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The Confederate States Presidential Election of 1921, the 11th CS presidential election, took place on November 8, 1921. Carter Glass, candidate of the merged Southern and People's Agrarian Parties, defeated John Nance Garner of the Confederate Party to become the 13th President of the Confederate States.
Background[]
There was no traditional campaign season for this election- World War I raged in the country for most of the year until a ceasefire was signed on October 7. From that point on, most of the debate in the country centered around the proposed treaty that would end the war, with the end of slavery being one of the US's primary terms. The treaty passed Congress before the election but was not actually signed until December.
There was debate in the government about whether the election should be held on time or not. Much of the country was in ruins, and it would be hard to get the infrastructure up and running for a nationwide vote. Many politicians were cautious to postpone it, however, because of the extremely negative reaction US President Lodge got when he pulled a similar move in 1920.
In 1919, the Southern Party and People's Agrarian Parties had agreed to form a wartime merger to present a united populist front during the chaos. The parties eventually merged permanently in 1920, uniting the populist wing of Confederate politics for the first time in about two decades.
Confederate Party Nomination[]
The Confederate National Convention was held from July 27-August 4 in Birmingham. Many candidates lined up to run even in the face of many uncertainties, such as if the war would be won or if the election would even be held on time. President Hobson did not endorse any candidate publicly or privately, opening up the field even further. Some of the many candidates considered included Thaddeus Caraway, Joseph E. Ransdell, Vice President Simmons, Kenneth McKellar, Charles A. Culberson, Claude Swanson, and Charles Brough. The ultimate winner was John Nance Garner, a longtime representative from Texas who had a fiery conservative personality. He was the first major party nominee from Texas.
Governor Westmoreland Davis of Virginia, a man with no other political experience, was nominated for vice president to try and counteract Glass's popularity in his home state.
Southern Farmer's Party Nomination[]
The Southern-People's Agrarian National Convention was held from July 19-23 in Birmingham. In the first convention held by the newly merged parties, the main goal was to find a candidate that all factions could accept. This task actually ended up being pretty easy- Carter Glass was a frontrunner going in and was bolstered by several prominent endorsements, including former president Thomas E. Watson and James K. Vardaman, 1915 Southern Party presidential candidate. He ended up staving off a few serious challengers to win nomination on the fifth ballot. James F. Byrnes, a representative from South Carolina, was nominated for vice president.
The Campaign[]
The candidates did not do much active campaigning while the war was still being fought. Travel restrictions, as well as the general war torn state of the countryside, made moving between cities a difficult task.
Once a ceasefire was signed on October 7, the candidates were able to do a little campaigning, mostly centered on the issue of whether to accept the treaty or not. Accepting the terms would mean an end to slavery, but as the German army began to leave the country it seemed that there was not much choice. Garner followed his party's line and said that while slavery was an unfortunate loss, it needed to go in order for the destructive war to end. Glass said that he was happy the war was coming to an end, but he thought that better terms could be negotiated that maintained the institution of slavery. His opponent countered with the argument that the CS was in an increasingly weak position every day that they did not sign a treaty, as their German allies were now leaving the country en masse.
When the treaty was signed, the battle lines were drawn even further. Garner continued his support of the treaty and began to outline his plan for a safe and gradual transition to ending slavery. Glass channeled the outrage of much of the public and claimed that agreeing to the abolition of slavery was an act of treason. He likely did not actually believe what he said, but he knew it was good political sense to use the outrage of the public now that the deed was done.
Results and Aftermath[]
With the general populace upset not only over the loss of slavery but also the rather weak ending to the war which Hobson had started, Glass won in a landslide. This election marked the first time in their 45 year history that the Southern Party won any of Tennessee, North Carolina, or Virginia in a presidential election. That area had previously been known as the "Confederate Key", due to the fact that these states always voted for the Confederate Party and resembled the shape of a key when viewed together.
The election could very easily have been a unanimous sweep for Glass, but Garner managed to pull out a slim one-point victory in Arizona. He also kept it close in Virginia, which Glass only won by one percentage point despite it being his home state. Garner's home state of Texas was the next closest margin with a four point victory for Glass. Glass became the first presidential candidate to win over 3 million votes and very nearly became the first to win 4 million as well. Garner actually increased the Confederate Party's raw vote total from the 1915 election by around 400,000, but earned less of a share of the vote overall compared to Hobson.
President Glass would go on to oversee the end of slavery in the Confederacy, though any anger over that event was mostly directed at his predecessor. Otherwise, Glass instituted social programs to rebuild the country and move to a modern, non-slave-based economy. During the chaos of the Second American Revolution, he also ordered troops to intervene in the border states of Missouri and Kentucky with the stated purpose of protecting the people there until the US federal government could regain full control. When the United States fell in 1928, Missouri and Kentucky were admitted to the Confederacy. Glass also sent troops to regain control of Baja California, regaining almost all of the Confederacy's territorial losses from World War I. For his role in rebuilding the country and gaining so much valuable territory with shrewd military moves, as well as his other progressive reforms, Glass became quite a popular president. The long period of Confederate Party dominance was totally broken with the Southern Party taking big majorities in Congress and stringing together victories in electoral politics nationwide.
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