Hail, Columbia! (The Election of 1880)

Four years after his mammoth victory over John C. Fremont in the Election of 1876, the tragic death of President Theodore Roosevelt still haunts the nation for whom he was the most revered leader in a generation. Struck down just a year into his second term by a gastrointestinal tumor, Roosevelt's death plunged the nation once more into mourning as, for the second time in a decade, the Capitol was draped in black to mark the passing of a president. Thus, with the flag fluttering sorrowfully at half mast, Vice President José María Iglesias crossed the threshold of La Maison Blanchet to take the oath of office, following Samuel J. Tilden as the second president to assume office due to the death of his predecessor.

Roosevelt would live to see the passage of one last act of reform legislation in the final months of his presidency, and in due time Iglesias' signature would grace another. The Tucker Act, passed in 1877 and signed by President Roosevelt on January 9, 1878, was essentially an expansion of the earlier Civil Service Reform Act, outlawing the practice of requiring political contributions from government employees. Two years later, Congress followed this up with the Peoria Railroad Act, authorizing the construction of a railroad connecting Peoria, Illinois with the new provinces of the Great Plains. The failure of the 1879 Temperance Act (which sought to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages across provincial lines), however, has damaged the new president's reputation, both among anti-temperance voters in the Northwest and pro-temprance reformers who feel Iglesias is not sufficiently supportive of their cause.

The 1877 Congressional elections left the Liberals with a slightly depleted majority, as gains by John C. Fremont's Democratic Party in the Plains Provinces as well as pivotal Quebec elevating that party to equal footing with the Whigs. As the nation approaches the 1880 presidential elections, the Party of Papineau is hoping to maintain its hard-won majority status, while both Democrats and Whigs hope that Roosevelt's death will allow a fresh face to seize control of La Maison.

President José María Iglesias of Mexico [Commonwealth Liberal]
Elevated to office by the death of President Roosevelt, Iglesias has largely continued his predecessor's policies in regards to trade and social reforms. Nominated for a full term by the quadrennial Liberal caucus, Iglesias hopes to become the first "accidental" president to win reelection. If fate should humor him, he has proposed an ambitious program for his second term: continued fidelity to the protective tariff, an expanded modern navy, the passage of a new Temperance Bill, the erection of a National University System in cities across the Commonwealth, and legislation to combat electoral fraud.

Former Governor Lucius Robinson of New York [Whig]
The Election of 1880 promises to be a hard reckoning for the Whigs, who are seeking to recover the keys of La Maison Blanchet after eight years in the minority. After their crushing defeat in 1876, the party has little chance of winning the election, but hopes to make a strong showing and so lay the ground for a comeback in 1884. To this end, they have nominated former Governor Lucius Robinson of New York, an uncontroversial reformer and an ally of former President Samuel Tilden. In addition to sounding the traditional Whig policies (free trade, cheap land, and egalitarian democracy), Robinson has sought to highlight his own record of going head-to-head with the party bosses in his own province. Behind the scenes, his surrogates have dragged out the old charge of nativism in their battle against the President, warning German- and Irish-Americans that Robinson alone can stop Iglesias. He is opposed to the graduated income tax and attempts to induce inflation by increasing the supply of paper money, as well as Temperance and most other social reforms.

Senator Georg Friedrich Strauss of Winnebago [Democratic]
The astounding triumph of the Democratic Party four years ago is still cause for wonder in some circles, and as the party approaches its second presidential election it is determined to leave its mark on the American landscape. Strongest in the provinces of the Great Plains and among Francophone voters in Quebec and Huron, the party has rallied behind the candidacy of Georg Friedrich Strauss, a Senator and former territorial legislator from Winnebago. He supports a variety of reforms designed to appeal to farmers and working-class voters in the Mid Atlantic: increasing the supply of paper money (an inflationary tactic intended to aid struggling farmers by raising the price of crops), a graduated income tax, and the creation of "Continental Depositories," or warehouses, where farmers can store their excess yields (another attempt to drive up the price of crops). Like most German-Americans, he opposes Temperance and public education, arguing that the latter leads to cultural assimilation that undermines the heritage of immigrant communities.

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