Let Us Strive (2.0)
- Thread starter John Fredrick Parker
- Start date
Seconded. I like the idea of Lincoln on the Supreme Court as well.
I support the Santo Domingo annexation, Justice Lincoln and American Korea. But, Grant's Administration would probably still have corruption issues dogging it.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
I'm guess Santo Domingo becomes a place to put the free blacks. Maybe President Grant can parcel out the land and offer it to the blacks since land reform in the South is probably unlikely given the attitudes at the time.
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
Wanted to pop in and thank everyone for their feedback, and apologize for not getting back to this TL for so long -- had some events recently intervening 
I see annexation of Santo Domingo is popular, so I'm leaning toward incorporating it at this point. Also, on Grant -- didn't really know how to make this clear in TL proper, but Grant's Administration is a lot less corrupt than OTL, in no small part due to his cabinet experience as War Secretary (giving him political experience he didn't have OTL). Other suggestions:
While land reform (in the form of redistribution) is no longer in the running and homesteads are, I think I can say categorically that this will not happen TTL.
As FDW noted, Lincoln likely won't have that long a post-presidency (though I do have him make it past 1875); so, sorry to disappoint, but no.
As to Korea, the US only opens Korea (similar to Japan) but that doesn't mean other powers aren't still going to circle around them like vultures (see comment 52).
I see annexation of Santo Domingo is popular, so I'm leaning toward incorporating it at this point. Also, on Grant -- didn't really know how to make this clear in TL proper, but Grant's Administration is a lot less corrupt than OTL, in no small part due to his cabinet experience as War Secretary (giving him political experience he didn't have OTL). Other suggestions:
Ringo Starr said:
While land reform (in the form of redistribution) is no longer in the running and homesteads are, I think I can say categorically that this will not happen TTL.
Ganesha said:
Whanztastic said:
As FDW noted, Lincoln likely won't have that long a post-presidency (though I do have him make it past 1875); so, sorry to disappoint, but no.
As to Korea, the US only opens Korea (similar to Japan) but that doesn't mean other powers aren't still going to circle around them like vultures (see comment 52).
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
(taken from Grant the Statesman by Jean Edward Smith)
Of President Grant's accomplishments, few stirred as much controversy as the Dominican Acquisition. Arguably, modern historians are unfair to Grant in frequently comparing the acquisition with his predecessor's far cleaner purchase of Alaska... Santo Domingo's President, Buenaventura Baéz, had tried years earlier to have his country annexed by a number of different nations, including France and Spain; the US was his last chance...
Buenaventura Baéz
At the start of the process, he was hopeful that the island could be made into a destination for free blacks; however, the Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, Charles Sumner, opposed the idea of the project, on fears that the settlers would be exploited... Ultimately to get his approval, the President would accede to a number of provisions that would essentially make his initial designs on the island impossible...
When on top of this, a block of senators voiced their refusal to even consider the annexation of country as a state, Grant and Baez found the best they could hope for was the addition of Domingo as a territory... Even then the deal had many loud detractors, both in the US and on the island... The President's hope's for a quick statehood were dashed in the years ahead, and it was not until the 20th Century that the US State of Dominica came into being...
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(taken from the Epilogue of The Lincoln Presidency, by Richard N Goodwin)
In 1872, Lincoln accepted a request from President Grant to use his influence to help solve the "Mormon problem", and in May of that year he set out to Salt Lake City for a face to face meeting with Brigham Young.
What passed between the two men will probably never be known, as neither kept any written record of what was said, and were unwilling to discuss it after. Historians have credited Lincoln -- myself among them -- with having won over the Mormon leader to the "Compromise of 1872", by which the Saints prohibited plural marriage for the future, in return for early statehood and the promise that existing polygamous families would be left unmolested.
Brigham Young
A dissenting view, held by many historians in the Mormon church, maintain that the initiative for this came from and that Lincoln's part consisted mainly of dissuading Grant from reneging on the deal, as he was under pressure to do from Territorial officials... Be that as it may, the Enabling Act was passed in May 1873... [1]
Lincoln's last act of public service came when he was in very poor health, during the Centennial Celebrations of 1876. His last speech is read by school children to this day -- the commemorating the nation's founding, their promise, and what succeeding generations owed that promise need not be analyzed here, and its words are well known...
"Lincoln died sad and fatigued" -- that's the saying. And while it may be accurate in its own way, it is less well known how the President had been, the day before his passing and after the Centennial, by Robert Todd's account, to be "almost as lucid as he had been a decade earlier, and as generous in spirit as ever." He added, "If I were able to make a judgement on such a thing, I might have said he was happy."
That night, some time before the morning of July 6, 1876, Abraham Lincoln died in his sleep. He was 67 years old.
Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1876
OOC: [1] This is essentially ripped from a post by Mikestone8 -- who has been a big help on a number of threads I had on this
EDIT NOTE (still OOC): Oh yeah, I put in the part about Alaska (JTBC that it happens ITTL as well)
Of President Grant's accomplishments, few stirred as much controversy as the Dominican Acquisition. Arguably, modern historians are unfair to Grant in frequently comparing the acquisition with his predecessor's far cleaner purchase of Alaska... Santo Domingo's President, Buenaventura Baéz, had tried years earlier to have his country annexed by a number of different nations, including France and Spain; the US was his last chance...
Buenaventura Baéz
At the start of the process, he was hopeful that the island could be made into a destination for free blacks; however, the Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, Charles Sumner, opposed the idea of the project, on fears that the settlers would be exploited... Ultimately to get his approval, the President would accede to a number of provisions that would essentially make his initial designs on the island impossible...
When on top of this, a block of senators voiced their refusal to even consider the annexation of country as a state, Grant and Baez found the best they could hope for was the addition of Domingo as a territory... Even then the deal had many loud detractors, both in the US and on the island... The President's hope's for a quick statehood were dashed in the years ahead, and it was not until the 20th Century that the US State of Dominica came into being...
-----
(taken from the Epilogue of The Lincoln Presidency, by Richard N Goodwin)
In 1872, Lincoln accepted a request from President Grant to use his influence to help solve the "Mormon problem", and in May of that year he set out to Salt Lake City for a face to face meeting with Brigham Young.
What passed between the two men will probably never be known, as neither kept any written record of what was said, and were unwilling to discuss it after. Historians have credited Lincoln -- myself among them -- with having won over the Mormon leader to the "Compromise of 1872", by which the Saints prohibited plural marriage for the future, in return for early statehood and the promise that existing polygamous families would be left unmolested.
Brigham Young
A dissenting view, held by many historians in the Mormon church, maintain that the initiative for this came from and that Lincoln's part consisted mainly of dissuading Grant from reneging on the deal, as he was under pressure to do from Territorial officials... Be that as it may, the Enabling Act was passed in May 1873... [1]
Lincoln's last act of public service came when he was in very poor health, during the Centennial Celebrations of 1876. His last speech is read by school children to this day -- the commemorating the nation's founding, their promise, and what succeeding generations owed that promise need not be analyzed here, and its words are well known...
"Lincoln died sad and fatigued" -- that's the saying. And while it may be accurate in its own way, it is less well known how the President had been, the day before his passing and after the Centennial, by Robert Todd's account, to be "almost as lucid as he had been a decade earlier, and as generous in spirit as ever." He added, "If I were able to make a judgement on such a thing, I might have said he was happy."
That night, some time before the morning of July 6, 1876, Abraham Lincoln died in his sleep. He was 67 years old.
Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1876
OOC: [1] This is essentially ripped from a post by Mikestone8 -- who has been a big help on a number of threads I had on this
EDIT NOTE (still OOC): Oh yeah, I put in the part about Alaska (JTBC that it happens ITTL as well
)
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Minor quibble: this means he just misses following Adams & Jefferson in dying on July 4 itself.
Ah, gotta love how close it is and how far it is. And he dies two days after the Centennial!
I do love how close it is, but wouldn't it be cooler if he died on the centennial itself?
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
(from a page on The Internet Elections Guide)
Year: 1876
Country: United States
Office: President
Candidates:
Democratic Nominee: George H Pendleton (US Senator from Ohio)
Republican Nominee: James G Blaine (Speaker of the House)
Issues:
Economy: Effects of Recession of 1873
Foreign Relations: Domingo Purchase
Other: Southern Reconstruction
Winner: James G Blaine
Popular Vote Margin: 2%
OOC: Yeah, it's a short post; I don't plan on doing any more real details on Blaine's Presidency (though I will do one notable event in the US to happen on his watch).
Also, since he doesn't get to appoint any Supreme Court Justices, I figured I'd do an update on the court:
Roscoe Conkling (Chief Justice)
Nathan Clifford (only pre-Lincoln justice left on the court)
Noah Haynes Swayne (L)
Samuel Freeman Miller (L)
David Davis (L)
Stephen Johnson Field (L)
John Marshall Harlan (L)
John Bingham (L)
Carl Schurz (appointed by Grant)
Year: 1876
Country: United States
Office: President
Candidates:
Democratic Nominee: George H Pendleton (US Senator from Ohio)
Republican Nominee: James G Blaine (Speaker of the House)
Issues:
Economy: Effects of Recession of 1873
Foreign Relations: Domingo Purchase
Other: Southern Reconstruction
Winner: James G Blaine
Popular Vote Margin: 2%
OOC: Yeah, it's a short post; I don't plan on doing any more real details on Blaine's Presidency (though I will do one notable event in the US to happen on his watch).
Also, since he doesn't get to appoint any Supreme Court Justices, I figured I'd do an update on the court:
Roscoe Conkling (Chief Justice)
Nathan Clifford (only pre-Lincoln justice left on the court)
Noah Haynes Swayne (L)
Samuel Freeman Miller (L)
David Davis (L)
Stephen Johnson Field (L)
John Marshall Harlan (L)
John Bingham (L)
Carl Schurz (appointed by Grant)
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
Re Lincoln's date of death, I wanted him well enough to partake in the Centennial Celebrations, and give him at least one day after that to enjoy himself in comfort. So I'd think it's close enough
Anyway, I think I'm done for today; I've got a thread up looking into the prospects for one of the subplots I'm thinking of...
Anyway, I think I'm done for today; I've got a thread up looking into the prospects for one of the subplots I'm thinking of...
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
(taken from The History of the Woman's Vote by Ann Bausum)
Building on the examples of the Wyoming and Utah [1] territories, suffragists moved on the next opportunity -- Colorado, which achieved statehood in 1876. The men responsible for drawing up the constitution made the historic decision to allow the expansion of the franchise by a simple referendum; suffragists pushed the new legislature the following year to set such a referendum in conjunction with the next congressional elections [1]... In the nearly two years that followed, suffragists built a grassroots campaign, and leaders like Susan B Anthony stumped across the state...
In 1878, Colorado went to the polls, and became the first state in the country to give women the vote... This would lay the groundwork for other Western States to follow in the next two decades...
-----
(taken from Booker T Washington's autobiography Rise From Slavery)
I was completely out of money when I graduated [from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute]. In company with our other Hampton students, I secured a place as a table waiter in a summer hotel in Connecticut, and managed to borrow enough money with which to get there... At the close of the hotel season I returned to my former home in Malden, and was elected to teach the coloured school at that place. At the time, this felt like the beginning of the happiest period of my life. I now felt that I had the opportunity to help the people of my home town to a higher life. I felt from the first that mere book education was not all that the young people of that town needed. I began my work at eight o'clock in the morning, and, as a rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night... [2]
In doing all of this, I hoped in my heart to bring to my hometown what I had gone through so much to receive at Hampton. This was a source of both inspiration and frustration...
Booker T Washington, years later as Secretary of State
It was in my preparations for my second year of teaching that I first recall hearing about the campaign of William Mahone -- he was well known by East Virginians as the Confederate soldier who rallied the rebels at the Battle of the Crater, and for settling after the war as an eccentric railroad businessman. Now he was running for Governor... It was the last part of that platform -- the great expansion of education funding across the state -- that struck a chord with me -- even if it was in the state to the east, and even if he proposed to pay for it through the payments of my new home state, I could not help but be impressed at his dedication...
William Mahone, Virginia Governor 1878-1881, US Senator 1883-1894
Once I had mailed my letter of support, I did not think further on it, since I was sure he would take little notice; certainly, I did not expect him to write back. To my surprise, he not only did this, but I soon found myself exchanging letters on a regular basis with him... Even after we met years later, after I had come to better appreciate my gifts, I still never understood how he could be so interested in a teacher from West Virginia...
-----
(taken from Electric Empire: The Story of Western Union by Joshua Wolfe)
In 1879, the company made a decision that would transform it -- and communication -- in the decades to come... For a hefty $100,000 Western Union was now owner of Alexander Grahm Bell's telephone patent...
-----
OOC: [1] Note in OTL, such a referendum was held in 1877, with low turnout and different results
[2] The preceding part is (more or less) verbatim part of Up From Slavery
Building on the examples of the Wyoming and Utah [1] territories, suffragists moved on the next opportunity -- Colorado, which achieved statehood in 1876. The men responsible for drawing up the constitution made the historic decision to allow the expansion of the franchise by a simple referendum; suffragists pushed the new legislature the following year to set such a referendum in conjunction with the next congressional elections [1]... In the nearly two years that followed, suffragists built a grassroots campaign, and leaders like Susan B Anthony stumped across the state...
In 1878, Colorado went to the polls, and became the first state in the country to give women the vote... This would lay the groundwork for other Western States to follow in the next two decades...
-----
(taken from Booker T Washington's autobiography Rise From Slavery)
I was completely out of money when I graduated [from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute]. In company with our other Hampton students, I secured a place as a table waiter in a summer hotel in Connecticut, and managed to borrow enough money with which to get there... At the close of the hotel season I returned to my former home in Malden, and was elected to teach the coloured school at that place. At the time, this felt like the beginning of the happiest period of my life. I now felt that I had the opportunity to help the people of my home town to a higher life. I felt from the first that mere book education was not all that the young people of that town needed. I began my work at eight o'clock in the morning, and, as a rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night... [2]
In doing all of this, I hoped in my heart to bring to my hometown what I had gone through so much to receive at Hampton. This was a source of both inspiration and frustration...
Booker T Washington, years later as Secretary of State
It was in my preparations for my second year of teaching that I first recall hearing about the campaign of William Mahone -- he was well known by East Virginians as the Confederate soldier who rallied the rebels at the Battle of the Crater, and for settling after the war as an eccentric railroad businessman. Now he was running for Governor... It was the last part of that platform -- the great expansion of education funding across the state -- that struck a chord with me -- even if it was in the state to the east, and even if he proposed to pay for it through the payments of my new home state, I could not help but be impressed at his dedication...
William Mahone, Virginia Governor 1878-1881, US Senator 1883-1894
Once I had mailed my letter of support, I did not think further on it, since I was sure he would take little notice; certainly, I did not expect him to write back. To my surprise, he not only did this, but I soon found myself exchanging letters on a regular basis with him... Even after we met years later, after I had come to better appreciate my gifts, I still never understood how he could be so interested in a teacher from West Virginia...
-----
(taken from Electric Empire: The Story of Western Union by Joshua Wolfe)
In 1879, the company made a decision that would transform it -- and communication -- in the decades to come... For a hefty $100,000 Western Union was now owner of Alexander Grahm Bell's telephone patent...
-----
OOC: [1] Note in OTL, such a referendum was held in 1877, with low turnout and different results
[2] The preceding part is (more or less) verbatim part of Up From Slavery
Yeah, I must've been confusing this for another TL. I thought it would be a neat idea you would pick though, since a greater Virginia might be able to avoid being part of the Solid South due to West Virginian-Freedman-Carpetbagger-Scalawag Cooperation. Though you seem to have done that in anyways with Gov. Mahone
Yeah, I must've been confusing this for another TL. I thought it would be a neat idea you would pick though, since a greater Virginia might be able to avoid being part of the Solid South due to West Virginian-Freedman-Carpetbagger-Scalawag Cooperation. Though you seem to have done that in anyways with Gov. Mahone
Actually, keeping the states together wouldn't have made that much difference, since the Dems regained WV by 1871. Grant managed to carry it the following year, more due to Greeley's weakness than his own strength but thereafter it wouldn't vote for another Republican until 1896.
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