Featured 1864 Election, with a Twist!

Elect One For President! Election Day 1864

  • Jefferson Finis Davis - Confederate Party

    Votes: 26 34.2%
  • Abraham Lincoln - National Union Party (Republican)

    Votes: 41 53.9%
  • George B. McClellan - Democratic Party

    Votes: 9 11.8%

  • Total voters
    76
  • Poll closed .
I suppose McClellan fared poorly in this poll because we know what the actual outcome of the war was. But many voters who chose McClellan in November 1864 could still harbor serious doubts about the ability of Lincoln to prosecute the war to a quick, satisfactory conclusion.
 
Ok, so for practical purposes it's "impossible", sure, I'm just wondering if it would be legally possible, if they could physically make it in the building without being arrested or attacked, which again, seems unlikely.

The Constitution provides that electors are chosen in the manner each state legislature chooses, but the US government could take the position that the legislatures of states in rebellion were not legitimate. For example, they recognized the legislature formed by the western counties of Virginia as that of the state of Virginia, which allowed it to approve the separation of West Virginia.
 
I suppose McClellan fared poorly in this poll because we know what the actual outcome of the war was. But many voters who chose McClellan in November 1864 could still harbor serious doubts about the ability of Lincoln to prosecute the war to a quick, satisfactory conclusion.
That, and we probably wonder how long it would take McClellan to "prepare" to be president....
 
I'm surprised, the votes are closer than what I imagined.

Then again, I'm sure peoples votes are swayed because 150+ years in the future we know who won...
 
The most interesting part of this, Davis almost has more support than Breckinridge in the last "election" but on the other hand, I'd bet if Davis wasn't on this ballot, McClellan would have a lot of support. It'd give Lincoln more reason to say now, "I fear I'm going to be beaten..." if it wasn't so late in the game.
 
When Little Mac was in charge of the Army of the Potomac, he was sure that Lincoln had enormous numbers of reinforcements available but for some reason never sent them to him.

Wonder if he would have made a campaign promise in 1864 that he would send that many reinforcements to Grant?
 
Wow. When you take out Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas but add Davis & Little Mac, Old Abe’s share seems to go up.
 
What if Stonewall Jackson survived and ran for President In 1864. After all Jackson was the biggest what if when it comes to Gettysburg😜
 
I didn't vote, because as far as I know, there's NO such person as Jefferson Finis Davis - I would've voted for Jefferson Davis. Despite what I'm seeing lately, according to an old article I remember from a now-long-ago issue of Civil War Times (Illustrated), this moniker was strictly an appellation dreamed up by the Northern press. Of course Finis is French for The End and was coupled with all that business about the last ditch... etc. According to the modern version, popularized by Jack Davis in his biography of the Confederate President, Jefferson's father gave it to him as a way of saying he wanted no more children - this strange way of saying so actually had another and legitimate example in Texas Confederate private Decimus et Ultimus Barziza, who was indeed the Tenth and Last child in his family. However, according to the CWTI article, there is no contemporary evidence that Jefferson Davis ever went by anything other than his first - and likely ONLY - name.
 
Although, Davis couldn't have been on the ballot in 1864 (unless secession hadn't happened)... the Confederate constitution specified a six year presidential term, which for Davis wouldn't have been up till 1866 at least... and if I recall correctly, he wouldn't have been able to stand for a second term.

But... details.
Ironically Benjamin Butler actually backed Davis for President in 1860 at the Democratic convention in Charleston and he supported John Breckinridge at the convention in Baltimore that led to the Democratic Party splitting over the issue of slavery in the territories
 
I suppose McClellan fared poorly in this poll because we know what the actual outcome of the war was. But many voters who chose McClellan in November 1864 could still harbor serious doubts about the ability of Lincoln to prosecute the war to a quick, satisfactory conclusion.
At that time, Virginia looked like Belgium in WWI with trenches everywhere.
 
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