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For as long as I've been aware of it, it's been popular to characterize the United States the eight years before the inauguration of Lincoln as essentially leaderless; the first four due in part to one man's personal tragedies, and the rest under an apparently weak President unwilling to take a strong stance.
But while true, this scenario devotes little attention to the point that safety valves had been tied down, and an increasingly unstable situation developing since the Missouri Compromise of 1820, at the latest, or that three of the strongest figures who steered the nation through a series of crisis -- Webster, Calhoun and Clay -- were all dead by that time. The one figure who displayed a strong personality, and who arose from origins unique enough to draw support for mitigation -- Zachary Taylor -- met death (under circumstances viewed with more suspicion in recent years) within a short time after his inauguration.
So I pose a question to our little fraternity; Had you occupied the White House, or a prominent position in the Senate, at the time of Buchanan's inauguration, what might you have done differently?
I'll appoint a Territorial Governor in Kansas who can be relied upon to be even-handed between the Free State and Slave State factions. To judge from later events that means that the Free Staters will win, but hopefully with a good deal less bloodshed than OTL. There'll be none of that "Lecompton Constitution" nonsense.
I'll sign the Homestead Bill of 1860 rather than vetoing it as Buchanan did. That will make northern pioneers (actual or wannabe) a good deal happier.
I'll make darned sure that my Secretary of War is either a northerner or, if Southern, a rock-solid Unionist - Andrew Johnson maybe, or Sam Houston. So no rifles getting sent back south during the Secession Winter.
I'll leave Brigham Young in office as Governor of Utah, and won't start that ridiculous "Mormon War".
Some would argue, myself included, that nothing could have staved off the eventuality of the civil war other than total capitulation of one side or the other over the issue of slavery. Even Madison recognized that when during the Constitutional Convention he noted that the greatest threat to the proposed union would not be between big states verses small ones but rather between those that were free and those that were slave.
I do not believe it is Buchanan or any other president recently preceding Abraham
Lincoln whom deserves criticism for fomenting the War Between the States.
Slavery should have never been allowed in this country, we would have to go
further back in time, it should have been prohibited in the BoR right from the
beginning. As it grew out of control and the slave population increased dramatically
with the cotton gin it was getting too late to stop slavery by law, economically.
So I would have allowed it to continue while concurrently strongly supporting
and aggressively politicking for negro freeman rights across the South. Eventually,
granted, maybe 1, maximum 2 more generations would have had to experience
slavery until full emancipation, but I believe it would have happened.
Except of course that had it been outlawed there wouldn't have been a United States at all, since the slaveholding states would not have ratified a Constitution containing such a proviso.
Once the Constitution was in force, such a ban was of course impossible, since Amendments to it required the assent of three fourths of the states, which would be unattainable without the South's consent.
Except of course that had it been outlawed there wouldn't have been a United States at all, since the slaveholding states would not have ratified a Constitution containing such a proviso.
Once the Constitution was in force, such a ban was of course impossible, since Amendments to it required the assent of three fourths of the states, which would be unattainable without the South's consent.
Well, there could have been two governments from the beginning, one free, one slave, perhaps,
which would have parted ways to some degree after the revolution.
5 of the original 13 colonies had significant slave populations, so I agree there was no road
to the 10 needed to gain a 3/4 majority.
What do you think about the second part of what I would have done ?
Preferable to the War or not ?
What do you think about the second part of what I would have done ?
Preferable to the War or not ?
I'm not sure how such "aggressive politicking" would be feasible, given that five out of the first seven Presidents were themselves slaveholdres, as was a majority of the SCOTUS.t
I would give Mexico back the territory we took in 1848 and follow their lead and outlaw slavery as they did in 1820.
This would merely be a continuation of abolitionist efforts which began in Pennsylvania in 1775 and gradually saw many states abolish slavery in the years afterward. This would also keep inline with the rest of the world where many countries outlawed serfdom.
I would invest in Southern industrialization, something that never happened, and that still plagues us today.
I would subsidize farming in the South so that farmers would suffer less with their new task of having to hire workers and no longer rely on slavery.
I would ask Mexico to sell us back Texas and promptly declare it a territory with a German-ethnic (and Texas citizen) abolitionist as governor.
I would assist the remaining Native Americans in forming their own counties within America and warning Mexico we would go to war all over again if they did not do the same.
I would give Mexico back the territory we took in 1848 and follow their lead and outlaw slavery as they did in 1820.
This would merely be a continuation of abolitionist efforts which began in Pennsylvania in 1775 and gradually saw many states abolish slavery in the years afterward. This would also keep inline with the rest of the world where many countries outlawed serfdom.
I would invest in Southern industrialization, something that never happened, and that still plagues us today.
I would subsidize farming in the South so that farmers would suffer less with their new task of having to hire workers and no longer rely on slavery.
I would ask Mexico to sell us back Texas and promptly declare it a territory with a German-ethnic (and Texas citizen) abolitionist as governor.
I would assist the remaining Native Americans in forming their own counties within America and warning Mexico we would go to war all over again if they did not do the same.
How do you get any of this through any conceivable Congress?
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