Chapter 5: Run for your Children
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Part I: The Third American Revolution
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Tecumseh’s Raid
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By 1807 Aaron Burr had virtually cemented his control over the Congress of Confederation as well as bankers and other wealthy land owners and was preparing to hold crooked elections which would undoubtedly cement his hold on the Confederacy. For General Jackson what has happening was an abomination and prevention of the revolution that he and so many others had fought for. Burr and a hand full of elitists would dominate the country like an oligarchy. Short of a military coup, which Jackson was not entirely sure he had enough popular support to accomplish the task, there seemed to be no way to stop Burr’s consolidation of power; then disaster struck for Burr.
In March, Indian raiders, from British Ohio, began attacking a number of instillations in Kentucky and Virginia, even driving as far south as Tennessee. In one incident forty-three Americans were massacred by the raiders. For Burr it was a debacle. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he had signed a treaty with Britain that should have ceased the incursions by the Indians, but instead of ceasing they continued and had escalated since the end of the Great French War. Burr’s failure fermented discontent and aloud political rivals amongst the Democrats to attack him and his policies cutting at his power and shaking his power base. Burr was powerless to stop the attacks even after trying to get the New Englanders and the British to do something about the issue. The common man was outraged over the inaction, the war hawks who had begun to fall into obscurity were returning into the fray, calling for troops to be sent into British Ohio and crush the Indian raiders. It is at this point that General Jackson, now stationed with his troops in Tennessee, formulated a plan. Jackson disobeyed orders directing him and his troops to maintain their positions in Tennessee and instead his troops, along with the Tennessee militia marched through Kentucky and into British Ohio. While in Ohio, Jackson engaged the leader of the raiders as close to the Kentucky border as he could. Jackson baited Tecumseh’s forces luring them out with a smaller force, which he lead, and then having the rest of his troops come at the Indians from the other three sides, essentially boxing in the Indians and massacring them. Later dramatic portrayals would show Jackson personally killing Tecumseh, but the Shawnee Chief was in fact struck dead by a musket ball fired not by an American, but in the confusion by another Shawnee. Jackson took Tecumseh’s body as well as the bodies of several other Shawnee with him on the next stage of his journey, dragging the bodies of the others for a half a mile into Kentucky. Jackson and his troop, both regular and militia, set off for Annapolis.
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Abolition of the First Republic
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Upon learning of the raid and of Jackson’s intentions of marching on the capital Burr attempted to send troops to apprehend the rouge general, but most officers simply refused to take action against Jackson. Jackson’s trek across the nation took him just under two months to complete, his original group having been enlarged by militia troops who wished to serve under the ‘Rogue General’. Burr had lost all control of the military, most military men no longer regarding his government as legitimate. Before Jackson even arrived in the city the civilian population and the local military contingent stormed the capital building and arrested the majority of the Congress of Confederation; the Third American Revolution had begun. Across the CAS Burrists were apprehended by the military, if they were lucky, and placed on trial for their crimes against the Republic. Upon Jackson’s arrival Burr was placed on trial for high crimes against the Republic. In an ironic twist it was at this time that General Jackson abolished the Congress of Confederation and with it the First Republic. Burr’s trial was short and swift, he was proclaimed guilty of four counts of treason, six counts of murder, thirty-seven counts of financial manipulation, and twenty-five counts of bribery. He was sentenced to death. Before his head was severed from his body by a guillotine, Burr was allowed to make a final speech before his death. In it he detailed that he was not the traitor to the principals of the Republic that it was in fact Jackson and those who ‘blindly’ followed him.
The Third Revolution drew the attention of the British government, not just because Tecumseh was killed on British land, which they could not actually prove, but because the violence of the situation threatened to spill over into British North America. For the French Emperor the situation in the west looked ideal for him to regain his lost American ally. The British were only too aware of Jackson’s hatred for them, but were quite unsure whether he would act on his hatred and invade. Jackson, though he despised the British, knew better than to start a war with them now that they held absolute dominance over the waves. Instead of looking for a fight he simply looked for political recognition. Elements amongst the Tories were outraged about the entire episode and wanted war over the alleged incursion onto British soil, but Pit and the British government did no such thing, choosing to recognize Jackson’s new state and his leadership over it. The Third Revolution was over; Jackson was now the supreme dictator of the CAS. With his power now cemented Jackson looked to reform the CAS and reshape it so that it would be a republic of the common man one day.
General Andrew Jackson, Roger B. Taney, Henry Lee III, Duncan McArthur, James Madison, William Henry Harrison, Henry Dearborn, Alexander J. Dallas, and James McHenry would become the most well known of the Founding Fathers of the Second Republic, the Federal Republic of America. The new Federal Republic would consist of two branches the Executive-Judicial and the Legislative. The Legislature would itself be divided into two branches; the Senate in which every state would be represented equally with three state representatives, and the House of Representatives which would represent the states based on populous, the greater the populous the greater the seats in the House it will have. Military officers could hold seats in either branch of the Legislature as long as they were lawfully elected like any other figure member. The Executive-Judicial Branch would be headed by the President-Director who would be elected by the Senate to the position which he would maintain until he either stepped down or passed away. It was against the Constitution for a son, brother, or cousin of the previous President-Director to be elected to the position.
On December 3rd 1809 the Federal Republic of America held its first Congressional elections. The next January General Andrew Jackson was elected President-Director by the Senate, a position he would hold until 1845.
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OCC: Comments? Questions?
