If You Can Keep It: A Revolutionary Timeline

Oof, this is embarassing.

You're absolutely right, regarding the Monroe thing; Crawford makes a lot of sense.

The Jefferson thing was something I tried to handwave away, but I do agree it doesn't make sense. I'm gonna switch the map so that a few more electors vote for the Hamilton/Jay ticket but it's gonna take a bit for me to think how that's gonna make sense since I don't think New England electors will switch from voting Adams.

Love that the biggest quip about this timeline so far is Electoral College shenanigans since the pre-1800 Electoral College makes absolutely no sense for me. Sorry for the inconveniences :S
 
Oof, this is embarassing.

You're absolutely right, regarding the Monroe thing; Crawford makes a lot of sense.

The Jefferson thing was something I tried to handwave away, but I do agree it doesn't make sense. I'm gonna switch the map so that a few more electors vote for the Hamilton/Jay ticket but it's gonna take a bit for me to think how that's gonna make sense since I don't think New England electors will switch from voting Adams.

Love that the biggest quip about this timeline so far is Electoral College shenanigans since the pre-1800 Electoral College makes absolutely no sense for me. Sorry for the inconveniences :S
You don't necessarily have to have Crawford as VP. Since Madison is a southerner, it probably makes more sense for him to pick a northern VP like George Clinton or Elbridge Gerry like he did OTL. There's also a lot of other potential VPs you could look into.

Anyways, this is awesome and I can't wait to see what happens next!
 
Heh, always interesting how Alt-Alt-History works in the other timeline. Nice chapter!

Thanks! I must say DBWIs in TLs are my weakness, haha. Love thinking what the perspectives of the world might be!

You don't necessarily have to have Crawford as VP. Since Madison is a southerner, it probably makes more sense for him to pick a northern VP like George Clinton or Elbridge Gerry like he did OTL. There's also a lot of other potential VPs you could look into.

Anyways, this is awesome and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Clinton makes a bit more sense with where I'm going.

Now that I think of it, the reason why I had Jefferson claim the Presidency was the fact that Jefferson refused to accept that the Virginia slate was valid, instead determining that his own slate of electors would vote Democrat, giving him the Presidency (as happened OTL). This... peculiar turn of events (which in my defense I thought of in 2018 hahahah) doesn't make a lot of sense with the line that states that Jefferson refused to be sworn as vice-President, and neither does the fact that the Compromise of 1803 results in Jefferson being elected President without him holding any Federal office, so the maps have been changed. Sorry for the confusion there :/
 
Chapter XI - The Tide Turns
To the Iroquois Confederacy of Indians in the Great Lakes

MY FRIENDS, I have long viewed your condition with great interest and concern. In government and out of it in New York, I have long known your people and your customs. I ask you to listen to me once again, as you and your forefathers have listened to us before.

You are in the midst of a White population. Long have they encroached on your land, taking what is ancestrally yours and leaving only a small remnant for you and the Spirits you believe in. Your people, uneducated in the Western ways, have taken to violence and intoxication. Your great lands have been fenced off, and you have been confined to reservations, without any major room for growth.

Others have advised you to sell the rest of your lands, to move west, to integrate into society. But I know and respect your customs, and I desire for you to remain in your lands. To allow you to do so, I ask you for one thing: to join your Indian brothers in rebellion.

The government currently illegitimately sitting on Philadelphia is a government that will attack your customs at every time. My legitimate government, will, instead, allow you to live by yourself if you so wish, representing your people’s desires. We fought for our land a few years ago; now it is your time to join your brothers and fight for yours.”

-Aaron Burr​

“‘In consequence of the late and disgraceful conduct by the American Navy and their continued trade with the French Empire, you may, should you judge it advisable, permit the Royal Navy and our forts in Upper Canada to open fire upon the United States Forces, and declare a State of War between the two countries, with the express intent of bringing Burr to the Presidency.’

Through this message, delivered to Governor-General George Prevost by Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, British intervention in Burr’s rebellion was assured. By early 1812, British troops had arranged for landings in Savannah, Georgia, and Boston, Massachusetts - thus bringing a colossal amount of firepower to the Burrite forces.

The Battle of Savannah started in November of 1811, and was a historically scarring moment in the history of the young United States. The town, which was a fundamental part of the South’s economy, faced not just a blockade but a massive bombing attack by sectors of the Royal Navy, and a landing of a large force of redcoats. Savannah was practically levelled - with most forces in the American South basically obliterated, Georgia was almost fully occupied.”

-”British Interference in Domestic Affairs in America, 1800-1850”. By Carl Laurens. Published in Freedom Editorials, Savannah, Georgia.


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Chapter XII - The End of Burr's Rebellion - Consequences to be Felt for Years
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An animated map of Burr's Rebellion.

“The tide, which was turning in favor of the stronger, better-armed American army, turned once again after the British and Iroquois joined in favor of Burr, as it permitted an expansion of the battle lines to a territory where Burr was more or less popular. Even though the State governments soon declared an abandonment of neutrality, British incursions and local non-cooperation with the states' National Guards implied that soon enough most of New England fell to British attacks. British troops landed at Boston while marching down from Canada, soon cutting off Vermont and New Hampshire from the rest of the United States; to the south, only Connecticut and Rhode Island held out against the ensuing storm.

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An American painting shows a conflict between Iroquois, Burrites and the New York National Guard in Upstate New York. Despite the wide support to Burrism in New York, and the Iroquois rebellion, the New York theater was mostly a way to drain troops from the rest of the United States to the central government.

New York was luckier in that its main enemy would be the Haudenosaunee. Most of the state's lakeside territory was rendered useless by Iroquois attacks, meaning that the National Guard was bogged down in fighting the Iroquois and could not help the Federal Government. On the other hand, the city of New York itself, despite then (as well as now) having been considered the capital of the Burrite movement, did not experience any major fighting throughout the war. This would be a general trend in the Mid-Atlantic States, whose coastal territories did not suffer major conflict other than occasional British incursions and a naval blockade. This would entail that the Mid-Atlantic would start to greatly grow in comparison to the rest of the United States, as the region was seen as relatively peaceful in an increasingly unstable United States.

In the south, things were also looking relatively dreary for the Union government. The fall of Savannah had completely cut the supply lines in Carolinian territory; Andrew Jackson's troops, which had been more or less effective in holding off the Founding Tribes of Sequoyah, were now forced to move east towards the seaboard, to defend from British incursions the territory of South Carolina, Jackson's home state. Eventually, recovery of lost land in Tennessee (with moderate Spanish help in frontier areas) also meant that the entirety of the states of Kentucky and Tennessee became occupied by Burr’s allies.

Slave rebellions as news of Burr’s army promising freedom to blacks who fought for him meant that much of South Carolina and Virginia also began facing rebellion from the US government. Soon, although most slave rebellions were pushed back, the frontlines covered most of the South. Even those plantations that managed to beat back slave rebellions suffered tremendous economical losses, either by direct damage of the plantations by the rebelling slaves or by the British blockade against cotton, which had the double intent of greatly weakening the American cotton industry and fortifying the rival Egyptian and Mississippi cotton industries, more favorable to British interests.

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The Election of 1812 was very representative of the situation. Madison was elected almost unanimously by the Electoral College, by the State delegations that were not occupied by Burrite-British troops at the time (or, in the case of Wabash, continued to declare neutrality).

In Philadelphia, the Republican government was left reeling by the change in situations. After all, the rebellion initially seemed just like a native uprising with a few thousand slaves and poor whites taking advantage of the chaos to wreck havoc on the territory. However, the entry of the British (and to a degree, the Spanish) to the conflict and the rapid change of frontlines made it apparent for the United States government (reelected almost unanimously, again, in 1812) that no victory would be easy for either side, and that Burr had a strong chance at winning. Soon, they came to the negotiating table.

It is to be admitted of Madison’s negotiating tactics - they were brilliant. Burr had the chance to ask for everything he wanted - instead, a Compromise was born, the Compromise of 1813. Both sides lost a lot of what they wanted, but still came out mostly happy, in a situation that is reminiscent of the previous Compromise of 1803. In the side of Burr and his rebels, there were significant reforms promised by the Democratic-Republicans:

  • The admission of three new States for Natives and freed Blacks: Indiana (in the southern half of Indiana Territory), Mississippi (in its northern half) and Muscogee (in the northwestern part of Georgia),
  • The recognition, in the State Constitutions of certain States, of Native judicial autonomy - the creation of separately Native courts in which local languages could be used,
  • The allowance of some limits to the free movements of settlers within the new States,
  • The recognition of freedom for those black soldiers that fought in Burr’s sides, and amnesty for all rebels.

On the other hand, the Democratic-Republicans managed some strong concessions:

  • Burr’s admittance of Madison and Clinton as the legitimate Executive Branch of the United States Federal Government,
  • Respect for slavery in States that wished to retain it, as per the Constitution,
  • States that did not recognise native judicial autonomy were allowed to expel their Natives to the Native states,
  • The United Kingdom would gain no land from the country,
  • Tecumseh’s Indian Confederacy would be dissolved into the State government of Indiana

Much like the Compromise of 1803 was a moral victory for the Jeffersonian side, this Compromise was a moral victory for the Burrites - who gained a lot while standing the most to lose.

The Compromise’s provisions were accepted by Congress in 1814, despite the uproar of many of the more Madisonite elements of Congress. In fact, political historians consider that the uproar in Congress over the Compromise, and not the war itself, was the element which led to the dissolution of the Democratic-Republican Party. Those who agreed with Burr’s Compromise and voted for it created the Democratic Party, which would become the unmistakable party of the West - while those who opposed it became the Republicans, strong in the South.

-Excerpt from “Native Autonomy and Aaron Burr” by Charles Ridge. Published by Harvard University, 1978.


“The creation of juridical pluralism after Burr’s Rebellion was codified only in two State Constitutions - New York (which recognised political and judicial autonomy for the Haudenosaunee) and Ohio, plus, of course, the new State of Mississippi (Muscogee and Indiana instead created autonomous White law). This momentous occasion was one of the first creations of pluralism in terms of judicial systems and would later be explored deeply as one of the great exceptions that invalidate the concept of judicial positivism, by authors of sociological jurisprudence such as Charles Dworkin, Ronald Fuller and Antanas Sivickas.

Judicial pluralism in the United States became fundamentally important to any social observation of the system of government in the United States. It showed the nature of law as it is currently seen; not as the top-down imposition of a model of behavior by part of an apolitical authority but rather as a complex set of rules and procedures imposed by the dominant actors, which, when power is shared between differing cultures or political systems may vary very much. American law between 1812 and 1836 was seen as one of the more radical examples of judicial pluralism in the XIXth century, where a variety of local, state, Federal, ethnic and national courts saw plenty of competition and differences in the imposition of judicial policies.

-Excerpt from “Judicial Pluralism and the Early United States” by Carlos Alberto Tenorio. Published by the University of the Mississippi, New Orleans, and the University of Florida, San Agustín, 2013.

“There’s no denying it - the unifying factor that made the United States Constitution so much more resilient than the Articles of Confederation had broken down after the Compromise of 1813. Interstate provisions were radically altered with the limtation of free movement to white settlers in the Native states, while many white states started expelling all their native populations; Federal unity was shattered with the creation of State juridical pluralism. Burr’s Rebellion proved to everyone one thing - the Constitution was not to last.”

-Excerpt from “American History for Dummies”.

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The State of Indiana retains strong ethnic diversity, based on its history, especially the circumstances following its birth as a State during Burr’s Rebellion. The three largest groups, Natives, Whites and Blacks, make up for 44.3%, 25.7% and 12.3% of the population, respectively, with great regional variation. The great waterways of the State (most notably the Tippecanoe River) are mostly White, based on the lack of restriction by part of State governments for White migrants to settle in the waterways connecting Ohio and Wabash, while the Mississippi River, the main waterway for most freed slaves, is plurality-black. The rest of the State is strongly Native, retaining local languages to a great degree.

Indiana, through different degrees of historical enforcement, has recognised twelve official (or at least government-use) languages: in order of percentage of households where the language is primarily used, these are English (35.5%), Standard Iroquois (15.5%), Shawnee (10.3%), Illinois (7.7%), Miami (7.2%), Catabwa (4.7%), Tutelo (4.5%), Potawatomi (4.3%), Erie (3.1%), Delaware (1.3%), Mahican (1.2%), and Abnaki (1%). A further 10% of people use a language not considered official - the most commonly spoken being French. Unlike the common monolingualism of most East Coast states, this diversity results in the fact that an overwhelming majority of Indianans (87%) speak at least two languages, while over half (54.7%) speak at least three.

The religious structure of the State of Indiana is complex, due to the historical tensions between several of the locals. The evolution of Native religion is of particular interest - Natives, swayed by the Great Prophet Tenskwatawa's teachings during Burr's Rebellion, resulted in the wholesale rejection of Christianity throughout Burr's War. Posterior to this, however, Christianity once again began growing in the State's Native population, integrating the teachings of Tenskwatawa to a diluted degree. To this day there's wide theological debate over whether the Red Sticks Church is a branch of Christianity or its own religion; estimates state that about 38% of Indianans belong to this faith, although less than a third are regular observers. Also popular, especially amongst white settlers, is Third Testamentism; the Religious Society of Friends is widely popular amongst white and black Indianans, and comprises the largest Mainline Protestant denomination in the State. Catholicism is also relatively popular, especially in the Mississippi Basin, while Judaism is common, especially in the sprawling State capital of Tecumseh, the Old West's second largest city, where Jewish people comprise 1.3% of the population.

Indeed, Indiana has a strong claim to being the most diverse State in the Union.

I fell in love again.
Akwé:wa, Akwé:wa.
Drove to Tecumseh.
All things know. All things know.

-Tecumseh, Lowell Stevens' first breakout single from his album Indiana, alternates mostly English songwriting with some excerpts in the native languages official in Indiana. The song, which alternates between being a hymn to Tecumseh, which provided a center of diversity and freedom while growing up nearby in a small town in Michigan, and a hymn to the Indian leader after which the city is named, is widely controversial in conservative circles, being banned on Carolinian radio stations; however, this didn't stop it from charting for twelve weeks nationwide when it came out in 2006.
 
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Wow just caught up and I've got to say I think this is a really exceptional TL! I think its not nearly getting enough attention and I love what you've put together, its a really interesting read and a cool world to be set up.
 
Chapter XIII - the Trenton System and the Second Great Awakening
United States elections, 1816
From Volkspedia, the people's encyclopedia
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Map of the election of 1816.
The 1816 United States presidential election was the eighth United States quadrennial election, and the last to be held under the First Constitution [confusing wording]. In the first election following the Burrite Uprising, both Democratic candidate Aaron Burr and Republican candidate James Monroe lost against Massachusetts Federalist George Cabot. The election was the first to see a three-party political structure in the United States.

As President John Madison chose to retire after the end of Burr's War, mostly due to pressure from the Virginia branch of the Democratic-Republicans, that saw his ties to Federalism as the reason why he compromised with Burr on key issues resulting on the Compromise of 1814. The American public and political elite, extremely dissatisfied at what seemed to be a long time of politicians tearing each other apart, chose to elect a Federalist ticket, as the Federalists were seen as the more dovish of the three factions. Cabot, who had withdrawn from politics in 1800 after Hamilton’s Folly, was seen as an especially potent candidate as he had no real ties to any side in the conflict. In the end, Cabot swept the non-Indian North and West, getting 169 electoral votes to James Monroe’s 86.
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Delegates to the Constitutional Convention
The 1816 election was accompanied by Senate elections in most State legislatures (Indiana, Muscogee and Mississippi elected a full slate of Democrats; Maryland elected two Federalists while Kentucky, Massachusetts, elected one; Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina elected a Republican) as well as House elections (which saw a convincing, but not absolute, Republican plurality). Furthermore, State Governments were tasked with electing a Representative from each State to the Constitutional Convention; the final tally resulted in 9 Republicans, 10 Federalists and 3 Democrats.

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"Fair Trenton on the Delaware" was seen as the heartland of the United States. "If it's not solved in Trenton", many Americans said, "it can't be solved at all".

The Constitutional Convention of 1816 and the creation of the Second American Constitution was one of the most important moments in the development of the American system. Twenty-two states convened in the city of Trenton, New Jersey, to propose direct amendments of the United State Constitutions. Within three days of deliberation, however, most State delegations were aware that there would be no compromises to be achieved through amendments. Instead, eventually the need for a new Constitution became rapidly obvious. The vote to declare the previous Constitution null passed with the support of all but Delaware’s (Republican) delegation; thus ending the Philadelphia Constitution (today considered America’s second constitutional system, after the Articles of Confederation) and beginning what would be known as the Trenton Republic era (1816-1836).

Despite the generalized opposition of five of the ten Federalists (except for the Wabash delegation and a few more radical High Federalists from New England, who seemed to prefer a confederal structure where they could eventually become close to the British colonies in Canada), the resulting Trenton Constitution resulted in a more decentralized United States. Many of the powers that the Federal government had slowly but surely seized from the States in the context of defense, international commerce, regulation of slaves crossing State lines and others were stripped and returned to the States. Federal nullification was enshrined on the Constitution. The question of interstate migration, and whether State citizens would be allowed to step foot on all other States, was decisively quashed; no, the Trenton Constitution stated, all States had the right to determine whether they would allow emigration or immigration from other States.

The few powers that, at the end of the day, were still relegated to the Federal government became almost exclusively centered on the Presidency - something that was meant to avoid conflict regarding any divisions with Congress, as Hamilton and Madison had faced. The Presidency would have the power to declare the State of National Emergency, in which all decrees the President signed would have the same status as a law. Even more radically, the President could dissolve Congress for a period no longer than the electoral period. The only real check and balance on the President’s power became the State-Federal divide; the legislative, which remained composed and elected in much the same way as had previously been used under the Philadelphia Constitution, was notably (and almost explicitly) inferior to the executive, and the Judicial power was greatly weakened with new explicit limitations to the right of judicial review by the Supreme Court.

Due to the oversized influence of Presidential power, the Trenton Constitutional System derived from Presidential elections to a much greater degree than that of the Philadelphia Constitutional System - and it was, therefore, a political system subject to much more intense change. In hindsight, it should surprise nobody that the system fell apart within three presidencies, but Americans were optimistic at the time that the errors of the first Constitution had been smoothed over and removed.
The optimism of the American public seemed to be based on the sound governance of the first eight years of the Trenton System, which saw the competent Federalist administrations of John Cabot and Henry Clay manage the country relatively well. In another world, these administrations would be considered unmemorable, but in the United States of the early 1800s, they included elements that were almost unique to the first years of the country; a peaceful transition of power, the lack of any armed uprisings against their government, and the lack of necessity of a declaration of a State of Emergency, even with prevalent Republican opposition. Federalist strongholds on the Northeast and an alliance with the Democrats would prove efficient in the establishment of what Federalists called the American System.

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In the election of 1820, Secretary of State Henry Clay replaced 67-year-old Cabot to head the Federalist ticket, convincingly defeating the Republican William C. Crawford and Cherokee leader and Governor of Muscogee William Hicks.

The following eight years saw a gradual increase of tariffs and the development of the industrial strength of the North, both through direct Government intervention and the investment of the National Banks system established by the United States. However, this also led to increasing distaste of the agricultural South, who depended on cheap importations and exportations. Although this opposition did not grow into armed opposition, it was momentous for the development of nineteenth-century politics in the United States; the States were radicalized into the political situations, with the Atlantic South abandoning the Federalist Party for good. The North Carolina Federalist Party, which had been more or less powerful at the start of the decade, disappeared by 1824; the Maryland Federalists were also greatly weakened. On the other hand, the Republicans, the primary beneficiaries of this weakened Southern Federalist party, increasingly radicalized in its rhetoric.

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An 1831 caricature mocking the American system. By 1831, the War of the Supremes had already broken out; Republicans had turned adamantly hostile against the "mongrel creole Monkey System", as they called the Federalist American System.

State restrictions on immigration and the maintenance of high land prices staved off Western expansion - after all, it was not like more small farmers were in the interest of pro-industrial Federalists, adopting Henry Clay’s American System. The only States that consistently accepted immigration were the Southwestern states of Wabash, Tennessee, and, ironically, Henry Clay’s home state of Kentucky. However, the lack of Western expansion throughout the Trenton System did, strongly, help the growth of the industrial force of the Northern States (as well, of course, as Wabash, which had been run under a strongly Federalist system since its inception in 1804). That being said, there was increasing anger by part of farmers, both in the South as well as increasingly in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and, especially, New York - anger that increasingly tapped into the populistic candidacy of Republican presidential candidate Andrew Jackson.

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The eagle, the official logo of the Patriot Party. To Patriots, Andrew Jackson, who would become a fundamental figure for the United States after the Trenton System, is a hero.

The first use of the Patriot slogan, “Make America Great”, comes from Andrew Jackson’s populist campaign for the 1824 election. While the towns and cities had greatly grown both in wealth and population throughout the last 12 years, rural Americans had greatly suffered during the American System. Especially after the great famines of the Year Without a Summer, American farmers expected something to change, but Federalist politicians, elitist and willingly separated from the people, paid no attention. Jackson’s campaign was, unlike previous electoral campaigns, focused on the working public, and large rallies, rarely a sign in the first years of the Trenton System, soon became common in the Jackson campaign.

--

“If it were not clear enough God’s Providence is not with us, then take the fact that we have been beset by a Year Without Summer after four years of civil war.” Those lines, taken from many a sermon recovered from the harsh years after the end of Burr’s War, exemplified how bleak the outlook was for many Americans. With the West destroyed after four years of conflict and the East under a general terrible harvest caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora, many Americans felt they had nowhere to go. Indeed, many had nowhere to go – excess mortalities were amongst the highest in American history in the harsh 1816 years. While in previous harsh winters and droughts people often moved to other Western States, and indeed some moved in droves to the new States to the west (especially Wabash and Ohio, who did welcome new immigrants) most states were hostile towards any emigration and border crossing, as fraternal relationships between States began breaking down.

With a Government weak and lacking basic capacities in many States, and little if any chance for the West to prove any support, the people looked to private actors for help. The first to come, of course, were religious organizations. Arminian organizations, most notably the Methodists, who believed that America had been blown off-course by sinful living and excessive ambition and greed, and now had to be reformed into a more temperate, Godly nation. Part of this was teaching the Gospel again, as well as Methodist practices to ensure that as many people as possible would embrace the teachings of their faith and thus, in their opinion, be accepted into the heavenly domain when their time was ripe – which, in case of many of those who starved or froze to death in the long winter of 1816, was many people.

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Methodists meeting in their charity-camps during the Second Great Awakening. The Methodist church movement was the greatest-growing denomination through the first half of the nineteenth century and remains the single largest religious grouping in the United States.

They were not the only groups to provide charity, however. Of particular importance were the Quakers, or the Religious Society of Friends, whose abolitionist policies proved especially when dealing with the large runaway slave population that had emerged from Burr’s War. Albeit the State of Indiana had announced its recognition of all runaway slaves in its territory as State citizens, few other States had done the same. Not even in Indiana did the slaves receive significant aid from the State government, which in the case of Indiana was too busy establishing itself and establishing the formidable border patrols that the State would manage both on the Mississippi River basin (to fend off the Colombians) as well as in the eastern borders of the State (to fend off any possible colonist that moved west, and, in many cases, even to reject runaway slaves coming from far away). Despite hopes from many that Muscogee would be a free society and a state where both slaves and Indians would get fairness and equality, reality was far different. In fact, many Indian families at the time owned slaves, and soon managed to take over the lucrative slaveowning plantations many white emigrants left behind after the creation of the State of Muscogee. Thus, many freedmen were stuck in a position of hopeless irregularity, and faced starvation if it were not for Friend gatherings, who often prepared great feasts in which they would serve food to the hungry but not indulge themselves, ostensibly to “celebrate the Inner Life of all”. In reality, these were often recruiting tools for the poor, and especially, runaway slaves. Soon, Quaker societies were heavily black or abolitionist. These provided great aid to runaway slaves. Although not that relevant to the aid towards slaves, Mennonites also provided vital aid to many, especially in the states of the Mid-Atlantic.

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Quakers and Mennonites would grow in influence due to their aid throughout the Mid-Atlantic. The George Fox Public Forum, in Philadelphia, despite its unassuming nature and simple purpose (it was created to give all Quakers a place to congregate and discuss their faith, without religious officials presiding), has become one of the most important places for public forum and discussion due to the large number of Quaker business owners and politicians in Philadelphia federal politics.

Shakers, the egalitarian and millenarian branch of the Quakers, went even more radically into the abolitionist business. These groups, extremely egalitarian and heavily abhorrent of slavery, believed that they must free as many slaves as possible before Judgement Day would arrive. Independent (although with degrees of individual collaboration with many other denominations of Quakers, Mennonites and a few more liberal Methodists), Shakers began a large-scale manumission movement, especially through the use of safe churches as points of rest, refuge and organization for runaway slaves. Thus, the “Underground Railroad” was first born, as abolitionist churches and organizations banded together to ensure that slaves could escape to the borders of Indiana, and eventually to the Canadian States and Colombia.

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Quakers (left) would be fundamental to the 1800s manumission movement, providing aid to fugitive slaves, pooling funds to buy slaves and free them (center), and forming part of the new "Underground Railroad". Radical Shakers (right) would be even more steadfast on their social plight, and would also greatly grow throughout the Year Without a Summer.

Another fundamental religious group that would form during these trying times was the Millerite, or Adventist, organization. William Miller, a New Englander, had began obsessing over Christian eschatology, and when faced with the terrors of the Year Without Summer, was convinced of calculations he had privately began that stated that the world would end soon, based on a particular interpretation of prophecies in the Book of Daniel. Miller thought that the world had indeed “ended” in 1816; that Jesus had entered the “Great Sanctuary” in Heaven and had started deciding who to save in a soon-to-come Apocalypse. Although Miller would later become disappointed at his own proposal, stating in private correspondence that he thought the initial calculation was wrong and instead the physical Apocalypse would come in October 22, 1844 (surprisingly, the exact date where he would die, at the age of 62, leading to the Millerite Faith to arise), the 1816 date then (as well as now) remained by far the most common date of the Apocalypse. Adventists would not be such a great source of help towards the poor and suffering, although they received thousands of converts at this time.

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To many, the end of the world came in 1816; all of us afterwards have been condemned (according to Pessimistic Adventist views), saved (as per the Optimists), or undergo a terrible wait for Jesus to finish his cleansing of the Great Sanctuary and return to Earth (according to the mainline Adventists). To others, this occurred in October 22, 1844 (the Millerite Adventists). To others still, William Miller sacrificed his life to save us all from damnation in October 22, 1844, becoming the last Prophet of God (according to Pure Millerites).

This was a major period of growth and strengthening of American religious life; many settlers, especially those poor and in need of solace at the terrible times 1816 would bring to the United States, would join all sorts of denominations. Of course, Arminianists such as the Methodists, Adventists and Quakers saw the greatest growth, as did Evangelical faiths such as the Baptist churches, who greatly grew throughout the period. However, the most interesting of the groups that would eventually rise from the Second Great Awakening was not a mainline Christian sect, or even one, like the Adventists, who diverged significantly from mainline Christianity, but rather the grouping of Third Testamentarian faiths that arose during this period of despair. Millerites, those who, aware of William Miller’s private correspondence, realized he died on the day he predicted the day of his death, are amongst the most famously known; the largest of them is the various group of faiths that compose the Faith of Mormon, those who follow the beliefs of Joseph Smith’s plates, who he revealed to his audience beginning in 1825 and throughout the 1830s. In Indiana, the Faith of the Shawnee Prophet spread like wildfire throughout Native communities; however, its nature varied widely within months of the Peace of 1813, as geopolitical considerations varied widely from the initial teachings. Although the messages of Indian nationalism and unity, rejection of alcohol and traditional living remained, the abandonment of hostility towards Western traditions slowly pervaded the faith; after all, it was the introduction of Western weapons that brought the Natives their State.

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Three of the "New Prophets" brought to America by the Second Great Awakening. Tenskwatawa, brother of Tecumseh, Indiana's first governor, emphasized the renewal of Indian lifestyles and languages; Joseph Smith discovered the Book of Mormon, which led to the creation of the largest branch of Third Testamentarianism in the North American Continent; William Miller, after dying the very day he predicted the world would end, was hailed as a new Messiah, and a Millerite Testament soon drafted. Many other prophets would arise and get far more limited recognition in the United States in these uncertain times.

All in all, the period of the Second Great Awakening remains by far the most important religious awakening in the United States; many of the most important religious groups in the United States depend heavily on the growth of these faiths during the early XIX Century.
 
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Wow just caught up and I've got to say I think this is a really exceptional TL! I think its not nearly getting enough attention and I love what you've put together, its a really interesting read and a cool world to be set up.

Hi! Thank you so much for your kind words :) I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
 
Is this a timeline where the USA goes through the same turmoil as most South American countries?
That's the essential gist of it, yes! That being said, there's more things in play. Colombia (OTL's Latin America) is more united (and as of now a monarchy) and plays a role more or less analogue to the United States in this timeline. Things in Europe will start meaningfully diverging around 1848, but we'll get to that eventually ;)
 
Chapter XIV - The Jacksonian Era Begins
United States Presidential election, 1824
From Volkspedia, the People's Encyclopedia

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The 1824 United States presidential election was the tenth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Tuesday, October 26 to Wednesday, December 1, 1824. Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and John Ross were the primary contenders for the presidency. Unike the first two elections in the Third Party System, the Election of 1824 resulted in a victory for Republican candidate, Andrew Jackson, and his vice-presidential formula, John C. Calhoun in the electoral vote.

The Federalist Party had won two consecutive presidential elections, since the establishment of the Trenton System in 1816, and by 1824 was the dominant national political party. However, as the election approached, the alienation of Southern farmers from the Federalist Party provided in a breath of fresh air for the opposition Republicans, signaling the end of the Federalist age of ascendancy and starting the Jacksonian era. In the end, Jackson handily won both the electoral and the popular vote, resulting in a victory in most State. Clay won New England, Jackson and Clay split the mid-Atlantic states, Ross and Clay split the Western states, and Jackson and Ross split the Southern states.

Background

The Trenton System, the period between the expedition of the Trenton Constitution in 1816 and the start of the War of the Supremes in 1828, is associated with the rapid growth of the American urban population, the general peaceful relations between States and politicians, and the evolution of the American System, the economic and political system mostly pushed by New England and Wabash Federalists as the way forward for the United States[2]. With the Republicans discredited after Burr's Rebellion, Federalists had achieved dominance in the Government, with the Presidencies of Henry Clay and John Cabot and eventual slim majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives[3][4] .

The economic nationalism of the Era of Good Feelings that would authorize the Tariff of 1816 and strengthen the National Bank of the United States portended abandonment of the Jeffersonian political formula for strict construction of the Constitution, limited central government, and primacy of Southern slaveholding interests.[5][6][7] The result, rather than the development of the American economy in a harmonious manner, as imagined by High Federalists, was the increased alienation of the mostly rural south from what they perceived as an increasingly Northern ruling class[8]. The general agreement in economic issues between Republicans and the Democratic Party, rising from the Indian States in the West, also entailed that Republicans increasingly portrayed Federalists as abolitionists, despite the fact that Federalists notoriously tried to ignore the slavery issue in the United States.

The Panic of 1822, the United States' first financial crisis, influenced and reshaped politics.[9] The economic downturn broadly harmed workers, which the Republicans capitalized on, as they painted the Federalists as an anti-worker party. This plus other factors drove demand for increased democratic control, and away from the Federalist ideology of Republican governance far away from the people.[10] Social disaffection would help motivate a strengthening in negative relations between the main parties.[11] The increasingly radical rhetoric from the Republicans led to the nomination of Andrew Jackson, whose populist perspective was particularly appealing to Southern farmers, who overwhelmingly supported Jackson's Presidency.
 

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Chapter XV - America's Caesar - The Jackson Overture
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To many, Aaron Burr was "America's Sulla". It's even more poignant to call Andrew Jackson "America's Caesar".

Jackson, initially, was seen as an all-American hero; a steadfastly loyal Republican soldier who had entered politics after politics had marred the American military system. At the very least, that's how Jackson painted himself: as a reticent hero, one that, much like Washington, did not want to enter American politics, but was forced to by the circumstances. Certainly, after decades of blatant power grabs, this rhetoric was very attractive to many. It became even more attractive as the Republican administration became increasingly populist. Promising greatness for America, as well as "peace, land and bread" for white settlers, Jackson rode out popular will into the Oval Office; in fact, although he won only a slight electoral college majority, he crushed the opposition in almost all States that permitted the popular vote for Presidential elections (with the exception of Indian meetings in the states of Muscogee and Indiana). Even in the (at the time) majority-Indian State of Mississippi, Jackson was able to galvanize enough support to win the State. Even Federalists, despite the increasingly radical rhetoric of the Republican Party, were not initially afraid of the actions of the Jacksonian administration.


However, as we'd soon come to know, Jackson was a deeply different man than the one many would expect. As with so many other politicians, the previous string of civil wars and anti-Government rebellions had made him lose a lot of faith in the American constitutional system. This was made much worse by the fact that an already existing disdain for Indians and slaves made his own personal defeats to the Burrite rebels sting even more. By 1824, Jackson was deeply bitter about the way the American experiment had progressed. Despite the fact that it was the Second Constitution's provisions that would allow him to overreach the Federal administration's powers, he saw the text of the Constitution as little more than a Federalist ploy to perpetuate the party's ideologies in power. Private correspondence of Jackson indicates that he believed the ultimate goal that should be achieved was a return to the initial democracy of the United States - one that, even by 1824, had already become extremely romanticized. This return was to be made at all costs; in the words of a quintessentially Carolinian idiom, to make a tortille fry, you've gotta break some eggs. Of course, it seems the eggs got the better of Jackson. By the end of the War of the Supremes, even these democratic pretensions were to fade.

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A 1819 bust of Andrew Jackson paints him as the "all-American hero". Although meaningless, many political authors have made a point to emphasize on Jackson's bitter, haunted eyes even in the bust. Jackson, even by 1824, was jaded, defeated and cynical.

Americans, initially, did not seem to fear Jacksonian overreach, as even the Federalists and the Democrats agreed some measures were necessary to "make America great". Antagonizing the nascent Colombian administration to the West, for instance, seemed like an obvious way to expand America's power; Colombian rule seemed unstable on Louisiana and Florida at the time, which meant that Americans saw, for the first time since Hamilton's Folly, a way to exert their influence over Florida and, more importantly, the port of New Orleans. With anti-British sentiment at a breaking point and the Americans recently at war with Britain, it seems foolish to antagonize all American neighbors through aggressive diplomacy. However, at the time a degree of American exceptionalism still existed which made many Americans believe they would be able to triumph over the rest, and impose American rule over most of the continent. All of this were generally popular, broad measures that brought popular support to the Presidency (even if, until the War of the Supremes, foreign actions took a backseat to the increasing national conflicts).

Regarding domestic policy, Jackson initially seemed like a traditional Republican, much in the vein of non-conflict Madison or Jefferson. Only some inclinations were dealt towards strongman rule, which initially were mostly overlooked as a symbol of the increased presidentialism of the Trenton System. Wanton use of the veto power raised many eyebrows in Congress - although Cabot and Clay, even with occasional Republican Congresses, only used their veto power now and then (Cabot vetoed three bills, while Clay vetoed seven), Jackson used twelve vetoes against a Federalist Congress in his first year. However, it made sense that a Republican would use his veto more often after eight years of Federalist administration; the radical shift of the Republicans towards white populism led to a correspondent shift of the Federalists towards stronger High Federalism.

However, starting in 1826, Jackson's actions began to increasingly federalize, as midterm elections led to the House of Representatives being recovered by the Republicans. Immediately, Jackson planned to repeal most Clay-era tariffs. Tariffs were a fundamental element of contention between a rapidly industrializing North and a rural South. While Northern States, and the correspondent Federalists, supported high tariffs to protect the internal development of American trade, Southern states (and especially Southern Republicans) saw the tariffs as an abomination against all forms of the American economy. More radical Republicans, such as Jackson's (then) vice-President, John C. Calhoun, had greatly spoken out against new tariffs during the Clay presidency, and now planned to remove tariffs entirely. Immediately, the Federalists rebuked these proposals, warning of economic catastrophe to the North. These cries were not heeded by Jackson - after all, the Trenton System had reserved foreign policy and foreign trade to the Executive, by initiative of Federalist delegates, notably Henry Clay. Therefore, while to Federalists, the Repeal of 1825 was one of the most damaging economic decisions yet, and a sign of abuse of the Presidential system - for Republicans, it was the political system working as usual.

Yet another blow to Congress came when Jackson, by Presidential decree, determined that the Federal government would begin selling its land in Western states and territories to poor peasants at very reduced rates, through a process of subsidies. This greatly angered Federalists, who thought that settlement of the West and the renewal of migration from Eastern States to the great wilderness of the West would weaken the industrial cities of the Northeast, removing the clearest source of labor for the American System. However, the greatest pushback here came from Democrats - many of them Indian, from the states where Indians had suffrage, and where this was seen as a ploy by the Federal government to remove them from their States and turn them into more majority-white States. Outrage soon started in the states of Muscogee, Mississippi and Indiana, which peaked in a walkout by the entire Democratic congressional delegation (at the time about 16 representatives from the three states, and about 2 from New York) during a heated debate in the Congress.

The Nullification Crisis of 1826 soon emerged as many of these actions were nullified by State governments. Jackson immediately took the case to the Supreme Court, which had recently been expanded from 9 to 11, and had a Republican-appointed majority. The Court determined that there had been a legal vacuum regarding Nullification in the Trenton Constitution and Federal statutes, which meant that the applicable law regarding nullification was the Compromise of 1803, according to which States could notably nullify most State law... excepting laws related to international trade and tariffs. What once was seen as a victory for the Federalists was now seen as an abuse by part of Jackson.

Howe er, while deeply reviled by Congress, Jackson's measures were extremely popular within the United States - especially amongst poor whites, who saw a government that would finally advance their interests over Federalists (who were seen as the rich man’s party) and Democrats (which was seen as a party for racial minorities - and thus, from the perspective of the very racist population, an uncivilised party). 1826 and 1827 saw the start of campaigning in the United States - something unheard of in the country. Federalists warned at Jackson being a "new Caesar", someone who was close to ending the democratic institutions of the country. In fact, the threat was seen as such that Clay was endorsed by the Democratic party as their candidate - something which seemed to backfire, as Clay got both the negative connotations of being a Federalist (seen as out of touch, elitist, and only caring about the Northeast - despite him hailing from Kentucky) and those of being a Burrite (he became the "candidate for the [racial slur] and the Indian, and not that of the Honest White Man" in Jacksonian propaganda). Clay's campaigning was muddled and confusing, painting himself both as the candidate of democratic restoration and that of change.
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Jacksonian propaganda painted Indians as savages who had fooled the Federalists and Democrats into sympathy.

The biggest campaign issue in 1828 was the Bank of the United States. A veritable American institution, hailing from the days of the abortive Hamilton presidency, the Bank was seen as one of the most stable elements in the US Government. After Hamilton's death in 1826, however, the issue had been reopened, especially by radical Republicans who saw the United States Bank as an undemocratic element which set back the United States' development. The Bank had become especially unpopular among the common folk after America's first financial crisis, the Panic of 1821, in which the Bank was seen as incompetent in its dealings with finance, resulting in a rapid growth of poverty (even as poverty was sky-high after the Year Without Summer). With the tariff system gone, and increasing homesteading weakening the cheap labor previously enjoyed by American industrialists, this was seen as the nail in the coffin to the American System proposed by the Federalists. Federalists warned of economic fire and brimstone were it to pass, while Democrats made a strong campaign opposed to white encroachment on Native lands (that did not work, outside of the State of Mississippi, in flipping many white votes, of course).

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Pro-Jacksonian propaganda, showing him slaying the "Many Headed Monster", which symbolized High Federalism, the United States Bank, and Northwest elitism.

As the Election of 1828 approached, Jackson was seen as the clear favourite, even against (or, perhaps, because of) the coalition between Federalists and Democrats. To the opposition, it seemed like the end of America was nigh. And indeed, soon the deadliest war of the first half of the Nineteenth Century, the War of the Supremes, would ensue. The Trenton System held its breath waiting for the result of what would end up being its last free and fair election.
 
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... and on that cliffhanger, we’ll turn down south. We’ve caught up with the Colombian timeline by reaching the Election of 1828. Next chapter will deal with the Colombians - not everything is peachy in Santafé!
 
Chapter XVI - September Nights and Long Knives

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The Rebel State, as it is known, has long been a thorn in the side to Colombian governance. The first time Venezuela appeared particularly rebellious was during La Cosiata.

Valencia, Venezuela, had long been a thorn in the side to most revolutionary rulers. The conservative, Catholic Valencian elite had resented Bolívar’s wars of independence, and had even refused to send any delegates to the Anfictionic Congress, instead deciding to stay put and bid their times for the “inevitable Reconquista” that never came. When joined together with the rest of their Venezuelan brothers in the State of Venezuela, independent from the State of New Granada, the Valencians acquiesced, with only slight grumbles, to their new system. Convinced that, away from subjugation to New Granada, as had happened during the rule of the Bourbon crown, they would be able to take leadership of the State away from the traditional capital of Caracas (at that point, a tall order) and start leading the Venezuelan state. However, this did not assuage all the doubts and anxieties of the Valencian populace, which, much like the Pastusos and Caucans who led the Crown Affair, were ready to boil over as soon as an opportunity arose.

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The fearsome llaneros from the Venezuelan Plain were often considered Colombia's most crack cavalry. Their leader at the time, José Antonio Páez, has had his name become synonymous with "traitor" in Colombian speech.

That opportunity’s name was José Antonio Páez, the leader of the lanceros del Llano, Bolívar’s most trusted and feared cavalry corps. Páez had been fundamental in the independence campaign of the State of Venezuela, particularly fearsome in the Battle of Carabobo. His charge, which would be romanticized forever by particularly nationalistic-minded Venezuelans, was seen as the breaking point of Spanish rule in Colombia at the time. Indeed, Páez had for a long time been Bolívar’s right hand man regarding military matters; although his star had begun to fade as Bolívar increasingly associated himself with Chilean Bernardo O’Higgins, Agustín de Iturbide, José de San Martín, and especially (and particularly hurting to Páez, due to their shared Venezuelan ancestry) Bolívar’s young protegé, Antonio José de Sucre.


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Liberal, Neogranadine, civilian smugness was exemplified by Francisco de Paula Santander, "the greatest Neogranadine in history". However, Páez resentment was just as directed at a fellow Venezuelan, Bolívar's new protegé and, according to many at the time, Crown Prince, José Antonio de Sucre.

The fact that the Colombian Parliament’s ruling class was monopolized by civilians, and especially, those of liberal, Neogranadine extraction, also sat very badly with most other Colombian inhabitants at the time. While most other States would justify themselves in the fact that, for now, the Colombian parliament sat at Santafé de Bogotá, and would do so until the city of Las Casas could finally be built on the Ithsmus of Panamá, which meant that until then it wasn’t in the best interest of the other States to send their best and brightest to oversee the parliament of what was then seen as a glorified military alliance. On the other hand, the situation in Venezuela was different; traditionally subsumed in administrative issues by the Neogranadines, they saw this dominance from their Western brothers as a form of colonialism against the smaller province.

Páez seemed to have started heavily resenting the Bolivarian order as he saw his close ties to power slowly but surely fade everywhere outside of Western Venezuela. In 1827, Páez was tasked with conscription of a large portion of the population to ensure protection of the Caribbean shoreline from Spanish attacks. This mobilization order hit Venezuela especially hard, which led to strong pushback – especially in originally loyalist cities, notably the city of Valencia. Instead of putting down the riots and rebellions rising against the mobilization order, Páez joined the cause of the rebels, leaving the Valencia garrison to its devices and leaving for Santafé. The Valencia garrison quickly surrendered to the rebels, declaring the independence of the Free State of Venezuela, with its capital in the city (rather than Caracas), on April 30th, 1828. Thus starts the brief but momentous period of civil unrest in Western Venezuela named La Cosiata.

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At its greatest extent, the upstart Free State of Venezuela controleld nearly a fourth of the State.

The events of La Cosiata are still strongly disputed by historians and political scientists nationwide. The famous argument most strongly poised by Juan Daniel Franco Mosquera states that La Cosiata was initially little more than a vanity project by the Valencian elite and Páez, which sought “separation from New Granada” and “the continued protection of El Libertador”; two things that essentially entailed membership of the Colombian Empire’s policies at the time. On the other hand, more critical historians such as Andrés Damasco, Pedro Obrador and Juan Duhalde-Perón suggest that the Cosiata rebellion was essentially inevitable since the independence of Colombia, as the first of many painful moments in which Colombian state relations were tried and tested. Particularly, Damasco gives the rebellion great importance as the first time the secession of a State from the Union was attempted. It was lucky, then, that this precedent was attempted first in Bolívar (and Sucre’s) own home states, where they were insanely popular, and therefore where selling the idea of absolutely ending the agreement of protection under el Libertador was extremely hard.

Because of the circumstances of Venezuela (its high militarization under the Captaincy-General had allowed a large degree of forts to exist throughout the province, easily allowing the Colombian troops, even though they were few and far-between, to hold out easily under the under-armed Venezuelan rebels. The rebels themselves were not numerous, and, especially in Eastern Venezuela, Páez soon became extremely unpopular. Only the llaneros provided any sort of hope to Páez’s soldiers, but even they would have conflicting loyalties. Indeed, the rebellion would end within a year of it starting, without conclusively being able to bring the Free State of Venezuela into fruition or allowing the Valencia criollos to re-establish the Spanish Captaincy-General of Venezuela.

What was truly impactful for the future of the Colombian state was the Septembrine Conspiracy, meant to strike at the very head of the Colombian Empire, which started once Páez arrived to Bogotá in mid-late August of 1828.
-Historiography of La Cosiata. By Pedro Cabello, University of Barquisimeto.​



Si de Bolívar la letra con que empieza
y aquélla con la que acaba le quitamos,
«oliva» de la paz símbolo hallamos.
Esto quiere decir que la cabeza
al tirano y los pies cortar debemos
si es que una paz durable apetecemos.

If, from Bolivar, the first letter which it starts with
And that which it ends with we remove,
"Olive", symbol of peace, we find.
This means we must the head
And the feet cut from the tyrant
If a long-lasting peace we wish.
-Luis Vargas Tejada, Venezuelan conspirator.​


A shake jolted Simón awake; the first thing he saw was Manuela, desperate, trying to get him awake and alert. The behavior was unlike her; Manuela, the military heroine of Colombia, was dispassionate, strategic, always alert. Something must be wrong, he thought as he jumped to his knees.

“There’s shots at the gate”, Manuela said. “Someone’s forcing their way in”.

The words were all it took to make sure Simón was ready and alert, and already on his feet. By the time he came to, it was obvious that what Manuela heard was indeed very worrying. Fighting was heard from the lower floors of Palace of Saint Charles. Doors being forced, furniture crashing and the occasional shot were heard. Indeed, something very worrying was going on.

Rage flushed to Bolívar’s cheeks, as he remembered all his previous battles. Just like in Ayacucho, Junín and Boyacá, he was going to win. He was going to defeat those traitors, goddammit! He might be outgunned and outmanned, but he had his trusty sword and his gun. If he was going to go down, he was going to take every single one of those who dared to storm his own house down with him.

It was Manuela who convinced him to live: cold, tempered Manuela who he could trust to take the best possible decision when his mind was clouded by the images of victory and greatness. “You are rash, impulsive, and violent”, she screamed through whispers, “but you have never been stupid until now. Are you going to face dozens of enemies with a sword? Do you want them to turn you into a new Caesar?”

“Caesar triumphed!”, Simón yelled.

“Caesar died”, Manuela whispered back. “He died with twenty-three wounds on his back and nobody to support him. And his empire fell into chaos and thirteen years of war. Is that what you want? Would you rather die than live?”

“I would die brave, not live a coward!”

“You would die a martyr, and a stupid man. You would abandon your men to their fates. You would lead Colombia to destruction! No sir. It’s not cowardly to choose your battles.”

“But-“

“Don’t be stupid. Don’t leave us alone to fight your fight. Escape. Jump out the window.”

Simón knew Manuela was right. Dying on a fight against forty men would be no use; it would give them what they wanted. Instead, he opened the window. The drop was not steep; two meters at most. And outside, having heard the commotion in the makeshift Imperial Palace, was José Palacios, the house butler, a freed slave. José’s familiar face gave Bolívar calm as he jumped off the palace, to flee into the dark.

By the time the Conspirators forced themselves into the bedroom where Simón was sleeping not an hour before, Manuela had been alone for quite some time; Simón had fled into the streets of Bogotá. And Páez, as he left the Palace, believing falsely that all guards had been killed and his anonymity remained, knew his revolt had been defeated.





Bolívar’s luck is not to be understated. Not only were all his moves relatively successful, especially after the liberation of Colombia; but it’s also of particular luck that the main attacks against the Bolivarian order imposed at the start of the Empire came from areas where the majority was relatively supportive of Bolívar; Conservative Catholicism, in the Crown Affair, and Venezuelan conservatives, in the Valencia Revolt and the Septembrine Conspiracy. In both cases the issues were localized, and came from Bolívar’s own political side, the militarist right.

"It did not have to be this way. The vibrant culture of Santafé political clubs, born inspired by the cafés in Frankfurt and Paris, had turned against monarchism during the Wars of Independence, and were decidedly Republican related to Colombian governance. In fact, for a time it was believed widely that the Septembrine Conspiracy was not led by Venezuelan nationalists but rather by Liberals, specifically the Parliamentary Socratic Society, a secret society which included such important figures as Francisco de Paula Santander, at the time Prime Minister, and José María Córdova, famous Neogranadine patriot (and eventually, the State of Antioquia’s Founding Father), due to the fact that Pedro Carujo and Luis Vargas Tejada, two members of both Páez’s closer circle and the PSS in the Anfictionic Congress.

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Colombian political groups began coalescing into the first political parties of the country. The Santanderean Liberal Party would become a mainstay of Colombian politics.

A different world can be imagined, one where the conspirators were both Liberals and local nationalists. If the rebellion had started in a place where Bolívar’s support was not that strong, such as Perú or La Plata, rather than Venezuela, his homeland and the place where he was the most adored. The fact that, increasingly, his right-hand-man was another Venezuelan man, Antonio José de Sucre, also took wind away from the sails of Venezuelan nationalists; they were represented at the very top of the Colombian establishment. If, as they came to be known, the “most rebellious province” was justly represented, what right did the other States, with important people such as Agustín de Iturbide, José de San Martín and Bernardo O’Higgins amongst Bolívar’s closest, to secede?

The rebellions of 1827 and 1828 were seen as a huge threat to the Republic, and indeed seem to have sent Bolívar into a great depression which he did not survive. However, its rippling effects were almost entirely beneficial to the Empire, due to different motives.

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Manuela Sáenz, the Lady of the Sun, was named "the Liberator of the Liberator" by Bolívar, his lover, after she saved his life in the Septembrine Conspiracy. Manuela Sáenz would soon become a darling of Colombian public opinon.

First of all, the attempted coup against Bolívar galvanized public opinion against rebels. By and large, the opinions of rebels were seen as out-of-touch, extreme and dangerous, and therefore extremely few relevant people throughout the Empire sympathized with them. Instead, Bolívar became far more popular than he already was. Even amongst liberal and republican circles, el Hegemonte, as he became known, became a slight folk hero as the man who protected the unity of Colombia against royalists who wanted to bring the Spanish yoke back; after all, as the creoles said, mejor gallo criollo que gallo importado (it is better to have a Creole chicken than an imported one). Bolívar, previously a controversial figure amongst most of the population, became almost universally beloved overnight. His respect, and therefore the respect for his wishes for the future of Colombia, further grew when, after the Septembrine Conspiracy, Bolívar officially named Manuela Sáenz, his paramour, the Lady of the Sun (La Dama del Sol), bringing joyous celebrations to the Pacific area, with a glorious march passing from Popayán through Sáenz’ hometown of Guayaquil and down the Peruvian coast until Lima. The fact that Sáenz soon after became pregnant with Bolívar’s child was not seen as scandalous (Sáenz was married to the British James Thorne) but rather as a happy moment, and the first ever Crown Prince of the Empire (the title, though useless, brought the Colombian crown traditional justification and even quiet blessings from the church where scorn was previously common), José Tristán Bolívar, was born on July 10th, 1829. At last, Colombia had a First Family; even though Tristán would never be Emperor, and the title would of course pass to a new family as soon as Bolívar died, this would prove fundamental for the recognition of a Colombian national identity.

Another effect of the revolt was that the political elite of the Colombian Empire, both in its military, Bolivarian side as well as in its parliamentary side, realized its great fragility.

From the military side, the Páez rebellion was fundamental to Colombian unity in that it proved the need for the nascent country to centralize its defensive capacities. While before even the military, in theory Bolívar’s exclusive competence, had been treated as more of a military alliance than a true confederation, this began to change after the Government of Santafé realized he could not let regional caudillos duke it out for themselves while the central government dealt with whoever came out on top. Instead, regional militaries had to be loyal to the central government from the start. Soon enough, national leaders began centralizing their militias on themselves, sending off future Páezes to the sidelines. While this had the potential to become an even greater problem, as possible rivals to Bolívar loomed large (San Martín, especially, at one point had control over nearly half the country’s estimated forces), the fact that eventually most of those great men would become Emperors themselves would further centralize power on the Imperial throne, rather than on regional governments. Indeed, it can be said that the first step from the “Alliance phase” of the Empire (comprised mostly of Bolívar’s tenure) would start giving way to the “confederal phase” after the 1828 revolt.

The Santafé elite was also shaken by the fact that the Venezuelans, who they had considered their closest brothers, were rebelling against them. However, there is not much to be surprised when analyzing the attitudes of the New Granada elite towards the rest of Colombia, even areas much more developed than Santafé itself. Neogranadines had benefited from the fact that, until the new capital of the Country was built, Congress resided in Santafé de Bogotá, the previous Viceroyal capital; while Bolívar moved quite a lot until his depression and bouts of tuberculosis in 1828-1831, most of the times, due to a central location, the close distance from the Spanish Antilles, and the fact that Iturbide and San Martín held the north and south of the Empire respectively, Bolívar stayed either in Guayaquil (where Manuela Sáenz lived), in Santa Marta, in his hometown of Caracas, or in Bogotá. This gave New Granada unduly influence in the development of Colombia, comparable to that of Virginia and Pennsylvania in the early years of the United States. Furthermore, while Neogranadine elites in the Palace of Saint Charles, the National Congress and the cabildo of the State of New Granada were all closely interchangeable, few other States sent their best and brightest to represent their provinces in a rubber-stamp parliament far off in Bogotá. Therefore, the New Granadine elite began to see themselves, not as primus inter pares in a community of federated States but rather as new colonial masters.

The Septembrine Conspiracy changed everything as New Granadines realized their position at the helm of Colombia was actually quite tenuous, which led them to quickly lose the superiority complex they had previously held over other States. Soon enough funds for the construction of Las Casas on the Ithsmus of Panamá became forthcoming, close to the town and fort of Chagres. A study on the creation of the first American railway, connecting Chagres to Panamá (now called Ciudad Bolívar), was commissioned (and eventually construction came underway). Initially destined as a symbol of the first steps to equality between all Colombian states, would eventually become the first step in the end of the first States system, and the loss of preeminence by the Bogotá elite in favor of a new national American elite.

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The Panama Railroad, America's first railroad, is a direct result of the Páez Revolt.

Furthermore, the defeat of Venezuelan rebels would lead many to understand that the future of Colombian political discussions would not come through a rule of the strongest in the field. Indeed, many people were pressured to instead begin focusing on the Congress as a way to enact change and influence in the country. After all, the military power became more and more concentrated on the Bolivarian elite; why would an upstart caudillo be able to exert more power than, say, José de San Martín? The complex system of parties and clubs that would soon be born in every State would become fundamental to the growth of political power, and bureaucracy began to replace arms as the easiest way to grant political followers some say in the system. By the end of 1830, the Parliamentary Socratic Society was to merge with Mexican Republicans (a political movement based on figures such as Vicente Guerrero, Miguel Domínguez and Nicolás Bravo) and the Argentine Unitarians (with figures like Juan Lavalle, José María Paz, Cornelio Saavedra and Bernardino Rivadavia) would coalesce and form the Liberal Party, which would become the behemoth of Colombian politics to this day.

Finally, the effects of the Septembrine Conspiracy on the Imperial Succession were greatly important. Bolívar’s mortality was starkly put at the forefront of political discussion. To many, the understanding came that, although this conspiracy had failed, it’s entirely possible that sooner, rather than later, Bolívar would die (something that would prove to be accurate). While discussions between possible diadochi were not particularly deep and the succession was still confused and difficult to execute, a peaceful succession of power was mostly assured by all Colombian leaders, who would form a sort of “military council” after Bolívar’s death. This way, the Imperial mantle would become growingly less important throughout the 1830s and 1840s, leading to the slow decline in Imperial power.

Thusly, despite the fact that it is often overlooked as a failed rebellion by traditional historians, the Septembrine Conspiracy cannot be understated. It is possibly the most momentous event in Colombian political history.

-“September Nights and Long Knives”, the third entry in the History of Colombia Redgistro, by La Platan historian Juan del Río. Translated to English weekly by the Colombian Studies observatory of Wesleyan University.​
 
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