American Dictators During the Revolution

Maybe they make dictator a temporary position in times of crises like the Romans?


Further down the road, this could have a major impact on the civil war (assuming the civil war as we know it isn't butterflied). Could you imagine a dictator George B. McClellan? :eek:

Not really. He didn't seem attack happy enough.
 
Reading The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia, I came across an interesting bit.

Some backstory: by 1781, Virginia's defense had collapsed. The militia refuesd to turn out, the state was broke, Jefferson had fled in advance of British troops, etc.

By May, even our old buddy Jefferson was calling for martial law in the state and the use of more forceful measures agains the state's citizens. Jefferosn wrote to Washington and claimed that he was the state's last hope, and asked Washington to come to the state in person.

Now Washington did come, and this is how we got Yorktown. But there were other calls for Washington to take a more, ah, assertive role. The Virginia legislature had to flee Charlottesville in advance of a British raid, and once they relocated to Staunton, one George Nicholas moved to appoint a dictator, suggesting either General Greene or General Washington.

This wasn't the conjecture of one legislator who was watching his state collapse. Patrick Henry seconded it, stating it was immaterial "whether the Officer was called a Dictator or a Govenrnor. " Richard Henry lee also warned that Washington, with flul dictattorial power, could yet save the state.

Now, obviously this didn't go anywhere; the motion ot appoint a dictator was debated in secret, and failed. But it does show the possibility.

Actually, given that Patrick Henry almost ended up as a Continental General, things could get very interesting, in the Chinese sense, for Virginia...

Well, it could work out, at least in the South, but in that case, any dictator would HAVE to basically subject himself to the will of the wealthiest planters; there are no two ways around that, because without their support, any dictatorship south of the Ohio would be short-lived.

But if it does become successful, there are going to be a lot of people up North who are either going to want to form their own nation or cut the South off from the rest of the country, though with an exception: what happens to Virginia, and how much of it, is an open question, regardless: remember, Jefferson, Madison, and several other founders were Virginians, and would be horrified at even the possible prospect of a dictator, let alone the rise of one. I don't find it too farfetched that some Virginians might want to leave for other parts of the country, especially if someone like Jefferson or Madison goes North(jumping on the bandwagon, we might say.). And then there's the possibility that Virginia might be divided between the two nations(The Democratic one being the U.S. and the dictator in the Other Country); One scenario I can see happening is that eastern Virginia may still be seized by the Dictator, but what became Kentucky IOTL and even perhaps the Appalachian region might remain in Democratic hands. Or, vice versa, what became Kentucky could be seized but most of the rest of Virginia might remain American.
 
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