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

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Are we ever going to see the maps from 1808-1824?

Dallasfan65 sent me a composite for maps--at the time, I was pretty busy and lazy and outsourced the job to him--and hopefully I'll be able to divide 'em up and pop 'em into the election pages before January 6th, when my break ends.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

King of the Wild Frontier
Coming into office, having at last over thrown the Union domination of the presidency that had marked the last sixteen years, and winning a strong majority in doing so, the Crockett administration was determined to pass its agenda. Much of the work lay in the Executive Branch, and particularly the Secretary of State's office. Secretary of State Thomas Hart Benton successfully negotiated the entrance of the Republic of California as a state into the United States of America in mid-1853. Texas would prove harder as a significant chunk of their government was opposed to the abolition of slavery. Nevertheless, by the end of 1854, both California and Texas had consented to joining the United States, and Texas had ratified the United States Constitution with all its amendments by June, 1855. As well, Crockett was proud to sign into being the Kansas and Nebraska territories. As well, he signed the Douglas Railroad Act, passed once again by the Senate, into law in 1855. By January, 1856, there really was little question as to whether President Crockett would be re-elected.

The 1856  Party Conventions
While President Crockett faced some token opposition from those attempting to champion their own interests--representatives of the newly admitted states, supported of Vice President Lincoln, and the like--he was easily renominated. For Vice President, however, to represent the newly expanded nation, Texas Governor and former President of the Republic Sam Houston was nominated. The race for the Union nomination would take place between representatives of the radical and liberal wings. With Charles Adams' absence from the convention, there were few compromise candidates to be found, and support would line up between radical Charles Sumner and liberal John Parker Hale. Hale would narrowly triumph over Sumner, and to appease radicals, Seward would be nominated for Vice President. However, in the battle between these two wings, the ticket would neglect a growing section of America: the West. The Manifest Party easily nominated Joseph Smith protege and Iowa Governor Brigham Young with Brigadier General Thomas Kane for Vice President.

The 1856 United States Presidential Election
With an uninspiring ticket that failed to appeal to the party's New England base--despite Hale's New Hampshire residence, New England was a bastion of Union radicalism--and at the same time one that failed to bring in the rest of the country, there was little surprise that the Union party would fail utterly in their attempt to unseat President Crockett. The incumbent, riding on the popular support behind his achievements, was easily re-elected with the biggest popular vote majority since John Quincy Adams in 1828.

President Davy Crockett (Whig-Tennessee)/Governor Samuel "Sam" Houston (Whig-Texas) 279 electoral votes, 60.5% of the popular vote
Senator John Parker Hale (Union-New Hampshire)/Senator William H. Seward (Union-New York) 17 electoral votes, 32.6% of the popular vote
Governor Brigham Young (Manifest-Iowa)/Brigadier General Thomas L. Kane (Manifest-Pennsylvania) 0 electoral votes, 7% of the popular vote

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Bump, for the time being.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The 1860 Party Conventions
Aside from a long line of border skirmishes in the largely un-settled South-West between California and Texas, the second term of Davy Crockett was relatively quiet and uneventful, and historians would point to it as a classic example of a disappointing second term. Elected in one of the largest landslides in the country's history, it in the end had been seen as a referendum to keep the country the way it was, with the Whig agenda of the time period largely accomplished. Regardless of that, Crockett would leave office popular and be regarded as one of the nation's greatest and most well-regarded presidents. With that in mind, the main business of politics was in preparing to be his successor. While in the opposition ranks there were several who wanted the job, for the Whigs, the spotlight would fall on two men.

Abraham Lincoln, booted from the ticket by the convention four years earlier, had nevertheless managed his "exodus" particularly well. Elected Governor that same year, he proceeded to enact a number of domestic reforms concerning the repair and construction of railways. In the meantime, his advisers, including the effective David Davis, began preparing the way for Lincoln's nomination in 1860. The main he'd be facing would be Vice President Houston, the symbol of the Whig Party's "New Americanism" and of the accomplishments of Crockett's first term. Despite having prepared an insurgent campaign against the Houston forces, the incumbent Vice President was narrowly nominated. Stephen Douglas, a state politics rival of Lincoln, was nominated for Vice President. The Union Party, in a surprise, nominated the loser of four years ago, John Hale, once more. With the Manifest Party having done so poorly, their nomination of the little known black L.D.S. elder Elijah Abel went largely unnoticed until the general election...

The 1860 United States Presidential Election
The nomination of Abel by the Manifest Party proved the election's game changer. While Hale had expected to have a majority of pieces of the Union coalition behind him, the presence of a black candidate for president attracted a number of Northeastern "radical Unionists" and Southern freedmen to the Abel/Kinney ticket. While Hale would hold the Northeast, he would lose out tremendously in the South as veterans were split between Houston and himself while Abel took what would later be measured as a majority of the black vote, even winning the former stronghold of Louisiana. The situation wasn't as good for Houston, either, as the Whigs had been hoping the apparent collapse of the Manifest Party earlier would allow them to get an ironclad grip on the Old Northwest. Such was not the case, as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa fell to Abel. The only place where Whig numbers held was in the newer states of Oregon, California, Kansas, and Houston's adopted home state of Texas. Even Minnesota, with injections of Mormon missionaries and some more left-leaning new settlers, went for Houston by a much slimmer margin than expected. In the end, neither of the three candidates was able to win a majority of the electoral vote, Hale falling just shy. Had he won Indiana, he would have become the least "legitimate" president elected through the electoral college. Instead, however, the election would have to go to the House of Representatives.

Senator John Parker Hale (Union-New Hampshire)/Governor Salmon P. Chase (Union-Ohio) 150 electoral votes, 36.7% of the popular vote
Vice President Samuel Houston (Whig-Texas)/Senator Stephen A. Douglas (Whig-Illinois) 130 electoral votes, 34.7% of the popular vote
Elder of the L.D.S. Church Elijah Abel (Manifest-Illinois)/Justice John F. Kinney (Manifest-Iowa) 26 electoral votes, 28.6% of the popular vote

The 1860 U.S. House Vote for President, Round 1
Neither of the three candidates or their parties were willing to immediately concede, leading to an incredibly close first round of early battling. At that point, the Manifest floor leader agreed to meet with Congressman Schuyler Colfax, the Union leader. After a few hours of discussion, it was agreed that Abel's name be removed from contention so that Hale could be elected. In exchange, the Manifest Party wanted the appointment of at least one member to the cabinet and influence in the direction of the country.

The 1860 U.S. House Vote for President, Round 2
With Abel dropped out, a two-man race commenced. While it was widely expected that Hale would easily win, North-Western members of the Manifest Party broke for Houston. Nevertheless, Hale won a narrow majority and proceeded to be sworn in as the 13th President of the United States of America. The next four years, however, would not prove easy for him.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Bumping for Dallas.

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

Bump. Thanks Alfred.



Don't laugh too hard!

This is more or less what I envisioned the area of Babel would be - it's not quite as large as it's IRL counterpart Deseret, but in my mind I imagine there's much greater population density. I centered the westmost point around Promontory/The Great Salt Lake and moves east into what we know as Colorado.

Revisions/suggestions welcome, naturally.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The 1864 Party Conventions
Despite what several termed a "piss poor" term marked largely by partisan and intra-partisan conflict, Hale would find himself easily renominated by the Union party. In order to appease radicals, the "tough on crime" Florida Governor Ulysses S. Grant was chosen for Vice President. However, his pro-gold stances and general support for the administration would do little to win over the party's most extreme faction. Much in the same fashion in which Hale was nominated, Abraham Lincoln would walk away from the convention having given no great exertion in winning his party's support. The convention's choice for his running-mate would be rather odd. New York Governor Horatio Seymour was a Whig in a very different way than Lincoln was. Despite having won office in New York, his positions on issues resembled Crockett's more than Lincoln and his Mid-Western allies. However, the pairing of the two would help in assembling a national coalition that was well-prepared for the general election. The Manifest party, for what it was worth, nominated the former Unionist Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, the ultimate "screw you" to Hale.

The 1864 United States Presidential Election
Hale would find himself an unlucky man. Having lost his first national election in a landslide, having won his second only by the grace of the House of Representatives, and seeing his slim amount of support torn asunder in his bid for re-election, Hale would retire to New Hampshire following his easy defeat and be seldom heard from again, but to make the rare bitter comment on the Lincoln administration. The third party bid of Charles Sumner on the Radical ticket thoroughly doomed any hope the incumbent had of winning a second term. With the Union split in half, Lincoln won an easy victory, securing over 40% of the popular vote. Pathetic compared to the Corckett presidency that preceded him, but the Whigs would gladly take it.

Senator Abraham Lincoln (Whig-Illinois)/Governor Horatio Seymour (Whig-New York) 239 electoral votes, 41.7% of the popular vote
Senator Charles Sumner ("Radical"-Massachusetts)/Former Secretary of the Interior Daniel H. Wells (Manifest-Illinois) 40 electoral votes, 29.4% of the popular vote
President John Parker Hale (Union-New Hampshire)/Governor Ulysses S. Grant (Union-Florida) 28 electoral votes, 29.0% of the popular vote

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Bamp.

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

1876:



President Samuel Tilden (Union-New York)/Vice President Cassius Clay (Union-Kentucky) 210 electoral votes, 48.6% of the popular vote
Activist Walter M. Gibson (Radical-Nevada)/Fmr. Governor Benjamin Butler (Radical-Massachusetts) 133 electoral votes, 42.9% of the popular vote
Governor William Mahone (Whig-Virginia)/Senator Algeron Paddock (Whig-Nebraska), 23 electoral votes, 8.6% of the popular vote

1880:



Vice President Cassius Clay (Union-Kentucky)/Treasury Secretary Arthur Sewall (Union-Maine) 136 electoral votes, 36.7% of the popular vote
Activist Walter Gibson (Radical-Nevada)/Governor Charles Van Wyck (Radical-Nebraska) 120 electoral votes, 36.7% of the popular vote
Senator Benjamin Harrison (Whig-Indiana)/Columnist John O'Sullivan (Whig-New York) 110 electoral votes, 26.7% of the popular vote

I'll fix that ugly black line in 1876 and do write-ups in a bit.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

bump

[Cassius]

I hope that Cathcon and Dallasfan don't mind, but I decided to write a brief 'homage' to this election series. It's basically an extract from an ATL popular history of the Union Party, specifically covering the 1852-1872 period. If people don't like it, I'll take it down, but anyway, here it is:

Extract from 'The Big Blue Machine: A history of the Union Party'

'The years between the elections of 1852 and 1872 were to prove lean years for the Union Party. Charles Francis Adams re-election bid was crushed by a 24 point margin, as war hero and authentic 'man of the people' Davy Crockett drew together hordes of voters behind his Whig party banner. The Unionists were thus left both powerless and rudderless in the years leading up to the election of 1856, as Crockett and the Whigs tightened their grip on national power.

The causes of the party's fall from office were many. The emergence of an alternative in the form of the Whig party provided the first serious challenge to the Unionists since the election of 1840. Additionally, many of the parties so-called 'giants', men like John Quincy Adams and Martin van Buren, were either dead or had retired from politics, leaving the Union Party in the hands of the 'pygmies' (as Charles Sumner disparagingly dubbed them) such as Charles F. Adams and John P. Hale; rather obscure men who lacked the popular following and bold vision of their predecessors in the party leadership. Finally, mounting discontent amongst the general populace with Unionist policies, coupled with a general sense of fatigue with the Unionist hegemony, provided a ripe mixture to blow apart the Union administration of Adams the younger. In the 1850's and 60's, many would mocklngly refer to the Union Party as 'the party without a purpose', and indeed, this rather harsh sentiment aptly reflected the party's state in this period.
 
The Presidential Election of 1856 saw few strong candidates enter the race, as President Crockett seemed a shoe-in for re-election. As it was, the convention was split between 'liberal' Unionists, who supported John P. Hale, and Radicals who backed Charles Sumner. Hale managed to win out, though little good it did him; although he managed to slightly increase the Unionists vote, any gains made were drowned out by Crockett's massive win in the popular vote, becoming the first President to win in excess of 60 percent of the vote since the days of John Quincy Adams.

Despite leading the Union Party down to a second disastrous defeat in a row, Hale's standing within the party remained reasonably high, thus enabling him to clinch the nomination a second time round in 1860. With Crockett passing up the opportunity for a third term, the Whig's suffered an intense convention, as the party's conservatives (primarily supporting Sam Houston and Stephen Douglas) fought the Whig moderates and radicals (primarily backing the moderate Abraham Lincoln). Houston emerged victorious, and thus the election looked to be a replay of the last two, pitting a north-eastern liberal against a south-western agrarian conservative. However, that calculation failed to factor in a third force.

The ailing Manifest Party's nomination of Elijah Abel proved a game-changer. The popular Abel provided a massive boost of support amongst both black voters (traditionally a Unionist constituency) and radicals of all stripes. Thus he was able to draw support from both parties. The Whigs haemorrhaged the most, losing nearly half of their 1856 support as the Manifesters shot to nearly 30 percent of the vote. Hale was able to greatly increase his previous electoral vote tally to 150, though he only gained a negligible amount in the popular vote.

The House Election that followed (the first since 1836) was an acrimonious affair, one that handed Hale the Presidency and Stephen Douglas the Vice-Presidency (for a brief period). Despite his high hopes, Hale found his term wracked by partisan rancour and legislative disappointment (Abel had brought an inordinate number of Manifesters into office on his coattails). Nonetheless, despite scattershot opposition to his renomination from the various radical Unionist factions, Hale succeeded in obtaining the party's nomination yet again in 1864.

However, Hale would fall disastrously short in securing a second term. Charles Sumner, exasperated by his latest failure to win his party's presidential nomination, bolted the party to stand as the Manifest candidate in the election (though he and his supporters dubbed themselves 'radicals'). Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln, one of Crockett's Vice-Presidents and the acknowledged leader of the Whiggish moderates, easily brushed aside the conservative wing of the party and became the Whig's nominee in the election. However, he brought the conservatives into his 'big tent' with the selection of conservative reformist Horatio Seymour of New York as his running mate.

With a number of conservatives backing Lincoln and the radicals decamping almost en-masse for Sumners rebel bid, Hale was caught between a rock and a hard place, and found pushed to third place in both the popular and electoral vote on election day. The bitter Hale finally quit politics, leaving his battered party on life support.

In the aftermath of the Presidential Election of 1864, there was some talk of the impending demise of the party of Adams and Van Buren, with many predicting a realignment between a 'conservative' Whig party and a 'radical' Manifest party (the latter would officially adopt the title Radical for the 1868 election). However, things weren't as bleak as they seemed. Unlike the Radicals, the Unionists could count on a rock solid base of support from around 30 percent of the electorate, in contrast to the Radicals, who only enjoyed erratic support in elections. This was shown by the fact that the Unionists continued to win more House seats and state governments than their radical rivals.

The 1868 election acted largely as a confirmation of the status quo. Despite a small band of rebels attempting to push for the nomination of a more conservative candidate, President Lincoln easily won renomination as Whig presidential nominee, promising a continuation of his last four years in office. The Unionists, on the other hand, saw the convention dominated by a battle between conservative Delaware Senator Thomas F. Bayard and a more traditional Unionist, Ulysses S. Grant of Florida. Bayard prevailed eventually, nominating Zachariah Chandler of Michigan in an attempt to reach out to Grant supporters.

The election of 1868 initiated an important realignment in the composition of the parties. Whilst Lincoln cruised to re-election in a landslide, he lost some conservative support to Bayard, whilst at the same time picking up votes from disgruntled Radical supporters, who were uncomfortable about supporting Brigham Young for the Presidency. Bayard, though he lost comfortably, managed to secure the Union party's short term position, easily besting the Radicals for second place. Meanwhile, the party managed to pick up a number of seats in the upper-south and midwest, hinting that this once solid area of Whig support might be more amenable to the Unionists in the future.

As the popular President Lincoln continued to occupy the White House, cracks began to appear once more in the Whig Party, though this time between conservatives and radicals. These tensions boiled over in the party's 1872 convention, as the radical wing successfully defeated Horatio Seymour's bid for the nomination, installing James Garfield of Ohio, the first bona fide representative of the party's left wing (or at least, the first candidate who had been actively pushed by the left), as it's nominee. This was to prove advantageous for the Unionists, who nominated Samuel Tilden of New York easily for the Presidency. A civil service reformist and an economic conservative, Tilden proved attractive to many conservative Whigs, and thus began to expand the party's electoral prospects.

The Radicals, continuing their erratic pattern of results, once more surged in popularity with the nomination of Thomas Kane, a mormon sympathiser who acted as a powerful incentive to Mormon voters to get out and vote. With the contest once more a three horse race, Tilden reached out to Whiggish voters who were uncomfortable with Garfield's policies and support base, and, on election day, narrowly regained the White House for the Union Party, becoming the first Unionist to win an electoral college majority since the day's of the party's hegemony in the 1840's. Moreover, he had done so by doing what John P. Hale and Thomas F. Bayard hadn't; building on the Unionist base with anti-radical defectors from the Whigs. Now, the Unionists at last had a mandate to fulfill their agenda. The final result of the Presidential Election of 1872 was to turn the tables dramatically between the Union and Whig parties. Where once, the Unionists had been the mangy underdog, now, increasingly, it would be the Whig party, as its warring factions tore themselves apart. 1872 was to be the foundation of the second Unionist hegemony.

[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...

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

These are beautiful. :')

[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].

[Cassius]

These are beautiful. :')

Thanks

Your look at the Radical Party is really good too Alfred.

Anyway, another extract, this time on the founding of the Union Party.

The Union Party story begins in the 1820's. Back then, the two great political parties that dominated American life were the National and Republican parties. The Nationals were a fairly new creation, having been formed from a merger of likeminded Federalists and 'Fusionists' to nominate John Quincy Adams for the Presidency in 1824. The Republicans, by contrast, could trace their origins back to the very first Presidential contest of 1789. The party of Jefferson and Monroe had once been strong, but, by 1828, it had fallen on hard times. Out of office for 12 years, despite the party's high hopes in running Martin Van Buren in a rematch against Adams, the party suffered a crushing defeat, it's worst since 1804, winning a mere 35 percent of the vote, and only coming out on top in three states.

The ongoing inability of the Republicans to defeat the National party prompted growing tensions within the old party to begin to bubble to the surface. The most prominent of these tensions was between the party's northern and southern wings, a tension primarily caused over the issue of slavery. This was brought to a head in the Presidential Election of 1832, a contest which would decide who would succeed Adams as President of the United States.

The party's southern wing for the most part backed John C. Calhoun, one of the most well-known and articulate defenders of both slavery and slave power, who had been South Carolina's champion during the nullification crisis. However, his path to the nomination was seemingly blocked by northern Republicans, such as Silas Wright (who had inherited control of much of the northern Republican apparatus from his mentor, Martin Van Buren) and Henry Lee. However, Calhoun emerged in the lead in convention balloting thanks to strong support from the south. With old warhorse Andrew Jackson releasing his delegates to vote for Calhoun, that was enough to put the champion of nullification over the top, much to the dismay of northern Republicans.

Soon, events were in motion would lead to the foundation of the Union party. Outraged over the nomination of Calhoun, a number of northern Republicans, led by Governor Wright, relocated to Boston, where they nominated a rebel ticket with economist Henry Lee (who had performed well in the convention balloting) for President and Wright for Vice-President. These self-described 'union' Republicans promised a 'fair deal for all sections' and 'favouritism towards none' in what seemed like a blatant attack on Calhoun.

The Presidential Election saw them face off against Vice-President Clay, who had finally managed to obtain the National nomination that he had long coveted, and the Secretary of State, Richard Rush, who was running as the 'anti-Masonic' candidate in the election. Clay would fall far from Adams' 1828, capturing a mere 44 percent of the vote. This was nothing however in comparison to the disaster that befell both wings of the Republican party. Calhoun found himself neutered outside of the south, and though he performed respectably enough there, Clay's strength in the region ensured that he won a mere two states, his home state of South Carolina and Alabama.

Lee and Wright performed a little better, garnering 85 electoral votes and second place in the popular vote, largely achieved through sweeping the north-east, where Clay lacked Adams' popularity (though here the ticket was helped by the division of the anti-Republican vote between the National and Anti-Masonic parties). However, the National party, despite it's losses, was now the only party that seemed able to compete across the nation, with their Republican rivals now rent in twain.

The aftermath of the election was a bitter one. Clay believed that the sectional tensions that had been inflamed during the election could be healed only through compromise between all regions of the country. However, compromise increasingly seemed a dirty word both to northern abolitionist and southern slave-holder. Not only that, but Clay's economic policies found few friends either in the south or the north-east. The time for a new party had come.

In 1834, the Union party was born in a convention in New York, in order to run candidates for the elections that fall. The anti-nullification Republicans who had supported Henry Lee for the Presidency were now joined by a number of Nationals and Anti-Masons from northern states, who disapproved of Clay's efforts to compromise with the south, including the former President, John Quincy Adams, who had been spurned by his party in favour of Clay in 1832. Adams now, ironically, found himself in the same party as his old rival of the 1820's, Martin van Buren. The Unionists did well in the fall of that year, picking up a number of House seats and state legislatures.

Despite the successes of the new party, some of its Republican members still held out hope that the old Republican party could be saved from itself. This sentiment led Silas Wright to make a bid for the Republican nomination at it's 1836 convention. However, he was easily defeated by John Tyler of Virginia, who had taken over the mantle of 'shield of the south' from Calhoun. Now, the breach between northern and southern Republicans was irreparable. But the Unionists wouldn't nominate a Republican; instead, they turned to two-time former President John Quincy Adams. This was controversial, as many believed that Adams, due to his openly and proudly stated anti-slavery convictions, would be unelectable, and might actually cause further harm to the Union that the party endeavoured to protect. Regardless, Adams won the nomination, selecting a more moderate figure, Thomas Morris of Ohio, to be his running mate.

The election to end all elections was now underway, as the embattled Henry Clay fought desperately to hang onto the Presidency against Adams. Tyler was at best considered the third wheel of the campaign. But Tyler would prove a far more skillful opponent than his opponents predicted he would be. The election, as expected, was inconclusive, though Adams emerged on top, besting both Clay, who performed woefully, and Tyler, who exceeded expectations. Thus the choice of President was thrown to the House for the first time in two decades.

Adams failed to win the Presidency on the first ballot (though Morris proved successful in winning the Vice-Presidency); however, Clay, to the surprise of many, came in third place behind Tyler, who was able to rally many southern representatives to his banner. With Clay gone, the representative of northern abolitionism, Adams, locked horns with the face of southern slave power, Tyler, in a contest that would decide the future of the Union itself. Adams would prevail, very narrowly, thanks to the tie-breaking (and rather unexpected) support that came from Delaware's House delegation, enabling him to edge out Tyler in the state count. However, the Presidential Election of 1836 had divided the nation (as was shown by the tally in the second House vote, where every free state backed Adams and all but one of the slave states backed Tyler) in two. Many southerners were mortified at the election of an outspoken opponent of slavery as President of the United States. Soon, the cry went up for secession, and the state legislatures of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Virginia answered that call, passing bills of secession before Adams even set foot in the Oval Office.

Adams was determined not to go down in history as the man who presided over the break-up of the United States, and thus he sought to bring the newly minted 'Confederation of American States' to heel via military force. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect to it's intention. Far from cowing the southern states, it inflamed their anger, causing further defections to the CAS by Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee. The stage was set for a dramatic showdown between north and south, and the survival of the Union (and the Union party) hung precariously in the balance.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Bump

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

1892:



1896:



This has been a blast to do, but I think I'm going to have to abdicate the responsibility in all honesty. It's become clear that I can't keep up a reasonable pace that keeps the series fun and engaging for everybody, and carrying on is kindof a disservice.

I'm still willing to help out in terms of candidates/ideas/maps, but the writing has left me a bit petered out. Sorry guys.

[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.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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.

[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.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Here are a bunch of links that were missing in from the thread, in case anyone ever feels like reminiscing and/or making maps relating to this timeline.

The 1868 Conventions

The 1868 US Presidential Election

The 1872 Conventions

The 1872 US Presidential Election

The 1876 Conventions

The 1876 US Presidential Election

The 1880 Conventions

The 1880 US Presidential Election

The 1880 US Presidential Election: House and Senate

The 1884 Conventions

The 1884 Western Alliance Convention

The 1884 US Presidential Election

The 1888 Conventions

The 1888 US Presidential Election

The 1888 US Presidential Election: House and Senate: Round 1

The 1888 US Presidential Election: House Round 2

The 1892 Conventions

The 1892 US Presidential Election

The 1896 Conventions

The 1896 US Presidential Election

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

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

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'd like to thank Dallasfan65 for stepping up for me when I was too busy and creatively spent to keep this alive, and definitely sympathize with his stepping down. Congratulations to Alfred for his ascension to the chair, long may he rein. I'd like to similarly extend my invitation to consult with me on candidates and ideas for how terms might be. As it stands now, my only thoughts are that, if the Bull Moose party survives, they might be renamed the "Liberals" at some point and, in this timeline's analogue to the 1970's (decline of New Deal politics, collapse of liberalism) they become rebranded as a "neo-liberal" party of some sort, trying to forge a Western and North-Eastern coalition. Just a thought.