The American System: A Henry Clay TL
- Thread starter TheHedgehog
- Start date
Cox even won New York, ow.
Looks like Utah-Nevada has been admitted as a state (or...something partially encompassing Utah, anyway). Have we seen anything about that before? Actually, a map of state and territorial names might be helpful--the Eastern states and first tier of Western states (plus Texas) are pretty much unchanged, but the others I'm not sure of any more.
Looks like Utah-Nevada has been admitted as a state (or...something partially encompassing Utah, anyway). Have we seen anything about that before? Actually, a map of state and territorial names might be helpful--the Eastern states and first tier of Western states (plus Texas) are pretty much unchanged, but the others I'm not sure of any more.
That's the state of Aurelia. I don't think we've seen much about it yet, although the lack of mention of Mormons there does have me curious.
Actually, this reminds me of something I was thinking about with how the rest of the Western territories will be admitted as states. In 1888 IOTL, the Democrats proposed that all four territories of Montana, New Mexico, Dakota and Washington should be admitted together as states, which was intended as a compromise since the first two were expected to vote Democratic and the latter two were expected to vote Republican. However, the Republicans won big that year, and Dakota ended up getting split into two states while New Mexico's statehood was delayed. ITTL, the calculus is different, since there's no New Mexico to worry about, and different policies being put in place in the West may also have an effect. I did notice, though, that with the Whigs generally taking the place of the Republicans, they probably won't be in office after the election in 1888 since it's coming off Blaine's second term, so the Democrats may be able to pass a similar "compromise" statehood package.
I'll have a labelled map of the US states and territories posted for the end of Cox's presidency.
I hadn't considered that, but TTL Tacoma (washingon state), Champoeg (Idaho) and Wyoming (Montana) all lean Whig to some extent, so I could see maybe the Whigs admitting all three in 1886 or so.
Just a reflection. OTL the Internet was invented as part of an arms race during the Cold War. Could the Internet have arisen in a world where the Cold War, in our understanding, did not exist at all?
Absolutely. While the specific circumstances of the Internet's foundation have to do with the Cold War (mainly through DARPA funding), the basic idea of massive computer networks was clearly quite attractive as soon as networking was invented (if not earlier). The telephone and telegraph networks showed that global-scale communications was possible, and practically any fool could see that it would be useful for computers as well. Which is why there were numerous networking projects in the 1960s and 1970s that eventually converged on our Internet, not just one. It is a clear case of steam engine time.
Computers themselves, also, did not really have much to do with the Cold War. People were quite interested in computational and automation even before World War II, and while certain specific developments might have been slowed down without the war and without a subsequent Cold War, overall progress is likely to be fast (similar to aircraft before World War I) because of the obvious utility of general-purpose computers to replace human labor and reduce human errors.
I agree 100%. Not every innovation needs to start as a weapon of war. The internet TTL probably takes a little longer to evolve into what we know as the internet, but it's generally the same as OTL. Social media isn't quite as developed though.
Good old Henry Clay, brining about a better world... at least for people in the 21st century.
Well, Chief Justice Edwin Stanton is scheduled to drop anytime now (assuming he has not already under McClellan)....
Some platforms are worse than others. Lets just say that Nexus is unique in its reputation for being a cesspool of angry morons.
Maybe not where civil rights are concerned, though.
The post office is also managed competently, truly a utopia.
I totally forgot about that. He survives juust long enough to die under Cox. I’ll include the confirmation battle that follows in the next chapter.
- Let's hope that hives of scum and villainy like that remain tiny obscure parts of the internet.
- We can't have it all! Though the more gentle resolution to the civil war makes it rather unlikely that a version of the KKK would arise. Even if civil rights are slower to come it'd be better without masked racists lynching innocent black people.
- Hopefully, the IRS ITTL won't have to rely on decades-old computer infrastructure and aging employees. The organization may be unglamorous but they don't deserve to be jerked around like they are in OTL.
1. As tiny and obscure as a mid-sized social media site can be.
2. There will still unfortunately be lynchings after abolition, though it won't be the KKK who's doing it. For one, these guys won't have the disguises or white hoods.
3. I totally forgot about the IRS -- it's TTL equivalent will be much better funded/managed. The Whigs have a technocratic streak TTL, so they give the IRS and Post Office major overhauls in the mid-2000s.
35. Reform and Revolution
35. Reform and Revolution
“Cox’s agenda centered around civil service reform. He had grand plans for a comprehensive civil service reform act, but the first signs that he planned to aggressively crack down on government corruption were in his cabinet appointees. Amos T. Ackerman of North Carolina, a prominent reformist attorney, was nominated by Cox for Attorney General. Ackerman was strongly opposed by anti-reform Whigs like Roscoe Conkling, but also by newly elected Senator Zebulon Vance of North Carolina. Vance, a Whig like Conkling, called Ackerman a “radical abolitionist” and demanded Cox nominate a more conservative Attorney General. Like McClellan before him, Cox refused to back down and yield to the precedent of Senatorial courtesy. Cox, hardly a radical abolitionist himself, explained that “there are certainly disagreements I have with Mr. Ackerman’s view of abolition, but slavery is not the most pressing issue our Republic faces. That is the scourge of corruption, which Mr. Ackerman is eminently qualified to root out.”
After a week-long stalemate, Cox secured Vance’s acquiescence by promising to fill the seat of the ailing Chief Justice Stanton with a conservative nominee [1]. Appeased, Vance withdrew his objection and Ackerman was narrowly confirmed. The other contentious cabinet nomination was that of Edwards Pierrepont, who Cox nominated to lead the Interior Department. This department had a vast Congressional patronage network, and a large contingent of Whigs urged Cox to appoint a party man who would fill the department with other party men [2]. The President refused, instead selecting Edwards Pierrepont, a former Democrat, attorney, and ardent supporter of civil service reform. A group of Whig Senators, led by Roscoe Conkling and Zachariah Chandler, met with Cox to urge him to withdraw Pierrepont in favor of Chester Arthur, an ally of Conkling. The meeting was brief, as Cox insisted on Pierrepont. Charles Sumner also opposed Pierrepont because of his conservative view on abolition, but he stood alone.
Pierrepont was also narrowly confirmed, this time by just a single vote. President Cox ordered that all cabinet employees report directly to the department heads rather than the President [3], allowing Pierrepont a great deal of leeway in implementing his sweeping reforms. Almost immediately after assuming the office, he instituted a merit-based civil service system, including competency examinations for Patent Office workers. Over a third of Interior Department personnel were fired for incompetency, and many others resigned rather than take the mandated competency examinations. Workers were no longer required to contribute money to political campaigns, and received 30 days of paid vacation a year, limiting the amount of time they could spend campaigning for Whig candidates. These reforms caused friction with Congressional patronage leaders, who frequently urged Cox to fire Pierrepont, to no avail. Cox saw civil service reform as a moral necessity, telling Senator Chandler that “no show of political zeal can move me from this course. Public service is an advocation, not a career.” Pierrepont would stay on as Interior Secretary for the rest of Cox’s time in office.
The least contentious of Cox’s appointments was his nomination of Abraham Lincoln as Secretary of State. Lincoln was popular with his Senate colleagues, many of whom were sad to see him go. He was thus confirmed unanimously, and Lincoln resigned from the Senate that day. He would pursue a policy of cautious rapprochement with Britain and the guarding of America’s growing sphere of influence in central America.”
-From THE EVOLUTION OF THE WHIGS by James Welter, published 1997
Presidential Cabinet of Jacob Cox:
Vice President: Hamilton Fish
Secretary of State: Abraham Lincoln
Secretary of the Treasury: Hugh McCulloch
Secretary of War: Nathaniel Lyon
Attorney General: Amos T. Ackerman
Postmaster General: James W. Marshall
Secretary of the Interior: Edwards Pierrepont
Secretary of the Navy: Portus Baxter
“After two treaties ceding land to the United States, the deposition of President Herrera and the return to power of Santa Anna, Mexico was left unstable. Nationalist sentiment ran high, but Santa Anna remained unpopular and was increasingly authoritarian. His army reforms had burned through the money from the American treaties [4] and plunged the country into steep debt, while the Comanches the US had expelled across the border were leading devastating raids on northern Mexican settlements. In order to salvage the economy, Santa Anna announced a series of tax hikes, further eroding his popularity. Amid all of this, the state of Guerrero eluded central control. Juan Alvarez, the respected leader of the state, was angered at a number of Santa Anna’s policies that threatened Guerrero’s regional autonomy. When Santa Anna led an army to crush the revolt, Alvarez decided to instigate a revolution and depose the dictatorship.
Meanwhile, the liberal opposition to Santa Anna was plotting a revolution. From their exilic base in New Orleans, a group of dissidents coordinated with Alvarez on a document outlining their goals for the revolution and the direction of Mexico once Santa Anna was removed from power. On March 1st, 1852 [5], Alvarez issued the Plan of Guerrero, influenced by the New Orleans group and written by Alvarez’s subordinate Ignacio Comonfort. The Plan of Guerrero aimed at the removal of Santa Anna and the drafting of a new federal constitution via constituent assembly. Promises to abolish the draft and the poll tax were also included. A number of generals, including Pedro Hinojosa, as well as the New Orleans exiles joined the movement to depose Santa Anna.
…after 19 months of unrest and rebellion against the dictatorship and a string of triumphs of Alvarez’s Liberating Army over Santa Anna, and Santa Anna’s lieutenant Zuloaga [6] was killed ad Santa Anna himself captured at the decisive Battle of El Coquillo. After this, the rudderless central government was crippled by risings in the north, including the entirety of California joining the revolutionaries. Defeated and imprisoned, Santa Anna fled into exile, while Alvarez assumed the presidency on a provisional basis. Under Alvarez, the first pieces of La Reforma were implemented, ending the centralist, oligarchic system of Santa Anna in favor of land reform and the Juarez Law, which ended the special military and religious courts that frequently issued biased judgements in favor of secular courts. Alvarez’s push for comprehensive land reform to aid the indigenous Mexicans caused much infighting within his cabinet, and after six months in office he resigned in favor of his War Minister, Ignacio Comonfort.
Under Comonfort, the Constitution of 1824 was reestablished and overhauled, with universal male suffrage, freedom of speech and press, the right to bear arms, and religious freedom enshrined in the new document. The legislature was strengthened, and the central government weakened to prevent another Santa Anna. The most controversial aspects of the revised constitution were the prohibition of religious education, the ban on religious institutions owning any buildings other than religious buildings (churches, convents, etc.), and the forced sale of church-owned real estate. There were a series of uprisings against the constitution that lasted for several years, but the conservatives failed to rally into a cohesive resistance movement, and Comonfort and the Mexican congress maintained international legitimacy. The new Mexican government had weathered its first tests, and stood poised to chart a new, more egalitarian course towards prosperity.”
-From A CONCISE HISTORY OF MEXICO by Herman Wheeler, published 2002
“Virginia continued to grow and industrialize throughout the 1870s as the cities of Bluefield and Iron Gate sprang up around the coal and metal ore mines in the west of the state. Iron Gate in particular experienced explosive growth, from almost nothing in 1860 to a city of 5,500 in 1880, becoming the fourth-largest city in the state. Iron Gate was intended to be the gateway for transporting iron ore to markets in the Midwest and the east coast. This was accomplished by the 1863 completion of the James River and Kanawha canal [7] and an accompanying railroad, which brought in business and hundreds of settlers.
Initially just a railroad junction and depot, Iron Gate quickly grew with the construction of a series of furnaces that smelted the iron. The Jordan Company sold the pig iron to steel companies in Richmond. In 1876, Tredegar purchased a majority stake in the Jordan Company, giving them a steady supply of cheap pig iron. Other pig iron companies also established furnaces in Iron Gate and sold iron to steel companies across the eastern seaboard. When iron ore deposits were discovered in Minnesota, many midwestern steel companies sourced their pig iron from the new deposits while the eastern seaboard stuck with the geographically closer Virginian iron. While eastern Virginia became a center of manufacturing, western Virginia had successfully established itself as a major source of the nation’s raw materials – conditions were ripe for the state to move from its southern roots to become a midwestern-aligned industrial hub.”
-From ALL AMERICAN MADE by Thurgood Nickle, published 2001
[1] More on this in the next chapter…
[2] Republicans urged Grant to do this OTL.
[3] Grant gave a similar order OTL, which allowed Cox to impose his will on the Interior Department.
[4] TTL, Mexico has a little less cash than OTL, because the sum total of the US purchases of Texas and California is $16 million, less than what Mexico got from Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase. As a result, the country’s finances are a little worse.
[5] A bit of a jump backwards in time, but I really wanted to revisit what happens to Mexico. Also, the revolution happens two years earlier because Mexico is in worse financial straits.
[6] That gets rid of the attempted coup and keeps Comonfort in office longer and gives more time for democratic precedents to establish themselves.
[7] OTL, the canal was never extended to Iron Gate and the civil war delayed development until iron ore had been discovered in Minnesota.
“Cox’s agenda centered around civil service reform. He had grand plans for a comprehensive civil service reform act, but the first signs that he planned to aggressively crack down on government corruption were in his cabinet appointees. Amos T. Ackerman of North Carolina, a prominent reformist attorney, was nominated by Cox for Attorney General. Ackerman was strongly opposed by anti-reform Whigs like Roscoe Conkling, but also by newly elected Senator Zebulon Vance of North Carolina. Vance, a Whig like Conkling, called Ackerman a “radical abolitionist” and demanded Cox nominate a more conservative Attorney General. Like McClellan before him, Cox refused to back down and yield to the precedent of Senatorial courtesy. Cox, hardly a radical abolitionist himself, explained that “there are certainly disagreements I have with Mr. Ackerman’s view of abolition, but slavery is not the most pressing issue our Republic faces. That is the scourge of corruption, which Mr. Ackerman is eminently qualified to root out.”
After a week-long stalemate, Cox secured Vance’s acquiescence by promising to fill the seat of the ailing Chief Justice Stanton with a conservative nominee [1]. Appeased, Vance withdrew his objection and Ackerman was narrowly confirmed. The other contentious cabinet nomination was that of Edwards Pierrepont, who Cox nominated to lead the Interior Department. This department had a vast Congressional patronage network, and a large contingent of Whigs urged Cox to appoint a party man who would fill the department with other party men [2]. The President refused, instead selecting Edwards Pierrepont, a former Democrat, attorney, and ardent supporter of civil service reform. A group of Whig Senators, led by Roscoe Conkling and Zachariah Chandler, met with Cox to urge him to withdraw Pierrepont in favor of Chester Arthur, an ally of Conkling. The meeting was brief, as Cox insisted on Pierrepont. Charles Sumner also opposed Pierrepont because of his conservative view on abolition, but he stood alone.
Pierrepont was also narrowly confirmed, this time by just a single vote. President Cox ordered that all cabinet employees report directly to the department heads rather than the President [3], allowing Pierrepont a great deal of leeway in implementing his sweeping reforms. Almost immediately after assuming the office, he instituted a merit-based civil service system, including competency examinations for Patent Office workers. Over a third of Interior Department personnel were fired for incompetency, and many others resigned rather than take the mandated competency examinations. Workers were no longer required to contribute money to political campaigns, and received 30 days of paid vacation a year, limiting the amount of time they could spend campaigning for Whig candidates. These reforms caused friction with Congressional patronage leaders, who frequently urged Cox to fire Pierrepont, to no avail. Cox saw civil service reform as a moral necessity, telling Senator Chandler that “no show of political zeal can move me from this course. Public service is an advocation, not a career.” Pierrepont would stay on as Interior Secretary for the rest of Cox’s time in office.
The least contentious of Cox’s appointments was his nomination of Abraham Lincoln as Secretary of State. Lincoln was popular with his Senate colleagues, many of whom were sad to see him go. He was thus confirmed unanimously, and Lincoln resigned from the Senate that day. He would pursue a policy of cautious rapprochement with Britain and the guarding of America’s growing sphere of influence in central America.”
-From THE EVOLUTION OF THE WHIGS by James Welter, published 1997
Presidential Cabinet of Jacob Cox:
Vice President: Hamilton Fish
Secretary of State: Abraham Lincoln
Secretary of the Treasury: Hugh McCulloch
Secretary of War: Nathaniel Lyon
Attorney General: Amos T. Ackerman
Postmaster General: James W. Marshall
Secretary of the Interior: Edwards Pierrepont
Secretary of the Navy: Portus Baxter
“After two treaties ceding land to the United States, the deposition of President Herrera and the return to power of Santa Anna, Mexico was left unstable. Nationalist sentiment ran high, but Santa Anna remained unpopular and was increasingly authoritarian. His army reforms had burned through the money from the American treaties [4] and plunged the country into steep debt, while the Comanches the US had expelled across the border were leading devastating raids on northern Mexican settlements. In order to salvage the economy, Santa Anna announced a series of tax hikes, further eroding his popularity. Amid all of this, the state of Guerrero eluded central control. Juan Alvarez, the respected leader of the state, was angered at a number of Santa Anna’s policies that threatened Guerrero’s regional autonomy. When Santa Anna led an army to crush the revolt, Alvarez decided to instigate a revolution and depose the dictatorship.
Meanwhile, the liberal opposition to Santa Anna was plotting a revolution. From their exilic base in New Orleans, a group of dissidents coordinated with Alvarez on a document outlining their goals for the revolution and the direction of Mexico once Santa Anna was removed from power. On March 1st, 1852 [5], Alvarez issued the Plan of Guerrero, influenced by the New Orleans group and written by Alvarez’s subordinate Ignacio Comonfort. The Plan of Guerrero aimed at the removal of Santa Anna and the drafting of a new federal constitution via constituent assembly. Promises to abolish the draft and the poll tax were also included. A number of generals, including Pedro Hinojosa, as well as the New Orleans exiles joined the movement to depose Santa Anna.
…after 19 months of unrest and rebellion against the dictatorship and a string of triumphs of Alvarez’s Liberating Army over Santa Anna, and Santa Anna’s lieutenant Zuloaga [6] was killed ad Santa Anna himself captured at the decisive Battle of El Coquillo. After this, the rudderless central government was crippled by risings in the north, including the entirety of California joining the revolutionaries. Defeated and imprisoned, Santa Anna fled into exile, while Alvarez assumed the presidency on a provisional basis. Under Alvarez, the first pieces of La Reforma were implemented, ending the centralist, oligarchic system of Santa Anna in favor of land reform and the Juarez Law, which ended the special military and religious courts that frequently issued biased judgements in favor of secular courts. Alvarez’s push for comprehensive land reform to aid the indigenous Mexicans caused much infighting within his cabinet, and after six months in office he resigned in favor of his War Minister, Ignacio Comonfort.
Under Comonfort, the Constitution of 1824 was reestablished and overhauled, with universal male suffrage, freedom of speech and press, the right to bear arms, and religious freedom enshrined in the new document. The legislature was strengthened, and the central government weakened to prevent another Santa Anna. The most controversial aspects of the revised constitution were the prohibition of religious education, the ban on religious institutions owning any buildings other than religious buildings (churches, convents, etc.), and the forced sale of church-owned real estate. There were a series of uprisings against the constitution that lasted for several years, but the conservatives failed to rally into a cohesive resistance movement, and Comonfort and the Mexican congress maintained international legitimacy. The new Mexican government had weathered its first tests, and stood poised to chart a new, more egalitarian course towards prosperity.”
-From A CONCISE HISTORY OF MEXICO by Herman Wheeler, published 2002
“Virginia continued to grow and industrialize throughout the 1870s as the cities of Bluefield and Iron Gate sprang up around the coal and metal ore mines in the west of the state. Iron Gate in particular experienced explosive growth, from almost nothing in 1860 to a city of 5,500 in 1880, becoming the fourth-largest city in the state. Iron Gate was intended to be the gateway for transporting iron ore to markets in the Midwest and the east coast. This was accomplished by the 1863 completion of the James River and Kanawha canal [7] and an accompanying railroad, which brought in business and hundreds of settlers.
Initially just a railroad junction and depot, Iron Gate quickly grew with the construction of a series of furnaces that smelted the iron. The Jordan Company sold the pig iron to steel companies in Richmond. In 1876, Tredegar purchased a majority stake in the Jordan Company, giving them a steady supply of cheap pig iron. Other pig iron companies also established furnaces in Iron Gate and sold iron to steel companies across the eastern seaboard. When iron ore deposits were discovered in Minnesota, many midwestern steel companies sourced their pig iron from the new deposits while the eastern seaboard stuck with the geographically closer Virginian iron. While eastern Virginia became a center of manufacturing, western Virginia had successfully established itself as a major source of the nation’s raw materials – conditions were ripe for the state to move from its southern roots to become a midwestern-aligned industrial hub.”
-From ALL AMERICAN MADE by Thurgood Nickle, published 2001
[1] More on this in the next chapter…
[2] Republicans urged Grant to do this OTL.
[3] Grant gave a similar order OTL, which allowed Cox to impose his will on the Interior Department.
[4] TTL, Mexico has a little less cash than OTL, because the sum total of the US purchases of Texas and California is $16 million, less than what Mexico got from Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase. As a result, the country’s finances are a little worse.
[5] A bit of a jump backwards in time, but I really wanted to revisit what happens to Mexico. Also, the revolution happens two years earlier because Mexico is in worse financial straits.
[6] That gets rid of the attempted coup and keeps Comonfort in office longer and gives more time for democratic precedents to establish themselves.
[7] OTL, the canal was never extended to Iron Gate and the civil war delayed development until iron ore had been discovered in Minnesota.
30 days vacation as early as 1873?! 😲 wow. Absolutely based by Cox even if it’s for non-based reasons…
I mean, keeping federal employees from campaigning seems kinda based to me. If memory serves me, federal officials campaigning is prohibited by the Hatch Act.
That’s correct, the Hatch Act is pretty plain on that for most officials. Cabinet officers is more of a gray area
Then what's non-based about Cox instituting a version of the hatch act 60 years early?
Oh I just meant that it’s not out of a more benevolent impulse for general leave for laborers or anything like that