66. The New American System
66. The New American System

“President McGovern knew he had a limited amount of political capital with which to implement his agenda. His party held just 181 seats in congress and relied on the Populists’ 27 to form a narrow majority. While the Populists generally aligned with McGovern and the solidarist Whigs on issues such as bank reform and antimonopoly legislation, but the Whigs were opposed to Populist ideas such as loosening the national reliance on the gold standard, and the proposal of a federal income tax threatened to divide the Whig caucus. The Populists also held a lingering distrust of the Whigs’ solidarist turn, which kept the two parties from a closer cooperation. Charles Stone of Champoeg, the leader of the Populist caucus in the House, called the Whigs “allies of convenience” and reasoned that “once we secure our agenda, we will supplant them.” He, and many of his partymen, believed that their coalition partners were, despite the election of Robert Kerr as Speaker of the House, “in the thrall of the east-coast conservatives.” The fact that Thomas Cabot, the staunchly conservative Senator from Massachusetts, was Vice President was just one example for Stone that the Whigs had never truly shed their conservative, pro-business policies. They also opposed levying a direct income tax, as McGovern’s experience as Governor of Iowa had left him convinced that an income tax would be too controversial for his first term.

The Whigs also faced their own internal divisions. Kerr had been elected as Speaker only with Populist support, while the Whig caucus was led by the moderate-conservative Francis Kemp of Michigan, who had succeeded the conservative David Henderson in 1905. The Majority Whip was Cecil Harding, a solidarist, who had won his post by just seven votes. The division within Whig leadership required careful compromise and delicate navigation of the various factions in order to pass legislation: McGovern could only afford to lose 12 votes in the House. And while the solidarists held a slight edge in the House, conservative Whigs formed the majority of the Senate caucus. There, the Whigs held 41 seats, with the support of all six Populists. There, McGovern could only afford to lose 5 votes [1]. Fortunately, Vice President Cabot agreed to lobby his old Senate friends in support of the administration, despite his personal conservativism. Matthew Quay also proved amenable to certain measures in exchange for patronage powers, which McGovern reluctantly agreed to. However, a number of New English Senators proved to be headaches, especially William Sprague V of Rhode Island. They were flexible on antimonopoly laws and labor reform, but resolutely against the income tax or bank reform. Passing solidarist legislation would require a precarious tightrope walk.

Though many Populists demanded that McGovern start with bank reform, he and the solidarists opted to proceed with two more broadly popular bills passed by a special session of Congress: The Commerce Oversight Act, which regulated businesses and created the Commerce Oversight Bureau to enforce said regulations, and the National Development Act, which included funds for a host of infrastructure projects, mostly railroads in the west and turnpikes in the east and Midwest. The COA established types of business practices that were monopolistic or unfair, such as price discrimination that lessens competition, exclusivity contracts that prevented customers from dealing with a seller’s competitors and empowered the COB to cancel mergers and acquisitions that decreased competition [2]. The COA was supported by almost all Whigs and every Populist, and its provisions had broad appeal to the general public. The NDA, meanwhile, was not only a way to make good on McGovern’s promises to the Populists during the contingent election, but bribe other lawmakers with public works projects in their home states and districts. Both bills were passed easily by the House and narrowly by the Senate, the former earning 3 Whig defections and the latter 1 Whig defection, but support from 3 Democrats. These two pieces of legislation were signed by President McGovern on March 13th and 16th, respectively. With the political capital secured by these two bills, he hoped to forge ahead with the rest of his agenda in the regular session of Congress.

McGovern and Speaker Kerr planned to begin with a comprehensive labor regulation law establishing a Conciliation Board [3] to settle labor disputes in a legally-binding manner, banning employers from conditioning employment on abstention from union activities, and prohibiting child labor. The Labor Reform Act was generally popular with solidarists and the Populists, but the initial effort to pass the LRA was defeated in committee by Populist defectors. Stone and the Populists demanded that McGovern push for bank reform first, threatening to block the rest of the President’s agenda in retaliation. McGovern agreed, and began the process of assembling a reform bill radical enough to appease the Populists, but moderate enough to ensure enough conservative buy-in. The first draft of the Bank Reform Act was introduced by Charles Stone on March 13th, 1906. This bill removed the requirement that the National Bank had to settle accounts in specie and loosened the limits on paper money printed by the branch banks, effectively removing the US economy from the international gold standard. It also expanded the autonomy of the Branch Banks. This was strenuously opposed by conservative Whigs, with even Speaker Kerr informing Stone that he couldn’t support the bill as it was. With Majority Leader Kemp actively lobbying against it and Sprague and his allies in the Senate vowing to block it, the Stone Bill died in committee and the Whigs and Populists went back to negotiating.

A group of moderate Whigs led by Kemp proposed their own version, which had the support of both solidarists like Harding and conservatives like Sprague. The Kemp Bill kept the Washington, D.C. branch as the central authority of the bank and kept the specie requirements in place. In order to expand rural investment opportunities, specially-designated rural banks, both branches of the National Bank and private banks, would be able to tap into a special government account and loan out money to farmers, up to 30% of their land’s value. This proved more popular among the Whigs and Populists, but the final Kemp-Stone bill, though it made it to a floor vote, was narrowly defeated in the House, 200-191. Along with the predictable conservative defectors, 6 Populists also voted against it, because they opposed the inclusion of private institutions in the farm loan program. It was back to the drawing board, as May gave way to June, with the 30th the end of the legislative session. McGovern pushed heavily for Cecil Harding’s compromise, which established 10 branch banks, with the Washington D.C. branch the first among equals, rather than 10 equal branches as the Populists had first proposed. The conservatives refused to remove private banks from the rural lending program, so McGovern was able to secure Populist support for allowing private banks to participate, but with extremely strict regulations that removed all but a few private banks from consideration. This proposal, negotiated between Whigs Francis Kemp and Cecil Harding and Populist Stewart Roth of Nebraska, created the Kemp-Roth Bank Reform Act. It passed the House by a vote of 204-187 on June 13th, sending it to be considered by the Senate.

Here, there was more of a challenge. While most conservatives and moderates, including McGovern’s convention opponent William McKinley, supported Kemp-Roth, William Sprague V, Frederick Swayne III, and three other conservative Whigs continued to oppose any form of bank reform. This had been foreseen, and McGovern relied on Cabot to persuade Swayne, his close friend, while the Whigs lobbied Democratic Senators Tom Daley of Washita and Nathan Ives of Arkansas, whose states would benefit greatly from Kemp-Roth. McGovern promised to guarantee that Washita and other rural southern states would get “ample access” to the farm loan program. Cabot was also able to secure Swayne’s support in exchange for appointing his brother Josiah to the Appeals Court. This gave the Whigs 44 votes in the Senate, just enough to send the Kemp-Roth Act to President McGovern’s desk on June 21st. He signed it the next day. The Kemp-Roth Bank Reform Act was the largest change to the American finance system since 1841 and overhauled the bank’s charter. It was in some ways the crowning achievement of the progressive era, and cemented William McGovern as one of the most impactful Presidents in American history. Following in Clay’s footsteps, he had left his own imprint on the United States…”

-From PARADIGM SHIFT: THE AMERICAN PROGRESSIVE ERA by Olivia DiMarco, published 2015

“As the Liberal-Democratic joint convention struggles to select a nominee, one contender has earned the opposition of the most illogically conservative of the lot. Charlie Breathitt, the former President of the National Bank, has been gaining support over the last eight ballots as a compromise candidate between Alabama Senator Howell Yarborough and Shasta Governor Patricia Linz. The two candidates had deadlocked, the hardline conservative Yarborough and the moderate, technocratic Linz each short of a majority. The paternalist [4] candidate, former New York Governor Robert Sullivan, has refused to endorse either candidate, declaring that Yarborough represents “a dangerous trend within our party: a trend of reaction and exclusion,” and Linz represents “what the voters detest about some strains of our party: elitism and supporting profit and economic growth over all other considerations.” After twelve inconclusive ballots, Sullivan withdrew and endorsed Charlie Breathitt, the former President of the Bank of the United States, in his stead.

Breathitt has proven popular with both the moderate, liberal [5] faction and the socially-conservative paternalists, but the most conservative delegates have remained steadfastly opposed. Senator Yarborough denounced him in a speech as “the man in the Ivory Tower, the epitome of privilege and power.” Others in the hard-right of the party have gone even further. Enter Congressman Lyle Carter of rural southern Virginia, who former President Claire Huntington famously referred to as “Congress’s resident nutjob,” spoke last night, and it was a hell of a speech. Carter began by tearing into Governor Linz, before turning to the surging Breathitt. He claimed that Breathitt is a Freemason (which is false – Breathitt was extended an invitation to initiate, but he declined), saying “and now let’s discuss the Mason, the former head of the National Bank. The former head of the Bank that has been a rotten institution, rife with corruption and fond of shady practices since the time of Clay.”

Amid loud boos from the delegates, Carter charged ahead undaunted. “Why should we nominate as our standard-bearer a man who headed this corrupt institution, so shrouded in secrecy? Did you know that Congress has never held an audit of the Bank of the United States? This is an organization with no accountability. Zero. We need, we deserve, a President who is familiar with accountability to Congress and to the American people. This is the party of Jackson, not the party of corrupt financiers and out-of-touch elitist billionaires.” This conveniently ignores that the Liberal Party enjoys the support of many wealthy Americans, routinely winning a majority of the top earners and upper-middle-class voters. House Speaker Alex Sessions spoke after Carter, joking at the start of his speech that “I won’t do any of that conspiracy junk.”

After the rambling, confused speech, the convention seemed to move on without a pause, as TV commentators on both sides of the aisle gleefully mocked Carter’s conspiratorial remarks. This morning, the convention resumed balloting, and Charlie Breathitt secured the nomination on the 22nd ballot, at 11:17am, after Governor Linz withdrew. The Vice-Presidential nomination will likely go to Texas Congressman Henry Ulrich, a key surrogate for the Yarborough campaign.

Breathitt will go on to face incumbent President Neil Ahrendt, a Whig, in November.”

-From CARTER SPEECH IS BIZARRE CLOSER FOR TUMULTUOUS DNC by John Pembroke, published in The National Report, July 21st, 2016

[1] TTL, the filibuster doesn’t develop – a key event that led to its development occurred in 1841 when Clay failed to end debate on his bank bill. TTL, Clay is president and has the full support of the Whigs, so the effort to prolong Senate debate fails.
[2] Essentially a mashup of the OTL Clayton Anti-Trust and FTC Act.
[3] This was a major accomplishment during Woodrow Wilson’s presidency OTL.
[4] Like Red Tories or Disraeli’s conservatism.
[5] Liberal in the classical sense, that is.
 
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Kemp-Roth? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Is William Sprague V real, btw?
Hah, thanks! I couldn't resist
There was a William Sprague V OTL, but he committed suicide in his 20s. The one TTL would be a different person, just the same name (if you've got a line of 4 William Spragues, why break the streak?)
 
Map of the United States in 1906
The American System United States 1906(1).png

10 Largest U.S. Cities as of the 1900 Census:
1. New York City, NY - 3,517,327
2. Chicago, IL - 1,689,607
3. Philadelphia, PA - 1,256,718
4. Saint Louis, MO - 583,451
5. Boston, MA - 547,794
6. Richmond, VA - 533,112
7. Baltimore, MD - 508,968
8. Cleveland, OH - 401,033
9. Buffalo, NY - 353,392
10. Lynchburg, VA - 339,876

 
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Gonna bookmark that map for reference!

i like the creative use of place names. There is indeed a Millwood, WA (it is a teeny tiny CDP) about five minutes down 90 from downtown Spokane; I take it this township sprung up to be the main city in that area, then?

(Any city there would likely have been built at the same site as modern day Spokane, the siting right on the falls is too good)
 
View attachment 764063
10 Largest U.S. Cities as of the 1900 Census:
1. New York City, NY - 3,517,327
2. Chicago, IL - 1,689,607
3. Philadelphia, PA - 1,256,718
4. Saint Louis, MO - 583,451
5. Boston, MA - 547,794
6. Richmond, VA - 533,112
7. Baltimore, MD - 508,968
8. Cleveland, OH - 401,033
9. Buffalo, NY - 353,392
10. Lynchburg, VA - 339,876

This US really has one of the most unique borders ever.

It's really good to see it not have the South West
 
Gonna bookmark that map for reference!

i like the creative use of place names. There is indeed a Millwood, WA (it is a teeny tiny CDP) about five minutes down 90 from downtown Spokane; I take it this township sprung up to be the main city in that area, then?

(Any city there would likely have been built at the same site as modern day Spokane, the siting right on the falls is too good)
Milwood is actually a city, not a CDP.
 
Gonna bookmark that map for reference!

i like the creative use of place names. There is indeed a Millwood, WA (it is a teeny tiny CDP) about five minutes down 90 from downtown Spokane; I take it this township sprung up to be the main city in that area, then?

(Any city there would likely have been built at the same site as modern day Spokane, the siting right on the falls is too good)
Ha, thanks! Millwood was founded in 1927 OTL, so TTL Spokane is just named Millwood at its founding after a local sawmill.
This US really has one of the most unique borders ever.

It's really good to see it not have the South West
Thanks!
I also am just imagining how those Richmond and Lynchburg metros will grow together into a giant agglomeration one day…
I don't know if Richmond and Lynchburg will form a contiguous mega-metro, but I could definitely see a high-speed rail connection or something like that. Richmond-Petersburg is a different story, of course. Lynchburg TTL is an important bridge between the western and eastern parts of Virginia, but I think it's just too far from Richmond for the two to merge into one big megapolitan area. Besides, Lynchburg will also have its own unique culture as the gateway to the mountains, with its own food, country music, and chain convenience stores.
 
67. An Equal and Opposite Reaction
67. An Equal and Opposite Reaction

“After the triumph of the Kemp-Roth Act, the Whigs once again moved forward with the Labor Reform Act that had been shelved by the Populists as leverage on bank reform, calling a special session of Congress in September. The text of the legislation was the same as the original draft, establishing the Conciliation Board to resolve labor disputes, ban employers from making employment contingent on non-unionization, and banning child labor, which was still legal in 17 states. There was a bid by congressman Ezra Stark Sr. of Independence, Missouri, to add an amendment banning convict leasing. This garnered considerable support from the solidarists, but strenuous Democratic opposition and the refusal of conservative Whigs to antagonize southern interests led President McGovern to quietly pressure Stark to withdraw the amendment. This debate avoided, the Labor Reform Act sailed through committee and was narrowly approved by the House on September 13th, and the Senate voted 45-39 to pass it on the 19th. President McGovern signed it into law on the 20th, capping off a hectic legislative session that saw the enactment of some of the boldest reforms since the Blaine administration.”

-From ALL AMERICAN MADE by Thurgood Nickle, published 2001

“The alteration of the bank’s charter was enormously controversial, and the divisions within the governing Whig-Populist coalition had been endlessly reported on by the press, leaving an impression in the eyes of many voters that the coalition lacked cohesiveness and unity, while the Democrats went to great lengths to present a united front. James Hepburn, who had remained the leader of the Democratic caucus, went on a speaking tour of the upper south and eastern seaboard. He sought to paint the McGovern administration, and by extension the Whig-Populist coalition, as dangerous radicals, and a Democratic majority as a necessary check on the “radical impulses of the President.” Hepburn was popular in finance-driven cities like New York and Philadelphia, and his vocal criticism of the “Whiggish arrogance” became a frequent Democratic slogan. The line adopted by the Democrats in 1906 and in several subsequent elections was that the Whigs wanted to empower the federal government to make decisions for the people while the Democrats, in the faded Jacksonian tradition [1], believed that the people were more than capable of deciding things for themselves.

The Populists took the biggest punishment as western voters returned to the Whigs in droves. Populist hopes of using McGovern’s sympathies for their agenda to supersede the Whigs were dashed, as instead most Populist voters took Whig support for Kemp-Roth, the COA, and the NDA as a sign that the Whigs were firmly dominated by McGovern and the solidarists. President McGovern’s support for Populist policies signaled to voters that the Populist Party had outlived its usefulness. As a result, out of 27 Populist-held seats, just seven remained in Populist hands after the election, as these voters returned to the Whig fold. This cushioned Whig losses, meaning the party shed just 11 seats, even as the Democrats gained 31. However, this was still enough for the Democrats to regain a majority in the House and returned control of the speaker’s gavel to the aristocratic James Hepburn. Meanwhile, the Whigs gained six seats in the Senate, mostly from Populist defections. The new Whig House caucus, though reduced, was even more firmly in the grip of the solidarists, and Kerr was able to purge Francis Kemp from his role as caucus leader, consolidating solidarist control of the House leadership. In the Senate, a wave of retirements and intra-party battles led to the ousting of conservative Whigs in Maine and New Hampshire in favor of the moderate Arthur Landon in Maine and solidarist Josiah Bachelder [2] in New Hampshire.

The 1906 House elections produced a strong backlash to McGovern’s policies from east-coast voters, as Hepburn’s call for a check on “runaway reformism” resonated with conservative and moderate voters. Whig support in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania slumped, as conservative Whigs were unable to escape being associated with the solidarists. Meanwhile, some conservatives were defeated in primaries by solidarists, further driving businessmen and financiers towards the Democrats. Industrialists, who had enjoyed a long history of bankrolling Whig campaigns, significantly reduced their donations but still supported the Whigs solely because of their trade policies. Thus, the 1902-1906 period is a true realignment of American politics. Ohio, for example, had long been a reliably Whiggish state, only voting Democratic once between 1856 and 1904 (in 1888), and Whigs had long dominated the state’s congressional delegation. However, in 1906, Ohio sent a delegation of 11 Whigs and 11 Democrats, the first time since 1886 that the Whigs had failed to win a majority. Massachusetts was another staunch Whig stronghold, but the Democrats were able to win 6 out of 14 congressional races there on the back of conservative backlash and the growing strength of the catholic vote…”

-From WHITE MAN’S NATION: AMERICA 1881-1973 by Kenneth Thurman, published 2003

“In the closing days of the 59th congress, Speaker Kerr undertook a final push to grant statehood to the Territory of Bighorn. Bighorn had been carved out of the Nebraska Territory during the Cox administration by the Indian Administration Act as part of an agreement to prevent white settlement south of the Bridger Trail in the proposed Wyoming Territory. Bighorn was established as a haven of sorts for the plains Indians, with full citizenship granted to all its residents (Indian citizenship had yet to be extended to those outside of Bighorn, however). Further, the federal government banned white homesteads within the new territory, effectively excluding all white settlement. Though the Bridger Trail ultimately cut through Bighorn, white settlement within the territory was still prohibited, and a number of enterprising Indians established formal general stores along the way.

Bighorn was a quiet, pastoral, and sparsely-settled territory for much of its existence, though the cities of Platte Bridge [3] and Douglas prospered due to the railroads and telegraph lines that ran through them. In 1895, after decades of oil seeps in the Salt Creek region of Crow County, the tribal authorities agreed to begin drilling for oil in order to capitalize on the growing popularity of automobiles. A number of modernizing, forward-thinking Indian businessmen formed the Bighorn Petroleum Corporation and took charge of prospecting for oil near Platte Bridge and Douglas. By 1901, a refinery had been constructed in Douglas, and the railroad connection there brought oil and gasoline to a number of buyers in both the east and the Pacific coast. The Bighorn Oil Boom greatly enriched the Crow, Sioux, and Cheyenne tribes whose communal lands lay in the Salt Creek area. The Populists, then the dominant party in the territorial legislature, also acted to prevent white companies from exploiting the natural wealth. Governor Thomas F. Fitzpatrick [4] arranged for the purchase in 1903 of a 51% controlling stake in the BPC by the territorial government.

The BPC was charged a steeply discounted tax, while tribes refused to allow white entrepreneurs the land permits necessary to drill for oil in Bighorn. This practice brought the territory into a series of legal battles, with white businessmen, led by the ruthless Ezra Archbold, alleging discrimination against whites in favor of Indians. The Supreme Court ruled in 1906 that Bighorn Territory could not restrict white businessmen from investing in the Salt Creek oil boom via tax discrimination, but due to the territory’s “unusual history” of barring land grants to white settlers, Chief Justice Bryant ruled that white oil companies could not “make a forcible entry” into the Bighorn oil business, as all territory in the state was communally owned by the “constituent tribes,” each tribe had the right to “favor local industry” over national corporations. This 5-4 ruling in Territory of Bighorn v. Archbold was a landmark decision, and a major victory for American Indians.

And so, the outgoing Whig-Populist congressional majority sought to bolster their chances of retaking the House in 1908 by making Bighorn, dominated by solidarist Whigs and the declining Populists, the 43rd state. The Enabling Act of 1907, which was signed into law by McGovern on February 11th, meant that finally all 43 contiguous U.S. territories had achieved statehood, and the first (and only) Indian-majority state [5]. Though the Democrats protested that it was a blatant effort by the Whigs to pad their electoral margins, the new state represented not just an important win for the Whigs, but for the American Indians as well. First they had achieved self-sufficient modern prosperity, and then they were rewarded with full statehood...”

-From WESTERN SPACES by Burton Quayle, published 1999

“On February 12th, 1907, after attending a ceremony with several Indian leaders celebrating Bighorn’s statehood, President McGovern retired to his office at 10:15 pm. Approximately half an hour later, his secretary heard a thud and the shattering of glass inside and rushed to check on him. McGovern was found slumped over his desk, having suffered a heart attack. A doctor was rushed to attend to him, and he recovered within a week, but was advised by both the doctor and his own family to stop working long hours and spend more time relaxing. McGovern, always a hard worker and aal man deeply concerned with social welfare, disregarded these warnings, and kept with his strenuous schedule…”

-From PARADIGM SHIFT: THE AMERICAN PROGRESSIVE ERA by Olivia DiMarco, published 2015

[1] It helps that Jackson was followed by another strong personality in Henry Clay, rather than the revolving door of dead and/or ineffectual Whigs and competent, very lucky Democrats we got IOTL.
[2] Incredibly enough, based off of a real guy. Nahum Josiah Bachelder was a New Hampshire farmer and leader in The Grange.
[3] OTL Caspar, WY.
[4] Fictional son of Chief Friday Fitzpatrick of the Arapahoe, who was semi-adopted as a boy by Thomas Fitzpatrick, a fur trader.
[5] Hawaii and Alaska, as OTL, still have significant native populations, but Bighorn is majority native (and by a large margin, too.)
 
Well, well, sounds like something pretty intriguing over with the American indigenous peoples. Glad they got a break here and oof, poor McGovern. Hopefully fate will spare him a bit larger here.

Also, I wonder if the natives will rename Bighorn at some point or accept it.
 
You almost had me with that ending. Really thought that was going to be it for President McGoven. Glad the American Indians seen to be fairing between than OTL. I liked seeing Bighorn be made a state too
 
Hey everyone, sorry for the delayed responses, I was visiting the Gettysburg battlefield!
Well, well, sounds like something pretty intriguing over with the American indigenous peoples. Glad they got a break here and oof, poor McGovern. Hopefully fate will spare him a bit larger here.

Also, I wonder if the natives will rename Bighorn at some point or accept it.
Definitely, one of the reasons why I made Cox President was his more conciliatory (though still paternalistic and racist AF) approach to the Plains Indians. McGovern will definitely live to see a second term...
I don't really think that Bighorn will be renamed, as other potential Indian names would probably come from one tribe or another, and Indiana is already taken.
Was Washita/Oklahoma also Native-dominated state, or no?
Washita has a large Indian population, but without the same restrictions on White settlement, it's nowhere near Indian-dominated.
You almost had me with that ending. Really thought that was going to be it for President McGoven. Glad the American Indians seen to be fairing between than OTL. I liked seeing Bighorn be made a state too
We haven't seen the last of McGovern yet!
Yeah, the Plains Indians are definitely doing an order of magnitude better than OTL. The oil wealth helps, although that will cause a big cultural shift in the coming decades...
 
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