Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Lincoln out in '64, who is the Republican candidate?
Let's say Abe says, "Forget it! I'm going to Europe with Mary." Alternatively, Abe isn't so lucky at Fort Stevens and a Confederate sharpshooter bags him. Who do the republicans put up as their candidate for the presidency?
Anyone consider Grant? Sherman? They were popular in '64.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Grant was approached, but turned it down, very firmly and of course Sherman's opinion of Politics in general and politicians in particular was firmly in place by 1864.
Grant had his plate full and wasn't inclined to look for more. Sherman hated politicians almost more than he hated newspaper reporters. It was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion but, had Grant been so inclined, he would have been a shoe-in. Grant vs McClellan? It is to laugh. Americans, then as now, love a winner.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Chase or Seward. Chase wanted it bad enough, but thought he deserved to be president and would have sat around waiting to be acclaimed to the office.
Seward was the Republican party front-runner, but I wonder how much political support the man had burned up by supporting Lincoln during those first four years.
My other guess is depending on how Lincoln left office, by death or by just quiting. A sudden death might have led to a situation of Stanton getting to take charge or perhaps Wade and his committee on the war. No matter who gets in after Lincoln if he dies, God help the South, as it would be a real total war, not the one most cry about when talking about Sherman's march to the sea.
There would be such resentment and hatred over the harsh treatment of a truly conquered South it would burn in the country's guts for a hundred years.
This country was lucky that Lincoln died after Lee's surrender. If you can call than luck.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
"The dead are dead--let that atone:
And though with equal hand we strew
The blooms on saint and sinner too,
Yet God will know to choose his own."
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), "To E.S. Salomon," who in a Memorial Day oration protested bitterly against decorating the graves of Confederate dead.
"Let us have peace."
U.S. Grant
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
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Lincoln out in '64, who is the Republican candidate? 
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