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Meet Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States
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<p>[QUOTE="Hiddendragon, post: 3410413, member: 25270"]The whole 19th century political process is really interesting in how it differs from today. To begin with, it was unseemly to appear to be seeking office, so even though many people desperately wanted to be president, they had to make it seem like it was the furthest thing from their mind. Behind the scenes their allies and friends would be pushing their cause, but publicly they had to appear to be above it. Unlike today, when the party convention began a few months before the election, there was no candidate already selected - it was wide open. Many states would have their "favorite son" candidate who they would put forth, not really expecting him to win, but basically looking to trade their support after the first ballot to someone else. The various state delegations would be working behind the scenes to trade political appointments and other things like that in exchange for their support of a candidate. The leading politicians often had too many enemies and thus were unable to generate enough support, so the candidate would end up coming from the second tier. Abraham Lincoln fits this description as he was really a frontier lawyer with one term in Congress, some time in the state legislature and a failed senate campaign behind him (though at the time the Senate was appointed by the state legislature, not through direct election) with little distinction and William Seward was the leading Republican of his day, but couldn't secure the nomination.</p><p><br /></p><p>Once the nominee was picked, he would sit at home and welcome various notables who wanted to talk to him, but campaigning was also beneath his dignity. Instead, other friendly politicians would make speeches in his favor, partisan newspapers would write about him and little books about his life would circulate to give people an idea of what he stood for, often inflated or full of outright lies. </p><p><br /></p><p>All in all, a very different process from how it's done today.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Hiddendragon, post: 3410413, member: 25270"]The whole 19th century political process is really interesting in how it differs from today. To begin with, it was unseemly to appear to be seeking office, so even though many people desperately wanted to be president, they had to make it seem like it was the furthest thing from their mind. Behind the scenes their allies and friends would be pushing their cause, but publicly they had to appear to be above it. Unlike today, when the party convention began a few months before the election, there was no candidate already selected - it was wide open. Many states would have their "favorite son" candidate who they would put forth, not really expecting him to win, but basically looking to trade their support after the first ballot to someone else. The various state delegations would be working behind the scenes to trade political appointments and other things like that in exchange for their support of a candidate. The leading politicians often had too many enemies and thus were unable to generate enough support, so the candidate would end up coming from the second tier. Abraham Lincoln fits this description as he was really a frontier lawyer with one term in Congress, some time in the state legislature and a failed senate campaign behind him (though at the time the Senate was appointed by the state legislature, not through direct election) with little distinction and William Seward was the leading Republican of his day, but couldn't secure the nomination. Once the nominee was picked, he would sit at home and welcome various notables who wanted to talk to him, but campaigning was also beneath his dignity. Instead, other friendly politicians would make speeches in his favor, partisan newspapers would write about him and little books about his life would circulate to give people an idea of what he stood for, often inflated or full of outright lies. All in all, a very different process from how it's done today.[/QUOTE]
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