"The Emperor" Redux: The Empire of the Pacific

[Alpha_North]

11. The Two Workingmen

"We have traversed from mighty nations to this blessed land of riches, not to have our prestige sullied by some rice farmers!" - Denis Kearney when giving his famous 'extinction' speech to his fellow party members

Drawing of fugitive Denis Kearney on a newspaper

Photo of Sun Mei, 1886
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President Tilden had much on his plate when he became President. With the end of Reconstruction, African-Americans faced the return of institutionalized discrimination. With the fall of Reconstruction, Texan African-Americans immigrated to New Mexico, which was rising in jobs as factories were being built. However, many white workers, even with the reforms made by the Emperor, were still disgruntled with the immigration of Asians and now African-Americans. Led by an Irish California War veteran Denis Kearney, the Workingmen's Party fought to end the immigration of those from Asian nations. However, they would struggle to openly dissent. The Empire of California clamped down on rebellion, with the Emperor making the claim that it was to "ensure the Empire remain united". Kearney's party evolved into more like a cabal, forming "The Western Hope", a secret newspaper spouting anti-Asian immigration views, and dropping pamphlets around San Francisco during the cover of night. The Workingmen's Party would soon be revealed to the public eye when the secretary of the party, H.L Knight, led a band to attempt a lynching of the famous Chinese Californian War veteran from Hawaii, Sun Mei. However, it was said that after Knight and his boys walked on Sun Mei's property with revolvers and torches, Sun Mei came out with a rifle screaming like a demon, killing three of them, including H.L Knight, with the rest of them fleeing for their lives. With this encounter, Sun Mei would become even more of a hero, even becoming an advocate for Chinese immigrants in the Empire of California.

"Why was I screaming? I'll give you the same answer I give to my brother when he asked me that. Because it was funny to see the white men scream louder." - Sun Mei's answer when asked that question by a San Francisco newspaper in 1880​

Denis Kearney and his Workingmen's Party were named criminals and were called to be arrested. Kearney with his close friend, J.G Day, fleed San Francisco, as the Imperial Police arrested party members. It was said that in a barn during the cover of night, Kearney gathered a group of his remaining party members and gave a speech, calling for the extinction of the Asian race, embracing a more extremist view upon Asians, seeing them as the root of all evil. The Workingmen's Party in one night evolved from a cabal into an outlaw band. It was said that Kearney had, at most, 500 members during the outlaw period of the Workingmen's Party. Their first attack would be a raid on the arsenal in Benicia during the night, using their numbers and wielding bottles, branches, bricks, and the few guns they had to seize all the weapons they could. The Workingmen's Party most iconic action would be when they infiltrated the San Francisco Chinatown and began firing upon the Chinese population. However, this would be where a large amount of power would go away. Around 100 would be arrested or killed in the attack and many sympathizers would soon distant themselves from Kearney and his gang.

Soldiers from Fort Gunn ambushing the Workingmen's Party​

With the terror from the Workingmen's Party, the Imperial Police were able to claim justification to arrest many anti-Chinese activists. Meanwhile, the Workingmen's Party, being constantly hunted down for in northern California, Kearney called for a journey to southern California to grow stronger and expand this influence. While the attack in Chinatown had many distances themselves, groups more open to this violence were convinced to join Kearney, leading to their largest numbers yet. Kearney, hoping to lead a mass uprising against Emperor Norton, would march his force to Fort Gunn, formerly New San Diego, being isolated for the other forts across the Empire. However, the soldiers at Fort Gunn were tipped off by Workingmen's member William J. Hunsaker, in hopes to gain protection. The soldiers at Fort Gunn would soon ambush the Workingmen's Party, killing Kearny in the first minutes of the fighting. Nobody in the Workingmen's Party, not even Hunsaker, would live. With the death of the Workingmen's Party by the end of 1877, the force of anti-Asian immigration would be destroyed, as the Emperor used this to further justify these arrests and even executions. The white working class was no longer organized and just were grateful for their higher status over the Chinese workers.

"Men who worked by the hammer. Men who worked by the rifle. These men are America's sons and must be seen and treated as such!" - Albert R. Parson talking to a crowd in Chicago during the 1877 Great Railroad & Veteran Strike​

Burning of a depot during the Great Railroad & Veteran Strike of 1877
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While the Workingmen's Party in the Empire of California was making a journey to southern California, amazingly, another party called the Workingmen's Party would make much trouble in the United States. With the end of the Californian War, the Long Depression was amplified for the United States. Businesses were recovering, but very slowly, and the wages of workers were being cut. The relationship between the worker and the boss had already been tense before the Californian War, with cheap labor coming from Europe, but the Californian War led to unrest. A smaller railroad strike would occur in 1875 just before the end of the war when a business just laid off nearly their entire workforce, but would quickly be put down by state militias. In 1877, however, the strikes came out with a vengeance. The railroad strike would begin on the first day of July in West Virginia when Baltimore & Ohio Railroad cut wages for the second time in 1877. The West Virginian Governor would call in state militias to break up this strike, but it was quite a surprise to Governor Henry M. Matthews when the state militias refused to stop the protesters and some of them would join up with the railroad workers, as a few of them were Californian War veterans that were still not compensated after the war. The strike spread like wildfire, reaching New York, Maryland, Illinois, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. Federal troops were soon called, however, that only made the situation worse.

"The North had fought for the destruction of slavery. Now, it fights for the reinstitution of it, with slave soldiers as well." - Charles J. Guiteau, former Brevet Colonel during the Californian War​

Slaughter of the Workingmen, 1877

Thomas Alexander Scott & William Walker Scranton, victims of the Bloodworker murders
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Charles J. Guiteau, a Captain of the Federal Troops and Brevet Colonel during Californian War, led a band of war veterans from the Federal Troops to join the protest in Chicago. However, he soon became the voice of the Illinois veterans, preparing disorganized, but vivacious speeches, calling for the just treatment of the veterans. While many veterans were more physically involved in these strikes, Guiteau was more conversing, giving speeches and talking to socialists from the Workingmen's Party. However, Guiteau called for the protesters to "ready for a fight or die by Gatling gun". The Federal troops that defected held rifles, so the police feared that actual firefights would occur and soon, insurrections across the cities. Tilden justified sending in more military-grade equipment to deal with the dangerous strikers. Violence would rise, especially in Pennsylvania. In Pittsburg, it was practically a street fight between the loyal Federal troops and the strikers. The protestors would even be able to take a Civil War-era cannon that the Federal troops were given, and taking their commanding Colonel, George R. Snowden as a hostage. Thomas Alexander Scott, a wealthy railroad executive of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was found violently killed in his home the week after he suggested that the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread". Another assassination would follow in Pennsylvania, as manager of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, William W. Scranton, would be kidnapped and found decapitated in a New York forest. The perpetrators of these murders would be called the Bloodworkers by Pennsylvania newspapers.

The violence in Pennsylvania would lead to the submission of many businesses in the area, and fearing a similar situation would happen in their state, businesses in the rioting states would concede to wage raises. While many socialists and workers saw this as an absolute win, the veterans were still left behind. Guiteau was livid, as the protests fizzled away and the veterans were left alone, with nothing. Federal troops soon forced these remaining protestors down, without any benefits. Feeling betrayed, Guiteau created a party called the Worker's Party in 1878, being a party influenced by the Workingmen's Party's socialism, but more focused on the rights of the soldier in addition to worker rights. Many Marxist Socialists left the Workingmen's Party for the Worker's Party, with Guiteau convincing many that revolution cannot happen with a mob on the socialist side and soldiers siding with the government. With the Workingmen's Party losing many of their members, it eventually dissolved in mid-1878, with the new Worker's Party taking on the mantle of the Workingmen's Party when the previous one formally dissolved. The Lassallean members scattered to many different, smaller socialist parties. The Marxists took on the role as the leaders of the party, while Guiteau was pushed to be simply as the party's founder. Although the party eventually had Guiteau removed from the Workingmen's Party for his changing views, stating that "the soldier was above the worker" and the old Workingmen's Party would be restored as the Lassalleans were welcomed back into the fold by the end of 1879, now with many new supporters in the workers across America.

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Just so you aren't confused if you didn't read carefully enough, this chapter is about the two Workingmen's Parties of California, now a separate nation, and the Workingmen's Party of the United States. I tried to change up my chapter style a bit. More images, more quotes, less but bulkier paragraphs, so I hope you enjoy it! Also, next chapter we'll be getting more on the ground about the Californian War, meaning journal entries, short narratives, etc. Get ready for that! Anyways, see you all later.