"The Potomac Calls"
WI Virginia Elected a Unionist Governor in 1859?
A New Timeline By Japhy
Prologue
Richmond
May 26th, 1859
Evening
Even at this late hour, and even with the quirks of the Virginia Constitution which meant that it would be seven months before the result came into effect, the crowds were climbing the hill to the Statehouse. A few men had even climbed the statue of Washington that stood before it to wave flags, confirming that the old tradition was a bipartisan one. Fireworks were set off in the city below and cheers rose with the screeching of the rockets.
Henry A. Wise, the outgoing governor of a defeated party, staring out the second floor window of the Executive Mansion across the Square could not suppress for a moment, a slight smile at this celebration of Democracy. Richmond had always been a Whiggish town, and this carnival atmosphere was the inevitable result once the results had started to turn decisively. He had, in his days as a Whig celebrated similarly when Young Tom Gilmer had won back in ‘40.
But then the smile faded, and a scowl took its place. The old Whigs that he and Gilmer and their captain, John Tyler were gone. They had all followed Tyler when he was President and led them away from Clay towards Calhoun and into the Democratic Party. What was left now was a party of stance-less centrism, cut-throats, cowards, chatterers street mobs, secret societies and those beholden to New York Banks. They weren’t Whigs anymore. Nor were they even that plebeian monstrosity that had been the Know-Nothings. The people of Richmond may still have stood proud as Whigs but they were just one small cog in the congealed sludge that was the ‘Opposition Party’.
Wise turned away from the window and walked back to the small party he was hosting in the other room, the scowl was gone, but so was the grin. Instead he presented himself with all the quiet dignity that the office he held dictated he have in an hour such as this. The party had become a gloomy affair. John Letcher, the would-be Governor of Virginia until the upset was nowhere to be seen. One of Wise’s manservants offered a card signed by the now former Congressmen offering his apologies. For a moment Wise considered crumpling up the card and tossing it in a corner, or burning it, as he had to the damning telegraph that showed the critical turn in the Shenandoah. But as much as this was the fault of Letcher, he simply slipped the card into one of his pockets, and moved his way towards one of the slaves that would offer him a wine.
Before he could make it though, he was intercepted by one of his stern-faced guests, a man though who as a former-governor simply always looked stern, rather the appearance being an affliction of the news. “I’ve been looking at the talley, we haven’t lost too much in the legislature at least.” offered William Smith. Wise was taken aback by this. “Does the Party still have a majority?”
“A clear one,” nodded the man known across the country as ‘Extra Billy’, “In both houses.”
“A small comfort.”
“A very small comfort, indeed.” Said Smith. “But considering the outrage over the debate, I guess it’s the best we could have hoped for.”
Wise looked towards the door of the hall, where the Democratic nominee must have fled though on his way out. The lack of a debate had made national news, and given the Oppositionists everything they’d needed to allow the man of their meaningless party to run a meaningless but effective campaign. Letcher’s initial refusal having made him seem like he was afraid, his attempt to seem tough by refusing to give in adding nothing but more and more fuel to the fire.
“Probably.” Said Wise in as much agreement as he could muster, before turning back to the other man. “But what do we do now?”
Smith was the one to shrug this time. “We control the legislature, we control the budget. We have Johnny Carlile in a pinch, and anyway, he used to be one of us anyway. And he can’t just depend on the Mountain types and the tired old tidewater set. He’ll work with us. And in four years when he’s out, I’ll come in and clean everything else up.”
Wise struggled not to roll his eyes at that, Smith was always a grandstander, always sure and self-confident in himself to an extreme degree. “I don’t just mean in the next election. The whole state is now at risk of losing its leadership.”
“Oh, next year, you mean?” Offered Smith, playing the bumpkin that he had never actually been, “Well that part’s actually pretty easy. Johnny probably will make a fool out of himself and try to run for President. That’ll be easy enough to swat down. No one likes it when a sitting governor runs, much less their own sitting governor. We’ll deliver the whole state to the Democrats easy enough and get Jeff Davis as president. I know you were jittery last time but now that Douglas is pure garbage he’ll shatter that Republican sweep up North.”
“And then what?” asked Wise, who could for the moment feel rather comfortable about the safe vision of his predecessor. “And then either those damned Abolitionists fall apart on their own like these Know-Nothings or we work something out. You worry too much Henry, you can’t do that, otherwise you lose all the time you have left in the job.” With that Smith patted the Governor on the back and walked towards another conversation.
Standing there for a moment, alone Wise let himself hope everything was going to be that easy, and tried to ignore the quiet voice in the back of his head that said things were far too gone for that. He knew about what would happen if the Republicans did any better up North. The Deep South had been clear about it three years prior. The question he couldn’t shake and what Smith hadn’t helped with was what Virginia would do if those things came to pass. And what would some mountain lawyer like John S. Carlile do about it after he started hosting parties here next winter.
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As with anything I write, thoughts, comments and criticisms are completely welcome and earnestly sought. I'll have the first full chapter up in a few days, but I hope that this is at least an interesting opener, before that though a few things.
First: In the 1859 Governor's election in Virginia the issue of a debate did briefly become *the* issue of the whole show, as William L. Goggin the Opposition Party candidate put pressure on John Letcher to have a debate, which the Democratic Nominee originally refused, a decision which made national news. Under a whole lot of pressure and facing word across the state that his numbers were plummeting Letcher eventually changed his mind and went for it, winning the election by a little over 7,000 votes. Obviously in addition to a new Opposition Party candidate, which was an easy enough feat to pull off considering the state of that 'party', Letcher doesn't decide in the murky, undated timeframes of historical footnotes, to turn about on the issue allowing Carlile a former Congressmen and IOTL future Senator for the Restored (Unionist) Government of Virginia. Normally I'd have gone deeper into that but I don't think that I need to bore anyone on the way to the good stuff. I do intend to use EdT style footnotes from here on out but, yeah this was pretty straightforward I think.
Secondly: I know that ACW Timelines on this site are normally vast and sprawling things that go all the way into Reconstruction and into the most minute details of the battles that happen in them, which is something I have always enjoyed in ACW TLs. In no way do I mean to disparage that but, this Timeline has a much more limited scope, which I would like to be upfront with now. This timeline is about the opening of the Civil War and nothing beyond that. There will be battles in it, though I intend to present those battles in much more narrative formats then the traditional "This regiment was here and that regiment was there and both were protecting those guns of battery X." The scope of this timeline is going to be from 1859 to a point no later than the autumn of 1861. I hope that that readers enjoy the writing enough to overlook these breaks with ACW tradition.