New England secede during/after Civil War

Hey Guys,

One idea that's batted around for a Confederate victory timeline is to have Britain and France declare war on the United States after the Trent affair. This most likely will inevitably lead to a Confederate victory, but what would the effects on New England be? One of the areas that trades most with Britain (and France) on the Atlantic seaboard, it previously discussed secession in the War of 1812.

What would New England do now? The war would probably only last a year or two I expect now with the Union being hemmed in from both the North and South, alongside this trade will virtually be halted to New England. I expect Britain would probably set up its own blockade of New England, thus making it much worse.

While during the war I expect Lincoln would do nearly everything he could to keep the states of New England in the Union even with these stresses being placed on them, what would happen after the Union is beaten? The US has lost huge swathes of populated land, of which most were involved in the cotton industry. Lincoln had been shown to have lost a war against the Southerners, while also causing the British blockade of New England. Alongside this, if Britain takes the northern section of Maine in the peace then it's even more humiliating for New England.

Thus, taking all this into account might we see the states of New England voting to secede very much in the way the Confederate states had? What could the Union do to try and keep these states in if they did try and leave? Could they even try and war with them, or might Britain support their independence as well with the possibility of a weaker Union and to have a nation that isn't likely to war with them that's also going to trade a lot?

If this isn't plausible in a scenario with just the CSA winning the war with Anglo-French support, then what may have to happen in the war/post war in order for the New English states to feel they should leave the Union? Possibly have the Union start the war, and thus seeming much more aggressive? This would also allow a lot more of the blame of lost trade to be placed on the US.
 

Typo

Banned
New England seceding by 1860 is ASBish.

After all, the union favors their region the most.
 
I highly doubt that New England is about to jump ship in the middle of the Civil War for any set of reasons since they were the region of the country most in favor of continuing its prosecution. The extereme abolitionists and Rads were mostly from that region of the country. They'll stick around until it ends, probably resisting surrender or defeat the whole way.

After the war, I again doubt that they'll secede. Those same extremists from New England are going to be upset with Lincoln for losing the war, no doubt. Their likely reaction, though, isn't going to be leaving the Union which would guarantee no common border with the former Southern states and, thus, no influence on ending the evil institution. Instead, I think, they would wait until the next elections and start "waving the bloody shirt" that Lincoln, the middle of the road midwesterner, didn't have the spine to win the war and would jump on the Democrats as the party of secession. This way they could probably split the vote in a three way contest, which would pretty much guarantee their victory given their solid voting block.

I think that the promise of controlling the Union, or what was left of it, would be more enticing than bolting like the southern states did and starting a whole new country. That's just my two-cents, however.
 
A little bump

So after a little more research and reading these comments it's rather obvious that New England is just not going to secede during or directly after the Civil War.

However lately I've had another idea about New English secession. Say after the Civil War the Union creates a lot of extra states in its Western regions (e.g. Jefferson, Absaroka, Eastern Washington etc), in order to keep them happy and to not secede. Then a President who comes from a Western State which none of New England voted for is elected and starts a war with Britain, thus severely hampring trade in New England at some point in the 1880's/1890's.

Would this be enough to push New England over the egde? With an occupied Northern Maine, total blockade of its coastline and economy going under with the lack of trade would New England be pushed enough to secede?
 
Would this be enough to push New England over the egde? With an occupied Northern Maine, total blockade of its coastline and economy going under with the lack of trade would New England be pushed enough to secede?
This describes perfectly the atmosphere in New England during the War of 1812, FYI. But I don't see why and how this would happen. After the Civil War, secession became impossible. Not just politically difficult, but basically verboten... and for the record I don't think anyone outside of the Essex Junto ever took very seriously the idea of New England seceding. Not to mention, what would New England gain from seceding after the civil war? They are blockaded by the British, true, but this wouldn't end until the war was over. And then it would be replaced by a much more damaging total blockade by the US.
Relating to the election - had Tilden not been robbed of the 1876 election, solid Republican New England would have been faced with the first post-Civil War Democratic president. And the only people who it was feared might cause trouble were the southerners. Not to mention that no one seceded when Grover Cleveland was elected. :rolleyes:
 
Forgive my ignorance, but with the exception of the States around the Great Lakes, what would New England need to secede from? Most of central USA was still territories and if the Confederates won the war Texas and California may well join them rather than staying in the Union.
 
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