Walter Boyd

Walter Boyd (December 12, 1817 - April 7, 1886) was an American politician and the 21st President of the United States. Boyd was born to plantation owners in southern Georgia, and he lived a relatively peaceful life until his parents died when he was 17. After their deaths, he moved in with his first cousin, Lawrence Boyd, the mayor of a small town in northern Mississippi. As a typical Southern Democrat, Boyd eventually succeeded his cousin as mayor in 1843, before being elected to the House in 1848. He served in the House for 16 years and was then elected to the Senate in 1870, after Reconstruction. In 1876 he left the Senate to serve as Governor for 6 years, before returning to the Senate in 1882. In 1884, he announced a campaign for the presidency, running for both the Democratic and Republican nominations. Boyd lost the Democratic nomination but won the Republican race over President Beaumont Muller. Boyd would pick New York Congressman John J. Adams as his running mate and would go on to win the election in a landslide.

Boyd's presidency would be marked by an economic recession and the losses in the North American War. Boyd would die in office of cancer, making Vice President Adams the President. His administration has being ranked as among the worst in American history. His legacy would live on, as John Tyler Morgan would found the Boydist Party after the foundation of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.