Oh, there were irregularities to be sure: they didn't even attempt to collect votes for seceding states, despite claiming that they didn't actually leave the union. By this time, Louisiana and Tennessee or under Union control and held the election, but they didn't count their electoral votes either.
The Union freely flipped from considering Confederate states to be "in rebellion" but still a part of the United States to treating them as a separate country as it suited Union needs, which is a whole separate topic. For example, they extorted them into ratifying the 14th Amendment as a condition of rejoining the Union- which makes no sense as they spent the entire War claiming they never legally left it.
My point being, Lincoln at least held the election to maintain the veneer that the country was still a democracy, and presumably would have stepped aside if he had lost. The narrative that Ukraine is a democracy heroically resisting an invader collapses if they simply turn off elections because they're afraid they won't be happy with the results.
My point being, Lincoln at least held the election to maintain the veneer that the country was still a democracy, and presumably would have stepped aside if he had lost.
After all the shit he pulled in the Civil War, I'm more convinced Lincoln would Fortify™ the election if it ever looked like he could lose. He'd also be the first one to break Washington's two-term tradition instead of FDR and become the first Eternal President. We were only spared from this particular timeline thanks to John Wilkes Booth.
He suspended elections in Maryland. And he sent units to "guard" polling places
Oh, there were irregularities to be sure: they didn't even attempt to collect votes for seceding states, despite claiming that they didn't actually leave the union. By this time, Louisiana and Tennessee or under Union control and held the election, but they didn't count their electoral votes either.
The Union freely flipped from considering Confederate states to be "in rebellion" but still a part of the United States to treating them as a separate country as it suited Union needs, which is a whole separate topic. For example, they extorted them into ratifying the 14th Amendment as a condition of rejoining the Union- which makes no sense as they spent the entire War claiming they never legally left it.
My point being, Lincoln at least held the election to maintain the veneer that the country was still a democracy, and presumably would have stepped aside if he had lost. The narrative that Ukraine is a democracy heroically resisting an invader collapses if they simply turn off elections because they're afraid they won't be happy with the results.
I didn't think you were defending Lincoln. I just wanted to point out he had his finger on the scale.
After all the shit he pulled in the Civil War, I'm more convinced Lincoln would Fortify™ the election if it ever looked like he could lose. He'd also be the first one to break Washington's two-term tradition instead of FDR and become the first Eternal President. We were only spared from this particular timeline thanks to John Wilkes Booth.
State Suicide Theory.
Man, I could go into a long rant about that and it's consequences.