TLIAW: The Steam Engine of Time (Alternate History of the US)

Wallet

Banned
220px-Benjamin_F_Wade_-_Brady-Handy.jpg

18. Benjamin Wade (Ohio)
1868

Benjamin Wade became the President of the United States on May 16, 1868 after the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. The impeachment had passed by only one vote, and with no Vice President, Wade became the 18th President because he was the President pro tempore of the Senate. Considered a radical even by the Radical Republicans, he supported women's suffrage, trade union rights, and full equality for blacks. Truly a man before his time, historians to this day long debate the outcome had happened had he been able to run the still removing nation, or how he would have dealt with the crises to come. Sadly, he was assassinated by a drunk Andrew Johnson weeks after taking office. Johnson, who had come to ''visit'' the new president, shot Wade several times in the chest when he entered the Oval Office. Johnson was gunned down by White House guards moments later. A popular story was that Wade had in his pocket a civil rights act when he was gunned down, but this has never been proven. Today a monument stands across the street from the White House, built on orders from his successor.
 

Wallet

Banned
What is this?
Its my first timeline.

What is it about?
It is an alternate history of the United States, with the POD that Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868.

That sure was a crazy start. Will it be realisitc?
I'll try my best. It wont be a utopia nor a distopia.
 

Wallet

Banned
220px-William_H._Seward_portrait_-_restoration.jpg

19. William Seward (New York)
1868-1869

The days after the assassination of President Wade produced chaos not seen in the nation's capital since the British invaded. Rumors spread like wild fire. Some said that the southern states were on the verge on seceding again, and this was based off of some truth. Others said that General Sherman was marching troops into Washington for a coup and declaring himself dictator of the Republic. In an emergency meeting of Congress, it was decided that the constitution dictated that the Secretary of State was next in line. William Seward became the 19th President of the United States, his dream job. His first act was to give emergency powers to Generals Grant and Sherman to deal with the South and then quickly inform the European powers that the US still had a working government. More troops were sent into the South to reestablish order.

Ironically, Seward would spend most of his time on foreign affairs, his specialty. Having already bought Alaska and getting French troops out of Mexico, he went about seizing more lands. Several islands in the Pacific were claimed along with more trade with the Hawaiian islands. Talks were started for a canal in Central America. But his biggest thing was the Alabama Claims. The US Government was demanding payment for the damages caused by Confederate ships built in British shipyards. The British Government laughed these claims off, seeing the instability in the US. Seward then ordered troops into British Colombia. When British ships were seen off the coast of San Francisco, a full draft order was given in several states. The British, knowing the US had millions of trained war veterans, quickly backed down. For British Colombia and Yukon, the US promised to forever leave the rest Canada alone. War was avoided, and the US gained a lot of lost respect.

Seward was expecting to be the Republican nominee for the 1868 election. But the Republican Party, and the nation as a whole, was expecting Grant. Seward lost the nomination to Grant at the Republican convention in Chicago. Grant offered the Vice Presidency to Seward, but Seward declined. Seward would die in 1873 a very sad man. Today for his work in saving the Union, he is usually on most top ten lists for best president.​
 
It's interesting. Still, the succession of Wade looks a bit odd.
Since Wade leaves the Senate, there would have to be another Senator to be elected President pro tempore of the Senate by his peers.
Plus, as per the succession act of 1792, the next in line for presidency is the Speaker of the House, but then, there is no contingency for the Secretary of State to be the next as I read Sections 9 and 10.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Unit...e/Volume_1/2nd_Congress/1st_Session/Chapter_8

The provision would be later added in the succession act of 1886 which removed all together the Senate President and the House Speaker from the succession line to replace them with cabinet members.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Presidential_Succession_Act_1886
 
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