Let’s say some union worker, upset with the breaking up of the Pullman Strike, assassinates Cleveland in fall 1894 before the midterm elections. What are the impacts of this event? Could bimetallism supporter Stevenson get legislation expanding silver coinage done? What do the midterms/the 1896 election look like? My own thought is that this could butterfly WJB’s cross of gold speech and get Stevenson renominated for President. OTOH, his presidency might discredit the silverites enough that the DNC is more evenly split between the backers of hard money and the silverites, and the only person who might be able to bring them together would be the unpopular Stevenson, so the Dems may split here and the radicals like WJB join the Populists and the conservatives that remain nominate a sacrificial lamb like [insert random NY congressman] here.
WI: Grover Cleveland assassinated in 1894
- Thread starter KaiserWilhelm
- Start date
The sacrificial lamb you are referring to would probably be David B. Hill. As for the tickets they would develop, I could see these, all of which would be defeated due to the recession and split of Democratic voters by presumably McKinley or whatever other Republican is nominated.
Traditional Democrats: Adlai Stevenson I/Richard P. Bland
Populist Democrats: William Jennings Bryan/Henry M. Teller or Horace Boies
Bourbon (Conservative) Democrats: David B. Hill/Robert E. Pattison
Traditional Democrats: Adlai Stevenson I/Richard P. Bland
Populist Democrats: William Jennings Bryan/Henry M. Teller or Horace Boies
Bourbon (Conservative) Democrats: David B. Hill/Robert E. Pattison
Why assassination? Grover had a risky surgery the prior year, though given it was a secret yacht surgery conspiracy theories would spring like a fountain if that backfires
I thought that the more interesting POD (for the labor movement and leftism in America more generally) would be post Pullman Strike, and I wanted relatively more apathy to set in