PRESIDENTS: Obviously only presidents that survived their term are here!
Millard Fillmore: Fillmore strongly disagreed with President Lincoln but was deeply affected by his death. He supported President Foster and later endorsed Grant in the 1865 special election. By 1868, he had returned to the Democrats, endorsing Hendricks and then Hancock in 1872. He spent his final years campaigning against reconstruction before dying in 1874.
James Buchanan: Buchanan's house was vandalized in the aftermath of the calamity due to a lack of black drapes meant to symbolize mourning. This wasn't because Buchanan supported the calamity, though; it was simply because he wasn't home. Very few people wanted to ever listen to him in his final years, though Buchanan generally publicly opposed everything the Foster and Grant administrations did. Furiously denouncing the Union vs. Confederate trials. He died in 1868.
Franklin Pierce: A year later, Pierce died. His story is similar. Though he was home and did place black drapes on his balcony, on his own admission, this was more due to Vice President Johnson's assassination than President Lincoln's. Pierce spent his final days campaigning for Hendricks in 1868.
Lafayette S. Foster: After his presidency, Foster was re-elected to the Senate in 1866. He initially supported the Grant Presidency but showered on him over time as he played more into the radical side of the party. There was talk of nominating Foster for president in 1872 and even in 1876 for both the Liberal and Republican nominations. Foster left the Senate in 1873. When the Liberals split from the Republicans in 1874, Foster made no comment. He generally distanced himself from politics in his later years. One of the last things he did was endorse the Liberal nominee Cassius Clay in 1880, before dying the same year.
Ulysses Grant: Grant spent the rest of his life being very, very popular. He took his wife and children on a world tour in 1874 and denounced the Liberal split on his return in 1876. Many Republicans wanted to see him nominated that year, but Grant denounced the attempt, tired from his recent world tour. He tried his best to ignore reporters afterwards. In 1880, he was flung back into national politics, almost being nominated by the RNC. At the last second, though, he dropped out. To date, few know why. Grant opposed the Hancock presidency and later endorsed Sheridan in 1884, before dying of lung cancer mere days after completing his memoirs, which became the best-selling book in all of American history.
Frederick Seward: President Seward was still alive at the time of the Anglo-American War. He gives lectures at universities around New York and has remained a lifelong Republican. Though his presidency is viewed unfavorably, many consider Seward himself to be a nice and kind man. He travels the nation, being invited to speaking events every two years for elections, and supports the Republican candidates. More recently, he has taken to defending President Sherman, and he is a strong warhawk in the battle against London. He argues that the Republicans in the Senate should stick with Sherman and keep the coalition with the liberals going.
Charles F. Adams: Adams spent the rest of his post-presidency being revered as a god among the Liberal Party. He spoke at both the 1880 and 1884 LNCs and is seen as instrumental in the nominations of Clay and Sherman. He mostly advocated that the Liberals should continue to work with the Republicans to fight against the Democrats. Upon his death in 1886, this attitude had changed, as Adams was strongly against President Sheridan and nearly all of his policies. Adams embraced the Bourbon split and encouraged northern Democrats to become Liberals.
George F. Edmunds: After his short presidency, Edmunds returned home to Vermont, somewhat of a hero to the locals. He started up a new legal practice and proceeded to try to distance himself from politics. Multiple newspapers made fun of the former Liberal Party boss for his new modest life, but he didn't seem to care. At the outbreak of the Anglo-American War, Edmunds publicly gave his full support and faith to President Sherman. Privately, he foresaw a disaster for the United States. In April of 1893, Edmunds took his family and moved all the way to California in hopes of waiting out the war and hiding from reporters.
James Garfield: After resigning from the presidency, Garfield returned home to Ohio. He watched as the occupation forces of the striker states brutally repressed any and all resistance and became somewhat radicalized. Garfield essentially barricaded himself in his home with his wife and began to pick up left-wing literature. In 1892, Garfield refrained from endorsing anyone and officially left the Republican Party at the outbreak of the Anglo-American War.
Frederick Dent Grant: After leaving office, Grant gave his full support to Sherman and the war. He personally asked to be re-commissioned into the army. This request was granted. He now works in the War Department and is planning the defense of New England.
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THE HOPEFULS: Obviously not the ones who later became president themselves or the candidates of the most recent election. (1892)
Horatio Seymour: After losing the special election, Seymour stayed very involved in New York politics. He was seen as a major New York Democrat until the late 1870s, when he distanced himself from politics. Seymour would eventually start privately voting for Liberals on the ballot in 1882 and officially change his registration to Liberal during the 1884 presidential election, supporting John Sherman. Privately, he expressed extreme discontent with the McClellan-Hampton split and was very disinterested in remaining a Democrat under a'southern party'. He died in 1886.
Thomas Hendricks: Hendricks went from one of the most important Midwestern Democrats to one of the most important Midwestern Liberals. After his loss in 1868, Hendricks began to be disillusioned with the Democrats. He remained in the Senate as a Democrat but around 1878 he was shunned from the party caucus for working too closely with Liberals. During the McClellan-Hampton split, he sided with the Bourbons. Before he died, he switched his party affiliation to the Liberals and spent his first year working within the Indiana Liberal Party to help improve its position in the state.
Samuel Tilden: After the 1876 election, many threw a fit over Tilden's loss, despite his plurality in both the popular and electoral votes. To his credit, he personally disavowed any anger and conceded to Adams. He was thrown around as a potential nominee in 1880, but he disavowed this as well, fearing his health. He never officially left the Democratic Party, though close friends say he personally was a Liberal by the time of his death in 1886.
James G. Blaine: Blaine had a very fruitful career after 1876. He tried again for the Republican nomination in 1880 and 1884 before he tragically died in a carriage accident in 1886. At the time of his death, he was on his way to the White House to meet with President Sheridan on plans for western pacification. Had he not died, he would've certainly been nominated by the Republicans in 1888.
Roscoe Conkling: After his loss in 1880, Conkling and his arm of the party began to lose influence. As the 80s' progressed, Sheridan and Hayes began to shut Conkling out of all major RNC meetings. He was told time and time again that his views were outdated. He attempted to keep a hold of his power when Garfield took office. He was the man who gave the suggestion for American expansion into Africa; it was for this that Presidents Garfield and Grant would assign him to lead the 'African Office' in the State Department. When Sherman took office in March, he chose to keep the aging Conkling in his post. After the fall of Liberia to the British, however, Conkling was sacked. He now lives at his home in New York. Powerless.
Cassius Clay: Clay is still a major figure in liberal politics. He has been the chair of every LNC since 1884 and is still deeply involved in the party back at home in Kentucky. Though he has given up hope for elected office, he has kept his position as a party boss. As of the present, he is getting cold feet over the war. More than that, he is getting cold feet with President Sherman and is now pulling some strings to see what can be done to support Thomas Custer in the Senate.
Wade Hampton III: After leading the Democrats in 1884, Hampton was quickly blamed for the Democrats loss and the party split. The DNC trashed him after his loss and left him by the wayside. Hampton now lives retired in South Carolina. An independent. Though some close friends say he voted for the Weaver/Tillman ticket in 1892,.
Frederick Douglass: After the 1884 election, Douglass was still kind of angry with the FNC for their nomination. Since then, he has remained very active in politics. He argues passionately for further federal funding for Lincoln and now Grant. Since the start of the Anglo-American War, he has become a key voice in the peace movement and has turned sour on imperialism. He has endorsed roughly the same people that the FNC has.
George Armstrong Custer: Some say George Armstrong Custer was even more of a household name in 1893 than it was in 1888, when he was the Liberal nominee for President. Currently, Custer is the Secretary of War and is seen as the public face of the war effort. It's for this reason that his popularity has begun to plummet.
Adali Stevenson: Adali became a vocal proponent of populism after the 1888 election and was a delegate to the 1892 Populist Convention. He was ecstatic when the Democrats merged with them. Since the beginning of the war, he has been violently opposed to the conflict. Urging the people to listen to him about the war. Referring back to when he predicted the Great Panic in his 88' campaign.
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The next chapter is almost done, just fixing some final things. Here is this in the meantime.
