Monday 23 October 2023

The President Douglas/1860 Election Win Scenario

 As the summer convention business heated up for the Democratic Party....it came to a point where no candidate could emerge out of the first convention.  Stephen Douglas, who had things lined up....failed.

A second convention was held roughly a month later, and Douglas secured the 'win', but out of this convention....a number of southern Democrats left and gathered at a near-by hotel, and decided to form a new party (the Southern Democratic Party).

This created a problem in the various states for the 1860 November election, and Douglas lost in a miserable way (division of votes).

But lets go back to the 2nd convention and say it failed, and no party division occurred.  

Douglass would have likely won the election....defeating Lincoln.

So here's the odd part of history.....Douglass would have arrived in DC, and become President, but likely met an untimely end (3 June 1861).  Typhoid Fever got him in the end.  

VP?  Herschel Johnson, former governor of Georgia.  He would have moved up and likely been the Democratic candidate in 1864's election....likely winning it and serving out to 1869.  

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