The Davis Decision

[HappyWarrior]

I'm very excited. I hope President Blaine can win re-election.

What is the state of Blaine's health?

Essentially the same as it was at this time IRL

[HappyWarrior]

I'd actually completely forgotten about this.  Anybody interested in me continuing it?

[HappyWarrior]

I'm really interested. Is Custer interested in politics, or is he just military life?

For now just military.  I'l try to make an update soon.  By the way, any comments on previous updates from anyone?

[HappyWarrior]

1887-88:  Blaine's Troubles Continue

Ever since attaining the Presidency, James G. Blaine had proven himself to be a rare breed of politician, a man who stood for principal in his political actions rather than his party.  Though he had become quite popular amongst the common folk because of this trait, within his own party he was very much reviled and hated, due to opposition from the Radical wing of the party, who felt that he was the worst man ever elected to the Presidency from within their party, after all it was their support which had given him the Presidency by way of the nomination and yet he had opposed their acts time and again.  However in Early 1887 he would cross over the line, not only being against something the party very much wanted, but actively vetoing it.  The Party managed to pass the Dawes Act, removing Indians from their land.  This bill was then sent to the President for his signature.  Instead as opposed to the views of the majority of his party, President Blaine struck down the bill with a veto, prompting the wrath of Senator Henry Dawes, the author of the bill.  Senator Dawes called the President a madman, saying that the party "would never forget an act so clearly against the will of it's leaders and President Blaine will certainly face steep repercussions for it."


Senator Henry L. Dawes

Meanwhile through an alliance of moderate Republicans and Democrats, President Blaine managed to Shepard through the Posse Comitatus Act, thus ending the allowance for military members to act as police forces during peace time.  This was another bill which the Radical Republicans were not exactly fond of.  President Blaine was already in deep trouble with his own party.

Meanwhile in Hispaniola General Ganusha Pennypacker, the youngest Union general in the Civil War, was attempting to assist the nation in opposing the rebels of Hispaniola who continued their uprising against the United States government.   This rebellion was lead by General Alejandro Woss y Gil, a popular politician whose rebel army was mainly concentrated around Pedernales, in what was once the Southwest Dominican Republic.  At this time the Hispanolan's were conducting guerrilla warfare, in a single month thirty American soldiers were killed at this worst point of the rebellion. 

Many, particularly within the Democratic party were calling for America to give up their recent colonial possession. General Pennypacker however managed to show his ability as a general when in the sole pitched battle of the war at the end of 1888, the Battle of La Vega, a number of rebel troops were attempting to cross the river in order to return from a northern raid in which they had made off with a large sum of gold.  At the other side of the river General Pennypacker and his men opened fire upon the soldiers, whereby the water quickly filled with blood, subsequently many would call the river El río de Sangre, or the river of blood.  However General Pennypacker was not a politically minded man and this only managed to stiffen the resistance.  There were also rumors abounding at the time that the rebels were also gaining foreign aid from a European nation....


General Galusha Pennypacker

[HappyWarrior]

1888: The Decisive Decision

The Republican Convention

As they walked into their convention, the Republicans looked poised to overthrow their sitting President in their nominating convention.  On the first ballot the President  came in first, however despite his placement he was still far from the necessary number of delegates in order to attain the nomination.  The other major candidates near the needed total were Senators Dawes and John Sherman, both Radical Republicans.  After twelve ballots however the opposition to the President begins to splinter, splitting along factional lines until finally on the thirteenth ballot the President attains renomination.  However despite this victory the President is crushed when the party's Radical wing engages in a walkout, deciding that thei best hopes to continue to have any hold on the system at all was to rebel from their own party.  The Radical Republicans subsequently nominated John Sherman for President and Henry Dawes for Vice President

The Democratic Convention

The Democratic Conventin was divided for a totally different reason, this being that they felt assured of vidctory, after all the Republicans were completely divided and the Democratic ideas were far more popular.  Early on two clear factions emerged in the Convention, the Bourbon Democrats of the North and the Southern Democrats who had consistently held power. 

Many possible nominees quickly emerged with the strongest of these being Fitzhugh Lee, Governor of Virginia and former Confederate General and Thomas F. Bayard, Senator of Delaware.  In the end Bayard gave his endorsement to Governor Lee just before the fourth ballot is exchange for Bayard being made Secretary of State and for a Bourboun Democrat to be made the Vice President.  For the Vice Presidency Lee chose Senator Grover Cleveland, one of the strongest and most charismatic members of the Democratic party

The General Election

Quickly it became clear that despite the presense of a former Confederate on the ticket the Democrats were the party to beat.  Despite his Confederate background most voters quickly decided that Governor Lee had redeemed himself by his subsequent service to the nation.  Meanwhile the split between the Radical and mainstream divisions of the Republicans results in a large amount of damage to their possibilities for victory.  In the end the odds were simply stacked to much against President Blaine for him to attain reelection and the split allowed for the Democrats to win.  Meanwhile the Republicans managed to maintain their Congressional majority due to the fact that there was no Radical split on that level.

President Fitzhugh Lee


Vice President Grover Cleveland

[HappyWarrior]

Comments would be very much appreciated.

[HappyWarrior]

By the way for those of you confused as to how a former Confederate general could win an antebellum presidential election it is bcause oviously there was a huge split in the Republican party but also because Lee was an incredibly pro-American individual following the end of the war, despite his actions during the war, also for the short time he was in office he was considered a very strong Governor.

[HappyWarrior]

By the way for those of you confused as to how a former Confederate general could win an antebellum presidential election it is bcause oviously there was a huge split in the Republican party but also because Lee was an incredibly pro-American individual following the end of the war, despite his actions during the war, also for the short time he was in office he was considered a very strong Governor.

Will this split survive and fragment into separate parties, or will the Republicans re-unite in time for the next election?

Frankly I have not decided for sure. 

[HappyWarrior]

I should be putting up an update within the next few days, any comments before hand?

[HappyWarrior]

I will try to update through 1890 tonight but does anyone else have any comments?

[HappyWarrior]

Well I think that the time has come that instead of starting a new timeline I will simply return to this one.  I will begin writing an 1889 update over the coming days but does anyone have any comments on what has already happened?

[HappyWarrior]

Well I think that the time has come that instead of starting a new timeline I will simply return to this one.  I will begin writing an 1889 update over the coming days but does anyone have any comments on what has already happened?

Why did you abandon this, out of curiousity?  And was there some sort of absence that prevented you from continuing this for 2 years?

At the time I simply lost interest in it sadly

[HappyWarrior]

1889: The South has Risen Again!

President Fitzhugh Lee is inaugurated into the White House on March 4th, 1889.  In his inaugural address President Lee makes a point out the fact that the time has come for the nation to come together once again and for the Unionists and Confederates to once again reconcile together along with the desire for the nation's reach to extend even further South outside of Hispaniola.  However soon after the inauguration people begin to once again suspect his loyalty and that of fellow former Confederate with the rise of many former Confederates into positions of power, specifically the new Speaker of the House Charles Frederick Crisp and new Attorney General Lucius Q. C. Lamar.


Speaker Charles Crisp

With these fears in mind, many Americans begin to wonder if President Lee truly has their best interests at heart.  In the Senate the Republicans still maintain a majority though the Democrats still have gained a majority in the US House.  Due to this few measures in the Congress were passed at a very fast rate excluding the bipartisan Sherman Antitrust Act which President Lee proved to be a vigorous defender of, despite it having the name of a political opponent in its name.  In the Senate President Pro Tempore John Sherman also attempted to push through Civil Rights legislation to attempt to empower Southern blacks both in voting and in legal proceedings however both Speaker Crisp and President Lee vow to strike down such legislation and repeatedly succeed in doing so with President Lee going so far as to proclaim, "So long as I am President no negro will be given an equal vote to a white man.  Whether they are slaves or not, they are still lesser men."  With these words he quickly ends any hopes for civil rights legislation.

Meanwhile President Lee made plans for another expansion of America and convinced Speaker Crisp to push through a bill expanding the U.S. navy, what for no one was exactly sure.  Nonetheless, the next couple years under President Fitzhugh Lee would certainly prove interesting to future historians.

[HappyWarrior]

I'm hoping to have another update up soon.  Anyone else have comments for me?

[HappyWarrior]

I'm reading. I just have to comment, wasn't Blaine corrupt in OTL? And thus, I have a hard time seeing him as a symbol of principle in a partisan party or whatever.

He was supposedly alot like Grant, someone who wasn't personally corrupt but surrounded themselves with people who were.

[HappyWarrior]

I'm reading. I just have to comment, wasn't Blaine corrupt in OTL? And thus, I have a hard time seeing him as a symbol of principle in a partisan party or whatever.

He was supposedly alot like Grant, someone who wasn't personally corrupt but surrounded themselves with people who were.

The difference being (at least to the best of my knowledge), Grant didn't try to deny it, while Blaine borrowed his head in the sand.

Sounds about right.