President of the Confederacy

I under stand the fact that Lee abhorred politics. However I felt that I needed to place him on this because there was the possibility that he might have accepted a nomination if he felt it was his duty. Don't believe that it would be likely but it could have been possible.

Agreed. I listed Joe Johnston and Beauregard since they were fairly popular anti-Davis soldiers that might be nominated to get the soldier vote.

One thing to consider is the one issue that united the Confederates - slavery - has been resolved, leaving them divided on most other issues. They also haven't divided into political parties yet; 1867 candidates will-probably be self-nominated and could include half or more of the men on my list.
 
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Sounds like a good platform to prevent a TL-191 scenario. Who else might fit into the Mild Reconstructionist and Mild Moderate parties since each only have one so far.

James Longstreet would be a candidate for the "Mild Reconstructionists".
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Another plank of the Mild Reconstructionists will probably be States Rights über alles and a weak Confederal government. They could do quite well in the Upper South, especially Virginia.

Beauregard is Catholic and a Creole. While this flies in Louisiana, it reeks of Mediterranean Popery to a lot of Southerners. I could definitely see him in government as a governor or senator or Cabinet secretary or military honcho--maybe even VP if he's willing to settle for it--but probably not POTUS.
 
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I don't think Liberal-Conservative is a good scale for measuring Confederate Candidates. According to the Book Look Away, the four main camps seemed to be Nationalist (favoring a stronger central government), Moderates (generally opposed to the power of the Davis government), Fire Eaters, and Reconstructionists. My guesses on that division are below.

Extreme Fire Eater
Robert Rhett
David Atchison

Fire Eater
Robert Barnwell

Mild Fire Eater
Louis Wigfall
James Chestnut

Nationalist
J C Breckenridge
John Reagan

Mild Nationalist
Robert Toombs
Robert E Lee

Extreme Moderate
Joseph Brown

Moderates
Alexander Stephens
Howell Cobb
Robert Hunter
PGT Beauregard
Wiley Harris

Mild Moderate
Joseph Johnston

Mild Reconstructionist
Zebulon Vance

I'm gonna try and turn Fiver's list into political parties as it presents more than enough differences for the formation of Political Parties. Also the more I think on it I feel that the CSA might become a multi-party system instead of a Two Party system.

The Know Nothings: Extreme Fire Eaters

The States Rights Party: Fire Eaters, Mild Fire Eaters

The Confederate Party: Nationalist

The Patriot Party: Mild Nationalist

The Whigs: Moderates, Extreme Moderates

The Southern Democrats: Mild Moderates

The Copperheads: Mild Reconstructionist

All right best I have come up with so far I know that some of the names have been used by turtledove (Confederate and Patriot Parties as well as the Whigs) I tried to name the parties as close to historical background as possible. Names of the two Nationalist Parties kinda name themselves in my opinion. The Know Nothings were an antebellum party that kinda fit into the Extreme fire eaters. The Whigs really were trying to reorganize them selves within the confederacy over the course of the war. while the Mild Moderates became the Southern Democrats and the Reconstructionist I named the copperhead because it just seemed to fit.

you would probably see alliances between two or more parties when it comes to presidential elections
 
Also the more I think on it I feel that the CSA might become a multi-party system instead of a Two Party system.

The number of political parties a country has is really dependent on its electoral system. A first-past-the-post system generates two dominant parties. It is extremely rare to get a third party in such systems because their actual seats in the legistlature almost never comes near their actual vote, it is always a lot less.

So I don't think you'll get multiple parties. What you'll get are two main parties made up of various factions who battle it out for control.

The major Southern party is going to be the old southern Democrats. Here the factions will be between the aristocratic republicans and the Jacksonian populists.

The minority Southern party will be a pseudo-Whigs amenable to industrialization, capital, and infrastructure improvements. A lot of old Unionists will flock to this party. It should also see a good influx of veteran officers who saw how bad the army was served by the CSA governments and wants a stronger national government. I could see Longstreet becoming the leader of this party.
 
Longstreet running against Bragg, perhaps?

I could see that as Longstreet and Bragg were not the type to get along anyhow and Longstreet was connected to the anti-Davis faction from the time Lee took over the Army of Northern Virginia. If CS political parties in the plural sense have long enough to evolve the deep roots would be the pro-Davis/pre-independence Democratic faction and the other the Stephens/Johnston/Longstreet/Whig faction.
 
I could see that as Longstreet and Bragg were not the type to get along anyhow and Longstreet was connected to the anti-Davis faction from the time Lee took over the Army of Northern Virginia. If CS political parties in the plural sense have long enough to evolve the deep roots would be the pro-Davis/pre-independence Democratic faction and the other the Stephens/Johnston/Longstreet/Whig faction.

So the CS political system breaks down to two parties, one side the pro-Davis Democrats and the anti-Davis Whig (whatever they call themselves).

The 1867 elections could see Breckinridge vs. Beauregard vs. Who? vs. Somebody else. I wonder how that would look.
 
So the CS political system breaks down to two parties, one side the pro-Davis Democrats and the anti-Davis Whig (whatever they call themselves).

The 1867 elections could see Breckinridge vs. Beauregard vs. Who? vs. Somebody else. I wonder how that would look.

Like in the USA this would not be a development initially encouraged and would reflect deep and profound disagreements about Confederate society, complicated immensely by the siege mentality any independent CSA will have. The other major complicating factor is that CS politics, as with pre-war Southern US politics and to a real extent *post*war Southern politics of OTL will be far more strongly identified with individuals than with ideologies. The final complicating factor will remain that the only universal core of CS nationalism, in a siege mentality society, is the Confederate Army, which will be over time used primarily for suppressing and patrolling for things like slave revolts, inuring it to having Third Department-style repressive power in peacetime.....

The USA had the time and peace to start developing a two-party system without imminent fear of large-scale invasion. Even the border fortifications in the Ohio weren't *offensive* threats. To an independent CSA it has much more pressing threats right out of the starting gate, meaning it has much more work to do to get where the USA did in less time, without any grace periods allowed.
 
Not Robert E. Lee. He was too much a soldier to want to be overly involved in politics and the involvement of CS generals in CS politics would make him running on the basis of his military service....iffy.
True. Yet I still think that having a TL where Robert E. Lee is and Ulysses S. Grant are both presidents of their own countries at the same time would be a cool idea. I'm sure it would lead to some interesting forign relations meetings. But like you said I am not convienced Lee would run for office. Also what would an Eisenhower situation involving Lee even be like?
 
the country will go to heck if you don't run type of deal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft_Eisenhower

In Lee's case it would be along the lines of "Its your duty to become the next president because your the only person who can hold this country together". or something along those lines.

I can see the South becoming a three party system with the Pro Davis Democrats vs the Anti Davis pro Stephens/Longstreet Whigs and a third Party who don't like either A or B. I see this third party being along the Fire Eaters (all denominations)
 
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