I really like this TL! I do wish the U.S. would take the rest of it's OTL borders.
TLIAW(II):A Rigged Deck, for a Rigged System
- Thread starter Nofix
- Start date
I like the idea of Mexico having some of california, personally.
#16.) Abraham Lincoln - Federalist
(1861-1869)
(1861-1869)
Vice-President:
John Bell, Federalist (1857-1869)
The first man to take a nomination away from a sitting President, Lincoln also had the dubious honor of losing to literally no one in Pennsylvania. Enraged Buchanan allies assembled and an "Anti-Lincoln Party" was assembled for the Keystone State, which had a full slate of electors, just no one they were pledged to. With help from the remaining Whigs, and Buchanan's allies, they beat Lincoln 47.9% to 46.7%. Buchanan himself didn't actively do anything to persuade or dissuade them, but he did bashfully accept their electoral votes that year and penned a letter of thanks to those who engineered it. Lincoln took it in good jest, and even sent a letter to Buchanan admitting his jealousy of how his state probably wouldn't have voted like that if he were denied renomination.
Aside from that rocky intro, the Lincoln Administration was one of the most peaceful and prosperous thus far. The previous 8 years as Attorney General meant much of the corruption and graft that came from the faulty loans was now washed away. Lincoln also began enforcing a popular set of programs known as Civil Service Reform. Before, appointments came at the discretion of the President. Good, bad, mediocre, they usually relied first on connections and second on actual expertise. While Buchanan started something similar as President, his appointments were mostly whom he felt would be most reliable and likely to help him personally, not exactly on the basis of most qualified.
The Transcontinental Railroad was finished by his the end of the first half of his term, and he invited former President's Scott and Buchanan to visit Oregon and Vancouver Territory. While both were rather old and tired, they agreed and traveled the over two thousand miles to get their, stopping to meet citizens in the states and territories on their way. The three Presidents stayed in Governor Fremont's residence and even toured a bit down in California territory. Lincoln also became the first President to leave the United States while in office to visit Mexico City in 1863. One of the most traveled Presidents in his day, Lincoln enjoyed everything from carriages to the new railroads to get him from point A to point B.
Lincoln's 1864 re-election was so assured that very little turnout happened. While Andrew Johnson and Stephen Douglas won a higher percentage of the vote then John Breckenridge and Herschel Johnson did in 1860, they received far fewer actual votes. The Whigs continued to dwindle in number and voters around the nation began to chafe for an actually competitive election. Still, the Federalists were popular, Lincoln was popular, and the United States settled into a comfortable dominant party era for a while that would only start to crumble after Lincoln left office.
Lincoln is considered one of the top few Presidents. Intelligent, progressive, reformist, and national-looking, he exemplified the best of the Federalist Party and tried to step outside their usual policies for the betterment of a rapidly changing nation. Unfortunately his successors couldn't be tasked to keep up the same level of effort or creativity, so much so he was begged to return to office after his retirement, but he refused to break Washington's precedent.
An interesting note about his term was that John Bell succeeded John Adams as the longest served Vice-President. Both men served three terms under two President, but Washington and Adams were inaugurated late (in April) and thus both served a little less then future men. Bell himself tried to run in 1868, but age and ailment kept him from trying anything more then a token attempt.
I've been advertising it since Scott's term in office. Like, openly saying it. Get with the times man.
Hilariously, but harmlessly, incompetent.
It's just more and less then OTL, with a rather peaceful neighbor, I think that's a fairly good trade.
Having different borders is part of the fun of writing stories like this IMO.
Great to see that in TTL, Lincoln's would likely be called the Era of Good Feelings.
I wonder if Douglas might win one of the next few elections, since he could easily survive for years since the reasons for his death OTL wouldn't be there.
Apparently there is no problem with the French TL in Mexico, either, which is nice. Maybe Mexico is moer prosperous and powerful TTL, too.
I wonder if Douglas might win one of the next few elections, since he could easily survive for years since the reasons for his death OTL wouldn't be there.
Apparently there is no problem with the French TL in Mexico, either, which is nice. Maybe Mexico is moer prosperous and powerful TTL, too.
Neither did Buchanan -- evidently not all elections will have the winner swapped out.
#17.) Horatio Seymour - Federalist
(1869-1870)
(1869-1870)
Vice-President:
Francis Preston Blair, Jr., Federalist (1869-1870)
The Seymour Presidency was then far the shortest, only a year and two months after taking office he was killed, along with several hundred others including Vice-President Blair, because of a railroad accident in New York. June 15, 1870 the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate took the office of acting President. Seymour himself is little remembered because of his lack of initiative, generally fulfilled populace, and the exceedingly short time in office, alongside him carrying an air of forgetability.
#A.) David Davis - Federalist
(1870-1871)
(1870-1871)
Vice-President:
none (1870-1871)
Something to everyone, David Davis was the first President Pro Tempore to take the office of President. Citing the separation of powers, he resigned his position as Senator and President Pro Tempore to take the office of Acting-President. Davis had been a law partner to Lincoln for some time, and his old friend sent him a solemn letter of congratulations, and wishing him the best of luck. The special election of 1870 was a wash for the Federalists, the biggest challenge was whether Davis would and should get a full term as President. Because very few Federalists bothered to campaign that year, Davis was handed the nomination and thus the general on a platter. Like with Buchanan, he made attempts to coax over the remaining Whigs, the remainder still voraciously refusing to ever admit defeat to their dreaded Federalist adversaries.
#18.) David Davis - Federalist/Reform
(1871-1873)
(1871-1873)
Vice-President:
Thomas A. Hendricks, Federalist (1871-1873)
Davis made many steps that alienated him from his party, first was breaking the age old rule of a man from either North or South of the border to be President, and from the other side the Vice-President. While some could mockingly claim Indiana a Southern State, or in spirit one, the Davis' campaign to include Hendricks alienated a lot of Southern Federalists. Even more damningly vetoed a funding bill for the Cumberland Road, calling it's upkeep "no longer needed" by the Federal Government and that, even though it effects the whole nation, the states which is resides in are plenty capable of funding it as needed. Talk like that would have earned him a severe reprimand in the days of Henry Clay but now it guaranteed him expulsion from the party. The Federalist convention of 1872 not only refused to endorse him, but the delegates voted to expel Davis and Davis-supporters from the party. A great schism had begun in the Federalist Party, and with it the Third Party System began.
Like with Buchanan, Davis was offered the nomination of the Whigs, seeing this as another chance to capitalize on the Federalist split. Davis took both the Whig nomination, without formally becoming a Whig himself, and announced a new party to combat the Federalists, the Reform Party. With the policies of good government, careful spending, economic and labor reform, Davis hit the sweet spot of American politics where no one was happy. Federalists called him an outrageous and obese hypocrite, after years in office without having said a word about labor or economic reform, all of a sudden he cared about that? The same man who disregarded the Civil Service Commission as "pandering" the over-educated urban elite now cared about maintaining "good government"? Whigs were were dismayed at the negative press that assaulted their cross-nomination. Even the party-less reformers who wanted to improve America morally, economically, and various other ways couldn't find it in themselves to support David Davis.
While Seymour had the excuse of dying, Davis was dismissed as wholly incompetent and a fairly unaccomplished President. Petty, power-hungry, unwilling to believe in anything that wasn't immensely popular at the time, his biggest contrition (no pun intended) to American politics was forming a new political vehicle to combat the Federalists. Ironically, he himself would leave the party in a few years, disapproving of their nominees and how "radical" they had become. Even the party he founded denounced him as a political chameleon, wholly without honor or honesty in his technically massive heart.
Last edited:
Basically.
I considered him as an Acting President sometime in there, or even winning in 1860, but I decided against it.
Mexico is a lot more stable in the beginning, but she'll still have her own problems given the ossified leadership and government. Still, I did like the idea of giving them a bone here and there.
Nope, but...
this is what I meant in the beginning when I'd "remix" them.
Really interesting TL. Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
#19.) Thomas Andrews Hendricks - Federalist
(1873-1877)
(1873-1877)
Vice-President:
Benjamin Gratz Brown, Federalist (1873-1877)
After tossing out Davis as the Federalist nominee, Hendricks had an easy time defeating him in the general election. Even those tired of the Federalists were at best lukewarm about the "Reform" President, especially as Hendricks moved carefully, and more plausibly, into the progressive faction of the Federalists. Him and Missouri Governor Brown won easily over Davis and James Black, a noted Prohibitionist activist. He advocated more tariffs and to expand the Army and Navy, both in disrepair for over a decade at this point. The Reform Party began to grow under his term, campaigning on Hendricks' being a puppet of "Eastern businessmen" of opposing temperance (which was true) and of working to crush a bill to allow Silver currency while Senate President (which was also true).
The United States economy, after some decade of near-interrupted growth, began to slow, some say ossified, which the Reformists ran with full force. Attack cronies in the Hendricks Administration, the lax response by them, and the unreasonable payments Congress was receiving, the Reformists swallowed up the Whigs, various Independents, and even a score of Federalists tired with the dynastic rule. With their weakest since the 1840's, the Federalist actually lost, making Hendricks the first Federalist incumbent to lose in the general election, and to a distant relative of another Federalist to boot.
Hendricks is merely remembered as mediocre, if remembered at all. The economic downturn was inevitable, but he was the man blamed after so long since the last noticeable recession. No major foreign or domestic disputes happened during his term, but some credit him with trying to reform the military after so long having been inactive.
#20.) Green Clay Smith - Reform
(1877-1881)
Vice-President:
William Allen, Reform (1877-1881)
Even as late as 1876 the Reform Party had several names in several states. Economic Reform Party, Labor Reform Party, Greenback Reform Party, People's Party, Democratic Party of Laborers, some even resurrected the name of Workingman Party, and in Hesapa it was known as the Temperance and Reform Party. The major candidates for the Reform Party were Massachusetts Independent Governor Benjamin Franklin Butler, Representative from Ohio William Allen (who became Vice-President), and even an elderly businessman named Peter Cooper (who provided much of the party funds that year). Eventually, Hesapa Governor Green Clay Smith won both the nomination and the general election by the strength of Northern and Western votes.
Despite this, the Federalists still maintained the Senate and were very unwilling to allowing the Government to fall to King Mob. Smith saw the big way he could combat entrenched Federalism and anti-populism, by way of the bully pulpit. Where ever the President went, people and newspapers followed him doggedly. Smith returned to his birth land, Kentucky, to talk about Prohibition and Democracy. The South was by an large the least liberal part in the country when it came to voting rights, with less then 20% of the male population enfranchised anywhere. The numbers got lower when you looked at people who could vote in all elections, state and federal for example. The worst was South Carolina, sometimes called the The Most Serene Republic of South Carolina by outsiders with knowledge of old European oligarchies, where the Governor and Electoral Votes were assigned by the state legislature.
Smith decided if Congress wouldn't work with him, he'd start at the state level and work his way up. He spoke at length on the necessity of enfranchising the workingman, taking careful steps to avoid being seen as advocating Negro Suffrage. In the West he would talk about enfranchising women, as was in his own state (something he fought for very hard as President of the Constitutional Convention), about Silver or even Green money, and avoid the often frosty topic of Prohibition. The Federalists attacked him on all fronts. Prohibition was unconstitutional, it was unseemly of the Chief Magistrate to go around the country telling lecturing the people on their affairs. Southerners were ravenous in demanding he refuse to come into their states, claiming he was calling up insurrection by talking about voting reform, how hoards of Negroes and stupid whites would be lead into a class war and devastate the peaceful culture of Dixie. But Smith, armed alongside his bodyguards, simply said, "I am the President of these United States, I am allowed to go and speak anywhere I wish in my country if they will have me. I shall not be turned away by the gun and noose of cowards and cads."
Reform Party endorsements from newspapers and influential citizens rose, especially after how Smith held himself to a gentlemanly standard through insults and jeers and threats. He still lost in his re-election campaign. Critics claimed this as a vindication of Federalism, while supporters claimed if he were elected by a true popular vote, with no electoral college and an enfranchised white lower class, there would be victory. The heavy handed way the Southern Federalists treated attempts to liberalize franchise was something that would cause many problems for years to come.
Green Clay Smith is remembered as the first real Reform President. Even at the time David Davis attacked him for his radicalism and for making what was essentially a state matter, suffrage, a moral and federal one. Smith is remembered as a decent footing for future Reform Presidents and, while never running again himself, was influential in steering some nominations and making alliances across the nation. Various new ideas were added to the Reform arsenal, the biggest of which was Senate reform after the hostile reaction they gave to literally all of his suggestions and attempts to meddle with the Bank or with the money supply.
I had to look up the above guy because i have never heard of him. Quite an obscure pick you have chosen for President.
*Laughs evilly*
OTL: Unionist from Kentucky, later the Montana Territorial Governor, Green Clay Smith was the nephew of famed abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, who in turn was a cousin of Henry Clay. This makes Smith something like Henry Clay's grandnephew? I think. Anyways, Smith was ordained as a Baptist minister after his term as Governor, and ran as the National Prohibition candidate in OTL 1876. He won less then 10,000 votes.
ATL: Political agnostic until he moved to Hesapa to get away from home, elected as a member of the territorial house he became interested in theology, Prohibition, and suffrage. A distant relative of President Henry Clay, he has little affection for the Federalists as they basically merged with the worst parts of the SouthernWhigs to continue their monopolistic rule in the South, which was less so but still prevalent in the border states like Kentucky.
#21.) Winfield Scott Hancock - Federalist
(1881-1882)
(1881-1882)
Vice-President:
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, Federalist (1881-1885)
Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, then Governor of his state, Winfield Scott Hancock followed the career of his namesake somewhat but diverged in many paths. Instead pursuing a career in the federal judiciary, Hancock stayed in Pennsylvania and worked in the state legislature before he was promoted to the state judiciary. Hancock's nomination as President came from a desire to counteract the Reformers attacks on the the dynastic rule. Respected but never national in scope, he was seen as the perfect man to shake up the Federalists while providing a tenure of responsible government.
Unfortunately his term as President was cut short by pancreas cancer, and led to the ascension of Whig-turned-Federalist L.Q.C. Lamar to the Presidency. A man chosen to appeal to other turncoats like him, he ended up alienating most of the political establishment within literally a day of taking office.
#A.) Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, - Federalist
(1882-1883)
(1882-1883)
Vice-President:
Himself (1881-1883)
Upon receiving news of Hancock's death, Lamar penned a letter expressing his condolences to his family and that he shall execute the duty "of the offices to which I was elected to." To many, this seemed like he was jumping to seize the office, instead of waiting for the cabinet and Congress to assemble as was traditional. Lamar further alienated party faithful by firing several of Hancock's appointments and stuffing them with his men, mostly associates from the South. Congressional Reformers, lead informally by Benjamin Butler in the House, took a step back and allowed the Federalists to be the ones to criticize and attack Lamar. It worked. Speaker Blaine denounced him for "packing every hen house in [Washington D.C.] with every law school classmate [Lamar] ever had." Lamar replied by firing Secretary of State Hannibal Hamlin (who was from Maine like Blaine) and appointing Matthew Butler in his place. This backfired as an anti-Lamar Federalist minority, aided by a unanimous Reform Party, blocked him from taking office.
Lamar did not just annoy his own party, he earned the Reformers hatred. In a widely circulated speech known mockingly as the "Duty and Honor Speech", which was never intended to be heard by the public, President Lamar spoke to a delegation of Southern Federalists who were working to block state and countywide opposition movements, Reformer or otherwise. Lamar said, in reference to theoretical attempts to give suffrage to Yazoo's large Negro population, that it was "the duty and honor of all white citizens to, upon finding the devil who calls for such a thing, to kill him where he stands and not allow him to take another step forward after uttering such vile blasphemy!"
The fact the President of the United States openly advocated murder on opposition figures caused an explosive hoopla. State Legislatures passed resolutions condemning him, the national newspapers called him the worst leader the North American continent ever had, ever elder President Lincoln wrote a letter expressing his displeasure at the "hateful words" spewed by the man meant to represent all Americans. Now the Reformers could go forward on the offensive. Benjamin Butler took the floor of the Senate to attack Lamar, his presidency, his own lack of "Duty and Honor", and even suggested that it was time to impeach the man. Federalist leaders agreed, and even called upon the state militia of Maryland to prevent any possible coup by Lamar.
The 47th Congress introduced the Articles of Impeachment December 5th, 1882. The House voted to Impeach Lamar January 19th, 1883 on the various charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors", and the Senate voted to convict March 2nd, 1883, just before a new Congress was about to take office. Lamar is remembered as one of, if not the, single worst President. Virulently racist, and likely willing to tolerate murder of opposition figures, many speculate how terrible he would have gotten if the United States ever was in a position to want a dictator.
#A.) Chester Arthur, - Federalist
(1883-1885)
(1883-1885)
Vice-President:
None (1883-1885)
The popular and joyous New York Senator was elected President Pro Tempore in 1880 and expected to serve out the rest of his political career performing his usual Senate duties, and retiring home in a few years after all was said and done. No one expected he'd be the man asked to act as President after President Lamar would be thrown out. Unlike Lamar, Arthur considered himself merely a placeholder and did very little as President, always taking care to clue in both party leaders in both houses of Congress when he was going to make a big appointment or pursue something important. Arthur was likely the weakest President in American history, taking very little advantage of his office and doing the most work with the least amount of effort needed. While some criticize him for weakening the Presidency and allowing Congress to dominate for some time afterward, others praise him for his statesmanlike conduct and how quickly and gently he healed the wounds the nation endured.
Chet Arthur, as he was popularly known, refused a nomination as President and retired home. Some say it was on the recommendation of his wife Nellie, but others say it was a desire to devolve the office onto someone more willing and capable to be President.
Last edited:
What is this bullshit? You can't just change the conditions halfway through!
Says who?
Common sense, and tradition.
I wipe my gallbladder with tradition, if I want to take two weeks for TLIAWII then I'll do it.
Well fine then, but your conscience will always remind you of what you have done.
Aren't you my conscience?
No I am the omnipresent rhetorical device that has been copy-pasted an infinite amount of times out of a desire to retain the-
Yeah OK I got you.
*Formally lifts worry from shoulders.*
*Grants future TLIAD ticket to Darth_Kiryan*
Last edited:
#22.) Benjamin Franklin Butler - Reform
(1885-1889)
Vice-President:
Alson Streeter, Reform (1885-1889)
Lamar's supporters were not content in merely rolling over and allowing the Yankee's and Western Peasants walk all over their honor, especially after Butler and Blaine, the orchestrators of Lamar's impeachment, were nominated by their respective parties. Instead, they nominated Lamar on a True Whig ticket, promising to fight sectional warfare, respect states rights, and not "soil the dignity of the states will illegitimate governance." This split between the Old Federalists and the Whig johnny-come-latelys allowed Butler to collect some Southern states he likely wouldn't have. As an interesting piece of trivia, an agreement between Blaine and Butler was found out in 1909 that if the Electoral College would have been split three ways, then whoever got the most votes would be supported by the electors of the other man. This wasn't tested, as Butler won an electoral landslide.
Butler started off his term with another Reformer House and a much more willing to compromise Federalist Senate. Butler instead of trying, and failing, at large scale revolutionary ideas, aimed at making the Federalists look like a bunch of out of touch misers and hypocrites. One of the big ideas in the western states was that of a subtreasury system in five or so regions in the US, where banks would loan out money with cheap interest, alongside the Grain Elevators, so farmers could get a start on their businesses without having to mortgage their futures if a bad crop year came. The Reformist argued if industries like railroads could depend on government subsides and loans, why not the average man so he can retain his economic independence? The arguments went back and forth in Congress, slowly building up momentum in the public consciousness before passing. It was day of celebration in the West as Lord Butler had delivered them to the promised land.
While planning on introducing Free Silver and Senate reform, something happened that killed the Butler Presidency and would cement the Reform Party. The Sharecroppers War. Not an official state on state war, instead throughout the South men, white, mixed, and colored, rose up in defiance of their plantation masters. From June 19 to October 29 of 1882, tens of thousands of men rose up in protest, burned down homes, fought with police and state militia in pursuit of three things. 1.) Ending the sharecropper system that had turned them into wage slaves. 2.) Liberalization of voting rights. 3.) A federal oversight into the crimes committed on the workingmen by "neo-slave masters" (according to anonymous letter sent to the Richmond Enquirer). White and Black men united in fighting the peonage system, the wageslave system, and on the white supremacy that put black men on the bottom and the whites slightly above them, with the fig leaf they were better then the "Niggers."
The southerners in Congress demanded the military go in and crush them, end the "Race and Class war," and preserve peace in their states. Butler answered one man as such in Congress. "It is the duty and honor of all men to fight tyranny, be its source foreign, national, or local." Ben Butler had no love for the Southern masters who wanted to return the workers into peonage and neo-slavery, he downright taunted them, and used his power of the bully pulpit to announce his support for the "Revolutionaries in the South [...] whom are fighting their own war of Independence." He met their third demand and ordered US Attorneys to investigate the widespread peonage system that happened in the South.
This caused much controversy. He was attacked as a race-mixing anarchist who would have black-on-white rape instituted as government policy if he were to stay in office, and that was one of the nicer things they said about "Beast" Butler. Northerners were rather dismayed at how radical Butler had become, supporting what amounted to a socialist insurrection in the lower portion of the United States. When asked about how he allowed such a thing to happen, he sneakily replied that "As no damage has been done to Federal installments, there is no need for me to violate the sovereignty of these states."
As he expected to lose in 1888, he didn't bother trying for a second term. Butler knew he wouldn't live to see his party take hold of America but he laid down the lines for future Reform Party strength. He got the last few Western states into the Union, sans Sequoya and Vancouver. Butler himself is remembered rather mixed. He was a brilliant mind, and much of his long term planning payed off for the Reformists, but very little happened during his own term or even lifetime. Much of his plans required other men to build off of his success. Butler is either rated very high or very low, both especially by Southern Americans, where even today he is seen as "Benevolent Ben" or "Beast Butler".
AB: Absaroka
CA: California
CO- Colorado
DA: Dakota
HS: Hesapa
SH: Shoshone
UT: Utah