- Pronouns
- They/Them
[x] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
This Mighty Scourge of War: A Reconstruction-Era Quest
- Thread starter Kirook
- Start date
- Alt. History
- Location
- Ireland
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
[X] Hold the election immediately.
Changing my vote. Reconstruction being done right this time is more important than anything else.
Changing my vote. Reconstruction being done right this time is more important than anything else.
PrognosticHannya
Far Too Enthusiastic About Etymology
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
[X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
Making sure the West Coast is able to vote is decently important.
Making sure the West Coast is able to vote is decently important.
- Location
- The Endless Abyss of Middle America
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, I could go either way on it. Its a pretty solid situation of no good answer, only your favorite flavor of problem.
- Location
- Eastern Seaboard
[X] Hold the election immediately.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
- Pronouns
- he/him
[X] Hold the election immediately.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
- Location
- France
- Pronouns
- She/They
Is it though. It's a blip in population right now.
- Location
- NY
[X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
They're still states that deserve to have the say the constitution says they have. Disenfranchising them after they stayed loyal, due to circumstances out of their control and definitely the federal government's job to fix, would be a terrible look.
Sure the west cost isn't going to be as populated as many of the eastern states, but I wouldn't call it a blip. According to the 1860 census just California+Oregon has about 432,000 people. As comparison the same census shows Georgia having about 1 million people and Kentucky 1.16 million.
I think that Texas wouldn't be able to vote until they're readmitted until the Union.
Also, maintaining election legitimacy will help the next president deal with reconstruction and election legitimacy isn't something that we can really deal with later. Making Congress satisfied is something we can probably just do by capturing and executing Booth.
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- Location
- Somewhere in the area
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
An important aspect of waiting until Texas is brought under Union control is that it allows for the army to be able to participate in elections. Considering how they'll be playing an important role in any reconstruction government, it's essential that they feel as though they had a say in who was president.
- Location
- The Colored Room
- Pronouns
- TheOne
[X] Hold the election immediately.
If rebels screw up voting, that only lends further credibility to the radical cause. The country is in the middle of a war against half the states, legitimacy is a polite suggestion to any of the haphazard emergency measures that this situation calls for.
It's more important to build a constituency for necessary decisions and to keep enemies from influencing the outcome to their favor.
If rebels screw up voting, that only lends further credibility to the radical cause. The country is in the middle of a war against half the states, legitimacy is a polite suggestion to any of the haphazard emergency measures that this situation calls for.
It's more important to build a constituency for necessary decisions and to keep enemies from influencing the outcome to their favor.
Vote closed
Chapter 8: Fault Lines
- Location
- SF Bay Area
[X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
November 21, 1865
The announcement that the Presidential election was to be held after the conclusion of the Texas campaign, in order to permit the West time to stabilize, raised some concerns in Congress. But these were not solely centered around the delay—whose reasoning was generally accepted except by the President's most inveterate enemies—but rather the possibility that President Foster could continually make excuses to institute further delays and thereby hold the election at a time most advantageous to him personally. But these fears were quelled when he showed no desire to run in the election to come, removing the possibility that he would use his acting Presidency as a stepping stone to greater power.
And so, as reports rolled in of the fall of Dallas and San Antonio, the convention of the National Unity Party began.
With President Foster having chosen to pursue his own political path rather than consolidating the Liberal Republicans around him and the War Democrats leaderless after Johnson's death, the Radicals were able to set the tenor of the convention. The result was the nomination of Senator Charles Sumner, a longtime Radical who had nonetheless broken ranks to support President Foster's efforts in Congress over the previous months (and who, most of a decade previously, had nearly come to presage Lincoln's status as a martyr for abolition when he was beaten almost to the point of death by Preston Brooks on the Senate floor). However, problems began to arise when it came time to choose the Vice President.
The moderate wing of the National Union Party, as it turned out, had only acquiesced to Sumner's candidacy on the expectation that one of their own would be nominated as Vice President to balance out his administration. War Democrats in particular pushed for General Winfield Scott Hancock, a hero of Gettysburg but an opponent of the Radicals' Reconstruction measures, to be added to the ticket.
The Radical Republicans, however, felt that the time was ripe to push for their cause. They instead put forward egalitarian firebrand Thaddeus Stevens, who had recently alarmed many in Congress by staking out another of the uncompromising positions for which he had become famous. In light of the Civil War, the ensuing national crisis, and the need to permanently eradicate the Slave Power, Stevens called for the invocation of Article V of the Constitution to inaugurate a new Constitutional Convention, through which an entire slate of new amendments could be proposed.
While Constitutional amendments protecting civil rights and voting rights enjoyed broad support within the increasingly radicalized National Union Party, the idea of a new Convention that might potentially scrap the entire Constitution and start afresh was a bridge too far for some. Fearing an outcome in which Stevens was placed one heartbeat away from the Presidency at a time when being President had already been shown to be something of an occupational hazard, or even that he might simply influence the already-Radical-inclined Sumner, War Democrats and some Liberal Republicans threatened to bolt from the party if he were chosen over Hancock as Vice President.
The one silver lining around this cloud was that the Union Army was bearing down on Houston, putting the capture of Booth and the final end of the Confederacy in sight…
THE STATE OF THE NATION:
National stability is shaky.
The government's legitimacy is declining.
The capital is nervous.
The mood of the War Democrats is infuriated.
The mood of the Liberal Republicans is angry.
The mood of the Radical Republicans is angry.
There is one major Confederate army remaining in the field.
The status of Reconstruction is struggling with white supremacist resistance.
The intensity of conflict on the frontier is dropping.
Of the assassins of Lincoln and his trusted subordinates, one has been killed, four have been captured, one has escaped to Confederate territory, and the rest have gone to ground.
November 21, 1865
The announcement that the Presidential election was to be held after the conclusion of the Texas campaign, in order to permit the West time to stabilize, raised some concerns in Congress. But these were not solely centered around the delay—whose reasoning was generally accepted except by the President's most inveterate enemies—but rather the possibility that President Foster could continually make excuses to institute further delays and thereby hold the election at a time most advantageous to him personally. But these fears were quelled when he showed no desire to run in the election to come, removing the possibility that he would use his acting Presidency as a stepping stone to greater power.
And so, as reports rolled in of the fall of Dallas and San Antonio, the convention of the National Unity Party began.
With President Foster having chosen to pursue his own political path rather than consolidating the Liberal Republicans around him and the War Democrats leaderless after Johnson's death, the Radicals were able to set the tenor of the convention. The result was the nomination of Senator Charles Sumner, a longtime Radical who had nonetheless broken ranks to support President Foster's efforts in Congress over the previous months (and who, most of a decade previously, had nearly come to presage Lincoln's status as a martyr for abolition when he was beaten almost to the point of death by Preston Brooks on the Senate floor). However, problems began to arise when it came time to choose the Vice President.
The moderate wing of the National Union Party, as it turned out, had only acquiesced to Sumner's candidacy on the expectation that one of their own would be nominated as Vice President to balance out his administration. War Democrats in particular pushed for General Winfield Scott Hancock, a hero of Gettysburg but an opponent of the Radicals' Reconstruction measures, to be added to the ticket.
The Radical Republicans, however, felt that the time was ripe to push for their cause. They instead put forward egalitarian firebrand Thaddeus Stevens, who had recently alarmed many in Congress by staking out another of the uncompromising positions for which he had become famous. In light of the Civil War, the ensuing national crisis, and the need to permanently eradicate the Slave Power, Stevens called for the invocation of Article V of the Constitution to inaugurate a new Constitutional Convention, through which an entire slate of new amendments could be proposed.
While Constitutional amendments protecting civil rights and voting rights enjoyed broad support within the increasingly radicalized National Union Party, the idea of a new Convention that might potentially scrap the entire Constitution and start afresh was a bridge too far for some. Fearing an outcome in which Stevens was placed one heartbeat away from the Presidency at a time when being President had already been shown to be something of an occupational hazard, or even that he might simply influence the already-Radical-inclined Sumner, War Democrats and some Liberal Republicans threatened to bolt from the party if he were chosen over Hancock as Vice President.
The one silver lining around this cloud was that the Union Army was bearing down on Houston, putting the capture of Booth and the final end of the Confederacy in sight…
THE STATE OF THE NATION:
National stability is shaky.
The government's legitimacy is declining.
The capital is nervous.
The mood of the War Democrats is infuriated.
The mood of the Liberal Republicans is angry.
The mood of the Radical Republicans is angry.
There is one major Confederate army remaining in the field.
The status of Reconstruction is struggling with white supremacist resistance.
The intensity of conflict on the frontier is dropping.
Of the assassins of Lincoln and his trusted subordinates, one has been killed, four have been captured, one has escaped to Confederate territory, and the rest have gone to ground.
| Nominate Winfield Scott Hancock for Vice President. | Nominate Thaddeus Stevens for Vice President. |
| This will upset the Radicals, maintain party unity, and influence the Sumner administration in a moderate direction. | This will please the Radicals, fracture the National Union Party, and open the way for drastic reforms in the future. |
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
The in-character answer is probably Hancock, but I really want Stevens.
Radical change sounds good, the south could use some of that
[X] Nominate Thaddeus Stevens for Vice President.
Radical change sounds good, the south could use some of that
[X] Nominate Thaddeus Stevens for Vice President.
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[X] Nominate Thaddeus Stevens for Vice President.
PrognosticHannya
Far Too Enthusiastic About Etymology
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The question is, do we think that a National Unity Party without the moderates can actually win?
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
[X] Nominate Thaddeus Stevens for Vice President.
My only concern is Stevens' age; he's 73, even older than Sumner, who's 54. In an era where people routinely don't make it past 40, this is a fairly decrepit ticket to run. That said, their credentials are impeccable, and Hancock is too unproven to trust at this crucial juncture. Better the ticket decompose than Reconstruction.
My only concern is Stevens' age; he's 73, even older than Sumner, who's 54. In an era where people routinely don't make it past 40, this is a fairly decrepit ticket to run. That said, their credentials are impeccable, and Hancock is too unproven to trust at this crucial juncture. Better the ticket decompose than Reconstruction.