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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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"The Second Philadelphia Convention" by Steve Payne
1866: the second Philadelphia
Convention opened on this day under the Chairmanship of Walter Bagehot.
Less than a century before, another English journalist, Thomas Paine had stood
at the apex of American political thought. But unlike Paine, Bagehot had never
crossed the Atlantic, and perhaps this remoteness provided the broad
perspective that enabled him to discern the constitutional issues that lay
behind the outbreak of the American Civil War.
America's stability had depended upon a voluntary union of the states. This
was no longer true by the time Andrew Jackson left office. The result was a
string of ineffectual Presidencies, because in the absence of broad agreement
on issues of which the Constitution was largely silent, notably secession, the
Chief Magistrate was simply unable to wield the kind of extra-legal authority
envisaged by James Madison et al at the Philadelphia Convention. Quite simply,
a sacred document and an unhereditary substitute for an uncrowned king was not
a strong enough framework for the US Government. That was the theory at least, a luxury Bagehot enjoyed whilst he wrote "The
English Constitution" in 1865. And then he received the historic invitation
from President Abraham Lincoln.
Steve Payne Editor of Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.
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