Republicans win in 1856

Here's the first part of a timeline I've been working a bit on. Just wondering if it seems to make logical sense to others and if it could actually have happened.

August 14, 1856- Millard Fillmore is shot by Irish immigrant Patrick O’Leary. Andrew Jackson Donelson replaces him by default on the American Party Ticket.

August 20, 1856- Andrew Jackson Donelson, having decided he had even less of a chance at victory then Fillmore, and a strong proponent for slavery, backs James Buchanan’s Campaign.

August 21, 1856- Angered by their candidates backing of the Democrats, American Party leaders begin a series of meetings with Republican John C. Fremont.

September 9, 1856- American Party endorses Fremont. In exchange Freemont adopts several American Party positions including; limits on liquor sales, a 10 year waiting period for immigrants to attain citizenship (compromised for American Party’s 21), immigration restrictions, and restricting political office to native born citizens.

November 4, 1856- Freemont wins California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, taking 149 Electoral Votes, the exact number needed for victory. The Democrats kept the majority with 142 (55.7%) of House seats and 41 of the 66 Senators.

March 4, 1857- New President and Congress sworn in. They are immediately at a stalemate over almost every question imaginable especially slavery.

March 6, 1857- Dred Scott Decision.

May 21, 1857- Pro-Slavery Southerners sack the town of Lawrence, Kansas, outraging both President Fremont. This begins the ‘Missouri Crisis.’

May 22, 1857- Winfield Scott, also outraged by the sacking, is given permission from Freemont to assemble a force of 3,500 federal troops with the purpose of hunting the attackers, rumored to by in Missouri, down.

May 31, 1857- Having reached the Mississippi River across from St. Louis Scott and his men begin crossing the river by steamboat. St. Louis Mayor John How (in this timeline having been reelected) blocks their crossing though and tells them they must cross further north to avoid St. Louis. When Winfield Scott refuses to cross elsewhere, as they planned on re-supplying in St. Louis, several cannons open fire on the steamboats attempting to cross on How’s orders. Scott retreats back across the river. Realizing the delicacy of the situation Scott contacts the president before taking any further moves.

June 1, 1857- On the president’s orders Scott leads his troops on a march and crosses the Mississippi south of St. Louis. Scott then marches into St. Louis, easily defeats the small garrison there and places John How under arrest. Anti-Federal rioting soon breaks out in St. Louis, though, with Scott’s troops as its target. Marshall law is then declared by Scott and uses military force to put down the riot, leading to several dozen civilian casualties.

June 2, 1857- Hancock Lee Jackson, the governor of Missouri, announces the mobilization of the Missouri National Guard refusing to allow any federal troops outside of St. Louis. His reasoning, he states, is that they will ‘do nothing but go about stealing from farming men and arresting innocent men and women simply because they believe in the natural superiority of the white man.’

June 7, 1857- In an attempt to give himself the upper hand in the standoff Jackson begins surrounding St. Louis on the Missouri side of the Mississippi.

June 8, 1857- As midnight nears a lookout spots Jackson’s troops attempting to cross the Mississippi several miles north of St. Louis, most likely for the purpose of completely surrounding the city, cutting it off from supplies or reinforcements. Scott leads a force of 500 back across the Mississippi and then ambushes Jackson’s forces, forcing them to retreat back across the river. This the first act of blatant violence between the two sides and, though there were under 100 combined casualties, it sends shockwaves throughout the US.
 
Here's some more of the timeline:

June 9, 1857- Scott requests reinforcements fearing a full invasion of St. Louis.

June 12, 1857- 1,500 additional reinforcements arrive in St. Louis bringing the garrison there up to approximately 5,000. Scott also begins the construction of fortifications around the border of St. Louis.

June 24, 1857- As the standoff continues President Fremont orders a force of 2,500 troops to be assembled out of federal troops already in the west.

June 26, 1857- The force is successfully assembled under little known, newly promoted major, Andrew Jackson Smith. They begin moving eastward towards Missouri.

June 29, 1857- Smith, having laid out his plans, and his force cross over from Kansas into Missouri, for the first time making their presence known to Hancock Lee Jackson, the Missouri governor. Their plan is to march straight to Jefferson City and throw the state government into turmoil, hopefully giving them the opportunity for a quick and clean victory.

July 4, 1857- As independence day reaches high noon Smith’s forces approach the state capital. Defending the city is a force of about 600 men, all except 100 of whom are nothing more then farmers armed with their hunting rifles. Smith, hoping to minimize casualties, orders his small artillery force to shell their hastily built earthen fortifications rather then an immediate frontal assault, one he would have likely won.

July 5, 1857- In the dead of night, at approx. 3 in the morning, the Jefferson City defenders sally forth from their fortifications and launch a surprise attack against Smith’s force. Smith orders his troops to retreat with the purpose of reforming and launching a counter-attack but his opposition continues their pursuit until day break leaving Smith’s force far away from Jefferson City and incredibly fatigued.

July 6, 1857- Back in St. Louis Jackson had continued to build up his force, now numbering nearly 12,000, many more then Scott’s surveyors had estimated. Realizing that this may be his last chance to attack Jackson does so and his force moves against St. Louis. Scott’s force manages to hold their fortifications against the initial assault though and the entire day passes with no break in the action. Simply casualties.

July 7, 1857- Smith’s force, now regrouped and ready, moves again against Jefferson City. The opposition force has, by this point, now swelled to nearly 1,000 with the news of a victory but this does not deter Smith. Instead he orders a full frontal assault on the city. The fighting continues throughout the day but by the end it is clear Smith has achieved victory. In St. Louis another tough day of fighting occurs, again with no break in the action, but it has become clear that Scott’s forces cannot hold for much longer. As night falls over July 7th Winfield Scott orders what is left of his force to retreat across the river.
 
Wasn't St.Louis unionist?

To the best of my knowledge St. Louis and Missouri as a whole was pro-slavery and pro-south but the state was essentially not allowed to succeeded by the union.

EDIT: In fact now that I think about it I know that the St. Louis police force is run by the state and not the city because there was fear they would lead an armed southern revolt.
 
July 9, 1857- Smith’s force, having suffered severe casualties during the battle of Jefferson City, is forced to pull back to Kansas to receive supplies and reinforcements. For the first time since May Missouri has no federal troops in it.

July 14, 1857- At a brief meeting in St. Louis between Scott and Jackson, who had taken direct command of Missouri forces, a temporary ceasefire is called and further meetings are planned between Jackson and Fremont to work out the crisis.

July 19, 1857- The day before the meetings with Fremont are planned to occur Missouri Senator and ally of Jackson, Trusten Polk, begins talks in Washington with representatives of several different Southern states.

July 31, 1857- Talks between Missouri and the US collapse and a return to combat is feared.

August 1, 1857- Trusten Polk, along with the senators from every slave state announces plans to attempt to impeach President Fremont if he moves against Missouri again. The same day Fremont issues a statement in which he says that he is president and he is commander in chief and that he will not be ‘bullied’ by a group of congressman. In response the house, which is controlled by the Democrats, pass the articles of impeachment beginning the process. The trial begins the next day before the senate.

August 11, 1857- After multiple days of debate, the senate meets to vote on the impeachment of President Fremont and his vice-president William L. Dayton. In order to impeach him they need 44 of the 66 senators to vote in favor. Of the 41 democrats all except California Senator David C. Broderick vote yes. This leaves 4 additional votes needed from the 25 remaining senators (20 GOP, 5 America). They get the 4 votes exactly from Kentucky’s 2 American Party senators along with Tennessee’s John Bell and Texas’ Sam Houston, both also members of the American party. President Fremont, under the official charge of treason, becomes the first US president to be impeached.
 
I really like the TL, but I'm really not sure an impeachment would work as you've described. Here are my thoughts:

1) I don't really see any legal grounds for impeachment. In fact, Fremont's actions were actually short of what he really could have probably gotten away with, that is, basically declaring the state under Federal control on the premise of a State militia acting against Federal forces.
In that case, I could see legitimate grounds for an impeachment on the basis of violating a State's right to use it's militia, or something similar.

2) In the scenario you've written, and even in my own detailed above, I'm not really sure an impeachment could have gone through. I know the split between Northern and Southern Democrats was not as open at this point, but it certainly existed. The best case I could see is that the Northern Democrats go along on whatever case there actually is against Fremont and his VP both for political reasons, since impeaching the President and VP would create a constitutional crisis without the 20th amendment in place yet, possibly allowing them to place a Democrat in the White House.

Granted, there may be flaws in my thinking or some things that I'm missing, so feel free to slam me on whatever may be. Anyone else have thoughts?
 
Ya your probably right this was just a little free form idea with not that much research behind it.
In any case, it's a nice TL. If you really wanted to see it happen, I could imagine those Southerners wanted to impeach Fremont finding it too difficult or baseless and decided instead to secede, starting with Missouri.
 
In any case, it's a nice TL. If you really wanted to see it happen, I could imagine those Southerners wanted to impeach Fremont finding it too difficult or baseless and decided instead to secede, starting with Missouri.

Indeed I've done a more realistic timeline on the history of Mongolia which is in the post 1900 forum which I plan on continuing some I think I'll just let this be as my early attempt at a good timeline :D
 
To the best of my knowledge St. Louis and Missouri as a whole was pro-slavery and pro-south but the state was essentially not allowed to succeeded by the union.

EDIT: In fact now that I think about it I know that the St. Louis police force is run by the state and not the city because there was fear they would lead an armed southern revolt.

The Germans in St. Louis were strongly unionist and in OTL St. Louis was a center of unionist sentiment at the beginning of the Civil War--but maybe in this TL the association of unionism/free-soilism with anti-immigrant sentiment has made the Germans apathetic?
 
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