Does it explicitly say he became a New Democrat? I find that difficult to believe. I think he'd be one of those who stuck with the Republicans till the bitter end. Turtle Fan 06:28, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
I recall some sad looks between the two as Douglass walked out with Butler's crowd. That's not proof that Douglass went Dem, though. TR 16:16, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
Someone stayed Republican. They were still taking Congressional seats after GWI ended; they had at least 17 House seats in the 1919-1920 session, and Stedman depended on them to hold together his majority coalition--something which belies allegations of irrelevance. And they were still contesting Presidential elections up through 1940. And Douglass was more interested in social policy than foreign policy; those became closely entwined in his mind after the War of Secession was lost, but not in everyone's. The War Democrats seem to have taken the same segregationist stances as their doughfaced predecessors, so I can easily see Douglass refusing to make the switch, preferring a highly principled political irrelevance. It's consistent with his saying "I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress." Besides, for most of the rest of his life the GOP would still have been larger than the SP so he may not have seen sticking with the GOP as a hopeless case. Turtle Fan 16:44, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
Just took a look at HFR (more for the Battle of Teton but still) and it shows Douglass agreeing with Butler on the need for more preparation against the CS but disagreed on less freedom and "Prussianization". I think he remained a Republican although I didn't find any explicit statement to that effect. ML4E 21:01, 25 June 2007 (UTC)
Douglass' fate[]
I think that the last days of Douglass would make a good subject for some "Lost Tales of 191" project. Not as interesting as say, Lincoln or Stonewall. But I am curious as to what became of the HFR POVs who weren't Roosevelt, Custer, or Stuart. TR 23:17, November 2, 2009 (UTC)
- Apparently, Schleiffen did well for himself. We got a little something about Clemens's ultimate fate in TG or IatD, didn't we? Turtle Fan 02:56, November 3, 2009 (UTC)
- We did find out a bit about both. Actually, I should have qualified that I didn't care about Schlieffen so much--HT seems to have allowed him to follow the same basic course as in OTL, and I found him the most boring POV in the book to begin with. TR 03:01, November 3, 2009 (UTC)
- I thought they were all strong interest-wise. Douglass's sanctimonious qualities wore a bit thin for me. Turtle Fan 03:23, November 3, 2009 (UTC)
Separated at Birth[]
In the pix we have, Douglass' big hair and badass beard makes him look like Karl Marx's brother aside from the darker complexion. Even that could be interpreted as due to lighting. ML4E 18:56, December 15, 2011 (UTC)
Ax VP Candidate[]
From Wikipedia:
- " Without his approval, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential nominee of Victoria Woodhull, on the radical and visionary Equal Rights Party ticket."