeks) were also seen as contributing factors.
Long-time Governor of New York Franklin Roosevelt, whom would die in office later that year, attended the 1945 Presidential inauguration. President McNutt entered office on March 4, determined to make the next four-to-eight years be some of America’s best.
Epilogue: President Calvin Coolidge (1924-1925) died from coronary thrombosis on February 17, 1933, at the age of 60. President Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1925-1933) died at the age of 90 on November 4, 1962 – the 38th anniversary of her election to the Presidency. President Hiram Bingham (1933-1945) died on June 6, 1956, at the age of 80. His successful twelve years set a precedence for future Presidents whom tried to follow in his footsteps in achieving a third term; so far, only two Presidents came close, and one served three incomplete terms, but still Bingham remains as America’s longest-serving President ever. While many Americans (especially the Republicans) still see Bingham as one of the nation’s best Presidents, President Edith Wilson is also remembered fondly as well. Edith Wilson started out by simply being there for her husband, only to become so involved with his work that learned how to be a politician herself. Her husband then gave her the courage to be a public political figure, and that in turn influenced the course of history, as America spent the next two decades dealing with the Great Depression (1930-1939) and the Japanese-American War (1939-1944), during which they were helped by the League of Nations. Upon reflection of her legacy, Edith Wilson truly was, to be blunt, remarkable.
Again, my apologies for this being so long...
THE PRESIDENTRESS
The death of United States Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall in a carriage accident on September 21, 1919 was a sad loss for the country. However, it was the tragic events that unfolded over the course of the next few weeks that had a truly major effect on the United States of America and ultimately the world. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was always a hard-working individual, often foregoing exercise and relaxation in favor of hard work, despite orders from doctors and hints from his own body to calm down. Wilson did not heed the warnings. Beginning on September 25, the very day after Marshall’s body had been laid to rest back in Indiana, Wilson’s health began to decline after a speaking engagement in Pueblo Colorado in the form of severe headache and twitching face muscles. Signs that not everything was all right soon followed with nausea, intestinal pains, and a looseness on the left side of his mouth – a possible sign of a mini-stroke. Then, on October 2, President Wilson suffered a paralytic stroke – he was now partially blind in the left eye and had limited mobility in his left leg and left arm. First Lady Edith Wilson immediately became protective of her husband, and attempted to limit his amount of contact with staff, members of congress, and even the Cabinet and the public. However, on December 5, President Wilson collapsed during a perfunctory meeting with Senator Gilbert Hitchcock, prompting Edith to quickly return him to the White House for some rest. The incident sparked unwanted attention from the press, and by Christmas Morning, news that the President had suffered a massive, crippling stroke had reached a majority of American ears and eyes.
Another development occurred on December 28, when a White House staff member told First Lady Edith that she had overheard Secretary of State Robert Lansing suggest to a US Senator that President Wilson should resign. With Marshall dead, and thus the Vice-Presidency vacant, this would propel Lansing to the Presidency. Edith was outraged by the betrayal, and she demanded he resigned. He initially refused, stating that she was in no position to give such an order. However, President Wilson personally gave him the exact same letter of resignation to sign just a few hours later, after Edith had reportedly conversed with her husband on the matter. Lansing complied, and left in January 1920.
President Wilson was impressed by how quickly and well his wife had handled the situation, and from that moment on allowed her to sit in on cabinet and US Senate meetings. This allowance was immediately opposed by some members of his cabinet, and the Secretary of the Treasury almost resigned over it. However, Edith famously remarked, “Senators have a long history of bringing their dogs in with them to sit beside them while at their Senate seats. Am I to be denied the same privilege a dog has?” President Wilson, still relying on his darling wife’s assistance throughout his physical ailments, encouraged her to give her own opinion on issues as well as support his own; this allowed her to speak on his behalf so he could rest himself, and allowed her to become more knowledgeable on how the branches of the government worked. Still frail, President Wilson also urged his wife to become much more involved publicly in keeping the country going, as he cared more about the well-being of the country than keeping his condition a secret. To this effect, on February 1, President Wilson announced the First Lady to be the official spokesperson for the President, and she immediately began meeting with members of the press, much to their outrage and bewilderment.
Things came to a head once more when First Lady Edith was photographed sitting between her husband and a confused-looking British Prime Minister David Lloyd George at a diplomatic meeting on February 23, 1920. Over outcries by both Republicans and Democrats that the First Lady was abusing her title, in that she was in no position to legally be an advisor to the President, President Woodrow Wilson, outraged at their “insolent attacks” on his wife, issued an executive order that created a new official cabinet-level position: Head Assistant Attorney General. Being sworn in on March 7, 1920, Edith Wilson took up the charge of trying to get the US into the League of Nations from this new office, travelling across the country by train (the President often with her, resting in a bed or propped up in a chair) to make speeches and meet with numerous women’s clubs for “tea and talk” sessions. This led to an unprecedented amount of attention on the US’s First Lady, and her activities. While divisive in content, some Democrats and pro-Democrat organizations applauded her “activism” for its “stunning and graceful execution.” Edith described the public experience in her memoirs in 1938: “So began my public stewardship, I studied every paper, sent from the different Secretaries or Senators or Ambassadors or publishers or Governors. I did my best to digest, understand and present in tabloid form the things that I had to tell the press and thus the nation, and the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to my new boss, the President, my husband. …I alone was charged with heading the disposition of public affairs, and it was important for me to decide which matters were worthy of presentation to my husband.”
It was the awareness of these activities that led to Edith Wilson continuing her engagement in politics after leaving the White House in March 1921. Immensely impressed by her popularity among certain members of their state’s populace, and the unprecedented level of political involvement for a First Lady, several Democratic Party bosses in Virginia, hoping to woo in the Suffragette vote (as women were finally given the right to vote in 1920), asked Edith in January 1921 to run for Governor of Virginia later that year. Her husband strongly encouraged her to run, telling her “after all I’ve done this year, serving as Governor will be a simple walk in the park for you, Edith.”
By 1924, the Presidency of Warren Gamaliel Harding had become increasingly unpopular due to numerous scandals, most notably the Teapot Dome Scandal, and the Democrats believed that Harding would face heavy opposition at the Republican convention, if not in that year’s general election. Some members of the Virginia Democratic Party, meanwhile, impressed by the success of Edith Wilson’s governorship (advancing former Governor Westmoreland “Morley” Davis’s reforms and modernizing several aspects of the state, along with continuing the state’s economic growth), put her name on the ballot in two primary states. However, this was done mainly as a way of testing the electability on “a woman candidate on a more national level for the sake of political curiosity,” as one psephologist puts it. Furthermore, despite Wilson ultimately winning 7.1% of the total primaries’ votes, the actual nominee was always determined at the convention in the summer back then. One of the earlier and more serious supporters of the originally-small draft movement of “Edith for President” joked confidently that “Harding is so hated the Democrats could nominate a wooden spoon and still win!” Woodrow Wilson immediately supported the movement; Edith, meanwhile, thought lightly on the subject, reportedly stating “I do not believe that America will have a female President until at least 50 years from now” on April 7, 1924. Woodrow, however, counter-argued that women had already become mayors, judges, and had even been elected to Congress (Jeanette Rankin, Alice Robertson, Winnifred Huck, and Mae Nolan were all women whom had already been elected or appointed to the House of Representatives at this time). A short time later, on May 28, 1924, William McAdoo, an in-law to President Wilson and former cabinet member under Wilson, announced he would not run for the nomination for President in the summer.
Ultimately, the Democratic Convention came down to Governor Edith Wilson, anti-KKK US Senator Oscar Underwood, Catholic New York Governor Al Smith, and several “favorite son” candidates. Wilson and McAdoo urged Edith to publicly announce her run, which she did right after voting deadlocked on the fifteenth ballot. By promising to pick Underwood to be her Secretary of State, Edith was able to narrowly win the nomination over Al Smith on the 95th ballot. Many conservatives were outraged and some reportedly even contemplated a walkout. However, not only did Wilson’s supporters deliver a fiscally conservative platform in their speeches that wooed some Southern Democrats to her side, but no Southern Democrat opted to lead a third-party ticket, either, fearing it could lead to a Republican victory. The D.N.C. selected U.S. Senator Royal S. Copeland over former Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels (Woodrow Wilson’s preferred choice) and Governor Charles W. Bryan (the preferred choice of the liberal faction of the party) to be her running mate, hoping Copeland would win over his home state of New York in November. Meanwhile, Harding successfully (though narrowly) won re-nomination over his own Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge, and former Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois. Harding then picked US Senator Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin to be his new running mate.
Outraged by the lack of a liberal candidates in the race, U.S. Senator Robert La Follette Sr. of Wisconsin ran on a third-party ticket, which many democrats feared would lure in Democrats reluctant to vote for a female, and thus take away crucial votes from Edith Wilson. During the fall campaign, the Democrats heavily insinuated to male voters that former President Wilson would be the real one in charge at the White House, and that his health was now much better than it was publicly known for being in 1920, despite little evidence to back up this claim. Harding maintained a slight lead in polls taken weeks before the election, and the Wilsons actively campaigned across the country via train in response. In early October, however, 83 of Harding’s love letters to his mistress Carrie Phillips (all written on White house stationary, no less) were published in several newspapers across the country. The scandal sunk Harding’s approval ratings, but did not increase Edith Wilson’s; instead, it improved the polling of La Follette. One La Follette banner famously read, “Won’t vote for a woman? Won’t vote for a Womanizer? Then vote for a Wisconsinite!”
On November 4, Edith Wilson narrowly lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote; as expected, La Follette’s support mainly came from voters disgruntled with the corrupt Republican and female Democratic candidates. Copeland barely managed to win New York, thus keeping the election from going to the House. Immediately, riots, started by people whom not only refused to let a woman be their President, but also a woman whom had lost the popular vote, sprouted up in vehemently anti-Edith parts of the country. In December, three electors attempted to vote for someone other than Wilson, but were replaced before the final vote counts.
In a matter of great misfortune, the Curse of Tippecanoe struck down President Harding before he could leave office. Harding collapsed at the White House and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 5, 1924. Calvin Coolidge, whom would have left the office of the Vice-Presidency in 1925 even if Harding had won re-election, ironically became President for the next three months. Scholars note that, despite serving for a longer period of time than William Henry Harrison, President Coolidge, a "lame duck" President, actually did less while in office than Harrison.
As suffragettes celebrated the incoming 31st President in earnest, others hoped that former President Wilson would be the real person in charge. Those hopes were shockingly lost for them when, on December 27, just one day before his 68th birthday, former President Woodrow Wilson died from the long-lasting effects of the 1919 stroke. Edith was shocked. Wilson’s widow, despite still being in mourning, entered the office of the U.S. Presidency on March 4, becoming America’s first-ever female President. She had just lost her husband and was uncertain of how to go forward. However, she had the support of several key political figures, personal friends (such as Cary T. Grayson, physician and longtime friend of her husband), and her loving family (mainly stepson-in-law William McAdoo, and stepdaughters Margaret, Jessie and Eleanor). While some Republicans secretly hoped that President Edith Wilson would eventually resign to mourn the passing of her husband, Democrats close to her truly believed that things were going to be all right.
President Edith Wilson immediately strived to “make [her] husband proud.” To keep herself from being upset, she kept herself busy by packing her schedules with meetings and often taking tours across the states on train, though remembered not to overextend herself, lest she fall to the same fate as did her husband. A major early foreign policy success was fulfilling her husband’s ambition of getting the U.S. to join the League of Nations, which she accomplished in early 1926 after much campaigning for it for much of 1925. Another foreign policy accomplishment came in 1928 in the form of the Underwood-Briand Pact of 1928. Ratified in 1929, the pact committed signatories, countries both in and out of the League of Nations, to “renounce war and strive for peaceful alternatives to war,” which, while not actually eliminating war, did become an essential part of international law many years later.
President Edith Wilson focused mainly, though, on domestic affairs. While President, she supported the same things she supported while Governor: regulating wages and hours for both urban and rural workers, strongly opposing child labor, and supporting more safety measures in factories and even worker representation on corporate boards. However, she was unpopular among the upper class and D.C. establishment for openly discussing such issues as, in the 1920s, those were considered to be statewide and local responsibilities only. Republicans repeatedly tried to brand her as a tyrannical ruler, imposing federal bureaucracy onto small business. Her critics derogatorily called her “Queen Edith” at times as well. However, Edith was praised for her swift and immediate response to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1926-1927, personally visiting the sight of much damage in Louisiana in April 1927. Upon returning to D.C., she publicly called for a federal commission to be in charge of flood mitigation; the Federal Erosion of Waterways Commission (the FEWC) was founded in January 1928. She also won the support of farmers with the passing of the McNary-Haugen Farm Relief Act in late 1927. It created the Federal Farm Board, which purchases surplus production in high-yield years and holds it when feasible for later sale or sells it abroad. Upon signing it, Edith famously remarked, “Farmers never have made much money, but I believe that we here can at the least do something about that.”
By late 1927, Edith was still popular among female voters but only slightly popular among male voters and very unpopular among some part of the DC elite. Despite personally believing that she would be denied the nomination at the next summer’s convention, she was convinced by her many supporters to enter her name into consideration anyway. Many Democrats whom opposed Edith Wilson’s policies, along with those of her husband, were called Anti-Wilsonian Democrats. At the 1928 Democratic National Convention held in Texas in June, many Anti-Wilsonian party bosses supported fellow Anti-Wilsonian Al Smith for President; one of them famously shouted “better a Catholic President than a woman President!” However, with the Anti-Wilsonian votes being divided among Smith, US Senator James Reed of Missouri, former US Senator Atlee Pomerene of Ohio, and US Senator Walter F. George of Georgia, President Wilson was able to secure the nomination on the 11th ballot. Anti-Wilsonian Democrats were outraged even further, tough, when she decided to keep Copeland on as her running mate, instead of picking an Anti-Wilsonian to unify the party. This outrage eventually led to a walk-out of Anti-Wilsonian Democrats, whom formed an independent ticket for the Presidential race, comprising of Al Smith for President and US Congressman Charles Gordon Edwards of Georgia for Vice-President.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party was determined to return to power. Former President Calvin Coolidge, to the surprise of many, declined to run for another term, citing the 1926 death of his father and his youngest child being bedridden with a serious illness (which he eventually overcame) as being the reasons. In his announcement in March 1928, he commented, “I do not wish to be another Grover Cleveland. I have spent time as President, and while it is an honor to serve in that position I do not wish to go through the experience again.” Without Coolidge, party bosses searched for a candidate without any connection to the scandalous Warren Harding administration; as a result, former Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover was disregarded by most. The Convention ultimately deadlocked between Frank Lowden, the establishment favorite; US Senator Charles Curtis, whom received the most number of votes in the primaries; US Senator Hiram Johnson, the favorite of the progressive wing of the party; and several favorite son candidates, including Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot, US Senator Walter Evans Edge, former Secretary Herbert Hoover, and US Senator William Borah. With no faction willing to withdraw their candidate, House minority leader (since 1927) and former House Speaker (1925-1927) Nicholas “Nick” Longworth III was offered up as a compromise candidate on the 86th ballot. The deadlock was broken, and House Speaker Longworth was successfully drafted into being the nominee, on the record-breaking 110th ballot. Longworth, a man from the crucial swing state of Ohio, chose Governor-turned-US Senator Walter Evans Edge of New Jersey to be his running mate, as they had gotten along well at the Convention.
In November – due to the good economy and worker conditions, her successful response to the Great Mississippi Floods, and rising accusations of numerous scandalous events concerning Walter Edge – Edith Wilson popular enough with the public to ensure a second term, much to the surprise of many (including Edith herself). Nevertheless, there were accusations of voter fraud in New Jersey, which voted for Longworth/Edge by a .5% margin.
In April 1930, President Edith Wilson called upon the state governments to begin infrastructure projects to help keep unemployment levels down. Wilson’s attempts to mitigate the economic crisis were only moderately effective. Statewide, some Governors complied early and went through the Great Depression relatively unharmed. For instance, Governor Franklin Roosevelt of New York, in office since 1929, began major urban and rural development programs. He worked closely with former Governor Al Smith (whom had since become President of the Empire State, Inc. corporation) to construct the Empire State Building (1930-1931), the Thomas Jefferson Bridge (1931-1933), the Oneida Lake Dam (1932-1936), and other major construction projects. In Louisiana, Governor Huey Long’s “Debt Moratorium Act” prevented foreclosures by giving people extra time to pay creditors and reclaim property without having to pay back-taxes; his personal regulation of the banks allowed for very few banks to fail in his state, even if his critics saw it as a usurpation of power. Republican Governors, however, such as the recent Governor of Iowa, Herbert hoover, took a laisse-faire attitude, and those states’ economies suffered as a result.
With unemployment up to a staggering 7% by November 1930, the Republicans obtained majorities in both the House and Senate during the midterm election. As 1931 progressed, so did the collapses of each bank after another. This made economists realize all too late the fragility of America’s banking system. However, by early 1932, the economic slip had slowed, but the situation for millions of Americans was still dire, and getting neither worse nor better. Unemployment rates began to stagnate at 11% at the beginning of April. The Democrats were now desperate to hold onto office in November 1932, and tried to downplay the recession’s severity while the Republicans claimed they were the only ones able to rectify it. Edith Wilson was the target of most of the criticism, and her approval ratings sank to a level lower than ever before. Realizing that he would not win the 1932 election due to his close connection to the President (and the fact that his first name was “Royal” at a time when poverty was skyrocketing did not help), Vice-President Copeland declined to run. At the Democratic Convention, US Senator Joseph T. Robinson of New York, a close ally of the President, narrowly won the nomination for President on the 5th ballot over the more progressive George Dern. Once more the Wilsonian faction defeated the divided Anti-Wilson Democrats, which, this time around, included Utah Governor George Dern, House Speaker John Garner, Maryland Governor Albert Ritchie, and, once more, Al Smith of New York. However, hoping to win over western states and more liberal/progressive voters, Robinson chose US Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana to be his running mate. The pick led to Ritchie endorsing the ticket, which many Democrats hoped would help in the uphill climb the ticket faced heading into the autumn months.
However, conservative US Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas disliked the ticket due to Robinson’s support of Edith Wilson and his more liberal/moderate views, and announced his decision to run for President on a much more conservative “States’ Rights” ticket one week after the Convention, choosing pro-segregation/pro-KKK Governor Clifford M. Walker of Georgia to be his running mate.
Meanwhile, the Republicans once again sought out someone whom could win over a Wilsonian candidate. Coolidge again declined, along with Lowden. The ultimate candidates were U.S. Senators Hiram Bingham III, John J. Blaine, James W. Wadsworth Jr., William E. Borah and Charles McNary; and Governor Herbert Hoover. Finally, Bingham prevailed as the nominee on the 3rd ballot. Hiram Bingham III was an explorer-turned-politician whom had made public the existence of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in 1911. In 1924, he had won a special election to the US Senate and had won election to a full term in 1926. Bingham chose the more experienced US Senator Guy Goff of West Virginia to be his running mate.
With the Democrats divided and unpopular, the results of the election were very predictable.
The countries overseas felt the US’s economic conditions as well. In Germany, for instance, trade with the US was minimal, and the German mark continued to lose value. In that nation’s 6 November 1932 federal elections, SPD candidate Otto Wells narrowly won over NSDAP candidate Adolph Hitler. As a result, President Hindenburg appointed close confidant, Minister Kurt von Schleicher, to be the new Chancellor of Germany. Mr. Hitler’s lawyer and legal advisor, Hans Michael Frank, would die in a train accident later in the year. These events would set the stage for the German Civil War.
On January 7, 1933, Vice-President-Elect Guy Goff’s wife found him dead in their home from heart failure at the age of 66. Following the rules, the office of the Vice-President was left vacant until the 1936 election. Coincidently, the man that Goff had run against for the Vice-Presidency also died before the beginning of the Vice-Presidential term. Senator Walsh, at age 73, died on March 2, 1933, from a heart attack, just two days before the start of the Vice-Presidential term, while on a train headed to Washington for Bingham’s inauguration.
In early 1933, Robinson commented on his 1932 loss with, “in retrospect, it seems appropriate for Edith – whom was personified as the epitome of the woman specimen – to be, after eight long years, succeeded by Bingham, an athletic explorer and intellectual many called ‘the next Teddy Roosevelt’ – the very personification of the ultimate male figure.” Indeed, Bingham showed much vigor upon entering the office of the presidency. Congress passed and implemented a series of economic reform measures throughout 1933. These measures, dubbed the “New Deal” by Governor Roosevelt, helped improve the economy and resurrect consumer confidence through actions such as increasing infrastructure projects and the controversial Savings Security Act of early 1934. Prohibition was finally repeal in March 1934 with the 21st Amendment, which boosted the economy as well. In response to the Dust Bowl and failing farms, Bingham signed the Soil Conservation Act into law on April 10, 1934.
On April 22, 1934, an unemployed Italian immigrant looking for work named Giuseppe Zangara fired three bullets from a close distance at President Bingham during Bingham’s visit to a public water works project site in Corpus Christi, Texas. While Bingham survived unharmed (he famously punched Zangara in the face before Zangara could fire a fourth time), the incident sparked much discussion on adjusting the Presidential Line of Succession. With the Vice-Presidency vacant and Secretary of State John J. Blaine having died in office from pneumonia just six days prior, and with Congress out of session, Senators began to wonder if leaving the Vice-Presidency vacant was unwise. This ultimately led to Congress passing the 22nd Amendment in early 1935, which established the procedure of filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice-Presidency, pending Senate and House approval, and clarified the duties and responsibilities of the Vice-Presidency. Bingham chose retired US Senator Joseph I. France of Maryland to fill the vacancy; Congress confirmed France in May, and he entered office on June 1.
By mid-1935, unemployment rates, which had peaked in late 1933 at 19%, had dropped down to 13%. Over in Europe, Bingham continued American trade with nations such as France, Great Britain and even Germany. This led to Germany’s 12 August 1934 referendum on withdrawing from the League of Nations failing by a 5% margin. Hitler, now Leader of the Opposition, declared the results to be rigged. Records reveal that after this, Hitler began to believe that the only way for him to come to power was to do so by force. Over the course of the next three months, Hitler began the militarization of the NSDAP party, members of which the British soon called “nasdaps” for short. On November 8, 1934, the eleventh anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler and supporters orchestrated a coup against President Paul von Hindenburg, whom, at 87 and already gravely ill from cancer, died from heart failure attempt to flee his Neudeck, East Prussia home. Hitler had the Chancellor von Schleicher murdered and he declared himself Chancellor. While a majority of the military supported the nasdaps, a large faction of loyalist troops opposed the coup under the leadership of army commander Werner von Fritsch and navy commander Erich Raeder. The country began to tear itself apart as each faction claimed territory over the other. In response, the League of Nations condemned both sides but supported the loyalists over Hitler’s radical nasdaps. Over in Italy, Benito Mussolini, the country’s de facto dictator, took the opportunity of the League being busy with Germany to go and invade the country of Ethiopia in early 1936 (note: finally forced out in 1954).
For the 1936 Presidential election, the Democratic Party bosses were determined to keep the party united, unlike in 1932. Governors Albert Ritchie and George Dern (an early frontrunner) died, a car crash killed Newton D. Baker, and doctors diagnosed Governor Floyd Olsen as having cancer, all just months before the convention. In 1934, William McAdoo, at age 71, had lost a bid to unseat Hiram Johnson from the US Senate, losing by a 7% margin and dimming his prospects at obtaining the nomination in 1936, which many called his “final chance to become President.” Al Smith had lost nearly all support from the Democrats, and Royal Copeland, after some consideration, declined to run. Many wanted Governor Roosevelt to be the nominee, but Roosevelt declined as well, stating, “There is still much work to be done here in Albany.” He reportedly told close ally, DNC Chairman James Farley, “I greatly helped President Bingham get this country back onto its feet. I believe it would be bad form for me to stab him in the back by running against him.” The lack of a clear establishment-favorite frontrunner easily allowed a young Senator from Louisiana to enter the race with strong popular support. Huey Long was one of the few Democrats to be elected to the Senate in 1930, and was already a nationally known, albeit controversial, political figure. Demonized by his opponents, his supporters proclaimed him a champion of the people capable of winning states in both the North and the South. Winning the nomination on the fourth ballot over challengers McAdoo, John Garner of Texas, and J. Hamilton Lewis of Illinois, Long chose the calm moderate James Mead of New York (a US Senator since 1929 whom was barely re-elected in 1934) to be his running mate.
Long and Mead campaigned fiercely across the northern and western states. Their support from the poor, along with ethnic minorities such as Catholics, European-Americans and African-Americans, and some labor unions. However, people of the upper classes strongly disliked Senator Long due to his “share the wealth” platform, and subsequently campaigned for President Bingham. The race was unexpectedly narrow going into the fall, with some polls showing Huey Long easily defeating the incumbent. However, on October 10, a scandal began truncating Long’s momentum. On that day, Director of the Bureau of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover, a strong supporter of President Bingham, indicted Senator Long on accusations that he had misused funds by taking money meant for housing projects and labor unions to fund his Presidential campaign and to pay for operating his rich and luxurious home in Washington, DC. Several newspapers nationwide reported on the details of the subsequent investigation over the following days and weeks. Throughout it all, Senator Long claimed innocence, saying, “This whole thing is a frame-job, meant to silence the people of this country, the downtrodden and forgotten who wish to share in the profits of their toil. The oil businesses can’t have this and are trying to silence us!” However, the mounting evidence severely damaged his polling.
Long spent an unprecedented amount of time campaigning across the country in the last few weeks of the election, hoping the voters would think negatively of the last four years and vote out Bingham. However, by November 1936, unemployment had dropped down to 10%, and many were happy with President Bingham’s handling of the economy.
On election night, low voter turnout combined with the scandals and increasing economic conditions allowed for a huge Republican victory. Long failed to win any states outside of the Deep South, which saw South Carolina vote Republican (by a margin of just 134 votes) for the first time since 1876, much to the surprise of many. However, Huey Long lost in 9 states by margins between 10% and 5%, and in 12 states by margins under 5%, making the election actually narrower than it appeared to be. Regardless, Huey Long left the election a defeated man. Having given up running for re-election to the US Senate that year, Huey Long left office in January and immediately began contemplating his options: he could run in the US Senate race in 1938, for Governor again in the February 1940 election, or for President again in November 1940. However, we may never know which direction he would have taken. While eating a “snack” of barbequed ribs with some chicken-and-bacon gumbo on the side while dealing with the BOI investigations and upcoming hearings at his office desk, Huey Long died from a massive heart attack on November 30, 1937. He was 44. Extensive medical exams ordered by his brother Earl Long concluded that the death was not an assassination but in fact the result of poor health – after losing in 1936, Huey Long began drinking and smoking heavily, stopped exercising, and became a glutton for unhealthy food. Long was buried in Baton Rouge, and his funeral was attended to by roughly 50,000.
Meanwhile, President Hiram Bingham continued to pull the United States out of the Great depression while the German Civil War continued overseas. In early 1937, British politician Winston Churchill replaced Joseph Avenol as Secretary-General of the League of Nations. Realizing that the loyalist forces would lose without armed support, Churchill moved for the L.o.N. to form their own military “peace-keeping” forces in order to properly carry out the League’s mission statement of maintaining international peace and cooperation. Churchill argued, “Peace in our time can only be achieved through short but decisive acts of calculated warfare here and there in order to prevent absolutely chaotic and violent warfare.” British, French, and some American forces were assembled and sent into Germany on the League’s behalf in May 1937.
Bingham’s second term also had to deal with foreign policy despite the national mood from 1919 to 1937 being in favor of isolationism. Tensions with Japan had been on the rise since their invasion of Manchuria, China, in 1931. On October 7, 1937, Japanese military attack planes bombed an American Navy vessel, the USS Taft, off the coast of Wenzhou; 32 American soldiers were killed and 10 more were wounded. Despite Japan formally apologizing for the “accidental” attack on what they believed was a Chinese ship, Americans were still outraged by the incident and demanded retribution for the perished American soldiers. Bingham thus responded by demanding the Japanese pay for damages to the US Navy and to the families of those killed. To this, the Japanese refused. Bingham then responded with a trade embargo on virtually all Japanese goods for the next year in lieu of the reparations. However, relations between the two countries only deteriorated even further upon another similar boat-strike incident occurred in March 1938. The US government responded with the Trade Control Act, a containment policy meant to be a warning to Japan that any further military expansion into the rest of Asia would result in even further economic and trade sanctions. However, Japan saw this act as a blockade to counter Japanese military and economic strength. Following the US freezing all Japanese assets in the US and completely shutting down all oil sales to Japan in early 1939 over Japans refusal to withdraw from China, the Japanese believed that “enough insolence has been pushed onto Japan” to justify what occurred on September 11, 1939.
Meanwhile, Hitler’s army was eventually surrounded on all sides by early 1938. Poland and Czechoslovakia supported loyalist forces along the eastern border, and while Austria supported Hitler, they remained neutral during the conflict over fear of being reprimanded by the League (of which they were by now a member). Loyalist forces determined to restore the Republic occupied over 3/4ths of Germany. Hitler was forced to flee from Berlin to pro-nasdap Bavaria in May. Fighting then became more intense as the nasdaps lost supplies and manpower but still refused to surrender. The Battle of Augsburg was the last battle of the German Civil War in which the nasdaps fought on the offense. Finally, Loyalist forces successfully captured Hitler and some of his most loyal supporters in the small village of Immenstadt, near the Austria border, on August 7, 1938, as they attempted to flee into Austria and continue their fight via an external resistance movement.
In the 1938 United States midterm elections, Republicans retained majority in both houses despite Democrats making significant gains. Over in Oklahoma, several Democratic party bosses turned their eyes to Hollywood and contacted famous cowboy humorist Will Rogers. They managed to convince Rogers, a registered Democrat whom supported Bingham (whom was popular in the state), to be their nominee for Governor. While initially expected to lose the Democratic primary to businessman Ernest Marland due to how lightheartedly he campaigned for it, Roger’s huge amount of media attention gave him a narrow victory in the primary, soon followed by a 65%-35% victory over the Republican challenger in November.
Despite the German Civil War being destructive and bloody, the extent of Hitler’s rule was only realized upon closer inspection after the Republican was restored in late November 1938. At the height of Hitler’s control over Germany (late 1936 to late 1937), the NSDAP party had organized a mass extermination of Jewish people living in Germany. Whenever the nasdaps took control of a town, they immediately sought out as many Jewish people as they could find and shot them. Over 1.5 million Germans fled the country, even as both internal and external officials closed and monitored the borders. In the areas around Berlin where Hitler’s rule was more concrete, cleverly concealed from the general public, huge Death Camps were constructed. The Dusseldorf Camp was the most horrific, ruining the image of and even the name of the town seemingly forever. In the end, around 239,000 Jewish people – an astounding 95% of Germany’s pre-civil war Jewish population – were systematically captured and executed, with the remaining population either successfully hiding or fleeing the country. Another 306,000 “enemies of the state” ethnic groups (mainly Slavs, Ethnic Poles, and Romani peoples) plus people this disabilities and even political leftists (both known and suspected) were killed as well, bringing the total up to 564,000. The tragedy became known of the Jewish Genocide of 1934-1938. While not as deadly as the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 (wherein 1.5 million died) or the Greek Genocide of 1913-1922 (wherein 750,000 died) in terms of casualty count, the incident has left a painful scar on Germany’s history that is still solemnly remembered to this day, both in Germany and across Europe. Adding up the 564,000 to the numbers of civilians deaths (2,900,000), League soldier deaths (701,200), and the soldiers killed on both sides of the conflict (4,279,440 nasdaps; 2,204,560 loyalists), reveals that a total of almost 10,649,200 people died in the war – or just over 16% of Germany’s pre-war population of roughly 66,500,000. This figures, however, does not take into account the number of Germans to die from famine and disease in connection to the German Civil War, which, by estimates, raises the percentage to as high as 36% of Germany’s pre-war population. The participants of these atrocities numbers at least 90,000, though that number is highly disputed. Regardless of the specifics, the sheer scale of death and destruction led to Germany developing a much more pacifist social and political philosophy similar to Switzerland shortly after the German Civil War.
In December 1938, Senator James M. Mead died in a train accident; with Huey Long having died in 1937, this marks the only time when both persons on a major party US Presidential ticket died within the term for which they sought election. In January 1939, Vice-President France died in office at the age of 65 from natural causes. Bingham chose US Senator Charles McNary of Oregon to fill the vacancy. Meanwhile, Bingham capitalized on the decline in isolationism in the United States by increasing military spending. This in turn led to weapons manufacturing jobs, which lowered unemployment to just 10% by September 1939. It was at that moment in time when the strained relations between the United States and Japan would reach their breaking point. On September 11, 1939, the Japanese launched a three-wave long-range surprise aerial attack on America’s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (the US had relocated them there just eight months prior). The assault led to 3,109 American citizens, both military and civilian combined, dead. The attack was a major shock to the American people; the next day, President Bingham declared won on Japan, despite the objections of the League of Nations. Because the Japanese had recently attacked the British-owned cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, the British Army sent a large number of British soldiers under the League banner to “assist in Bingham’s peace-keeping efforts in the Pacific.”
Realizing the necessity that he stay in office to ensure American victory in this new war, President Bingham broke with tradition and announced that he would run for a full term. The Democrats convened at their convention to, once more, pick their nominee. The candidates this time around were Congressman/former House Speaker John Garner, US Senator Cordell Hull, New York businessman Wendell Willkie, US Senator Millard Tydings, US Senator William Bankhead, Governor Edward J. Kelly of Illinois, and US Senator Alben W. Barkley. Paul V. McNutt declined to focus on running for a second term as Governor of Indiana. In the end, the 69-year-old Cordell Hull, nicknamed “Dull Hull” by Willkie, narrowly won the nomination (with Willkie coming in second place overall) at the convention, and chose US Senator Fred Herbert Brown of New Hampshire to be his running mate.
In November, Americans voted to keep President Bingham on for an unprecedented third full term. The Pacific War, also called the Japanese-American War but most commonly known as the Great Pacific War or “The Pacific” in the United States, involved the United States slowly advancing into Japanese territory via an “island hopping” method. American and League forces made inroads into Taiwan, southern China and the Ryukyu islands by the beginning of 1941. The US successfully defeated an attempt Japanese invasion of Alaska in late 1941. Many see the May 1942 Battle of Palikir as the turning point of the war in favor of the US-League side. As a result of this, the Soviet Union (not yet a League of Nations member) formally declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-held Manchuria in August 1942.
Domestically, Democrats gained seats in the house and took back the Senate by one seat. Will Rogers left the Governorship at the end of his term and joined the war effort. At 59, he joined the Navy and fought in the Battle of Majuro, but was wounded in the leg and was denied continuing to serve on the front lines. Instead, Rogers supported the war effort by performed at USO shows to boost American morale.
The situation began to look grim for the Japanese when American forces landed in Okinawa and Iwo-Jima in March and April 1943. In May, Soviet forces landed on the Japanese main island of Hokkaido. In turn, the US Navy performed Operation Hurricane, the invasion of Kyushu, in August 1943. It was at this point when the fighting became the most intense. American forces were occupying Japanese villages, towns and cities where the military had nearly all inhabitants taught and trained to fight to the death. League forces began efforts to secure a peace treaty with the Emperor of Japan at this point, which was a contributing factor in the Imperial Army overthrowing the monarchy in November 1943. During the event, Emperor Hirohito was killed by the military forces, but the death was blamed on the Americans, which the Japanese people believed. The new ruler of Japan, Isamu Yokoyama, swore that Japan would “fight until our very last breath – we would rather die a free people than become slaves to Western heathens.” The famous Battle of Hiroshima in January 1944, however, saw the strength of the Japanese people’s will to continue fighting wane considerably. A failed counter-coup against Yokoyama also showed this. The combined Soviet invasion of Miyagi province and American-British-League invasion of Gifu and Aichi provinces in March 1944 seems to have been the final straw for peace-seeking Japanese officials. Yokoyama and some of his closest supporters and allies were collectively assassinated (via poisoned tea and sushi at a meeting, of all things) and his opponents replaced his regime with a constitutional monarchy headed by Prince Naruhiko, whom had survived the anti-monarchy coup of the previous year. They immediately announced a surrender to the American/League/Soviet forces on March 30, and formally and officially signed it on April 12, 1944.
Americans rejoiced in the conclusion of a war that had shook the US out of its isolationist state. Content with how things had worked out, President Bingham declined to run for a fourth term. The frontrunners for the Republican nomination suddenly became Robert A. Taft, Earl Warren, Harold Stassen, John Bricker, and (potentially, until his death February 25, 1944 death) Vice-President Charles McNary. However, Bingham’s preferred choice was his Secretary of State of the last ten years: William Richards Castle Jr. Bingham convinced Castle to run shortly before the convention. Castle won the nomination easily over Bricker. However, he chose Harold Stassen, a war hero and former Governor of Minnesota, to be his running mate in order to unite the party, nullify the age question (Castle would be 66 on inauguration day while Stassen would only be 37) and geographically balance the ticket (as Castle had taken up a residence in Maryland upon becoming Secretary of State back in 1934). Both Bingham and Castle were born in Hawaii, and since Castle had spent much of his career as a diplomat, the Republicans attempted to portray Castle as a continuation of the very popular Bingham.
Domestically, when it came to land perseveration and conservation, Bingham reflected his understanding and appreciation of Native Americans (from his own experience with natives in the Machu Picchu discovery back in 1911) by “giving back” hundreds of acres of land to Native American tribes out west from 1941 to 1943. This is often jokingly pointed to in order to explain why and how the Curse of Tippecanoe (1840-1920) was “broken” in 1940, with Hiram Bingham not dying in office despite being elected in a year ending in a zero.
The Democrats, meanwhile, saw a fierce Convention fight between the liberal Governor Henry A. Wallace, the moderate Governor Paul V. McNutt, and the conservative Senators Harry F. Byrd, Alben W. Barkley, James F. Byrnes, businessman and initial frontrunner Wendell Willkie (whom died shortly after the convention poor health, similar to Huey Long’s demise), and William H Bankhead II. McNutt narrowly won on the fifteenth ballot. Looking to “break new ground,” McNutt chose former Governor Will Rogers to be his running mate. In his acceptance speech at the convention, a formality since Bingham started it in 1932, McNutt called for a platform supporting peace both abroad and at home: “We must stop the internal bickering and divisive rhetoric. We are a stronger and more prosperous nation when we work to help each other. Only through unity and peace can we all achieve our goals – our victory over the Japanese proved this to be true!” Despite McNutt winning the nomination, early polls saw him trailing behind Castle very badly. Many predicted early that McNutt would be unable to win in November due to the popularity of Bingham. Even certain Democrats believed he would lose after saying in a September radio broadcast “American society has made much progress in the past several years. One of America’s top generals in the fight against the Japs was a Black man – Major General Benjamin Davis. He led the forces that drove the Japs out of Alaska, then headed land operations in mainland Japan – a Black man! And American women? Why we had a woman President for eight whole years, for crying out loud! Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if we elected a Black President within the next twenty or thirty years. Think it’s impossible? Well they said the said the same thing about Edith Wilson and they’re saying the same thing about our campaign!” While McNutt was ultimately accurate in when America would elect its first African-American President, the sentiment at the time did not hold well with many Democrats in the South. McNutt lost the support of some conservative Democratic leaders in states such as Florida, Kentucky, and Texas during the final weeks of the campaign (although Senator Truman of Missouri did begin to campaign more heavily for him in his home state).
However, in one of the biggest election upsets in US history, McNutt narrowly won. Many attribute McNutt’s win to his experience as a Governor and frequent radio appearances, which made him better known among rural voters than expected. McNutt had also run a “compromise” campaign focused on fiscally conservative and social liberal philosophies that conservatives in the South and West and ethnic groups in the urban northern and Midwestern cities could support. High voter turnout and Castle’s lack of a clear campaign message (in fact, Castle did very little campaigning at all in the final weeks) were also seen as contributing factors.
Long-time Governor of New York Franklin Roosevelt, whom would die in office later that year, attended the 1945 Presidential inauguration. President McNutt entered office on March 4, determined to make the next four-to-eight years be some of America’s best.
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Epilogue: President Calvin Coolidge (1924-1925) died from coronary thrombosis on February 17, 1933, at the age of 60. President Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1925-1933) died at the age of 90 on November 4, 1962 – the 38th anniversary of her election to the Presidency. President Hiram Bingham (1933-1945) died on June 6, 1956, at the age of 80. His successful twelve years set a precedence for future Presidents whom tried to follow in his footsteps in achieving a third term; so far, only two Presidents came close, and one served three incomplete terms, but still Bingham remains as America’s longest-serving President ever. While many Americans (especially the Republicans) still see Bingham as one of the nation’s best Presidents, President Edith Wilson is also remembered fondly as well. Edith Wilson started out by simply being there for her husband, only to become so involved with his work that learned how to be a politician herself. Her husband then gave her the courage to be a public political figure, and that in turn influenced the course of history, as America spent the next two decades dealing with the Great Depression (1930-1939) and the Japanese-American War (1939-1944), during which they were helped by the League of Nations. Upon reflection of her legacy, Edith Wilson truly was, to be blunt, remarkable.
THE PRESIDENTRESS
Again, my apologies for this being so long...
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I've made a few more infoboxes for A Kinder, Gentler Nation Continued.
Fuck me. What the heck is that.
John Oliver got elected to the British Parliament in 2015 ITTL. It wasn't my idea.
Whoever thought of it needs to be hired and then subsequently fired.
Bring it up with the people at A Kinder, Gentler Nation Continued.
shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
I've made a few more infoboxes for A Kinder, Gentler Nation Continued.
H E L L
Inspired by my string of Serbian infoboxes and this thread from a while back, have a slightly less obscure POD: Draga Mašin ends up not accepting Natalija Obrenović's offer to be a lady-in-waiting for her, thus she ends up never meeting Aleksandar Obrenović. Aleksandar ends up marrying Alexandra of Schaumburg-Lippe as originally intended OTL, and as a result of everything mentioned in said thread, the Obrenović dynasty stays on the throne. WW1 isn't sparked by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, and Serbia ends up on Austria's side, which is why Serbia is only just a kingdom.
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Can somebody explain what's wrong with this man, John Oliver? I'm Russian and I don't get it.
Accurateworldwar
Banned
I proudly proclaim that it was me who had John Oliver become a Member of Parliament.
- Status