How Is This TL So far on a Scale of 1-5

  • 1 - Alien Space Bats

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • 2 - Generally Implausible

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3 - Moderately Plausible

    Votes: 14 36.8%
  • 4- Generally Plausible

    Votes: 18 47.4%
  • 5- Very Plausible

    Votes: 5 13.2%

  • Total voters
    38
  • Poll closed .
Chapter Nineteen: King Of The World
Chapter Nineteen: King Of The World

By 1804, the United States had just recovered from the Frano-American War that ended just two years earlier. It had just paid off much of its war debt to Britain and negotiated the remainder. It gained Upper Louisiana, but unlike their southern counterparts, the government of the United States wasn't interested in exploring and settling this land beyond the Mississippi River. While there were some on the frontier who were interested in this endeavor, they only numbered a minority nationwide. Regardless, there was something of an era of good feelings at the time caused by American victory in the Franco-American War.

Heading into the Election of 1804, there were numerous territorial changes. The southern half of Northwest Territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio on March 1, 1803. The remainder of the Northwest Territory was transferred to Indiana Territory. The northern border was disputed. The federal definition of the northern border was a line drawn east from the southern tip of Lake Michigan, whereas the Ohio Constitution stated the line should run from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to the western tip of Lake Erie. The confusion over the definitions eventually led to the Ohio-Michigan War 30 years later. Over one year later, Upper Louisiana became designated as the District of Missouri, placed under the jurisdiction of Indiana Territory.

The February 1804 Republican congressional nominating caucus not-so-secretly selected the pair of nominees. Unlike the previous election, the nominating caucus did not meet in secret. Aaron Burr’s nomination was likely, and he, along with. Governor George Clinton of New York was chosen. The Federalist Congressional leaders informally agreed to nominate former Senator and Minister to Britain, Rufus King of New York along with John Jay. They wanted to replicate Adam’s legacy as perfectly as possible and they hoped this would do the trick. Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton's death in July 1804 following his duel with Aaron Burr damaged the latter’s hopes of winning the electoral college, especially in New England and the credibility of the Republican Party as a whole. They attacked the acceptance of Upper Louisiana against those who preached while simultaneously preaching against expansion and big levels of government spending. King’s and Jay’s victory in the Electoral College, during the vote on December 5, 1804, was massive, winning all the states but Kentucky and North Virginia (and some electoral votes from Maryland). While criticism in those two states was expected and prominently visible, they didn’t dare utter a word, remembering what happened last time.

The inauguration of the new president was by the books, and not in a good way. King rode to the Capitol in Philadelphia on horseback on March 4, 1805, dressed in a fine black suit, but most of the crowd had already departed following Adam’s farewell speech. As a result, the inaugural ceremony was modest and appeared anticlimactic. In his speech, he addressed the recent annexation of Upper Louisiana (now Missouri), the Republicans’' diminishing influence and the need for centralization of the press. The reception to the speech was slightly above average. One of the first things he did was restore much of Adam’s early cabinet, including Thomas Pickering, James McHenry, and Oliver Wolcott Jr. as the respective Secretaries of State, War, and the Treasury. The remaining two positions were being rotated in and out with unremarkable and incompetent politicians and were chosen for the purposes of national interest and partisan interest.

After Napoleon's decisive victory at the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon became more aggressive in his negotiations over trading rights. Across the border, Jefferson then led the enactment of the Embargo Act of 1807, directed at both France and Great Britain. This triggered economic chaos on the entire continent and was criticized by Rufus himself plus the leaders of Britain and France for “violating the protocol set by the Treaty of Ghent by not remaining neutral to intercontinental affairs involving international powers.” Jefferson defended himself by saying that because Britain and France were targeted equally, the SAC did not become belligerent in the affair. Regardless, the Act was abandoned one year later. Domestically, in 1808, King proposed a broad Federal plan to build roads and canals in several states, asking for $20 million, alarming Republicans like Maidson but received near-universal praise among the Federalist majority. He additionally scaled back laws that would’ve gradually given more voting rights to the common white man. This was by far his least popular action and may have cost him re-election on that alone if he ruffled enough feathers and played his cards wrong.

King’s most famous action during his presidency was criminalizing the international slave trade in the USA. King had a long history of opposition to the expansion of slavery and the slave trade. This was both a product of moral conviction combined with New England federalism. As a Congressman, he successfully added provisions to the 1787 Northwest Ordinance which barred the extension of slavery into the borders of the Northwest Territory. During the revolution, the states abolished the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, but South Carolina of the Southern Confederation reopened it after the war, importing more slaves in the last two decades of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th century than any other time in its history. His crusade against the slave trade culminated in December 1806, King denounced the "violations of human rights" of the international slave trade, calling on the newly elected Congress to ban it immediately. In 1807, Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which King gleefully signed. The act established severe punishment against the international slave trade, including smuggling slaves from across its southern border. It also began the process of formally recognizing Haiti, who indirectly helped the slave independence movement resulting in Napoleon's defeat there in 1803. This would all be effective on January 1, 1808. All of this enraged his southern brethren who were determined to keep their economic status quo, even if it meant importing more slaves to the Americas.

Oddly, Rufus King’s legacy was decidedly mixed. On one hand, he got as much done on his agenda as any other president could have, if not more. On the other hand, he was less remembered than either Washington or Adams before him, in large part from not being remembered from the American Revolution and overshadowed by them at the Constitutional Convention. He was seen as just a face in the crowd compared to the others at the time. Time itself would eventually favor Rutfs King, especially after his death in 1827.

664px-Rufus_King_-_National_Portrait_Gallery.jpg
 
Here's an updated map of the North American continent
TL-1828 Map (1807).png


Red = USA states
Green = USA territories
Blue = SAC states
Yellow = SAC territories
Black Star = New Orleans
 
Now that I'm twenty chapters in, I've decided that every ten chapters or so to ask for feedback about my timeline so far. Has it become more realistic or ASB as it has gotten further along? Is it too convergent with OTL? What is one strength and one weakness with what I have so far? P.S. the next chapter is almost done and should be up this weekend.
 
Now that I'm twenty chapters in, I've decided that every ten chapters or so to ask for feedback about my timeline so far. Has it become more realistic or ASB as it has gotten further along? Is it too convergent with OTL? What is one strength and one weakness with what I have so far? P.S. the next chapter is almost done and should be up this weekend.
I would like to see it continue.
 
I have no complaints about the timeline. Everything so far is completely plausible. Heck, I don't think anything even resembles Stoned Terrestrial Bat.

I have one question though; is Cumberland the name of Union Kentucky, or Confederate Kentucky?
 
I have no complaints about the timeline. Everything so far is completely plausible. Heck, I don't think anything even resembles Stoned Terrestrial Bat.

I have one question though; is Cumberland the name of Union Kentucky, or Confederate Kentucky?
Cumberland = Confederate Kentucky
 
Chapter Twenty: The Complete Journey of Lewis and Clark
Chapter Twenty: The Complete Journey of Lewis and Clark

On May 14, 1804, as Lewis, Clark, and other members of the Expedition began their trip up the Arkansas River, they wrote in their journals and continued to do so throughout their journey. As the explorers encountered new rivers and streams, plants, and animal species, they named them after famous Southerners like Thomas Jefferson along with friends and members of the Expedition. In July, the group camped north of the mouth of the Cimarron River, at a site they called Walnut Creek or Council Bluff, later noting its good location for a trading post. Here, on August 3, they initially encountered. Lewis noted in his journal that the location was good for a trading post. It was here on August 3 that Lewis and Clark made their first encounter with Native Americans in the form of the Osages. On August 20, Sergeant Charles Floyd died of a ruptured appendix, making him the only one to die on the trek.

As the Expedition traveled up the Arkansas River through late August into September, into present-day Kansas, the landscape shifted drastically. The forests became tall prairie grass, then the shorter grass of the high plains, complete with prairie dogs and especially buffaloes. The climate was significantly cooler than further south, with frost on the ground on a handful of mornings. Lewis and Clark planned to camp for the winter near established villages inhabited by large numbers of the Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa tribes, just north of present-day Dodge City, Kansas. On October 26, 1804, the Expedition arrived at the Indian villages. A good site was found for a camp, and the men set about building a fort right across the river. During the winter Lewis and Clark worked to establish decent relations with the Indians, who had dealt with white, mostly French, traders for some time. One person of each tribe was recruited to go along with them since Lewis and Clark realized they could make useful guides as they continued further west and into the Rocky Mountains.

During the chilly winter, the Expedition members prepared a shipment to be sent back to President Jefferson. The shipment included maps, written reports, Native American items like a painted buffalo robe, animal skins and skeletons, soil samples, minerals, seeds, and live caged animals. The shipment was received at the President's House in Charleston in August 1805. Many of these items were displayed at the entrance hall of Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. Other objects were later displayed at various museums across the SAC. in Charles Willson Peale's museum in Philadelphia. The same day the shipment was sent downriver, the "permanent party" of the Expedition left Fort Mandan in the two pirogues and six dugout canoes and headed westward into uncharted territory.

Proceeding through present-day Kansas and then Colorado, the explorers were amazed by herds of buffalo and grizzly bears. On June 13, more than two months after leaving Fort Mandan, the Expedition reached Monarch Pass, off the South Arkansas River, one of the greatest natural obstacles it would face. A steep grade was present and the area was lone to heavy snowfall in the winter. The members of the Expedition unloaded the supplies from the boats and undertook a difficult overland portage through the pass. They temporarily made camp beyond the pass until late July when headed west, up the shallow, swift stream they named the Jefferson-Gunnison River. On August 12, Lewis reached the present-day border between Colorado and Utah. He expected to see plains with a large river flowing to the Pacific Ocean but realized that there was no water in sight, only more mountains.

A few days later, Lewis tried negotiating with a nearby Ute village for horses needed to cross the mountains. With some help from their Native guides being able to translate, the Expedition was able to set up camp nearby and the members named it Camp Fortunate. The Utes provided some horses and a handful of guides who gave the explorers information about mountain trails and other possible local Native American tribes like the Paiute, Shoshone, and Navajo. The Expedition then proceeded through the Monarch Pass before camping along a nearby stream. As the first snowfall approached, Lewis and Clark continued through the mountains of central Utah. Unfortunately, the Expedition took the incorrect fork in the trail and spent much more time in the freezing, step mountains than needed. The men suffered from fatigue and food shortages but were able to reach the Colorado River and made log canoes using the Indian method of burning out the inside of logs and traded with the Navajo for food.

On October 7, the Expedition put five new canoes into the Colorado River and paddled downstream for the first time since 1804. In November, the Gulf of California (which would flow into the Pacific Ocean) at the mouth of the Colorado River was in sight. By Christmas, the men had nearly finished their winter fort, named Fort Cocopah after the local Native tribe. The explorers spent the winter updating their journals, trading with the Natives, and preparing for their journey home., which began on March 23, 1806. At one point, there was a fight between the expedition and local indigenous warriors. On August 12, the Expedition reached the headwaters of the Arkansas River in the central part of present-day Colorado. The explorers parted ways with their native guides on August 14 before arriving back at its launching point on September 23, 1806.

President Jefferson had initially expected that the men would be gone for about a year rather than two years, four months, and nine days. Nevertheless, he viewed the Expedition with tremendous success. True, there was no direct water route to the Pacific Ocean found, but accurate and detailed maps of the lands out west were drawn. With newfound scientific, geographic, and trade knowledge, the discoveries made by the explorers changed the vision of the Southern American Confederation forever by making it more eager than ever to expand its borders and settle the western frontier.

921px-Lewis_and_clark-expedition.jpg
 
I wonder how the Southern American Confederation is going to deal with Mexico being in between it and the Pacific.

Let us see, Catholic majority country in the path of a expansionist, Protestant, slave holding power. Something tells me it will not be pretty.
 
Let us see, Catholic majority country in the path of a expansionist, Protestant, slave holding power. Something tells me it will not be pretty.
The Confederacy will have similar ambitions to the USA of OTL as most of the Manifest Destiny supporters were southern. But the South has far less resources than the North, let alone OTL USA so even getting Texas, nevermind further west, could be nightmarish if it’s even successful at all.
 
Chapter Twenty One: The SAC Election of 1807
Chapter Twenty One: The SAC Election of 1807

Being the first Democrat to hold the presidency in the SoCon, Jefferson had a lot of weight on his shoulders. It was a very conservative nation yet somehow, in the interest of building the nation, the electorate put aside their differences and elected two Nationalist presidents in the forms of John Rutledge and Thomas Pinckney. The third time was the charm for the Democrats with the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1801. He personally believed that the national government should have as little power as possible to prevent it from becoming tyrannical. In some ways, he was quite contradictory to this in practice. He strongly endorsed the annexation of Lower Louisiana from France in 1802 and funded the Expedition to the Colorado River from 1804 to 1806. He also had a noticeably strong cabinet. He had Nathaniel Macon as Secretary of State, John Brown as Secretary of the Treasury, Thomas Sumter as Secretary of War, Wilson C. Nicholas as Attorney General, and Matthew Lyon as Secretary of the Navy. The Secretaries of War and the Navy were new positions created under Jefferson’s watch.

His term would come to an end in February 1808. The problem was if the Democrats could hold power after his time ended. Working in favor of the Democrats was the universal praise (among white citizens) of the Lousiana Acquisition because it allowed for more land to settle and farm (and by extension, expand slavery). The decent state of the economy didn’t work against him either. Then again, there was a short matter of the issue of the slave trade. While he had little against slavery, although he did personally free the children of a slaved named Sally Hemmings, he strongly opposed the ongoing Atlantic slave trade which was being phased out up north but stronger than ever in his own domain. Mirroring his northern counterpart, he gave a rousing speech, famously saying that, “withdraw the citizens of the Confederate States from all further participation in those violations of human rights ... which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country have long been eager to proscribe." Despite this, nothing would come about until 1815. The mass killings of whites in Haiti during the slave revolt effectively prevented the idea from permeating into southern society.

For one last hoorah, Jefferson pushed for something revolutionary within the borders of the Southern American Confederation. He had long opposed the creation of a centralized bank in the country but even he realized that the national policy of creating both national and state currencies caused more problems and confusion than solutions. Interstate disputes were increasingly common as one state demanded that another state pay for transactions with their state currency because of state laws and the structure of the Confederate government. In order to settle this once and for all, he introduced a bill that would make the Confederate dollar the sole currency in all of the country. He was able to sign it into law just a week before the inauguration of the new president on February 22, 1808. This also meant that the Confederate national government had to be modified to allow for greater control over interstate commerce, meaning that the states had to give up some control. Most accepted the change, begrudgingly or otherwise. Correspondingly, there was a vote to relocate the capital from Charleston. With a strong push from the Upper States and western territories, the vote was in favor of relocation. The new location of the Confederate capital would be determined under the new presidency.

The overall success of the Jefferson presidency encouraged the Democratic Party heading into the 1807 election. Nominations were made in July via congressional caucuses. Thomas Jefferson was ready to retire, and his supporters worked carefully to ensure someone in his party would succeed Jefferson as president. The primary competitor came from former diplomat James Monroe, a fellow Virginian like Jefferson himself. Monroe was supported by a group known as the tertium quids, a group of moderates who supported a weak central government and yet were opposed to expansion beyond the Mississippi River (sans New Orleans). were dissatisfied by the Louisiana Acquisition and the Compact of 1802 (cession of present-day Alabama, Mississippi, and Yazoo from Georgia). The Congressional caucus chose Monroe as the Democratic candidate for President and as its candidate for president and Secretary of the Treasury John Brown for vice president.

On the Nationalist side, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina ran for president one last time. His running mate was Senator Archibald McBryde of North Carolina. The general election was marked by the support of Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, strongly endorsed by Monroe and opposed by Pinckney, a halt to trade with Europe that disproportionately hurt Carolinian merchants, particularly in New Bern and Charleston. Nonetheless, Jefferson was still very popular with Southerners in general, not hurting the slightest from the implementation of his “civilization program” to the Native Americans in the region.

Beginning on November 4 with the election of the electors and culminating in the Electoral College decision on December 2, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was soundly defeated for a third and final time in a presidential election, worse than in 1801. Pinckney only received votes in the Carolinas and even that was not unanimous (one vote from South Carolina and two from North Carolina went to Monroe). At that point, the dust had settled and it was determined that James Monroe of Virginia would lead the nation out of the first decades of the nineteenth century. Potentially for the last time, the presidential inauguration would be in Charleston on February 22, 1808.

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Well, Washington DC wasn't already built when it was made the capital, I could see the same thing happening for this timeline's Chattanooga.
At this point though the majority of the population is still largely east of the Appalachian Mountains. That's why I mentioned the original four southern states in my poll only. I'm considering locations of famous battles in the Southern theater of the American Revolution like Camden, Cowpens, King's Mountain, Guilford Courthouse (Greensboro), and Yorktown.
 
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