It's finally here!
Thanks to Tiro for his much valued help. It's a blessing in disguise that I didn't get to finish this article until now, because without Tiro's help, this article would not have been nearly as good as it is. Quite a lot of this article comes from Tiro's article on States Rights Gist and some of Tiro's other posts. However, I edited a lot and added a lot to make it something new. Anyways, enjoy!
Confederate States presidential election, 1891
In 1891, after over five years as President of the Confederate States of America, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was a highly popular President amongst his people. This was in spite of his being aloof on a number of issues aside from military defense and a most indifferent President in more ways than one (in the words of Confederate-born American historian Shelby Foote; "He governed more as a Secretary of War than as a President"), as well as him, while not personally corrupt himself, presiding over one of the most corrupt administrations in Confederate history and thereby unfairly tarnishing by association those progressive Whig Policies which were most closely associated with him and the erstwhile President Longstreet. Nevertheless, and perhaps most importantly, Jackson managed to keep the young Confederate States of America together in the wake of the divisive and heated controversy over the issues of Manumission and the Manumission Amendment.
All in all, the Confederate people continued their high ride throughout the 1880s and into the first two years of the 1890s. The Whig Party had in many ways reached the zenith of its power. While independents continued to hold out in their home states and opposition continued to grow steadily, albeit in almost complete disunity, if a politician wanted to go anywhere and be thought of as worth anything when he got there, then he’d just have to become a Whig. All in all, the Whig Party came closest to a genuine political monopoly, as opposed to hegemony, in the years when the laurels of the Second Mexican War glowed brightest. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 1890s, it was becoming increasingly clear that there were two new and distinct factions within the Whig Party, the more conservative wing of the party and the more progressive (relatively-speaking of course) wing of the party. Those of the former faction knew they could not reverse manumission, but they were intent on making manumission work for the Confederate planter class and not for the recently-freed blacks. They were also not going to allow any commitments to Great Britain and France, or any other foreign power for that matter, entangle the Confederacy in some random war as it was going to take its first steps into the 20th Century. Lastly, they also called for the preservation of states rights and "Southern Liberty." Those of the latter faction wanted to keep manumission as it was and were intent on keeping their commitments, whatever they may be, to Great Britain and France. All in all, the Whig Party had grown so large, so disparate and so fractious as a result that some claimed the only discipline its members cared to recognize was military discipline (hence the near-monopoly on the presidency enjoyed by military men since the War of Secession).
As time went on, before the people of the Confederate States of America knew it, the next election year was upon them. On New Year’s Day of 1891, a number of Whig candidates threw their hats into the ring and announced that they would seek nomination for the Whig candidacy. They included Governor and ex-general States Rights Gist of South Carolina, Governor Thomas G. Jones of Alabama, Senator John Tyler Morgan of Alabama and Senator Stephen Mallory II of Florida. The pool of Whig candidates was smaller in 1891 than it was in 1885, with many of the 1885 Whig hopefuls having retired from politics, many seeing no future after having tried to challenge, if even for a moment, the might and popularity of Stonewall Jackson.
In terms of opposition to the near-monopoly to the Whig Party, opposition parties were beginning to lift themselves off the ground floor of politics, partly due to the Manumission Amendment and the controversies surrounding it, but also because the Confederate government still tended to be a government by the planter class and for the planter class. These new parties included the anti-Planter, proto-Socialist Radical Party and the isolationist and agrarian Liberal Party. In regards to independent Confederate presidential hopefuls, the Radical Party fielded Governor Daniel Lindsay Russell of North Carolina, Senator William Mahone of Virginia, Senator William E. Cameron of Virginia, Senator Barzillai J. Chambers of Texas and labor leader Absolom M. West of Mississippi. The Liberal Party fielded Governor John P. Buchanan of Tennessee, Governor Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman of South Carolina and Liberal Party activist Charles Macune of Texas. In 1891, Russell, Buchanan and Tillman were some of the last non-Whig governors in the Confederate States of America.
In regards to the Whig presidential hopefuls, almost immediately, one Whig hopeful out of all of the others was coming out on top, and this was overwhelmingly due to his having been a veteran of both the War of Succession and the Second Mexican War, as well as his familial ties to several prominent individuals from his home state. This man was none other than the 60-year old Governor of South Carolina and erstwhile general States Rights Gist, whose bizarre first and middle names were the result of his father Nathaniel’s support for the nullification politics of John C. Calhoun, that most famous son of the Palmetto State, during the nullification crisis of the late 1820s and early 1830s. Having distinguished himself in the bloody Battle of Louisville by plugging a gap blasted through the defenses by the Northern Assault (even as he himself suffered injury in the process), States Rights Gist would further prove himself to be one of the biggest winners of the war by reaping the benefits of his fellow South Carolinian Wade Hampton III’s entirely-abortive coup [1], with the generals eldest sons Wade Hampton IV [2], now the Confederate Speaker of the House, and Thomas Preston Hampton [3] having been denied a serious chance at the Presidency by virtue of their father’s attempt to shoot his way into the Grey House. As a result, in March of 1891, the Hampton Family would throw their still-considerable clout behind their fellow South Carolinian States Rights Gist, thus lending a great deal of both credibility and influence to the conservative wing of the Whig Party.
On May 4, 1891, after much thought and discussion with his advisers, President Jackson lent his support and gave his blessing to Governor Gist. Soon after this, Governor Jones, Senator Morgan and Senator Mallory all dropped out of the race, knowing full well that they could not compete against a man with the blessing of the Confederate President, let alone a man with the blessing of Stonewall Jackson. Gist, funny name notwithstanding, also had the appeal of the Confederate military to back him up. By this point, all Confederate Presidents had been former generals of some kind, so this was not at all unusual in the slightest. In an effort to make sure that he had the support of all the branches of the military, Gist chose Senator Stephen Mallory II of Florida, who had served in the Confederate Navy in his youth, from 1865 to 1869, as his running-mate. As one journalist put it; "With the Army and Navy both in office, we have now seen a military coup without all the shooting."
Meanwhile, the two main opposition parties, the Radical Party and the Liberal Party, decided upon their candidates for the presidential race. The Radical Party nominated Governor Daniel Lindsay Russell of North Carolina and Senator William E. Cameron of Virginia. On the other hand, the Liberal Party nominated Governor John P. Buchanan of Tennessee and Governor Benjamin "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman of South Carolina.
Then came campaign season. Governor Gist’s campaign was, without a doubt, one of the most remarkably overblown campaigns of propaganda in Confederate history. Not only was States Rights Gist to be a figure of living history, a soldier who had seen distinguished service and an able politician, he was to be the fount of all the virtues and to have an answer to every problem. Governor Gist was convinced that the Confederate States of America could surmount every problem it might confront, be it from the United States or from anywhere else, and that it would be he who would lead the country into a new Golden Age, and while on the campaign trial, he told the Confederate people exactly as such. Not that he believed his own press, but his faith in the fortunes and the very highest idealism of the Confederacy was unquenchable. He also felt that he could hardly do worse than President Jackson, who was a magnificent General but, as has been mentioned before, an indifferent politician in more ways than one. Gist’s platform called principally for two things; for making manumission workable for the country’s planter class and for an aggressive foreign policy [4], with Gist wanting to have the Confederate States starting to flex its muscles in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, waters which were already dominated by her allies of Great Britain and France. In regards to his latter promise, Gist also called for the Confederate States to purchase Spanish Porto Rico, the Danish Virgin Islands, the islands of the Dutch Caribbean and Dutch Surinam, all of which were the last of the non-Anglo-French European colonies in the Caribbean. Many individuals, both in his own party and in the Radical and Liberal parties, claimed that Gist was trying to fulfill the goals of the long-defunct Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society which advocated for the American annexation of a "golden circle" of territory encompassing Mexico, Central America, northern South America, Cuba (which was now a state of the Confederacy) and the whole of the Caribbean in an effort to create a large slave-based American empire. The KGC was disbanded after the War of Succession, and it is unlikely that States Rights Gist ever had any ties to the KGC. In spite of this evidence, conspiracy theorists would later claim the aforementioned claim was in fact the case.
All the while, Governor Russell of the Radical Party ran on a platform of worker's rights, labor rights, currency reform and keeping in check the power of the Confederate planter class. Governor Buchanan of the Liberal Party ran on a platform of agrarianism, bimetallism, isolationism and keeping in check the power of Confederacy of the planter class. Neither Russell's campaign nor Buchanan's campaign could hold a candle to the immensely popular and invigorating campaign of Governor States Rights Gist.
On election day, November 3, 1891, when the state conventions were held, to nobody's surprise, Governor Gist and Senator Mallory of the Whig Party won the election easily and in a landslide. Not only was the Whig Party still the dominant party in Confederate politics, but Gist, through his storied war record and his promises to make the CSA a force to be reckoned with on the world stage, a regional power in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as to expand the country's territory in the Caribbean, won him the overwhelming support of the Confederate people, both in terms of elites and the average voters. However, far more critical to the success of Gist than his war record (though that was hardly unimportant) were not only his promises in regards to the Confederacy's place in the world, but also the very handsome prospect of a gentle retrenchment of ideas like States Rights and "Southern Liberty", ideas that were somewhat steamrollered over by the march of what many called "Whiggish Progress." In addition, Gist, like Jackson, also had the support of the country's mostly Whig planter elite and businessmen, as well as all branches of the Confederate military. In comparison, Governor Russel, despite appealing to workers and anti-Whig voters, and Governor Buchanan, despite appealing to farmers, rural voters and anti-Whig voters, had almost no chance at reaching the Grey House. The Whig ticket of Gist and Mallory won every state in the Confederacy, save for Florida, Sonora and Chihuahua, all of which were won by Governor Russel of the Radical Party. Many of the voters in Florida were becoming annoyed with the supposed north-eastern Confederate domination of the Whig Party. Meanwhile, the voters of Sonora and Chihuahua were still annoyed with the "Anglo" dominated Whig Party. All in all, the Radical Party had a broader and more wide-reaching appeal, promising to help all workers across the country, be they industrial workers or rural laborers. On the other hand, the Liberal party appealed mainly, almost only, to farmers and other mostly rural voters, and as a result the party won no states and no electoral votes.
With this amazing victory in the election of 1891, the Whig Party continued its near-monopoly over Confederate politics. At least, for now it did.
States Rights Gist (W-SC)/Stephen Mallory II (W-FL): 137 EV
Daniel Lindsay Russell (R-NC)/William E. Cameron (R-VA): 12 EV
John P. Buchanan (L-TN)/Benjamin Tillman (L-SC): 0 EV
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[1] While it has been suggested that Gist, as a stalwart secessionist, was invited by Hampton to join in on this attempt to force the Confederacy back onto the path its founders had laid out for it in defiance of the Whigs, no evidence exists that this went beyond hints he politely refused to recognize.
[2] The first-born son of Wade Hampton III. IOTL had no children, as far as I could ascertain, and died in 1879. IITL he gives birth to Wade Hampton V in 1864 and lives a much longer life.
[3] IOTL Thomas Preston Hampton was killed in battle on October 27, 1864.
[4] An ulterior motive for Gist pushing for an aggressive foreign policy is that it would distract the Confederate people from the inherent contradiction in him, the prime beneficiary of the "Hampton Court", the faction of the Whig Party assembled around the Hampton Family, also posing as the metaphorical heir of President Longstreet).