Confederate States presidential election, 1885 (Enduring Schism)

The Confederate States presidential election of 1885 was the fifth election held for President of the Confederate States. It was won by John H. Reagan of the Reform League, who defeated Edmund K. Smith of the National League.

National League
The nomination of the National League was won by Edmund K. Smith, the serving Secretary of State. Senator Jubal A. Early of Virginia was selected as his running mate.

Smith secured the nomination of the National League with relative ease. His main opponent was Senator John T. Morgan of Alabama, who suffered from a lack of support outside the Lower South. Smith's supporters also encouraged a perception that Morgan's policies were unrealistic, ridiculing him as an idealist. The third nominee for the National League's nomination was Joseph E. Johnston, who had also stood at the previous two elections. He was 78 years old by the time of the election, and lacked support even in his own state of Virginia, where most elected officials backed Smith.

Reform League
The nomination of the Reform League was won by John H. Reagan of Texas, who served as a cabinet official under Presidents Davis, Lee, and Vance. His running mate was Simon B. Buckner, the Governor of Kentucky.

Reagan faced three other candidates for the nomination – Governor Buckner, Senator John B. Gordon of Georgia, and Governor Johnson Hagood of South Carolina. Gordon and Hagood were both considered rather radical in their policy stances, and unlikely to secure victory in the general election. Buckner and Reagan consequently negotiated a compromise whereby Buckner would withdraw from the race and instead campaign on a joint ticket. This ploy worked, with the Reagan–Buckner ticket securing the nomination with little trouble.

John C. Brown, one of the founders of the Reform League and its presidential candidate in 1879, declined to recontest the nomination, as did his running mate, Francis T. Nicholls. Both Brown and Nicholls felt that the previous election had been a referendum on their fitness for office, and that they had been rejected and should not run again for the party's sake.