CHAPTER II: SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY
A photograph of President Alexander Stephens. 1871
1868 - 1880
Stephens was the first candidate to run under a political party, the reformed Democrats, which comprised the Pro-Administration faction, as well as a number of the more moderate Anti-Administration members. The latter sought to tie themselves closer to the victorious Davis administration. Robert Toombs, meanwhile, was nominated by the rest of the ragtag "Anti-Administration" grouping in a small convention in Atlanta. The race featured few challenges, with both sides being either elated or resigned to the idea of a Stephens victory, as Toombs did not even campaign. This race is often considered the first of the "First Party System" of the Confederacy. Often characterized as a period of unabashed dominance by the Democrats, the First Party System was a time of relative success and prosperity, with Congress more controlled by factions than parties, most taking the name "Democrat".
Meanwhile, to the north, the divisions caused by the war were evident. President Horatio Seymour fought off a challenge from the crumbling Republicans of Benjamin Wade and the nascent American Party of Francis P. Blair. To put it simply, the three were defined by their reactions to President Lincoln: the Democrats said he did too much, the Republicans said he did too little, and the Americans said he did what he should have. Seymour would win re-election, though only after a long, dirty campaign that nearly went to the House.
Alexander Stephens would be inaugurated on a warm Richmond day in 1868, pledging to defend the rights and privileges of the states, so help him God. Over his term, he would define one thing about the Confederate presidency, enshrining what Davis had done: policy was outside its purview. Instead, Stephens focused on diplomacy and warfare, overseeing the strengthening of his young nation. Congress did as it wished. He was a traditionalist, with little interest in petty partisan conflict. Stephens even placed Robert Toombs, his 1868 opponent and former Secretary of State, in his cabinet.
His greatest challenge would be clear from the onset: the north. Even though Seymour had won re-election, the same could not be said for his allies in Congress. The American Party - along with the remaining Republicans, as they united against Seymour's excesses - had won control of both houses of Congress. This alliance refused to allow a peaceable relationship with their southern opponents, recalling the burning of Baltimore. All the rest of Seymour's political goodwill would be wiped with the Panic of 1869, as the American markets crashed. The south watched the north with curiosity and paranoia as the yankees turned their attention inward. Seymour found himself under constant opposition in his Congress, vetoing several bills. Any chance he had at fostering a better relationship with the south was taken, as he was forced to turn his attention to restoring the economy.
The Confederacy, meanwhile, was economically isolated and suffered much less than its northern counterpart. As a sign of the times, delegates were even sent to Spain in an attempt to purchase Cuba or other Caribbean possessions - but these failed after a second downturn began in '71. By the end of his term, even as the economy was worse off than it began, Alexander Stephens was popular and his policies - or lack thereof - found few opponents.
Meanwhile, his opponent and current Secretary of State, Robert Toombs, prepared for the next election. Though he would be sixty-four by the time of his election, he had his eyes set on the Presidency. He wrangled party endorsements and frightened off the opposition. Despite their political rivalry, it cannot be said that Stephens and Toombs were anything but cordial, leading to few surprises when the experienced man won the President's endorsement, even as General John Bell Hood considered a run of his own. The convention, held relatively quietly in Norfolk, elected Toombs as their nominee on the first ballot, shattering any spare opposition.
But, for the first time in Confederate history, another party entered the fray. In a small hall in New Orleans, the National Party, formed of former Whigs, Anti-Administrationers, and the barest hint of abolitionists, held its first-ever convention. The Nationals hoped for better relations with the north and a transfer away, ever so slightly, from the agrarian economy which dominated the Confederacy at the time. This was a hard bargain. To many, a transition away from that was a transition away from southern values, from slavery. The National Party, in an attempt to raise support, nominated war hero and apolitical Stonewall Jackson, who accepted the nomination tepidly. Alongside him, they named Henry S. Foote, one of the National Party's smatterings of Congressmen and Senators.
The election of 1874 was the first election contested by two parties in Confederate history, though there was little doubt that the Democrats would win. In the end, Toombs would win, but it was not a complete loss for the Nationals. They would win Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama - most states in the west, even if they were ineffective anywhere east of Alabama. In the end, the 1874 election is often considered as part of the First Party System. though it would signal the eventual competitiveness of future elections.
Toombs had always been an iconoclast within the Democratic Party. Initially so opposed to Davis that he had resigned from cabinet to serve as a General, Toombs had ended his petty feud with Davis after seeing the growing success of the Confederate military. The two had almost reconciled into a working relationship by the time Davis left office. Though Toombs was defeated in the election of 1868, he had great respect for his fellow Georgian and ally Stephens, returning to his position as Secretary of State. It was no surprise when Toombs won the Democratic nomination in 1874, continuing on the President's path. Where Toombs defined himself was foreign policy. The United States was advancing and advancing quickly. By the middle of the 1870s, there was not a slave in the north and they watched their southern neighbor - and once enemy - with deep suspicion. As well, the north was industrializing, as their tariffs, unabated by southern opposition, allowed for American industry to flourish.
The word of the Toombs administration was "detente". They sought better relations with their northern neighbors, meeting with American representatives and hoping that tariffs could be lowered on the south. Initial meetings were rather positive, even as the Americans were led by a member of the American Party, Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, with family in the south, sought a more peaceful solution to the "Southern Question", as some more aggressive members of his party termed it. Both leaders of American states desired a better relationship - but this was not the time of Lincoln and Davis. Since the Civil War, both countries had cracked down on the idea of the "imperial presidency", as their legislatures had reigned supreme.
The American Senate saw negotiation with their southern rivals as foolish, with ex-Republicans and Whigs providing a majority of the seats under the American Party. Their Confederate counterparts still refused to do business with the "damn Yankees". This lack of amity grew after three Yankees were arrested for facilitating the freeing of slaves. Some Americans saw a second war as the best option, led by persistent radical Benjamin Wade. It took a great deal of negotiation with his party, assisted by his Vice President, young Wade Hampton. Hampton was no fan of the U.S. but was willing to work with his own President, especially as the election drew closer and his support became more critical. Crittenden made his own deals, promising a decrease in American tariffs to Frémont, which settled the Americans, if only barely. Despite the opposition, it seemed a grand transit and commerce deal, with lasting reforms, was on the verge of being done.
They were rudely interrupted by the collapse of the Mexican Empire. Always a Confederate supporter, even amid the War of Separation, the Confederacy had repaid its southern ally with support against republican opposition to Emperor Maximilian's reign, keeping the man in power against the rebels. Since then, Maximilian I had served diligently on his throne, attempting moderate reforms while contending with radical rebels. His reign would come to an inglorious end in 1877, with his assassination by the hand of an anarchist. Almost instantly, the Mexican Empire fell into chaos. Agustín III, a fourteen-year-old boy and grandson of the first Mexican emperor, was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico.
Porfirio Díaz was a constant supporter of democracy who had lived in exile in the United States, waiting for his opportunity to strike. With the death of Maximilian and his replacement by a minor, that opportunity finally came, as Díaz returned to his home country, hailed as a hero. The chaos immediately turned into a full-blown rebellion, as both republicans and dissatisfied supporters of the regime rose in revolt. Despite the ongoing negotiations, both would go on to support their allies: the Americans would send arms and ammunition to the rebels, while the Confederates went to back their allies to the south. The so-called English-Holliday Treaty would die in the cradle, as the Confederacy and the Union looked at each other, once more, as rivals.
Within the south, voices clamored for a jingoistic response to "American aggression", urging for greycoats to support the Mexican Empire. Even as Toombs chided for less involvement, he found division from within: his own Vice President, Wade Hampton, began vocally calling for intervention in the country. This would drive a stake between the two of them, as Hampton was all but exiled from cabinet meetings and official business. Within the year, the weakened empire would be driven out of Mexico City and forced to the eastern coast. With the bulk of the country under the control of the revolution and with Díaz already proclaimed President of a
República Restaurada, the royalists found their position untenable. Agustín would renounce the throne and flee the country, taking exile in Europe. Despite later plots to restore him to power, he would never again seek to restore his empire, instead living out a life as a quiet academic.
To Mexico's north, the Confederacy, having lost one of their most critical allies in the region, was sent reeling. Blame went all around. Toombs was blamed for doing too little, Hampton blamed for dividing the country, and the Americans blamed for causing the whole mess in the first place. Even as he became deeply unpopular with Toombs and his clique, Hampton found himself revered by jingoists and Amerophobes, especially since it came at such personal cost.
In the wake of such chaos, the 1880 Election became the most contentious in Confederate history, with the National Party finally spying their chance at the Presidency. While the National Party selecting Senator James Alcorn, one of the wealthiest men in the Confederacy, they could not shake the idea that the National Party was the party of abolition, northern support, and peaceniks. While most of these accusations were unfounded, it is not a lie to say that closet abolitionists flocked to the National Party in droves, seeking to "industrialize away" with slavery. The Democratic contest was a closely run-race, as Wade Hampton officially declared his candidacy. Despite their (and the President's) fervent opposition to Hampton, his opposition was unable to coalesce around a single candidate, leading to Hampton winning the nomination on the fourteenth ballot. To placate them, he nominated Richard Coke, a relatively moderate member of the party.
Alcorn put up a strong campaign, running traditional tactics, attempting to appeal to the idea of "an eternal Confederacy", looking to bring the south into the modern age and challenging the hegemony of America in the region. All in all, it was a perfectly respectable campaign and the exact campaign that fell perfectly into Wade Hampton's hands. The Confederacy was angry. Angry at defeat and angry at the north. This lingering rage allowed the birth of one of the most brutal groups to ever define Confederate politics: The Southern Legion, a pet project of one Benjamin Tillman.
The Legion was, for all intents and purposes, the military arm of the Democratic Party. It had been built up in the wake of the contested 1874 election and. though Hampton was never officially a member, would be widely associated with him. The Legion, like Hampton, had been born and raised in South Carolina. They had trained for years, preparing to defend southern values. When it came time for the Southern Legion to act, they certainly did. People were encouraged to vote for the right candidate, local figures intimidated, and the National Party was thoroughly outmatched. That was not to say that they were angels: Their own group, the Confederated Rifle Clubs, committed many of the same actions, but with less efficiency, less of a brazen attitude.
Though fellow Democrats (and Hampton, if you believe his statements) found the actions of the Legion distasteful, they were willing to stomach it, still recalling Alcorn as a quasi-Unionist Whig. So opposed were they to Alcorn, one of the most influential figures in the early National Party, that rumors began to abound that the man was a secret abolitionist. By the time the votes were counted, Wade Hampton III and Richard Coke had won. The 1880 Election was the end of the First Party System. Even as the Nationals were defeated, the fact that the Democrats so extensively used the Southern Legion is a signal of fear. With losses in the House and Senate, the Democrats had lost their dominance of Confederate politics. The Legion would begin to hibernate, but few could forget their actions. It can be said that the adoption of paramilitaries into political campaigns, more than any policy aim or negotiation, was the most defining of Hampton's actions.
