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Franklin's VP

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Louis Epstein

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Jan 22, 2024, 4:38:33 PMJan 22
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Over at electoral-vote.com someone nominated
Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) for best president
the USA never had.

Since the constitutional presidency began
just one year before Franklin died,the
issue of what happened when a president
died in office would have come up a half
century earlier than it did in OTL.

In circumstances that led to the elder-statesman
Franklin getting the nod in 1789,who would have
been the likeliest first VP?

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

Graham Truesdale

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Jan 22, 2024, 5:39:44 PMJan 22
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On Monday, January 22, 2024 at 9:38:33 PM UTC, Louis Epstein wrote:
> Over at electoral-vote.com someone nominated
> Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) for best president
> the USA never had.
>
> Since the constitutional presidency began
> just one year before Franklin died,the
> issue of what happened when a president
> died in office would have come up a half
> century earlier than it did in OTL.
>
> In circumstances that led to the elder-statesman
> Franklin getting the nod in 1789,who would have
> been the likeliest first VP?
>
One such circumstance might have been Washington dying on (say) 14 December 1788, 11 years before his OTL death. With the Constitution ratified on the assumption that GW would be the first President, the leadership might have turned to Franklin as the only other person with comparable stature.

Louis Epstein

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Jan 23, 2024, 9:29:39 PMJan 23
to
Washington dying early doesn't answer
(besides removing him as a possibility)
the question of who would have become
VP under Franklin and then president a
year later.

trolidous

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Jan 24, 2024, 3:22:40 AMJan 24
to
Second number of votes?

Each elector casts two, no distinguishment between
President and Vice President?

Who would be running?

Is it feasible that John Adams could still be VP?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1788%E2%80%9389_United_States_presidential_election

trolidous

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Feb 4, 2024, 5:24:23 PMFeb 4
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The Wikipedia article on Benjamin Franklin
gives the idea that he served as the President
of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania
from 1785 to 1788, but he was already in
declining health during the Constitutional
Convention at Philadelphia in 1787 and later.
In this alternate time line he would probably
be in better health before he died.

The 1788 Electoral College vote shows John
Adams with 34 votes and John Jay with 9.

One minimum change from our time line might
be an earlier Adams.

You could go down some of the others on the
list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1788%E2%80%9389_United_States_presidential_election

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