Japhy
Banned
James K. Polk is generally in vogue with historians these days, especially as Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson's stars are on the wane. As such Polk with his victories, however one rates their morality, in achieving all of his main political goals is presented in many ways as one of the great triumphs of the Jeffersonian-Jacksonian Democratic system.
Polk incidentally also had the shortest Post-Presidency of any man to have ever held the office, it was only 103 days until his presumably Cholera-educed death at the age of 53.
Now the question is this, what impact does Polk have on the course of events if he lives theoretically, as long as his mother did (She outlived him) which would put his allo-natural death sometime around 1870-72. This of course is interesting in that butterflies aside, he'd live to see his state revolt against the Federal Government.
Chris DeRose in his recent book The Presidents' War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War that Divided Them covers how each of the five previous office holders still alive when Lincoln took office had opposed his nomination and election as a harbinger of war.
Of the five, one (John Tyler) took part in the mostly-border state mostly-remnant Whig attempts to prevent a full break with compromises to violence and then went on to be elected to the Confederate Congress, dying before he could take the oath. Tyler of course is the only one of the five who was from a state that seceded. Though Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan offered no real useful advantage to the country, representing Anti-Republican Whiggism, Copperheadism, and Base Incompetence respectively. Martin Van Buren did a moderately respectable job, after having opposed Lincoln closing the ranks, allied more or less with the Conservative Republicans who had once been fellow Free Soilers.
Now, that all said, is Tyler the most likely comparison figure of that "esteemed" club to compare Polk to? Would Polk have gone into the Confederate Congress, or tried for other political office? Or is something along the lines of John Bell's pathetic stand for Unionism and full acceptance of the Confederate Government without serving in the regime a possibility? Or theoretically was the man enough of a real, true blooded Jacksonian to stand by Old Hickory's toast: "Our Federal Union: It must be Preserved"?
Or to cover another option, though I don't view it as so likely based on how little influence ex-Presidents generally have, does Polk remove the Civil War as we know it by living?
Polk incidentally also had the shortest Post-Presidency of any man to have ever held the office, it was only 103 days until his presumably Cholera-educed death at the age of 53.
Now the question is this, what impact does Polk have on the course of events if he lives theoretically, as long as his mother did (She outlived him) which would put his allo-natural death sometime around 1870-72. This of course is interesting in that butterflies aside, he'd live to see his state revolt against the Federal Government.
Chris DeRose in his recent book The Presidents' War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War that Divided Them covers how each of the five previous office holders still alive when Lincoln took office had opposed his nomination and election as a harbinger of war.
Of the five, one (John Tyler) took part in the mostly-border state mostly-remnant Whig attempts to prevent a full break with compromises to violence and then went on to be elected to the Confederate Congress, dying before he could take the oath. Tyler of course is the only one of the five who was from a state that seceded. Though Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan offered no real useful advantage to the country, representing Anti-Republican Whiggism, Copperheadism, and Base Incompetence respectively. Martin Van Buren did a moderately respectable job, after having opposed Lincoln closing the ranks, allied more or less with the Conservative Republicans who had once been fellow Free Soilers.
Now, that all said, is Tyler the most likely comparison figure of that "esteemed" club to compare Polk to? Would Polk have gone into the Confederate Congress, or tried for other political office? Or is something along the lines of John Bell's pathetic stand for Unionism and full acceptance of the Confederate Government without serving in the regime a possibility? Or theoretically was the man enough of a real, true blooded Jacksonian to stand by Old Hickory's toast: "Our Federal Union: It must be Preserved"?
Or to cover another option, though I don't view it as so likely based on how little influence ex-Presidents generally have, does Polk remove the Civil War as we know it by living?