Earlier U.S. Civil War 1848 to 1855?

[Belisarius II]

The year denominated in the title makes me wonder if the revolutions of 1848 could spread to America and ferment the basis for a civil war.

The USA was already a representative Republic, that the liberals of Europe admired. What would they be revolting against?

 

[Fernan3451]

The USA was already a representative Republic, that the liberals of Europe admired. What would they be revolting against?

My guess would be that they fight for the issue of state rights.

 

[Belisarius II]

April 17, 1850: during a heated debate on the Senate floor, Senator Foote pulls a gun and threatens to shoot Senator Benton. Senator Dickinson tries to wrestle the gun away and [POD] during their struggle, Foote accidentally shoots and kills V.P. Millard Fillmore, who was standing a few feet away. Zachary Taylor still gets sick and dies that summer, resulting in David Rice Atchison as Acting President.

Under the Succession Act of 1792 there must be a special election in November 1850. It's a corrupt, chaotic shitshow, with both Atchison and Seward claiming they won, and refusing to concede to the other.

Nobody could refuse to concede. If no one wins enough electoral votes to win, it gets settled in the House of Representatives. No body before our own insane times ever thought of not conceding. All it would do is discredit the loser.

 

[Belisarius II]

My guess would be that they fight for the issue of state rights.

What rights would those be, and how would they tie into what the Revolutionaries of 1848 were fighting for?

 

[Belisarius II]

It's hard to imagine it starting in that timeframe. Everything was still going the South's way, and the Democratic Party was still firmly in control of national politics. It wasn't until the later part of the 1850's that the Slave Power was feeling threatened, when Kansas started bleeding.

 

[Anarch King of Dipsodes]

Isn't Atchison from Missouri and Seward from New York? Both free states?

Missouri was a slave state. Atchison was a leader of the Border Ruffians - pro-slavery Missourians who repeatedly invaded Kansas to impose slavery at gunpoint. Atchison himself rode with the Ruffians in 1855, when they stole the first election to the territorial legislature.