Stonewall Jackson's Way: An Alternate Confederacy Timeline

What Timeline Should I Do Next?

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Chapter Sixty-Six: A History of U.S-CSA Diplomatic Relations, 1865-1904
  • Chapter Sixty-Six: A History of U.S-CSA Diplomatic Relations, 1865-1904
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    A photograph of Warren G. Harding and his wife arriving in Washington following his appointment as U.S. ambassador to the CSA, ca. 1904
    In the first Treaty of Washington, which established the CSA as an independent entity in 1865, one of the provisions of the treaty created the position of both U.S. ambassador to the CSA, and CSA ambassador to the U.S. With this position created, the need to fill it fell into the laps of both Presidents Davis and Pendleton. For his choice, Pendleton would turn to recently returned diplomat Charles F. Adams. For this decision, he would be lampooned by the Republican newspapers, as well as few Democratic ones, as being thrown into such a panic by this decision and fearing another war so badly that he was willing to appoint a Republican to the ambassadorship. In reality, Pendleton had offered Adams the job due to his diplomatic experience and to work at it for roughly a month to get everything prepared and set up for any future ambassador. That future ambassador would be a man many people had long since assumed to be out of the political arena: Franklin Pierce. Eager to foster good relations with the CSA, Pierce had accepted the job when it was offered to him by Pendleton. Unfortunately for his diplomatic abilities, shortly after accepting the post, Pierce began slipping into the depression and alcoholism that had previously plagued him. Some claimed it was caused by seeing that the efforts he had labored over in his presidency had failed, while others pointed to increasing age and declining health. Whatever the cause, sometime in early 1866, former Indiana representative William H. English was brought into the embassy, and effectively became ambassador in all but name.
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    Charles Adams, Franklin Pierce, and William English
    While early on Pendleton suffered from public ridicule and a drunken ambassador in his efforts for diplomatic relations with the CSA, Davis would suffer his own issues. Instead of struggling to find a competent diplomat, he struggled to find one who was particularly committed to the job. The first man who Davis would send to the position would be James L. Orr. He would serve until 1866, at which point he resigned to focus on his efforts to gain the South Carolina governorship. Next would be Howell Cobb, who similar to Orr was a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Also similar to Orr, he would resign his post to seek the governorship of his home state, in this case Georgia, in 1867. For his final appointment to the ambassadorship to the U.S., Davis would go with former Alabama senator and close ally Clement C. Clay. Clay would stick it out until the end of the Davis presidency, although he would resign roughly a month into Breckinridge's term in office to try and recapture his Senate seat. To fill the seat, Breckinridge would appoint a man who, along with his interactions with his counterpart in the U.S. ambassador to the CSA, would come to play a critical role in U.S.-CSA relations: former North Carolina senator William A. Graham.
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    James L. Orr, Howell Cobb, and Clement C. Clay
    With the end of the Pendleton presidency also came the end of the embarrassing affair that was the Pierce ambassadorship. English, who had long labored with little recognition, and without the full pay of the ambassadorship, instead only receiving the sum of an aide, hoped that incoming President Sickles would finally elevate him to the role of ambassador proper. Instead, Sickles would send out Reverdy Johnson, a former attorney general and Maryland senator would had opted to join the exodus to the U.S. rather than stay in his native state. With his self-imposed exile came bitterness. Not towards any particularly person, or perhaps even the CSA itself, but Johnson was determined that he would not engage in the weak-willed negotiations that defined the Pierce ambassadorship, which was exactly what Sickles was looking for. Adding further to the tension was his counterpart, Ambassador Graham. Despite both men being former Southern Whigs, Johnson had served in President Taylor's cabinet as attorney general, and had tendered his resignation with the ascension of Fillmore the presidency. Among the men that Fillmore had chosen to create his new cabinet had been Graham. Thus, when Johnson began his role as ambassador to the CSA, he was hardly friendly to the nation he was in, or his counterpart. He refused to engage in measures to improve the relationship between the two nations, such as joint dinners, and when engaged in negotiations, he was much more aggressive and stubborn than his predecessors. With Graham in Philadelphia, meanwhile, he maneuvered to gain as many rights and benefits for the CSA citizens as possible. And while the two men hardly ever met in person, the rivalry was clear for any observer.
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    William A. Graham and Reverdy Johnson
    The end of the strife and contest between Graham and Johnson would not ultimately come from the hands of a diplomatic victory of one over the other, but rather the shifting attitude of a president. Sickles, who had come to realize the value of the CSA ambassadorship both in prestige and potential financial benefit from having inside information to such things as trade negotiations decided it was time to remove Johnson, whom he frequently argued with anyways. In his stead, Sickles would place New York City up and comer Mayor John T. Hoffman, who was known for his connections to Tammany Hall, in the position in 1872. Graham, meanwhile, would be retained in his post following the passing of the presidency from Breckinridge to Gordon. Ultimately, he would only leave the position with his death, which occurred in 1879. In his later years, he had played a key role in the warming of the U.S.-CSA relations as fostered by Presidents Hazen and Gordon. Contrasting with his poor relationship with Johnson, Graham proved better able to work with ambassador John Creswell, whom Hazen had appointed to the post as a favor for serving as his campaign manager, despite the two men holding radically different ideologies. At this point, the relations between the nations were so good as to allow for Gordon to not nominate a new ambassador following Graham's death, in order to increase the ease of incoming President Longstreet's nomination, who would ultimately be former CSA attorney general Herschel V. Johnson in recognition of his important efforts in securing for Longstreet the presidential nomination. The only bump in this time of good relations between the CSA and U.S. would be when incoming U.S. President James A. Garfield appointed Cassius M. Clay to the ambassadorship to the CSA. While Creswell had been an abolitionist, he was much less vocal about her views than Clay, who would not restrain from criticizing the CSA's enslavement of their fellow man. Following Johnson's death in 1880, Longstreet would appoint Judah P. Benjamin to fill the position, and Benjamin's skill at diplomacy and dutiful tact help continue the good relations between the two nations.
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    John Hoffman, John Creswell, Herschel Johnson, Cassius Clay, and Judah Benjamin
    Of course, the era of good feelings between the United States and the Confederacy was not to last forever. With the rise of those wanting to reunite the Union in the dominant Republican Party, and a corresponding rise in militarism in the South, war was seemingly inevitable, despite the best efforts of Ambassador Benjamin. Conkling securing the presidency, and then not appointing a diplomat to replace Clay was a clear sign of what was to come. With Early winning the CSA presidency in 1885, he would not recall Benjamin, as he hoped to appear as the man seeking peace in the international eye, but would instead send Benjamin H. Helm and John G. Walker, both former Civil War generals, to join him as a clear sign that if Conkling was seeking war, the CSA was ready for him. In a few months time, the nations would be at war once again, and all three CSA diplomats would return to their home country. Benjamin, whose diplomatic career had been marked almost solely by success, would bemoan that in his final act, he had suffered failure.
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    John Walker and Benjamin Helm, Early's "Warrior Diplomats"
    Eventually, when the war reached its conclusion and peace was achieved, both diplomatic embassies reopened, but neither Conkling nor Early were interested in sending the other a diplomat. This tension would finally be broken by the ascension of Samuel G. Randall to the presidency of the U.S. He would appoint former vice-president and current Indiana senator Daniel W. Voorhees to fill the post. Voorhees, who was beginning to grow rather tired of the politics of Philadelphia, accepted the post and hoped to once again strike up his friendship with Judah Benjamin, only to discover that Benjamin had died the year before. Jackson's rise to the presidency would mark the return of a diplomat to the the CSA's embassy in the U.S. Jackson would send out Lucius Q. C. Lamar, and later Matt W. Ransom when Lamar died in 1893. When Custer assumed the U.S. presidency, he followed in the footsteps in Conkling, and did not appoint an ambassador to the CSA. Many people believed that the two nations were once again tottering towards war, but internal strife and his failure to win reelection and subsequent failed rebellion stopped Custer in his tracks if he was indeed planning that. McKinley would reestablish diplomatic relations with the CSA when he entered office, and the two nations would carry on in fairly neutral opinion of each other until 1904, when their relations changed radically.
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    Daniel Voorhees, Lucius Lamar, and Matt Ransom
    This rapid change in the relations between the two nations would occur as a result of their cooperation in the Mexican Revolution. This combined with the CSA's eventual abolition of slavery, and the formation of defensive alliances in the wake of the First Great War, as well as profitable trading agreements would secure their relations even further. Thus it came to pass that a nation that had been born out of rebellion from another came to be close allies with the country it had seceded from.
     

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    Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt Part Two
  • Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt Part Two
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    President Theodore Roosevelt
    Following his the decisive victory of Roosevelt and the United States in the Mexican Revolution, both Roosevelt and his party, the Republicans, were on the ascendant. Not only was this aided by Roosevelt extreme popularity and successful policy achievements at home, but both of the opposition parties were weak. The Reform Party was all but dead, with it disbanding as an organization in 1906, and the Democrats had been continually hammered in both Gubernatorial and Congressional elections, as the memories of Custer's Revolt and his disastrous presidency were still fresh in the minds of many Americans. To Roosevelt, it seemed that the biggest threat to his presidency was not coming from an opposition party, but from within his own. He was well aware of the quite serious discussions that had been held within the Conservative faction of his party of breaking off and running their own candidate, which many believed had only not occurred due to their presumed presidential nominee, Ohio Senator Mark Hanna, dying followed by the deaths of two more of candidates that were prominent in the minds of many: Senators Orville H. Platt and Matthew S. Quay. With the Republican opposition so clearly shattered, the talks began again of forming a Conservative Republican Party. Although this would never come into existence as an actual party, it remained a powerful faction throughout Roosevelt's administration. Generally it consisted of former War Republicans, although this was far from a rule, as Roosevelt himself had been a War Republican. Leading this would be President Pro Tempore William P. Frye, Senators Nelson W. Aldrich and Thomas Platt, and House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon.
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    William Frye, Nelson Aldrich, Thomas Platt, and Joseph Cannon
    Perhaps in no instance could this divide in the Republican Party be seen more closely during the Roosevelt Administration than in Roosevelt's Cabinet. When Lyman Gage resigned from Roosevelt's cabinet in late 1904, it quickly developed into a political hailstorm to find his replacement. Originally, Roosevelt hoped to place progressive Albert B. Cummins into the now vacant position. The conservative Republicans, however, were unwilling to support this. Instead, under the advice of Platt, they supported his fellow New York Senator Hamilton Fish II or close protege and New York Governor Elihu Root. With both sides unwilling to compromise, the seat remained empty and slowly but surely the stocks began to go down and the beginnings of a financial panic seemed to appear. Acting quickly to avoid this, Secretary of State Henry C. Lodge, who was a conservative but still held the ear of Roosevelt, began to act as an intermediary between the two sides. His proposed compromise was to move Attorney General Philander C. Knox to the Treasury Department, and allow Roosevelt to appoint a new progressive attorney general, such as William R. Day. Roosevelt considered it, but the conservatives all refused to budge on the issue. Eventually, Roosevelt agreed to appoint Root his Treasury Secretary, but only if he could replace Henry C. Payne as postmaster general with progressive James R. Garfield. With both sides tired from the fight and the economy in peril, the compromise was agreed to. Roosevelt would have to undergo this fight twice more in his presidency, first after Root resigned in 1906 following Platt's retirement from the Senate to seek his seat, with Roosevelt replacing him with Leslie M. Shaw, and again in 1907 when Shaw resigned to accept a lucrative bank position, which resulted in his replacement by Hamilton Fish II. Despite normally being an energetic and active president, Roosevelt would admit after his presidency that when it came to his Cabinet, it was the one thing was not willing to fight the conservatives too hard over.
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    Roosevelt's Troublesome Treasury Secretaries: Elihu Root, Leslie Shaw, and Hamilton Fish II
    Despite eventually backing down against the conservatives in the issues of his cabinet, one issue where Roosevelt would not quit was trust-busting and labor regulation. During his time in office, Roosevelt would have three main targets: Andrew Carnegie's railroad conglomerate, Henry Flagler's Standard Oil, and J.P. Morgan's vast financial empire and assets. Roosevelt would personally meet with Andrew Carnegie to discuss the issues he had with his railroads. Carnegie, who had already somewhat sympathetic to the cause Roosevelt espoused, agreed to improve worker conditions, slightly increase pay, and to ensure that the conglomerate was dissolved following his death in return for Roosevelt not bringing charges against him for unreasonable monopolistic practices against him. To further stay on Roosevelt's good side, Carnegie would vastly increase and expand his philanthropic spending, and thus he and his railroads were safe until his death in 1919. Morgan and Flagler would prove to be tougher nuts to crack. Morgan had frequently used his wide ranging holdings and property to prevent panics, such as the recent one that had nearly broken out, and even helped bail out President George Custer from his own ineptitude when the U.S. Treasury nearly ran out of gold during his presidency. With this under his belt, he threatened to all but ruin Roosevelt and his presidency if he did not leave him alone. Hardly cowed but also fearing the fall out, Roosevelt would only target Morgan's railroad interests, which in Morgan's eyes was a declining industry. Finally came Flagler, America's richest man and president of the domineering Standard Oil Company. Realizing that not only did Flagler have the ability to tank the U.S. economy, but also the crush the blossoming automobile industry, Roosevelt acted with subtly while facing this most dangerous of foes, and it wouldn't be until his successor took office that Flagler was finally brought before the Supreme Court and Standard Oil was dissembled, but without both Flagler and his vice-president John Archbold going out kicking and screaming.
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    The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Flagler
    While dealing with the titans of industry, Roosevelt was also dealing with the laborers and the unions. For this, he would meet with the president of the American Federation of Workers (AFW) Samuel Gompers, as well as his associate Peter J. McGuire. Contrary to what Roosevelt had expected, neither man came in demanding extreme concessions or for him to overhaul the American labor system. Instead, they believed that gaining rights for the American worker would unfortunately have to be a slow, arduous process by necessity, pointing out the fate of Eugene Debs and his fellow strikers in the Pullman Strike. Impressed with the men, Roosevelt would see to reform, and even create a new cabinet department, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to oversee their implementation. He also would arrange for Gompers and McGuire to be present at the same dinner Roosevelt was hosting with Carnegie, Morgan, and Flagler in attendance, which caused the major public stir Roosevelt had intended. Roosevelt would also speak with John B. Washington on the conditions of African-American workers in the United States, the first president to do this. This action would simultaneously cause much adoration and scorn for Roosevelt throughout America, varying from person to person.
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    Samuel Gompers, Peter McGuire, and John Washington
    While Roosevelt cared for America's human resources, he also would care for her natural resources as well. To do this, Roosevelt supported the creation of new and more expansive national parks and nature preserves. This would prove to be a harder task than Roosevelt expected. He had been expecting opposition from Western senators, such Henry M. Teller and Francis E. Warren. What he had not been expecting was opposition from environmentalists, such as John Muir. His opposition, although not as fervent and strong as that of those who wanted to exploit the land, stemmed from his belief that the land should be saved for their beauty, rather than Roosevelt's belief that they should be conserved for their resources. Eventually, the two men would meet, and go on a brief expedition to discuss the issue and settle their differences. What exactly occurred on their journey is not fully known, as aside from a cameraman who accompanied them on the first two days to take photos for the press, they were on their own. By the end, however, the two men had settled their differences and Muir had come to support Roosevelt. With this, Roosevelt would create more of these set aside lands than almost all his predecessors combined.
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    Henry Teller, Roosevelt and Muir on the first day of their expedition, and Francis Warren
    Despite all the controversies and the occasional blunder during his two terms in office, Roosevelt would exit the presidency the most popular president America had had in decades, perhaps even a century. With Roosevelt declining to serve a third term, a major gap was left in the already fiercely divided Republican Party. Everyone expected the upcoming 1908 Republican National Convention to be the fiercest one since 1884, where the party had split in two, which was the fear that many in the party held. As a result of this, everyone held their breath for the 1908 election, and the Democrats hoped it would finally be their time to seize back the Executive office.
     
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    Chapter Sixty-Eight: The 1908 U.S. Presidential Election
  • Chapter Sixty-Eight: The 1908 U.S. Presidential Election
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    A photograph of a meeting between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, in which they discussed how the former would help the latter in the upcoming 1908 Republican National Convention
    With Roosevelt's refusal to run for a third term after his two terms in office, a major power vacuum was left within the Republican National Convention. In the eyes of many, they viewed the results of that convention as to be much more suspenseful than the election itself. The Reform Party was dead and gone, and the Democrats desperately fumbled about for an identity, as it seemed that the Republicans dominated both the conservative and progressive ends of the political spectrum. For many, the expected result of this was a collapse into two rival parties by a Republican Party beset by factionalism and rivalries, with one representing the conservative wing of the party, and the other the progressive. For now, however, the Republicans preserved. Coming into the convention, there were many prominent names in contention, such as Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, Secretary of State Henry C. Lodge, Attorney General Philander C. Knox, New York Governor Charles E. Hughes, and Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette, but two main names dominated in the minds of many Republicans. First was Ohio Governor William H. Taft, the man who had received Roosevelt's endorsement and was generally considered to be the favorite of the progressive wing of the party. The other main man in consideration was House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, whose ultimate goal in life ever since he was a newly elected congressman was to become the president of the United States. Roscoe Conkling, who viewed Cannon as a favorite and played a major role in his advancement to becoming a major player in the Republican Party, had even predicted and hoped that the then young congressman who eventually follow him as head of state in the years to come. Neither of these two candidates had the necessary amount of backers, however, to ensure nomination by the Republican National Convention, thus making them turn to the other, more minor candidates in hopes of receiving their support.
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    Minor Candidates turned kingmakers: Fairbanks, Lodge, Knox, Hughes, and La Follette
    Thus the two major campaigns began their efforts to secure the backings of the now powerful men. Fairbanks, Knox, Hughes, and La Follette each controlled the delegations from their home states, or Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin, while Lodge controlled all of the New England delegation sans Connecticut's. Fairbanks was expected to back Cannon due to their similar conservative views, and that their home states were neighbors. Meanwhile, La Follette and Lodge were planned to back Taft, La Follette out of his support for progressivism, and Lodge out of his personal loyalty to Roosevelt. This left behind Knox and Hughes, both moderate men who also happened to control the two largest delegations to the national convention. Hoping to secure the nomination, Cannon would confer with close ally former New York Senator Thomas C. Platt, who promised him his aid in getting him the nomination, by assembling his supporters to help bring Pennsylvania and especially New York to Cannon's side. To do this, Platt would send New York Senator Elihu Root and Treasury Secretary Hamilton Fish II to help drum up support for Cannon among the New York delegations, as both men were powerful within New York politics. Cannon would also send former Vice-President James S. Sherman, who had returned to living in New York and remained influential in the state, as well as being a close ally to Cannon in his early congressional days, to help ensure that Hughes would eventually side with him, as well as Indiana representative James Eli Watson, another close ally of Cannon, at the advice of Fairbanks. Rumors began flying about that Cannon planned to bring Hughes to his side by offering him the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court when the elderly John M. Harlan finally passed, as well as offering Knox the vice-presidency. There was one flaw in this plan, however. Root, who had struck of a friendship with Roosevelt in the past, felt obligated to inform his old friend of their efforts, although he doubted that it would change the chances of Cannon's nomination, which he viewed to be as inevitable. In this, he would prove to be horribly wrong.
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    Cannon's men on the ground: Root, Fish, Sherman, and Watson
    Alerted to the danger now posed to the progressive wing of the Republican Party, Roosevelt called an emergency meeting with Taft and Lodge. Realizing the urgent need to bring Hughes and Knox to their side before Cannon did, lest he take the nomination and almost certainly the presidency, Roosevelt, Taft, and Lodge planned to do the previously unthinkable. Taft would drop out and throw his support behind Lodge, who being a moderate would be a much more stomachable candidate to Knox and Hughes supporters. In return, a progressive had to be nominated for the vice-presidential nomination. Lodge agreed to this, and the race was on. The convention was stunned by Taft's last minute drop out, with perhaps the most surprised being La Follette, who claimed he was unwilling to support Lodge, and would again being seeking the nomination. Thanks to Roosevelt's own efforts and floormen, both Hughes and Knox would drop out and throw their support to Lodge, which combined with Lodge's original delegates and those gained by Taft, gave him the nomination in one of the largest upsets in the history American national nominating conventions. As promised, Lodge would see to that progressive Iowa Senator Albert B. Cummins received the vice-presidential nomination. Thus ended one of the most dramatic national conventions in not only the history of the Republican Party, but of the nation.
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    Henry Lodge and Albert Cummins
    Some Republicans took Lodge's nomination with more grace than others. Cannon would, eventually and begrudgingly, give his support for Lodge's candidacy, as well as most of his supporters. The one man who refused to accept the result was La Follette. In passionate and thought provoking speeches, La Follette would rail against how he viewed that the Republicans had abandoned the progressive cause by nominating Lodge, and he felt it was his civic duty to run to keep the torch of progressivism burning throughout the nation. In an extreme controversial move, La Follette would also hint in his speeches that his administration would finally bring the nation back together as one, through force if necessary. Although this was an effectively campaigning strategy in the 1880s, many Americans had come to accept CSA's independence by now, and view it as part of their life. This, combined with the fact that U.S.-CSA were beginning to warm, all went to go against La Follette's rhetoric, and led to many viewing as an outdated radical without a proper understanding of the modern political situation. It was in spite of this that La Follette would go forward with his presidential ambitions, convincing Indiana Governor Frank Hanly to run with him after failing to persuade fellow progressive senator Jonathan P. Dolliver of Iowa to run with him. Hoping to cater to the defunct Reform Party, he would refer to himself and his supporters as the Reform Party, leading to much confusion in the modern day.
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    Robert La Follette and Frank Hanly
    With the Republicans managing to hold together, for the most part, the best hope the Democrats had for winning the presidency was lost. Nevertheless, they preserved with running a candidate, refusing to let their 80 year old party, by far the oldest in the nation, die. Although no candidate drew much enthusiasm from the party, the leading one proved to be Missouri Senator Champ Clark, a senator of three years so far, and before that a representative. In this, he defeated self-made millionaire and newspaperman turned U.S. representative, William Randolph Hearst, who was known for his forceful personality and desire to see himself as the face of the Democratic Party, which he believed he could guide back to greatness by appealing to progressives. Without much chance of winning, the Democrats decided to appeal to as many fronts as possible in this election, especially populists. This can be seen in their nomination of Representative John W. Kern of Indiana, a man who had been elected to seat based on support from Democrats and supporters of populism. Thus, the Democrats presented their ticket, and Champ Clark began his career of running for president.
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    Champ Clark and John Kern
    Dissatisfied with being denied the Democratic nomination, Hearst would in turn start his own party, which he called the Progressive Party. For his running-mate, Hearst would turn to another businessman with an interest into entering politics, oilman Thomas L. Hisgen. Together, they would run as the Progressive Party ticket. Although Hearst would take his campaign very seriously, not many others would, and many viewed as a move by Hearst to stroke his pride and ambition, as well as to deprive the Democrats of the desperately needed populist vote, which is where Hearst was campaigning to the hardest. Despite, Hearst's newspaper conglomeration made both him and his campaign a force to be reckoned with, even if no one was expecting him to have a slight chance at winning the presidency, at least for now.
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    William Hearst and Thomas Hisgen
    With the dominance the Republican Party held over politics for the moment, it seemed likely to many that they would win the election. La Follette would heavily campaign on being the true progressive in this election, but his message was somewhat undermined by Hearst's candidacy, who used his vast newspaper empire to attempt to destroy La Follette's campaign to further progress his own. Others claimed that La Follette wasn't really running to improve the country, but because he was angry with Roosevelt and Lodge for leaving him out of the dealings that led to the latter's nomination. He also took flak for some of the radical positions he took, like restarting hostility to the CSA, supporting prohibition, and even calling for an end to segregation on one occasion, although a very negative public reaction ensured that it was never mentioned again. Clark and his campaign, meanwhile, would have to go about trying to make sure that the populists did not defect to Hearst, as well as appeal to any interest groups who had not already defected to the Republican Party, although their efforts on both of those fronts seemed mostly in vain. Watching his opponents tear the opposition to his candidacy to pieces, Lodge would be content to run a very positive, if not very active, campaign, contrasting heavily with those of his opponents, who all ran very active campaigns with a generally negative tone. Come election day, many people were speculating which states would ultimately vote against Lodge, as the divide among his opposition made anyone gaining a majority in state especially difficult.
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    La Follette campaigning in Wisconsin, which polls indicated to be his strongest state, Hearst and Hisgen at a campaign rally
    Come election day, it was a landslide for Lodge. He would the election win with 286 electoral votes, as opposed to Clark's 31, La Follette's 13, and Hearst's 11. Lodge would win California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Clark would win Missouri and Kentucky, while La Follette secured Wisconsin, and Hearst Delaware, Colorado, and Nevada. Much to the embarrassment of Clark and the Democratic Party, they would place fourth in several notable states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and California, as well as third in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Overall, split opposition ensured Lodge a decisive victory, and continuance of Republican rule.
     
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    Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Presidency of Henry C. Lodge, Part One
  • Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Presidency of Henry C. Lodge, Part One
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    President Henry C. Lodge
    With Lodge's entering into office, many outsider observers of the United States were truly beginning to suspect America was becoming a one party system, not due to the machinations of an ambitious leader or an erosion of American democracy, but because of utter Republican domination of both Houses of congress. Of the 64 Senate seats, only 7 were not held by members of the Republican Party, of them only six were Democrats, consisting of Nevada's Francis G. Newlands, Colorado's Charles J. Hughes, Kentucky's Thomas H. Paynter and James B. McCreary, and Missouri's William J. Stone and Champ Clark. The sole remaining man who was opposed to the Republicans in Senate while also not being a Democrat was Wisconsin's Robert LaFollette, who claimed affliction with the Reform Party he had ran with the 1908 election, although he would frequently vote with the Republicans on many issues. As had become evident in previous years, however, the Republicans were far from a united party, and it wasn't surprising when some conservative Republicans would cross the aisle and vote with the six Democrats. This would lead Newlands to state, "The only hope for the continuance of the Democratic Party as a major political force is for a mass defection of the conservative wing of the Republican Party to our side. Should this fail, I see little hope for the future of my party."
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    Nevada Senator Francis Newlands, leader of the six Democrats in the Senate
    Shortly into his presidency, Lodge would be confronted with his first major issue as president, which happened to deal with the presidency of another nation, Mexico. In the wake of the 1909 Mexican Presidential Election and the subsequent Zapatista rebellion, Lodge was confronted with what to do. Should he lead the United States in remaining neutral, or back the government under Orozco that his predecessor had helped form and install? Ultimately, Lodge what stick to his principles of avoiding United States involvement abroad and following a policy of isolationism unless the Mexican government would directly request assistance, which it did not. This decision, however, would be much scorned by some of the more progressive elements of the Republican Party, including Roosevelt himself, who openly claimed that had the rebellion broken out under his administration, he would have sent troops to quell it. This move by Lodge coincided with his efforts to begin removing U.S. troops from the region, and beginning to advocate for Mexico to become more self-reliant, although he was still in favor of a friendly foreign policy, as well as remaining a firm defender of the informal alliance that existed between the United States, the Confederacy, and Mexico, which he had played a major role in crafting while acting as Secretary of State under Roosevelt.
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    A photograph depicting U.S. and Mexican soldiers partaking in joint U.S.-CSA-Mexican military exercises as part of their policy of mutual friendship
    Lodge's term would also be marked by his increased push for civil rights, being their most fervent advocate since Garfield. For example, he would again break with Roosevelt, and formally offered to the three discharged companies of the 27th U.S. Infantry the opportunity for reentry into the army, as well as full presidential pardons and honorable discharges for those who wished to remain out of the service. He would also meet with several leaders within the African-American community, asking to hear their grievances, as well as their ideas for improvements. Among those who he would speak to were John B. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Kelly Miller, William M. Trotter, Arturo A. Schomburg, and Paul L. Dunbar. This, however, was not completely well-received by the general populace, and the Democrats were able to exploit the issue of racism for slight congressional gains in the 1910 congressional midterms, although the Republicans still dominated both houses of Congress. The most notable of these gains would be the election of William R. Hearst over incumbent Republican Chauncey M. Depew for his U.S. Senate seat of New York. Hearst's victory was attributed both to his massive media empire, as well as the effective work of his campaign manager John Alden Dix in uniting many of the disparate factions in New York who opposed Republicans but lacked unity. Despite this, Lodge remained true to his convictions, and continued his meetings with the African-Americans, which has received much praise in the modern day.
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    W.E.B. Du Bois, Kelly Miller, William Trotter, Arturo Schomburg, and Paul Dunbar, all among the African-American leaders whom Lodge invited to the White House
    Another major conflict would rise within the Lodge adminstration in 1911. On October 14, 1911, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John M. Harlan was pass away, thus ending his 28 years of service on the bench that had begun with his appointment by President Garfield. The battle on who would replace him would help highlight once more the divides within the Republican Party. Lodge considered two major candidates. First was his Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, while the other was Ohio Governor William H. Taft. Remembering how his dropping out at the 1908 Republican National Convention had led to Lodge's nomination, Taft was confident he would receive the appointment, and he received the endorsements of Theodore Roosevelt and Vice-President Albert Cummins, as well as several other prominent progressive Republicans. Once again defying his old leader, Lodge would instead nominate Knox, who shared closer views to him. This would enrage Taft, who tried to mobilize enough senators to block Knox's approval, and rejected out of hand Lodge's offer to appoint him as Knox's successor in the State Department. Ultimately, however, Taft's movement failed to gain much traction, and Knox's nomination was easily approved by the Senate. Thus, Knox became the 10th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and with Taft's refusal to accept the post, Lodge would appoint James E. Watson, recently elected senator from Indiana and a close ally of House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon from his time in the House of Representatives, to the now vacated position of Secretary of State as an attempted olive branch to the conservative wing of his party.
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    Chief Justice Philander Knox
    It was under the newly inaugurated Knox's court that a long awaited and prepared for legal battle began. In the case Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the long-awaited showdown between the most powerful monopoly of them all, Henry M. Flagler's Standard Oil, and a United States federal government intent on busting trusts finally occurred. Hundreds of people would appear as witnesses to offer their testimony, even including Chairman Henry Flagler, Vice-President John D. Archbold, as well as senior company executives including Henry H. Rogers, Oliver H. Payne, and William A. Rockefeller. As arguments from both sides were heard, the courtroom remained tense as the future of American industry was decided, with the silence only broken the droning of the lawyers and their witnesses, the occasional rapping of the gavel, and the frantic scribing of notes by newspaper reporters eagerly hanging on every word. Eventually, the Supreme Court would return with their verdict. In it, it ordered Standard Oil to dissolve into over two dozen smaller, more local companies within six months of the court's ruling. While some eagerly claimed this as a victory, other progressives, led by Senator Robert LaFollette, saw it as a defeat in disguise, as with the ruling came the government establishing what it would consider monopolistic practices, which they feared would lead to the monopolies merely finding loopholes to continue with their ways. For the moment, however, the power of America's largest and most domineering monopoly was shattered.
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    Leaders of the Dissolved Standard Oil: Henry Flagler, John Archbold, Henry Rogers, Oliver Payne, and William Rockefeller
    Besides Knox, Lodge had the opportunity to appoint two justices to the Supreme Court. The first chance arose almost shortly into his term, and was caused by the passing of Associate Justice Rufus W. Peckham. In perhaps a controversial move, Lodge would nominate Charles E. Hughes to fill the vacancy. Immediately cries rang out within conservative Republican circles that Lodge had bought the nomination by promising Hughes a the next seat open on the court. Luckily for Lodge, however, House Speaker Cannon decided not to pursue or promote the rumors, and instead asked his followers to align themselves similarly. Thus, what could have became a major executive crisis was averted. Lodge's next nomination would prove to be less eventful, with him selecting Julian W. Mack, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and noted for his progressive racial views, to be nominated and ultimately approved by the Senate.
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    Associate Justices Charles E. Hughes and Julian Mack
    As Lodge's term began coming to a close in 1912, he and his supporters who forced to look to the future. Despite Lodge being a much more moderate president than Roosevelt had been, the divides within the Republican Party had only grown. Even though Lodge had listened to them much more than Roosevelt ever did, the arch-conservatives within the party were growing more and more dissatisfied by the day. Without the threat of a major opposition party holding them together, many of these conservatives were seriously beginning to toy with the idea of an independent run, which had been present in their minds since 1904. All of these factors would burst forth in clear light in the 1912 election.

    Lodge and his cabinet:
    President: Henry C. Lodge
    Vice-President: Albert B. Cummins
    Secretary of State: Philander C. Knox
    Secretary of the Treasury: Hamilton Fish II
    Secretary of War: Leonard Wood
    Attorney General: Jonathan P. Dolliver
    Postmaster General: James R. Garfield
    Secretary of the Navy: Henry L. Stimson
    Secretary of the Interior: Porter J. McCumber
    Secretary of Agriculture: James Wilson
    Secretary of Labor and Commerce: Charles Nagel
     
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    Chapter Seventy: The CSA Presidential Election of 1909
  • Chapter Seventy: The CSA Presidential Election of 1909
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    A home made campaign poster for Patrick Cleburne's presidential campaign, in reference to his service in the American Civil War
    As Buckner's six years in office came to a close, and the Liberty-moderate Democrat coalition was still holding together, if barely and in a haphazard manner. Despite this, many came into the election believing it to be a likely lock for the Liberty Party. Ultimately, as events began to unfold, however, this was proven not to be. A variety of factors would make this one of the closest elections in CSA history. Going into the Liberty Party nominating convention, four main candidates were in consideration for the nomination. The two favored by the more progressive factions of the Liberty Party were Secretary of State Patrick Cleburne of Arkansas, who has also previously served as a general, governor, and Secretary of War, and President Pro Tempore Charles A. Culberson of Texas. There was much support within this faction for the nomination of either Treasury Secretary Oscar Underwood or former Secretary of the Interior Jim Hogg, but both men decided to withdraw their names from consideration. Meanwhile, the more moderate members of the coalition favored either Secretary of the Navy M. Hoke Smith or Alabama Senator Joseph F. Johnston. A scandal would rock the convention when it was revealed that Johnston had mixed politics with his private business affairs in using his position as Chair of the Senate Naval Committee to favor steel companies run by himself or other close friends. With this, Johnston dropped out, and the reputation of the coalition as a whole took as hit as members of the Liberty Party began leveling harsh accusations and criticisms against their Democratic counterparts. It was only through the intervention of Vice-President James H. Berry that a Democratic walk out did not occur. Ultimately, Cleburne, well-known, experienced, and mostly beloved throughout the Confederacy, was chosen to be the presidential nominee. Cleburne's views, which were among the most radical in the coalition, necessitated the nomination of a moderate for his running-mate. Ultimately, the party would chose Smith, a man well-liked by almost everyone in the coalition, as Cleburne's running-mate, which helped to hold together the fragile alliance. His relations to Lieutenant General Robert F. Hoke, one of the dwindling number of Confederate generals from the American Civil War still alive, could only serve to help their cause amongst veterans.
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    Patrick Cleburne and M. Hoke Smith
    The Democratic nominating convention, meanwhile, hoped to find a way to gain back power. They saw two ways for this to occur. First was to bring the members of the now effectively defunct Populist Party to their side. In this effort, however, they had found it to be quite difficult. Many of the Populist Party's core voters had been factory workers, one of the groups that generally favored the Liberty Party more. Secondly, many of the former leaders of the party, including Marion Butler, Tom Watson, and Milford Howard, had opted to join the Liberty Party rather than the Democratic Party after their own party began to crumble. Furthermore, several Liberty Party politicians had already been using populist tactics to great effect, including the deceased James Z. George and Jim Hogg. Democratic efforts in this front had not completely been in vain, however. Some former Populists, including Wilkinson Call, had shifted over to their party, and after forming a coalition with former Populists, Jeff Davis had able to win a decisive election as Arkansas' governor, a state that had traditionally had close elections between the two parties, as well as being the home of such prominent members of the Liberty Party as Cleburne and Vice-President Berry. The second path back to power the Democrats saw was a collapse of the Liberty-moderate Democrat coalition, with the hopes that the moderate Democrats would return to their traditional party. The man who had driven them away, Ben Tillman, had been dead for over 9 years now, and the strains in the coalition were beginning to show, especially with the nomination of such a radical as Cleburne and the fact that Buckner's presidency had oversaw the last five Confederate states still allowing slavery create and approve plans for gradual emancipation. When relations broke down, the Democrats hoped to bring back their former members and come back into power. This election would ultimately prove to be the opportunity the Democrats had been waiting for to put both theories into effect.
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    Marion Butler, Tom Watson, and Milford Howard, three of the most prominent Populist leaders who had joined the Liberty Party
    Entering into the convention itself, the Democratic establishment, many of who still believed that supporting and idolizing Tillman and his policies would be the best way to win election, favored renominating Augustus Bacon, who since the 1903 presidential election had lost his seat in the Senate. In a surprise movement, however, many in the lower ranks of the party revolted against the establishment and instead supported Arkansas Governor Jeff Davis, who they believed would be the only man who stood a chance at rallying the necessary factions together to win the election. The third and final major candidate in consideration for the nomination was Texas Senator Joseph W. Bailey. His support mainly came from those who agreed with the establishment in their support the deceased Tillman, but favored a candidate who still held office and did not have a presidential election defeat on his record. He also had the advantage of being from a swing state. Ultimately, the establishment was unable to stop the grassroots movement for Davis, and he would decisively defeat both Bacon and Bailey on the first ballot. To console those of the Tillman faction, however, Bailey was chosen to be Davis' running-mate, instead of North Carolina Senator Furnifold Simmons, a rising star within the party and the preferred candidate of many of Davis' supporters.
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    Jeff Davis and Joseph Bailey
    The dying remains of the Populist Party, meanwhile, tried to cobble together a ticket. All of their former members who had achieved election of the national level of government had since left the party and joined either the Liberty or Democratic Party. Pockets of the party, however, remained a somewhat viable political force in North Carolina and Georgia, as well as scattered regions of the Deep South. Efforts to coordinate a national convention ultimately fell short and the idea was abandoned, with it instead falling to the state parties to work together in forming a ticket. A lack of coordination between them, however, resulted in the formation of two different tickets. Appearing Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida was the ticket of Needham B. Broughton, a former member of the North Carolina State Senate, running with lawyer James K. Hines of Georgia. Meanwhile, the ticket appearing in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas featured Broughton again as the presidential nominee, but instead listed Reverend James B. Cranfill of Texas as his running-mate. Eventually, some members of the party noticed this inconsistency between the tickets, but efforts to correct it and form one unified ticket were ultimately ignored and unsuccessful.
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    Needham Broughton, James Hines, and James Cranfill
    When the time for campaigning arrived, both major parties attempted to run campaigns appealing to populism, much to the chagrin of the actual Populist Party. Davis touted how his gubernatorial campaign had successful bonded together Democratic and Populist values and rhetoric. He also used his familiar name as part of his campaign, famously proclaiming in one campaign speech, "The time for a new Jeff Davis has arrived! People of the Confederacy, I am that man!" Meanwhile, Cleburne's campaign would focus on how he had risen from poverty to presidential candidate. A controversy would arise when the Democrats questioned if Cleburne was even eligible to become president of the Confederacy, considering that he had been born in Ireland. The Liberty Party would successfully counter this argument by saying that every prior CSA president had been a citizen of a foreign country, in this case the United States. This appeal would help clear about the legal debates about Cleburne's validity as a candidate, but it also lead well into another one of Davis' favorite campaign slogans. Born in 1862, after the Confederacy had declared independence, Davis would frequently mention how he had been born and bred in Dixie, and that he was much more attuned to the issues concerning them than Cleburne as a result. Another frequently used tactics by the Democrats were attempts to splinter the Liberty coalition, hoping to send it crashing to the ground. Despite no massive breaks occurring, not a negligible number of moderate Democrats would switch back to supporting the Democratic Party. The most common attack against Cleburne, however, was how advanced in age he was. At the time of the election, Cleburne was 81. To counter this argument, the Liberty would point to President Buckner, who too was very advanced in age and was in fact older than Cleburne. Despite this, the age issue was one of the most effective tactics used by the Democrats in the election and doubtless swayed many voters to their side.
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    A Democratic political cartoon entitled "Waving the Bloody Banner". A term that originated from the 1903 election, but saw a massive spike in popular use during the 1909 election, it was in reference to how many old veterans used their service in the American Civil War to their political advantage, blocking out new and younger candidates.
    When the results were tallied, Cleburne emerged as the winner of the election, but only barely. In an election where 70 electoral votes were needed for victory, Cleburne would secure 76 from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Louisiana, Arizona, and Georgia. Meanwhile, Davis won 62 electoral votes from South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, and Mississippi. Despite being defeated in the election, the Democrats took hope in the results. They had managed to bring Arkansas and Texas to their side for the electoral vote, two states they doubted they were going to win. Also, in an election that many expected to be a large victory for the Liberty Party, the Democrats had given a remarkably good showing. Contrasting the joy of the Democrats was the despondency of the Populists. Even in their strongest state, North Carolina, they had received less than 3% of the popular vote. The populists had moved on to the mainstream parties, leaving behind their old party to decay. Interestingly, this election was the first in CSA history were a presidential candidate went on to win the election without receiving the electoral votes of his home state, as Cleburne won the presidency without Arkansas' electoral votes.
     
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    Chapter Seventy-One: The Presidency of Patrick R. Cleburne
  • Chapter Seventy-One: The Presidency of Patrick R. Cleburne
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    President Patrick Cleburne
    With Cleburne's close win in the presidential election, many still retained hope that the Liberty-moderate Democratic coalition could be maintained for six more years at least. This was not to be, however. Despite his modern reputation amongst the general public, Cleburne was, at his time, one of the most controversial and hated men ever to hold the office of the presidency of the Confederate States of America. It would be his time in office that helped solidify and define the future policies and platforms of both of the CSA's major political parties for decades to come. His presidency would also mark a time of change for the nation he was leading. It was during his time in office that the gradual emancipation plans of the final states to approve them finally reached their conclusion, ending slavery, in name at least, within the CSA. Thus, in 1910, the Confederacy became the last major nation in the world to outlaw the practice of enslavement of another human being. While many within the nation celebrated this as a hard fought victory, other nations around the world were disgusted it had taken a nation they considered to be a western, civilized nation to take so long to abolish such an abhorrent system. This can help explain why, of all the powerful nations of the world, the Confederacy received the least amount of diplomatic efforts of other nations to bring their nation to their side in the Great War when it break out in 1914, as no nation wanted to be burdened with the propaganda defeat of having a nation fight alongside them who had also within the same decade ended the practice of slavery. Thus, the Confederacy had to be contented with maintaining its informal alliance with the United States and Mexico.
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    A 1930s photograph of the Barret House, which served during Cleburne's presidency as the embassy of the United Kingdom to the Confederacy
    Despite the victory his nation had won in the abolition of slavery, Cleburne still remained worried. Even after all the Confederate states, even South Carolina, had outlawed slavery, there still were a vocal and in some cases quite persuasive minority of up and coming young speakers who still clung to the notion of slavery, and even advocated for its return. Fearing that a day might come when those radicals gained enough power and influence to put their views into effect, Cleburne decided it was necessary to pass an abolition amendment to prevent slavery from ever returning. Many in his coalition, however, did not support Cleburne in this assessment. While they too were glad that slavery had passed away as a system, they feared that going so far as passing an amendment to outlaw would provide fuel to their Democratic opposition in their appeals to the voters. Despite this, Cleburne would use all his influence and all the connections he had made from 50 years of service in the public eye to get the amendment passed. Working alongside his close allies, President Pro Tempore Charles A. Culberson in the Senate and Arkansas Representative Joseph T. Robinson in the House, Cleburne disregarded those who stood in opposition to him, even when it came to allies. Eventually, through sheer force of will, the amendment would be narrowly passed. The cost would prove to be quite heavy, however. In ignoring the views and complaints of the moderate Democrats, Cleburne had effectively managed to shatter the brittle coalition, thus sending many Democrats back to the former party, with a much smaller number choosing to remain in the Liberty Party. The constant campaigning for the amendment had also proven to be a drain on the elderly president's health, with many within the party fearing he might pass away, especially when Cleburne came down with a severe case of pneumonia. Ultimately, he would survive the ordeal, albeit narrowly, Afterwards, the president seemed irrevocable changed, down many allies and his health irreparably damaged, he seemed to have lost some of the fire and vigor that defined his personality. He would continue onward with the presidency, however.
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    Charles Culberson and Joseph Robinson, Cleburne's allies in the passage of the abolition amendment
    Despite Cleburne's victory with the passage of the amendment, all was not well within his administration. Cleburne knew his handling of its passage had cost him allies in both congress and around the country, but he did not expect that he faced opposition from within his cabinet itself. Seeing how the president how destroyed the coalition, as well as being well aware of his frail health, Cleburne's Secretary of the Navy, a moderate Virginian Democrat named Woodrow Wilson, decided action needed to be taken against the president. In what became known as the "Cabinet Cabal", Wilson would seek support from his fellow cabinet members in his plan to form a united front against Cleburne and to publicly demand his resignation in favor of Vice-President M. Hoke Smith. Wilson decided that if he could get a majority of his fellow cabinet members to support him, or in other words three others beside himself, he would go forward with the plot. After several days of a whisper campaign, Wilson managed to bring Secretary of the Interior Tom E. Watson and Postmaster General Francis R. Lassiter to his side, but he had been rebuffed by Secretary of State Oscar Underwood, Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, and Secretary of War Oscar B. Colquitt. Ultimately, Wilson would hinge his decision on the opinion of Attorney General Duncan U. Fletcher, the last cabinet member whom he approached. Fletcher would be personally torn about what to do, but ultimately decided to remain loyal to Cleburne. Despite failing to bring a majority of his fellow cabinet members to his side, Wilson still continued with the plan, now deciding to focus particularly on congressmen and other high ranking government officials. Ultimately, however, this would prove to be his downfall. After rebuffing Wilson, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury William P. Jackson would reveal the cabal to Cleburne, as well as the men he knew were involved. Following this revelation, Cleburne would fire outright Wilson, replacing him with Tennessee Representative Lemuel P. Padgett. Watson would be allowed to quietly resign, being replaced by fellow former Populist Marion Butler. For his part, Lassiter's support for the plan would not be revealed until decades later, so he remained at his post for the remainder of Cleburne's presidency, silent about his involvement in the conspiracy against him.
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    Woodrow Wilson and William Jackson, the creator and destroyer of the Cabinet Cabal
    With his party still trying to readjust from the collapse of the coalition and come to grips with the losses that had occurred as a result, Cleburne failed to achieve many other notable accomplishments throughout the rest of his presidency. Cleburne himself came to grips with this reality, and enjoyed the respite it proved to himself. His most notable accomplishment during this time would ultimately prove to be the admission of four new states into the Confederacy: Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja California, and Verdigris. President Buckner had promised to admit the first three of those states as part of his campaigning in the 1903 election, but following the Mexican Revolution, that promise had effectively been forgotten. Cleburne would resurrect it, however, and welcome the states into the Confederacy. Verdigris, composed of the former Indian Territory and named after the Verdigris River that flowed through it would be admitted shortly thereafter. With its admission as a state, the last of the territory the Confederacy had won as the result of the American Civil War was finally given statehood. In Congress, particularly from Democrats, there came cries for the admission of Cuba as a state. Cleburne, however, opposed this proposal, claiming that it was precedent that a CSA territory would have to wait decades for admission as a state, pointing to the 48 years waited by Verdigris, and the 37 years Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California remained as territories, as opposed to the mere 14 years Cuba had been a territory of the CSA.
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    A photograph of a Verdigris town at the time of its admission as a state
    When the time of the 1916 presidential election came around, Cleburne eagerly awaited the time when he would finally be able to leave the presidency. During his time in office, he had been bombarded by critics and on occasion had even received death threats. He had to have gone through betrayals, both from his fellow politicians and even from his own body. The coalition that had brought him into office had collapsed, and it was doubtful if his successor would be of the Liberty Party. Despite this, Cleburne would still be proud of his signal legislative achievement, and as many fierce rivals he had created from his time in office, he had also gained admirers, particularly foreign. Many of his foreign admirers would be of Ireland, his own former homeland, where his birthday would be celebrated throughout his time in office, a tradition that continues amongst some Irishmen to the modern day. In the end, despite being widely despised in his time, Cleburne's reputation would be rehabilitated in the decades to come, and in the modern day he is generally ranked among the Confederacy's greatest presidents for his principled stand against slavery.

    Cleburne and his cabinet:
    President: Patrick Cleburne
    Vice-President: M. Hoke Smith
    Secretary of State: Oscar Underwood
    Secretary of the Treasury: William G. McAdoo
    Secretary of War: Oscar B. Colquitt
    Secretary of the Navy: Woodrow Wilson
    Attorney General: Duncan U. Fletcher
    Postmaster General: Francis R. Lassiter
    Secretary of the Interior: Tom E. Watson
     
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    Chapter Seventy-Two: The 1912 U.S. Presidential Election
  • Chapter Seventy-Two: The 1912 U.S. Presidential Election
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    A political cartoon published by the Lodge campaign criticizing Nelson Aldrich's role as obstructionist in the Senate
    By the time the 1912 U.S. Presidential Election came around, it was all but certain they was going to be a divide within the Republican Party the likes of which had not been seen since 1884. On one side stood incumbent President Henry C. Lodge, and in opposition stood the solid conservative Republicans, who were unwilling to budge on the issues they believed in and were growing increasingly exacerbated with how they had been sidelined within the party. Even now, the one area where Roosevelt had given them leniency and more influence, in the appointment of cabinet members and other government officials, Lodge had cracked down on. Throughout his presidency, he had ignored their calls for the removal of progressives from his cabinet and other government offices, including Attorney General Jonathan P. Dolliver, Postmaster General James R. Garfield, and Chief of the United States Forest Service Gifford Pinchot. Every time Lodge had ignored their requests and retained the men in office. Thus, the generally conservative Lodge was drifting more and more into the progressive camp and farther away from the conservatives, who had expected him to be their champion after eight years of Roosevelt. As a result of this, few were surprised when the conservative Republicans backed their own candidate to oppose Lodge in the nominating convention: Ohio Senator Joseph B. Foraker. Enjoying the advantage of incumbency, Lodge managed to be nominated on the second ballot, albeit after a difficult fight. Obstinate after defeat, the conservatives demanded that Lodge drop his current Vice-President, the progressive Albert B. Cummins, and instead run with Foraker. When Lodge and his campaign refused to do this, and Cummins was instead nominated, the conservatives stormed out of the convention and declared they would nominate their own candidate for president. The long awaited Republican break had finally occurred.
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    Henry Lodge and Albert Cummins
    Reorganizing in New York City, the Conservative Republicans, as they referred to themselves, gathered to nominate their own candidate. Without a clear leader, however, the convention would be inundated with candidates. The three most prominent and widely supported would be Rhode Island Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, Ohio Senator Joseph B. Foraker, and New Hampshire Senator Jacob H. Gallinger. Among the flood of minor candidates were Delware Senator Henry A. du Pont, California Senator George C. Perkins, Ohio Representative and former CSA ambassador Warren G. Harding, and former Standard Oil Chairman Henry M. Flagler, who was not aware he was even a candidate and was not in attendance at the convention. One by one the minor candidates dropped until only the big three remained. Consistently trailing at third in the ballots but also controlling enough delegates to decide the nominee, Gallinger decided to play the role of king maker. He would be approached by Harding, who had become Foraker's unofficial campaign manager after dropping out, to throw his support behind Foraker, who was currently holding solid at second in the ballots. Ultimately, Gallinger would support his fellow New England senator, however, and threw his support behind Aldrich, giving him the nomination. Realizing the need to heal party divisions, as well as the electoral value of his home state, Aldrich would support Foraker as his running-mate, which he would be nominated for.
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    Nelson Aldrich and Joseph Foraker
    The Democrats, for their own part, were excited about the opportunities this election posed. With a major split within the Republican Party, this presented them with a fine opportunity to return to power after 16 years of political exile. Entering into the convention, three major candidates stood out: Missouri Senator and 1908 presidential nominee Champ Clark, New York Senator William R. Hearst, and Indiana Senator John W. Kern, who managed to exploit divides within Indiana's Republican Party to be elected to fill the senate seat vacated by James E. Watson's appointment as Secretary of State. Although both Hearst and Kern excited the more common, low-level Democrats with their appeals and seeming advantages they would have should they run, Clark remained the favored candidate of the establishment, and the divide of popular support between Hearst and Kern ensured that they lacked the strength to defeat the powerful party bosses. Thus, Clark was again the nominee, with Hearst again storming out of the convention as he had done in 1908 and again pledging to run as his own candidate. Aware of the divide in the Republicans, and hoping to draw disaffected Republicans to their ticket, the Democrats would nominate Massachusetts Representative Eugene Foss, a former Republican and known conservative, as Clark's running-mate.
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    Champ Clark and Eugene Foss
    Like he did the 1908 election, Hearst would decide to run his own campaign for president as a third party, again taking the mantle of the Progressive Party. This time, he had managed to bring even more Democrats with them than last time, and he was even viewed by some to be the legitimate candidate of the Democratic Party, rather than Clark who was chosen by the party bosses. Unsurprisingly, Hearst would be chosen to run as the presidential candidate of the Progressive Party, and hoping to further his claim to be the legitimate Democratic candidate, he extended the offer of the vice-presidential nomination to Kern. Kern, however, would turn down Hearst's offer, and decide to remain loyal to the Democrats. In response, Hearst decried Kern as a party lackey and instead saw to it that John R. McLean, a former Ohio representative, newspaper publisher, and one of his campaign managers at the Democratic convention, was chosen to be his running-mate.
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    William Hearst and John McLean
    Coming into the campaign season, the conservative Republicans would quickly find out that their support was not as widespread as they previously thought. Not all conservatives had abandoned Lodge, and notably one had remained loyal to the president: House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon. Despite his defeat at the hands of Lodge for the 1908 Republican presidential nomination, the relationship between the Cannon and Lodge has steadily grown stronger throughout Lodge's presidency, culminating in Lodge nominating James E. Watson as Secretary of State and Charles W. Fairbanks as Ambassador to the United Kingdom, as both men were close friends and allies of Cannon. Thus Cannon refused to defect to the Conservative Republicans and instead worked alongside some of the leaders of Lodge's campaign, such as George W. Perkins, Samuel W. McCall, and Gifford Pinchot to help his candidacy. Hearst, meanwhile, would again launch his media empire into full attack mode as he had done in the 1908 election, and began portraying himself, somewhat accurately, as the only truly progressive presidential candidate in the election. He combined this with effective campaigning lieutenants, such as New York representatives John A. Dix, William J. Gaynor, and William Sulzer, all of whom had played a crucial role in his election of the Senate and were fiercely loyal to Hearst due to the patronage of the New York political machine he had formed. Clark focused on trying to gain ground in Midwestern states, namely Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa, which he hoped, alongside the border states of Kentucky and Missouri, would be enough to throw the election to the House where he hoped to broker a deal with the Conservative Republicans.
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    Lodge's Campaign Managers: George Perkins, Samuel McCall, and Gifford Pinchot, and Hearst's Campaign Managers: John Dix, William Gaynor, and William Sulzer
    In the end, Lodge narrowly managed to secure the electoral votes needed for re-election without throwing it to the House. It would ultimately come down to his narrow victory in New York, with its corresponding 45 electoral votes, that provided the boost that Lodge needed to win. New York was also notable for its runner-up: William R. Hearst. Previously, Hearst had only been considered a minor, somewhat irrelevant candidate, even after securing electoral votes in the previous election and winning election to the Senate. This election would shatter that notion. By almost winning New York, the nation's most populous state and which would have resulted in the election being thrown to the House, Hearst had confirmed himself as an important and influential player on the national political scene, a man who the Democrats could no longer brush aside as a crazy radical. In the end, Lodge secured 219 electoral votes from Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, South Dakota, North Dakota, Washington, Oregon, Montana, and of course New York. Placing second would be Champ Clark, winning 86 electoral votes from Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas. Third place went to Aldrich, with 44 electoral votes from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Ohio, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Finally, taking up the rear once again would be Hearst, winning 25 electoral votes from Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada. While the divide within the Republican Party had hurt the Lodge campaign, likely costing them such states as Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and possibly Indiana, it had not been as devastating or effective as the conservatives intended, and following the election, most of the conservatives would quietly slink back into the Republican Party. Most would be accepted back, but a few would be cast aside as an example, with the most notable example of this being Foraker, who would be denied renomination to run for his Senate seat in 1914, resulting in the end of his political career. Ultimately, while the break within the Republican Party was not long lasting, it had made for one of the most dramatic elections in U.S. history.
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    A political cartoon published in the wake of Lodge's victory, entitled "The Triumph of the True Republicans", in reference to the triumphs of Ancient Rome. President Lodge stands at left and Chief Justice Knox stands to his right. The conservative Republicans are derogatorily referred to as the "The League".​
     
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    Map of North America, ca. 1913
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    Key:
    Blue: United States of America
    Light Blue: United States of America Territory
    Gray: Confederate States of America
    Light Gray: Confederate States of America Territory
    Green: Republic of Mexico
    Red: Dominion of Canada
     
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    Chapter Seventy-Three: The True Test of Our Democracy
  • Chapter Seventy-Three: The True Test of Our Democracy
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    Vice-President Carranza leaving his unsuccessful meeting with Generals Jose María Maytorena and Alvaro Obregón
    With Zapata dead and his Zapatista movement shattered, Orozco faced no real opposition for the remainder of his presidency. Recognized throughout the nation as the hero of the Mexican Revolution, no one dared try to stand in opposition to the immensely popular Orozco, especially in the wake of the failed Zapatista Revolt. He recognized, however, that he could not be at Mexico's helm forever. Despite still having much of his life ahead of him, as he was only 31 at the time, Orozco declined to seek a third term for the Mexican presidency in the 1913 presidential election, hoping to set a precedent his successors would follow. Thus, the field was opened to range of ambitious men to fill the void in Orozco's absence. Despite Mexico having plenty of both ambitious and capable men within her lands, two such of these people came to dominate the election: Vice-President Venustiano Carranza and General-in-Chief Bernardo Reyes, with each man serving as a symbol of the two developing factions within Mexico.
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    Orozco speaking with some of his bodyguards about his intent not to run for re-election.
    On one side of the election stood Vice-President Venustiano Carranza. A veteran politician, Carranza had been selected to be Orozco's running-mate to provide both political experience to the ticket, as well as to reassure Mexico's upper and more established classes that Orozco did not intend to turn the country too much upside with his presidency. Despite being present to represent the interests of the rich and powerful, as Orozco's presidency progressed, Carranza's views had changed. He had grown to sympathize with the plight of the rural poor of Mexico. In light of the Zapatista Revolt, he also believed that if the voices of the farmers and other agricultural workers were ignored by the urban people and the government, the former population would always be ready for upheaval and all it would take for another revolt to occur would be a charismatic leader who appealed to them, like Zapata. Thus, Carranza ran on a platform of further agricultural reform, such as redistributing land to the poor and breaking up the farming monopolies of the wealthy few. He would also campaign on running a clean, uncorrupt administration that would be held accountable to the people. Hoping to cut into Reyes' strongest base of support, as well as to avoid accusations of sympathizing with the Zapatistas, Carranza decided to select an army general as his running-mate. Generals Jose María Maytorena and Alvaro Obregón, both of whom had served well in the Zapatista Revolt, turned down Carranza's offer to be his running-mate, instead choosing to remain loyal to their General-in-Chief. Ultimately, Eulalio Gutiérrez, a veteran of the Zapatista Revolt and currently serving as Orozco's Minister of War, agreed to run with Carranza. Despite his inauspicious start, Carranza hoped his populist appeal could win the presidency.
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    Venustiano Carranza and Eulalio Gutiérrez
    On the other side of the election stood General-in-Chief Bernardo Reyes. Another long-serving public servant with service dating back to the time of Díaz, Reyes had had his eyes of the presidency ever since the outbreak of the revolution. Serving with distinction in both of the republic's wars, Reyes hoped to ride the wave of popularity this brought him to the presidency. He hoped and expected Orozco to endorse his candidacy, which ultimately never occurred, much to his surprise. Reyes generally represented the interests of Mexico's urban population, as well as her higher class citizens, including the large scale farmers whose monopolies Carranza intended to bust. He would also generally have the support of Mexico's army, to whom he was a beloved leader. He also used his vice-presidential pick to show another goal of his campaign. For his running-mate, Reyes would go with Mexican Ambassador to the United States Francisco León de la Barra. Beside being a man highly respected by most Mexicans, as well as an experienced politician in his own right, de le Barra brought something else to Reyes' candidacy. In choosing him to be his running-mate, Reyes hoped to show his interest in further pursuing relations with their two northern neighbors, the United States and the Confederacy.
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    Bernardo Reyes and Francisco León de la Barra
    The campaigning in this election would show to be both ugly and bitter. Carranza's supporters would paint Reyes as trying to position himself to be the next Porfirio Díaz, while Reyes supporters would claim that Carranza was going to become the next Zapata. Carranza's campaign would take a blow when Orozco approved a law disenfranchising former Zapatistas, or even those suspected of having Zapatista loyalties. Reyes' campaign would pounce at the opportunity, working hard to prove the disloyalty of as many of Carranza's key base--rural, small scale farmers--as possible. Carranza, meanwhile, would exclaim, somewhat accurately, that Reyes and his campaign were engaging in voter suppression and were fabricating sedition on little to no evidence. "This election," Carranza cried out at one campaign rally, "will be the true test our democracy! We must take all actions necessary to stop this subversion of our liberties!" Ultimately, this exclamation would come back to bite Carranza, as it reminded many of the rhetoric of Zapata, and Reyes' campaign made sure the common Mexican populace did not forget it.
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    A photograph taken of Carranza departing from the train station, soon to deliver his "True Test of Our Democracy" speech that helped define his campaign
    When the votes were finally tallied, Reyes had won the election by a fairly distinct margin. Certainly the voter disenfranchisement had played a major role in causing this result, and Carranza would be quick to call this out. Carranza, however, would prove to be no Zapata. Unlike the latter, Carranza had no dedicated base of die-hard followers, and many in the population accepted and understood, if not necessarily agreed with, the vote being taken away from former Zapatistas. Thus, Reyes was elected President of the Mexican Republic, and it would be under his leadership that Mexican Republic would go through some of the most defining years of the first few decades of its existence.
     
    Chapter Seventy-Four: The Presidency of Henry C. Lodge, Part Two
  • Chapter Seventy-Four: The Presidency of Henry C. Lodge, Part Two
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    President Henry C. Lodge
    Having faced and overcome the opposition of the conservatives within his party, as well as having received the mandate of the people via his victory over them in the presidential election, Lodge was ready to exude much more control both over the presidency and his party in his second term in office. One way he would show this control would be in the aftermath of the death of President Pro Tempore William P. Frye shortly into Lodge's second term in office. Lodge would use his influence to block the candidate of the conservative wing of the party, Jacob H. Gallinger of New Hampshire, and instead see to that his preferred candidate, Elihu Root of New York, who had become a close ally of the president even though he had worked against him at the 1908 Republican National Convention, became the next President Pro Tempore. With this move, Lodge not only ensured that his planned legislative goals would not be derailed in that body, but also showed he was now the unquestioned master of the party, with close allies of his--President Pro Tempore Root, House Speaker Joseph Cannon, and Chief Justice Philander Knox--sitting at the head of both of the other two branches of government.
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    Elihu Root and Jacob Gallinger

    It would be in his second term that Lodge would have to facing a growing humanitarian crisis that had existed for roughly the past decade, but had reached new heights by his second term. While abolition in the Confederacy was almost unilaterally praised throughout the United States and the world in general, for the newly freed slaves, especially in the Deep South, there was little cause for joy post-emancipation. They were left with little job opportunities within the Confederacy beyond back-breaking agricultural work, demeaning jobs on the railroads, and life in the treacherous and unsanitary factories. Beyond job opportunity, they also faced intense discrimination in all walks of life, and violence against them was prevalent, especially, once again, in the Deep South and other heavily Confederate Democratic areas. Hoping for better prospects in the increasingly less racist United States, the newly freed people of the Confederacy would move en masse to that nation, particularly the Midwestern states. Viewing the influx of former slaves willing to work for minimal wages as a threat to their jobs, many low skill factory workers would protest the open border policy that the government had taken on the issue. Hoping to exploit the issue for political benefit, the Democrats leaped at the opportunity and began bombarding President Lodge with demands that he restrict immigration from the CSA of African-Americans. Minority Whip Benjamin F. Shively of Indiana would attempt to force through the House a bill to that affect. Lodge, as he had always done on issues relating to race, held firm. His presidency, which had been marked by signal legislative accomplishments on civil rights such as desegregation of public offices and the oversight of increased rights for African-Americans, would not turn its back on them now. In response, Lodge would be praised throughout the international scene, but his party also managed to earn the scorn of some of the workers, costing them several seats in the midterm Congressional elections, particularly in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
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    A photograph of one of the more well-off families of African-Americans who traveled into the United States during the Great Migration. Many others would be less fortunate and would have to deal with much poorer conditions.
    Despite his stand for African-American rights, Lodge would not be open to all form of the progressive movement that cropped up during his presidency. The two most notable examples of this would be the Women's Suffrage Movement and the movement to support the direct election of U.S. senators. Seeing how progressive the president had been on the issue of race, supporters of both movements hoped that it was finally their turn to be acknowledged and accepted by the nation as a whole. Ultimately, this was not to be. Despite it having significant support within the Republican Party, as well as some support within the Democratic, President Lodge himself remained opposed to any amendment that provided for women's suffrage. Many of his close allies, such as Knox and Root, held similar views. Thus the women's suffrage movement would find themselves disappointed by President Lodge, and forced to continue waiting for a friendly administration. The direct election movement would similarly find itself stymied by the president. The motion, popular with Democrats hoping to unseat long-serving Republican incumbents, would find similar opponents to its adoption as that of women's suffrage. In the end, both of the movements would have to wait until Lodge left office until they had a chance to be reconsidered.
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    A photograph of women's suffragettes
    Meanwhile, Lodge continued to work on the diplomatic front to strength relations between the United States, the Confederacy, and Mexico. Eager to discover things that would lead to this effect, Lodge would meet with the United States Ambassadors to Mexico and the Confederacy, who were Ambrose Bierce and T. Jefferson Coolidge respectively. Many modern historians speculate that that summit, along with future ones hosted for the three nations by Lodge, which would ultimately lay the groundwork for the Triple Alliance, were sparked by the Lodge's concern over the growing state of tension that was currently enveloping the European continent. In these meetings, Lodge would instruct his diplomats to plan out more joint military training events between the three armies, as well as to determine a path the three nations could follow to grow closer militarily. Although the Triple Alliance would ultimately be formed by his successor, Lodge would still count it as one of his achievements in his post-presidency life.
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    Diplomats Ambrose Bierce and T. Jefferson Coolidge
    Ultimately, Lodge's concerns about the state of European affairs proved to be very well-founded, as it would be during his presidency that the illusion of European peace shattered and all the built up tensions between the great powers burst forth in war. Ultimately the spark for the war would be a group of radical French socialists, who referred to themselves as the Libérateurs du monde or "Liberators of the World". Hoping to launch a socialist revolution in Germany, a network over roughly 150 radicals would launch a series of pre-planned attacks on German garrisons, minor public buildings, and on one occasion denotated a bomb in Berlin, killing or maiming dozens of German citizens. Already outraged by these provocations, the final straw for the Germans would come on September 14, 1914. While riding in a car through Berlin, Princess Margaret, the youngest child of the current German kaiser, Frederick III, would be killed by a bomb thrown by some of the last remaining members of the Libérateurs du monde. Germany demanded the right for an internal investigation of the French Radical-Socialist Party, whom the Libérateurs du monde falsely claimed were their backers. While France's president, Raymond Poincaré, certainly was no friend to the Radical-Socialists, who also refused to be humiliated by the nation that had stood as France's worst enemy since the Franco-Prussian War. Thus, with their demand refused, Germany declared war on France, and was soon joined by Austria-Hungary under Emperor Franz Joseph I. Coming to France's side would be Russia under Czar Nicholas II, her recent ally. This left Great Britain and Italy as the only great powers left to decide how to side. Thanks to the skillful diplomacy of Frederick and his wife Victoria over the past few decades, Britain had been distanced from France militarily, and when presented with the outbreak of what was rapidly becoming a war to consume the continent, ultimately decided to remain neutral. Italy, meanwhile, was in name an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary. In practice, however, their monarch, King Victor Emmanuel III, proved very hesitant to join the war. Eventually, however, a series of underhanded threats and promises of territory and glory proved enough to coax reluctant Italy into the war. Thus, Europe was set aflame, and it was left to the remaining nations of the world to decide how to react.
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    The Leaders of the Great War: Frederick III of Germany, Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, and Victor Emmanuel III of Italy of the Central Powers, and Raymond Poincaré of France and Nicholas II of Russia of the Entente Powers​
     
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    Chapter Seventy-Five: The CSA Presidential Election of 1915
  • Chapter Seventy-Five: The CSA Presidential Election of 1915
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    A Liberty Party campaign poster for their presidential candidate, Oscar Underwood

    Although no one at the time would know, the 1915 CSA Presidential Election would go do in their history as one of the closest, most controversial, and most surprising in the nation's history, ranking alongside the 1867 and 1969 elections in that regard. Going into the election, the popularity of President Cleburne had reached a new low in its slump. Finding it hard to achieve anything due to the wall of opposition formed against him, Cleburne had very little to show for his six years in office, besides the passage of his highly divisive abolition amendment and the rebellion of his cabinet in the "Cabinet Cabal". These things seemed to be the only thing the general public remembered about the aged president coming into the 1915 election, and many expected the Democratic Party to flip both the Senate and the presidency to their camp, as they had done to the House in 1913. Of the 34 Senators in the CSA Senate, 18 were affiliated with the Liberty Party, giving them a narrow and tenuous majority.
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    A 1906 photograph of the CSA Congress building in Washington

    Realizing they were going to need to put forward an extremely strong candidate for the presidency if they were going to stand any chance of retaining the executive branch, come the Liberty Nominating Convention, perhaps the three most well-known members of the Liberty Party eligible to run were in consideration: Secretary of State Oscar Underwood, President Pro Tempore Charles A. Culberson, and General-in-Chief of the Confederate States Army George H. Thomas Jr. With such well-known names and popular figures within the party being placed into consideration, the convention prepared for a blood bath. Miraculous, however, this was not to occur. Both Thomas and Culberson withdrew their names from consideration. The former due to his desire to see to it that emancipation was properly enacted throughout the country and the latter because he claimed he intended to retire after the conclusion of his current Senate term. Thus, Underwood was overwhelmingly nominated on the first ballot, with the only opposition votes going to Vice-President M. Hoke Smith in the hopes of reviving the fully dead Liberty-moderate Democrat coalition. Ultimately, there was to be more strife in the selection of Underwood's running-mate. The four main candidates were Attorney General Duncan U. Fletcher, who had the support of the establishment as a good choice to appeal to the moderates, CSA Ambassador to the U.S. John W. Smith, Major General Duncan N. Hood, who drew support from former Thomas' supporters due to his close association with said general in the Mexican Revolution, and finally Arkansas Representative Joseph T. Robinson, who had the endorsement of President Cleburne. Several rounds of balloting proved ineffective in selecting the vice-presidential candidate, and the deadlock was only broken when Underwood promised to retain Smith in his current post should he be elected. With Smith releasing his delegates, Fletcher finally managed to achieve the required votes to be nominated for the vice-presidency.
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    Oscar Underwood and Duncan Fletcher
    The Democrats, energized by the collapse of the Liberty-moderate Democrat coalition, as well as their capturing of the House in the 1913 midterms, were eager to expand their control to both the Senate and the presidency. Similar to the Liberty Party, the Democratic nominating convention would be presented with three noteworthy and well-known candidates for the presidency from the outset: House Speaker Claude Kitchin, Virginia Representative and Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Carter Glass, and South Carolina Senator Coleman L. Blease, who was unofficially serving as the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. Unlike the Liberty Party convention, however, none of three candidates would drop out from the outset. Each candidate was distinguished by the issue they most heavily campaigned on. Blease focused on repealing the abolition amendment, with the implication that he eventually hoped for a return of slavery. Glass, meanwhile, focused on campaigning for the Confederacy to enter the burgeoning Great War to finally make the other Great Powers of the world acknowledge the CSA's self-perceived military might. Finally, Kitchin posed himself as a moderate, standing in opposition to the extreme positions held by both of his rivals and instead focusing on bringing the returning members of the party to his side. Eventually, endorsement began to play a major role in the convention. Blease would receive the endorsement of prominent North Carolina Senator Furnifold Simmons --who many expected to have sought the nomination himself-- and long serving Virginia Representative and Democratic party boss of that state John W. Daniel. Meanwhile, Glass' campaign had the support of previous Democratic nominee Jeff Davis, who still commanded a considerable following in the party. Kitchin's most notable endorsement came from Texas Senator and previous Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph W. Bailey. Ultimately, none of these factors would prove to be enough to sway enough delegates to the side of a candidate. In the end, it would become a matter of wills, and Carter Glass' will would become the first to break. On the sixteenth ballot, he dropped out and endorsed Kitchin, as well as delivering a scathing speech against Blease. With Glass gone and his delegates going to him almost to a man, Kitchin would be nominated on the seventeenth ballot. For his running-mate, the party would turn to the uncontroversial veteran Mississippi Senator Hernando Money.
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    Claude Kitchin and Hernando Money
    When the time to campaign arrived, it appeared that the only advantage the Liberty Party had was unified party rallied behind their candidates, something the Democrats lacked. Blease, still sulking from his failure at the convention and the harsh words leveled against him there, had refused to endorse Kitchin the aftermath. Instead, he decided to start his own campaign and run as an independent candidate. Thus, he announced his candidacy with Mississippi Representative Benjamin G. Humphreys as his running-mate under the banner of the States Rights' Party. This would throw the Democratic Party into a major panic. What previously had been viewed as a sure victory could be overturned if Blease remained in the race. Kitchin had to act quickly to convince Blease to drop out, and to do this, he had to make some major compromises and concessions. In exchange for dropping out, both Blease and Humphreys were promised positions in the cabinet, State and Interior respectively, as well Kitchin authorizing Blease to speak for him on the campaign trail, something which Blease required he tell to the public. Unfortunately for Kitchin, Blease held many conflicting or even opposing views to his on many issues, such as the abolition amendment and entry into the Great War, and his rhetoric, which Kitchin was unable to contradict, undermined his moderate appeal. Underwood, meanwhile, was pick up that distinction, campaigning against war and for the abolition amendment, as well as being the more veteran politician. Ultimately, in the end, while the Democratic Party remained confident of victory, Kitchin himself began to harbor major doubts if he would win the election, especially when reports seemed to indicate that Underwood was favored to win in his own home state of North Carolina.
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    Coleman Blease and Benjamin Humphreys II, candidates of the short lived States Rights' Party
    Ultimately, Kitchin would prove right to worry. Underwood would narrowly win the presidency with 85 electoral votes to Kitchin's 76. As it would turn out, however, the cause of Kitchin's concern would prove to be incorrect. While Kitchin was worried that states of the original Confederacy would turn against him due to Blease's radicalism, he should have soon more worry about how the newer states in the Confederacy, such as Arizona, Sonora, Chihuahua, Baja California, and Verdigris would react to his candidacy. Despite their small electoral vote value individually, together they had proved to be the states to hand Underwood the election, not mention voting for his candidacy by an overwhelming margin. In the end, Underwood managed to hold onto key and long-standing Liberty Party strongholds, with the exception of North Carolina, and filled in the rest with the electoral votes of the new states. His electoral votes would come from Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, Sonora, Chihuahua, Baja California, and Verdigris. Kitchin, meanwhile, would win North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In the end, the CSA Presidential Election of 1915 is remembered by history as one of the great upsets in the electoral history of the North American continent, as well as a model for both how to and how not to campaign for elected office.
     
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    Chapter Seventy-Six: The U.S. Presidential Election of 1916
  • Chapter Seventy-Six: The U.S. Presidential Election of 1916
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    Candidates Charles E. Hughes and Willard Saulsbury at campaign events
    Coming into the 1916 presidential election, America held its breath. Almost all of mainland Europe's major powers were now in a brutal sludging match for power, and it is was clear that both sides were attempting to woo the remaining world powers at peace, most notably Great Britain and the United States, and to a lesser degree the Confederacy and Mexico, to their side. The common people of these nations, however, were appalled by the seemingly pointless and continuous bloodshed that had become almost mundane to the nations involved, and strove to make this fact known with their voting. Thus, the issue of neutrality remained the position both American parties would take in the election, less they gain the wrath of the people. Thus, in a time of brutal war, it was hardly discussed directly on either candidate's campaign trail, aside from the occasional jab that the other man would bring the nation into the war, which no one really took seriously. Instead, the campaigning would come to focus on building alliances at home with other American nations to form neutral leagues, and other domestic issues.
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    The harsh realities of the Great War's trench warfare and long, drawn-out battles made the idea of entry into the war abominable to the average American​

    When the Republicans gathered together to nominate their candidate, the convention was highly uncomfortable for the party bosses, as expected. Men who one election ago had been tearing into each other were now united once more and had to work together to support a common candidate who had to adequately represent both of their views to avoid a massive walk out. Although some names who possibly could have fit this description were floated, including House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, Supreme Court Chief Justice Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, Treasury Secretary Hamilton Fish II of New York, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Elihu Root of New York, ultimately one man was expected to carry the nomination from the start of the convention: Associate Justice Charles E. Hughes of New York. Given a unintended blessing by President Lodge in his nomination to the Supreme Court and being taken out of the public debates, Hughes had miraculously managed to not deeply offend either side too badly during the Republican split of 1912, and now seemed posed to work well as a compromise candidate. On the first ballot, the only opposition who face would be from fringe candidates of both progressive nature--California Representative Hiram Johnson and Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette-- and conservative-- Massachusetts Senator John W. Weeks and Ohio Governor Frank B. Willis. Although in a preferred scenario, the adherents to each side of the Republican divide would have nominated their preferred candidate, they realized the need for unity and reconciliation in this election cycle, and thus went with the moderate Hughes, easily nominating him of the first ballot. For the vice-presidency, another generally liked man was selected: Secretary of War Leonard Wood, who had effectively served at his post during the Roosevelt and Lodge administrations and was noted for his role in helping to bring together the United States with its two southern neighbors.
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    Charles Hughes and Leonard Wood
    The Democratic nominating convention took on a hopeful air, even after the Republican divide they had been rooting for never occurred. They were hoping that the Republican candidates would only receive a lukewarm response from the nation, and that after twenty years of Republican rule the nation would finally return to their oldest party, if only from party weariness. Entering into the convention, the candidates included Missouri Senator Champ Clark, who had managed to acquire the nickname "The Perennial" for his two past failed presidential runs, Delaware Senator Willard Saulsbury, Jr., and of course New York Senator William R. Hearst. Hearst campaigned harder than ever in this convention, for he feared for the security of his Senate seat. His victory in the 1911 election had been a close run thing, even though he was running against the generally unpopular incumbent Chauncey M. Depew. In this cycle, his opponent seemed likely to be Lodge's Treasury Secretary Hamilton Fish II, who was very popular with the Republican controlled state legislature. Thus, Hearst believed his only chance to remain in public office was to win the presidency. Unfortunately for him, for a third time the Democratic establishment stood in opposition to his populist candidacy, and instead favored Senator Saulsbury, who received the nomination. Realizing the need to keep him on their side, however, the party establishment agreed to let Hearst choose Saulsbury's running-mate. Almost everyone in the party assumed Hearst would select himself to fill the role. Thus, they were there was much commotion on the convention floor when Hearst announced his choice: his close political ally New York Representative John A. Dix. Hearst claimed he was unwilling to be shunted by the Democratic party bosses into political irrelevancy, and he instead expected a cabinet post as reward for his support. Not specifying which post he desired, the deal was struck, and Hearst was promised a cabinet office should Saulsbury win. With this in hand, Hearst launched his full might into the Saulsbury campaign
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    Willard Saulsbury and John Dix
    Thus America entered into his first presidential election since 1876 with only 2 major candidates seeking the office. Made eager by the promises of rewards for himself and his supporters, Hearst busily set to work managing Saulsbury's campaign, especially along the Eastern seaboard. This left his Republican counterpart, Henry L. Stimson, struggling to keep up, and hoping that the long-standing Republican dominance of the executive office would hold. Hughes himself would sweep the nation with speeches and train stops, far outdoing Saulsbury in this regard. Some newspaper jokingly began to refer to the race of "Hughes vs. Hearst Saulsbury". One cartoon would depict a large board announcing the race as Hughes against Hearst, only to have Democratic bosses painting over Hearst's name and placing Saulsbury's over it. In the campaign rallies he did host, many would point out how Saulsbury spent almost the same amount of time attacking Hughes as trying to make it understood he was his own man, and not Hearst's puppet or a front man for the Democratic machines. Hughes, meanwhile, would focus on his respectable, capable, and clean political record, and likeable demeanor and general appeal. In perhaps the most memorable moment of the campaign amongst modern times, an eager young Republican speaker would produce a puppet at the end his address, which he had delivered standing in a car. After making some derogatory remarks comparing Saulsbury to the puppet, he would loudly exclaim, "And this is what we are going to do to him!" After yelling that, he tossed the marionette onto the road and ran over it with the car in which he was standing. Afterwards, one of the spectators in the crowd would remove the crushed puppet from the road and save it. His son would turn the puppet over to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History decades later, and in modern days it is now on display in their "The American Presidency" exhibition, alongside many other presidential campaign novelties.
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    William Hearst, "Saulsbury's Marionette", and Henry Stimson
    In the end, the past two decades of Republican dominance and the general success of their administrations proved just enough to deny the Democrats the presidency once more. In places where the Democrats were expecting to make gains, like New England or the Upper Midwest they had instead unexpectedly buckled. The only place where they had managed to have notable success was in the Plains states, where the populist appeal of the campaign Hearst had run resonated well. The reasoning for this inexplicable fold has been often debated within the modern day, but it is generally agreed it boiled down to a campaign poorly run by a man more interested in promoting himself than his candidate. Ultimately, the electoral vote totals were not very close, with Hughes' winning 256 to Saulsbury's 114. Hughes would win Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, South Dakota, North Dakota, New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Ohio, Iowa, and Connecticut. Saulsbury would win Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, and Oregon. To further add to the anguish of Hearst, he was defeated for re-election to his Senate seat by Hamilton Fish II, as he had expected. There was glimmer of light for the Democrats (and Hearst) in the election, however. With the midterms, the Democrats had managed to narrowly flip the House to their favor, and they elected New York Representative William Jay Gaynor, a close associate of Hearst, as the new House Speaker, ousting long-serving Republican Joseph G. Cannon.
     
    Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Presidency of Oscar Underwood
  • Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Presidency of Oscar Underwood
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    President Oscar Underwood
    Even before he had came into office, President Underwood knew his time their was going to be a struggle. In the corresponding Senate races in the 1915 election, the Liberty Party, miraculously perhaps, had managed to only have a net loss of one seat, dividing the Senate evenly between the Democratic and Liberty Party, with each having 17 senators claiming affiliation with their party. In the House, however, the Liberty Party would suffer greater losses, reinforcing Democratic control of the body, whose speaker still remained Underwood's opponent from the election, Claude Kitchin. Kitchin, still somewhat bitter at the loss of what many had considered his election to win, would often times refuse to consider Liberty Party legislation, despite the pleas of Minority Leader William A. Jones of Virginia. To further weaken the Underwood administration, their fragile control over the Senate was lost almost as soon as he took office. Realizing the tenuous situation his party was in, Underwood would only appoint one senator to his cabinet, Charles A. Culberson at State, not wanting to risk losing the tie breaking vote his Vice-President Fletcher maintained. Unfortunately for the Liberty Party, in the subsequent runoff for Culberson's seat, Earle B. Mayfield, the candidate of the Democrats, beat the Liberty Party's Tom Connally by a narrow margin, as Texas had recently approved a direct election of senators law within its state. This defeat would send shockwaves throughout the control, with President Underwood reportedly saying to Verdigris' blind senator, Thomas P. Gore, "You have lost the use of your eyes, and I believe my administration just lost any teeth it previously had."
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    William Jones and Thomas Gore
    And thus Underwood had to suffer through a lame duck administration almost immediately after entering the presidency. He was unable to pass any of his agenda that required congressional approval, and he was forced to turn to less political pursuits to occupy his time in the executive mansion. One such endeavor was agricultural experimentation. In a rare moment of bipartisanship, Underwood managed to convince the Congress to allocate some funds into research to improve the quality of agriculture within the Confederacy. Despite some levels of industrialization throughout parts of the nation, agriculture still remained a staple of the land, especially in the Deep South, including Underwood's home state of Alabama. The commission that Underwood created would consist of five men, presided over by Senator Gore. The other four members would be from the House of Representatives, two being Democrat--Asbury Francis Lever of South Carolina and William Robert Smith of Texas--, and the other two being Liberty--John Barton Payne of Virginia and Walter Hines Page of North Carolina. Their research already confirmed what many knew but refused to accept, namely that the Deep South was rapidly draining the quality of their soil by consistently planting cotton, and that said cotton was becoming less and less valuable on the international market every year as new sources of cheaper cotton appeared. Receiving these results, Underwood tried to promote agricultural diversification by providing small government incentives and subsidies to those who grew different crops, particularly edible ones. Ultimately, however, very few of the established white planters would buy in on the scheme, leaving it to the up and coming African-American farmers to take advantage of the program.
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    Asbury Lever, William Smith, John Payne, and Walter Page
    The other major initiative of Underwood's first two years in office was a revamping of the Confederacy's navy. Left ignored and unattended since the end of the Spanish-Confederate War, the ships in the navy had become outdated and generally of poor quality. This became an issue when many of the Confederacy's commerce ships began requesting escorts in their shipping of product across the Atlantic to Great Britain, as they had occasionally became the target of German submarines, who sometimes struck out of the desire to deny Britain imports, and sometimes out of plain boredom. Thus, Underwood believed a revamping of the navy was in order to better fit the needs of maritime protection. Realizing the ever-present need to act in a bipartisan manner, he would assign the task to his Secretary of the Navy Ben W. Hooper and the Chair of the House Naval Affairs Committee Josephus Daniels of North Carolina. Although the two men would find each other wholly intolerable, they still managed to achieve some good work and the navy definitely would be improved in the wake of their project. The height of their accomplishment would come during the first ever joint American-Confederate-Mexican naval event, in which ships from all three countries would go on a tour de force throughout the Caribbean.
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    Ben Hooper and Josephus Daniels
    Eventually the balance of power would realign once more in the Confederacy, allowing Underwood slightly more leeway. In the 1918 midterms, the Liberty Party would make slight gains in the House, although failing to flip it. They did, however, manage to successfully flip the Senate back into their favor with the victory of former Vice-President M. Hoke Smith over Augustus Bacon, who had managed to return to the Senate by special appointment, if only briefly, following his previous loss of the seat. With Smith inaugurated, along with the victories of Marion Butler and Tom Connally in North Carolina and Texas Senate races over Furnifold McSimmons and Joseph W. Bailey respectively, control of the Senate passed back over to the Liberty Party.
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    M. Hoke Smith, Tom Connally, and Marion Butler
    With the Senate back in Liberty Party control, Underwood felt empowered to pursue several projects he had previously shied away from in order to maintain a semblance of cooperation between the executive and legislative branches. The most prominent of these would be bringing order to his nation in relations to frequent spurts of violence caused by racial tensions. Although no champion of civil rights or racial equality by any means, Underwood was well aware of the terrible image his country was getting for all the horrifying atrocities committed against the African-Americans, many of them former slaves in the Deep South. Luckily for Underwood, the man he had placed in charge of the War Department, former Confederate General-in-Chief George H. Thomas Jr., shared his passion on the issue. For Thomas, it was derived from his need of order, a trait he had inherited from his father. It reportedly physically pained him that he could not ride along a country road in the Deep South without the sight of a lynching victim hanging from a tree along the way. Thus, he would organize small contingents of Confederate States troops to guard the towns that the African-Americans had established. The men, who were officially there to enforce the Confederacy's segregation laws, unofficially served as a deterrent to racial violence. Although it failed to completely bring an end to occurrences of a racial violence, especially those occurring the majority white cities that politics left Underwood and Thomas unable to touch or station troops near, the program would help in the areas were it was implemented.
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    A photograph of Confederate States Army troopers in their encampment near the town of Cleburne, Mississippi, where the majority of the population were former slaves
    Ultimately, however, President Underwood would be most remembered by history for his accomplishments in the field of diplomacy. His achievements in that sector, working alongside Presidents Hughes and Reyes, would help catapult all three nations into the forefront of the international stage, and ensured that they were recognized as a force to be reckoned with in the coming decades.

    Underwood and his cabinet:
    President: Oscar Underwood
    Vice-President: Duncan U. Fletcher
    Secretary of State: Charles A. Culberson
    Secretary of the Treasury: Claude A. Swanson
    Secretary of War: George H. Thomas Jr.
    Secretary of the Navy: Ben W. Hooper
    Attorney General: Nathaniel E. Harris
    Postmaster General: Milford W. Howard
    Secretary of the Interior: James J. Britt
     
    Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Whaling War
  • Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Whaling War
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    The catch of a British whaling crew being brought ashore to be processed​

    As the Great War waged across Europe, an often forgotten tale of whaling in the Southern Pacific was occurring at the same time. Although often forgotten by history, the so called "Whaling War", nearly brought two more of the world's superpowers against Germany, which had that happened, might have turned the tide of not only the war, but of history. The origins of conflict can be found in the longstanding rivalry of the three dominant colonial powers in the Pacific-the United States, Great Britain, and Germany-over the whale resources of the southern regions of the that ocean. Although the whale population was not extremely scarce, they were far less common than they were in the northern Pacific, especially when the whales migrated. This would lead to competition between the whalers of the three nations to get the whales closest to their bases of operation rather than having to go further north. By 1916, their operations were as follows. The Germans primary base would be in German New Guinea, under the governorship of Albert Hahl. The British, meanwhile, would have the largest operations set up in Australia under Prime Minister Alfred Deakin and in Hawaii under long-time Governor Lorrin Thurston. Finally, there were the Americans in the Philippines under recently appointed Governor General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Demands of the Great War would increase the needs of whaling, especially for Germany. This increased demand would bring the already tension relations between the three nations to a boiling point, and the situation was ready to blow.
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    Albert Hahl, Alfred Deakin, Lorrin Thurston, and Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
    Ultimately, the spark of the crisis would come on a brisk and bright summer day. On June 15, 1916, both a German and Australian vessel spotted the same whale in the middle of the Pacific. Soon both ships were in pursuit, and both managed to land harpoons in the creature, followed by gunshots into it. Eventually, the humpback whale ceased to struggle, and it succumbed to blood loss. Now, both ships believed that had the rights to the body, as they both had participated in killing it. Soon, a heated argument lit up, pushed further by the fact that both crews had now spent weeks at sea without success and were longing for home. The pressure was heightened by the fact that members of both crews had loaded weapons on hand, that previous had been used against the whale, but now seemed posed to turn on each other. This continued for several minutes in the hot sun, until the captains of both vessels agreed to meet to settle it. The Australian captain, along with three crewmates, were lowered in a small dingy into the water, and were preparing to start rowing, when the tensions finally exploded. One Australian seaman, reportedly a man in his twenties on his first voyage, would shout out at the Germans at the other side, referring to them as "Krauts" and cursing Kaiser Frederick III and hoping for his defeat in the Great War. What happened next is not fully known. A German account of the story would report that the same foolish young Aussie dropped the rifle he had in hand, causing it to fire and hit his ankle, while the Australian accounts tell of an enraged German aiming and firing at him. Regardless, after the shot was fired, the young man was knocked off his feet by a bullet that had shattered his ankle. Within moments, all peace was gone and both sides were firing. The Australian captain and his crewmates, trapped in the dingy below and having no protection, were among the first to be picked off. Neither side was particularly skilled marksmen, as they were used to firing into the massive body of whales. Eventually, after roughly 10 minutes, the Australians would disengage and pull out, preparing to return to their island, having lost roughly 18 men. The Germans, meanwhile, would claim the whale, and dump the dead bodies of the captain and his crewmates in the dingy into the water before returning to New Guinea with their prize, having suffered only 7 in losses. Little did they know the massive fallout that would come of their actions.
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    A photograph of the German whaling ship returning to dock in New Guinea after its battle with the Australian
    As soon as word reached Europe, and later North America, of what had happened, they were outraged. As one of the final acts of his administration, President Lodge ordered Governor-General Roosevelt to start preparing American troops for an invasion of German New Guinea should a similar incident occur with an American whaling vessel. Meanwhile, in Great Britain, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith demanded a formal apology from Kaiser Frederick III, as well as the handing of the whaling ship's crew to be tried as pirates. If these demands were not met, Great Britain would declare war on Germany. The aging Kaiser, well known for his nationalistic pride but also his reasonableness and diplomatic savvy, would be torn of what to do on the issue, especially when three of his close advisers all pulled different ways. His wife, who it should be noted was of British origin, believed that Frederick should try once more to work with the British, as his previous diplomatic endeavors with them had been successful, most notable being keeping them out of the Great War. Pulling the opposite direction was his son and heir apparent, Wilhelm, who believed that his father should flat out refuse Great Britain's demands, lest he seem weak and cowardly on the international stage. Finally, their was his Chief of the General Staff, Paul von Hindenburg, who seemed to ride the fence on the issue. He was quick to point out Germany's continuing success in the war, especially in pointing out how slowly but surely the French were pushed back towards their capital, which would lead one to believe they could afford to take on another foe. But he would also point out the vast military might of the British Empire, and claimed he was uncertain if the offensive could continue if they whole-heartedly entered. Eventually, the ailing Kaiser made his decision. He would formally apologize for the incident, but he would request that Germany be allowed to try the crewmen. This led to a diplomatic push and pull that ultimately concluded with Frederick agreeing to allow the British to try the crewmate who they accused of firing the first shot, but Germany could try the rest of them in their courts. Relieved that a major diplomatic crisis had been averted, Frederick sent out the orders to hand of the crewmate to the Australians, and to try the rest them in New Guinea.
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    Empress Victoria, Prince Wilhelm, and General Paul von Hindenburg
    Ultimately, those orders would be the last major decision made by Kaiser Frederick III. A few weeks after they were sent, Frederick would succumb to cancer, allowing Wilhelm to ascend to the throne as Kaiser Wilhelm II. Frederick's wife Victoria would pass away two days after him. Little did the Germans know how lucky they had been. Had Wilhelm risen to throne a few weeks earlier, he might have very well have brought Great Britain and her empire against them in the war, with the impact of that being unimaginably bad for their cause. Luckily for the more aggressive and diplomatic insensitive Wilhelm, by the time he finally was given the reins of power, the largest diplomatic crisis for Germany in the war had passed, and both Great Britain and the United States, along with their allies, were firmly entrenched in the anti-war side. Thus, the Great War drug on with the odds looking increasingly worse for Russia and France in the struggle.
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    Kaiser Wilhelm II visiting the front lines following his coronation to assess Germany's military situation​
     
    Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Presidency of Charles E. Hughes
  • Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Presidency of Charles E. Hughes
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    President Charles E. Hughes
    Charles Evans Hughes had been nominated by the Republicans and elected to the presidency as a compromise candidate tolerable to everyone, if not truly or deeply satisfying anyone with his elevation to office. He made not used aggressive rhetoric on the campaign trail, nor had he vocally announced many of his policy intentions in the model of his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt. Instead, he was merely Charles Evans Hughes, the bright and capable politician who had been lucky enough to be locked away in the halls of the Supreme Court, rendered mute on actively campaigning or speaking his mind on the issues of the day, especially those dividing his party. Coming into office, he hoped to open, if not completely amenable, to the thoughts and opinions of others within the party. In the end, he knew he was likely to merely be a placeholder president, giving both the progressive and conservative wings of the party a breather to calm down and better get along in the selection of a new leader in 1920. With this fact, he was fine, speaking privately in conversation that he would be fully satisfied with his life if he only served one term, then was returned to the Supreme Court by his successor. In the end, however, Hughes was not to be a forgettable president, and with his four years in office, he would radically reshape America as a nation and her position on the continent and the world stage as a whole, thus making him stand beside James K. Polk and James A. Garfield as being one of America's greatest single-term presidents.
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    The Executive Mansion, otherwise known as the Lemon Hill House, residence of American presidents since the American Civil War
    Once in office, Charles E. Hughes began to look into the reform movements that President Lodge had turned a blind eye to, namely those of women's suffrage and direct election of U.S. senators. In this, he had to walk a careful line. While many progressive Republicans were all for amendments in favor of both those movements, moderates, who would be crucial to Hughes, were more divided and concerned. Many of the luminaries of that faction, including Lodge, Chief Justice Knox, and even his own Secretary of State Elihu Root had mixed, generally negative feelings toward them. Hughes himself, however, held a more understanding view of the movement, perceptive of their plights. Ever the politician, however, he knew that, for the moment, he could not push too hard for them lest he risk collapsing the coalition that the Republican Party had seemingly become. Thus, like he had done on the campaign trail, he gave non-committal responses and frequent dodges to inquires of both persuasions when asked where he stood and what he would do on those two issues. Eventually, the issue concerning the women's suffrage would come to a head when supporters marched in front of the Executive Mansion and demanded a terse and definitive answer from the President. Hughes' response to the leaders of the movement was to allow him space to maneuver and to bide his time, all of which he requested they keep quiet. Although several of them found that response deficient and believed it to be another one of his dodges, they would agree to his requests, seeing very little other options. For the moment, Hughes knew he needed unity within his administration, and he hoped to secure himself before taking any measures that were ambitious and controversial.
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    A march organized by the women's suffrage movement, which became even more powerful, frequent, and vocal during the Hughes' administration
    While he left internal questions and measures to brew and support for them to get organized, Hughes decided to pursue policies that were generally popular with the whole of the populace, namely creating new allies in the New World in the name of opposition to getting involved in the Great War. Steps were already being taken to permanently solidify relations with the Confederacy and Mexico in order to create a powerful alliance of America's dominant powers. Adhering to the belief that more nations would make for a stronger alliance, Hughes decided to spearhead an effort to consider other possible candidates. Eventually, the two that topped the United States' list of possible contenders were the Dominion of Canada and the Brazilian Republic. Ultimately, both of these contenders had major drawbacks that turned political support against them and subsequently the public opinion. While Canada had hosted a effective parliamentary democracy within their nation for almost fifty years, they still were technically under the banner of the British Empire, and were held to the whim of London should war break out. Following the incident of the Whaling War, signs seemed to indicate Great Britain would finally enter into the Great War. Although that crisis had been averted, the worries still remained. Furthermore, the leaders within the Canadian Parliament, headed by Prime Minister Robert Borden, did not seem all that interested in the formation of an alliance with America and her allies when it was already part of the British Empire. The prospect of a successful negotiation with Brazil were similarly bleak. Although a republic by name, free and fair elections were certainly not part of the fabric of the nation. President Hermes da Fonseca had been holding office since his election in 1906, which he had first gained through threats of using his military position to overthrow the nation. Since then, many had viewed him as the second coming of Porfirio Díaz, ruling through fear, crackdowns, and fraud-filled elections. Although many viewed Brazil as a nation possibly on the path to ascendancy, the generally more democratic United States, Confederacy, and Mexico remained unwilling to support it. In fact, Mexico had been covertly supporting opposition and resistance movements against Fonseca ever since he took office, although they had had little effect. With it in mind that his dreams of alliance would have to stay as they were, Hughes would call for a major diplomatic summit between the three nations, with the goal of formalizing their alliance.
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    Robert Borden and Hermes da Fonseca
    Driven on by the reports of the ever increasing causality counts in the fields of France, as well as the barbarity that many outsiders looking in from North America saw the war devolving into, much support was to be found from the general populace of all three nations when a convention between their three leaders was announced, even more so when rumors indicated it was for the purposes of establishing a league of armed neutrality. Thus, when all six of the delegates to the convention arrived in Philadelphia on November 11, 1918, their reception was one of the largest and most extravagant in the city's history. Representing the United States would be President Hughes and his Secretary of State Elihu Root. For the Confederacy arrived President Oscar Underwood and Secretary of State Charles A. Culberson. Finally, representing Mexico would be President Bernardo Reyes and his Secretary of Foreign Affairs Querido Moheno. As soon as reliable and confidential translators could be procured, the negotiations began. Shortly after the beginning of the summit, a desperate France, who was currently on the knife's edge of losing the war and was facing continued Central Power assaults and the growing possibility of mutiny within its ranks, announced a new policy. Deceived by German espionage efforts, the government under President Poincaré firmly believed that the true purpose of the meeting was to plan out a coup against his government to install a socialist German puppet government instead. Believing whole-heartedly that that was the summit's true intent, he decreed that France would be targeting all vessels from the three nations that where considered a threat. Although the French Chamber of Deputies under Poincaré's rival George Clemenceau overwhelming rejected the plan, Poincaré would still privately order France's naval commanders to carry it out.
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    A French submarine
    Despite the ravings of an increasingly desperate and delusional President Poincaré, the meeting between the leaders of the three nations continued. Considering the sheer importance of the alliance it produced, there was very little major wrangling or disagreements at the convention. While occasionally a road block would be hit over a minor issue, for the most part the convention continued to chug forward. Thus, on December 31, 1918, the convention finally produced the results of their labor. The treaty would finally formalize the alliance between the United States, the Confederacy, and Mexico. The three nations pledged to rally to the defense of one should it be attacked, as well as to work together to increase American influence within the global market, particularly Europe. In reference to the still ongoing Great War, all three nations pledged to support each other in neutrality, and that they would cooperate in their efforts to confront France's recent naval policies. Thus was formed the Triple Alliance.
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    A photograph of the American and Confederate delegations leaving the convention after a hard day's work of negotiations
    Besides achieving a long-awaited policy goal of the American people, Hughes was able to tack on one more major success to the convention. Ever since Hughes first announced he would consider the possibility of an a constitutional amendment providing for the direct election of senators, Secretary of State Root had been firmly positioned against it, even going so far as to threaten to resign should Hughes continue to push the issue and promote it. While he was well-aware that Congress possessed the votes to get the amendment passed, Hughes had been reluctant to lose his extremely adept secretary of state over the dispute, especially when the country was moving towards a major diplomatic event. Thus, Hughes stalled, and allowed the issue to wait until a more fitting moment. With the summit, Hughes knew the time had arrived. He knew Root would not sacrifice the opportunity to be involved in the creation of America's most important alliance treaty since of the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance of 1778. While they worked, Hughes instructed his surrogates to begin the bill's passage. Moving swiftly, it was approved before the end of the convention. In the aftermath, Hughes was able to appeal to Root's sense of duty to his country to convince him to stay on with the administration. Thus, Hughes achieved his goals without having to let go of his most important cabinet member.
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    A political cartoon criticizing the indirect election of senators via state legislature
    As with most things in his presidency, Hughes ran carefully and moderately with his choices for the Supreme Court. In a highly expected move, when the opportunity arose to fill the vacancy caused by his own departure from the court, Hughes would offer it to William H. Taft, the now former Governor of Ohio. Eager to get on the court, Taft eagerly accepted the offer and was approved by the Senate, helping to heal a rift from the Lodge presidency and seeing to it that a generally-liked man was his first appointment. In his next two appointments, Hughes would cater to both wings of the Republican Party, without nominating someone so extreme as to repulse the other. First, the progressives would receive their candidate with the nomination of Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Martin A. Knapp in 1919 to replace the deceased John F. Philips. Next in 1920, Hughes would select Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Willis Van Devanter to appeal to conservatives. In the end, almost everyone was satisfied with Hughes' nominees to the court.
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    Associate Justices William Taft, Martin Knapp, and Willis Van Devanter
    In the end, while he had been from the beginning a compromise candidate with almost no one genuinely excited to see him enter office, Hughes ended his term extremely popular with the American people. Despite this, and loud clamoring within the Republican Party, Hughes still held to his previous idea of serving only one term and then returning to the Supreme Court. Hughes announced to the public he would not be a candidate for re-election in 1920, and the mantle of party leadership would have to pass to someone else. What he did not promise, however, was that he would stay out the nominating process for the Republican Party in 1920, as they would soon find out.

    Hughes and his cabinet:
    President: Charles E. Hughes
    Vice-President: Leonard Wood
    Secretary of State: Elihu Root
    Secretary of the Treasury: Charles G. Dawes
    Secretary of War: William E. Borah
    Attorney General: James R. Garfield
    Postmaster General: Halvor Steenerson
    Secretary of the Navy: Henry A. DuPont
    Secretary of the Interior: Gifford Pinchot
    Secretary of Agriculture: James Wilson
    Secretary of Labor and Commerce: John J. Rogers
     
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    Chapter Eighty: La Guerre est Finie, la Fin est Venue
  • Chapter Eighty: La Guerre est Finie, la Fin est Venue
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    A photograph of the execution of one of the French mutineers, one of the first of what ultimately became an epidemic within the army
    As the cold winter snows began to blanket the fields of France in December 1918, dissension was in the air among the defenders' ranks. Their commander-in-chief, Robert Nivelle, had failed to deliver on his promises of swiftly driving the Germans and Italians out of France. In fact, while the Italians had been successfully stalemated and even driven back by French forces under General Ferdinand Foch, the Germans had continued to slowly drive the French back closer and closer to their capital of Paris, albeit at a heavy cost of life to both sides. As tensions grew in Paris, and supplies began to fail, so did the morale of the defenders, who were beginning to question the feasibility of victory anymore. Then, the straw that finally broke the back of the camel was dropped. Confident that victory was within sight, especially as Czar Nicholas II sued for peace and pulled out of the war to deal with internal strife, the Germans had massed their troops, as well as those of their ally, Austria-Hungary, at least those who had managed to be shipped over from the Eastern front in time, for one all-out final drive on Paris. Little did they know they could not have a chosen a more opportune time, as as they positioned their troops for combat, French soldiers were mutinying by the hundreds. On January 15, 1919, the German high-command of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Paul von Hindenberg, and Erich Ludendorff gave the go-ahead to the army commanders to advance, led by the Kaiser's own son and his heir-apparent, Crown Prince Wilhelm, commander of Army Group A and the heir-apparent of Austria-Hungary, Crown Prince Karl, who served as commander of Army Group B.
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    The principal commanders in the Paris Campaign: Nivelle, Wilhelm, and Karl
    Already struggling with mutineers, Nivelle found his army simply unable, or in some cases unwilling, to confront the sheer mass of troops driving against them. Even worse for the French, by chance--or by the excellent work of espionage and spying according to some--, the point hit hardest first by the assault would be in the place of the greatest concentration of French mutineers. Once that line was shattered, all hope was lost for an effective French defense. Nivelle ordered an orderly withdrawal of his remaining obedient troops to the outskirts of Paris, which he soon found to be untenable. Meanwhile, he completely abandoned the mutineers to their fate, leaving them to try to escape in the face of being killed or captured by the vengeful enemy. With the pressure still remaining hard upon him even after he reached Paris itself, Nivelle faced a fateful decision. Should he fight it out to the last, decimating the last of the French army on the front and leaving the enemy free domain over northern France, or should he pull out, abandoning the capital to the mercy of the enemy and hope for reinforcements from the south? In the end, and with much remorse, Nivelle choose the latter option.
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    The recently arrived German troops marching through a Parisian street​

    In his first lucky break of the campaign, his hope that the enemy would stop once Paris was in their grasp proved true. Once Paris fell, both army groups put an end to their campaigning efforts for the season, giving Nivelle some breathing room and an opportunity to regroup and plan out a reconquest of the capital. In the end, however, it would not be the forces of the Central Powers that denied Nivelle this opportunity, but his own government. To the surprise of almost no one, President Poincaré sacked Nivelle, and placed in command General Foch. To reinforce the disheartened army with a chronic manpower shortage, he would also see to it that troops from the Italian front were also transferred, bringing with them Foch's new second-in-command, General Philippe Pétain.
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    French forces from the Italian front marching into their new camp in Northern France
    Once Foch, now commander-in-chief of all of France's armies, arrived on the scene of the demoralized French camp, he began to truly understand how hopeless the situation for France had become. Desertion rates were high, and mutiny even high. Even the recently arrived troops from Italy, who previously had had quite high morale, were beginning to lose cohesion and morale. After conferring with President Poincaré and General Pétain, who had taken direct command of the French army in the field, Foch came to a sobering conclusion. All hope for a decisive French victory were gone. All they could hope was for the army's morale to hold out just long enough for a campaign to retake Paris to ensure that they wouldn't lose it in the inevitable peace conference. Reluctant to accept it at first, Poincaré eventually came to accept the truth. "Thus ends my administration and the republic." he was rumored to have mumbled in response.
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    Generals Foch and Pétain conferring on strategy
    Luckily for the efforts of Foch and Pétain towards that goal, Austria-Hungary would give them a gift of, from the perspective of modern historians looking back, immeasurable value. In the halls of Berlin, Vienna, and Rome, victory celebrations rung out, as they assumed that the fall of Paris would soon bring France to the negotiating table. Believing the war to be over, Emperor Franz Ferdinand would invite Karl to return to Vienna to join with the celebrations. Karl, however, would be more skeptical of victory, especially when reports seemed to indicate that the French were re-organizing their forces, making it an inopportune time to remove the commander of half of the forces. Seeing the sense in the argument, but also wanting to see the return of his cousin to celebrate, Ferdinand would come to a compromise. Karl would return to Vienna, and to replace him at the front an experienced military officer would be sent. Ferdinand would ultimately choose a general who had been hanging around in Vienna for roughly the last year. The man was Conrad von Hötzendorf, and the only reason he was in Vienna in the first place was because Paul von Hindenburg had all but forced him to resign after a series of miserable failures on the Eastern front. Now, he was going to be sent to the front lines to command half of the army that was going to face the desperate last charge of the French, who had very little left to lose.
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    Conrad von Hötzendorf
    Tired from the recent offensive, saddled with a highly incompetent general, and the facing the temporarily renewed fervor of the French, the odds of the Central Powers holding onto Paris were looking less and less good, even more so when Kaiser Wilhelm began pressing his son to allow some of his soldiers home on furlough in the mistaken belief that the war was over. When the French finally did strike on May 19, the initiative was surely in their hands. Hötzendorf would prove to be the victim of their assaults. Ignoring reports sent to him by General Wilhelm that the French were approaching, he was instead found to be drinking with his staff when the attack began. What followed was a series of haphazard attempts by him to establish a defensive perimeter, all of which were shoddily constructed and rapidly shattered. With attacks coming in on his front, and the left flank collapsing, Wilhelm would order a retreat, cursing Hötzendorf as he did. Ultimately, the forces of the Central Powers would fall back into trenches on the outskirts of Paris. In the course of five months, the tide of the war had shifted rapidly twice, and Paris had fallen out and back into French hands. The Germans, quick to shift the blame, would place it firmly on Hötzendorf, demanding his relief and the reinstatement of Karl. Ferdinand, bamboozled by the recent series of events, would consent, canning Hötzendorf for a second and final time and allowing Karl to return to the field.
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    A charge of the French infantry during the Second Battle of Paris
    Despite their crushing and surprising success in the Second Battle of Paris, Poincaré, Foch, and Pétain all realized the ability to make war was effectively over. The French soldiers had given their final bursts of energy during the assaults on Paris, and they had nothing remaining. The same could also be said of their supply situation. The heavy casualties had dampened the mood after the triumph, and despite the efforts of a few radical French politicians from both sides of the spectrum, the nation as a whole conceded that they shouldn't try to push more when they were already precariously close to losing everything. And despite the recent success, the French people were still vehemently opposed to their government and its officials. Even if it had recaptured Paris, it had allowed it to fall in the first place, and during the four month occupation, the bored and vengeful enemy soldiers had been unleashed by their commanders to ravage the city and its populace as they saw fit with little oversight and punishment from high command. Even some of the city's most notable landmarks were not held sacred, as was proven when a German carved the names of several of the leaders and generals of the Central Powers into the Arc de Triomphe. When the government returned to the city, instead of being celebrated by the citizens as liberators, they were instead mocked by a scornful people who demanded peace.
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    President Poincaré visting the remains of a Parisian building devastated during the Second Battle of Paris
    Thus, with little ammunition left in the reserve and even fewer soldiers to fire it, President Poincaré, in consultation with the French Chamber of Deputies, sued for peace with the Central Powers to end the Great War. The Central Powers were somewhat shocked by this move, as they were wholly expecting and preparing for a continued French offensive, which they planned to beat back before driving on Paris once more. When presented with the request, Kaiser Wilhelm was personally against it, but his nation too had suffered many hardships, and overwhelming pressure for his advisers and allies convinced him to open negotiations. Despite their recent success in Paris, France was in no position to be dictating terms, and both them as a nation and the Central Powers knew it. Having been continually smashed and pushed back by the enemy, they would consider it lucky not to lose any territory in Europe.
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    A modern day photograph of Hohenzollern Castle, a symbol of German prestige and site of the negotiations​

    Ultimately, the terms came down to as follows. Corsica, which had been taken by the Italians in a brutal campaign, would be transferred over to Italian control. Aside for a sliver a territory east of the Meuse River being transferred over to Germany, no territory on the European continent would be taken from France, but German control over Alsace-Lorraine was solidified and France had to commit to limitations on the size of their army and industrial output. Later, the Germans tried to establish within the treaty a temporary garrison of their soldiers within Paris itself, but the outcry from the French side due to all the atrocities committed against the citizens of that city during the last occupation caused the Germans to back down. Reparations, of course, were piled high on France to be paid to Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. Finally, all of France's colonies in Africa and Asia were transferred over to Germany. In this process, two major controversy arose. First, Great Britain, who saw an opportunity to unify control over Middle Eastern oil, pressured Germany to merely force France to pull out of the region and allow Britain to take over fully. Germany proved reluctant to do that, but unwilling to expand the war right as it was concluding, and it agreed when Britain promised to allow German exploitation of the oil fields as well, if not control of the territory. The other pitfall would be Italy's colonies in Africa. During the war, France had managed to wrest control of them from Italy, and hold onto them until the end. Now, as Germany annexed all of France's African colonial holdings, it swallowed up all of the former Italian ones as well. This would result in loud protests from the Italian delegation, but the Kaiser threatened to pull out his support to Italy's claim to Corsica should they continue to complain. Bitterly, the Italians were silenced, but they would remember the slight. When the talks were completed and the document drawn up, all parties signed the Treaty of Hohenzollern, bringing the Great War to a finish. For the victors, life within their countries would return roughly similar to normal, with the exception of the many hundreds of thousands of young men now absent. In war-torn France, however, the trials were only beginning, as the French people were soon to see.
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    Kaiser Wilhelm and Emperor Franz speaking with each other about the post-war world​
     
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    Chapter Eighty-One: The Mexican Presidential Election of 1917
  • Chapter Eighty-One: The Mexican Presidential Election of 1917
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    A photograph from the beginning of "Carranza's March"
    With his success of maintaining stability within the new republic, as well as look of important negotiations with the Confederacy and the United States on the horizon, the re-election chances of President Reyes looked certain. With that in mind, however, Reyes had done little to help the plight of Mexico's poor farmers, with his administration slowly straggling Orozco's programs of land redistribution through withdrawing funding and government officials to organize it. To some in Mexico, it seemed that Reyes was more concerned with industrialization and bringing Mexico to be an equal of its northern neighbors in that sector, rather than the more traditional agricultural economic basis. Under the supervision of Vice-President de la Barra, he had even allowed for foreign investors, particularly from the United States and the Confederacy, access to Mexican oil fields. This drew many to attempt to convince, and later draft, Orozco into another presidential bid. Hoping to maintain stability within the country, as well as the traditional two-term limit, however, Orozco would turn down those overtures. Similar efforts to convince others close to Reyes, such as General Alvaro Obregón or Secretary for Foreign Affairs Querido Moheno, fell similarly short. Thus, the opponents of Reyes found themselves with few options to get Reyes out of office, at least that they believed would be successful.
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    President Bernardo Reyes and Vice-President Francisco León de la Barra at an event announcing their intent to seek a second term together
    With opposition parties, or even political parties in general, having yet to solidify or truly really form beyond one's support or opposition to the current administration, there was no nominating convention or caucus to select a candidate to run against Reyes. Thus, it came to mostly towards personal initiative and public support, with the opponent of Reyes most strongly having these attributes being Venustiano Carranza, who still believed he was the proper successor to Orozco, even going so far as to send a letter to him inquiring about the point, to which Orozco did not respond. Despite having lost in the previous election, Carranza still did possess a base of loyal followers, if not many men still remaining in government, who believed in him. Consequentially, it came to the surprise of no one that he announced he would pursue a second campaign for the presidency. Even from the beginning, Carranza's campaign was not without pitfalls. Hoping to tap his previous running-mate, Eulalio Gutiérrez, to again run with him, Carranza would be rebuffed in the effort, with Gutiérrez turning down the offer. Many modern historians believe this was caused by Gutiérrez's fear that if he accepted, Reyes would force him out of his current military position. Eventually, Carranza would turn to Ignacio Bonillas, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Mexico's bicameral legislature, as well as a prosperous owner and director of several mines.
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    Venustiano Carranza and Ignacio Bonillas
    Ultimately, a third movement would arise. Referring to themselves as the "Restoration Party", they advocated for the return of executive power being centralized in one man for his lifetime. They believed that the man would be govern somewhat similarly to the "philosopher kings" of Plato, and would help to reign in the chaos and breakdown of social orders they saw occurring within Mexico as a nation. Furthermore, they hoped for "loose but clear" class divides to prevent the rapid rise of peasant class leaders preying and playing on the whims of the masses to rise to positions of power and authority, as they believed Zapata had done. Instead, they believed power, especially political and military, but to a degree industrially as well, should be concentrated in the hands of a more refined upper class. Although they never clear stated it, it was assumed by many that one of their goals was to allow for a descendant of the Díaz line to assume that position as permanent president, although their candidates would deny the claim on the campaign trail. Their nominee for the presidency would be Justo Sierra, a government official under Díaz and a prominent intellectual during that regime, as well as a founder of the party. His running-mate would be Francisco Bulnes, another government official and intellectual under the Díaz reign. Unsurprisingly, their message failed to connect with all but a small audience of the upper class.
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    Justo Sierra and Franciso Bulnes
    With the candidacies announced and campaigning begun, Carranza realized he would have to do something monumental to even stand a chance at victory. He was hesitant, however, to make a mistake like the "True Test of Our Democracy" speech from his previous campaign, which he believed had sunk his previous effort at the presidency. While the prospect of the Restoration Party campaign excited his camp, as they would almost certainly take almost exclusively from Reyes' base of support, Carranza was still uncertain how much of a difference they would make. Ultimately, the major effort Carranza decided to settle on was a direct appeal to the people, with what became known as "Carranza's March". Starting at the outskirts of Mexico City, he would lead a small party of companions of a variety of occupations in a march throughout the country, giving speech and hosting events along the way. He hoped that this would soon be joined by other supporters of his campaign until they reached to the numbers of the thousands. Unfortunately for Carranza, he did not count on the desire of the farmers to be more interested in tending to their fields and families then joining a weeks long political event. Thus, while the single-day rallies and events he did attract people, few actually joined his march, and most went home after his campaign event ended. What he intended to be in the thousands never breached more than three hundred. Humiliated, Carranza would cut short the debacle, and return to normal campaigning partially through the season.
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    Carranza hard at work in office trying to make up for lost ground in the closing weeks of the campaign
    In the end, the results that almost everyone had foresaw from the beginning came true, and Reyes would decisively trounce both Carranza and Sierra. Despite the campaign of the Restoration Party siphoning off votes, Reyes still managed to improve on his results from the last election. Furthermore, the control of his allies in the Senate was further solidified, with one notable newly elected member being Alvaro Obregón, who many believed was positioning himself for a run for the presidency following the end of Reyes' second term. Despite their crushing defeat, the opponents of Reyes and his government also managed to gain some insight from the election. Twice they had been defeated in their efforts to defeat Reyes without a formal political organization, so the leadership of Reyes' opposition assumed that the formation of a party would be their best step moving forward in getting both Reyes and his influence out of power. Subsequently, many closed door meetings were held, and the formation of a political party was hammered out: the Labor and Liberty Party.
     
    Chapter Eighty-Two: The U.S. Presidential Election of 1920
  • Chapter Eighty-Two: The U.S. Presidential Election of 1920
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    A photograph from the 1920 Republican National Convention
    Despite the general success and popularity of his presidency, President Charles E. Hughes declined to seek a second term in office. His interest, as he stated publicly several times in the lead-up to the Republican National Convention, was to return home and retire, with the only thing he claimed that could possibly coax him out of it being a nomination to the Supreme Court. Thus, after the rejection of several overtures to change his mind, ambitious members of the Republican Party decided in was open season for who would win the presidential nomination, and they flooded the convention field. Among the more progressive candidates were Kansas Senator Charles Curtis, Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette (who had returned to the Republican Party to support the candidacy of Lodge in 1912), California Representative Hiram W. Johnson, and Secretary of War William E. Borah. Meanwhile, the more conservative leaning candidates included Ohio Representative Warren G. Harding, Minnesota Representative Harold Knutson, former Secretary of State and current Indiana Senator James E. Watson, Illinois Governor Frank O. Lowden, and Massachusetts Senator Calvin Coolidge. Unfortunately for the convention, this wide range of candidates made it hard for a single one to gain enough momentum or delegates to even clinch the nomination. This problem was further spread by a significant number of delegates being "undecided", which essentially meant they hoped for a deadlocked convention to convince Hughes to run. Finally, many of the candidates were quite polarizing to those who were not their supporters, with La Follette, Borah, and Watson all being prime examples of this.
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    The Field of Candidates: Curtis, La Follette, Johnson, Borah, Harding, Knutson, Watson, Lowden, and Coolidge​

    With the start of the convention's balloting, Watson took the lead on the first few, securing a plurality of the votes, but never being able to breach more than 20%, far short of the number necessary for victory. What followed was over two dozen more ballots which saw campaigns surge and sink. After failing to advance much farther than 25% of the delegate count on the first six ballots, Watson saw his base of support start to dissolve and flee to other candidates. The eighth ballot marked a surge for Borah, but it only managed to hold until the tenth. Following his collapse, Lowden led for a three, then Curtis for four. By the eighteenth, it seemed like the delegates had receded to their original or favorite son candidate, and the Hughes supporters still refused to cast their support behind someone, holding out hope for their leader to enter the race, or at least announce his endorsement. Eventually, a growing movement on the convention floor proved enough to shock Hughes out of his silence. With no definitive or long lasting leading candidate emerging, the advantage had passed from whomever had had the most to start with now whomever could convince the most to swing. And increasingly, that man proved to be the charismatic, if cretinous, Warren G. Harding. When news of his surging delegate count reached Hughes, he is said to have blurted out, "That adulterous dolt?! The Republican Party seriously intends to nominate the man who tried to tear it apart in 1912?!" When it became clear that Harding was not just a passing fad, Hughes decided it was necessary to take immediate action to prevent his nomination.
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    Warren G. Harding with much cheated on wife Florence at the convention
    Acting with the urgency born of imminent disaster, Hughes' surrogates--New York Senator Henry L. Stimson and Governor of the Philippines Territory Theodore Roosevelt Jr.--moved rapidly to canvass the other candidates to see what policy promises he could get from them, and which he would want to be his successor. After speaking with the subordinates of several candidates, including Lowden's, Johnson's, and Knutson's, Hughes decided he would throw his support behind Calvin Coolidge. From Coolidge, Hughes received promises to promote and expand if possible the Triple Alliance, as well to support and pursue a women's suffrage amendment (a position Coolidge already held) and to continue several other of Hughes' goals. Although it was neither asked for nor promised, it was always well-understood between the two groups that Coolidge would appoint Hughes to the next vacancy to occur within the Supreme Court. Satisfied, Hughes publicly endorsed Coolidge, which almost immediately transferred all the non-committed delegates to his column. Alongside his own, Coolidge still did not have enough, but seeing the winds of the convention stir, dozens of supporters for other conservative candidates, most notably Harding, deserted their man to nominate Coolidge, which they successfully did on the twenty-ninth ballot. Exhausted from the convention, but still wanting their mark to be made on the ticket, the progressives, who had proved to have had a weaker base of support than the conservatives, decided to work against the favorite candidate for the vice-presidency, Lowden. Instead, they threw their support behind another conservative, New York Senator James W. Wadsworth Jr., who they hoped would return the favor by supporting some progressive policies. Unwilling to struggle anymore, conservatives dumped Lowden on the third ballot, and almost unanimously selected Wadsworth. As consolation, Coolidge promised Lowden a prominent position within his cabinet.
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    Calvin Coolidge and James Wadsworth Jr.
    The Democrats were only slightly better off in terms of party unity then the Republicans in their convention. Among the candidates were Delaware Senator and 1916 nominee Willard Saulsbury Jr., New York Representative Al Smith, Indiana Governor Thomas R. Marshall, Illinois Senator J. Hamilton Lewis, and of course former New York Senator William R. Hearst. Despite having been defeated in three elections to maintain and then regain his seat in the Senate--first in 1916 to Hamilton Fish II, then in 1917 he lost to Wadsworth to fill the vacancy caused by Elihu Root's nomination to be Secretary of State, and a defeated a third time in 1918 by Henry L. Stimson to fill the seat caused by the death of Fish--Hearst stilled remained popular and supported within both the state and national Democratic Party, and even after defeat they only seemed to increase. Entering into the convention, Hearst was the clear front-runner, and with his faction of the party on the rise as shown by William Jay Gaynor selection to be House Speaker, there was nothing the Old Guard Democratic party bosses could do as they had done in the prior three elections. With his opposition divided, Hearst clinched the nomination on the third ballot, finally achieving his goal of being nominated for the presidency by the Democratic Party. In a nod to the party bosses, who still held some power within the party, Indiana Senator Samuel M. Ralston was nominated to be Hearst's running-mate. Thus, Hearst, empowered by the full backing of the Democratic Party, set out on the campaign trail to break the stranglehold the weakened Republican Party held on the presidency.
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    William Hearst and Samuel Ralston
    With nomination in hand, Hearst quickly hit the campaign trail. At every opportunity he would deliver speeches, which tended to be more pro-Hearst than pro-Democrat, unsurprising considering his mixed relationship with the party in the past. Occasionally, Hearst's excursions and flash temper would get him in trouble on the campaign trail, most notably when a Republican plant at one of his campaign events was able to get him started on an anti-pope rant when he shared the stage with devout Catholic Representative Al Smith. Despite the occasional blunder, however, Hearst's rhetoric did resonate with many. Coolidge, on the other hand, campaigned in a much more toned down manner, planning out large and well-organized events with pre-planned speeches. Despite doing much fewer events than Hearst, Coolidge's message generally hit closer to home with the audience. This led one reporter to make the following comparison, "Hearst is the shotgun, and Coolidge is the rifle. It remains to be seen who the American public will choose to hunt fowl with."
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    Hearst delivering an impromptu speech and Coolidge preparing to address the crowd​

    One major event would shake the nation, as well as the campaigns, on July 4, 1920. On that day, House Speaker William J. Gaynor was preparing to board a train to return to New York City to campaign when out jumped an assailant yelling in French and armed with a revolver. Before anyone could respond, or even move, the assassin fired off three bullets into Gaynor's chest before dashing off. In one of photography's most celebrated shots, a man with a camera was able to capture a photo of Gaynor moments after being shot, being held up by two men as he succumbs to the wounds. He would die later that night. The assassin would be Henri Beylie, a former accountant from France who blamed America for France's defeat in the Great War, a decided to turn to violence to avenge his nation. He had considered both President Hughes and Secretary of State Root as targets before settling on Gaynor, as he would be the easiest to approach. He would be arrested and later executed on December 16, despite French demands that the United States return him to be tried in a French court, as he was a French citizen. Immediately following the assassination, security measures would be heightened. This marked the first time since Abraham Lincoln that a major public figure had been successfully assassinated, and it would also mark a return to presidential bodyguards. Despite some bitter memories of the involvement of the Black Guard in the Battle of Philadelphia, Congress, now under Speaker Arthur G. Dewalt, approved the creation of new bodyguards for a senior government officials. Meanwhile, Hearst tried to make hay with the assassination of a close friend and political ally. He accused the man of being a secret Republican operative acting on Coolidge's orders, and other similarly extreme claims. Unsurprisingly, the public rejected these, and some were even repulsed that Hearst was willing to exploit the issue for gain, as opposed to Coolidge, who had started wearing black armbands to all campaign events.
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    The famous photograph depicting Gaynor moments after the bullets hit
    In the end, despite his massive name recognition and the significant political machine he had grew, Hearst would be stomped by Coolidge. Coolidge would manage to secure 315 electoral votes, as opposed to Hearst's 54. Coolidge would win Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, South Dakota, North Dakota, New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Ohio, Iowa, Connecticut, Nebraska, Kansas, Montana, Washington, New Jersey, and Indiana. Hearst managed to hold Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Delaware, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Oregon. The landslide Republican victory in the presidential race would also ripple out towards other ones as well. Control of the House was returned to the Republicans by large margins, and their lead in the Senate would grow, wiping away the Democratic gains of the past decade in a single election. Almost across the board, the blame was placed at the feet of Hearst. In terms of states won in the electoral college, he had not gained a single one, but he had lost six. With the worries of the Democratic bosses vindicated, Hearst's dream of becoming the new leader of the Democratic Party were forever shattered, as well as his political machine. Among the men to lose their seat in the congressional elections was John A. Dix, who was Hearst's other close ally in the House besides the now dead Gaynor. Despised by the Democrats and even some of his former allies such as Al Smith, Hearst would find himself cast off into the political wilderness, forced to blaze a new path forward if he ever wanted to engage in politics again.
     
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    Chapter Eighty-Three: The French Fallout
  • Chapter Eighty-Three: The French Fallout
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    Parisian citizens mingling around the wreckage of a building in their once proud city
    As the guns of the Great War grew silent, the echoes still remained. Subjected to total war perhaps for the first time in living memory, the citizens of France were left flabbergasted. France had been defeated before, and there were even those who remembered the fall of Paris to the forces of the North German Confederation in the Franco-Prussian War, but never before had it been so devastating. During the Franco-Prussian War, large portions of the city hadn't been laid to waste, nor had there been street to street fighting or atrocities committed against civilians on such a massive scale as had occurred in the Great War. The people of France had been wholly unprepared for the experience, and were now woefully unequipped to deal with the results. Thousands were left without homes, and of that number significant portions lacked even sufficient quantities of food to survive. Starved parents were forced to send their children to join the masses of war orphans who were signed up for a program to be attempt to find foster parents in less war-torn countries, such as Great Britain, or the members of the Triple Alliance. Unfortunately, this trend completely overwhelmed an already overstretched system, causing it to essentially collapse as the government agency did not have enough room to house all the children, forcing them to reject anyone but orphans. Even after the non-orphans were removed, the rate of adoption proved to be a trickle, with the French government's predictions of the generosity of foreigners proving to be vast overestimations.
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    A group of French orphans preparing to board a vessel bound for the United Kingdom
    Feeding into the chaos was the upcoming French presidential election. Although the president was selected by the combined vote of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, the voices of the French people and newspapers often played a major role in persuading the members of the body who to select. At the start of the election, three main candidates announced their intent to be considered. The first was Prime Minister George Clemenceau, whose main backing came from the socialists within the bodies, as well as the liberals who were pushed into that direction as the remaining candidates were considered more towards the right. The second was Chairman of the Democratic Republican Party Charles Jonnart, who was seen as the establishment candidate of the political right of the Republic. An unexciting figure, the lack of any true involvement in the war and the distance between himself and the highly unpopular President Poincaré played into his support. For the few remaining politicians loyal to Poincaré, there was Former Minister of War and général de brigade Adolphe Messimy, who still maintained a decent reputation with the people despite his professed loyalty to Poincaré. A fourth man was to enter the field, however. Commander-in-chief of all of France's armies, the liberator of Paris, and one of the few military men still beloved by the people, Ferdinand Foch originally intended to sit out the election and make no public comment on who he preferred. Two of his more ambitious subordinates, Marshals Philippe Pétain and Louis Franchet d'Espèrey (who had served as the commander of the Italian theater after the departure of Foch and Pétain), hoped to persuade him otherwise. Both men urged their commander to attempt to make known he wanted to be a candidate. Foch would prove to be hesitant at first, but the more they persisted, the more set of the presidency he became. Eventually, he announced his candidacy to the people, and demanded to be considered by the legislative bodies. Eager to have a popular figure to rally around, many supporters of Jonnart and Messimy flocked to Foch, with the press on the political right soon beginning to trumpet his candidacy.
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    The Candidates: Clemenceau, Jonnart, Messimy, and Foch
    With what they lacked in time to campaign as compared to other worldwide elections, the French press easily made up for in the sheer volume of propaganda. The French press would prove not to be the only ones skilled in that field. Holding true to the principles of the Monroe Doctorine, the members of the Triple Alliance withheld from attempting to influence the election of their preferred candidate, but the countries of Europe showed no such regard. Hoping for a return to stability without having to run the risk of French militarization or too far left leanings, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy all backed Jonnart in the election, seeing him as a weak and perhaps manipulatable figure. Meanwhile, hoping to return balance to the nation by rebuilding France and her armies, Great Britain and Russia backed Messimy, saving his otherwise sinking candidacy. Despite the foreign propaganda, the two most popular candidates with the French people remained Clemenceau and Foch, who focused their campaigning on different sectors. Clemenceau promised a restoration of the industrial heart of France, with intent of providing everyone a job to provide for their family. Foch, meanwhile, pledged to restore France's honor and glory, as well as to overturn the Treaty of Hohenzollern. Foch frequently made appearances in his uniform with all his medals with other veterans, while Clemenceau usually had workers to populate the backdrop of his speeches.
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    George Clemenceau saluting the French people after leaving his work for the day
    Two weeks before the legislature was scheduled to meet to elect a president, a major stir would send shockwaves throughout France. In the aftermath of the Great War, it was not uncommon for veterans to visit the shooting ranges which they had practiced at during the training before the conflict and to fire off some shots from their wartime rifle to release some pent up anger from their general situation. The immense unpopularity of President Poincaré, especially with veterans, made it so no one was very concerned when a young man with darty eyes brought a photograph of the man clipped out of a newspaper and attached it to the target at the shooting range before discharging a few shots into it. Little did anyone know at the time that the young man was anarchist Émile Cottin, and he was practicing for the real thing. Two weeks before the election, Cottin would line the president up in his rifle sights and fire two shoots into his head, killing him instantly. After committing the deed, he would escape Paris and attempt to flee to Germany, from which he planned to book a ride to Mexico. Unfortunately for his plan, he was caught at the border, and when identified, the Germans would hand over custody of the young man to the French, who executed him. In the wake of Poincaré's death, Clemenceau ascended to the presidency, as he was serving as Prime Minister and thus was next in the line of succession. Immediately, all three of the other campaigns called foul and accused him of having organized the whole plot, which Clemenceau firmly denied. French police efforts to dig through Cottin's paper would ultimately disprove any connection between the two men, as Cottin wrote that in his diary that Clemenceau was his second target should Poincaré prove to difficult. These revelations, however, would come after the fact, and in the moment, it certainly looked very bad for the Clemenceau campaign.
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    President and Assassin; Poincaré and Cottin
    When the day came for the legislature to gather and decide on the next president of the French republic, the nation, and the world, watched intently and nervously. Little did anyone at the time know the results of the election would come to shape not only the future of France, but the future of the European continent and even the world as a whole for the next century.
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    Veterans of the Great War gathered outside the French legislature building with the arms and war-torn flag to show their support for Foch's candidacy​
     
    Chapter Eighty-Four: Foch, France, and Fraternity?
  • Chapter Eighty-Four: Foch, France, and Fraternity?
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    A depiction of the Palais Bourbon, where the fateful vote was held​

    As the members of the French National Assembly gathered at the Palais Bourbon, the tensions were high. Many people had surrounded the building, and were vigorously chanting for the preferred candidate. The chant heard loudest of all was coming from the midst of the former veterans, many of whom had come in the uniforms with their flags and weapons, a foreboding sign to some members of the legislature. They were heard to repeatedly yell out, "Foch, France, Fraternité!" As more and more members walked in and took their seat, the crowd, which was rapidly transforming into an unruly mob, started pressing in on the building demanding to be let in to view the voting. The legislators, fearful of a potential fallout should their votes become public knowledge, declined. Nevertheless, the mass of Parisians continue to slowly press forward against the guards, forcing the legislator to facilitate a compromise. As the last of the members arrived, they promised to send out members of the building’s guard to announce the vote tallies every few minutes. Satisfied for the moment, the advance of the people abated, although they tensely held their ground. After a few moments, however, the political divides between them became clear and chanting once more began in favor of their candidate, dividing the crowd.
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    A photograph of the sprawl of French citizens gathered in the blocks around the Palais Bourbon waiting for the vote.
    Eventually, the legislature was convened and the voting began. As promised, the guards periodically brought out the latest counts. From the beginning it was clear the contest was between Clemenceau and Foch. For the crowd, however, this is what they desired, as very few supporters of either Jonnart or Messimy had so passionately supported their candidate as to join into the already highly strained atmosphere. As the voting continued, the lead between the two leading candidates kept switching hands. No one truly knew who was going to win as the reports kept being brought out, which only served to further increase the strife between the two camps. After one report where it was announced Clemenceau was leading was delivered, an enraged Foch supporters stormed over to a particularly vocal Clemenceau supporter and tore his sign out of hands before tossing it to the ground. The Clemenceau supporter promptly tackled the man, with the brawl ensuing and even growing until members of the guard intervened and separated the two men. For all subsequent reports, guards stood between the two sides to prevent a rehashing of the violence, but even that was proving barely enough to keep it down.
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    A group of Foch supporting veterans taken during the legislative voting process, with the man at center believed to have been the man who started the brawl
    As inevitably would happen, a candidate eventually won the election. Ultimately, in a narrow vote, George Clemenceau triumphed over Foch, Jonnart, and Messimy to be elected France's next president. Unfortunately for any celebrations planned to commemorate his victory by his supporters, the pre-existing chaos soon devolved into outrage and violence from Foch's supporters, and present to harness and exploit this was Marshal Philippe Pétain. Having been closely monitoring the proceedings with Foch, d'Espèrey, and several other close advisers, when news of Clemenceau's triumph was brought to him, he knew the time had come to activate their back up plan. Mounting a white horse reminiscent of the one rode by Napoleon in the famous David painting, Pétain, who had already had several dozens armed veterans waiting in the entrance of the hotel they were staying in, rode through the streets of Paris rallying former soldiers, or just anyone with a weapon who supported Foch to follow his lead. Soon, he had amassed hundreds of followers, which only grew much larger when he reached the mobs outside the Palais Bourbon. Chanting out "Foch, France, Fraternité!", he and his impromptu army closed in on the building. When at the block where it stood, Pétain would dismount and address his followers. In his speech, he called for them to storm the Palais Bourbon, which the crowd was already ready to do and started doing even before he started his next sentence. Easily overwhelming the dozen guards standing at the door, the rioters turned revolutionaries were soon in the room where the legislators themselves were meeting. Reasserting control over the situation, Pétain ordered the obvious and what had already been done, namely to hold the legislators hostage at gunpoint.
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    Pétain on his ride that would forever change France
    With the blood of the republic on their hands, Pétain and his followers decided to deliver the coup de grâce. Striding over the minister's stand, Pétain would draw out his pistol and level it towards the head of Aristide Briand, who had taken over as prime minister following the elevation of George Clemenceau to the acting presidency. As Briand started murmuring something out, Pétain fired point blank into his face, with immediately fatal results. Claiming the murder was a righteous and necessary action to destroy those who tried to destroy the republic, Pétain ordered his men to bring forward elder statesman Alexandre Ribot, who had served as prime minister four times in the course of his career and was well-liked by most. Again leveling his pistol, this time at the head of Ribot, Pétain ordered him to declare the election results null and void and to have a new count. In response to this, Ribot would quietly whisper, "I'd rather die alongside the republic than join the conspirators in its murder." With that, Pétain dispatched Ribot with another point blank shot to the head. Finally, Georges Leygues would be brought to the front and be inaugurated as France's fourth prime minister in two weeks. Having supported and voted for Foch, and also wanting to avoid the fate of Briand and Ribot, Leygues agreed to Pétain's demands, and declared the previous voting null and void. With that, another round ensued. Pétain warned that any man who voted against Foch was to be promptly executed by one of the mob. Despite that, a few brave souls still cast their votes for Clemenceau, including Paul Painlevé, Gustave Delory, and Édouard Herriot. All three men, along with all the others who voted against Foch, were shot down or even bayoneted in the case of Delory by the crowd on Pétain's orders. When the balloting was finished, Pétain ordered Leygues declare all the votes against Foch to have been invalid, which a trembling Leygues would do. With that, the dismantlement, collapse, and ultimate destruction of the French republic at the hands of some who had been among its most ardent defenders was complete.
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    The Final Prime Ministers: Briand, Ribot, and Leygues
    With his "unanimous" election to the presidency, Foch, at the urging of Pétain and d'Espèrey, set about consolidating power. First, he had Clemenceau arrested and put on trial for treason against the republic and attempting to thwart the will of the people. Despite his impassioned defense, or his attempts at it over the boos and hisses of Foch's supporters, Clemenceau would ultimately and unsurprisingly fall short. On January 31, 1920, he would be executed by a military firing squad. With his main rival for power eliminated, Foch went about eliminating the vestiges of opposition within the National Assembly. Surprisingly, Leygues would be allowed to keep both his post and his life, although he was effectively downgraded to a rubber stamp for Foch’s policies. Many of his colleagues, however, weren't as lucky. Foch loyalists within the National Assembly would reveal the members who had cast their votes against Foch in this initial round. With that knowledge in hand, Foch would go about rounding them up and systemically executing them. In their place, he would install men, many of whom were veterans, who were loyal to him. He also forced every man in the National Assembly to swear a new oath. Instead of pledging to protect the republic, in the new oath they pledged to uphold the supremacy and stability of the French head-of-state. By July, France had essentially devolved into a triumvirate of power divided between Foch, Pétain, and d'Espèrey.
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    The French Triumvirate: Foch, Pétain, and d'Espèrey
    Despite the repression of the supporters of Clemenceau, or even any dissent against the new system in general, one man still held out hopes that he could achieve his dream within France. That man was Leon Trotsky. Having fled Russia in the wake of Lenin's failed revolution and subsequent execution, Trotsky had moved to France in the hopes that it would prove to be a more fertile breeding ground for the socialist revolution he hoped to ferment. When he had first arrived, he had established a Russian language newspaper to update those in France on the goings on within Russia, especially in relation to their revolution. Eventually, however, he had shifted the paper's focus when the most he could generally print for the weekly publication was that the guerillas under Josef Stalin and Nikolai Podvoisky continued to harass the czarist's forces from their camps in the Urals. Instead, he would transform it into a vocal mouthpiece in support of socialism within France. Although Clemenceau was certainly not as radical as he desired, Trotsky nevertheless supported him in the presidential election in the belief that he was a step in the right direction, and perhaps a necessary stepping stone for the French people if they were to eventually accept true socialism as viewed in the eyes of Trotsky. Although he was not in attendance of the crowd of Clemenceau supporters who had swarmed the Palais Bourbon, he had nevertheless been attentively following the latest reports, and broke out in celebration when news of Clemenceau’s victory was brought to him. His triumph, however, was soon transformed into agony when word of the subsequent proceedings and the coup were brought to his attention. When he returned to his newspaper publishing building the next day, he found it sacked, with the printing press mangled and the type scattered, as well as the ink spilled over and used to write pro-Foch slogans on the walls. Already outspoken in his opposition to Foch during the election cycle, Trotsky now came to be an enemy of the regime he had established, and vowed that he would lead the socialist revolution that would overthrow it.
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    Leon Trotsky​
     
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