DBWI: Hamlin dropped from ticket?

So apparently in 1864, Lincoln's re-election campaign seriously considered dropping Hannibal Hamlin from the ticket in favor of someone else. I think the idea behind it was to try and appeal to the south or something. But, as we know, Hamlin stayed and would later become President after Lincoln was assassinated. What do you think would happen if they did drop Hamlin? Who would replace him?
 
Would depend. There is a rumour that the alcoholic former Ten Senator A Johnson might have got the job.

Probably there would not have been the mass expropriation and exile of the planter class. Maybe voting rights for former slaves would not be so guaranteed. There might have been less of a voluntary exile but some other racist whites in the South.

Who knows the lunatic faction that says that the Treasonous slaveholder rebellion was somehow a Glorious lost cause would be of some significance.

I doubt that Paul Robeson would be such a significant Political figure
 
Could have been catastrophic.

Andrew Johnson was tremendously bitter against secessionists in general and big planters in particular. Had he become President he might have been tempted to fall in with extremists calling for confiscation of plantations - he had declared that "Traitors must be impoverished" - and could easily have been seduced by such notions. With Johnson as an ally, the Radicals might have gained a stronger hold on government than they ever did OTL. The conquered South could have saddled America with an immense "Irish problem".
 
Are we sure it would be Johnson? I mean, I don't oppose another Tennessean President, but he's such a loaded figure. I mean, there's not a whole lot available about him at this point what is there is pretty mixed. If they wanted to appeal to the south could they maybe go with Clement Vallandigham? That would allow him to become the VP a little sooner than in OTL.
 
Are we sure it would be Johnson? I mean, I don't oppose another Tennessean President, but he's such a loaded figure. I mean, there's not a whole lot available about him at this point what is there is pretty mixed. If they wanted to appeal to the south could they maybe go with Clement Vallandigham? That would allow him to become the VP a little sooner than in OTL.


"Loaded" in what way? He was a fanatical Unionist, which would suit Lincoln temperamentally, but also a Democrat of Southern stock, ideal for winning the support of the pro-war wing of his old party. He would have been an obvious choice.

Daniel S Dickenson of New York would also have made sense , and indeed might have saved Lincoln from narrowly losing NY.
 
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President Hamlin's greatest triumph - the abolition of the death penalty for Federal offences - might also have been put off for many years - perhaps even into the 20C.
 
"Loaded" in what way? He was a fanatical Unionist, which would suit Lincoln temperamentally, but also a Democrat of Southern stock, ideal for winning the support of the pro-war wing of his old party. He would have been an obvious choice.

Daniel S Dickenson of New York would also have made sense , and indeed might have saved Lincoln from narrowly losing NY.

I would not call him fanatical, and there is the obvious fact he was a drunk.
 
Are we sure it would be Johnson? I mean, I don't oppose another Tennessean President, but he's such a loaded figure. I mean, there's not a whole lot available about him at this point what is there is pretty mixed. If they wanted to appeal to the south could they maybe go with Clement Vallandigham? That would allow him to become the VP a little sooner than in OTL.

I think Joseph Holt would have been a more likely choice - he and Lincoln personally got along well and he had all of the benefits of a Johnson without any of the detractions.
 
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