Holy cow! Six updates in the past week, with this kind of quality? This TL is astonishing. Keep up the good work!
I could only dream of keeping that pace!
Thanks so much! I guess I've just been very inspired recently.
The fact that Virginia has moved from a solid Democratic state to a swing state that voted for the abolitionist candidate makes me happy as a citizen of the Old Dominion.

So we have Harrison as Attorney General, and Sherman as Secretary of State. Mahone will probably not recieve a cabinet position as he's too important as the Whig leader in Virginia and without him being there, the machine may lose steam. I wonder if maybe A Virginian selected by Mahone will get a lower cabinet position like Secretary of the Interior. Maybe Campbell Slemp or John Sergeant Wise?
I hadn't heard of either of them, but Slemp sounds like a good Postmaster General. Thanks for the names! (And boy is Campbell Slemp a hell of a name)
Blaine v. Pendleton, talk about a contrast!

Harlan is a great choice for a VP. Damn.
Yeah, they really embody the ideological differences between the parties.
And thanks! At first I had Edmunds, but Harlan just seemed like the perfect fit for the shifting Whigs.
Baline as President? Definitely a interesting win. Really enjoying this TL. It's a real treat every time you update.
Thanks so much! Glad you like it
Anything going on in Mexico?
No civil war or foreign invasion, so they're stable and reforming.
OTL Early was a Whig. Why did he change party ITTL?
He thought that they were too radical and sectional and switched, similar to Samuel J. Randall OTL.
I imagine because the Whigs moved towards a more abolitionist friendly platform.
Also that, yeah.
 
Great chapter! It’s good to see that slavery will finally be abolished.

Sorry for not commenting for a little bit but I’d like to say I love the Italy chapter, it’s cool to see Garibaldi play an important role in a timeline. Italy IMO has a very interesting and cool history that’s often unexplored despite having a long list of interesting characters.

I also have to commend you for making industrialization interesting (specifically the changes in Virginia).
 
Great chapter! It’s good to see that slavery will finally be abolished.
Thanks! Yeah, abolition has been a long time coming.
Sorry for not commenting for a little bit but I’d like to say I love the Italy chapter, it’s cool to see Garibaldi play an important role in a timeline. Italy IMO has a very interesting and cool history that’s often unexplored despite having a long list of interesting characters.
The Italian stuff have been some of my favorite European events to write so thanks. I agree the history is fascinating, and there are so many different ways things could have gone.
I also have to commend you for making industrialization interesting (specifically the changes in Virginia).
Thanks! Virginia is going to be a very interesting place, and I hope to go into the industrialization of Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama before the end of the century.
 
The 1880 Presidential election:
Screenshot 2022-05-26 at 19-25-15 1880 The American System.png
 
So at this point, which Southern states have abolished slavery? I know Virginia has and I think there was a mention that Delaware had as well, are they the only ones?
 
42. The Onward March
42. The Onward March

“…We cannot overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the confederacy of States, was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its great object.

Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings of local self-government [1].

It is now time to extend the protections of our Constitution, to enlarge the boundaries of freedom it enshrines, to the multitudes held in bondage that hitherto these have been denied to. It is now time to do as the rest of the civilized nations have done, as the French and even the Britons have done, and make sure that never again shall the rivers of the Mississippi Delta run red with the blood of the innocent. It is now time for us to, after over one hundred years as an independent nation, share the fruits of liberty with the negro race. This is not a question of regional loyalty – the conflict that arose nearly two decades ago put those sectional divisions to rest. It is not a question of party affiliation either, the question of abolition is a moral one alone.

The elevation of the negro race from slavery to liberty is the most important political change we can hope to accomplish this century. Of the many great achievements since the year 1800, from the Louisiana Purchase to the formation of a National Bank and the completion of a mighty transcontinental railroad, none makes a fitting comparison to the beneficent effect emancipation shall have upon our institutions and people. Our Republic was founded upon the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and yet these rights have been withheld from some 12 percent of the population [2]. The remarkable growth of industry and prosperity in free states is a testament to the uplifting effects of abolition and adherence to our sacred foundational ideals.

…It is manifest that the nation is facing the great issues and challenges of our day with determination and optimism, resolved to employ its best energies in realizing the wondrous possibilities of the future. We do not seek to disturb the autonomy of the states, nor interfere with any of their necessary rights of local government, but we do affirm the constitutional supremacy of the Union. We must strive to finish the work we are in, the work begun by the Free Soilers and William Seward twenty years ago, the work that is still unfinished today. With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, it will be my sincerest endeavor to continue the efforts of my predecessors in forging a more perfect union…”

-From BLAINE’S FIRST INAUGURAL on LibraryofCongress.gov, published 2016

Presidential Cabinet of James Blaine:
Vice President:
John M. Harlan
Secretary of State: John Sherman
Secretary of the Treasury: William H. Robertson
Secretary of War: William Chandler
Attorney General: Benjamin Harrison
Postmaster General: Leonidas C. Houk
Secretary of the Interior: Campbell Slemp
Secretary of the Navy: William A. Smith

“After his inauguration, in which he delivered a rousing call for abolition and advocated for a ban on government funds for religious schools [3], President Blaine set about filling his cabinet. While James Garfield had been elevated to the Speakership, Blaine appointed his other main campaign manager, William Chandler, as Secretary of War. Chandler was an able administrator, as shown during a stint in the Treasury Department under Seward, so despite his lack of a military background, he was confirmed easily. Sherman was also easily confirmed as Secretary of State, where he would become Blaine’s close ally when dealing with a multitude of crises, including a standoff with Britain during the War of the Pacific, as well as peaceful endeavors like the reciprocity treaty with Mexico and the Hemispheric Amphictyony [4], the 1886 conference of the nations of the western hemisphere [5].

Benjamin Harrison, the nominee for Attorney General, was opposed by many southerners for his staunch abolitionism, and some conservative Whigs expressed reservations that Harrison favored equal rights for blacks. This was denied, and Harrison was comfortably confirmed. On the recommendation of William D. Kelley, Blaine’s successor in the Senate, Blaine nominated Tennessee Congressman and Whig boss Leonidas Houk to serve as Postmaster General. An ally of pro-patronage Whigs, Houk used the post office to expand the patronage of Tennessee Whigs within the confines of the new civil service rules. To lead the Interior Department, formerly the center of political patronage, Blaine selected the former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Campbell Slemp [6], a supporter of civil service reform.”

-From CHAINS BROKEN, CHAINS SHACKLED by Edward Northam, published 2011

“The murder of Joseph Smith in a Carthage jail cell threw the young Mormon church into a power struggle. Sidney Rigdon, the First Counselor of the church, arrived in Nauvoo first, on August 3rd, and quickly announced that he had received a revelation declaring him “Guardian of the Church.” He was supported in this claim by William Marks, the head of the central stake. Marks called for a meeting to be held on the 8th to determine the succession. By the 8th, all of the Quorum of Twelve save for Brigham Young had returned to Nauvoo for the conference [7].

Rigdon diligently persuaded the rest of the Quorum that he should be made Smith’s successor, arguing that, as the only surviving member of the First Presidency, he was uniquely suited to be Smith’s heir. The assembled members of the church then voted overwhelmingly to declare Rigdon the new leader of the church. Rigdon was not without his opponents – he and Marks were both staunch opponents of polygamy, which was one of the last revelations of Joseph Smith. James Strang was outraged that an anti-polygamist was now the head of the church, viewing it as an attack on the veracity of Joseph Smith’s revelation.

From his stake in Wisconsin, Strang publicly declared himself the true leader of the Mormon church three weeks after Rigdon’s ascension. In particular, Strang produced a letter purportedly stating that Smith had appointed him his successor. Many church members agreed with him, and Strang led some 12,000 Mormons in a splinter faction, officially known as the Church of Christ, but also called the Strangites. The Quorum of Twelve swiftly excommunicated Strang, and Strang’s church excommunicated Rigdon. Initially, it seemed that Strang’s claims that he received revelations from angels would split the church in two, but in 1849, Strang abruptly embraced polygamy. While it attracted some of Rigdon’s followers, it alienated many more of Strang’s existing followers, most of whom returned to the mainline Mormon church.

Strang attempted to move his sect to Beaver Island in Michigan, but the land purchase was shut down by the state government and Strang led his followers west to Champoeg Territory in 1852, where the Strangite practice of polygamy brought them into conflict with other settlers, the territorial government, and the federal government. The mainline Mormon church, on the other hand, would remain in the Midwest and denounce polygamy.

Rigdon’s vision of the “Guardian of the Church” was a regent of sorts, to hold power until a new church president could be properly chosen. However, this regency would end up lasting until 1860, when Joseph Smith III was officially designated as Prophet-President of the Mormon church. The younger Smith had previously declined to assume church leadership from Rigdon unless he were called upon by God to do so. In April 1860, he apparently received such inspiration, and Rigdon quickly stepped aside, and Smith was confirmed as the leader of the reconstituted First Presidency. Smith continued the church’s practice of denying that his father ever taught polygamy, while he also began downplaying other controversial teachings, namely baptism of the dead. On August 6th, 1867, Smith laid the cornerstone of the new Independence Temple, on the site of the original 1831 Temple Lot chosen by Smith’s father. A grand mixture of Federalist and Gothic revival styles [8], the Independence Temple was a symbol of the gradual acceptance the Mormon church enjoyed in the Midwest, especially in comparison to the Strangites’ constant warring with the government…”

-From A HISTORY OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS by Wallace Meacham, published 2001

“Lynchburg grew exponentially during the 1870s, as the 1873 completion of the Richmond & Allegheny railroad and the 1879 completion of the Norfolk & Western turned the growing canal city into an industrial center [9]. In 1875, amid the city’s expansion, Tredegar established a steel factory. Soon after, dozens of businesses emerged in Lynchburg, including the Appalachian Steel Company, which built a large industrial complex with a blast furnace, foundry, canal harbor, and railroad depot. The growth of steelmaking concerns like the ASC fueled a large boom in Lynchburg’s population, attracting not only Serbian and Bulgarian immigrants who tended to prefer Virginia as their destination, but also large numbers of Germans, Poles, and Russians.

This explosion in population led the Whig-dominated municipal government to implement in 1878 a public school system, providing free public education to students from poor families. Previously, the only free education was provided by a local church. By the city’s centennial in 1886, its population had increased ten-fold over its 1860 size, which was attributed by many to the demise of slavery. The importance of local industry meant Lynchburg was a Whig stronghold, contributing to their retaking of the governorship in 1881 with Harrison Riddleberger, one of the architects of abolition, as their nominee. Virginia was modernizing at a swift rate and so, too, was the nation…”

-From ALL AMERICAN MADE by Thurgood Nickle, published 2001

[1] Taken from James Garfield’s OTL inaugural address. I felt it was a perfect lead-in for what I planned Blaine to say.
[2] As of the 1860 census, 17% of the population was enslaved. With immigration and the abolition of slavery in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Kentucky (constituting together 2.8% of slaves in the Union in 1860), that number is by my rough guesstimation about 12%.
[3] The Blaine Amendment will be a thing TTL…
[4] I just like this word. It’s an ancient Greek term for an alliance of neighbors, so it’s perfect for America’s regional alliance.
[5] Spoilers…
[6] Thanks to @Odinson for the suggestion!
[7] Maybe his carriage breaks down or something, he just doesn’t make it back in time.
[8] An interesting combination, but early Mormon temples were built in this exact style.
[9] OTL, the residents of Lynchburg thought the city was too crowded and opposed the N&W, so it became the nucleus of Roanoke.
 
Last edited:
I think you made an error with the Strangites, or at least worded it confusingly. As it is written now it appears that Strang split with the mainline Mormons over their abandonment of polygamy, then was rejected by people who followed him because of that…? Shouldn’t his followers expect him to embrace polygamy…?
 
I think you made an error with the Strangites, or at least worded it confusingly. As it is written now it appears that Strang split with the mainline Mormons over their abandonment of polygamy, then was rejected by people who followed him because of that…? Shouldn’t his followers expect him to embrace polygamy…?
Crap you're right. Strang emerges with a splinter faction and then alienates a lot of them with his embrace of polygamy. I'll fix that pronto, thanks for pointing it out.
 
Top