Dr. Cynic
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Posts: 12,436
Political Matrix
E: -4.11, S: -6.09
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« on: May 10, 2015, 03:46:44 PM » |
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In a shock result, William Seward's Liberal Republicans were nearly wiped out of the House and finished a poor third in popular voting. The election belonged to Stephen Douglas who saved the Conservative Party's fortunes with his new grand strategy of appealing to local issues. The Liberal Republican leadership approached the Radicals about merging to attempt to form a government. However, the proposed merger was opposed by the more left wing Radicals who split off when the party voted to merge and became the People's Party, led by Thaddeus Stevens. The People's Party is essentially a left wing party that is espousing greater civil rights such as votes for women and blacks, worker's and farmer's interests, national expansion (and by default war with France), an elected Dominion Governor rather than an appointed one, and a national graduated income tax. Supported by influential editor Horace Greeley, the party has grown rapidly among the disaffected.
Meanwhile, Douglas formed a government and began scaling back a lot of the Seward Ministry's reforms, especially the hated employment law. Douglas also fully finished the compensation of former slave owners and allowed the local southern authorities to segregate if they chose. Douglas also lowered tariff rates, pleasing the Dominion's trading partners and began building the standing army after feeling threatened by the French invasion of Mexico. Douglas attempted to limit westward expansion so as to limit the potential for a dangerous situation forming. Douglas and his War Minister Jefferson Davis worried that the tinderbox could explode before the army was prepared and British help could take much too long to arrive. Douglas and his External Affairs Secretary William Marcy attempted to continue peace talks but because he had only a small majority to work with and the loss of three by-elections in Monongahela & Allegheny, Cincinnati Central, and Trenton to the People's Party forced Douglas to govern as a minority. The Radical Liberals, now led by Abraham Lincoln, moved a non-confidence motion in the government and with the aid of the People's Party, brought down Douglas' government.
With an election only a year and eight months after the last one, there is little change in what each party is wanting. Lincoln, like Douglas, wants to build up American forces, but he also deplores Douglas' rollback of reforms. Lincoln is also open to the idea of an income tax to replace protectionist measures as he supports free trade unlike Stevens' party. The Radical Liberals are also strongly in favor of expansion and have decried Douglas' limiting of westward expansion. The Radical Liberals are also calling for a transcontinental railroad and for talks with the French and Mexicans to purchase the California territory from whomever may win the conflict.
2 days.
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