Stars, Stripes and A Pine, Post #8:
Henry had always been somewhat of a quiet and isolated farmer, not that busy or invested in things happening in the outside world. Most of his day consisted of him letting his cows graze in the field, and feeding his goats with all the hay he could get. Atleast, that was during the summer. During winter, especially during heavy ones, like the one that was going on right now, he was constantly checking if the shelters of his livestock were still in good condition. He had already sold much of his livestock, scraping together as much money as he possible could, and another one of his cows or goats dying would be a disaster. Despite all this, there was one thing that had always fascinated Henry: the landscape.
The landscape of New Hampshire was truly a sight to behold. Henry’s location in particular was fascinating: a big lake, surrounded by a large variety of trees, some of which Henry didn’t even know the name of, with a large mountain range to the north. Henry would stare at them for a while during the short breaks he sometimes took.
Today, however, was different. New England was about to learn who would be the winner in its first presidential election. Henry didn’t really care about either candidate, only learning about their platforms whilst selling milk in some of the local towns. He sometimes saw pamphlets at the town halls, or small campaign ads in the local newspapers he bought. The only reason he was heading to Moultonborough (one of the local towns) to hear about the result, was out of curiosity.
As the evening dawned, Henry headed out to Moultonborough by foot. After about two hours of non-stop walking, he finally arrived. As he made his way to the town hall, he noted several people looking at a newspaper with visible concern. Why would that be? Had their favored candidate lost? His curiosity became greater. Further along the way, he spotted the same, but this time with an even larger group of people. What was going on? Had a candidate died or something? Now his curiosity was at its peak. Making his way into the town hall, he saw the same thing he had seen on the street. Grabbing the newspaper, he saw the election result being front-page news, and started to read.
A visible look of concern could be seen on Henry’s face.
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The early years of New England’s history were ones of questions and chaos. The nations new-found independence following the Treaty of London (1815) left even members of the Hartford Convention surprised: not only was New England now an independent state, something that only the most radical members of the Convention had called for, but even the state of New York, which wasn’t even considered part of the region of New England, had been added to the nation. Many people in New York considered this to be purely a British decision (after all, adding New York to New England meant that important cities in Canada, like Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, were protected from an invasion from the east, in case of another war between the US and Britain). Thus, a divide had emerged between New York and the rest of New England’s states. But this was the least of the nation’s problems.
The idea that New England as a nation was purely a creation of the British Empire, was something that would haunt it for a long time. Many American presidents during their campaigns would even refer to New England as “occupied territory”, and in the later years of the 19th century, “Britain’s first Dominion”, much to the dismay of New Englanders. But there was a level of truth in that idea: the Embargo Act of 1807, the main driving force behind New England’s secessionist movement, had already been repealed under President Madison, and the movement had already started to fade away during the time before the War of 1812. It is very likely that if the US had won the war, or it had simply turned into a stalemate, that New England would still be part of the United States to this very day.
Another problem had to do with how New England performed its presidential elections. New England’s relatively sudden independence from the United States had left many of its electoral institutions, particularly the Electoral College, in a state of chaos. Various things, like the number of electors per state, would have to be completely redecided. The Electoral College in New England following independence was so utterly broken, that a presidential election in 1816 had become impossible. Some politicians (particularly the more liberal ones), felt that the College as a whole was simply unnecessary for this new nation, and started campaigning for its abolishment.
In cite of these problems, many people felt that a temporary governing body had to be created that would govern the nation and develop its consitution, before switching over to the presidential system. Much debate took place on who the members of this body would be, but most eventually settled on the members of the Hartford Convention. There was, however, significant debate over who would be the body’s de-facto leader. After some time, it all came down to two candidates: Timothy Pickering and Harrison Gray Otis. Both were from Massachusetts, and both had fought with vigor for New England’s independence (Pickering had vehemently opposed the Embargo Act, whilst Otis was one of the more prominent members of the Hartford Convention). One small detail would eventually make the difference: in 1811, Timothy Pickering had violated the Logan Act, which stated that unauthorized negotiations with a foreign government the United States had a dispute with, were illegal. Pickering had violated it by holding several conferences with special British envoy George Rose, were he proposed the creation of a pro-British party in New England that would resist the Embargo Act. Fearing that this fact could lead to the public seeing Pickering as a British loyalist, something that would emphasize New England’s link to Britain, he was eventually sidelined, and Harrison Gary Otis (or H.G. Otis, as some would start to call him), became the body’s leader. [1]
Timothy Pickering (1745-1829)
Harrison Gary Otis (1765-1846)
This body, which eventually became known as “The Conventioners” (for obvious reasons), quickly went to work developing the nation’s constitution. Most of New England’s early Constitution was almost a carbon-copy of the US Constitution, with only a few tiny differences when it came to the wording of certain articles and amendments. There was also a restructuring of the Electoral College, with the number of electors being reduced from 80 (the number of electors whilst New England was still part of the United States) to 60, with New York and Massachusetts getting te largest numbers of electors (15 for both states). [2]
Almost immediately, this came under fire from Anti-Electoral College politicians, who criticized the fact that this division of Electors meant that a presidential candidate (if the Electoral College was left in place) could pretty much win a presidential election whilst having won only one-third of all the states. It would also create an electoral deadlock if a candidate only won these two states, if the Electoral College still remained as the deciding factor in an election. In response to this, the Conventioners publically stated that they had decided the number of Electors based on a state’s economic and strategic importance. But the Anti-Electoral College politicans decided this wasn’t a good justification, and went one step further, calling the Electoral College “undemocratic”.
Because of the growing outside pressure, the Conventioners themselves started to become more and more divided on the issue. Fearing that this could fracture the Conventioners and lead to them falling apart, H.G. Otis started scrambling for a compromise. He sent out a letter to the most prominent members of the Anti-Electoral College movement, stating that he was willing to negotiate with them in Boston (the newly assigned capital of New England).
An understanding was reached between Otis, the Conventioners and the Anti-Electoral College movement, later dubbed the “Boston Compromise”: a presidential candidate would be the victor in an election if he had won both the Popular and the Electoral College Vote. Although this compromise partially settled the dispute over the Electoral College, it wasn’t actually written down in the constitution itself, and pretty much only became an unwritten rule for every election going forward. The Conventioners wanted to settle the issue going into the first presidential election, so that New England’s first presidential administration could deal with the problem. Although the Conventioners believed this to be a good decision at the time, it would backfire horribly, and be the main contributing factor behind the 1820 New England Constitutional Crisis.
The nation soon began to prepare itself for it’s first presidential election. Despite some members of the Conventioners believing that it was better to wait until the president’s inauguration in 1821, H.G. Otis believed that most of New England’s constitutional issues had been solved, and that the next presidential administration was more than capable of dealing with remaining issues, and decided to disband the Conventioners early, with its members going to their respective political factions.
Two main parties had emerged in New England during the 1810s: the Federalist Party (which was just a continuation of the New England faction of the old American Federalist Party), with H.G. Otis as its candidate, and the Liberal Party, with DeWitt Clinton as its candidate. Clinton had actually run against Madison in the 1812 election, with the second strongest showing of any Federalist candidate (only topped by Rufus King). Many who were against the Embargo Act had backed him during that campaign, and thus, he had pretty significant support in New England. He slowly started to separate from the Federalist Party after it became more and more influenced by the positions of the Conventioners, more specifically H.G. Otis. He felt that limited cooperation with the British wasn’t just crucial for New England’s economy (being heavily reliant on trade), but that it was crucial for its very survival, and that Otis’ anti-British stance could lead to disaster if it became too extreme.
DeWitt Clinton (1769-1825)
Originally, Clinton wasn’t even planning on running at all, and only supported the creation of the Liberal Party to provide a strong counterweight to Otis. It was only after the Electoral College debacle, and the radicalism of the factions within the Liberal Party making it impossible for them to select a candidate, that he decided to step in. After officially joining the Liberal Party, he quickly became their best candidate, as he was able to unite the party’s various radical factions to create a cohesive party platform, one that included the pursuit of free trade, limited cooperation with Britain, and making the Popular Vote the deciding factor in the presidential election (Clinton considered abolishing the Electoral College too extreme, so he decided to remove it from the party’s platform).
The questions surrounding New England’s identity and the status of the Electoral College would come to take center stage during the election of 1820, with intense radicalism on both sides, particulary on the issue of the Electoral College: Federalists accused Liberals of only desiring the Popular Vote because the majority of their voting base lay in the major cities (like Boston and New York), whilst Liberals called Federalists’ support of the Electoral College “a betrayal of democracy”. Fights would break out regularly between the two sides, showing political polarization on a level that horrified both candidates, H.G. Otis in particular, who had to confront the fact that his attempts to settle the issue with things like the “Boston Compromise”, had failed. Clinton tried to develop a solid voting bloc for the Liberals, appealing to merchants with his free trade and to Anti-Electoral College moderates with his emphasis on the Popular Vote. He was also able to successfully get New York (his home state) on the side of the Liberals, meaning he had gained control over a significant share of both the Popular and Electoral College Vote. Otis, meanwhile, emphasized his role in developing the nation’s constitution and his attempts to forge an identity for New England that was separate from Britain.
As Election Day arrived, most people had no idea who was going to win. Both sides had campaigned exhaustively, trying to energize as much of their newly created voting base as they could. As people went to the voting booths, many believed that their candidate would win. Others feared that their candidate might lose. But most people were genuinely curious who the first president of the Republic of New England was going to be. Many members of government hoped that after this election, and the establishment of the first presidential administration, they could focus on issues that went beyond the Electoral College, something that had taken up their agenda for years. Many hoped that this election would relieve them of the stress, the pain and the frustration, that the last 5 years had brought.
The election results, however, were anything but relieving.
Clinton’s attempts at developing a solid Liberal voting bloc appeared to have worked, as large parts of New York, Massachusetts and the major cities in the remaining states, all voted Liberal, giving him a majority of the Popular Vote. Otis’ emphasizing of his role in various important decisions, also appeared to have worked. Many states had large chunks that firmly voted Federalist, meaning that the Electors in those states had also voted Federalist, giving Otis a majority of the Electoral Vote. Both sides seemed to have successfully energized their bases, shown by the incredibly high voter turnout (more than 90%), meaning that they had gained as many votes as they possibly could. There was, however, a tiny problem with the results: neither candidate had gained a majority in both Votes.
Panic ensued, with frantic discussion inside the government on what to do next. Some wanted a recount, others wanted a second vote to happen. Eventually, many turned to the New England Supreme Court to solve the issue. An institution which had only existed since 1818, and had only dealt with minor infractions on the constitution, was now tasked with solving one of the biggest constitutional crises in history. Despite being under the near total control of the Federalists, the Court took a fair look at both sides, trying to determine which side had won. Eventually, they decided to turn to the New England Constitution, to see how the electoral process had been defined. Seeing how it hadn’t been clearly defined, they decided that it couldn’t be used to determine who was the winner, unless serious changes were made. Realizing that the “Boston Compromise” was the only document they could go on, the Supreme Court made the only decision it could possible make: declare the 1820 election “null and void” until a proper amendment to the constitution had been made on the electoral process.
More panic ensued, this time heavily affecting the social order. With no certainty over who had won, both Federalists and Liberals took to the streets in protest, demanding their candidate, the “rightful winner” of the election, to be put into office. The army (which had already been sent out by the government to keep the peace during the election) was overwhelmed, with small squads of soldiers being forced to contain thousands of rioters. New York suffered from riots almost every week, Boston had half of its harbor burn down after a merchant riot spiralled out of control. Some senators in New York openly talked about breaking away from New England to form a “Republic of New York” (an idea that Clinton rejected vehemently). It felt like New England was ripping itself apart.
Henry Dearborn, who was a Major General in the War of 1812 and had become one of New England’s most prominent generals following its independence, decided to step in. After gathering a variety of soldiers from across the country into what became known as “Dearborn’s Legion”, he decided to head for Boston to reestablish control, even picking up civilians on the way. Once he arrived in Boston, to the stunned faces of New England’s Congress, he requested them to put him in place as “Acting President”, and grant him emergency powers if necessary. Although this would have been seen as outrageous and an outright military coup under normal circumstances, Congress was desperate for someone to take control and restore order to the nation, and thus, Dearborn’s request was fulfilled.
Henry Dearborn, 1st "Acting President" of New England (1820-1822)
Britain was less than pleased with this turn of events, fearing that they had a “Yankee Bonaparte” on their hands. Although Congress was able to stop a British military intervention, Britain did establish a semi-blockade around New England, in case any “outside forces” tried to supply them with weapons. For unknown reasons, the United States decided not to try and retake New England, with most historians believing they feared it could spark another war with Britain. The US did, however, establish connections with the secessionist New York senators, negotiating about New York rejoining the Union if things escalated. When these connections were discovered, the senators would receive the death penalty, with all of them getting hanged.
Despite all of this chaos, the issue of the electoral process still hadn’t been resolved. Various senators and lawyers had all sent in proposals to solve it, but the most interesting proposal of all was the one by Nathan Dane, a lawyer from Massachusetts who had recently gone deaf. He proposed something called the “County System”. Basically, a candidate would only have won a state if he had won the majority of the counties in that state, thus meaning he had won the “majority” of a state (in the most literal sense). This meant that the voting result of a state would be less determined by its major cities, and more determined by the state as a whole. It also meant that parties would have to create a platform that appealed to both the rural and urban population, thus decreasing the likelihood of one-sided radicalism, like the type seen during the 1820 election. Many in Congress liked the bill, many didn’t. But most considered it the best proposal for New England’s electoral process going forward. Eventually, by only two votes, Congress passed the bill, with the Senate passing it by a slightly larger majority. New England’s constitutional crisis was over. [3]
Now, the whole election process had to start all over again, this time with a functioning electoral process. Both parties had decided to drop their 1820 candidates, with H.G. Otis stepping down as presidential candidate, encouraging his supporters to back James Hillhouse instead, one of the more moderate candidates the Federalist Party had to offer, and DeWitt Clinton being forced out by the Liberal Party, since there were rumors going around he had secretly approved of the secessionist senators in New York, which did major damage to his reputation, despite Clinton consistently denouncing these rumors. This would, however, turn out to be a critical mistake by the Liberal Party, as Clinton was the only one that was able to unite the party into one with a cohesive platform. The Liberal Party had, in-fact, already started to fracture during the election itself, with many of Clinton’s platform choices (especially the one on the electoral process) being disliked by the more radical factions. Many of the moderates inside the Liberal Party would eventually break away and form the Reformist Party (sometimes jokingly called the “Pine Tree Party”, due to their party logo).
The “Snap Election” of 1821, was one of only a few snap elections done throughout New England’s history, and the only one done to override the results of a general election. With the Liberal Party completely unable to select a candidate, there wasn’t even any speculation as to who was going to win. James Hillhouse won almost every single state (with the exception of Rhode Island, which voted independent). In January of 1822, James Hillhouse would be officially inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of New England. [4]
James Hillhouse, 1st President of New England (1822-1829)
Although there would be a few more constitutional crises in New England’s history, none would cause such chaotic change as this one. Within just two years, New England changed it’s entire electoral process, forged a national identity, and finally established itself as a functioning democracy. New England’s questions had finally been answered…
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[1] My choice of Otis was mostly based on the fact that I couldn’t really find that much detailed data about the other members of the Convention, with only him and Pickering having it, so I could only really choose between these two, based on the information that I could find.
[2] It should be noted that the number of “80 electors” also includes New York, which is considered part of New England in TTL.
[3] It will of course be hard to keep this kind of electoral system in the future when things like urbanization start to become a major factor, but this document was mostly made out of desperation, to solve a crisis that was quickly escalating.
[4] “Snap Elections” essentially just take place when either a president dies/is no longer fit for office, or when a general election has proven inconclusive.