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.