Chapter 259 Presidential Election (Part 2)

To be honest, Franz was not interested in John Taylor, because the latter was always a firm believer in "America First". Apart from the interests of the United States, almost anything else was not within his scope of concern.

But for Lewis Cass, Franz really had no memory of his previous life.

From the intelligence point of view, he had an unusual hobby of killing Indians, so he once received the "good name" (American evaluation) as a "hero". In terms of foreign policy, he also won the title of "uncompromising man" because he advocated being tough on Britain.

It's just that in terms of military affairs, this man seems to have different ideas from the former war maniac of the Democratic Party. Cass advocated cutting military spending and dismantling the militia. His reason was that there were less than 20,000 French troops in Texas.

While this small force is needed to maintain law and order in a large area, it is also necessary to constantly guard against the Indians within the territory. Unless the French's brains suddenly break, there will never be any intention to attack the United States rashly.

In fact, in order not to pin their hopes for border security on their opponents, the Americans and Mexicans signed a defensive alliance agreement earlier to deal with the threat from the French.

Therefore, Lewis Cass believed that an army of 100,000 was a complete waste. As long as a standing army of 30,000 was maintained, it would be enough to deal with the threats from Britain, France, and Mexico.

He also believed that the British were too arrogant and that the Canadian colonial forces were vulnerable and could be easily eliminated by cutting off British maritime support.

There is actually a basis for the U.S. Navy to be able to defeat the British at sea.

Historically, the U.S. Navy once defeated the Royal Navy with an absolute disadvantage of one-quarter of its strength. Not only that, they have broken their blockade many times and even captured their merchant ships. It can be said that the only country in the world that has fought a naval battle with England and won the final victory is the United States.

However, most of these naval battles were small-scale exchanges. Most of the ships participating in the battle were frigates and cruisers. Take the legendary "Constitution" of the United States in this war at that time as an example. It was only equipped with 28 24-pounders and 10 A 12-pounder artillery piece, this kind of firepower is really not worth mentioning on the European battlefield.

Franz didn't think the Americans could defeat the British at this time, and he didn't know what direction history would take if Lewis Cass became the president of the United States.

But now he does not want France to continue to grow in North America, nor does he want to see the United States being carved up by Britain and France. Therefore, he needs a strong person to control the entire situation, so that even if a war breaks out, he will not be defeated quickly.

But Lewis Cass was obviously a little ignorant. It was too fanciful to rely on 30,000 standing troops to deal with European powers like Britain and France.

Moreover, Franz needed to intervene in the Civil War for the future and needed to find someone with enough influence to do it.

John Taylor was a typical Virginian (a large plantation owner), and he sincerely liked and enjoyed the life of a slave owner, otherwise he would not have taken the initiative to stand up for the South in his later years. For this reason, he even He lost all his family property in the north and was saddled with an infamy that he couldn't clean up.

As for the old guy Harrison, his physical condition was very bad. Historically, a president who only served for one month died. There was not even the slightest possibility of surviving until the beginning of the Civil War. However, due to the vast influence of his family, However, it is still worth a little effort to win over.

The U.S. election during this period was like a large-scale reality show in the 19th century. Of course, because there was no developed Internet, social networks, media, and television broadcasts like later generations, the presidential candidates at this time did not hesitate to travel and travel in person. Visit every state to proactively canvass for votes and debate with your opponent's supporters.

The first scolding war between the two sides started in the newspapers.

The Democrats accused the Whigs of covering up slave traders and even making deals with idiots who kidnapped members of the Austrian royal family, almost causing a serious international scandal.

The Whigs repeatedly made a fuss about the Democratic Party's multiple fraud cases, especially the "Samuel theft." They accused a Democratic official of stealing one million US dollars of national assets and absconding. What was even more frightening was that the lawyer William sent to investigate actually absconded again with money. Therefore, the Democratic Party must accept public investigation without reservation.

In order to deflect the accusations against themselves, the Democrats accused the Whigs of participating in smuggling operations many times and profiting from them.

The Whigs angrily scolded the Democratic Commissioner of Customs for this. Jesse Hoyt was Martin Van Buren's henchman. He abused his power for favoritism, appointed and dismissed officials at will, and plundered the people's wealth. The leader of a party full of such scum. Where is the credibility?

The Democrats once again changed the subject and poured dirty water on the other party. "The Whigs support slavery and the abuse of black slaves. They have no humanity!"

The Whigs laughed at the fact that in the workshops of factory owners who supported the Democratic Party, the working conditions and treatment of workers were a hundred times worse than that of black slaves. They even allowed sick and unemployed workers to die of illness. They were simply a group of beasts without conscience!

“We have no slaves in the North!”

“We have no unemployment in the South!”

During the debate between Lewis Ska and Harrison, due to being at a disadvantage for a long time, they actually threw a water glass at the other party. The other party did not show weakness and took off his shoes to fight back.

In the end, it even developed to the point where one side raised his cane and the other side drew his belt, and a duel took place in front of thousands of Americans. Although it was finally stopped, it still made politicians from other countries laugh.

Lewis Cass laughed at Harrison for being a country bumpkin and a bumpkin who didn't know how to respect others and wore a tattered general's uniform.

Harrison laughed at Lewis Cass for being just a colonel, and like those extravagant and corrupt officials in Martin Van Buren's government, he used the country's taxes to buy himself exquisite clothes, just like those hypocritical nobles in the European courts, and even joked that the current White House was "Little Versailles".

"Our country is suffering, while its rulers are enjoying themselves in time. I want to share the joys and sorrows with the people of my country!" This has almost become Harrison's catchphrase.

Obviously, this is a strategy that resonates. As the lives of Americans have become worse and worse in recent years, many people have begun to miss the tyrant they drove out, Andrew Jackson.

So John Tyler took the opportunity to package Harrison as the "people's candidate" and "war hero", intending to create a "hero of Dipcanu" who was on par with Jackson, the "hero of New Orleans".

Although both of them were called heroes, it was actually only because they had massacred Indians in these two places.

The campaign was very intense, and John Quincy Adams (the sixth president of the United States) even commented.

"The country is in unprecedented turmoil, with thousands of people listening to those highly inflammatory speeches every day, and then spreading those speeches further through themselves."

"What is the future of this movement? We have no way of knowing, but according to historical laws, these movements initiated by political parties, if not stopped, will sooner or later evolve into a revolution, just like the French Revolution of the year."

But in fact, this presidential campaign is more like an entertainment show than previous political movements.

And Franz is one of the directors behind the screen of this entertainment show, who manipulates and bribes a series of means behind the scenes with special people. For example, one day the Whigs gave candy to the audience, and the next day the Democrats gave bread.

Later, they launched a lottery to give away black slaves, and the Democrats immediately followed up by saying they would give away sewing machines.

The Whigs invited the orchestra of Johann Strauss Sr. to play waltzes, and the Democrats invited Broadway to perform operas. The scene was very chaotic for a while.

Both sides also arranged a lot of ballads to discredit each other, but the final result was determined by money.

After Franz bribed many voters to switch to Harrison, and let him defeat Lewis Cass, who was supported by the Democrats, by a narrow margin.

Due to Martin Van Buren's loss of power, John Tyler began to clean up the corruption in the US government. Friedrich List, the once all-powerful Secretary of State, was naturally the first to bear the brunt.

But when the US government investigators arrived, the building was empty.