The Union Forever: A TL

[Mac Gregor]

The 1868 Presidential Election
​

An old wartime photograph of John Sedgwick
Republican from Connecticut
17th President of the United States​

Although Abraham Lincoln’s popularity waned somewhat during his last years of office, most historians still believe he could have won reelection for President a second time. However, Lincoln decided to honor Washington’s precedent and not run for a third term. The declining health of his wife Mary Todd Lincoln might also have contributed to Lincoln’s desire to retire from political life. ​

At the 1868 Republican National Convention former Major General and General in Chief of the Union Armies John Sedgwick was selected as the Republican’s presidential candidate. Sedgwick, the current Republican Governor of Connecticut, easily obtained his party’s nomination without any serious opposition. For Vice President the Grand Old Party nominated the former and first Republican Governor of Virginia Arthur Ingram Boreman, illustrating the headway that the Republican Party was making in the Upper South. ​

Arthur I. Boreman
Republican from Virginia
16th Vice President of the United States​

The Democrats re-nominated Horatio Seymour of New York to be their presidential nominee. For Vice President however, the popular governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson was selected as Seymour’s running mate. ​

The election results of 1868 closely mirrored those of 1864. The Republicans carried all of the northern states as well as the western states of California, Oregon, and Nevada. Seymour delivered much the same performance as he did four years earlier except that Kentucky narrowly went for the Republicans. It is also worth noting that although Virginia’s electoral votes went for Seymour, the Republican Party was able to capture a significant portion of the popular vote, including virtually all of the mountainous western part of the state. In the end, John Sedgwick was soundly elected the 17th President of the United States. ​

 

[Workable Goblin]

So Lincoln's memoirs are sort of TTL's equivalent to the Grant/Sherman memoirs of OTL? More focus on the political side of the war, I expect.

 

[Tom Veil]

One of Lincoln’s last acts while in office was his long awaited trip to the west coast. Lincoln arrived in San Francisco by way of the newly completed transcontinental railroad on a bitterly cold January morning in 1869, making Lincoln the first sitting President to see the Pacific Ocean.

I suppose it depends on your definition of "bitterly cold", but by my definition, it's highly unlikely. The lowest temperature that the National Weather Service has ever recorded in San Francisco is 27F.

 

[Mac Gregor]

I suppose it depends on your definition of "bitterly cold", but by my definition, it's highly unlikely. The lowest temperature that the National Weather Service has ever recorded in San Francisco is 27F.

True but San Francisco is known to be surprisingly cold to visitors. As shown by Mark Twain's quote of "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco"

 

[Workable Goblin]

True but San Francisco is known to be surprisingly cold to visitors. As shown by Mark Twain's quote of "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco"

Because it's a "wet cold". High levels of humidity magnify the effects of both cold and hot. San Francisco's are particularly wet, I'm given to understand.

 

[Tom Veil]

True but San Francisco is known to be surprisingly cold to visitors. As shown by Mark Twain's quote of "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco"

As that quote (which Twain never uttered) shows, it's the summers that are surprisingly cold in San Francisco, not the winters. The winters are tormentingly wet, but nothing that an Illinoisan would consider cold.

 

[DuQuense]

This War ended before the CSS Stonewall could be built.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Kōtetsu
?So where will Japan get it's first Ironclad Battleship?

 

[Mac Gregor]

This War ended before the CSS Stonewall could be built.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Kōtetsu
?So where will Japan get it's first Ironclad Battleship?

Good question. How long till they could build one themselves?

 

[Mac Gregor]

The Sedgwick Presidency (1869-1877)​

​

37 Star Flag adopted after Colorado joined the Union in 1874​

The presidency of John Sedgwick is remembered as a time of national healing, industrialization, and settling the western frontier. Sedgwick had a strong reputation for honesty, which often put him at odds with many of the career politicians of his day.

Foreign Policy


Annexation of Santo Domingo: In the fall of 1869, President Sedgwick squeezed through a treaty in the U.S. Senate by a one vote margin annexing the Dominican Republic in exchange for assuming the island nation’s debts. Sedgwick was a proponent of annexation because he believed that the Dominican Republic could serve as a new home for southern blacks wanting to leave the repressive conditions in the South. Although only a few thousand American blacks would eventually move to the Commonwealth of Santo Domingo (as the U.S. Territory was called), the island did provide the location for an important U.S. naval base at Samana Bay.

The War Scare of 1872: In what historians would call the War Scare of 1872, the Prussian led North German Confederation narrowly avoided a war with the French and Austro-Hungarian Empires over the allegiance of the south German states. The subsequent Conference of Munich, realigned the Kingdom of Bavaria and a few other small catholic south German states into an alliance with Austria-Hungary and France in an effective attempt to curtail Prussia’s increasing power. This humiliating setback for Prussia pushed them into an alliance singed in 1874 with imperial Russia to counter the growing power of the Bonapartes and Hapsburgs. In light of these events, President Sedgwick continued to stress American neutrality in European affairs.

Napoleon IV comes to Power: Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, died on March 5th, 1875 due to surgical complications over bladder stones. His son Louis Napoleon was crowned Napoleon IV in a lavish ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral on his 19th birthday on March 19, 1875. Napoleon IV continued France’s industrialization and in a few years time started a massive build up of the Imperial French Navy.

Napoleon IV
Emperor of the French
1875

The 1872 Presidential Election


Andrew Johnson
Democratic from Tennessee
1872 Presidential Candidate

In 1872, the Republicans maintained control on the Whitehouse with the decisive reelection of President John Sedgwick and Vice President Arthur I. Boreman. Although almost all of the southern states went for the Democratic candidates, Tennessee Governor Andrew Johnson and his running mate former Maj. General Winfield S. Hancock of Pennsylvania, the election results showed that the Republican Party was starting to make serious inroads with southern working class voters, especially in the Upper South.

Domestic Policy


Colorado: The United States continued to settle its western territories during Sedgwick’s time in office with Colorado entering the Union on November 2th, 1874.

American Centennial: July 4, 1876 marked the centennial of American independence. From one end of the country to the other, the nation was united in massive parades, demonstrations, and displays of fireworks. The centennial celebrations were also noteworthy in that for many parts of the Deep South it was the first time that Independence Day had been celebrated since before the Civil War.

American Centennial Celebrations in Philadelphia
July 4, 1876

Reconciliation: With Reconciliation largely over, race relations in the southern states settled into a pattern that would last for decades. So called “black codes” kept southern blacks from voting or holding office in most parts of the South during this period. Coupled with this atmosphere of strict segregation, lynchings and other overt acts of violence towards blacks continue to happen, especially in the Deep South. Leaders of the African American community during this time concentrated their efforts on economic and educational advancement, establishing several universities for black students.

 

[Workable Goblin]

Assuming the Bonapartes hold on (which seems likely ITTL), hopefully they will start naming their heirs something *other* than Napoleon in the future...just a thought...

 

[SilverSwimmer]

Hm interesting, I foresee I very different Great Migration in the future...

 

[Van555]

A bigger (Possible) Germany and a Larger U.S. on top of a shorter civil war!

I am most pleased except for smaller Germany.... France!

 

[Mac Gregor]

Hm interesting, I foresee I very different Great Migration in the future...

A different Great Migration, how so?

 

[SilverSwimmer]

A different Great Migration, how so?

Mm that instead of many blacks going north like OTL, many will instead head to Santo Domingo. Grant wanted to do this in OTL so freedmen could go there. TTL may not have the same troubles with Civil Rights as ours because of the way more mild Reconstruction, but a majority black territory in the Caribbean will strike a fancy with more than a couple of freed blacks. A movement to move freed blacks to the territory will also appeal to some of the more "moderate abolitionists."

I also understand the Great Migration in reference to the 1870's is a bit anarchronistic as the Great Migration OTL was from 1910-1940, however all of you know what I mean

 

[jlckansas]

How are relations between the Native Americans and the US at this time frame. By 1876 we had Custer get his at Little Big Horn. What form is it going to take, will it be more bloody or peaceful?

 

[Tom Veil]

How are relations between the Native Americans and the US at this time frame. By 1876 we had Custer get his at Little Big Horn. What form is it going to take, will it be more bloody or peaceful?

There's still hope for the Native Americans in Oklahoma. Their land is exempt from Homesteading, and it's within the realm of the possible to talk about Indian Territory becoming an Indian-run state some day. Outside of Oklahoma, it's pretty much a lost cause. The best that a tribe can hope for is to escape with some reservation land that's not completely useless.

 

[Mac Gregor]

How are relations between the Native Americans and the US at this time frame. By 1876 we had Custer get his at Little Big Horn. What form is it going to take, will it be more bloody or peaceful?

Good question, my next update will include so information about the Indians' status in this TL.

A question to the board: Just out of curiosity, how likely is an Indian run state of Oklahoma?

 

[mrmandias]

Mm that instead of many blacks going north like OTL, many will instead head to Santo Domingo.

Blacks didn't really go North for the racial equality and civil rights, they went for the jobs.

 

[Shadow Knight]

A question to the board: Just out of curiosity, how likely is an Indian run state of Oklahoma?

If you took Greer county and gave it to Texas...maybe then you could see Oklahoma remain a territory that turns into Native American majority state. Before oil is found there though, after oil probably not.

 

[Mac Gregor]

President Boreman
and the
War with Spain​

Arthur I. Boreman
Republican from Virginia
18th President of the United States​

The 1876 Presidential Elections

As the Sedgwick years drew to a close it was his Vice President Arthur I. Boreman of Virginia that quickly emerged as the Republican frontrunner. Although there were a few men in the North concerned about a Virginian president so soon after the Civil War, Boreman was able to easily secure his party’s nomination. For the Republican's 1876 Vice Presidential candidate Congressman James Blaine from Maine was selected to balance the southern Boreman.

When the results were tallied, Boreman beat Democratic candidate former Maj. General Hancock of Pennsylvania and his running mate Senator William Allen of Ohio by a respectable margin. Significantly, Virginia had narrowly gone for the Republicans, making it the first former Confederate state to vote for a Republican candidate for President.

Cuba and Spain


Boreman’s presidency was plunged into crisis almost as soon as he was inaugurated. By the time Boreman took office in early 1877, Cuban rebels had been fighting with their Spanish overlords for nine years in what seemed to be an increasingly futile attempt to through off the yoke of Old World oppression. The War for Cuban Independence had begun when a Cuban lawyer and plantation owner named Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, fed up with the Spaniards economic rape of his island, freed his slaves and declared Cuba’s independence. Since then the Cuban insurrectos waged a guerrilla war against loyalist and Spanish forces, a war that in recent years went poorly for the rebels.

The Republican controlled government of the United States favored a Cuba free from Spanish rule for two main reasons. Firstly, the captive island nation still had the institution of slavery. Secondly, ever since the near war with France in 1865 European forces located so close to the United States were deemed to be a serious threat to the country’s security. In order to support the Cuban freedom fighters the federal government had been funneling guns and supplies to the rebels ever since the late 1860’s, a fact that infuriated the Spanish government. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Spain in recent years went through a period of drastic political instability with republican, Bourbon, and Carlist forces threatening the military junta that ruled Spain ever since the forced abdication of Queen Regnant Isabella II in 1875.

Declaration of War

USS Ossippee, 1877

The incident that sparked the conflict occurred off the coast of Maisi, Cuba a city located on the far eastern tip of the island. What actually occurred on that foggy night of May 16, 1877 is still hotly debated amongst historians to this day. The United States claimed that the Spanish frigate San Justo suddenly fired at the USS Ossipee, an American sloop on its way from New Orleans to Santo Domingo. The Spaniards claimed that the Ossipee was offloading supplies to Cuban rebels and that it fired first when it saw the approaching Spanish vessel. Regardless, after a fierce exchange of fire, the Ossippe was sunk and the San Justo seriously damaged. The Ossippe Incident caused outrage in both the United States and Spain. In the volatile weeks that followed, President Boreman demanded the release of the Ossippe survivors. Spain refused to release the sailors and instead demanded an apology and a stop to the U.S. supplying the insurrectos. Boreman retaliated by increasing aid to the rebels and strengthening American naval presence in the Caribbean.

In light of these developments, Spain declared war on the United States on September 12th, 1877 in order to divert public attention abroad and with the belief that the Spanish navy could handle the Americans. This declaration was soon reciprocated by one from Washington, officially starting the Spanish-American War.