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During the Republican National Convention in 1864, James Garfield, head of the Ohio delegation, telegraphed Union Major General William Starke Rosecrans to ask if he would consider running to be Abraham Lincoln's vice presidential running mate. The Republicans that year were seeking a War Democrat to run with Lincoln under the temporary name of "National Union Party." Rosecrans replied in a cryptically positive manner, but Garfield never received the return telegram. Friends of Rosecrans speculated that Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, intercepted and suppressed it. But what if the telegram had evaded Stanton, and reached it's intended recipent, and in the end, Rosecrans is nominated for Vice President instead of Andrew Johnson.

Lincoln is assassinated on schedule on April 14, 1865. William Starke Rosecrans becomes the 17th President of the United States. How does he deal with Reconstruction? Will he be able to work with Congress better than Andy Johnson did? Will he be re-elected in 1868? Discuss.

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