Cinco de Mayo

[KingSweden24]

Full Results: US Elections 1872

165 electors needed to win

John T. Hoffman of New York/Samuel Cox of Ohio (Democratic) - 252 electoral votes, 50.1% of vote

New York 47
Pennsylvania 39
Illinois 28
Missouri 20
Indiana 19
Iowa 14
Michigan 14
Wisconsin 13
New Jersey 12
Maryland 10
California 8
Minnesota 7
West Virginia 6
Kansas 6
Oregon 3
Delaware 3
Nebraska 3
Nevada 3

Benjamin Wade of Ohio/Henry Wilson of Massachusetts (Republican) - 50 electoral votes, 21.6% of vote

Ohio 29
Massachusetts 17
Rhode Island 4

Lyman Trumbull of Illinois/Charles F. Adams of Massachusetts (Liberal Republican) - 26 electoral votes, 27.1% of vote

Maine 8
Connecticut 8
Vermont 5
New Hampshire 5

Senate Results:

California: Cornelius Cole (R) DEFEATED for renomination, John S. Hager (D) Elected (D+1)
Connecticut: Orris Ferry (R) won under other Party Affiliation (LR+1)
Illinois: Lyman Trumbull (LR) DEFEATED for renomination, Richard Oglesby (R) Elected (R+1)
Iowa: James Harlan (R) DEFEATED for renomaintion, William Allison (R) Elected (-)
Indiana: Oliver Morton (R) DEFEATED for election, Daniel Voorhees (D) Elected (D+2)
Kansas: Sam Pomery (R) DEFEATED for renomination, John Ingalls (R) Elected (-)
Maryland: George Vickers (D) RETIRED, George Dennis (D) Elected (-)
Missouri: Francis Blair (D) DEFEATED for renomination [1], Lewis Bogy (D) Elected (-)
Nevada: James Dye (R) RETIRED, John P. Jones (D) Elected [2] (D+3)
New Hampshire: James Patterson (R) DEFEATED for renomination, Bainbridge Wadleigh (R) Elected (-)
New York: Roscoe Conkling (R) DEFEATED for renomination, William Evarts (R) Elected (-)
Ohio: John Sherman (R) DEFEATED for renomination, George Pendleton (D) Elected (D+4)
Oregon: Henry Corbett (R) RETIRED, James Nesmith (D) Elected (D+5)
Pennsylvania: Simon Cameron (R) DEFEATED for election, Asa Packer (D) Elected (D+6)
Vermont: Justin S. Morrill (R) REELECTED (-)
Wisconsin: Timothy O. Howe (R) DEFEATED for election, Matthew Carpenter (D) Elected (D+7)

House Results:

D+17

[1] He was stricken with paralysis IOTL
[2] IOTL a Silver Repubican; he'd be a Democrat here

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the campaign for responsible government was won that December, with John Molteno becoming the Cape Colony's first Prime Minister. Perhaps no event was such a transcendent liberal moment, as the Cape government had instituted a near-universal franchise considerably more liberal than that of the British Home Islands or even the relatively liberal Canadian one, a franchise that did not have a racial component and thus held white and coloured citizens as equal before the law.

This development, so close on the heels of the loss of the Kimberley Fields, outraged Lord Carnarvon at the Colonial Office, who was still fighting a battle within the Cabinet to avoid any expansion of suffrage in Britain itself. This position had become considerably weakened as Canada and now the Cape granted their denizens fuller and more robust rights than in the Home Islands, where suffrage was still limited to property holders and trade unions remained illegal. It was for this reason that emigration and activism, of course, began to pick up steam in 1872 and 1873 as a better and more equal life beckoned in the Empire than at home for many residents of the British Isles..."

- The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century

 

[Nivek]

The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century

Yeah the impact of the longer tory goverment, if we want more insanity, if Cecil Rhodes is able to become UK Prime Minister that could be the push...

 

[Marc]

Ironically, for the native populations of Mexico, French rule could have been better for them.
When it comes to the indigenous, Benito Juárez turned out to be disaster - for them, a real case of regretting what they wished for.

 

[Nivek]

Ironically, for the native populations of Mexico, French rule could have been better for them.
When it comes to the indigenous, Benito Juárez turned out to be disaster - for them, a real case of regretting what they wished for.

The french were back to france years ago, is all Maximiliam now

 

[KingSweden24]

The french were back to france years ago, is all Maximiliam now

I realize I haven't detailed the circumstances of the French sort of just... leaving, but it seems pretty anticlimactic anyways.

 

[Marc]

The french were back to france years ago, is all Maximiliam now

Sorry, the headline was about the Cinco de Mayo, celebrating the Mexican victory against the French at the Battle of Puebla.
Did I misunderstand? My comment was in reference to the deeply ironic consequence of a native President, Benito Juárez, being worse than the French in how the Indians fared.

 

[Nivek]

Sorry, the headline was about the Cinco de Mayo, celebrating the Mexican victory against the French at the Battle of Puebla.
Did I misunderstand? My comment was in reference to the deeply ironic consequence of a native President, Benito Juárez, being worse than the French in how the Indians fared.

Yeah i watched the video too

Yeah at times ia a real be careful what you wish

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the Confederates refused to allow the United States to mediate, letting it fall upon the British to instead earn that distinction. The Halifax Treaty, haggled over four weeks in the port city, essentially served as a white peace - the Confederacy recognized Cuba as Spanish territory and agreed to pay a modest indemnity that it could only afford thanks to the herculean efforts of former Treasury Secretary John H. Reagan to restructure its public purse, while Spain would return all captured Confederates who had now spent nearly a whole year on the island, many of them in prison camps near Havana, as well as returning any impressed merchant vessels and their crews. Though a return to the status quo ante bellum, it was still a substantial diplomatic coup for Spain, leaving Dixie licking its wounds and her Navy the laughingstock of the world.

In Cuba, the Halifax Treaty effectively spelled the end of the Republic at Arms. Much of the rebel cause had been turned against the Confederates since the summer and the return of General Martinez-Campos to oversee all of the Caribbean holdings that winter came with letters of mass amnesty for any and all rebels who turned over their guns and pledged loyalty to the Spanish Crown. In parts of Camaguey and Oriente, the rebellion would simmer on for a further six months, but the Five Year War was for all intents and purposes done. Agramonte led his men into the jungle and Cespedes was forced to flee Cuba after refusing to seek amnesty, arriving in New York in 1873 and living there until his death in February of 1899 [1], where he continued to lead a small community of Cuban liberal exiles who agitated for an independent island republic.

The effective end of the bulk of the Cuban conflict allowed Leopold's Cabinet to return their attention to the matter at hand in Spain, where throughout December Carlist uprisings had begun again, this time with both Don Carlos and his brother Don Alfonso back in the country with new bands of rebels in a crescent along the Pyrenees from Biscay through Navarre to Catalonia, with a small presence bubbling up in Aragon..."

- The German on the Spanish Throne: The Reign of Leopold I

[1] Twenty-five years exactly after his death IOTL

 

[KingSweden24]

43rd Congress of the United States

(bit of a tiny jump ahead but I wanted to have this written down while it was on my mind)

Senate: 25D-24R-1LR

President of the Senate: Samuel Cox (D)
Senate President pro tempore: Henry Mower Rice of Minnesota (D)

California
1. Eugene Casserly (D) (1869-)
3. John S. Hager (D) (1873-)

Connecticut
1. William Buckingham (R) (1869-)
3. Orris Ferry (LR) (1867-)

Delaware
1. Thomas Bayard (D) (1869-)
2. Eli Saulsbury (D) (1871-)

Illinois
1. John Logan (R) (1869-)
3. Richard Oglesby (R) (1873-)

Indiana
1. Daniel Pratt (R) (1869-)
3. Daniel Voorhees (D) (1873-)

Iowa
2. George G. Wright (R) (1871-)
3. William Allison (R) (1873-)

Kansas
2. Thomas Carney (R) (1871-)
3. John Ingalls (R) (1873-)

Maine
1. Hannibal Hamlin (R) (1869-)
2. Samuel C. Fessenden (R) (1869-)

Maryland
1. William Pinkney Whyte (D) (1869-)
3. George Dennis (D) (1873-)

Massachusetts
1. Charles Sumner (R) (1851-)
2. Henry Wilson (R) (1855-)

Michigan
1. Zachariah Chandler (R) (1857-)
2. Byron G. Stout (D) (1865-)

Minnesota
1. Henry Mower Rice (D) (185
2. Henry Hastings Sibley (D) (1865-)

Missouri
1. Carl Schurz (R) (1869-)
3. Lewis Bogy (D) (1873-)

Nebraska
1. Thomas Tipton (R) (1869-)
2. Experience Estabrook (D) (1871-)

Nevada
1. William Stewart (R) (1869-)
3. John P. Jones (D) (1873-)

New Hampshire
2. Aaron Cragin (R) (1865-)
3. Bainbridge Wadleigh (R) (1873-)

New Jersey
1. John P. Stockton (D) (1869-)
2. Joel Parker (D) (1871-)

New York
1. Reuben Fenton (R) (1869-)
3. William Evarts (R) (1873-)

Ohio
1. Allen Thurman (D) (1869-)
3. George Pendleton (D) (1873-)

Oregon
2. James Kelly (D) (1871-)
3. James Nesmith (D) (1873-)

Pennsylvania
1. Charles Buckalew (D) (1863-)
3. Asa Parker (D) (1873-)

Rhode Island
1. William Sprague (R) (1863-)
2. Henry B. Anthony (R) (1859-)

Vermont
1. George F. Edmunds (R) (1866-)
3. Justin Morrill (R) (1867-)

West Virginia
1. Joseph Sprigg (D) (1869-)
2. Henry Gassaway Davis (D) (1871-)

Wisconsin
1. James Rood Doolittle (D) (1857-)
3. Matthew Carpenter (D) (1873-)

House: 180D-98R (no splits between R's and LR's quite yet)

Speaker of the House: Samuel Marshall of Illinois (D)

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the Emperor's health had become so poor it was a small miracle he did not die that winter. Indeed, the whole of January [1] Bazaine shuttled Empress Eugenie back and forth between Paris and Napoleon's convalescence in Biarritz to see her husband but also to make preparations for a potential regency for the last year of the Eaglet's minority. Rouher made his move at this time, visiting Isabella Borbon on his own accord and sealing the marriage pact between the Prince Imperial and her eldest daughter. Infante Alfonso quipped at that meeting to ask whether being brother-in-law to the future French Emperor meant he'd get his throne back; Rouher was said to angrily respond, "See how well your cousins are doing driving that damned German out!" In the last year of Napoleon III's reign, a year that would be marked with no public appearances, with several moments where his household was readying to call a priest for last rites, and the Empress would frequently call for her only son to encourage him to prepare himself to call Le Trois to him in case any dissident factions attempted to stage a coup or revolution, tensions were high and cracks in the previously firm bloc of men who ruled the Empire emerged. Nevertheless, 1873 was otherwise a good year for France - her commitment to free trade had helped her navigate the Great Depression more cleanly than others, and while the economy was still poor compared to the two preceding decades her unemployment was the lowest in Europe and the economy grew again. Her interest in Suez and Marseille's proximity to the canal made trade with North Africa and Asia flourish, and the success of the canal led the young Prince Imperial to wonder if perhaps its success could not be replicated elsewhere..."

- The Reign of Napoleon III 1848-1874

[1] IOW when he actually died IOTL

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the last election having occurred five years previous, Walpole dropped the writ wearily, frustrated by the rising popular discontent held over from the fall. In tendering his government's resignation after a substantial strike of textile workers in Leeds was met once again with a heavy response by policemen, embarrassing the Home Office, Walpole [1] was approached by a reporter for The Times who asked him to discuss the surprise election.

"Oh, well, you see my dear fellow, we live in an age where every time you think something has been made simpler it becomes more complicated. The world is changing, evolving, perhaps doing so faster than we can swallow. It's an age of questions now, tangled questions that don't have any plain answers, perhaps no answers at all. Questions at home, questions abroad, all we do is ask and ask and never do we have a response."

It was perhaps that answer that led to the dubbing of this period of British history, and world history in general, as "the Age of Questions," though some academics have stated that Walpole was not the first man to utter the phrase. There was abroad the Eastern Question of how to handle the Ottoman Empire and the Suez Canal, the Far Eastern Question of China, the South African Question that remained unsolved despite the Kimberley Settlement that had granted the diamond fields to the Orange Free State, and at home the Irish Question, which was bubbling up again with tenancy revolts throughout the winter months and a march to commemorate those killed in the Boxing Day riots. There was also the franchise question, for Britain still lagged behind even autocratic continental countries like France on universal male suffrage to the chagrin of many reformers and an increasing number of Tories, and the matter of trade unions, suddenly in the forefront as strikes became more common in Britain and the working class began to organize on a large scale for the first time with Britain still the nation hit worst by the effects of the Great Depression. Within the Conservative Party, there was still a bloc that found the working class to be a natural base for the party, of a High Toryism of loyalty to the King and stability of the country, paternalistic and proud. The loudest voices still belonged to the aristocrats skeptical of extending the franchise even to the skilled trades, let alone "the mobs." And so the election campaign of 1873 began with yet another Prime Minister close to being consumed by the seismic changes seizing British society beneath the placid Victorian surface..."

- The Age of Questions: Britain in the Gauntlet of Change and Upheaval

[1] As an aside is there any better 19th-century British PM name than Spencer Horatio Walpole? I love just saying it out loud haha

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the inauguration of John Thompson Hoffman as the 19th President of the United States was a muted affair compared to ostentatious celebration that marked the start of his predecessor's single term, but nevertheless was memorable. Hoffman, at only 45 years of age, was the youngest President in the history of the Republic and his aggressive campaign across America, complete with the team of photographers that had followed him around, had made him a symbol of modernity and a new age beyond the sectional disputes of the past even before his inauguration. "The Most Photographed Man in America" arrived at the Capitol with President Chase on the morning of the coldest inauguration on record to take the oath of office from Chief Justice Davis, and despite the freezing temperatures gave a long and energetic address surpassed in length only by those of James Polk and William Henry Harrison. In his address, Hoffman was surprisingly conciliatory towards the outgoing President his surrogates had demonized on the campaign trail, and after long soliloquies on modernity and the great Western frontier, closed with these remarks:

"Placed here by our Creator to do good, to be a shining beacon for all peoples of the world, the children of this land now take on a new generation's mantle to assume the challenge laid out for us in our governing document: WE, the People of the United States, together, must confront the tribulations of this hour. Of a land where despite the opportunity before us of plentiful land and resources, and the ever-changing innovations of the modern age, too many go destitute, too many struggle to find honest hours of labor, too many arrive on these shores with hope in their hearts only to have them dashed by the cold and cruel realities of poverty and struggle. It is at this hour that we must forget labels such as 'Democrat' or 'Republican' and recall the most important one of all, 'American,' and remind ourselves that this Union perseveres on, and that mutually we shall taste that great fruit of plenty again together!" [1]

Hoffman then witnessed a military parade and held an inaugural ball that had to be cancelled midway through because the food froze [2], but nevertheless those who were there to witness it left the festivities in high spirits, hoping that a man of a younger generation not formed in the crucibles of sectionalism and secession, or the reaction and counter-reaction to the loss of the War of Southern Independence, would lead the Union into a new era of conciliation..."

- Youth and Vigor: The Presidency of John T. Hoffman [3]

[1] I'm not a great speechwriter but you get the idea
[2] This actually happened at the IOTL 1873 inauguration
[3] I liked what I came up with when he was the "candidate of youth and vigor" so his biography will have that name

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the second uprising of the Third Carlist War was considerably more successful than the first, in no small part due to Carlos VII's brother Alfonso Carlos assuming command of the field and several months of preparation. The amount of men raised by February of 1873 was 30,000, and the key regions to their support this time were in Catalonia and the Maestrat. The war parties began considerably more aggressive raids on government forces, who were buffeted by the return of "Havanistas," gritty veterans of the Havana campaign who had shed blood to keep Cuba in Spain and were not about to see war on her native soil. Also causing issues for the Carlists was the matter that outside of regions accustomed to fuero laws such as Biscay, Navarre and Catalonia, and small parts of Valencia and Aragon, their uprising was thoroughly unpopular and "El Rey Alemanio," Leopold I, had become popular for his defense of Cuba.

The first major battle of the second wave of the war occurred at Eraul in Navarre, where though the result was inconclusive heavy casualties were inflicted upon the government forces under General Navarro and they were forced to retreat, giving the Carlists a rare propaganda victory. Shortly thereafter, in late March, they would fight government soldiers openly again, this time with a remarkably different result at Bearin, near a major Carlist base of Estella that the uprising was trying to seize.

The hero of Bearin was an infantry captain named Valeriano Weyler [1], a gruff and aggressive officer who had served under Blas Villate and Arsenio Martinez-Campos in the Caribbean during the colonial wars there and earned a reputation for ruthlessness. Weyler was rumored to have personally overseen a number of crucifixions and other gruesome murders of Confederate soldiers in Cuba and had wiped out a number of rebel-sympathetic villages in his time and only added to his legend with his killing close to 300 men at Morentin and then executing a number of the survivors. Shortly thereafter, his men ambushed a Carlist war party in the hills to the north, transported them to Pamplona and had them publicly executed at Weyler's command to the last man, earning him the nickname the Butcher of Pamplona..."

- Carlismo: A History of Spanish Revolution and Reaction

[1] Spanish history buffs know what's going down when this name appears

 

[Nivek]

[1] Spanish history buffs know what's going down when this name appears

Yeah still here he was the right man to handle the carlist. Seems Spain got another Win too

 

[Curtain Jerker]

[1] As an aside is there any better 19th-century British PM name than Spencer Horatio Walpole? I love just saying it out loud haha

If I were writing a 19th Century period piece and proposed that name for a Brit the producers would make me change it because it is "too over the top to be believable."

 

[KingSweden24]

Yeah still here he was the right man to handle the carlist. Seems Spain got another Win too

Old Val is the right man to handle pretty much any problem provided you’re morally flexible and don’t care about bad PR.

If I were writing a 19th Century period piece and proposed that name for a Brit the producers would make me change it because it is "too over the top to be believable."

and he’s 100% real!

Spencer Horatio Walpole - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Curtain Jerker]

Old Val is the right man to handle pretty much any problem provided you’re morally flexible and don’t care about bad PR.


and he’s 100% real!

Spencer Horatio Walpole - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Proving once again OTL is more ASB than any timeline on this site hahaha

But seriously, keep up the good work! I'm a fan of the short, textbook-style updates.

 

[KingSweden24]

Proving once again OTL is more ASB than any timeline on this site hahaha

But seriously, keep up the good work! I'm a fan of the short, textbook-style updates.

Haha I mean TBF we’ve had a Dutch king get killed by a rogue dog so far which is pretty ASB but every timeline needs something insane thrown in every now and then.

thank you so much! I appreciate the kind words and I’m glad you’re enjoying the TL

 

[KingSweden24]

"...as winter turned to spring, the faultlines of the coming election began to emerge across the Confederacy and the ossified political class in the Senate began to fear a reprise of the bloody campaign o f'67. A marker was laid down early on by Senator Jubal Early, who had not resigned his Senate seat while on campaign and had just been returned after being a prisoner of Spain in Cienfuegos, when he declared that "we shall not forget the grand cause to which our Creator called us, not today, not tomorrow, not ever!" Early, from the floor of the Senate, then walked directly up to the line of declaring Breckinridge a traitor for having sought peace terms with Spain and held until his death the view that the Confederacy's superior military ethos would have conquered Spain had the CEF not been undone by "bean-counters and bureaucrats" in Richmond [1]. This became the origin of the "Grand Cause"[2] mythos that permeated the South for decades, that the Confederacy had a civilizing and Christian mission founded upon a "natural order" (chattel slavery, in other words) and that their nation had a divine duty to spread it, and that were it not for Breckinridge and others in his administration they could have done it. Harris, despite having signed the Halifax Treaty personally, made hay of the infancy of Grand Causer mythmaking, continuing his ugly campaign against Breckinridge in sympathetic publications, most prominently the Rhett family's Charleston Mercury.

The old saying in war and politics, though, is that the other side gets a vote, and despite finding common cause with Early, a rare firebreather in the staid and insular Senate (many Senators cared more about currying prestige with state legislatures and their financial networks at home than national issues), Harris found that the Kuklos Klan he and the late Nathan Forrest had built six years earlier was not the organized paramilitary it was before. Even in Tennessee, the Klan had to compete with the local Polk Network, and the Kentucky Klan - the second-best organized of all the state chapters - effectively defected to Breckinridge once the Cabinet split emerged. Harris resigned from the Cabinet in early April over his long-running feud with Breckinridge - having served more than five years, he is still the second-longest serving Secretary of State of the Confederacy to this date. In Arkansas, the Klan was a disorganized rabble with feuds between the various county chapters, feuds that descended into bloodshed as said cliques slowly descended into criminal enterprises and competed with the state's well-heeled "the Family" political network of planters in the Delta and a faction known as the "Mountaineers" hailing from the northwest and the Ozarks who detested both the plantocracy and the Klan and brought rifles and pistols with them to the legislatures. In Mississippi, Klan leaders disliked Harris and the ones who didn't defect to the local Redshirt Brigade knighthood sat on their hands as he spent the spring trying to organize to carry the state in the fall.

Breckinridge, for his part, having been driven out of the split Klan, had his Kentucky network sewn up, enjoyed the support of the political machine developed in Texas by Senator and former illustrious Cabinet officer John H. Reagan, and found that he was the candidate of choice for many Deep South planters leery of Harris' "rabble," as well as much of the New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston merchant classes. The sitting President viewed himself as having a plain advantage despite the agitations of the Klan, and ever the Kentucky gentleman he refused to personally campaign.

There was one more candidate who, like Harris, went out to actually campaign across the states: Zeb Vance, with his small army of Volunteers with him at all times. His political network had gone dormant in the Forrest years but he found new life among poor whites who had indeed opposed the war in Cuba, most heavily concentrated in the Carolinas and Virginia. Having been Forrest's most aggressive opponent in 1867, he found new life campaigning against "centralism and imperialism," proposing perhaps an even more radical vision of state's rights than he had just six years prior, a cause that made him increasingly popular not just with voters skeptical of the Richmond government but also with state governors who disliked Breckinridge's elitism or the Jacksonian swagger of Harris and the Klan-fueled Tennessee Clique..."

- The Maze: Inside the Byzantine World of Confederate Politics in the 19th Century

[1] Perhaps too modern a parlance for a Southerner in 1873, but I'm going with it
[2] Term used intentionally