alternatehistory.com

Yes, there was an Adams--a John Quincy Adams at that!--who was a Democrat.

"Adams was the son of Charles Francis Adams and Abigail Brown Brooks,[2] the grandson and namesake of president John Quincy Adams and the great-grandson of President John Adams. He graduated from Harvard University in 1853, studied law, attained admission to the bar, and practiced in Boston. He later established an experimental model farm near Quincy, Massachusetts. Adams married Frances (Fanny) Cadwalader Crowninshield (1839–1911), daughter of George (1812–1857) and Harriet Sears Crowninshield (1809–1873) of the politically powerful Crowninshield family.

"During the Civil War he served on the staff of Governor John Andrew with the rank of Colonel.[3]

"Adams served in several local offices in Quincy, including town meeting moderator, school board chairman and judge of the local court. He was elected to the Massachusetts state legislature as a Republican, but soon switched to the Democratic Party because of his disaffection with Republican Reconstruction policies.[4] In addition to serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1865, 1867, 1870 and 1873, he was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Governor of Massachusetts every year from 1867 to 1871. In 1873 he was the unsuccessful nominee for lieutenant governor.[5]

"Adams received one vote for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States at the 1868 Democratic National Convention.[6] In 1872 the faction of Democrats that refused to support Horace Greeley nominated Charles O'Conor for president and John Quincy Adams II for vice-president on the "straight Democratic" ticket. They declined, but their names remained on the ballot in some states.[7][8][9] After losing an election for lieutenant governor in 1876, Adams refused most further involvement in politics, though he was considered by Grover Cleveland for a cabinet position in 1893.[10]

"In 1877 he was made a member of the Harvard Corporation.[11] Adams died at age 60 in Quincy on August 24, 1894. He was buried at Mount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy.[12]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quincy_Adams_II

Obviously, the O'Conor-Adams ticket has no chance in 1872, but is there any way we can JQAII on a real national Democratic ticket with a chance of winning? This would probably depend on on JQAII actually being successful in one of his many races for the governorship of Massachusetts. The problem is that so far as I can see he never did better than his 58.24-41.69% loss to Governor Alexander H. Bullock in 1867. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=59426 In 1869, he again finished over sixteen points behind the Republican, but if he could have gotten the 9.80% of the vote that went for "Labor-Reform" candidate Edwin M. Chamberlain, the race would have been close. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=185062 Probably you need a last-minute scandal for a Massachusetts Republican to lose to Adams, but if it happened, Adams would be an obvious national Democratic candidate.

(In 1879, Adams got only *four* percent of the vote for governor, but that's not really fair to use against him, because he was running as an "Independent Democrat" that year, opposing both the Republican John Davis Long and the "Butler Democrat"--who, not surprisingly, was Ben Butler...)

Besides having him elected president or vice-president, the other way for him to become POTUS would be for him to become Secretary of State. Then in 1886 after the death of Vice President Hendricks and the passage of the Presidential Succession Act, he is one heartbeat away...
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