McClellan wins but

[MikeyB]

What if: McClellan wins the election, but all other historical military outcomes through the end of the 1864 still happen.

Is the only effective difference you have a McClellan led restructuring and Abraham Lincoln lives? Or would the outcome of the war have been altered in any way in 1865?

 

[jgoodguy]

McClellan takes office on March 4, 1865.
In the real Timeline Lee surrenders April 9, 1865, just over a month later.
I think that McClellan will not stop the war on the eve of a great personal victory.

 

[Carronade]

Also, did not McClellan disavow the peace plank of the Democratic platform?

"I belong to no organized political party; I am a Democrat."
- Will Rogers

 

[Lithuanian]

no 13 amendment, as we know it. no 14,15

 

[67th Tigers]

no 13 amendment, as we know it. no 14,15

The 13th Amendment had passed historically by this date. It will be adopted by the McClellan administration.

 

[Lithuanian]

it passed january 31 1865 After Lincoln's victory. No victory, no amendment

 

[MikeyB]

I would imagine a McClellan Reconstruction would probably be more Lincolnesque than a Johnson Reconstruction? Perhaps a McClellan victory might have had upside for our national history.

 

[CanadianCanuck]

Also, did not McClellan disavow the peace plank of the Democratic platform?

"I belong to no organized political party; I am a Democrat."
- Will Rogers

In any scenario he wins he doesn't, to win he quite literally can't. McClellan only repudiated the Peace Plank after the fall of Atlanta and in the first draft of his acceptance speech he was open for a negotiated peace on the basis of reunion. Most likely there is a stall in the fighting in Georgia and Virginia through the winter of 1864-65 but negotiations fall through the war ends in September 1865.

I would imagine a McClellan Reconstruction would probably be more Lincolnesque than a Johnson Reconstruction? Perhaps a McClellan victory might have had upside for our national history.

You imagine the Democrats would even authorize Reconstruction? In a McClellan wins scenario where he's in hock to the Copperheads and at the head of a Democratic presidency, everything we know about Reconstruction vanishes, Reconstruction is probably finished by 1868 with the same people who lead the charge for secession back in power. The Democrats have no reason to enforce anything resembling either Lincoln's Reconstruction or Johnson's Reconstruction.

 

[MikeyB]

In any scenario he wins he doesn't, to win he quite literally can't. McClellan only repudiated the Peace Plank after the fall of Atlanta and in the first draft of his acceptance speech he was open for a negotiated peace on the basis of reunion. Most likely there is a stall in the fighting in Georgia and Virginia through the winter of 1864-65 but negotiations fall through the war ends in September 1865.



You imagine the Democrats would even authorize Reconstruction? In a McClellan wins scenario where he's in hock to the Copperheads and at the head of a Democratic presidency, everything we know about Reconstruction vanishes, Reconstruction is probably finished by 1868 with the same people who lead the charge for secession back in power. The Democrats have no reason to enforce anything resembling either Lincoln's Reconstruction or Johnson's Reconstruction.

Good point. But then a conservative administration perhaps galvanizes the North and elects Grant in the next election anyway? Sounds like Mac would probably be a pretty polarizing figure and North just structurally has more electoral votes.

Although, I'm looking at the electoral map from Grant's first election and Grant lost New York. Was New York a super Democratic state back then, or was it only because Seymour was from New York?