The Effects of Washington’s Death on the Sovereign American States
The Siege of Yorktown was the final nail in the coffin for the British army in America’s Revolutionary War. The failed attempt to take Yorktown led to support for the war plummeting in Britain and spurned British politicians to begin working on a peace treaty - it was seen as preferable to allow the colonial rabble to secede than to drag the war on for any longer than they needed to.
But Yorktown was not entirely beneficial for the Patriots - General Washington, the charismatic leader of the revolutionaries was injured during the fighting and after the battle his health begins to decline: the wound had been infected. By the preliminary signing of the Treaty of Paris, Washington is dead.
One would think that the loss of the Revolutionaries’ most renowned general would lead to Britain backing out of the Treaty and resuming the war, but as it turns out the idea of more fighting does not interest the British Parliament (though many members of the military will continue to make noise about “taking back the colonies” and the peace settlement shall remain controversial for many years). Peace is achieved when the Treaty of Paris is signed in September 1783.
Of course, the lack of a charismatic leader behind whom the thirteen states could rally has consequences. When it is realized that the Articles of Confederation do not make for a strong union, delegates from each of the thirteen states meet to draft a new document, a constitution. However, the strong disagreements between Republicans like Jefferson and Federalists like Adams cause the deliberations that started in May 1787 to drag on until June 1789, when they conclude with no constitution in sight. This would eventually lead to the dissolution of the United States of America.
The “Dissolution War” begins when Adams refuses to remain under the Articles of Confederation. His calls to secede from the Union are readily listened to in his home state of Massachusetts and in the rest of New England - the secession movement grows in popularity until January 17th 1790, when Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire form the Federation of New England. On February 20th, Adams is inaugurated as the first President of the Federation of New England. Meanwhile, Hamilton applies his military and legal background to steadily gather support - if not among the unsympathetic public, then among the soldiers, lawyers, and bankers - for his secession movement. Maryland, alienated by Virginia’s obstinate hold on the Northwest Territory and inspired by New England’s secession, implies the intention to secede as well if Virginia does not surrender its claim. Despite Jefferson’s best efforts to convince his fellow Virginians that this is the best option, Virginia refuses.
In the aftermath of Adams’ inauguration and faced with the threat of continuing secessions, Congress meets in Philadelphia to decide whether the military should be sent to intervene and restore New England to the Union. Once again, the deliberations drag on for months - but this time a decision is reached: allowing the Federalists to secede would weaken the Union and letting this go ahead would inspire further secession movements; worse, it is far too likely that this Federation of New England would ally with Britain at some point if this dissolution does encourage the British to attempt a retaking of the colonies. The only feasible approach, Congress concludes, is military intervention. At this, the New York army protests. Thanks to Hamilton, they are already largely sympathetic to the New England secessionists, and being ordered by a Congress that they believe does not care for them to fight against their ideological brethren is abhorrent and the last straw. New York refuses to participate in the military intervention and declares its own secession from the Union on 29th November 1790. Maryland follows three days later.
Pennsylvania, still bitter over the Covenanter Dispute, experiences its own secessionist movements as the people are emboldened by the secessions of New England, New York, and Maryland. Eventually, New Jersey and Delaware follow suit as, being small states, they fear becoming a minority if they remain in the USA. The Union, seeking to avoid the instability that so many secessions would cause, begins waging the campaign that would later be remembered as the Northern War - or the Second Revolution in the seceding states, before being officially renamed the Dissolution War.
Whatever one calls it, a key turning point (if not the turning point) in the conflict is the intervention of the Western Confederacy: the Northwest Indian Wars had been going on for some time and, seeing the USA’s infighting as an opportunity, the Western Confederacy declared war on both the Unionists and the secessionists. The Cherokee war chief Dragging Canoe fights in many of the battles. The Republic of Maryland forms an alliance with the Western Confederacy, as does New York. Realizing that the benefits of having allies against the Union outweigh the consequences of giving up Massachusetts and Connecticut’s claims to parts of the Northwest Territory, Adams brings New England into the alliance. New Jersey and Pennsylvania also join. With all their enemies on the same side, the Union has very little chance of winning.
As the war drags on, it becomes clear that the Federalists have stronger economies to power their armies than the Union does. With the need to raise taxes to finance the war, discontent brews south of Virginia - particularly as much of the fighting is happening in a territory that those states have no stake in. Even Anti-Federalists like Alexander Martin are now calling for an end to the war, and Jefferson is attempting to persuade Virginia to concede to those demands “to preserve what remains of the Union”. Eventually, Congress meets in Richmond and agrees to draft a preliminary peace treaty, which is signed in Manhattan on 12th October 1797. The Treaty of Manhattan leaves in its wake a United States of America consisting of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. The Northwest Territory becomes the Confederacy of Indiana. The seceding states of the Union form the Federal Union of New England, the Federal Republic of New York, the Republic of Maryland, and the Confederate States of America (a union consisting of New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania).
Naturally, the “Divided States of America” attracted ridicule from the British, particularly from veterans of the Revolutionary War who took this as an excuse to campaign even harder for a second war to reclaim Britain’s former colonies. Eventually they would get such a war and provide an Emperor on the other side of the Channel with a much-needed knock to his ego.
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I’d just like to thank Skallagrim and Napoleonrules in particular for helping me to figure out how something like this could happen. I was just thinking “kill Washington, let the partisan fools fight amongst themselves and decide to just give up on the whole idea”, but to quote John Green “the truth defies simplicity”. It makes sense to apply that to the ATL truth as well.
Of course I’ll elaborate on the nature of the Covenanter Dispute later on.
Thoughts?