Union and Liberty: An American TL

[wilcoxchar]

Alright, I've been here for about a year, and I've built up a few timeline ideas in my head and on my computer through those days. So I figured I'd post a timeline here and see what you all think. It will be posted in a history book-ish style, as I'm not much of a person to go into very much detail about something. Anyway, here goes.

Union and Liberty: A History of America


Part One: The First Term of Andrew Jackson (1828-1832)

The Tariff of Abominations and the Southern Reaction:
In 1828, President John Quincy Adams passed a tariff increase to help American manufacturers compete with their European counterparts. This sealed Adams' fate in the Election of 1828 as Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun put reducing the tariff as part of their running platform.[1] Jackson beat out Adams in the election with 178 or 68% of the electoral votes. With the election won Jackson and Calhoun were sworn into the White House on March 4, 1829.


The Nullification Crisis:
After Jackson's ascension to the Presidency, South Carolina declared a right to nullify the Tariff of Abominations. Jackson opposed the nullification, but did not want to cause a confrontation with Calhoun as Calhoun had openly supported South Carolina's position on the tariff, and a fissure between the President and the Vice President would not help to strengthen the Union. Jackson also sympathized with the southern side of the debate to some degree. On April 13, 1830, at the Democratic Party celebration of Thomas Jefferson's birthday, a series of toasts would emphasize each member's position on the issue. When it came to Jackson, he raised his glass and said, "Our Federal Union: It must be preserved." Calhoun spoke next, and stated "Union and Liberty, our two most dear."[2] Calhoun's toast echoed the closing remarks by Daniel Webster during an earlier debate on the issue of Nullification. While the toasts showed the differing opinions between the President and the Vice President, it also showed their willingness to work together to preserve the United States.

In the summer of 1830, Jackson declared that he would reduce tariff levels to appease South Carolina and attempt an end to the Nullification Crisis, but he and Calhoun disagreed on how far to lower the tariffs. Calhoun wanted to lower tariffs immediately to below the levels before the Tariff of 1828 was passed, while Jackson wanted to gradually lower tariffs to somewhere in between the 1816 levels and the levels of the Tariff of Abominations. During talks in Congress, the two sides agreed to gradually reduce tariffs to the levels of the Tariff of 1824 over the next three years.


Arkansaw Statehood:
In 1831, the state of Arkansaw was admitted to the United States, becoming the 25th state.


The Election of 1832:
With their friendship restored, Jackson and Calhoun won the nominations for President and Vice President for the Democratic Party in 1832. Henry Clay was nominated as the Presidential candidate for the National Republican Party. The main issue during the election was the Second Bank of the United States, which Clay was in favor of and Jackson was against. Jackson had vetoed a renewal of the bank's charter during his first term as President, and convinced much of the populace during his campaign in 1832 that the bank was unnecessary and would lead to an elite. His appearance as the Common Man continued, and he won the election of 1832 with a landslide victory.

Under Jackson and Calhoun, the Democratic Party swept the south and the west, as well as much of the northeast. The Democratic Party achieved 190 electoral votes out of a possible 289, gaining 65% of the votes. Clay managed to win Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, and Maryland, earning the National Republicans 32% of the electoral vote. Vermont was won by the small Anti-Masonic Party led by William Wirt, but this minor party soon faded. Jackson and Calhoun were inaugurated and took office for a second term on January 21, 1833.

[1] In OTL, this was not part of Jackson's platform.
[2] Calhoun's toast in OTL was "The Union; next to our liberty, the most dear." This event showed the rift that had grown between Jackson and Calhoun that would lead to Jackson picking Van Buren as his VP for 1832.

[wilcoxchar]

The election map for the 1832 Presidential election.

[wilcoxchar]

Now for the next part. And comments would be very welcome.

Part Two: Jackson's Second Term

New York v. New Jersey:
Even after the United States had been created, some states still had quarrels with each other that had carried over from the time as British colonies. The most important of these were territorial disputes that came about from inaccurate surveying or overlapping claims. One of these was the dispute between New York and New Jersey over their border as it approached New York City.

The border between New York and New Jersey after it reached the Hudson River according to New Jersey was a bisection of the Hudson, while in New York it was said to be the western shore of the Hudson. In the 1820s, New Jersey began to develop shipping industries on the western shore of the Hudson, and in turn New York attempted to tax the shipping for crossing the border into New York as the ships came in and out of New York Bay. Several New Jersey companies refused to pay the tolls on the shipping and the state brought the issue up in court. The dispute went all the way up to the Supreme Court as the Court is obligated in the Constitution to hear "controversies between the states".

During the hearing, not only were the trade issues brought up but also the underlying dispute over the two states' territorial boundaries. After four days, the Court headed by Chief Justice John Marshall eventually decided in favor of New Jersey in a 5-2 decision. Justices Marshall, Duvall, Story, Mclean, and Baldwin were of the majority opinion, while justices Johnson and Thompson forming the dissenting opinion. They determined that New Jersey did not have to pay New York for the tolls, but went further and stated that the eastern border of New York and New Jersey would bisect the Hudson River through the Narrows. This landmark ruling gave Staten Island to New Jersey and established the precedent of the Supreme Court having ultimate jurisdiction over boundary disputes between states.


Indian Removal:
Throughout his presidency, Andrew Jackson oversaw the policy of moving many of the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi River. Many of the Choctaw voluntarily moved off their lands after ceding the remaining territory to the United States government, and were moved west to areas in what is now the state of Arkansaw. While it was the intention of the federal government to move the Choctaw further west, the governor of Arkansaw allowed the Choctaw who desired to settle in Arkansaw and purchase land there. During Jackson's administration, ten thousand Choctaw moved into Arkansaw, while the same number remained in Mississippi where they were treated harshly by incoming settlers.

Many of the Chickasaw and Creek received monetary compensation for their remaining lands in Georgia and Alabama. Most of these tribes used the money to move west of the Mississippi and settle or south into Mexico. But a few decided to buy land in Alabama north of the Tennessee where they set up small communities in the sparsely populated frontier regions of the state. Their largest community was in Waterloo, Alabama, in the northwestern corner of the state. While the town had grown with the influx of Native Americans, the town has mostly died out during the 20th century as a result of emigration north to the Midwest.

The Seminoles were the toughest group to be removed, and the only group to remain in their ancestral lands until after the Jackson administration. The Seminole Wars is a term given to the many skirmishes the natives had with settlers and the militias gathered by the city of Saint Augustine. After offers of moving west had been accepted then rejected by a council of Seminole chiefs, the tribe stood its ground and fought for over ten years before they submitted and reached an agreement with the federal government. Owing to the poor climate of much of Florida and the resistance of the Seminoles, the federal government was slow to deal with the Seminoles and eventually let them remain on their land in the interior of Florida.

The Cherokee presented a complicated situation and in the end were the only of the Five Civilised Tribes to be forcefully removed from their land successfully. The Supreme Court decision of Worcester v. Georgia and Jackson's unwillingness to let the federal government handle the situation led the Georgia state militia to take action against the Cherokee. Many of the Cherokee were rounded up and forced to move west, on a journey where many of them died. Eventually, at Memphis in 1833, the Cherokee chiefs signed a treaty which formally ceded their land to Georgia and granted them new land south of the Platte River in what is today Pahsapa. While this conflicted with the locations of other Native American tribes, the Cherokee were moved to a reservation there and remain there to this day.


Assassination of Jackson:
The first attempt to assassinate Jackson came in 1833. On May 6, Jackson was on his way to lay the cornerstone of a monument to Mary Ball Washington in Fredericksburg. During a stopover in Alexandria in what was then Virginia but is now part of Winfield, a man by the name of Robert B. Randolph appeared and attempted to stab the President with a dagger. Jackson managed to dodge the blow and proceeded to chase after Randolph and beat him with his cane. Jackson had previously ordered the dismissal of Randolph from the navy for embezzlement, but in the end Jackson decided that the beating was punishment enough to Randolph and did not press charges. A short chronicle of the event was written by Washington Irving, who was present at the time and was serving as the minister to Spain under Jackson's administration.

The second attempt to assassinate a president was also toward Jackson, this time successful. In 1835, as Jackson exited the Capitol Building after the funeral of South Carolina senator Warren R. Davis Richard Lawrence stepped out toward Jackson and fired a pistol at the President. The bullet entered Jackson's chest and Lawrence was restrained by the crowd, including David Crockett, one of the first senators from the state of Tejas. Jackson died of blood loss four days later and was given a state funeral. He was succeeded by Vice President John C. Calhoun on February 3, 1835. Lawrence was deemed insane but his crime was viewed as so great that he was sentenced to death seven years after Jackson's death.

[Nicomacheus]

Interesting, very interesting.

One question about the original POD: why does Jackson make the change? OTL Jackson supported the 1828 tariff to gain support in Pennsylvania and thus the election; the move was Van Buren's idea. Does Jackson simply reject the idea and thus favor Calhoun over Van Buren?

Other thoughts:

1) What does Van Buren do after 1832?

2) Is Davy Crockett already a Senator from "Tejas" in February, 1835 or is he still a Congressman from Tennessee? If the latter, then it means he's more successful than OTL, which might complicate him getting to Texas in the fall of 1835, in time for the Alamo...which is probably how he survives to become a senator, I suppose.

3) I see the Civil War TTL will get pretty interesting: Winfield being a Thaddeus Stevens-like new state out of the old South, perhaps?

4) President John C. Calhoun! Eegads.

[wilcoxchar]

Originally Posted by Nicomacheus

Interesting, very interesting.

One question about the original POD: why does Jackson make the change? OTL Jackson supported the 1828 tariff to gain support in Pennsylvania and thus the election; the move was Van Buren's idea. Does Jackson simply reject the idea and thus favor Calhoun over Van Buren?

Other thoughts:

1) What does Van Buren do after 1832?

2) Is Davy Crockett already a Senator from "Tejas" in February, 1835 or is he still a Congressman from Tennessee? If the latter, then it means he's more successful than OTL, which might complicate him getting to Texas in the fall of 1835, in time for the Alamo...which is probably how he survives to become a senator, I suppose.

3) I see the Civil War TTL will get pretty interesting: Winfield being a Thaddeus Stevens-like new state out of the old South, perhaps?

4) President John C. Calhoun! Eegads.

Well, I was thinking that Jackson, while wanting some tariffs to help reduce the national debt, would decide to oppose tariffs that were that high. Also, Jackson was a moderate supporter of states' rights and felt that he could gain more votes in the South than he could in Pennsylvania by supporting the tariff.

1) I haven't really thought about what happens to van Buren if he doesn't get the vice presidency, but I suppose he could get an ambassadorship somewhere or return to a position in New York.

2) In 1835, Davy Crockett is still a congressman from Tennessee. He will move out to Tejas later and become a senator once it becomes a state.

3) Perhaps.

4) Eegads indeed.

[vultan]

If we see a President Crockett, I will worship you as a god!

[Grand Prince Paul II.]

Why does the current map of Europe show Bornholm as German-controlled territory?
I know that Prussia occupied the island during the last major European war but there was no mention of Bornholm being annexed by the German Empire.