"Where've You Gone, General Washington?" - Participatory Election Series

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Bump.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Will Smith's increased popularity here cause the Mormon capital to stay in Nauvoo instead of Salt Lake City?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Excerpt from Clark's Political History of the United States, chapter XIII: "The Little Yellow Engine That Couldn't: A Radical Story"

Originally founded in 1847 as an organized vehicle for Mormon prophet Joseph Smith's political ideas (he had previously attempted to run as an independent candidate but attracted little success due to the post-Civil War popularity of the Union Party), the Manifest Party (later the Radical Party) would grow in popularity and influence, providing a counterweight to the fiscal conservatism of the Unionists in the 1860s-1880s and eventually folding into the People's Alliance, where it lived vicariously on through Joseph F. Smith, the 23rd Vice-President of the United States, as well as many other prominent politicians.

After being chased throughout the nation from their ancestral home in upstate New York, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (known as Mormons) settled in Illinois and Missouri, settling in the city of Nauvoo (originally named Quashquema by the local Native Americans and subsequently renamed Venus and Commerce by white settlers) to serve as a sort of Mormon Vatican, and it was those two states that became the epicenter of Mormon politics and populist interests throughout the decades.

After Smith's loss to President Martin Van Buren in 1844 as an Independent (with Van Buren only gaining 51% of the popular vote), he decided to organize his flock into a political party that would serve as a loud voice for religious tolerance and westward expansion. The Manifest Party did well for a new party in 1848, winning several states in the then-Northwest (as well as Vermont) and reducing Charles Francis Adams, the son of the recently deceased John Quincy Adams, to only a plurality of the vote. However, dark times were ahead for the party.

The Mormon call for Manifest Destiny was abruptly co-opted in 1850 by Senator Thomas Hart Benton's new Whig Party, which was everything the Manifesters weren't: backed by interests other than those of the party members, well-financed, and supported by several prominent politicians, including up-and-coming Congressman Abraham Lincoln and legendary frontiersman David "Davy" Crockett, who won the 1852 Presidential Election in a massive landslide. The Manifesters failed to win a single state and didn't even crack 20% of the vote, and Joseph Smith retired from politics to die a few years later. The 1856 election had similar results: a massive Crockett landslide against a weak Union opponent and an abysmal showing for the Mormons, who received their lowest vote total ever.

However, the nomination of the most unlikely candidate ever seen at the time - black elder Elijah Abel - in 1860 would shove the Manifest Party fully into the mainstream as they captured almost 30% of the vote from a combination of their Mormon base, old-style Northern Unionists, and Southern freedmen, catapulting the vote into the House of Representatives. The Church was finally crowning kings, and Abel leveraged Union candidate John P. Hale into appointing his close confidante Daniel Wells to the post of Secretary of the Interior, the highest political position a Mormon had ever achieved thus far. However, it was not the Presidency, and the party took a sharply different turn in 1864.

President Hale's administration was crumbling around him, and prominent radical Unionist and Abel supporter Charles Sumner saw his chance at the Presidency. He went out west from Massachusetts to Illinois to privately ask the Mormons to nominate him, and together they declared a rebrand of the party: the Radicals (originally a derisive label given to them by a prominent Unionist newspaper that they eventually grew to wear with pride). While they had quite a bit of fighting spirit, they weren't prepared for the extremely popular Governor and former Vice-President Abraham Lincoln (himself an Illinois man) to sweep the election in Crockett-esque fashion, putting them out of power once again.

To be continued...

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

These are beautiful. :')

I try my best, and I'm sure Cassius does too.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

...continued

After a brief departure to a more Sumnery place, the Radicals nominated the aging former nominee, current prophet, and former Iowa Governor Brigham Young for President. However, their Sumnerite wing still held influence as popular activist Horace Greeley was nominated for Vice-President. They continued their general losing streak as usual, coming in a respectable third place, and this trend continued into 1872, though this time they only narrowly lost second place to the Whigs, nominating the pro-Mormon governor Thomas Kaine and former nominee Elijah Abel after a vicious convention battle where Whig candidate James A. Garfield attempted to be nominated on a unity ticket; House Speaker John J. Ingalls of called the latter a "miserable little man [who] wants everything and will get nothing".

However, the Radicals' lot was soon to change. The surprisingly popular Walter M. Gibson and the darling of the left Benjamin Butler, though losing handily in the electoral college, came near victory in the popular vote, breaking 40% for the first time as the little-known Whig candidates were brushed aside. Elated at this result, they nominated Gibson again in 1880 with a different running mate, Sumnerite Governor Charles Van Wyck, and it was this election that would give them their best performance they'd ever have. They were able to tie Vice-President Cassius Clay in the popular vote and would have won if it weren't for the declining Whig Party's nomination of Benjamin Harrison. However, Gibson and Van Wyck were defeated in a close vote and Clay won the presidency by one of the narrowest margins since John Quincy Adams in 1836.

The election of 1884 was one of the most curious elections seen in the United States, and is still studied extensively today. With both the Radicals and the Whigs wanting a unity ticket, the Radical convention was nearly deadlocked between Senator Joseph F. Smith, nephew of Joseph Smith, and Whig insurgent (and former nominee) Benjamin Harrison, while the populist James Weaver rather easily won the Whig nomination. However, Weaver would be denied any nomination by his party bosses, who declared (in a secret meeting with the Radicals later called the Corrupt Bargain of 1884 by the aforementioned John J. Ingalls) that the two should form a temporary alliance, known as the Western Alliance, to run a member of one party for President and another for Vice-President. Weaver nearly walked out of the convention when he heard of this news, but he was pressured into running for the nomination of this new party. While the Western Alliance was successful in nominating the ticket of Harrison/Smith, it went down in flames to popular laissez-faire Governor Grover Cleveland.

All seemed lost for the Radical Party. They had merged with the Whigs to present a unified anti-Union front and had still lost, and Cleveland appeared to be sailing to another term. However, in 1888, a miracle happened. The Radicals decided to merge into the renamed Western Alliance, now known as the People's Alliance, and nominate the idiosyncratic General George A. Custer, with Joseph F. Smith as his running mate; this move faced fierce opposition from Radical loyalists and several defected to Whig candidate Zebulon Vance. However, the election was a near-even split for the three candidates, and Smith and Whig candidate Henry Teller squared off in the Senate, being the top two. Smith sailed to being a heartbeat away from the Presidency against the silverite Teller with the bulk of his new support coming from Unionists (A Teller Vice-Presidency was so anathema to most Unionists that one Senator declared he "would vote for a yellow dog over that damn fool Teller"). The Presidency would go to [this part has coffee spilled all over it].

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I suppose I could take the reigns writing-wise. I'm not so sure about maps and candidates and things like that, but I could consider sharing the burden with a more logistics-happy fellow.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I suppose I could take the reigns writing-wise. I'm not so sure about maps and candidates and things like that, but I could consider sharing the burden with a more logistics-happy fellow.

I could help with candidates, policy positions, and what various administrations might look like if elected.

That seems pretty cool.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Yo, Cathy, we got a sh**tload of Presidents to add.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Oh, yes, I remember the Western Alliance! That was ed up.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

3. Alexander Hamilton (Federalist-New York) March 4th, 1801-April 12th, 1802
Vacant: April 12th, 1802-March 4th, 1805

Oh yeah remember when the VP was literally murdered? Now we can't have Thomas Marshall talk about how someone shooting him would be the first time anyone ever tried to shoot the Vice President.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

3. Alexander Hamilton (Federalist-New York) March 4th, 1801-April 12th, 1802
Vacant: April 12th, 1802-March 4th, 1805

Oh yeah remember when the VP was literally murdered? Now we can't have Thomas Marshall talk about how someone shooting him would be the first time anyone ever tried to shoot the Vice President.

But I thought Cathcon said that Hamilton resigned in frustration.

Did he? I'll go back and check.

Edit: You're 100% right, my mistake.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Thank you, we try our best (especially Cathy).

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

This series has been amazing to follow. I applaud Cathcon, Alfred Jones and Dallasfan65 for putting together a truly remarkable and enthralling look into an alternate America.

*cough* Alfred and I are co-running it right now *cough*

*cough* Malcolm is doing all the work *cough*

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I just realized the PA-PA thing, and I think the People's Alliance should elect more Pennsylvanians - Gifford Pinchot? Joe Guffey?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Bump and minor edit: Ignatius Donnelly died on New Year's Day, eighteen days earlier than we had all thought. Sorry about that.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Bump.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Also, can we have alternate universe Doris Kearns Goodwin write The Bully Pulpit about Joseph Cannon and Henry Cabot Lodge?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Bump and does anyone have maps or has Dallas died in a car accident or something?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

List of presidents by age at inauguration (youngest to oldest):

1. Marion Butler: 37 years, 7 months, 30 days
2. Charles Francis Adams: 41 years, 6 months, 14 days
3. John Quincy Adams (1st term): 42 years, 8 months, 23 days
4. John Jay: 43 years, 2 months, 20 days
5. Grover Cleveland: 47 years, 11 months, 14 days
6. DeWitt Clinton: 48 years, 2 days
7. Eugene V. Debs, 49 years, 3 months, 27 days
8. Thomas Jefferson: 49 years, 10 months, 19 days
9. Oscar Underwood: 50 years, 9 months, 26 days
10. Wharton Barker: 54 years, 10 months, 3 days
11. James Monroe: 54 years, 10 months, 4 days
12. John Parker Hale: 54 years, 11 months, 1 day
13. John Quincy Adams (2nd and 3rd terms): 55 years, 7 months, 21 days
14. Henry Clay: 55 years, 10 months, 20 days
15. Abraham Lincoln: 56 years, 20 days
16. Martin Van Buren: 58 years, 2 months, 27 days
17. Zebulon Vance: 58 years, 9 months, 19 days
18. Samuel J. Tilden: 59 years, 26 days
19. Ignatius L. Donnelly: 60 years, 4 months, 1 day
20. Thomas Brackett Reed: 61 years, 10 months, 27 days
21. George Clinton: 65 years, 7 months, 6 days
22. David Crockett: 66 years, 6 months, 5 days
23. Joseph G. Cannon (1st term): 66 years, 7 months
24. John Quincy Adams (4th term): 67 years, 7 months, 21 days
25. Cassius M. Clay: 70 years, 4 months, 13 days
26. Elihu Root: 72 years, 17 days
27. Joseph G. Cannon (2nd term): 72 years, 9 months, 25 days

Interestingly, we have already surpassed the IRL records for youngest president ever, youngest president elected, and oldest president.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

That seems about right - maybe trade in Underwood for DeWitt Clinton though, and I'd imagine Donnelly's only popular because he's worshiped as the second coming of Christ by the left.

Worst presidents would probably be Butler, Hale, perhaps Baby Adams and Monroe.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

That seems about right - maybe trade in Underwood for DeWitt Clinton though, and I'd imagine Donnelly's only popular because he's worshiped as the second coming of Christ by the left.

Worst presidents would probably be Butler, Hale, perhaps Baby Adams and Monroe.

It seems like Cannon has it coming to him, and Clay might be a controversial one, since the breakup of the country started under him.

Cannon's not very popular, except among the right wing, but he's way better than the arc I had planned out for him - that was a full-on 10-year-minimum dystopia. Clay's a middle-of-the-road fellow: not really blamed for the war, but not really good at Presidenting.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

That seems about right - maybe trade in Underwood for DeWitt Clinton though, and I'd imagine Donnelly's only popular because he's worshiped as the second coming of Christ by the left.

Worst presidents would probably be Butler, Hale, perhaps Baby Adams and Monroe.

It seems like Cannon has it coming to him, and Clay might be a controversial one, since the breakup of the country started under him.

Cannon's not very popular, except among the right wing, but he's way better than the arc I had planned out for him - that was a full-on 10-year-minimum dystopia.

Now I'm incredibly curious what else you would have done for Cannon.

I had planned for him to win in '12 and '16, be forced into WWI (which he actually opposed both IRL and ITTL), and then turn into a crazy dictator by combining an enhanced Espionage Act with massively scaled-up Palmer Raids. I don't care if Palmer turned out a Farmer-Laborer.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

A hiatus has been announced for a week and a half or so on my part when it comes to setting these up. If Malcolm feels like taking us through '24 and '28, he can do that.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I will if/when work permits.

You can just use the text of that PM you sent me as the body of the thing and then just slog through all that horrible code for the actual poll.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I vote that ITTL teddy bears are called iggy bears, after Pres. Donnelly. Also reminder to y'all that Cuba and Hispaniola are the territory of Atlantis.