WI: 1868 Republican Nominee, minus Grant

Without Grant, who gets the 1868 Republican nomination

  • Salmon P Chase

    Votes: 2 15.4%
  • Benjamin Wade

    Votes: 3 23.1%
  • Schuyler Colfax

    Votes: 6 46.2%
  • Reuben E Fenton

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Henry Wilson

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Someone else

    Votes: 2 15.4%

  • Total voters
    13
It's pretty safe to say that Ulysses S Grant had the 1868 election in the bag. But what if for whatever reason Grant didn't want to become president and refused the nomination. Who do you think would take it instead? Assuming the Democratic choice is the same as OTL, do you think the Republican choice would have still beaten them?
 
Probably Wade or Colfax. The other high-profile Republicans at the time were all unlikely choices: William Seward had sided too much with Johnson during the latter's Presidency, Edwin Stanton and Thaddeus Stevens were dying, and Chase was functionally a Democrat on most major issues except slavery and the war (to the extent that he was seriously proposed as a compromise candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1868 when that convention was deadlocked between Hendricks and Hancock).

I'd bet on Colfax over Wade, since historically he won out for the Vice Presidential nomination: Wade had more support in the early ballots, but less than a majority, and Colfax seems to have been the second choice of most of Fenton and Wilson's supporters.
 
Almost certainly another general. If Sherman didn't want it, then maybe Sheridan or Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The latter would be a wise precaution in case the Dems were to nominate Hancock - one hero of Gettysburg to balance another.
 
Almost certainly another general. If Sherman didn't want it, then maybe Sheridan or Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The latter would be a wise precaution in case the Dems were to nominate Hancock - one hero of Gettysburg to balance another.

With Sheridan, there's the Catholic issue and also possible "birtherism": "Sheridan claimed Albany on March 6, 1831 from the time he was 17, but alternative possibilities include; on September 6, 1831; onboard a ship sailing to New York from County Cavan, Ireland; and Boston, Massachusetts. Morris, pp. 10–11, points out that Sheridan harbored presidential ambitions from an early age and could have deliberately claimed a U.S. birthplace in order to claim natural born citizenship, a requirement for the office. Wittenberg, pp. 142–43, argues strongly for Ireland, citing a stone marker on the parents' former house and county parish records..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Sheridan
 
I'd bet on Colfax over Wade, since historically he won out for the Vice Presidential nomination: Wade had more support in the early ballots, but less than a majority, and Colfax seems to have been the second choice of most of Fenton and Wilson's supporters.

Wow, its unfortunate that Grant's Presidency was corrupt...but with Colfax who was a large part responsible for that corruption, damn man, this Presidency cannot be that good.
 
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