Blanche Bruce Presidency

Blanch Bruce was the first African American senator to serve a full term in office (1875-1881) and the first to receive votes for nomination at a national political convention. In the 1880 Republican Convention there was a push to nominate Bruce for the vice presidency. It ultimately fizzled and resulted in him only receiving 8 votes, but it was an incredibly chaotic convention that could have easily gone off on another course.

This is particularly interesting because the President that Bruce would have served with was James Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881, making VP Chester Arthur president. If Bruce had become VP and not butterflied away the assassination, he would have been president.

You can read a more detailed write-up of all these events here: https://www.mdah.ms.gov/new/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/patler_bruce.pdf

So this is all just background. Any theories on exactly how the chaos of 1880-1881 could have brought it about is also appreciated, but what I'm really interested in is what would a Blanche Bruce presidency have been like? How much difference would he have been able to make as a fluke president in that era. He was apparently a pretty outspoken advocate for not only African American rights but also those of Native Americans and the Chinese. He strongly opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act, so he could have vetoed that in 1882. The big question to me is whether he would have been able to stop the disenfranchisement of the African American population that was getting started right around the time he would have entered office. Would a president in that era have had the power to make a significant dent in what was mostly a state issue? Any other big changes Bruce might have been willing and able to make relative to OTL?
 
Guiteau, who admittedly was a madman, assassinated Garfield out of loyalty to a defeated political faction he hoped a President Chester Arthur would empower. At most, Bruce represents a slightly more interesting historical footnote, unless he goes on to some other role. It won't though be the presidency.
 
Even if President Garfield isn't assassinated, he was interested in civil rights and thought education and industry would help Afro-Americans (he tried for a universal public education system but failed to get the votes) and didn't care about winning Southern Democrats (believing commerce and industry, not race baiting, would win over the South).

It's possible that Garfield and Bruce could push the Republicans to take a more active civil rights approach, but the North would need more energy to invest in these kinds of reforms.However, if they can pull it off, maybe Bruce wins election in 1884 or 1888 (at the very least Afro-Americans would be better off).
 
Guiteau, who admittedly was a madman, assassinated Garfield out of loyalty to a defeated political faction he hoped a President Chester Arthur would empower. At most, Bruce represents a slightly more interesting historical footnote, unless he goes on to some other role. It won't though be the presidency.

Interestingly Bruce was friendly with Roscoe Conkling, head of the political faction (the Stalwarts) Garfield had defeated. Presumably any scenario of Bruce becoming VP would involve a similar cross-factional compromise ticket, and thus keep open the way for the assassination to go down basically as IOTL. But whatever, have Garfield coincidentally fall down the stairs around that same time; I'm more interested in a hypothetical Bruce presidency than the flukey events it would take to create one in the first place.
 
Interestingly Bruce was friendly with Roscoe Conkling, head of the political faction (the Stalwarts) Garfield had defeated. Presumably any scenario of Bruce becoming VP would involve a similar cross-factional compromise ticket, and thus keep open the way for the assassination to go down basically as IOTL. But whatever, have Garfield coincidentally fall down the stairs around that same time; I'm more interested in a hypothetical Bruce presidency than the flukey events it would take to create one in the first place.

I really like the idea of a Bruce presidency, but I think any president is only as strong as the circumstances of his ascendancy. A vice-president coming up because of backroom dealing and a freak accident might have an air of illegitimacy, not helping a man who's already going to have a large part of the country willing to kill him complete his agenda.

We need to give Bruce an edge if we want him to not get assassinated or to give him a chance to further his agenda.
 
I really like the idea of a Bruce presidency, but I think any president is only as strong as the circumstances of his ascendancy. A vice-president coming up because of backroom dealing and a freak accident might have an air of illegitimacy, not helping a man who's already going to have a large part of the country willing to kill him complete his agenda.

We need to give Bruce an edge if we want him to not get assassinated or to give him a chance to further his agenda.

I mean I'd also be pretty interested in the consequences of a Bruce presidency that went down in flames and didn't accomplish much despite Bruce's best efforts due to racist backlash, though I guess it would be less different from OTL than if he was successful.

How about this though: let's say Garfield is still assassinated in basically the same way, and Bruce, knowing that he needs unified support from the Republicans, goes to Conkling and offers to make him VP. Conkling had just recently left the senate to make a point and then been prevented from being reelected right back in as he planned. Thus Bruce gets one of the most powerful national figures in the country on his side along with the whole "Stalwart" faction of the Republicans.
 
How about this though: let's say Garfield is still assassinated in basically the same way, and Bruce, knowing that he needs unified support from the Republicans, goes to Conkling and offers to make him VP. Conkling had just recently left the senate to make a point and then been prevented from being reelected right back in as he planned. Thus Bruce gets one of the most powerful national figures in the country on his side along with the whole "Stalwart" faction of the Republicans.
There wasn't a procedure in place to fill a vice-presidential vacancy at this time: Congress would have to create one. This scheme could work with a Cabinet position, though, AFAIK.
 
Maybe Garfield gets murdered by a member of the Klan and Northeners take it as a sign that maybe they should commit more to restore order to the South. Bruce gets Conkling on board by promising him a Cabinet position and the opportunity to get machine politics going for Republicans in the South.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is still around, so Bruce can use it to justify sending troops to protect voters (not just blacks, stressing Republicans in general) and restore order. If the Supreme Court still finds the Act unconstitutional in 1883, he can try harder than Arthur to find something to fill the void.
 
I mean I'd also be pretty interested in the consequences of a Bruce presidency that went down in flames and didn't accomplish much despite Bruce's best efforts due to racist backlash, though I guess it would be less different from OTL than if he was successful.

How about this though: let's say Garfield is still assassinated in basically the same way, and Bruce, knowing that he needs unified support from the Republicans, goes to Conkling and offers to make him VP. Conkling had just recently left the senate to make a point and then been prevented from being reelected right back in as he planned. Thus Bruce gets one of the most powerful national figures in the country on his side along with the whole "Stalwart" faction of the Republicans.
There was no mechanism to fill a vice presidential vacancy in this era.
 
I really like the idea of a Bruce presidency, but I think any president is only as strong as the circumstances of his ascendancy. A vice-president coming up because of backroom dealing and a freak accident might have an air of illegitimacy, not helping a man who's already going to have a large part of the country willing to kill him complete his agenda.

We need to give Bruce an edge if we want him to not get assassinated or to give him a chance to further his agenda.
getting him as acting president just to be assassinated would be just as interesting imo
 
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It used to be said in a later era than the 1880s, but would have applied then too, that choosing a black running mate would be insurance against assassination. I don't think Guiteau's views on race were particularly enlightened.
 
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