The Party of Freedom and Progress

The Party of Freedom and Progress
A President Frémont TL
Created by fjihr
“I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.”
– Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist and former slave

Part I: The Rebirth of the Union

Background

In 1848, the Whig Party had won the presidential elections, despite their electoral campaign having been based on calling President Polk a warmonger, which was proven to be wrong. The Whig presidential candidate, war hero Zachary Taylor, became President. Yet, only eight years later, the party had virtually collapsed. How did the Whigs fall from power so quickly? The answer is the great issue of slavery.

Having been an issue even during the era of the Founding Fathers, it became a major divisive issue in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War. With the American annexation of quite a few slave-owning regions, there were disputes over whether the new regions that were should enter as slave or free states. Ultimately, California entered as free state and Texas entered as a slave state but with less territory than it originally wanted in exchange for the American government relieving it of its debt, with all other Mexican land having joined as territories with unsure legal status and the buying and selling, but not owning, of slaves having been outlawed in Washington, DC.

Due to the issue of slavery having been opened up, the Whig Party, a party that had both pro-slavery and abolitionist members, had been divided somewhat. The abolitionists had blocked the re-nomination of incumbent Millard Fillmore to candidacy due to his blocking of the Wilmot Proviso, a law that would have outlawed slavery in all of the annexed regions save for Texas. In Fillmore’s place, a popular but politically inexperienced war hero, General Winfield Scott, became the Whig candidate, who would lose in a landslide to Democrat candidate Franklin Pierce.

The nails were truly set into the coffin of the Whig Party when the Kansas–Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, in which the legality of slavery would be decided upon popular sovereignty, or by the voting of citizens. Its passing divided Whigs further, to the point that the northern Whigs had left the party to form the staunchly abolitionist Republican Party. The Whigs were permanently reduced to minor party status when the majority of its members left to join the anti-Catholic and anti-immigration American Party.

With this, the stage was set for the 1856 election, an election that permanently shifted American politics, in which the party that was second-largest eight years ago had become a minor party and three parties –two of which were only founded recently – would compete for the presidency. 
 
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The Election of the Republican

The results of the 1856 elections were unexpected. For many, a win by either of the new parties was unlikely and a Democrat win seemed likely. When the Republicans won, many were extremely surprised that a young party had won, and many Southerners were unhappy that a party that threatened the way of the South had won.

The campaign for the Democratic candidacy was one between James Buchanan, former Secretary of State, and Franklin Pierce, the incumbent president, with James Douglas a third candidate. Buchanan had already achieved a plurality in the first ballot over Pierce, and this is attributed to the ineffectiveness of Pierce’s presidency. However, this advantage would eventually falter and by the fifth ballot, the incumbent Pierce gained the vast majority of the nomination. In the fifteenth ballot, all of Buchanan’s votes had shifted to either Pierce or Douglas and in the seventeenth ballot Pierce had won, making him the Democrat candidate.


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Franklin Pierce, incumbent president and Democratic candidate, 1856

The American Party and the Republican Party had far simpler electoral processes and this is most likely because they were so young. In the American Party, former Whig Party president Millard Fillmore easily won the candidacy, and in the Republican Party, renowned frontiersman John Frémont easily won the candidacy.

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John Frémont, Republican candidate, 1856

The Republicans were staunchly against slavery being introduced into the American territories and everyone knew that if they had the chance, they would abolish slavery across the United States. They opposed the Kansas-Missouri Compromise that allowed a territory to enter the Union as a free or slave state based on popular sovereignty, and stated that this was the cause of the violence known today as Bleeding Kansas. They also opposed the Democrat intention of annexing Cuba due to slave-owning being legal within its borders. They campaigned extremely fiercely in the Northern states, where they held a chance to win electoral votes.

The Democrats had the intention of asserting themselves as being “on the fence” on the issue despite their true stance of pro-slavery. They supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act and a future annexation of Cuba. They decried the Republican Party as extremist and (correctly) stating that if they were to be elected, civil war would occur. They intended to be pro-slavery, but not too drastically so. However, these intentions were ruined from the start by Pierce’s immense unpopularity in the North. His reputation as being pro-slavery led to many Northerners falling to the Republican side, and this considered one of the reasons why Frémont won his electoral victory.

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Millard Fillmore, American "Know-Nothing" Party candidate, 1856

The American Party stated that they were the only “national party”, with the dichotomy between Republicans and Democrats and the fact that their voter bases were primarily North and South was keeping either of them from being truly American parties. They had the goal of slowing Catholic immigration. This goal in itself obviously kept Catholic voters from voting this party and they would have to depend on Protestant votes. Their attempts to bring voters to them had all failed, and they had little chance to win.

A minor scandal was caused when the American Party accused Frémont of being a Catholic. The Republican Party, being unable to deny this statement too strongly due to fears of losing German Catholic votes, was unable to refute this statement and a few votes were lost because of this.

In the subsequent elections, Frémont won 163 electoral votes, with Pierce winning 122 and Fillmore winning 11.

The effects of the election were quite obvious. The fact that the North and solely the North voted Republican meant that the South was incredibly angered by it. Many feared it would cause civil war. However, the fact that Congress remained under Democrat control meant that any bills the Republicans wished to pass would be thrown out of Congress with no thought whatsoever.

The South was angered by the results of the election. Their stronghold on American politics had broken and now a prominent critic of slavery had become president. The previously marginalized secessionist fire-eater faction of Southern politics had now become a major political force. Fire-eaters like the governor of Mississippi, John A. Quitman, had become influential. Their talk of secession attracted many to him. With Bleeding Kansas getting more intense and the great failure of popular sovereignty even proven to Southern Democrats, more and more people became secessionists, for it was apparent to them that any “Black Republican” president would attempt to eradicate their “peculiar institution”.

Many Blacks were happy that a Republican won the presidency. The more educated Blacks such as Frederick Douglass realized that they would be unable to end slavery quickly without a war, but they were nevertheless happy that a party with the goal of gradually abolishing slavery had its candidate in the Whitehouse.

In the North, many felt that the goal espoused by the Republicans were honourable. They openly were celebrating their victory over both racist candidate Millard Fillmore and the pro-slavery candidate John Buchanan. Many of them would later vote Republicans to Congress in the mid-term elections.

With this election, the divide that would begin the Civil War had opened up. It would be impossible for peace beyond this date.  
 
If the Republicans have enough electoral votes to take the Presidency in '56, how do the Democrats still control 'Congress'? The Senate, sure, that takes 6 years to completely roll over, but if there's that much swing to radical Republicans (and Fremont was pretty Radical, iirc), how do the Democrats keep the House?
 
The Party of Freedom and Progress
A President Frémont TL
Created by fjihr
“I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.”
– Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist and former slave

Part I: The Rebirth of the Union

Background

In 1848, the Whig Party had won the presidential elections, despite their electoral campaign having been based on calling President Polk a warmonger, which was proven to be wrong. The Whig presidential candidate, war hero Zachary Taylor, became President. Yet, only eight years later, the party had virtually. How did the Whigs fall from power so quickly?

Virtually what?:confused:
 
If the Republicans have enough electoral votes to take the Presidency in '56, how do the Democrats still control 'Congress'? The Senate, sure, that takes 6 years to completely roll over, but if there's that much swing to radical Republicans (and Fremont was pretty Radical, iirc), how do the Democrats keep the House?

This is before the Radical/Liberal split within the Republican Party (and keep in mind it was caused by Reconstruction), so Fremont isn't a radical... yet.

The Democrats still control Congress because Fremont was only voted due to hatred of Pierce. Democratic Representatives do not have that same stigma attached to them.

Virtually what?:confused:

Virtually collapsed... fixed.
 
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Results of 1856 Elections
Republican Party: Frémont: 163 Electoral Votes (43%)
Democratic Party: Pierce: 122 Electoral Votes (30%)
American Party: Fillmore: 11 Electoral Votes (27%)
Territories: Not Voting


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Increasing Tensions and the Brown Rebellion

The period between Frémont’s inauguration and the congressional election of 1858 was a period of increasing tensions. With fire-eaters such as current Mississippi governor and future Confederate president John A. Quitman turning more and more towards secession, violence became more and more widespread. This was shown in the many confrontations between the slave supporters and the abolitionists.

Only two days after Frémont’s inauguration, in the court case Dred Scott V. Sandford, in which a slave named Dred Scott attempted to sue for his freedom and lost on the grounds that he was black and therefore not a citizen. Despite President Frémont being staunchly anti-slavery, he was unable to do anything because Congress was under the control of the pro-slavery Democrats. Indeed, many Democrat senators and congressmen spoke about how the outcome was one that must be respected. Although many abolitionist congressmen and senators openly spoke out against it and Frémont did so privately, nothing could be done against it with a Democrat-controlled Congress and Senate.

The Brown Rebellion

John Brown is today considered an abolitionist hero, but he is overshadowed in this regard by Ulysses Grant and William Sherman. However, he fought against the evils of slavery even prior to the Civil War.

Bleeding Kansas was the term for the conflict in Kansas caused by Franklin Pierce’s popular sovereignty policy. With the government in deadlock and any attempts by Frémont to repeal this policy stymied by Congress, many put abolition into their own hands. One such person was John Brown. Unlike other abolitionists and the Republican Party, who argued for gradual and peaceful manumission, Brown argued for a militant insurrection to overthrow slavery and he led forces against pro-slavery forces in the Battles of Black Jack and Osawatomie. He gained great amounts of support from others who agreed with him. But because of the militant nature of his rebellion, Frémont did not associate with him or give him aid that went beyond blocking any congressional attempts to make him a national fugitive.

Despite being chased by forces led by General Lee, by the time the Civil War began, he was not captured. He would eventually be pardoned post-Civil War.
 
The 1858 Congressional Elections

The 1858 congressional elections were extremely harsh and competitive. In much of the North, the vote was assured to be Republican, and in the South the vote was assured to be Democratic. However, states in the Central US were divided between Democratic voters and Republican voters. This was shown best in the state of Illinois.

The state of Illinois was long divided between pro-slavery and abolitionism. One pro-slavery senator was Stephen Douglas. However, the Republicans had a very good candidate for his spot, former congressman Abraham Lincoln, who would go on to become Vice President and later President. In a series of debates that are today considered some of the best in American history including his famous “A House Divided” speech, Lincoln’s superior debating skills led to his eventual victory over Douglas. To many Democrats, Douglas was seen as too soft on abolitionism, while to the Republicans, Lincoln, already leader of the liberal wing of the party, gained more influence.

In the subsequent elections, the Republicans were able to capture a substantial fraction of the vote. They had gained a majority over the Senate. However, while many Republicans were celebrating, the South talked of secession.

This election had at last made secession occur. When Northerners voted Republican, many knew that their decision may cause civil war, but they concluded that it was better than electing Democrats again.

With this result, Frémont was now able to illegalize slavery in the territories and begin the long road to the abolition of slavery.  
 
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