Striving for a world transformed by justice and peace - a TL from 1827

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pipisme

A prominent issue in the presidential campaign was that of free silver. In the mid nineteenth century, large deposits of silver were discovered. In 1873 Congress made silver currency no longer legal tender. In 1895 this was reversed and the government was obliged to buy a certain amount of silver each month. The Constitution Party advocated free silver. The long standing policy of the Liberty Party was for gold to be the only legal tender. Their national convention in June 1896 voted for bimetalism, that is gold and silver to be legal tender, to be a plank in their platform. This was rejected by the pro-gold Libertians who formed the National Liberty Party. They nominated William McKinley, Governor of Ohio, as candidate for president, and Matthew Stanley Quay, Senator from Pennsylvania for vice president. (1)

Planks in the Liberty Party platform, which were new were a graduated income tax, nationalisation of the railways, primary elections to choose party's candidates for elected office, and direct election of senators. The first two were opposed by those delegates who formed the National Liberty Party.

Another important issue was free trade and tariffs. The Constitution Party was in favour of free trade, and the Liberty Party wanted to keep tariffs to protect American industries. The party was hurt by the Panic of 1893 and the subsequent economic depression. (2)

Blanche Bruce was the son of a black slave and her white master. He identified as a Negro. He was the subject of a lot of racist abuse. Though not in the national campaign of the Constitution Party, but it was prevalent in their local campaigns. Joseph Blackburn had served as an officer in the Confederate Army in the Civil War.

Election day was 3 November 1896. When all the votes had been counted, the electoral votes for each candidate were as follows:
Joseph Blackburn/ Robert Pattison (Constitution Party): 293
Blanche Bruce/Robert La Follette (Liberty Party): 156
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Total: 449
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Blackburn/ Pattison won the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. Total 31.

The following states were won by Blanche/La Follette: Connecticut, East Tennessee, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Total 15.

(1) For Quay see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Quay.

(2) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893.
 
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pipisme

The percentage votes for each candidate were as follows (same parties in 1892 election):
Blackburn/Pattison (Constitution): 52.0 (48.2)
Bruce/La Follette (Liberty): 41.9 (48.8)
McKinley/Quay (National Liberty): 3.6 (n/a)
Others: 2.5 (3.0)
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Total: 100.0 (100.0)
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In Illinois and Ohio the number of votes for McKinley/Quay were bigger than the majority for Blackburn/Pattison. In the opinion of historians, while Bruce lost votes because he was black, they were not enough to lose the election. He lost because of the economic depression.

The number of seats for each party in the House of Representatives after the November 1896 elections were as follows (after 1894 elections):
House of Representatives:
Constitution: 213 (204)
Liberty: 144 (152)
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Total: 357 (356)
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Senate after elections in 1897 (elections in 1895
Constitution: 47 (46)
Liberty: 43 (44)
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Total: 90 (90)
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Fifty Liberty Party representatives and eight senators identified as socialists. One was Eugene Debs who was a representative from Indianapolis.
.
 
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pipisme

Following the invention of the first commercially successful safety bicycle in 1885, cycling steadily grew in popularity. It quickly replaced the penny farthing bicycle. As more bicycles were produced, the price fell and they became affordable to working class people.

The Beacon Cycling Club, named for the Daily Beacon , the Commonwealth Party newspaper, was founded in Bradford in 1888. There were also Beacon Club Houses. The first one was opened in Skipton in 1891. They provided basic, but good, accommodation in hostels throughout Britain and Ireland for a low price. Hostellers slept in sex segregated dormitories and helped with preparing meals and other jobs.

From Sunday 2 August to Sunday 10 August 1896, Megan Griffiths and Esther Jenkins, her wife in all but name, went on a cycle tour in south-west Wales, staying in Beacon Club Houses. From Swansea they cycled north-west to Carmarthen, then north-east to Lampeter, west to Cardigan and Fishguard. (1) From there south to Pembroke, east to Tenby and Kidwelly, then continuing east back to Swansea. (2) They stayed in Beacon hostels in these places. They bathed in the sea off Fishguard and Tenby. They wore trousers and blouse, and appropriate shoes. They cycled at a steady pace for enjoyment, not for speed. They enjoyed their holiday very much.

Eithne Griffiths cycled to visits in her work as a midwife. She carried her equipment in her saddle bag.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmarthen,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardigan,_Ceredigion,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishguard[/URL].

(2) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke,_Pembrokeshire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenby,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidwelly.
 
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pipisme

Aneurin and Maire found that they really loved each other, and missed living together. In April 1896, he returned to live with her in her house in Swansea. He had left Arwen Smith and she and Hannah Davis had reluctantly separated, but they were still very good friends. Arwen was furious when Nye left her. She insisted on keeping custody of her children by him - Lewys born 23 March 1892, Thomas born 20 April 1893 and Emrys born 17 July 1894.
 

pipisme

Maire, Nye and their four youngest children, Sinead (born 15 March 1885) Niamh (born 13 July 1886), Owain (born 21 January 1892), and Sorcha (born 4 October 1893), and Nye's daughters by Sian Owen, Rhian born 25 March 1884), and Nerys (born 17 October 1886), all had a holiday in Port Eynon, on the Gower, from Monday 27 July 1896 to Saturday 1 August 1896. (1) They stayed in a guest house which provided bed, breakfast and evening meal. They travelled by bus from Swansea to Port Eynon on the Monday afternoon and returned by bus on the Saturday morning.

They enjoyed their holiday. They sat and walked on the sandy beach, paddled in the sea, and went for short walks in the surrounding countryside. One place they walked to was the seaside village of Oxwich. (2)

It was Maire's and Nye's first holiday together for several years. He wrote poems about it, and the sea, countryside, and wildlife, Port Eynon and Oxwich. They were later published.

(1) For Port Eynon see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Eynon.

(2) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxwich.
 

pipisme

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 22 June 1897. (1) There were royal guests from Britain and foreign countries, including the king of Punjab, and the Sultan of Sokoto, but not from the Ottoman Empire, and Prussia. Prime ministers of self-governing colonies in the British Empire, including Keewatin were there. The Saor Eireann boycott of the celebrations in Ireland, made little difference to their great popularity on the island.

(1) It was much like in OTL. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Jubilee_of_Queen_Victoria.
 

pipisme

On Tuesday 28 September 1897, the prime minister, Robert Applegarth, announced to the press that parliament would be dissolved on 1 October, and a general election held on Saturday 23 October. He wanted to take advantage for the Commonwealth Party of the allied victory in the war against the Ottoman Empire, and the establishment of an independent Armenia. Also the Commonwealth had been doing fairly well in by-elections in the previous few months.

Angharad Griffiths retired as Commonwealth MP for Swansea. She was 69 years old, born 17 May 1869. She had been an MP since the April 1882 general election. The Swansea constituency Commonwealth Party selected her eldest daughter, Rhiannon Davies (born 15 November 1847), as their candidate for the general election. She was a solicitor, the first woman to become one in Swansea, and gave free or low cost legal advice to people who could not afford to pay her full price. An eloquent and passionate speaker, she had campaigned for the Commonwealth Party since the general election of April/ May 1866. Her husband, John, her son and daughter, their spouses and their children, her mother, and siblings and their partners and children, and other relations, all joined in her election campaign.

The Commonwealth Party campaigned on the government's achievements on social welfare, the major extension of the telephone system. and the allied victory in the war. The Conservatives and Liberals attacked the government for failing to extend the British empire, and its policy of high direct tacation, which they promised to reduce.

There was an electoral pact between the Conservative and Liberal parties. In 44 constituencies, the Conservatives did not put up a candidate so the Liberals could have a straight fight against the Commonwealth Party, and the Liberals made way for the Conservatives in 71 constituencies.

Saor Eireann (Free Ireland) put up candidates in 26 constituencies in Ireland. After the failure of the Cork rebellion in April 1896, it decided at its annual conference in September 1896 to contest elections to the House of Commons. However they voted not to take their seats, if elected.
 
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pipisme

Rhiannon Davies was ambitious. If elected Commonwealth MP for Swansea, she hoped to be appointed a minister in a Commonwealth government some time in the future. She strongly denied that she had abandoned her working class roots by becoming a solicitor. It was only because of policies of Commonwealth governments that she could have become a solicitor.

There are grainy black and white films of party leaders addressing election rallies of up to tens of people. These were shown in cinemas during the election campaign.

On election day, 23 October 1897, polling stations were open from 7am to 10 pm. There were telephones lines from town halls, where constituency results were declared to party headquarters. When all the results had been declared by the evening of monday 25 October, the number of seats in the House of Commons won by each party were as follows (1894 general election):
Commonwealth: 369 (346)
Conservative: 202 (220)
Liberal: 41 (47)
Irish National: 29 (36)
Saor Eireann: 8 (n/a)
----------------
Total: 649
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Commonwealth majority over all parties was 89 (43).
The percentage votes for each party were as follows:
Commonwealth: 45.3 (43.3)
Conservative: 33.8 (35.4)
Liberal: 16.6 (16.8)
Irish National: 2.8 (3.9)
Saor Eireann: 1.0 (n/a)
Others: 0.5 (0.6)
--------------------------
Total: 100.0 (100.0)
-------------------------
The swing from Conservative to Commonwealth was 1.8%.

In Swansea the percentage votes for each candidate were:
Rhiannon Davies (Commonwealth) : 55.6 (54.4)
David Brynmor Jones [1] (Liberal): 44.4 (45.6)
-----------------------------------------------
Commonwealth majority: 11.2 (8.8)
----------------------------------------------

Isabel MacDonnell (nee Ramsay) was elected Commonwealth MP for Inverness District of Burghs. The previous Commonwealth MP having retired. [2] Edward Thompson was elected Commonwealth MP for Fulham, having gained it from the Conservatives. He was the first black MP.

[1] Here is his entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brynmor_Jones,

[2] She was this TL's sibling of OTL Ramsay MacDonald.
 
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pipisme

The number of seats in the House of Commons for each nation in the UK, won by each party in the October 1897 general election were as follows (1894 general election):
England:
Commonwealth: 287 (269)
Conservative: 159 (174)
Liberal: 25 (28)
-----------------------
Total: 471 (471)
----------------------
Ireland:
Irish National: 29 (36)
Conservative: 16 (17)
Commonwealth: 15 (15)
Saor Eireann: 8 (n/a)
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Total: 68 (68)
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Scotland:
Commonwealth: 41 (39)
Conservative: 17 (18)
Liberal: 9 (10)
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Total: 67 (67)
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Wales:
Commonwealth: 26 (23)
Liberal: 7 (9)
Conservative: 1 (2)
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Total: 34 (34)
-----------------

In Ireland the percentage vote for each party were:
Irish National: 38.2
Conservative: 27.4
Commonwealth: 24.9
Saor Eireann: 9.5
The Liberal Party did not put up candidates in Ireland. Of the 26 Saor Eireann candidates, eight were elected, fourteen came second and four were in third place. They gained rural seats from Irish National in counties Cork. Kerry, and Limerick. Irish National took Tyrone South from Conservative.
 
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pipisme

In the five counties in the north of Ireland - Armagh, Antrim, Down, Londonderry, and Tyrone - there were 11 Conservative, 8 Irish National and two Commonwealth MPs elected.

The number of women MPs for each party were as follows (1894 general election):
Commonwealth: 77 (58)
Liberal: 8 (7)
Irish National: 7 (7)
Conservative: 6 (8)
Saor Eireann: 1 (n/a)
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Total: 99 (80)
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The Saor Eireann MP was a member of Cumann na mBan, and was elected for County Cork East.
 

pipisme

Following the general election, the Prime Minister, Robert Applegarth made the following changes to his government on 26 and 27 October 1897:
Sarah Taylor from Chancellor of the Exchequer to Lord President of the Council and leader of the House of Commons, in place of Donald Mackenzie who resigned.
Ann Hewitson from Home Secretary to Chancellor of the Exchequer.
John Ferguson from Scotland Secretary to Home Secretary.
Keir Hardie from Under-Secretary Scottish Office to Scotland Secretary,
Sidney Buxton from India Secretary to First Lord of the Admiralty in place of Thomas Burt, who resigned.
Herbert Lewis from Wales Secretary to India Secretary.
Henry Banks promoted from Parliamentary Secretary Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to President Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in place of Joseph Arch, who resigned. (1)
Caitlin Healy resigned as Ireland Secretary. Roisin Allen promoted from Under-Secretary Irish Office and appointed in her place.
Thomas Daronwy Isaac promoted from Under-Secretary Welsh Office to Wales Secretary,

(1) Taylor, Mackenzie, Hewitson, Banks, Healy and Allen are all fictional characters,

(2) Here is the Wikipedia entry for Isaac: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daronwy_Isaac. In this timeline he was elected Commonwealth MP for Mid Glamorgan in the 1886 general election.
 
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pipisme

Among the changes Applegarth made changes to junior ministers on 28 and 29 October were the following:
Amie Hicks from Parliamentary Secretary Health and Local Government Board to Parliamentary Secretary Board of Trade,
Charles Hobson from Parliamentary Secretary Board of Education to Parliamentary Secretary Health and Local Government Board,
Helena Born appointed Parliamentary Secretary Board of Education,
Shaw Maxwell appointed Under Secretary Foreign Office, (1)
Hugh Holmes Gore appointed Under Secretary Home Office (2)
Horace Plunkett appointed Under Secretary Irish Office (3)
William Small appointed Under Secretary Scottish Office.

Here is the list of cabinet ministers:
Prime Minister: Robert Applegarth
Lord Chancellor: Lord George Jessel
Lord President of the Council and leader of the House of Commons: Sarah Taylor
Lord Privy Seal and leader of the House of Lords: Lady Margaret Roberts (4)
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Ann Hewitson
Foreign Secretary: Robert Cunninghame Graham
Home Secretary: John Ferguson
First Lord of the Admiralty: Sidney Buxton
President Board of Agriculture and Fisheries: Henry Banks
Colonial Secretary: Thomas Mann
President Board of Education: Charles Conybeare
President Health and Local Government Board : John Bruce Glasier
India Secretary: Herbert Lewis
Ireland Secretary: Roisin Allen
Chancellor Duchy of Lancaster: Will Thorne
Postmaster-General: William Jowett
Scotland Secretary: Keir Hardie
President Board of Trade: Robert Blatchford
Wales Secretary: Thomas Daronwy Isaac
War Secretary: William Abraham.
First Commissioner of Works: Marion Bernstein.

Selected junior ministers not listed above:
Attorney-General: Sir Llewellyn Atherley-Jones
Solicitor-General: Sir John Newell (4)
Paymaster- General: Peter Curran
Financial Secretary Treasury: John Lister (5).

(1) Here is his biography on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Shaw_Maxwell.

(2) Here is an article about him: http://www.brh.org.uk/pamphleteer/enigma-hugh-holmes-gore.

(3) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Plunkett.

(4) Roberts and Newell are fictional persons.

(5) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lister_(philanthropist)
 
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pipisme

On 29 October 1897, the Prime Minister appointed George Lansbury to the new post of Assistant Postmaster-General. He had been Commonwealth MP for Bethnal Green South-West since the April 1894 general election.

In July 1898, entrance fees to museums were abolished, so there was free access to them.

The Cuban War of Independence from Spain, which began in February 1895, ended in victory for the rebels in September 1897. Cuba became an independent nation with Jose Marti as its first President. (1) United States governments gave the rebels military aid, but no American troops fought in the war.

(1) Unlike in OTL, he was not killed in battle during the war.
 

pipisme

In late October and early November 1896, borough councils and county councils with populations of 100,000 or more as recorded in the 1891 census, elected their Peers who would sit in the House of Lords. The number elected for each party were as follows (1890 elections)
Conservative: 171 (101)
Commonwealth: 130 (114)
Irish National: 24 (27)
Liberal: 16 (20)
-----------------
341 (262)
----------------
 

pipisme

The party allegiance of the hereditary peers were as follows:
Conservative: 118 (109)
Liberal: 82 (85)
(Commonwealth: 1)
(Irish Conservative: 5)
------------------
Total: 200
-----------------
There were also 25 Life Peers who must be Independents.

The party allegiance of Peers was as follows:
Conservative: 289 (270)
Commonwealth: 130 (115)
Liberal: 98 (105)
Irish National: 24 (27)
Independents: 25 (25)
Archbishops and Bishops: 26 (26)
Law Lords: 4 (4)
(Irish Conservative: 5)
------------------------
Total: 596 (517)
-----------------------
 

pipisme

The Conservatives were nominally in a minority in the House of Lords, with 289 Peers to 307 other peers. However in practice with Liberal Peers usually voting with them, and leaving aside the archbishops, bishops and law lords, they
had a large majority. Since the first elections to the Lords in 1860, the Conservatives have always been the largest party. In defence of their dominance of the upper House, they argued that it was a balance to control of the House of Commons by the Commonwealth Party. It was an essential part of the British constitition.

In England most cities elected Commonwealth Party Peers, while the counties mostly elected Conservative Lords. In the UK. borough councils elected one-third each year. County councils elected councillors for three years. The previous elections were in October 1895, when the Conservatives did well in local elections.
 

pipisme

Outside London, the following borough councils elected Conservative Lords in 1896 (number elected for each city): Belfast (2), Brighton (1), Croydon (1), Edinburgh (2), Liverpool (5), Plymouth (1), Portsmouth (1), making a total of 13. Other borough councils elected 51 Commonwealth Lords. Dublin council elected two Commonwealth Peers. Of the London borough councils which elected Lords, the following elected Conservatives: Battersea (1), Hackney (2), Kensington (1), Lambeth (2), Marylebone (1), Paddington (1), Wandsworth (1), Westminster (1), a total of ten. The following London borough councils elected Commonwealth Lords: Bethnal Green (1), Camberwell (2), Deptford (1), Islington (3), Poplar (1), St, Pancras (2) Shoreditch (1), Southwark (1), Stepney (2), a total of 14.

The following county councils, or combination of councils, in Britain elected Commonwealth Peers: Argyll and Dunbartonshire, Caithness and Sutherland, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Denbighshire and Flintshire, Derbyshire, Durham, Fife, Glamorgan, Inverness, and Ross and Cromarty; Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Peebles, and West Lothian; Monmouthshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Renfrewshire, Staffordshire, and Stirlingshire and Falkirk. The county councils, or combined councils which elected Liberal Lords were Aberdeenshire, Forfarshire and Kincardine; Banff, Moray and Nairn; Berwick, Haddington, Roxburgh and Selkirk; Brecon, Radnor and Montgomeryshire; Caernarvonshire and Anglesey; Cardiganshire and Merionethshire; Cornwall, Herefordshire, Orkney and Shetland.

Caithness and Sutherland, and Orkney and Shetland, county councils elected one Lords for each pair of councils, though their populations were less than the 100,000 minimum for county councils or combinations of county councils. an exception was made for them because
 
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pipisme

The other county councils in England elected Conservative Peers, except for London which had a Conservative/Liberal coalition, and which elected twelve Conservative and five Liberal Lords. No county councils in Wales elected Conservative Peers. In Scotland the following combination of county councils, elected Conservative Lords: Ayrshire and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, Perthshire and Kinross. In Ireland, Antrim, Down and Armagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone county councils elected Conservative Peers. The other county councils or combination of councils elected Irish National Lords.

Many junior government ministers were Commonwealth Party Lords. and they spoke in debates and on government legislation.
 

pipisme

The number of women elected Lords for each party after the elections in October and November 1896 were as follows:
Commonwealth: 63
Conservative: 10
Irish National: 7
Liberal: 6
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Total: 86
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The revolt in the Philippines from 1896 to 1897 against Spanish rule was crushed, and its leaders executed by hanging. However the Spanish Constitution of 1870 gave all provinces in the Philippines a degree of autonomy with home rule.
 

pipisme

In the first week of August 1898, Aneurin and Maire Griffiths went to the Welsh National Eisteddfod, held that year in Blaenau Ffestiniog in north-west Wales. (1) They went by themselves. Their younger children were looked after by their older siblings. They travelled by train from Swansea to Blaenau. There was not a direct line so they changed trains at Shrewsbury and at Porthmadog. They stayed in a bed and breakfast in Blaenau.

There were tens of thousands of people at the Eisteddfod, with all the proceedings being in Welsh, which was Aneurin's and Maire's first language. He was awarded the bardic crown for poetry written in free verse, in a colourful and dramatic ceremony. It was not the first Eisteddfod they had been to, but the first one in north Wales, and the first at which Nye had received an award.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Eisteddfod_of_Wales, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaenau_Ffestiniog.
 
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