Get Off the Track! (1864 presidential election)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The four years of Tilden's presidency were an eventful epocha for the United States, as Americans and indeed the wider world came to terms with the reality of life in the second half of the nineteenth century. The revolutionary upheaval of the 1840s had been followed by a period of rapid industrial expansion, so that by the time Tilden arrived in Washington City to be inaugurated the fourteenth president under the stars and stripes, the pastoral republic of Jefferson had been fully replaced by a modern, capitalist economy. With rising demands for recognition from a new and growing urban laboring class, together with the pressures of Reconstruction and the influx of immigrants from Europe and China, Tilden's America was wholly unlike anything that had come before —for better and for worse.

During his tenure as governor of New York, Tilden had made a name for himself as a reformer, a reputation that in no small part contributed to his narrow victory over Charles Sumner in the 1860 election. His leadership of the executive branch was remarked for its transparency and efficiency, as party men were replaced with civil servants hired for their credentials at the helm of the great departments. He became the first president to meet with representatives of the newly independent Irish Republic, an action which enraged the British press but won his administration the support and affection of the population of Irish immigrants in America. Domestically, Tilden vetoed the Garfield–Conkling Act, which sought to limit the circulation of unbacked paper currency that had propagated since the war—a repudiation of his earlier "hard money" policy—as well as supporting federal appropriations for the Transcontinental Railroad. His efforts on behalf of a federal civil service reform bill were less successful, as was his challenge to the powerful Speaker of the House Oliver P. Morton. Finally, Tilden oversaw the gradual reduction of the federal military presence in the former Confederacy, with the result that Redeemers reclaimed control of several state governments in the lower South in 1861 and 1862.

Republican: The Republican National Convention at Indianapolis has renominated the incumbent ticket on a promise of "free labor, free money, free schools, and free men." Increasingly identified with the interests of poor farmers and wage laborers, on the defining issue of the day—currency—the party has come down solidly in favor of fiat money. Having supported a hard money policy in 1860, Tilden now argues a rapid contraction of the nation's currency would be calamitous for the nation's farmers, proposing instead the continuation of so-called "greenbacks." He is in favor of free trade, the readjustment of Southern state debts, free public education, and vigorously opposed to temperance.

Liberal: Having narrowly lost the runoff election four years before, Charles Sumner was considered the frontrunner to receive the Liberal nomination in 1864, but ultimately declined to be a candidate. The party has instead settled on Indiana Senator Henry Smith Lane in a belated attempt to appeal to Western voters. While opposed to fiat money, Smith voted in favor of the Homestead Act and the Transcontinental Railroad while in Congress and against the reductions to the tariff enacted under Frémont, and is believed to be friendly to the temperance movement. His running mate is Senator William Woods Holden of North Carolina, a prominent newspaper editor and enemy of the White Leagues.

Reedemer: An odd marriage of former Confederates, nativists, and old school Jacksonians came together to organize a "National People's Democratic Republican Convention" in the summer of 1864, where Virginian Representative Alexander Stuart was nominated for president on an anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-greenback platform. Based primarily in the South and areas of the lower Midwest with ties to the Ohio River trade, they does not expect to win, but rather hopes to put pressure on Tilden or Stuart not to interfere with efforts by Redeemer state governments to disenfranchise black men in the aftermath of Reconstruction.

[Elcaspar]

Finally, Tilden oversaw the gradual reduction of the federal military presence in the former Confederacy, with the result that Redeemers reclaimed control of several state governments in the lower South in 1861 and 1862.

So much for "owning" the Redeemers by voting for Tilden. I hope it was worth it to all of you who voted for Tilden, that all you had to sacrifice was less rights for African-Americans in the states where the Redeemers took control.

This would never have happened with Sumner.

[KaiserDave]

I will give President Tilden my vote again because of core economic reasons. His position on Irish immigration and Catholicism also helps. However, I may consider voting for Lane in a potential runoff.

I would inquire more onto the position of Tilden and Lane on Judaism. I know that Hayes RL was great on that issue, so I'm skeptical of Tilden at first, but I know Tilden's political idol Martin van Buren instructed the U.S. consul in Egypt to use his office to protect the Jews of Damascus who were under attack because of a false blood libel accusation. Perhaps Tilden will follow MvB's example.

[Wikipedia delenda est]

Lane/Holden. I agree with Tilden on the currency issue, but he has got to go for his abysmal failure on Reconstruction.

[Diabolical Materialism]

Tilden needs to crack down on the redeemers.

[Elcaspar]

Lane/Holden. I agree with Tilden on the currency issue, but he has got to go for his abysmal failure on Reconstruction.

[KaiserDave]

I call upon all good Unionists and Patriots to back President Tilden to avoid a run-off with the odious, treasonous, bigoted Redeemers. We cannot give them even a breath of the presidency!

They are the enemy of Catholics, Jews, Negroes, and working people everywhere!

[S019]

Lane

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

1864 United States presidential election, fitst round

President Samuel Jones Tilden (Republican, New York) / Vice President Galshua Aaron Grow (Republican, Pennsylvania) 47.8% popular votes
Senator Henry Smith Lane (Liberal, Indiana) / Senator William Woods Holden (Liberal, North Carolina) 26.1% popular votes
Representative Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart (National, Virginia) / former Governor Milton Slocum Latham (National, California) 26.1% popular votes

Tilden's success at consolidating immigrants, working men, Western farmers and Southern tenants under one roof made him the prohibitive favorite for reelection. As the telegraph tapped out the returns on election night, the Republican ticket swept the upper Midwest and the Pacific Coast and ran up huge pluralities in the large Mid-Atlantic states and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. For a time it appeared Tilden might win outright and avoid a runoff; but the lower South still were loathe to support a Republican president, and soon speculation turned to whether Lane or Stuart would face Tilden in the second round. The margin was close —when all was said and done, a few thousand votes separated the Liberal and National tickets —but in the end Lane's support in New England, coupled with his running mate's popularity among freedmen in the upper South, handed him the advantage and the dubious honor of second place.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I would inquire more onto the position of Tilden and Lane on Judaism. I know that Hayes RL was great on that issue, so I'm skeptical of Tilden at first, but I know Tilden's political idol Martin van Buren instructed the U.S. consul in Egypt to use his office to protect the Jews of Damascus who were under attack because of a false blood libel accusation. Perhaps Tilden will follow MvB's example.

I'm not aware that either man had a strong position with respect to Judaism IRL; obviously, however, certain elements of the labor movement have always had a predilection towards antisemitism, and the Republican party is no exception. Of course, neither Tilden nor Lane comes anywhere close to matching the explicit antagonism of the Redeemers.