Board Thread:New on Alternative History/@comment-72.185.4.15-20130303025444/@comment-3428312-20141214003540

Probably the best POD to achieve this is to have John Brown killed in Bleeding Kansas and therefore butterfly the Harpers Ferry Raid. This would remove the OTL "Siege" mentality the South went through in the aftermath, and make them more amendable to a compromise with regards to the Democratic ticket which would thus prevent the fracturization we saw in OTL. Throw in William Seward winning the nomination for the Republican candidate, and the Demoracts win easily in 1860. Ironically, this would likely lead to a Northern secession.

As to the previous dicsussion over Breckenridge, he is a very interesting character. His oppinions on slavery were rather similiar to those of Lincoln, and he held no slaves of his own (He was criticized for this by John Bell's campaign). There is even some evidence, IIRC, that he was a subscribing to a newspaper owned by Frederick Douglas. He was initially neutral in the Civil War, before becoming a Confederate general after fighting started in Kentucky.