I think I read somewhere that Garfield liked him. Maybe Guiteau dies on that ship that went down in Long Island Sound the night Garfield addressed the GOP convention, and or his second term, the Readjuster is his running mate?
Former Confederate U.S. President
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You're partially right, I think. I do think we often over emphasize the Republic dominance of that era when it comes to the Presidency. Though the GOP certainly won the vast majority of presidential elections during the era between the Civil War and the Progressive Era, its important to remember that many of those elections were actually much closer than you'd initially assume.
But having said that - there was definitely a stigma against not just former Confederates running for President, but in fact Southerners in general. As late as the 1940s and 1950s there was hesitancy of the Democrats running a ticket which "smelled of magnolia" - this wouldn't be broken until they nominated LBJ in 1964 (and the circumstances around that don't need to be delved into here). Really the only way I see a Southerner getting the nomination of a major party for President during this era is if they had previously assumed the Presidency due to the death of it's previous holder. And the thought of a former Confederate getting the VP nod seems unlikely as well (though if there is an example of this, please feel free to correct me!)
Honestly, this is probably the most realistic POD for an ex-Confederate to be POTUS.
Okay, getting a little silly, but there was a 9 year old drummer in a Union corps. So, have one boy's family stay close by in Virginia, he becomes a drummer at age 8 in late winter of '65, does something heroic on the battlefield, and is given an unofficial rank for that bravery.
Okay, that's probably ASB but really, someone was going to make a Woodrow Wilson comment so why not me?
Okay, that's probably ASB but really, someone was going to make a Woodrow Wilson comment so why not me?
Okay, getting a little silly, but there was a 9 year old drummer in a Union corps. So, have one boy's family stay close by in Virginia, he becomes a drummer at age 8 in late winter of '65, does something heroic on the battlefield, and is given an unofficial rank for that bravery.
Okay, that's probably ASB but really, someone was going to make a Woodrow Wilson comment so why not me?
The first post said notable Confederates. Getting a low level soldier elected by the turn of the century is not hard at all.
Getting a notable Confederate President is hard though not as hard as some might think.
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As Vice President on a national unity ticket if you had some war or major crisis who then goes on to be President.
Or a rail split election like 1860 was for Democrats where the Republicans have a deep divide over an issue and run more then one candidate and a moderate Democrat former Confederate slips by.
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kham_coc
Banned
There was an ex-confederate who was speaker of the House. Charles Frederick Crisp. 1845-1896.
He should have had acceptable chance of winning in his own right, and there is of course the accidental route option as well.
I don't see how this follows. Being Speaker is nothing like being elected President.
kham_coc
Banned
By acceptable I mean absent asb intervention.
And of course, being nominated is very like being elected speaker at this time.
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I'll throw two others out there.
Francis Nicholls - Louisiana governor in the 1880s. On one occasion he was pelted with rocks on the steps of the state capitol because he was "too soft" on race issues. If the fire eaters hated him, his views weren't that far from the northern mainstream. And if he got elected governor of Louisiana he was by definition palatable to Southerners.
James Alcorn - Transplant who served briefly in the Confederate army and was a Republican governor of Mississippi after the war. Served as US Senator until 1877. If he stayed in DC after that he might have been a viable candidate. He ultimately sold out on civil rights issues but so did the rest of the country.
Francis Nicholls - Louisiana governor in the 1880s. On one occasion he was pelted with rocks on the steps of the state capitol because he was "too soft" on race issues. If the fire eaters hated him, his views weren't that far from the northern mainstream. And if he got elected governor of Louisiana he was by definition palatable to Southerners.
James Alcorn - Transplant who served briefly in the Confederate army and was a Republican governor of Mississippi after the war. Served as US Senator until 1877. If he stayed in DC after that he might have been a viable candidate. He ultimately sold out on civil rights issues but so did the rest of the country.
Title states former Confederate U.S. President, but I'll bite. Perhaps when Brazil abolishes slavery in 1888, one of the more prominent Confederados allies with Brazilian slaveholders in a coup. As for who might participate in such a coup, the first name that I could find is former Confederate colonel William Hutchinson Norris, who founded an American colony. However, he would have been 88 at the time so I don't think so. Another name I found was Charles Gunter, an Alabama House member and Confederate colonel, but he died in 1883.
But I think I found someone who could fit the bill. In 1888, a mob led by a Confederado named James Warne (a surgeon in the Confederate Army) lynched a Brazilian abolitionist police chief. Perhaps under the right circumstances this incident could kick off a wider pro-slavery movement in Brazil.
Would it be possible for reconstruction to be botched even worse maybe some federal agents open fire on protesters or something. Where the national Zeitgeist switches to be a little more sympathetic to the south and the Democrats end up running a former Confederate like Longstreet who is calling for a peaceful resolution.
I'll suggest James A. Walker, former and final commander of the Stonewall Brigade before it was destroyed at the Battle of Spotsylvania as well as a Republican U.S. representative for Virginia. At the 1896 Republican National Convention, he received 24 ballots for the vice-presidency. Of course, that is less than 3% of the total number cast, so it appears that he wasn't that much a major candidate. Doing some more research, however, I found that his candidacy had mostly rode a wave of northern-southern reconciliation that the McKinley campaign was trying to promote, and that by the time of the convention, it had mostly exhausted itself, and certainly lacked the energy to push a former Confederate general onto the Republican ticket (although it should be noted that as part of his front-porch campaign, McKinley invited a large number of former Confederate soldiers from the Shenandoah Valley region to his home in Canton to take part in reconciliation festivities alongside Union veterans from Canton, and they did make some concerted efforts to swing the Upper South and Georgia into their camp.)
So, it is pretty doubtful if Walker could actually weasel his way onto the ticket. It would have to take an extraordinary amount of lucky breaks for the cause behind him for that to occur (although the general theme for the 1896 election seemed to be a series of lucky breaks for both the McKinley and Bryan campaigns leading up to their respective conventions.)
So, it is pretty doubtful if Walker could actually weasel his way onto the ticket. It would have to take an extraordinary amount of lucky breaks for the cause behind him for that to occur (although the general theme for the 1896 election seemed to be a series of lucky breaks for both the McKinley and Bryan campaigns leading up to their respective conventions.)
Jonathan1997
Banned
Robert E Lee, stonewall Jackson and most likely other commanders in the South but with that stated Ulysses S Grant and general Sherman stand better chances.
Jackson was fringe of acceptable for a public setting for the 1860s in terms of his religiosity. His biggest problem with the United States and the Confederacy for that matter is they didn’t establish Christianity as the religion of the state. His religious views were too extreme and would keep him off any major party ticket.
As for Lee his emotional, psychological, and in time physical health was cratering during the war and even moreso after it. You would generally have to have a war/national crisis that leads to a national unity ticket.
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Jonathan1997
Banned
I was thinking that Lee wealth would be not too bad or that Lee thought for the Union army.
