Ok I've had this idea for a new TL floating around for a while. I've wrote this post just to see how the idea flies as well as see what input and opinions I can get. I hope yall enjoy and look forward to hearing yalls advice and input.
Prologue
1814-1815
The War against Britain had not gone well for the US. Every attempt by the American Army to conquer Canada had been driven back. The only war goals the US had achieved was gaining control of Lake Erie and the defeat of Tecumseh's Confederacy. Now with the defeat of Napoleon and has abdication ending the war in Europe not only were America's main reasons for going to war no longer an issue , but on the war front note it also freed up the Royal Navy and thousands of British troops to be sent to the fronts in America. By the summer of 1814 the war had turned against the US. With the European war finished Britain was able to marshal more resources to North America and had effectively blockaded the entire eastern coastline. Territory in the Maine District of Massachusetts was occupied in July, in August the White House and Capital were burned, and by September the British were advancing further in Maine and the Lake Champlain area of New York. A naval assault on Boston was expected in the near future. Free trade with the rest of the world had virtually ceased, thousands were thrown out of work, and by August banks were suspending specie payment. The federal government was approaching bankruptcy. On top of all this word had arrived from Ghent that the American envoy had never arrived pushing the start of peace talks back until late December.
In December 1814 the New England Federalist Party started meeting in Hartford, Connecticut to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing war and the political problems arising from the federal government's increasing power. Despite radical outcries among Federalists for New England secession and a separate peace with Great Britain, moderates outnumbered them and extreme proposals were not a major focus of the debate. The convention discussed removing the three-fifths compromise which gave slave states more power in Congress and requiring a two-thirds super majority in Congress for the admission of new states, declarations of war, and laws restricting trade. The Federalists also discussed their grievances with the Louisiana Purchase and the Embargo of 1807. The Hartford Convention continued into the new year with talks and discussions continuing until January when the convention representatives went to Washington to advocate their changes. Upon arriving the Federalists achieved another boost with news arriving of the bloody Battle of New Orleans where 8,000 British troops finally broke Major General Andrew Jackson's defenses and despite sustaining large casualties broke the American lines forcing their retreat and thus capturing New Orleans.
In February 1815 a Constitutional Convention was called. Though there was significant resistance to the Federalist proposals and not all of them went anywhere further defeats in the south at Baton Rouge, Savannah, and Charleston during the month of February as well as the British attack and subsequent burning of much of Boston which left hundreds dead and wounded and many more homeless gave them enough traction to have some successes. The War of 1812 would finally come to an end on April 11,1815. It came to an end due to the fact that Napoleon had returned from exile and war had suddenly erupted again and, though he would eventually be defeated again in late September, troops that had been sent to North America during the peace were now needed back home. It was this and only this that saved the US from losing territory to Britain.
The near disaster that the late war had became gave the Federalist's enough traction to get one of its proposals passed and on May 5,1815 the Thee-Fifths Compromise was was revoked drastically reducing the power and influence of the southern slave states, especially Virginia. This, coupled with the failed war, allowed the Virginia Dynasty to come to an end in the Presidential Election of 1816 when Federalist Rufus King defeated James Monroe.
1820's
As the US began expanding westward past the Mississippi River the question of slavery began to rear its head again and the question would heat up in 1820 in the Missouri Question. There had been talks of outlawing all slavery west of the Mississippi, aside from Louisiana, but that had only really been talks as no attempts had been made to stop slave holding settlers from moving into the Arkansas Territory and Missouri Territory. That changed when the opportunity for Missouri to become a state arose. There was a significant call for Missouri to be admitted as a slave state to more even out the number of free and slave states. Calls for ending the expansion of slave holding states was growing and gaining more and more strength. The debate on what to do would go on with the southern states adamant about making Missouri a slave state however, with the Three-Fifths Compromise no longer valid the south didn't have enough strength in the house to stand without support from some northern representatives. Despite their calls for another slave state in August 1821 Missouri was admitted to the Union as a free state bringing the number of Free States to 14, with the admission of Maine a year earlier, and Slave States to only 11. Washington would compromise some however and to help appease the Southerners and declared that all existing and future territory acquired south of the 36-30 parallel would be slave territory and future slave states. This was viewed as little more than a consolation prize however by the Southerners and the drift between the North and the South grew even more so.
1830's
Southerners were doing all they could to expand American control south of the 36-30 line. They tried to get Washington to purchase Spanish territories in the Caribbean or some of the Mexican frontier. When that didn't work some calls were made for military action but that didn't garner much support either. Some privately funded filibuster expeditions were launched into Central America and Hispaniola and such. Unauthorized by the American government however all of these failed. The most successful attempt by the South to acquire new territory came in the form of Texas where American settlers, mostly from the south, had been migrating to since the 1820's. Though they had lived under Mexican control for years in October 1835 Texas immigrants revolted and by late April had won their independence as a new nation encompassing all former Mexican territory north of the Rio Grande. For annexation both from Texas, and the southern states began almost immediately. Texas was a slave holding nation however and annexing it would mean further expanding slavery, not to mention provoking war with Mexico who did not recognize Texas's independence. So there was no annexation and the South had to make due with only acquiring Arkansas as a new state.
1840's
By the 1840's tensions had grown strong between the North and South. While the US had finally recognized Texas's independence they were still no closer to annexing it. Instead most of the country's population was looking more northwards towards the Oregon Country. Here both British and American settlers had been moving into the area and both nations claimed full sovereignty over it. Though the dispute was small at first as more settlers moved in it grew larger. There were talks of solving the dispute by more or less evenly dividing the land between the two countries. Enough though though anything less than all of the disputed lands would be nothing but a slap in the face to the American people and a reminder of their defeat a generation earlier during the War of 1812. As the !840's decade began and tensions rose Washington increased the number of forts the US held in the territory. This in turn saw an increased British military presence. Though both sides had claims to the entire region both Britain and the US were fairly certain that they wouldn't receive all of it an most of their aims were towards the Colombia river area. The first clashes between American and British settlers and military personnel began in 1844 and became a pinnacle issue of the coming US presidential elections.
Though support for expansion in Oregon had strong support in the north in the south it was almost universally opposed. For one Britain purchased much of the south's cotton and any war would hurt the southern economy dramatically and even more importantly to them was this would only strengthen Free-soil power. Despite their best efforts to the stop it Democratic candidate Martin van Buren who was against Texas annexation and any expansion of slavery was elected to the office of the presidency. Van Buren didn't want a war with Britain either but was more willing to expand there than elsewhere and as tensions and the number of clashes of which some were deadly grew, van Buren agreed to an increased military presence in Oregon to protect American interests in the region. By the Fall of 1845 the US had around 7,500 soldiers scattered across the region and Britain had around 4,500. As the Spring of 1846 arrived President van Buren was doing all he could to keep America out of war.
While the US and Britain were the biggest contenders here there was a third party that neither side really considered and that was the native Indians of the region. The different tribes in the region didn't want either nation in their land, however knowing that the settlers were here to stay, they began choosing sides on who they thought would be the better neighbor. On April 5,1846 a band of 70 Natives attack a British patrol near Fort Nez Perces killing 18. The Natives didn't get off unscathed however with nine being killed and upon further investigation it was discovered that they were equipped with American arms. This no more meant that the Natives were sent by the Americans than a native with a British made rifle meant that he was a British ally. However Fort Nez Perces garrison commander Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Folley didn't see it that way and with over 100 British troops and British militia began moving towards the American Fort Okanogan. On April 12,1846 the British force ambushed 35 American troops killing or capturing all of them before then turning their sights on the fort itself. Though the British force wasn't large enough to take the fort the Battle of Fort Okanogan saw a total of 79 dead and 57 wounded making it the largest and most deadly clash by far.
Word of both engagements spread quickly to Canada and the US causing outrage. Calls for war rapidly grew as both sides saw the other as the aggressor. In the US however the southern states weren't as loud in their calls for war and called for peace to be maintained. Despite their calls the crisis grew more and more. In Maine a militia band took it upon themselves to get justice for the American dead in Oregon and attack the town of Saint Andrews in Canada killing 15 and burning the town. The militia however was quickly destroyed as a Canadian border cavalry unit caught up with them at Baileyville killing 45 and likewise burning the American town. Troops were moving towards their nations respective borders and militias were being called up in the US, mostly. In the US the southern states finally had enough and refused to mobilize their militias and declared that they wouldn't participate in any conflict. President van Buren tried to appease the southern states and tried to get them to stand behind the rest of the nation. The Southern senators informed Washington that they would stand behind Britain and fight if need be only if they agreed to the annexation of Texas as a slave state and renegotiating the 36-30 boundary line. This however, was something van Buren just wouldn't do and said Texas would never become part of the Union.
Unbeknownst to the American units in Oregon of the North-South Crisis, war had basically begun with British and American units firing on one another anytime one got too close to the other. With tensions at a boiling point both sides sought to gain the control of the Colombia River before the other as they saw war imminent and moved towards Astoria. Colonel John C. Fremont moved with 650 men and 3 cannon for the Americans while Lieutenant Colonel Folley moved for Britain with 500 men and 4 cannon. British forces would arrive first with Fremont nearing Astoria a day later on June 9,1846 under the white flag Fremont met with Folley and informed him that Astoria was American territory and not to be occupied by Britain in which Folley replied that there still were no official boundaries in Oregon and Britain would move where it pleased. A standoff occurred for 12 hours between the two forces when sometime in the early morning light a shot rang out and soon after all hell broke loose. The Battle of Astoria was the first major battle fought between Britain and the US in 31 years and for three hours would rage before the well entrenched British force forced the Americans to withdraw. 109 men were killed and 211 were wounded during the fight and it seemed that there was no turning back now.
Word hit Washington about as fast as it hit Toronto and on July 7,1846 President van Buren asked Congress for a declaration of war and got out receiving only 6 votes from the southern states. A week later Washington received a declaration by Britain. For the third time in a century the US and Britain were at war but it seemed only half was willing to fight it. All slave holding states except Maryland and Delaware held true to their word and refused to allow their militia's to be called into Federal service nor allowed their states to be used to conduct war against Britain. As the first shots rang out across the US-Canadian border a standoff was occurring between the north and south. Van Buren had so far not used US regular troops stationed in the south nor moved troops into the south so not to escalate the situation. On August 3 however he finally ordered the warships at Charleston to leave port. As the USS United States set sail a battery of South Carolina cannon opened fire on them resulting in a firefight between the ship and battery with the ship eventually making it to sea though heavily damaged. That was the last straw by both sides an within a week South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee declared their secession. On August 22 after President van Buren ordered in troops to the rebellious states to restore order Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina would secede as well.
Prologue
1814-1815
The War against Britain had not gone well for the US. Every attempt by the American Army to conquer Canada had been driven back. The only war goals the US had achieved was gaining control of Lake Erie and the defeat of Tecumseh's Confederacy. Now with the defeat of Napoleon and has abdication ending the war in Europe not only were America's main reasons for going to war no longer an issue , but on the war front note it also freed up the Royal Navy and thousands of British troops to be sent to the fronts in America. By the summer of 1814 the war had turned against the US. With the European war finished Britain was able to marshal more resources to North America and had effectively blockaded the entire eastern coastline. Territory in the Maine District of Massachusetts was occupied in July, in August the White House and Capital were burned, and by September the British were advancing further in Maine and the Lake Champlain area of New York. A naval assault on Boston was expected in the near future. Free trade with the rest of the world had virtually ceased, thousands were thrown out of work, and by August banks were suspending specie payment. The federal government was approaching bankruptcy. On top of all this word had arrived from Ghent that the American envoy had never arrived pushing the start of peace talks back until late December.
In December 1814 the New England Federalist Party started meeting in Hartford, Connecticut to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing war and the political problems arising from the federal government's increasing power. Despite radical outcries among Federalists for New England secession and a separate peace with Great Britain, moderates outnumbered them and extreme proposals were not a major focus of the debate. The convention discussed removing the three-fifths compromise which gave slave states more power in Congress and requiring a two-thirds super majority in Congress for the admission of new states, declarations of war, and laws restricting trade. The Federalists also discussed their grievances with the Louisiana Purchase and the Embargo of 1807. The Hartford Convention continued into the new year with talks and discussions continuing until January when the convention representatives went to Washington to advocate their changes. Upon arriving the Federalists achieved another boost with news arriving of the bloody Battle of New Orleans where 8,000 British troops finally broke Major General Andrew Jackson's defenses and despite sustaining large casualties broke the American lines forcing their retreat and thus capturing New Orleans.
In February 1815 a Constitutional Convention was called. Though there was significant resistance to the Federalist proposals and not all of them went anywhere further defeats in the south at Baton Rouge, Savannah, and Charleston during the month of February as well as the British attack and subsequent burning of much of Boston which left hundreds dead and wounded and many more homeless gave them enough traction to have some successes. The War of 1812 would finally come to an end on April 11,1815. It came to an end due to the fact that Napoleon had returned from exile and war had suddenly erupted again and, though he would eventually be defeated again in late September, troops that had been sent to North America during the peace were now needed back home. It was this and only this that saved the US from losing territory to Britain.
The near disaster that the late war had became gave the Federalist's enough traction to get one of its proposals passed and on May 5,1815 the Thee-Fifths Compromise was was revoked drastically reducing the power and influence of the southern slave states, especially Virginia. This, coupled with the failed war, allowed the Virginia Dynasty to come to an end in the Presidential Election of 1816 when Federalist Rufus King defeated James Monroe.
1820's
As the US began expanding westward past the Mississippi River the question of slavery began to rear its head again and the question would heat up in 1820 in the Missouri Question. There had been talks of outlawing all slavery west of the Mississippi, aside from Louisiana, but that had only really been talks as no attempts had been made to stop slave holding settlers from moving into the Arkansas Territory and Missouri Territory. That changed when the opportunity for Missouri to become a state arose. There was a significant call for Missouri to be admitted as a slave state to more even out the number of free and slave states. Calls for ending the expansion of slave holding states was growing and gaining more and more strength. The debate on what to do would go on with the southern states adamant about making Missouri a slave state however, with the Three-Fifths Compromise no longer valid the south didn't have enough strength in the house to stand without support from some northern representatives. Despite their calls for another slave state in August 1821 Missouri was admitted to the Union as a free state bringing the number of Free States to 14, with the admission of Maine a year earlier, and Slave States to only 11. Washington would compromise some however and to help appease the Southerners and declared that all existing and future territory acquired south of the 36-30 parallel would be slave territory and future slave states. This was viewed as little more than a consolation prize however by the Southerners and the drift between the North and the South grew even more so.
1830's
Southerners were doing all they could to expand American control south of the 36-30 line. They tried to get Washington to purchase Spanish territories in the Caribbean or some of the Mexican frontier. When that didn't work some calls were made for military action but that didn't garner much support either. Some privately funded filibuster expeditions were launched into Central America and Hispaniola and such. Unauthorized by the American government however all of these failed. The most successful attempt by the South to acquire new territory came in the form of Texas where American settlers, mostly from the south, had been migrating to since the 1820's. Though they had lived under Mexican control for years in October 1835 Texas immigrants revolted and by late April had won their independence as a new nation encompassing all former Mexican territory north of the Rio Grande. For annexation both from Texas, and the southern states began almost immediately. Texas was a slave holding nation however and annexing it would mean further expanding slavery, not to mention provoking war with Mexico who did not recognize Texas's independence. So there was no annexation and the South had to make due with only acquiring Arkansas as a new state.
1840's
By the 1840's tensions had grown strong between the North and South. While the US had finally recognized Texas's independence they were still no closer to annexing it. Instead most of the country's population was looking more northwards towards the Oregon Country. Here both British and American settlers had been moving into the area and both nations claimed full sovereignty over it. Though the dispute was small at first as more settlers moved in it grew larger. There were talks of solving the dispute by more or less evenly dividing the land between the two countries. Enough though though anything less than all of the disputed lands would be nothing but a slap in the face to the American people and a reminder of their defeat a generation earlier during the War of 1812. As the !840's decade began and tensions rose Washington increased the number of forts the US held in the territory. This in turn saw an increased British military presence. Though both sides had claims to the entire region both Britain and the US were fairly certain that they wouldn't receive all of it an most of their aims were towards the Colombia river area. The first clashes between American and British settlers and military personnel began in 1844 and became a pinnacle issue of the coming US presidential elections.
Though support for expansion in Oregon had strong support in the north in the south it was almost universally opposed. For one Britain purchased much of the south's cotton and any war would hurt the southern economy dramatically and even more importantly to them was this would only strengthen Free-soil power. Despite their best efforts to the stop it Democratic candidate Martin van Buren who was against Texas annexation and any expansion of slavery was elected to the office of the presidency. Van Buren didn't want a war with Britain either but was more willing to expand there than elsewhere and as tensions and the number of clashes of which some were deadly grew, van Buren agreed to an increased military presence in Oregon to protect American interests in the region. By the Fall of 1845 the US had around 7,500 soldiers scattered across the region and Britain had around 4,500. As the Spring of 1846 arrived President van Buren was doing all he could to keep America out of war.
While the US and Britain were the biggest contenders here there was a third party that neither side really considered and that was the native Indians of the region. The different tribes in the region didn't want either nation in their land, however knowing that the settlers were here to stay, they began choosing sides on who they thought would be the better neighbor. On April 5,1846 a band of 70 Natives attack a British patrol near Fort Nez Perces killing 18. The Natives didn't get off unscathed however with nine being killed and upon further investigation it was discovered that they were equipped with American arms. This no more meant that the Natives were sent by the Americans than a native with a British made rifle meant that he was a British ally. However Fort Nez Perces garrison commander Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Folley didn't see it that way and with over 100 British troops and British militia began moving towards the American Fort Okanogan. On April 12,1846 the British force ambushed 35 American troops killing or capturing all of them before then turning their sights on the fort itself. Though the British force wasn't large enough to take the fort the Battle of Fort Okanogan saw a total of 79 dead and 57 wounded making it the largest and most deadly clash by far.
Word of both engagements spread quickly to Canada and the US causing outrage. Calls for war rapidly grew as both sides saw the other as the aggressor. In the US however the southern states weren't as loud in their calls for war and called for peace to be maintained. Despite their calls the crisis grew more and more. In Maine a militia band took it upon themselves to get justice for the American dead in Oregon and attack the town of Saint Andrews in Canada killing 15 and burning the town. The militia however was quickly destroyed as a Canadian border cavalry unit caught up with them at Baileyville killing 45 and likewise burning the American town. Troops were moving towards their nations respective borders and militias were being called up in the US, mostly. In the US the southern states finally had enough and refused to mobilize their militias and declared that they wouldn't participate in any conflict. President van Buren tried to appease the southern states and tried to get them to stand behind the rest of the nation. The Southern senators informed Washington that they would stand behind Britain and fight if need be only if they agreed to the annexation of Texas as a slave state and renegotiating the 36-30 boundary line. This however, was something van Buren just wouldn't do and said Texas would never become part of the Union.
Unbeknownst to the American units in Oregon of the North-South Crisis, war had basically begun with British and American units firing on one another anytime one got too close to the other. With tensions at a boiling point both sides sought to gain the control of the Colombia River before the other as they saw war imminent and moved towards Astoria. Colonel John C. Fremont moved with 650 men and 3 cannon for the Americans while Lieutenant Colonel Folley moved for Britain with 500 men and 4 cannon. British forces would arrive first with Fremont nearing Astoria a day later on June 9,1846 under the white flag Fremont met with Folley and informed him that Astoria was American territory and not to be occupied by Britain in which Folley replied that there still were no official boundaries in Oregon and Britain would move where it pleased. A standoff occurred for 12 hours between the two forces when sometime in the early morning light a shot rang out and soon after all hell broke loose. The Battle of Astoria was the first major battle fought between Britain and the US in 31 years and for three hours would rage before the well entrenched British force forced the Americans to withdraw. 109 men were killed and 211 were wounded during the fight and it seemed that there was no turning back now.
Word hit Washington about as fast as it hit Toronto and on July 7,1846 President van Buren asked Congress for a declaration of war and got out receiving only 6 votes from the southern states. A week later Washington received a declaration by Britain. For the third time in a century the US and Britain were at war but it seemed only half was willing to fight it. All slave holding states except Maryland and Delaware held true to their word and refused to allow their militia's to be called into Federal service nor allowed their states to be used to conduct war against Britain. As the first shots rang out across the US-Canadian border a standoff was occurring between the north and south. Van Buren had so far not used US regular troops stationed in the south nor moved troops into the south so not to escalate the situation. On August 3 however he finally ordered the warships at Charleston to leave port. As the USS United States set sail a battery of South Carolina cannon opened fire on them resulting in a firefight between the ship and battery with the ship eventually making it to sea though heavily damaged. That was the last straw by both sides an within a week South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee declared their secession. On August 22 after President van Buren ordered in troops to the rebellious states to restore order Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina would secede as well.
