Changes: President of the United States

Revision as of 20:50, 23 October 2014

Seal Of The President Of The Unites States Of America

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The role of the Executive Branch, of which the President is the head, is to enforce the national laws as stated in the Constitution or made by Congress. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788 and the first president took office in 1789.

The president serves as the chief executive and leader of the executive branch of the federal government. Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the president as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and enumerates powers specifically granted to the president, including the power to sign into law bills passed by both houses of Congress, to create a Cabinet of advisors, to grant pardons or reprieves, and, with the "advice and consent" of the Senate, to make treaties and appoint federal officers, ambassadors, and federal judges (including Justices of the Supreme Court). Article Two also defines a presidential term at four years.

In OTL, since 1951, presidents have been limited to two terms by the Twenty-second Amendment. There have been forty-four presidents, but only forty-three individuals have held the office; Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms.

This article lists the known presidents found in the works of Harry Turtledove after the Point of Divergence. Many presidents who served before the POD of a given alternate history are mentioned in passing. Also stories set in OTL may reference past presidents, or even the sitting president.

The Guns of the South

With the Second American Revolution ending in 1864 with a Confederate victory, incumbent U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was defeated by Horatio Seymour, in a highly contested election.

President	Number	Term	Party
Abraham Lincoln	16	1861-1865	Republican
Horatio Seymour	17	1865-18??	Democrat

"Joe Steele"

In 1932, California Congressman Joe Steele won the Presidency, and proceeded to establish a dictatorship as he served an unprecedented five terms. He died shortly after entering his sixth term. A power struggle saw his Vice President John Nance Garner's execution, and ascension of J. Edgar Hoover.

President	Number	Term	Party
Herbert Hoover	31	1929-1933	Republican
Joe Steele	32	1933-1953	Democrat
John Nance Garner	33	1953	Democrat
J. Edgar Hoover	34	1953-?	Democrat

"Must and Shall"

President Abraham Lincoln was killed by sniper-fire at Fort Stevens in 1864. His Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin ascended to the Presidency, and began a policy of retribution against the rebelling Southern states.

President	Number	Term	Party
Abraham Lincoln	16	1861-1864	Republican
Hannibal Hamlin	17	1864-1869(?)	Republican

Southern Victory

For most of the history of the United States between the end of the War of Secession and the end of the Great War, the presidency was held by a member of the Democratic Party. This came in response to Abraham Lincoln's status as a Republican. Aside from Republican James G. Blaine, who served from 1881 to 1885, every president from 1865 to 1921 was a Democrat.

After U.S. victory in the Great War, Upton Sinclair became the first Socialist Party president. From there on, the Socialists met success over the next generation, winning five of the six elections between 1920 and 1940, though usually by very narrow margins. Neither party dominated the political cycle the way the Democrats had in the 19th century, as each party was able to capitalize on the failures of the other.

Following the Second Great War, Democrats won the 1944 election, electing Thomas Dewey to Powel House and also taking control of the House of Representatives. This was the last election depicted within the canon of the Southern Victory series, but politically savvy characters such as Flora Blackford seemed to consider it not an anomaly in the pattern of relative success for the Socialists in the past generation but the beginning of a new political era where Democrats once again held the advantage over their rivals.

It had been the custom since George Washington that the a president was only elected to two consecutive terms. Theodore Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term in 1920, but was defeated.

Calvin Coolidge holds the distinction of being the only person elected to the office never to serve. After winning the 1932 election, Coolidge died of a heart attack the following January, just under a month before he could take the oath of office.

Al Smith was killed by a Confederate bombing raid in 1942, the first and only time a president was killed during war time.

Officially the Presidential residence was the White House in Washington, DC. During the Second Mexican War, Washington was evacuated by the Federal government due to its location within range of Confederate heavy artillery. The government relocated to Philadelphia where the President set up residence and office space in Powel House. After the war, the Federal government remained in Philadelphia due to Washington's continued insecure position, and though Washington remained the capital of the US de jure, for all practical purposes, Philadelphia became the permanent capital and Powell House the permanent executive mansion. The White House was periodically used by the President for certain formal functions, such as inauguration ceremonies and state funerals.

President	Number	Term	Political Party
Abraham Lincoln	16	1861-1865	Republican
Unknown	17-19(?)	1865-1877	Democrat
Samuel J. Tilden	Unknown, possibly 19 or 20	1877-1881	Democrat
James G. Blaine	Unknown, possibly 20 or 21	1881-1885	Republican
Unknown	21 or 22(?)	1885-1889	Democrat
Alfred Thayer Mahan*	Unknown, possibly 22 or 23	1889-1897 (?)	Democrat
Thomas Reed*	Unknown, possibly 23 or 24	1897-1902 (?)	Democrat
All Unknown	24 or 25-27(?)	1902-1913	Democrat
Theodore Roosevelt	28	1913-1921	Democrat
Upton Sinclair	29	1921-1929	Socialist
Hosea Blackford	30	1929-1933	Socialist
Herbert Hoover	31	1933-1937	Democrat
Al Smith	32	1937-1942	Socialist
Charles W. La Follette	33	1942-1945	Socialist
Thomas Dewey	34	1945-	Democrat

Literary Comment

In The Center Cannot Hold, Harry Turtledove specified Hosea Blackford as the 30th person to serve as president. Mathematically, this implies that two presidents did not complete their terms at some point between the presidencies of Lincoln and Roosevelt for this to be possible.

Turtledove has not identified all presidents between Lincoln and Roosevelt. Only Tilden, Blaine, Mahan, and Reed have been specifically identified as presidents in that time period (1865-1913). The exact terms of Mahan and Reed have not been revealed; circumstantial textual evidence supports Mahan serving from 1889-1897; some evidence supports Reed serving from 1897-1902, which would make him one of the two presidents to die in office.

Presidents marked with an asterisk are identified in the series canon, but their terms are not given.

Worldwar

In the aftermath of the Race Invasion, the Presidency saw two critical interruptions. The first came in 1944 with the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Vice President Henry Wallace had been killed the year before, when the Race destroyed Seattle while Wallace was visting. Then-Secretary of State Cordell Hull succeeded Roosevelt per the Presidential Succession Act of 1886. The second came in 1965 when President Earl Warren committed suicide after agreeing to allow the Race to destroy Indianapolis. This act was in response to Warren's secret attack on the Race's Colonization Fleet in 1962.

With Washington, DC destroyed by the Race in 1942, the capital was moved to Little Rock, Arkansas after the Peace of Cairo of 1944. The executive residence was the Gray House.

President	Number	Term	Party
Franklin D. Roosevelt	32	1933-1944	Democrat
Cordell Hull	33	1944-1945	Democrat
Unknown	?	1945-1961	Various
Earl Warren	Unknown	1961-1965	Republican
Harold Stassen	Unknown	1965-1969	Republican
Unknown	?	1969-2021	Various
Joyce Peterman	Unknown	2021-?	Unknown

"Vilcabamba"

With the arrival of the Krolp and their military domination of the planet, the United States was reduced to a rump state, combined with a small part of Canada. The offices of President of the United States and Prime Minister of Canada were combined in one person. The office also appears to have become hereditary. The last duly elected president was Harris Moffatt I. His lineage continued to rule the rump U.S. until the presidency of his grandson Harris Moffatt III from the de facto capital of Grand Junction, Colorado. However, with the final defeat of the U.S. fifty years after the Krolp arrived, the presidency was abolished and Harris Moffatt III was forced into exile. Known Presidents:

Harris Moffatt I
Harris Moffatt II (killed by a renegade Krolp)
Harris Moffatt III

Other Presidents

"Lee at the Alamo" is set from February to March, 1861, coinciding with the closing weeks of James Buchanan's presidency and the opening weeks of Abraham Lincoln's. Buchanan is referenced. Lincoln directly appears.

In addition to the above, Franklin D. Roosevelt is president in the Days of Infamy series, "News From the Front", and The War That Came Early. Days of Infamy ends before 1944, so it is unknown as to whether he would be re-elected in 1944 as in OTL, and nothing in the story points in either direction. In "News From the Front", the story ends with Congress preparing to impeach Roosevelt in 1942. He would have been succeeded by Vice President Henry Wallace, if convicted and removed from office. The War That Came Early is a six volume series covering the period from September, 1938 through Spring, 1944 (with a brief prologue in July, 1936). FDR is re-elected in 1940 as in OTL, but the series ends before the 1944 campaign is underway.

FDR is entering his third term in "The House That George Built", although that story focuses on how Babe Ruth did not become the baseball legend he did in OTL, and broader history doesn't appear to have changed substantially. He also appears in "Cayos in the Stream", which focuses on Ernest Hemingway's encounter with a U-boat, and again, does not seem to alter broader history.

Harry Truman is president in The Man With the Iron Heart, appearing directly throughout the book. Given his declining popularity throughout the course of the novel, he is not likely to have been re-elected in 1948.

The story "Hindsight" takes place in June 1953, very early in Dwight Eisenhower's first term. He's referenced, but does not appear.

John F. Kennedy is president and the central character in "A Massachusetts Yankee in King Arthur's Court", although that is not a strong Alternate history story. He also probably served at least one term in The Gladiator, although he is not explicitly named. He is president in the previously unfinished work Winter of Our Discontent, initially co-written with Bryce Zabel, wherein Kennedy survives the attempt on his life, and is subsequently re-elected, but faces impeachment in 1966. Zabel completed the novel on his own and it was published under the title Surrounded by Enemies: What if Kennedy Survived Dallas? in July 2013. As Turtledove withdrew from the project while it was in progress, the final book is not in the purvue of this Wiki.

There is an unnamed female president in the story "Elder Skelter". Through the course of the story, the president and her cabinet debate whether or not Quebec's attack on the Maritimes would be sufficient to trigger the emergency clause of the Twenty-Eighth Amendment.

The Supervolcano series takes place over a period of eight to ten years. References are made to a sitting president at various points in the series, but as Turtledove opted to set the series in the near-future, the identity of the sitting president (or presidents) is never revealed. No election is ever depicted.

@@ Line 244: / Line 244: @@
 "[[Lee at the Alamo]]" is set from February to March, 1861, coinciding with the closing weeks of [[James Buchanan]]'s presidency and the opening weeks of [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s. Buchanan is referenced. Lincoln directly appears.
-In addition to the above, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] is president in the [[Days of Infamy series]], "[[News From the Front]]", and [[The War That Came Early]]. ''Days of Infamy'' ends before 1944, so it is unknown as to whether he would be re-elected in 1944 as in [[OTL]], and nothing in the story points in either direction. In "News From the Front", the story ends with Congress preparing to impeach Roosevelt in 1942. He would have been succeeded by Vice President [[Henry Wallace]], if convicted and removed from office. ''The War That Came Early ''is a six volume covering the period from September, 1938 through Spring, 1944. FDR is [[United States Presidential Election, 1940 (The War That Came Early)|re-elected in 1940]] as in OTL, but the series ends before the 1944 campaign is underway.
+In addition to the above, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] is president in the [[Days of Infamy series]], "[[News From the Front]]", and [[The War That Came Early]]. ''Days of Infamy'' ends before 1944, so it is unknown as to whether he would be re-elected in 1944 as in [[OTL]], and nothing in the story points in either direction. In "News From the Front", the story ends with Congress preparing to impeach Roosevelt in 1942. He would have been succeeded by Vice President [[Henry Wallace]], if convicted and removed from office. ''The War That Came Early'' is a six volume series covering the period from September, 1938 through Spring, 1944 (with a brief prologue in July, 1936). FDR is [[United States Presidential Election, 1940 (The War That Came Early)|re-elected in 1940]] as in OTL, but the series ends before the 1944 campaign is underway.
 FDR is entering his third term in "[[The House That George Built]]", although that story focuses on how [[Babe Ruth]] did not become the baseball legend he did in OTL, and broader history doesn't appear to have changed substantially.  He also appears in "[[Cayos in the Stream]]", which focuses on [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s encounter with a U-boat, and again, does not seem to alter broader history.