The Davis Decision

[HappyWarrior]

This is a new TL I am working on beginning with the controversial 1876 election.  The POD will be that in my TL David Davis will not resign his Supreme Court seat to take one in the Senate.  He will then vote for Samuel J. Tilden, thus elevating him to the presidency of the United States.  Thereafter the future of America will take a totally different path.

[HappyWarrior]

By the way I do plan on finishing this one unlike the previous attempts lol.

[HappyWarrior]

1876:The Davis Decision

In all of America's years, very few elections were anywhere near as controversial or as close as that of the 1876 election.  Governor Samuel J. Tilden and Governor Rutherford B. Hayes were locked in an electoral matchup for the ages.  After all the votes were counted there was still controversy over the fate of the electoral votes of three states.  These states were Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.  In response the Congress created an electoral commission, the majority party in each house named three members and the minority party two. As the Republicans controlled the Senate and the Democrats the House of Representatives, this yielded five Democratic and five Republican members of the Commission. Of the Supreme Court justices, two Republicans and two Democrats were chosen, with the fifth to be selected by these four. 

The final Supreme Court Justice would prove crucial, and longtime independent David Davis was chosen as the final member.  Davis had been elected and would soon be sworn into the U.S. Senate however before taking that seat he felt it was his duty to join the Commission.


Supreme Court Justice David Davis

Davis would consistently be the deciding vote on the Commission and in three seperate 8-7 decisions the Democrats would win Louisiana and South Carolina, while the Republicans would hold Florida. 

This electoral result would make Samuel J. Tilden the President of the United States, much to the chagrin of the Republican Party.


19th President Samuel Jones Tilden

[HappyWarrior]

I'll be updating through the 1878 midterms today.

[HappyWarrior]

The final result is ironic because some historians these days argue that if a fair election had been held without any violence and intimidation, Hayes would have won the election with 189 electoral votes to Tilden's 180, for he would have won all of the states that he did carry in addition to Mississippi and without Florida. Since South Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi were the only Southern states with an African-American majority population (even though some Southern states had a percentage of African-Americans just short of 50%), they would have arguably gone for Hayes, since nearly all African-Americans during this time voted Republican. Thus those states would have gone for Hayes and Florida (with a majority white population) would have gone to Tilden in a fair election.

[HappyWarrior]

1877-78: Tilden's Beginnings

Just two days after the final decision of the electoral commission President Tilden and Vice President Hendricks are sworn in for their first term in office.  In his inaugural address Tilden makes the biggest point his support for the rights of every American and his desire to have the South "free" once again.  The most famous line of his speech and his presidency was, "If we impart our views on all Americans as the Republicans have for the last eight years, are we no better than tyrants?  The Southern States must be given their rights under our great Constitution!" 

Right away Tilden is given the responsibility to replace David Davis in the United States Supreme Court, the man who cast that final vote for his election.  The President heavily leans on the advice of Davis and finally settles on George Henry Williams, the former Attorny General of the Grant administration who had at one point been a nominee for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court but had been denied due to his having never been a member of the court.  He was a moderate Republican and former Democrat, which at least made him acceptable to both parties.  He would easily be confirmed.


Justice George Henry Williams


President Tilden also began making cabinet appointments at this time, his most important being the appointment of General Winfield Scott Hancock as his new Secretary of State.  He would also be quickly and easily confirmed.  Tilden's remaining appointees also passed through the Congress quite easily.

Early in 18777 President Tilden begins to ask the Congress for a plan at ending Reconstuction in the South, however the Republicans, who control the Senate fight him tooth and nail on the issue, with the Democrats offering the Posse Comitatus Act as their plan which would have essentially prevented military forces acting as police forces in the states, thus ending Reconstruction.  The Act would be quikly struck down by the Republican Senate.

The Congress would also pass with largly bipartisan support, the Bland-Allison Act, which an 1878 act of Congress requiring the U.S. Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars.  President Tilden quickly signed this into law as well.  The Congress also passes at the urgin of President Tilden, The Chinese Exclusion Act, which made Chinese Immigration no longer possible.

However despite the major policies he enacted up to this point, in 1878 the Presideent's term would begin to go downhill.  His response to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, in which employees of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad walked off the job and were joined across the country by thousands of workers in their own and sympathetic industries was considered to be too sympathetic to the striker. When the labor disputes exploded into riots in several cities, Tilden made the decision not to send in any federal troops, mainly on the view tha the states had the responsibility under the constitution to deal with such problems.  Finally after six months, the last embers of the strike were put down in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with the deaths of 45 men and boys in the Factory Massacre.  All in all hundreds of people and millions of dollars were lost in the riots, destroying a large amount of the President's credibility.



Finally In 1878, the Republican New York Tribune published a series of telegraphic dispatches in cipher, accompanied by translations, as evidence that, during the crisis following the 1876 election, Tilden's campaign manager—his nephew, William T. Pelton, using Tilden's house as a base—had been negotiating for the purchase of the electoral votes of South Carolina and Florida. Tilden denied emphatically all knowledge of these dispatches, while not denying his nephew had sent them. Many of the dispatches were sent directly to and from his Gramercy Park mansion. The 'Cipher Dispatches thus seriously weakened his reputation and the Midterm elections were only a few weeks away....

[HappyWarrior]

Updated!

[HappyWarrior]

Question:  Is this timeline's Bland-Allison Act the same as ours? It had to pass over Hayes veto in OTL, so with Blaine supportive it might be more inflationary (i.e. require the purchase of more silver)

It is the same as IRL but Tilden s more strenuous about it's enforcement while Hayes did very little in terms of utilizing the bill.

[HappyWarrior]

I should have an update up to the 1880 Presidential election up tomorrow.  Any guesses on what will happen?

[HappyWarrior]

1879-1880: The End of the Tilden Era

President Tilden's term had quickly become mired in scandel.  Only the lucky admission by his nephew that the President truly had'nt been involved in the Cipher scandal saved him from impeachment.  Odd considering this was the President who had been nominated based on the fact that he was considered to be quite uncorruptable.  However he soon saw his term's first fit of luck in an economic rebound.  Though his reaction to the 1877 Railroad strike was poor he had successfully implemented the Bland Act and the economy quickly came roaring back.

Tilden also refused to engage in most foreign affairs.  He kept out of the wars in South America and in the end the Argentines succeeded in securing all the concessions they wanted from the Paraguayens.

The final event in Tilden's term is a major attempt at legislation in civil service reform, lead by Republican Half-Breeds James Garfield and James G. Blaine.  The Republican Stalwarts with aid from a large number of Democrats manage to stop the bill, despite the overt support of President Tilden. 

The 1880 Democratic National Convention:

Quickly President Tilden is renominated for the Presidency by his party.  Despite the many weaknesses of his term the President was perceived as the only man who could possibly pull out a victory in the election.  He and Vice President Hendricks prepare for the inevitably hard campaign.

The 1880 Republican National Convention:

Early in the 1880 Republican Convention the Stalwarts took a huge amount of power after their massive victory over the Half-Breeds in the recent fight over civil service reform.  Knowing this the big name for the Half-Breeds, James G. Blaine does not put his name into nomination and instead supports the leadeing Stalwart candidate, Former President Grant, in exchange for certain promises.  One of these is the choice of Former Vice President, Half-Breed, and Maine Senator Hannibal Hamlin as Vice President.  Grant accepts this and is quickly nominated.

Grant and Hamlin pursue a front-porch campaign wherein they rarely leave their homes in Illinois and Maine respectively.  Tilden and Hendricks on the other hand campaign throughout the nation.  This however does not prove to be enough.

In the end the problems which had beset President Tilden prove to be too much to best the two men who out of all the possible choices seemed the most likely to know what the much revered President Lincoln would have wanted for the nation.  Tilden fails to even carry 3 out of the four southern border states, winning only Kentucky.


18th and 20th President Ulysses S. Grant

[HappyWarrior]

I'll be updating this in the next day or two.  Any comments from anyone?

[HappyWarrior]

The Third Term of Ulysses S. Grant:



President Grant entered office amidst a huge wave of popularity.  He was the first president to be elected to a third term and also the first to be elected to a nonconsecutive term.  Early on he was approached to make civil service reform, however being a leader of the Stalwarts, the president decides that such an action would cause a huge amount of disdain from his own faction and also he simply does not enjoy the idea.  Instead he pushes for something quite different.  Something he had long desired for himself and America.



Considering it an imperative he quickly began making renewed plans for the annexation of Santo Domingo.  He requested permission from the then President of the nation for the annexation as had been allowed in 1871, though the United States Congress had denied him that time.  This time the Dominican's would not allow it.  The President asked instead for a declaration of war.  With his huge popularity and the enourmous Republican majority the President got his declaration.  He appointed General Winfield Scott Hancock, the former Secretary of State, as the leader of the expeditionary force.  Grant's own son Fredrick was also an officer in the war.


Fredrick Dent Grant

However the President would not even be able to see the war's beginning.  On June 12th, 1881, the President would be shot in the early morning hours after taking a walk on the grounds of the White House.  He would be buried in Arlington National Cemetary three days later after lying in state.  No one was ever able to discover the truth behind only the nation's second Presidential assasination, however much suspision would be cast on Dominican nationalists, making the calls for war that much worse.  Within hours, 72 year old Hannibal Hamlin would be inaugurated as the nation's oldest president up to that point.



21st President Hannibal Hamlin

[HappyWarrior]

Poor Grant.

Other than the initial sadness, how was the update?

[HappyWarrior]

So when cane we epect the next installment SOEA?

I've been very busy IRL, I'm getting ready for a move to college the 26th so hopefully soon....

[HappyWarrior]

I will finally be updating this TL either tomorrow or late tonight.

[HappyWarrior]

The First Term of Hannibal Hamlin


The Twenty First President at the time of his inauguration.

Hannibal Hamlin is sworn in hours after the death of Ulyssess S. Grant.  Quickly he meets with President Grant's Secretary of State, Robert Todd Lincoln as well as his old friend, Senate Majority Leader James G. Blaine, and Speaker of the House Joseph Warren Keifer.  Also involved in the meeting are the Secretary of War, William H. Hunt, Secretary of the Navy Chester Alan Arthur, and the leaders of the Democratic Party in the Congress.  This huge meeting is to commmunicate the President's wish for the entire nation to unite on the war in Santo Domingo.  Though Samuel J. Randall, former Democratic Speaker, storms out of the meeting in anger, being a strict isolationist, the rest of the leaders to agree that this is the best policy.

A few days after the assasination, President Grant is interred in Arlington National Cemetary, after a very tearful eulogy given by his son Fredrick Dent Grant, who had requested leave in order to attend the funeral.  However following his leave he returns to Florida to prepare to go to Hispanola.  Also present at the funeral is President Hamlin, many members of Congress, almost all of President Grant's various cabinet members are also in attendence.

In 1882 the actual invasion of Hispanola was launched.  Quickly the capital of Santo Domingo is captured with only 26 American casualties.  Also in that year the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in order to keep out Chinese immigrants from the nation, despite the fact that they had long been great workers in the construction of the American West. And a new Immigration Act was passed putting forward a tax on all new immigrants to America.


Copy of the Chinese Exclusion Act

In Santo Domingo the war starts quite well with over half of the territory under the control of the United States military, this half being the more developed East.  However in the west the jungles offer an oppurtunity to guerrila rebels and militias.  The forests allow the rebels to survive.  Newly promoted Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer is sent to the west of the island to weed out these rebels, having survived the Indian Wars and managed quite a bit of success due to President Tilden's increased troop levels in the region.


General Custer at the time of the Domincan War.

President Hamlin also decides late in the year to not run for reelection in the 1884 leaving the race wide open....

[HappyWarrior]

How did Custer survive the Indian Wars? And I have to say I disagree with Tilden being one of the worst Presidents. I feel like this is waiting Bush's term out, electing Obama, and then REELECTING Bush because Obama is just four times as bad. Even your description of Tilden's term doesn't seem as bad as Grant's.

Either way, very interesting!

I just like to add in one little weird thing in each TL.  In this one it is Custer surviving

[HappyWarrior]

The 1884 Election

Republican National Convention

The Republicans gathered in Chicago for a very celebratory convention in which they first have a single morbid day in remembrance of President Grant, saying that the convention is in his memory.  Following this the successes of the Grant/Hamlin administration were highlighted and within a couple of hours President Hamlin came forward to nominate his old friend James G. Blaine as the Republican nominee.  Despite minor opposition from Senator John A. Logan, Blaine was nominated on the first ballot.  He would nominate popular Secretary of the Navy Chester Alan Arthur for Vice President.  Heading into the election the Republicans would remain confident.

Democratic National Convention

The Democrats would also gather in Chicago, however their convention is much less happy and raucous.  Few truly capable candidates emerge.  Governor Grover Cleveland of New York was thought to be the best possible candidate that could have been in the race.  However Cleveland said early on that he would not run, knowing that the Democratic ticket would not be winning this election, his old friend and mentor, former President Tilden also gave him advice on this matter.  In the end Former Speaker Samuel J. Randall was nominated.  As his runningmate the party chose Allen G. Thurman.

The General Election Campaign

Throughout the election the Democrats would consistently focus on Senator Blaine's quite apparent corruption.  Though Randall's integrity is impeccable, the Democratic policies are still reviled after the Presidency of Samuel J. Tilden.  In the end the fear over a second term of President Tilden easily overcomes the corruption of Senator Blaine.  For the first time since the end of Reconstruction the Democrats lose a Southern state, Virginia.

[HappyWarrior]

A very good, very interesting update, and I'm looking forward to the Blaine Administration.  How close was Virginia?

Razor thin margin of victory for Blaine in the state.

[HappyWarrior]

BUMP. Someone should finish this TL. It is great so far.

Would anyone else like to see this continue?

[HappyWarrior]

I will be returning to this TL

[HappyWarrior]

I will be finishing up 1886 within the week, as well as hopefully 1888.

[HappyWarrior]

1884-86: President Blaine's First Midterm

Upon his inauguration President Blaine delivers his inaugural address, highlighting his commitment to America and the people who had made it strong, "My friends, we must depend on those who have been persecuted in the past in the near future to continue on the track begun by President Grant and continued by President Hamlin.   We must aid the blacks of the South in securing their rights, however at the same time we can not do this at the expense of the people of the South who must be given their freedom from military governance.  They have paid their price for the Civil War and now must be allowed to move forward."  This ideal of President Blaine was well known before the election however few individuals ever thought that he would truly push for it, especially within his own party.  The Radical Republicans quickly called foul, with John Sherman leading the fight against the ideals of President Blaine.  Meanwhile the Democrats, lead by House Minority Leader John G. Carlisle, considered to be a possible Presidential contender in 1888, called this "The greatest thing any Republican champion has done in quite some time, we must simply hope he follows through with it."


House Minority Leader John G. Carlisle

Following the inauguration the new Republican administration begins to get to work.  President Blaine continues to utilize Secretary of State Robert Todd Lincoln.  Secretary Lincoln would quickly be sent to Berlin to participate in the Berlin Conference where he would quickly prove himself to be instrumental in securing a ban on slavery in the African colonies.  Meanwhile he also called out the Prussian Government in regards to their putting down of their ethnic minorities, with the Prussian representatives citing the problems within America's own time as a nation.  Both nation's would leave the Conference with a bad taste in their mouths in regards to one another.

Meanwhile the Republican congressional majority pushes through a bill within the Congress to prevent immigration in large part to the nation.  Despite a veto by President Blaine, the majority of Republicans, led once again by the Senate Majority Leader, John Sherman, override the President's veto, President Blaine rapidly is beginning to grow unpopular within his own party, though he has become far more popular thanks to his policies which were far more popular with Democrats and Independents.

Late in 1886 President Blaine experiences his first midterm election.  In this election the Republicans lose a huge number of seats in both the House and Senate with the most notable new Senator being former Governor Grover Cleveland of New York.  In an odd way President Blaine is pleased by this turn of events.  The Republicans barely hold on to the Senate but do lose the House.  President Blaine had quickly realized that being a moderate of the nation were what would give him the ability to pass his agendy, not the stalwarts of his own party.  It would be slow going for the President to move forward but now there was at least the possibilty to move forward in the nation, especially with the possibilty of President Blaine trying to win reelection.

[HappyWarrior]

Does anyone have any opinions on this most recent update?

[HappyWarrior]

I'll be posting an update tomorrow.  Anymore comments?