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The Red The Gray and The Blue
The Trials and Tribulations of the Former American Republics

ACT 1 - The Western Social Republic

Victor Chaney (Independent)
(1912-1913)

“The War Hero”

Victor Chaney was born in 1876 in San Francisco to Flora Wellman, a Music Teacher and William Chaney, an astronomer. Chaney had an intimate childhood, but later left home to join the navy, against his parents' wishes, serving with honor in the Niho-American War. After the war, he accepted a job at the San Francisco Gazette. While at the Gazette, he gained props as an investigative journalist, especially in his uncovering a lot of corruption in the state of Sacramento's handling of the 1897 Earthquake. In the 1898 Election, he was elected Mayor of Oakland as a member of the Syndicalist Party, among a wave of growing Syndicalism in the United States. At the end of his first term as mayor, he was elected as the Governor of Sacramento, on a Syndicalist-Populist Fusion ticket and defeated incumbent George Pardee.

Then the Election of 1908 of the Lloyd/Riel Progressive/Populist/Syndicalist Party ticket; and the subsequent coup and murder of said ticket at the hands of the junta led by James Pershing tossed everything upside-down. Chaney, along with the Governors of the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Rio Grande, Comanche, Cherokee, Colorado, Sonora, California, Nivada, Oregon, Blackfoot, Vancouver, and Columbia gathered in San Francisco. Chaney there made a rousing speech about the illegitimacy of the Washington regime, and urged the Governors to fight against the junta, and to secede their states from the militarists. As the Pershing regime was too busy consolidating its shaky hold on the country, these states, as well as the states of the former Southron Republic voted to secede from the illegal regime.


the battle lines in 1908

To distract the commoners with a swift victory, Pershing invaded the anti-Pershing Canadian Republics. The Second American Civil War, as it was later dubbed saw all-out fighting between the so-called “Alliance of Freedom” led by Victor Chaney, and the Second American Republic of James Pershing. The Alliance of Freedom was composed of Chaney's American government, Freedom-aligned Partisans in the Second American Republic, Canadian Freedom Fighters, and the Second Southron Republic.

The War finally ended in 1912, following the assasination of Pershing by Partisans, and the new government immediately signed a peace treaty, the Treaty of Havana. The Treaty stipulated the restoration of independence of the Republic of Upper Canada and the Republic of Quebec, the Second Southron Republic, and the new Western Republic.


The Former United States in 1912

The face of the country was forever changed, most noticalby by the collapse of central authority in Washington, with the various regional Cliques based in St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Boston nullifying the central government following the Revolutionary Committee refusing to hold democratic elections. The Constitutional Convention of the Western Republic of 1912 was a hectic affair, the delegates wanted to ensure the Constitution was written well; but they also wanted to have the government up and running as soon as possible. It was decided that the Western Republic would be nearly identical to the United States at the Judicial and State level. It was the other two branches where the drastic changes were made; following the ambiguity of the close election of 1906 Election, the Electoral College was abolished. The Legislative Branch was remolded to follow a more Westminster-esque governance with the Speaker of the Assembly being the leader of the largest party in the Assembly and sharing powers with the President. The Senate was abolished, and the Vice Presidency was not included in the Constitution, with the tie-breaking vote going to the President, in lieu of the Veto.

Moderate Socialist and Progressive reforms were included in the new government, Government took control of the utilities and the banks; and taxes on the upper bracket were increased. However, stability had only just been restored to the Western Economy, politics, and most of the nation began the long process of rebuilding when disaster happened. Victor Chaney was struck down suddenly and without warning with a stroke at the age of 56 under suspicious circumstances, leaving a vacuum of power in the young Republic. And then a figure from the nation's army, the hero of Denver, stepped up to restore order to the chaotic government, and provide hope in the time of troubles.
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