Prologue: The Election of 1856.
"No Democrat has a right to refuse his services when his country calls"
David Allen Smalley, delegate from Vermont to the 1856 Democratic National Convention.
The Candidates.
On February 22nd 1856 the American Party hosted its National Convention in the National Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to select their presidential ticket for the upcoming election. The delegates had justification to be confident, having elected 51 members to the House of Representatives in the course of the 54-55 elections even getting one of their own, Nathaniel P.Banks to the position of Speaker. However there was also cause for concern, the previous year party leaders had determined not to press the issue of slavery deeming it to polarizing an issue. This greatly angered the Ohio chapter of the party as it was vocally anti-slavery. The convention attempted to address this by closing the chapter then re-opening it under more moderate leadership. This backfired as Ohio delegates left in protest with delegates from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, New England & a number of Northern states following in solidarity. Only in New York in the party maintain a strong presence thanks largely to conservative Whigs remaining faithful. The now reduced convention set about nominating their ticket, quickly settling on the nations 13th president Millard Fillmore of New York, The nomination came in spite of the fact that Fillmore wasn't a member of the party & indeed hadn't even been consulted about being nominated, though he would ultimately accept. For Vice President they selected former charges d'affaires to Texas & Minister to Prussia Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennessee.
Next to hold their National Convention would be the Democrats who gathered in Smith & Nixon's Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 2nd. It came as a tense time as their president Franklin Pierce's standing with the public had been badly damaged due to the civil strife in the Kansas Territory which had come to be known as "Bleeding Kansas". Of further concern was the parties devastating losses in the 54-55 midterms which had seen them outnumbered by a coalition of parties hostile to them (though still being the largest party overall) & reduced to a mere two seat majority in the senate. Despite these less than favorable conditions president Pierce was determined to win a second term. Illinois senator Steven Douglas who had sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act -which many felt was at least partially responsible for their losses in the midterms- put himself forward in opposition to president Pierce. Douglas had also been a candidate at the 1852 convention which had elected Pierce & proceeded to campaign for him throughout the Midwest. He had hoped to to have influence in Pierce's cabinet -indeed he held out hope for a cabinet position himself- but those hopes had been dashed as Pierce had not only ignore Douglas he had actually given key positions to Douglas' rivals such as Jefferson Davis who became Secretary of War. Many Democrats worried that selecting either man would damage the party due to both seeing so publicly linked to Kansas-Nebraska & began to look for a compromise candidate. The man they settled on was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. A former senator & Secretary of State under president Polk, Buchanan had spent the Pierce administration as the Minister to the United Kingdom, His supporters which included senators Lames A. Bayard of Delaware, Jessie D. Bright of Indiana & John Sidell of Louisiana took advantage of this to present Buchanan as an experienced leader who could unite north & south. When voting for the presidential nominee began on the 5th began it seemed initially that their efforts had paid off. Buchanan lead on the first 5 ballots with his share of the vote growing on the first four before dipping slightly on the 5th. Meanwhile president Pierce had had remained static from the 2nd through 4th ballots before a very minor bump on the 5th while Douglas' share had gone up & down while staying in a distant 3th place the whole time. Seeing an opportunity, Pierces' men made an offer[1] In exchange for Douglas releasing his votes in favor of president Buchanan, he would be given his choice cabinet positions as well as influence on the rest of the cabinet. When presented with this offer, Douglas replied he would only do it if he were given control of patronage in Illinois as well as the ability to staff his apartment as he saw fit. Douglas seemed to expect his conditions to be rejected but to his shock Pierce's representatives agreed. On the 6th ballot Pierce had taken the lead with 150 to Buchanan's 140. Looking to act while Buchanan's allies were frantically looking to shore up available delegates, they extended Buchanan an offer, In exchange for releasing his votes to the president, he would be re-appointed to his old job as Secretary of State with full freedom to staff his department as he saw fit, influence on ministers as well as patronage in Pennsylvania. Buchanan who hadn't actively sought to be the party's nominee, accepted & Pierce won decisively on the 7th ballot. The convention then moved to the task of selecting the vice president. Eleven names were put forward, though a number of them would attempt to withdraw their names from consideration. Among these was John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky who was looking to clear the path for fellow Kentuckian Linn Boyd. However the Vermont delegation initiated a draft campaign which saw Breckinridge nominated on the second ballot. When explaining why they launched the draft campaign Vermont's David Allen Smalley would respond "No Democrat has the right to refuse his services when his country calls".
On June 12th the northern delegates from the American party who had left their parties convention in February gathered in New York city. The timing of the event was deliberate. The Republicans would be holding their inaugural National Convention a mere 5 days later & it was the hope of the break-away faction's leaders that they would nominate a joint ticket. Senator John C Fremont of California was the favorite among the two leading Republican as Ohio senator Salmon P. Chase was deemed too divisive[2]. However there began to be a worry among some of the delegates that if they preemptively nominated Fremont it would discourage the Republicans from doing so. After several ballots produced no winner an agreement was reached, Fremont would release enough votes to Speaker of the House Nathaniel P. Banks to allow him to win the nomination. In exchange when Fremont was selected as the Republican nominee, Banks would withdraw & endorse him. With the agreement struck Banks was nominated on the 10th ballot with the delegates selecting the chairman of the convention, former Pennsylvania governor William F. Johnston as vice president.
Five days later on June 17th, the Republican party held its first National Convention in Philadelphia's Musical Fund Hall. It was a largely two person affair between senators Fremont & Chase. Chase had won national fame after leading 5 expeditions into the western half of the continent including personally aiding in the mapping of the Oregon trail as ell as being a veteren of the Mexican-American war. Chase on the other hand could point to his decades of anti-slavery activity as a lawyer as well as being one of the founding members of the Republican party where Fremont was was such a recent defector he had actually been asked to run for the Democratic nomination. Eventually this may have been what ultimately Chase received the nomination (thereby ruining the North American party's plans). Looking to add a more moderate voice to the ticket, Illinois representative Abraham Lincoln was selected as vice president. Lincoln had been elected to the house in the midterms but refused to take his seat before making an unsuccessful bid for senate, he was was able to influence the outcome in favor of an anti-slavery Democrat.
Finally on September 17th the remnants of the Whig Party gathered at the Maryland Institute in Baltimore. Having lost half of its southern leadership to the Democrats & much of it's anti-slavery members to the Republicans the Whigs had unquestionably fallen on hard times. In a quiet ceremony, the 150 delegates unanimously agreed to adopt the American party's ticket of Fillmore-Donelson as their own.
The General Election.
As was the tradition, none of the three major candidates engaged in public campaigning, leaving it to local party members to act as representatives of their views. The Republicans focused their attacks primarily on president Pierce personally, accusing him of allowing a fraudulent territorial government to be imposed upon the citizens of the Kansas Territory thus engendering the violence that had raged on in Bleeding Kansas & advocated for Kansas to be admitted as a free state. They also opposed the Ostend Manifesto which called for the annexation of Cuba from Spain. But the unquestioned centerpiece of their campaign was their opposition to slavery. They opposed the Kansas-Nebraska compromise with some even going as far as stating opposition to the Compromise of 1850 which preceded it (& Salmon Chase had vehemently opposed) as well as decrying any expansion of slavery into the continental territories. All throughout the country Republican operatives decried "Slave Power" which they said was a threat to America's republican values. The Republican campaign would receive a welcome boost when, after staying in the race for several months, the North American ticket dropped out & gave their endorsements to the Republican ticket. This is believed to due to personal interference from Fremont who convinced Banks & Johnston that the anti-slavery vote couldn't afford to be divided.
The Democratic campaign by & large avoided trying to defend president Pierce & instead prioritized attacking Republicans as dividing the country, warning that a Chase presidency could very well lead to a number of southern states to secede from the union. They also defended the Kansas-Nebraska act as & popular sovereignty, arguing that slavery should be decided by the states. They also spoke in defense of the pro-slavery elected in Kansas, opposed the free-state elements within Kansas & denounced the Topeka Constitution as an illegal document written in an illegal convention. They likewise defended the Ostend Manifesto & the annexation of Cuba.
The American/Whig duel ticket avoided the issue of slavery altogether, instead they ran a campaign in which they described themselves as the only "national party" which could govern the entire country, as opposed to the Democrats who catered to southern slavery & the Republicans who championed northern abolition. They also put forth a nativist platform which campaigned against the admission of immigrants, particularly those of the catholic faith.
The results.
POD's
1. OTL Pierce made no such arrangements & was replaced as the presidential nominee by Buchanan.
2. OTL Salmon Chase didn't seek the nomination due to feeling that the young party was properly organised to win the presidency. TTL he decides to run as, though he doesn't expect to win he deems the election as a chance to establish the Republican party as the premier anti-slavery party in America,
David Allen Smalley, delegate from Vermont to the 1856 Democratic National Convention.
The Candidates.
On February 22nd 1856 the American Party hosted its National Convention in the National Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to select their presidential ticket for the upcoming election. The delegates had justification to be confident, having elected 51 members to the House of Representatives in the course of the 54-55 elections even getting one of their own, Nathaniel P.Banks to the position of Speaker. However there was also cause for concern, the previous year party leaders had determined not to press the issue of slavery deeming it to polarizing an issue. This greatly angered the Ohio chapter of the party as it was vocally anti-slavery. The convention attempted to address this by closing the chapter then re-opening it under more moderate leadership. This backfired as Ohio delegates left in protest with delegates from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, New England & a number of Northern states following in solidarity. Only in New York in the party maintain a strong presence thanks largely to conservative Whigs remaining faithful. The now reduced convention set about nominating their ticket, quickly settling on the nations 13th president Millard Fillmore of New York, The nomination came in spite of the fact that Fillmore wasn't a member of the party & indeed hadn't even been consulted about being nominated, though he would ultimately accept. For Vice President they selected former charges d'affaires to Texas & Minister to Prussia Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennessee.
Next to hold their National Convention would be the Democrats who gathered in Smith & Nixon's Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 2nd. It came as a tense time as their president Franklin Pierce's standing with the public had been badly damaged due to the civil strife in the Kansas Territory which had come to be known as "Bleeding Kansas". Of further concern was the parties devastating losses in the 54-55 midterms which had seen them outnumbered by a coalition of parties hostile to them (though still being the largest party overall) & reduced to a mere two seat majority in the senate. Despite these less than favorable conditions president Pierce was determined to win a second term. Illinois senator Steven Douglas who had sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act -which many felt was at least partially responsible for their losses in the midterms- put himself forward in opposition to president Pierce. Douglas had also been a candidate at the 1852 convention which had elected Pierce & proceeded to campaign for him throughout the Midwest. He had hoped to to have influence in Pierce's cabinet -indeed he held out hope for a cabinet position himself- but those hopes had been dashed as Pierce had not only ignore Douglas he had actually given key positions to Douglas' rivals such as Jefferson Davis who became Secretary of War. Many Democrats worried that selecting either man would damage the party due to both seeing so publicly linked to Kansas-Nebraska & began to look for a compromise candidate. The man they settled on was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. A former senator & Secretary of State under president Polk, Buchanan had spent the Pierce administration as the Minister to the United Kingdom, His supporters which included senators Lames A. Bayard of Delaware, Jessie D. Bright of Indiana & John Sidell of Louisiana took advantage of this to present Buchanan as an experienced leader who could unite north & south. When voting for the presidential nominee began on the 5th began it seemed initially that their efforts had paid off. Buchanan lead on the first 5 ballots with his share of the vote growing on the first four before dipping slightly on the 5th. Meanwhile president Pierce had had remained static from the 2nd through 4th ballots before a very minor bump on the 5th while Douglas' share had gone up & down while staying in a distant 3th place the whole time. Seeing an opportunity, Pierces' men made an offer[1] In exchange for Douglas releasing his votes in favor of president Buchanan, he would be given his choice cabinet positions as well as influence on the rest of the cabinet. When presented with this offer, Douglas replied he would only do it if he were given control of patronage in Illinois as well as the ability to staff his apartment as he saw fit. Douglas seemed to expect his conditions to be rejected but to his shock Pierce's representatives agreed. On the 6th ballot Pierce had taken the lead with 150 to Buchanan's 140. Looking to act while Buchanan's allies were frantically looking to shore up available delegates, they extended Buchanan an offer, In exchange for releasing his votes to the president, he would be re-appointed to his old job as Secretary of State with full freedom to staff his department as he saw fit, influence on ministers as well as patronage in Pennsylvania. Buchanan who hadn't actively sought to be the party's nominee, accepted & Pierce won decisively on the 7th ballot. The convention then moved to the task of selecting the vice president. Eleven names were put forward, though a number of them would attempt to withdraw their names from consideration. Among these was John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky who was looking to clear the path for fellow Kentuckian Linn Boyd. However the Vermont delegation initiated a draft campaign which saw Breckinridge nominated on the second ballot. When explaining why they launched the draft campaign Vermont's David Allen Smalley would respond "No Democrat has the right to refuse his services when his country calls".
On June 12th the northern delegates from the American party who had left their parties convention in February gathered in New York city. The timing of the event was deliberate. The Republicans would be holding their inaugural National Convention a mere 5 days later & it was the hope of the break-away faction's leaders that they would nominate a joint ticket. Senator John C Fremont of California was the favorite among the two leading Republican as Ohio senator Salmon P. Chase was deemed too divisive[2]. However there began to be a worry among some of the delegates that if they preemptively nominated Fremont it would discourage the Republicans from doing so. After several ballots produced no winner an agreement was reached, Fremont would release enough votes to Speaker of the House Nathaniel P. Banks to allow him to win the nomination. In exchange when Fremont was selected as the Republican nominee, Banks would withdraw & endorse him. With the agreement struck Banks was nominated on the 10th ballot with the delegates selecting the chairman of the convention, former Pennsylvania governor William F. Johnston as vice president.
Five days later on June 17th, the Republican party held its first National Convention in Philadelphia's Musical Fund Hall. It was a largely two person affair between senators Fremont & Chase. Chase had won national fame after leading 5 expeditions into the western half of the continent including personally aiding in the mapping of the Oregon trail as ell as being a veteren of the Mexican-American war. Chase on the other hand could point to his decades of anti-slavery activity as a lawyer as well as being one of the founding members of the Republican party where Fremont was was such a recent defector he had actually been asked to run for the Democratic nomination. Eventually this may have been what ultimately Chase received the nomination (thereby ruining the North American party's plans). Looking to add a more moderate voice to the ticket, Illinois representative Abraham Lincoln was selected as vice president. Lincoln had been elected to the house in the midterms but refused to take his seat before making an unsuccessful bid for senate, he was was able to influence the outcome in favor of an anti-slavery Democrat.
Finally on September 17th the remnants of the Whig Party gathered at the Maryland Institute in Baltimore. Having lost half of its southern leadership to the Democrats & much of it's anti-slavery members to the Republicans the Whigs had unquestionably fallen on hard times. In a quiet ceremony, the 150 delegates unanimously agreed to adopt the American party's ticket of Fillmore-Donelson as their own.
The General Election.
As was the tradition, none of the three major candidates engaged in public campaigning, leaving it to local party members to act as representatives of their views. The Republicans focused their attacks primarily on president Pierce personally, accusing him of allowing a fraudulent territorial government to be imposed upon the citizens of the Kansas Territory thus engendering the violence that had raged on in Bleeding Kansas & advocated for Kansas to be admitted as a free state. They also opposed the Ostend Manifesto which called for the annexation of Cuba from Spain. But the unquestioned centerpiece of their campaign was their opposition to slavery. They opposed the Kansas-Nebraska compromise with some even going as far as stating opposition to the Compromise of 1850 which preceded it (& Salmon Chase had vehemently opposed) as well as decrying any expansion of slavery into the continental territories. All throughout the country Republican operatives decried "Slave Power" which they said was a threat to America's republican values. The Republican campaign would receive a welcome boost when, after staying in the race for several months, the North American ticket dropped out & gave their endorsements to the Republican ticket. This is believed to due to personal interference from Fremont who convinced Banks & Johnston that the anti-slavery vote couldn't afford to be divided.
The Democratic campaign by & large avoided trying to defend president Pierce & instead prioritized attacking Republicans as dividing the country, warning that a Chase presidency could very well lead to a number of southern states to secede from the union. They also defended the Kansas-Nebraska act as & popular sovereignty, arguing that slavery should be decided by the states. They also spoke in defense of the pro-slavery elected in Kansas, opposed the free-state elements within Kansas & denounced the Topeka Constitution as an illegal document written in an illegal convention. They likewise defended the Ostend Manifesto & the annexation of Cuba.
The American/Whig duel ticket avoided the issue of slavery altogether, instead they ran a campaign in which they described themselves as the only "national party" which could govern the entire country, as opposed to the Democrats who catered to southern slavery & the Republicans who championed northern abolition. They also put forth a nativist platform which campaigned against the admission of immigrants, particularly those of the catholic faith.
The results.
POD's
1. OTL Pierce made no such arrangements & was replaced as the presidential nominee by Buchanan.
2. OTL Salmon Chase didn't seek the nomination due to feeling that the young party was properly organised to win the presidency. TTL he decides to run as, though he doesn't expect to win he deems the election as a chance to establish the Republican party as the premier anti-slavery party in America,
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