United States Presidential Election, 1880 (Southern Victory)

The United States presidential election of 1880 was largely a referendum on the country's foreign policy, especially the Democratic Party's long period of appeasement of the Confederate States in the two decades since the War of Secession. It saw the return of the Republican Party to power, but that political capital was quickly squandered during the disasterous Second Mexican War. This was the last time a Republican was elected president.

The Candidates
Incumbent President Samuel J. Tilden been elected in 1876 as the latest in a series of Democrats.

Republican challenger James G. Blaine had ridden a wave of growing discontent in the population to national prominence.

The Campaign
Although every president since 1864 had shown a great deal of deference to the Confederate States, Tilden went too far when he removed the stars representing the former southern states from the U.S. flag.

Blaine's campaign tapped into the discontent of the people of the U.S., campaigning heavily on an anti-Confederate platform.

The Election
Given the frustration of the electorate, Blaine didn't have to campaign very hard. Blaine's election heartened the U.S., but panicked the C.S., who'd grown used to compliant U.S. presidents. When the C.S. went ahead with its plan to purchase the states of Sonora and Chihuahua from the Empire of Mexico, Blaine sought and received a declaration of war. The Second Mexican War saw the defeat of the U.S. once again at the hands of the C.S., and doomed the Republican Party to irrelevance.