Hail, Columbia! (The Election of 1876)

[Cranberry]

The election of war hero Theodore Roosevelt to the office of the presidency would prove to be one of the watershed moments in the history of the Commonwealth, ending twenty years of Whig supremacy on all levels. Roosevelt himself was the perfect representative of the vision that the Commonwealth Liberals had espoused during their long years of opposition. While his upbringing and background would suggest otherwise, he did not solely represent the interests of the urban, wealthy Northeastern class; instead, his calls for reform before all made him the perfect choice for the emerging middle class in the small town Midwest, traditionally a stronghold of the Whig party. His path to victory reflected these movements among voters: he triumphed in the Liberal strongholds of the Northeast and the spanish provinces of the southwest, but also made inroads and won over the Great Lake, Plains and Gulf provinces in the central part of the country.

Equipped with a majority in both chambers of Congress, the newly inaugurated President Roosevelt wasted not much time to pursue his reformist agenda. 1873 saw the passage of the Civil Service Reform Act, introducing the granting of civil service positions on merit instead of political reasoning, while the recently deceased Liberal statesman Benito Juarez was posthoumosly honoured with the 1874 Laicism Act, which saw a full seperation between church and state even on provincial level to be enacted, a cause that great Mexican legislator had fought for all his life. The influence of the Catholic church on the spaniard Southern provinces as well as in Quebec was significantly reduced over the following years.

Roosevelt furthermore saw to the introduction of a number of protective tariffs for the emerging industries, as well as a strengthening of the National Bank System (which the system of national banks established by President Álvarez in the 1850ies would be called); bringing an end to twenty years of relatively liberal laissez-faire capitalism as promoted by the Whig Party.

His tenure also saw the admission of a number of provinces, that had grown in population in the last years. Santo Domingo was admitted on the island of Hispaniola, divided near equally between French-speaking blacks and spaniards; Yucatan grew to include the newly granted parts of Honduras. In the plains, four new provinces were admitted: Winnebago in the east, Dakota to its west, Montana to the southwest, along the foothills of the Rockies, and Manitoba along the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Along the west coast finally, the provinces of Oregon and Vancouver were admitted, the former along Columbia river, the latter around the Pudget Sound and the ominous island.

By time of the 1876 election approaching, the Whig party was in disarray. Not customed to the work of opposition after twenty years in continous government, and surprised by the large public support of the Liberal reformist agenda, the party split in half ahead of the election. Led by elder statesman and former Sacramento Senator John Frémont, a faction of Whigs supporting parts of the reformist Roosevelt agenda went on to form the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the faction opposed to the reforms, and propagating a return to the Álvarez / Wright years nominated Senator Thomas Bayard of Delaware, a renown member of the "Bourbon Whig" faction.

President Theodore Roosevelt of New York [Commonwealth Liberal]
The President is running for reelection on his popular reform agenda, promising further reforms in the event of a second term. He talks about public schooling and university reform, support for the Temperance movement and urban planning. Once again, Roosevelt runs a "front-porch" campaign based in the cities of Franklin and New York; while sending out surrogates to campaign for him in the further provinces.

Senator Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware [Whig]
A popular figure among Whigs, Senator Thomas Bayard of Delaware is the standard-bearer for the traditional Whig causes: laissez-faire capitalism, low tariffs, support for business owners' interests, a liberal economical policy, strong provincial autonomy. Just like Tilden four years prior, Bayard is travelling around the country to garner support, planning to go as far as Mexico and Yucatan, where he hopes to pick up the formerly strongly Liberal devout Catholic support.

Former Senator John C. Frémont of Sacramento [Democratic]
A respected elder statesman and former Senator from Sacrement, John Frémont is the ideal figure to lead a reformist break-away Whig faction. Influential not only in his home province, whose development he was heavily involved in, Frémont's platform includes support for many of Roosevelt's reforms, but warns cautiously of others. In traditional Whiggish fashion, he warns before the Temperance movement as a vehicle of anti-immigrant policies, and champions causes for the immigrants, largely among the working classes.

3 days

[Cranberry]

Just wanted to note, I find it incredibly ironic that the Whig party has turned out to be the classical liberal party, and the Liberals the more protectionist of parties. Secondly, I could not do any other than just name a party led by Frémont the Democrats, again for ironic reasons.

[Intell]

Fremont for liberty and the working class.

[Kingpoleon]

Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont!

[Mr. Smith]

At last, a President worth re-electing. Stick with Roosevelt.

[beaver2.0]

Without reading- Whig.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Roosevelt, but I could be persuaded to vote for the Democrats in future elections.

[NeverAgain]

Fremont for liberty and the working class.

[Zioneer]

Roosevelt, though Fremont would also be a great choice.

[Goldwater]

Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont!

[Cranberry]

Some additional info on where we are by now, regarding ethnicities and languages. The Commonwealth being a far more plurinational nation than OTL US at that point, English was never able to cement its status as massively as in OTL, meaning many immigrant groups keep their own languages far stronger. French and Spanish, the other two "old languages" are strong in their home turf - Mexico / the Carribean on one hand and Quebec / Louisiana on the other. Of the immigrant languages, German is obviously the most predominant, having a strong grip on the northern planes and western Great Lakes provinces, going so far as Dakota and Manitoba, two new lightly populated agricultural provinces, having a majority of German-speakers. Chinese is strong along the west coast, especially in Sacramento; Italian and Polish in New York and Massachussetts and the Scandinavian languages in the Great Lakes area. Indiana finally is dominated by Native languages, among which Cherokee slowly receives a status as predominant lingua franca, most Natives however also speak a second European language, mostly English.


Fig 23.1 - Ethnographic Map of Language distribution in the Commonwealth, as of the 1875 quincennial Census

Legend:
light blue - Anglophone plurality
dark blue - Anglophone majority (>50%)

light orange - Spanish-speaking plurality
dark orange - Spanish-speaking majoirty (>50%)

light rose - Francophone plurality
dark red - Francophone majority (>50%)

light green - German-speaking plurality
dark green - German-speaking majority (>50%)

violet - Native languages majority

Distribution of first languagues as reported by the 1875 Census:
43% - English
27% - Spanish
11% - French
11% - German*
8% - Others (including Italian, Chinese, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Cherokee, Maya among others)

*including Yiddish

[Cranberry]

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