The U.S. Congress’ April 19 declaration of war had been against the United Kingdom and its empire, not against the Republic of Louisiana. If anyone in the Hôtel de la République took the slightest reassurance from this, there is no record of it. On the orders of President Berrien, Ambassador Fish had departed at the end of March, saying that he had been recalled. No one had come to replace him by the time New Orleans received word of the declaration. Everyone knew what this meant.
On May 15, Roman addressed the Assembly and the crowded atrium from the President’s Lectern. His speech was short, but to the point:
Citizens of Louisiana, we must prepare for war. As I speak, the nation whose treachery forfeited our loyalty is preparing to reclaim us by force. Our friends are strong, but our foes are near. To hold on until our friends arrive will require all our strength.
Roman announced that he was ordering the Grand Army of the Republic to begin a levée en masse, conscripting all able-bodied male citizens between the ages of 18 and 25. He was authorizing War Minister Keane to purchase small arms and artillery sufficient for this expansion, and (despite his distaste for increasing the debt) Treasury Minister Disraeli to secure a loan from the Royal Bank to cover the expenses. While this was necessary in order to cover such a rapid expansion of the armed forces, it had the effect of binding Louisiana ever tighter to London before a single shot was fired.
The first priority of the Grand Army would be to bring the garrisons in all forts bordering U.S. territory up to full strength. On Keane’s advice, the isolated Fort-Labatut and the punishment assignment Fort-Douane were exempted from this order; instead, the warship Volonté de la République was ordered to take up a position in the river alongside Fort-Douane…
The United States had multiple commitments in 1837—the war in the Canadas, the planned attack on Florida and the need to maintain large reserves of troops against a British invasion. Even if they had not, it was too late to plan and launch an invasion of Louisiana before the end of spring, and summer was the worst possible season for such an enterprise. Roman and Keane knew they had at least until the beginning of fall before the invasion began, and their spies in Mississippi were able to track the progress of American preparations. By the time the war came to Louisiana, the Grand Army would be ready and at full strength. But this was little comfort, since that full strength would constitute at most 15,000 men—half the size of the peacetime U.S. Army, to say nothing of the army Berrien was assembling for war.
Under the circumstances, no one willing to fight could be turned aside. The métis would be fighting once again, this time alongside their fallen foes the Ichacq, who would earn citizenship by their service. After Sinepuxent, Roman presented a bill to the Assembly abolishing the already threadbare “three-fourths white” requirement for military service and expanding conscription to free Negroes.
This was the most controversial measure Roman had ever put forward. Conservatives were almost universally opposed to it, while Radicals were divided but not prepared either to accept or reject it. The debate raged for two months…
Michel Beauregard, A History of the Republic of Louisiana
June 3, 1837
No. 10 Downing Street
Well, I did ask for this job, thought Brougham as he listened to Palmerston, trying to block out the distracting noise of the men building the telegraph office in back.
Obviously I couldn’t have known there would be wars going on in the Balkans and North America both…
Instead of cutting his losses in Bosnia-Rumelia, Alexander had decided to double down. Now the tsar was claiming that the chunk of Danube delta Wallachia had seized six years ago, which had given the
Südzollverein access to the Black Sea and which no one had complained about at the time, was “rightful Moldavian territory” which King Carol of Wallachia needed to hand over to King Carol of Moldavia this instant. At last report, he had declared war on Wallachia and (by extension) on Austria.
This never would have happened if it hadn’t been for that damned silly war over an island that sank into the ocean before the ink was dry on the treaty. Now the tsar thinks Austria is weak.
And Palmerston had just informed him that as of the latest he’d heard from Athens, King Paul’s son-in-law, Ioannis Kolokotronis, had politely knocked the door of his palace and requested that he declare war on Bosnia-Rumelia. Since Kolokotronis had been backed up by his own family retainers and many senior officers of the Greek army, the hapless king had agreed.
Which puts us at war with Greece. Not that we tremble in fear of their arms, but just how much blood must we shed—our own and others’—in defence of that parody of an empire?
Then there was the rebellion in the Canadas. That had been a ghastly surprise out of nowhere. Things had seemed so peaceful under Prince Edward. Auckland had seemed certain that all was quiet. What the devil had been going on over there that everyone in London had missed? And what was going on now? It sounded as though the mostly-English rebels in York had accepted American help with open arms and the mostly-French rebels in Montreal had rebuffed them. Which went against what Auckland wrote that he was hearing from everyone around him.
Brougham hated knowing so little and not being sure of what or whom to trust. The smartest man in the world—and he was sure he was at least in the top ten—could not make a good decision with bad information.
We must learn more.
Perhaps I should put our friend Radical Jack[1] on the case.
And, of course, the United States had declared war again.
Damned Yankee Doodles, once again causing trouble while we’re in the middle of a major war. Well, much joy they got of it last time.
The latest news was unsurprising, but unpleasant. “Russell and Duncannon[2] agree that HMS
St. Lawrence was always a doomed ship,” said Palmerston.
Brougham nodded, gazing at the map on his desk. His finger traced the irregular outline of the peninsula of land between Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
Had we but guns enough and men, this could have been a stronghold of the Empire. With it we might have dictated terms to the Yankees no matter how they grew, having the very heart of their nation within striking distance.
It’s not as though we never made plans. Year after year for two damned decades, through the Liverpool and Wellington and Grey and—Hell, I must acknowledge it—my own term in office, we said to ourselves, “We should build more bases in Upper Canada. We should build fleets on the Great Lakes.” It was always something we meant
to do, something we were going
to do, but we never did get round to finding the money.
And now it’s too late. One cannot hold a peninsula against an enemy that rules the waters. We’ll soon lose it, and the only way to get it back will be to seize something of equal value and trade it at the negotiating table.
Which should be possible, as by all accounts, Berrien wasn’t even interested in the Canadas. What he really wanted was Louisiana back, and Florida and Texas to go with it. Louisiana would fight to retain its independence, Texas would mean war with Spain as well as Britain—and as for Florida, Brougham was having a hard time keeping from grinning at the prospect of that fight. Then it would be the Americans trying to hold a peninsula in the face of a power that could land troops where it chose. Of course, this wouldn’t happen right away—not even this clodhopper Berrien could be fool enough to invade Gulf Coast territories in the
summer, and Brougham meant to have reinforcements there no later than September. It was true that piling one war on another would stretch the British army thin, but since they were already recruiting, they could have forces in the field much sooner than they would otherwise have been able to.
“In your opinion, sir,” said Palmerston, “what are our aims in this war? It seems to me we should expect a little more than the
status quo ante bellum.”
“I quite agree.”
“Alas, France and Italy do not. Gérard and Manzoni[3] both insist that their alliance with the United States is defensive in nature, and as President Berrien is the aggressor—they’re both quite careful to say ‘Berrien,’ not ‘the United States’—they will therefore not be joining the war effort. However, they say they wish to be present at the peace negotiations and will go to war to prevent any further significant loss of American territory.”
“How do they define ‘significant’ loss?”
“They implied that the loss of a state or territory, such as the United States suffered in ’15, would be unacceptable. It may be only a bluff, but we are in a state of alliance with them in Bosnia-Rumelia. If they wish to harm us, they need only make a deal with Russia and Greece and bring the troops home.”
Brougham nodded. France and Italy had in fact done more than their share, sending steam-frigates with furled sails through the Dardanelles and the Bosporos during the winter to harass Russian shipping.
“And unlike in ’15, there isn’t another American state conveniently ready to secede and accept our protection,” said Brougham. “Most of all, I want to know what went wrong in the Canadas—especially Upper Canada—before I consider adding a restive province to our empire.” Palmerston looked worried.
Never fear. There are other ways to punish our rude cousins.
“Make no mistake, Henry[4]—if I think it the best course, I absolutely will carve a chunk from their flank and damn the consequences. But do you know what I really want from the Americans?
“Money. Indemnity. It would be fitting, would it not? How much of our financiers’ money did they use to build those wretched canals of theirs?” A little ditty from the
Literary Gazette ran through his mind:
Yankee Doodle borrows cash,
Yankee Doodle spends it,
And then he snaps his fingers at
The jolly flat who lends it.
Ask him when he means to pay,
He shews no hesitation,
But says he’ll take the shortest way,
And that’s repudiation![5]
Since the war began, of course, the federal government and the states that hadn’t yet defaulted were “suspending” payments to British interests “for the duration.” No one was optimistic about those payments unsuspending after the war was over.
“And how much of their money comes from cotton and tobacco grown by slaves and purchased by us? Some would call it a greater sin to engage in honest trade with them than to take their wealth by force.”
“I think you’re right,” said Palmerston. “Assuming, of course, that they have any gold in their treasury to give after this war.”
“If they don’t, then I think the Royal Navy could use some new basing rights. In the South, if possible, to drive the point home. Charleston, Savannah, Mobile… while they’re paddling about on their little canals, let them remember who the seas belong to. Speaking of which, I have an idea to run past Russell and Duncannon…” Brougham pulled out another map, this one of North America itself. He pointed at a spot on the northwest coast.
“With all due respect, that seems a little far afield of our concerns,” said Palmerston.
“Our concerns, yes,” said Brougham. “Astoria is little to us and everything to them. The mouth of the Columbia River here is their one and only outlet on the Pacific Ocean. Should we seize this—Fort Clatsop?—they will respond in one of three ways. They will commit an army to its liberation, with the immense logistical support required to send such an army across half a continent’s worth of wilderness and have it in shape to fight at the end. If they are feeling particularly foolish, they will attempt the same thing with their navy. Or—they will sue for peace and pay what they must to get it back. Any of these would please me greatly. And we can do this with one regiment.”
[1] John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, Lord Privy Seal to both Grey and Brougham.
[2] In early 1835, Graham resigned from the government over the restructuring of the Church of Ireland. John William Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough and Viscount Duncannon, is his replacement as First Lord of the Admiralty.
[3] Alessandro Manzoni, Italy’s foreign minister.
[4] Once again a PM and his foreign minister have the same first name. Sorry.
[5] IOTL, this poem appeared in the London
Literary Gazette in January 1845.