Cinco de Mayo
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Electoral History of the Confederate States
"...as the campaign dragged on, the war of words between former friends Breckinridge and Harris only grew more heated and uglier, excruciatingly vicious in their attacks on one another. Their partisans openly brawled in the streets, and Vance's "Red Scarves" eagerly joined the fray, the errant former Governor of North Carolina having only grown more hyperbolic in the six years since his defeat to Forrest. As the campaign wore on, the masses of destitute poor whites started to riot in cities such as Raleigh, Atlanta, Nashville and even New Orleans and Richmond, the power centers of the Confederate merchant class. Egged on by Klansmen and Red Scarves, trying to ride the populist frenzy into office, the "Great Cracker Mob" [1] instigated even more political violence than the already-bloody election of 1873, split between those who viewed Breckinridge's peace treaty as a betrayal of the South and those who were sympathetic to Vance and his hard isolationist policies. Stuck in the middle of course was the genteel Breckinridge, the chivalrous Kentucky gentleman, poorly equipped for the necessities of the angry, caustic politics of a Confederacy that lacked formal party machinery to control the dispersion of votes..."
- Electoral History of the Confederate States
[1] The use of this term to describe poor rural whites in the South was historical to the 1800s before it became more of a pejorative in the 20th century
- Electoral History of the Confederate States
[1] The use of this term to describe poor rural whites in the South was historical to the 1800s before it became more of a pejorative in the 20th century
The Reign of Napoleon III: 1848-1874
"...the Emperor's illness only grew worse, and once again last rites were read for the ailing Napoleon III. As news of his convalescence spread across France, Bazaine once more mobilized the French Army to quell any unrest, particularly in Paris. Yet again, Napoleon would live on, this time for another six months. There was no denying this time, though, that despite weathering the Depression better than most nations, the French monarchy was on increasingly weak legs. Soon after the health scare passed, the National Assembly elections were held. Pro-monarchist legislators performed better than in 1868, when they had nearly lost control of the Assembly, but still opponents of the Emperor and Le Trois mustered a full 41% of the vote, a five-percent decline in share over five years. Having held the previous contest in the shadow of the humiliation against Germany, and now having navigated France through the worst of the Great Depression, the rewards were present for Bazaine's tough approach to governance..."
- The Reign of Napoleon III 1848-1874
- The Reign of Napoleon III 1848-1874
The Age of Questions: Britain in the Gauntlet of Change and Upheaval
"...the hanging of the five women arrested for participating in the attempted seizure of a Manchester cotton mill was the final straw for Walpole, who was appalled by the public execution and dismissed the act as "medieval." It has been speculated that Home Secretary Cross pushed for the measure specifically to force Walpole's hand and see if the embattled, unpopular Prime Minister would indeed cave to public pressure and attempt to secure a royal pardon before the Home Office went through with the event. Walpole went to see Queen Victoria the morning after the hangings of the Manchester Five and, in the presence of the Queen and Prince Arthur, broke down in tears and admitted that he lacked confidence in himself to steer Britain through the triple crisis of Irish agitation, Franchiser marches and trade union militancy. Rather than face the embarrassment of a Cabinet revolt, he instead preemptively resigned. When asked pointedly by Prince Arthur, all of 23 years of age, who his mother should call on to form a government, Walpole reportedly muttered, "Just give it to that bastard Herbert and let him see what better he can do." Walpole would deny until his death that he had cursed in the Queen's presence or used Lord Carnarvon's personal name rather than his title.
It fell to Carnarvon then to be invited to Buckingham Palace later that day upon Walpole's reluctant advice, and indeed he was the obvious choice. Salisbury was detested even more by Walpole and wanted to hold the portfolio of the Foreign Ministry in conjunction with Downing Street, Chancellor Hunt was mistrusted by the more aristocratic Tories, and Cross was too new to government. Beyond that, both pro and anti-Walpole factions within the Tories, his opponents empowered in the muddled election earlier in the year, were tired of complaints of Carnarvon's machinations at the Colonial Office and worried that his aggressive posture against independent South African republics would draw in another European power, and also disliked his treating Canada as a personal fiefdom. So Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, the Earl of Carnarvon, inherited Downing Street as yet another Tory moderate Prime Minister fell, again after roughly thirty months in power, and now the reactionaries had full control of Cabinet. George Ward Hunt was demoted and made Lord President of the Council, replaced as Chancellor by Sir Stafford Northcote. The Chief Secretary for Ireland was ousted and replaced by Michael Hicks Beach, better known by the epithet "Black Michael," and at the Colonial Office Carnarvon recommended the Duke of Buckingham, an affable lord who was seen as unlikely to interfere with Downing Street's broader goals for the Empire..."
- The Age of Questions: Britain in the Gauntlet of Change and Upheaval
It fell to Carnarvon then to be invited to Buckingham Palace later that day upon Walpole's reluctant advice, and indeed he was the obvious choice. Salisbury was detested even more by Walpole and wanted to hold the portfolio of the Foreign Ministry in conjunction with Downing Street, Chancellor Hunt was mistrusted by the more aristocratic Tories, and Cross was too new to government. Beyond that, both pro and anti-Walpole factions within the Tories, his opponents empowered in the muddled election earlier in the year, were tired of complaints of Carnarvon's machinations at the Colonial Office and worried that his aggressive posture against independent South African republics would draw in another European power, and also disliked his treating Canada as a personal fiefdom. So Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, the Earl of Carnarvon, inherited Downing Street as yet another Tory moderate Prime Minister fell, again after roughly thirty months in power, and now the reactionaries had full control of Cabinet. George Ward Hunt was demoted and made Lord President of the Council, replaced as Chancellor by Sir Stafford Northcote. The Chief Secretary for Ireland was ousted and replaced by Michael Hicks Beach, better known by the epithet "Black Michael," and at the Colonial Office Carnarvon recommended the Duke of Buckingham, an affable lord who was seen as unlikely to interfere with Downing Street's broader goals for the Empire..."
- The Age of Questions: Britain in the Gauntlet of Change and Upheaval
Confederate Presidential election, 1873
Confederate States Presidential election, 1873
Electoral Votes by Candidate (74 of 147 electoral votes needed to win)
John Breckinridge (Kentucky)/Augustus Garland (Arkansas) - 69 EVs,
Arkansas - 8
Georgia - 14
Kentucky - 16
Louisiana - 10
Mississippi - 11
South Carolina - 10
Isham Harris (Tennessee)/Jubal Early (Virginia) - 64 EVs
Alabama - 13
Florida - 6
Tennessee - 15
Texas - 10
Virginia - 20
Zebulon B. Vance (North Carolina)/Edward Sparrow (Louisiana) - 14 EVs,
North Carolina - 14
(Author's note: The Confederacy being, well, the Confederacy, something tells me they wouldn't reapportion state electoral votes the way they should despite a new census, so they - and me - in their laziness just give every state an extra two Congressmen after 1870 and call it a day)
Electoral Votes by Candidate (74 of 147 electoral votes needed to win)
John Breckinridge (Kentucky)/Augustus Garland (Arkansas) - 69 EVs,
Arkansas - 8
Georgia - 14
Kentucky - 16
Louisiana - 10
Mississippi - 11
South Carolina - 10
Isham Harris (Tennessee)/Jubal Early (Virginia) - 64 EVs
Alabama - 13
Florida - 6
Tennessee - 15
Texas - 10
Virginia - 20
Zebulon B. Vance (North Carolina)/Edward Sparrow (Louisiana) - 14 EVs,
North Carolina - 14
(Author's note: The Confederacy being, well, the Confederacy, something tells me they wouldn't reapportion state electoral votes the way they should despite a new census, so they - and me - in their laziness just give every state an extra two Congressmen after 1870 and call it a day)
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The Tories going even more reactionary isn't going to end well at all. Then again, who's going to stop them? The Liberals are a pathetic joke.
Electoral History of the Confederate States
"...with no candidate taking a majority of electoral votes, the choice was instead thrust to Congress, where seven of twelve House delegations were needed to break the impasse. It was thought that Breckinridge was advantaged here, but he won only the six delegations of the six states he won. Harris won the five delegations of states he had won and also North Carolina's, where the anti-Vance House members threw their lot in with Harris, deadlocking the House of Representatives [1]. It was thought that this was done in a ploy for patronage. RMT Butler of the Senate, meanwhile, stated that his chamber would make no election of the Vice President until the Representatives had made their choice, viewed as an effort to appear neutral, though later claims emerged that this due to disagreements within the planter class on how to succeed and that Senator Sparrow had begun a campaign to bribe his colleagues into electing him.
Breckinridge addressed the gathered House on December 7, 1873, trying to convince them to give him a unanimous vote - to "continue the legacy of our dear President Forrest" and suggesting that only by acknowledging that he had the most electoral and popular votes, and thus was "the people's choice." Harris eschewed addressing the House, rather taking the battle for the Gray House elsewhere - the Supreme Court, where he filed suit against the President and claimed that the electors pledged to Breckinridge were in fact invalid, as a President was constitutionally ineligible to succeed himself at the expiry of a term. Breckinridge appeared before the Supreme Court's seven justices, four of whom had been appointed by his predecessor and one by him, to argue his case that he was eligible for "a term of own right," and that he was merely serving out Forrest's term as he had not received Presidential electors of his own ever before.
In one of the most surprising episodes in Confederate political history, and what became derided for decades as "the Crime of '73," the justices backed Harris's claim in an unsigned opinion, though Justice Alexander Stephens, the former Vice President [2] who had been appointed to the Court by Forrest, later claimed that the vote was 4-3 and that it had been Justice Joseph E. Brown who was the swing vote in Harris's favor (Stephens, who only served six years on the Court before returning to the Senate until his death, would never reveal how he himself voted, though he was generally thought to prefer Breckinridge). Harris v. Breckinridge set the precedent that a Vice President who assumed office on the death or resignation of his predecessor was ineligible to run for a term in his own right and set the precedent of the Supreme Court weighing in on elections, as they threw out all of Breckinridge's electors and granted all of them to Harris instead, as he had come in second place in every state he had lost. The result thus went from inconclusive to a landslide victory for the Harris/Early ticket, though rather than settle the matter the Court had poured fire on the political dispute and only inflamed opinions around the Confederacy..."
- Electoral History of the Confederate States
[1] Why you don't want an even number of states, I suppose
[2] because why not
Breckinridge addressed the gathered House on December 7, 1873, trying to convince them to give him a unanimous vote - to "continue the legacy of our dear President Forrest" and suggesting that only by acknowledging that he had the most electoral and popular votes, and thus was "the people's choice." Harris eschewed addressing the House, rather taking the battle for the Gray House elsewhere - the Supreme Court, where he filed suit against the President and claimed that the electors pledged to Breckinridge were in fact invalid, as a President was constitutionally ineligible to succeed himself at the expiry of a term. Breckinridge appeared before the Supreme Court's seven justices, four of whom had been appointed by his predecessor and one by him, to argue his case that he was eligible for "a term of own right," and that he was merely serving out Forrest's term as he had not received Presidential electors of his own ever before.
In one of the most surprising episodes in Confederate political history, and what became derided for decades as "the Crime of '73," the justices backed Harris's claim in an unsigned opinion, though Justice Alexander Stephens, the former Vice President [2] who had been appointed to the Court by Forrest, later claimed that the vote was 4-3 and that it had been Justice Joseph E. Brown who was the swing vote in Harris's favor (Stephens, who only served six years on the Court before returning to the Senate until his death, would never reveal how he himself voted, though he was generally thought to prefer Breckinridge). Harris v. Breckinridge set the precedent that a Vice President who assumed office on the death or resignation of his predecessor was ineligible to run for a term in his own right and set the precedent of the Supreme Court weighing in on elections, as they threw out all of Breckinridge's electors and granted all of them to Harris instead, as he had come in second place in every state he had lost. The result thus went from inconclusive to a landslide victory for the Harris/Early ticket, though rather than settle the matter the Court had poured fire on the political dispute and only inflamed opinions around the Confederacy..."
- Electoral History of the Confederate States
[1] Why you don't want an even number of states, I suppose
[2] because why not
We Come From Canton: Chinese Diaspora in the 19th Century
"...though denigrated as "coolies" in their new homelands, the people who boarded those vessels in Canton or Hongkong [1] for the first time brought Chinese culture to new lands where they formed new communities. Even the lynching of six Chinese men in Los Angeles in late 1873 [2] in the first-ever race riot where black and white men participated side-by-side did not deter the flow of people from provinces such as Guangdong or Yunnan. It was Chinese labor in the New World that would build railroads across Canada, the United States and Mexico (where "los chinos" were considerably more accepted than elsewhere); it was they who found backbreaking work on the sugar plantations of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hawaii as free labor economies grew on all of them; and it was Chinese hands that built the great Royal Navy base at Singapore, that provided mercenary soldiers for the French Foreign Legion in Cochinchina and Korea, and that blossomed into the early parts of the "bamboo network" of commercial middlemen in an arc stretching from Siberia to Burma..."
- We Come From Canton: Chinese Diaspora in the 19th Century
[1] Intentionally using archaic spelling here
[2] Loosely based on IOTL event a few years earlier
- We Come From Canton: Chinese Diaspora in the 19th Century
[1] Intentionally using archaic spelling here
[2] Loosely based on IOTL event a few years earlier
The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century
"...the Orange-Vaal diamond fields concession had significantly altered the balance of power in southern Africa and by 1874 the Boer burgers who led both the Free State as well as the South African Republic had grown concerned that the diamond mines would soon be seized from them by force, especially now that the dreaded Carnarvon - who had attempted to impose a South African confederation from London by fiat - was in power. Aware of the skepticism towards Carnarvon by Cape Premier Molteno, the burgers in January of 1874 met at the Bloemfontein Conference to discuss a path forward. Led largely by Marthinus Pretorius, the agreed-upon plan emerged: a union of Boer states into a single polity rather than piecemeal republics, to be known as the Union of Free African Republics, or Afrikaner-Vryrepublieksbond. The three Republics of the Union - Stellaland, Orange and Transvaal - would be governed by a joint government in Pretoria, while the individual polities would be governed from Vrystad, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg, respectively. In consolidating all Boer interests in one government, it was thought, the Boers could better defend themselves against British encroachment.
Pretorius was, of course, elected to be the leader of this new Republic. In his vision, the Free Republics, as the country became known, would also defend themselves against British encroachment with a series of buffer states of native African kingdoms to south and west - in Basutoland, in Zululand, and in Swaziland, with alliances to be struck with all three and make the eyes of Boer expansion turn northwards into the Lowveld in the Transvaal's northern frontier and beyond. The last goal of Pretorius once he was ensconced as President of the Free Republics was to secure passageway to the sea..."
- The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century
(Author's Note: Anyone versed in SA history is welcome to interject here on how ASB this all is or any ideas on wehre to go from here).
Pretorius was, of course, elected to be the leader of this new Republic. In his vision, the Free Republics, as the country became known, would also defend themselves against British encroachment with a series of buffer states of native African kingdoms to south and west - in Basutoland, in Zululand, and in Swaziland, with alliances to be struck with all three and make the eyes of Boer expansion turn northwards into the Lowveld in the Transvaal's northern frontier and beyond. The last goal of Pretorius once he was ensconced as President of the Free Republics was to secure passageway to the sea..."
- The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century
(Author's Note: Anyone versed in SA history is welcome to interject here on how ASB this all is or any ideas on wehre to go from here).
How the West was Won: Conquest and Settlement of the North American Frontier
"...Custer emerged from winter quarters at Fort McKean in the Dakota Territory ready to pursue the gathering Sioux as far West as necessary. The Indian Office had effectively granted him an ultimatum to do as he saw fit to end the continuous attacks on settlers in the Black Hills, which he himself had explored. The Sioux would need to be expelled from the Black Hills before the settlers would stop being deported [1], it had been decided in Washington over Christmas, and as a later historian described it, "Custer's gloves had come off." Having failed to pass his Silver Purchase Act yet, the administration of John Hoffman wanted a win to present to the American people in order to potentially grow Democratic majorities in the upcoming midterms..."
- How the West was Won: Conquest and Settlement of the North American Frontier
[1] Other way around, and two years later, IOTL
- How the West was Won: Conquest and Settlement of the North American Frontier
[1] Other way around, and two years later, IOTL
Youth and Vigor: The Presidency of John T. Hoffman
"...New York became suddenly the center of attention for the President. In his home town for New Years, and to mark the annexation of the Bronx by New York, he was stunned when the New York Times released a damning expose [1] on one of his political mentors and patrons, William Tweed of Tammany Hall, which implicated the machine boss in a variety of corruption and illicit patronage schemes. Particularly ironic was that Hoffman had only days before, at a New Years Gala attended by much of the city's wealthy elite, proposed a "commission on civil service" to better reform patronage appointments and had flattered himself with his securing of a "localist" charter for the city, which was now being condemned as an effort by Tweed to grow his own power with more funds and direct political power available for his personal deployment in the city itself. The scandal, as most historians would tell you, would effectively be the defining legacy of the Hoffman Presidency, deemed guilty by association despite his own personal reputation for rectitude. Suddenly, his opponents both among Republicans and Liberals as well as free silver radicals in the Democratic caucus who wanted pressure on "Bourbon John" to push harder for his relatively mild (and in their eyes insufficient) Four-to-One Plan that had failed under Liberal filibuster saw it fit to attack the bewildered President, who quickly dismissed any informal advisers he had even remotely associated with the Tweed Ring and denied any knowledge of Tweed's vast corruption..."
- Youth and Vigor: The Presidency of John T. Hoffman
[1] Failing to contain Orange riots was a big piece of Tweed (and IOTL Hoffman's) downfall, and those same events are here just delayed a few years
- Youth and Vigor: The Presidency of John T. Hoffman
[1] Failing to contain Orange riots was a big piece of Tweed (and IOTL Hoffman's) downfall, and those same events are here just delayed a few years
Some day the libs will find their fucking balls...but seems is not the time yet
Sorry there haven't been any updates! Busy week for me, but we'll be back to our scheduled programming here shortly.
The Reign of Napoleon III 1848-1874
"...on March 15th, 1874, the French Empire signed the Second Treaty of Saigon with Viet Nam, further establishing their suzerainty over the provinces of Cochinchina and setting up future rivalry with China over the lands around Hanoi even further north. The next day, a world away, the Prince Napoleon turned 18 - and so on the 17th, the dying Emperor Napoleon III abdicated the throne without warning, though the move had been expected by his inner circle for years. Having prepared his entire childhood for this moment, the Prince Imperial was now Napoleon IV of France, hailed to Tuileries to host his court and be acclaimed Emperor of the French. A contemporary report stated, 'the young Eaglet, with his well-groomed moustache, still somewhat spent from his birthday festivities the night before, cut a tall and handsome figure, quite the opposite of his dying father. His mother, the Empress Dowager Eugenie, stood to his right; to his left, Eugene Rouher, his chief advisor. Napoleon III was nowhere to be seen, having apparently already withdrawn to bed.
The abdicated Emperor indeed made no more appearances in public, not wanting to steal his son's spotlight, and despite plans to take him to warmer climes in Corsica, he would die on the 30th of March, only two weeks after his abdication. After nearly 26 years on the throne, having reshaped French society and her place in the world - lessened militarily in Europe, but on the verge of colonial dominance - Napoleon III of the House of Bonaparte, Emperor of France, conqueror of Southeast Asia, patron of free trade, founder of the Suez Canal and guarantor of the Papacy, was gone..."
- The Reign of Napoleon III 1848-1874
The abdicated Emperor indeed made no more appearances in public, not wanting to steal his son's spotlight, and despite plans to take him to warmer climes in Corsica, he would die on the 30th of March, only two weeks after his abdication. After nearly 26 years on the throne, having reshaped French society and her place in the world - lessened militarily in Europe, but on the verge of colonial dominance - Napoleon III of the House of Bonaparte, Emperor of France, conqueror of Southeast Asia, patron of free trade, founder of the Suez Canal and guarantor of the Papacy, was gone..."
- The Reign of Napoleon III 1848-1874
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