alternatehistory.com

since i've had Anglo-American Rivalry on the brain, lately--particularly the rise of the Republican Party and the outbreak of the Civil War--one thing i wanted to explore is the possibility of John C. Frémont being the first Republican President rather than Lincoln, and his presidency potentially leading to secession (because the South has a history of bitching and moaning whenever they don't get their way, i doubt Frémont's election would deter them from secession any more than Lincoln's did :rolleyes:). Frémont's own positions may work well for another thing i've kind-of decided, that the Union would try to wait out the Confederacy after Sumter is attacked rather than call up an armed force to fight, which was a contributing factor to the secession of Virginia and the other states in the "Near South"; Frémont was apparently pretty passive-aggressive, so just starving out the CSA would probably be his way to go until they (almost inevitably) decide to straight up invade the Union

but first thing's first: Frémont needs to actually be elected :p of course, he was the Republican candidate in 1856 (only to lose out to Buchanan) but does anyone think he could conceivably be elected at an earlier or later time? perhaps his administration could replace Lincoln's from OTL, or maybe he could get in there in the 1852 election. or perhaps he's even elected at a later time, such as in , in which case the Civil War could conceivably occur at a later time than it historically did (which could bring all sorts of interesting changes). Frémont did actually run in 1864 as a Radical Republican, but that didn't mean much
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