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Seriously, another one?

I don't do completion ok, its practically my thing at this point.

I thought your thing was writing unfunny intros?

Watch it, I had half a mind not to do one these opening duologues.

I wish you hadn't...

...

Why are you doing this anyway?

Well it started out as a joke, remmeber that "Just One Man" PM list with hundreds of words of footnotes I was gonna write for @BrotherSideways

Yeah

Well this started out as that, but I realised I actually wanted to write the TL...

Oh, so its anothert joke project?

No this should be serious, hopefully.

But wait where are we??? Pre-1900??

Yes. Don't worry its not about what would have happened if Catherine of Aragon married Genghis Khan.

And is that a... is that the Betsy Ross flag?

Yes, yes it is.

Is this because we listened to Hamilton while revising for the HAT yesterday?

Maybe.

Well... this actually might be alright - for you.

Thanks.

Go ahead, I'm waiting.

Ok.
 
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1789-1791: Thomas Jefferson/John Adams (Non-Partisan)
1791-1793: Thomas Jefferson/VACANT (Non-Partisan)
Whilst many had expected General George Washington, President of the Continental Congress, to run for the presidency he ultimately declined due to a stated desire to keep the military and the government separate from one another (most historians, having read Washington’s letters, agree that he wished to return to the tranquility of his Virginia Estate). Instead popular former Ambassador to France and Constitutional writer Thomas Jefferson stood, alongside his old friend John Adams, with minimal opposition, mainly from the anti-Federalist Samuel Adams. Winning the Presidency and every single electoral vote, Jefferson had a mandate to shape the early nation in his own image and readily did so.

Jefferson supported and promoted a small and generally weak federal government, kept in such a position by a tightly enforced system of checks and balances, as well as opposing the desperate pleas of New York Senator Alexander Hamilton for Jefferson to create a central bank. With massive war debts owed to the French monarchy (which the Francophile Jefferson was all too willing to pay back) and America cut off from its main trading partner (Britain) economic collapse seemed imminent, and a domestic crisis was set to accompany it.

All of this had created tension with his Vice President, but the final tipping point was Jefferson's support for the French Revolution just months after Adams had convinced Jefferson to sign a treaty with the French monarchy to ease its debt repayments, a treaty which was subsequently torn up by the King. Adams, on the lawn of the Presidential Manor in New York, outlined his opposition to Jefferson's policies, decried him as "a disgrace to this nation, an ideologue out of touch with the values and people, and a disaster as President" and reigned the office of the Vice President.The opposition to the President had been given a sense of legitimacy, which was only exacerbated by Senator Alexander Hamilton’s fiery attacks on the President in Congress and his subsequent election as President of the Senate.

Jefferson continued on alone in the White House, increasingly isolated from the political mainstream as he called for such things as the abolition of the federal army, and his supporters lost control of congress making his last twoyears as President more difficult than even the first two. Politically isolated within his own country and distrusted both by the French Monarchy for his betrayal and the British for his sympathies to France and to the revolution, Jefferson lost control of both Foreign and Domestic policy rapidly. When the next election came around Jefferson ran and was defeated in a landslide by a hero of the people...
 
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1793-1797: George Washington/Alexander Hamilton (Non-Partisan)
1797-1805: George Washington/Alexander Hamilton (National Federalist)
Seeing the utter failure of what he later described as the "Efette, philosophising, intellectuals who played politics while we fought the war" at running the country Washington returned to the national stage alongside his Aide-de-Camp Alexander Hamilton in order to save the nation. For Washington it would have an effect on how he perceived intellectuals for the rest of his life. Receiving the support of almost every signatory to the constitution (aside from the few remaining anti-federalists and some die-hard Jeffersonians) and member of congress, Washington defeated Jefferson in a landslide, winning every single electoral vote as Jefferson had just four years earlier.

Washington was not particularly politically competent, nor had he been a brilliant general, but he was a great leader of men and was able to unite a country suffering hyperinflation and the distrust in the political class. When a handful of New Engalnders began murmuring about secession Washington's warning that "the patriots of the revolution still have their bayonets affixed to their muskets" dispelled any thoughts of rebellion, but it also served to create the impression to the nation that the President, officially Commander in Chief of the US Army, was a military figure as well as a political one. Ironically, despite his wishes, Washington made the army more involved in politics than it ever had been. This was furthered by the appointment of military figures to various posts in the new “Cabinet” of informal advisors answerable only to the President.

Behind the scenes it was Hamilton who was running the country, establishing a new National Bank, breaking ties with the increasingly violent revolutionary regime in France and establishing the basis for an industrial economy as well as using the power of the Presidency to silence one James Reynolds when he spoke out against Hamilton's infidelities. Jefferson’s once ignored attacks on Hamilton as “a tyrant waiting in the wings” seemed more and more prescient, but he also captured the spirit of National Unity, capturing the senate’s attention with grand speeches calling for unity in dark times. The Jeffersonians, discredited by now, were powerless to stop the Vice President’s accumulation of Executive Power.

At the end of his first term as a non-partisan, and probably largely against his wishes (Washington despised political factionalism) he and Hamilton ran for a new political party the "National Federalists". They promoted a strong economy, a strong federal government, and preparedness for war if necessary - they faced scant opposition, especially with men like National Federalist Junior Senator for New York Aaron Burr drumming up support with the use of new "Political Machines". The first political party in American history was quickly coalescing around a coalition of radical nationalists, New York Bankers, die-hard Federalists and military interests, with prominent generals openly backing their former Commander for office.

Winning a landslide again, Washington presided over the growing strength of federal government power, the passage of a common tariff system, and the introduction of a constitutional amendment abolishing state militias (largely out of fear of a southern uprising against the increasingly powerful federal government). Industry bloomed in the Northern states, whilst the South was increasingly alienated by the governing cabal’s opposition to slavery it was powerless to stop the advancements which it could see unfolding. No one was able to question Hamilton’s economic policy whilst the economy boomed.

Whilst it did not cost Washington his second re-election in 1800, the "Sedition Act" of 1799 proved highly divisive, especially following the arrest of former Jeffersonite Virginia Senator James Madison. By the end of his final term the extremely old and ill Washington was little more than a figurehead for the Hamiltonian cabal that ran the government. Many of his own appointments had been quietly removed from office as his first term began, with major Hamilton ally Burr becoming America’s Foreign Minister, who now pursued a reversal of America’s anti-French Foreign Policy, seeking if not close then closer relations with the “Republican Dictatorship” of the Abbé Sieyes, Foreign Minister Talleyrand, and National Assembly leader Lucien Bonaparte.

Finally unable to carry on the pretence that Washington was fit for office, and with huge pressures for him not to simply become “King Washington”, the President’s office announced he had no intention to run for the Presidency in 1804. Whilst the Jeffersonian ideal of a two-term limit on the Presidency had been discredited along with many of the man’s other policies, few wanted the President to simply carry on reigning forever. Washington died just weeks after leaving office, leading many to speculate he had actually died about two years before and this had been covered up to keep the popular Hamilton out of power.
 
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1805-1813: John Adams/Dewitt Clinton (National Federalist)

After a fraught convention for the National Federalists (in which a personal dispute between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton led to the former refusing to bring his delegates behind the latter in the final round of voting), John Adams narrowly won the party's nomination over Vice President Hamilton and, with Hamiltonian measures like the sedition act effectively silencing opposition, stormed to the Presidency. The country, still gripped by nationalism and enamoured with the idea of a united republic, became equally enamoured with the aloof and patrician Adams, who for many reminded them of the leadership class of the pre-revolutionary era.

From the outset Adams was going to do things differently, removing generals from the cabinet, and selecting a Vice Presidential candidate who was as moderate as he was. In his first speech to the Senate, Vice President Dewitt Clinton announced “I will not conduct myself in this house as if I am anything more than the first amongst equals, and will certainly not see myself as a Prime Minister as other holders have.” This blatant attack outraged the Hamiltonians, as had Hamilton’s earlier appointment to the Foreign Ministry rather than his desired position as Minister for the Treasury. A rift was growing in the Federalist Party, but it was one which Adams would exploit.

At the same time as the Election of 1804, Congressional elections had brought many Agrarian Radicals and former anti-federalists into Congress and, rallying around the writings of the still imprisoned Madison, began to coalesce into a grouping of “Democratic Federalists”. With their help and the support of moderate National Federalists, Adams was able to repeal the Sedition Act and other more authoritarian measures, as well as covertly supporting the retroactive censure of Hamilton’s actions as President of the Senate. This alliance of moderates in the National Federalists and their radical opposition could not last, but exploiting it allowed Adams to bypass the need for Hamilton’s support.

In 1808 this partnership collapsed when the Democratic Federalists ran a candidate against Adams, who secured the support of a number of Southern States, with the Virginian Senate only ignoring the popular will to support them thanks to the work of Aaron Burr. Adams was once again forced to play the internal games of the National Federalist Party and court its wealthy New York benefactors for further support. The result of this was the veto of an Act of Congress suggesting the capital be moved to the Potomac, which further angered southerners.

In Foreign Policy Adams totally abandoned any traces of an alliance with the French dictatorship and, during the Constitutional Crisis of 1809 (in which Lucien Bonaparte, with help of his brother, a major general, removed his two co-rulers and became “Principes” of France) moved to seize the Louisiana territory. This military action was reviled by both his own party and his political opponents (although it did receive British support) and worsened the internal National Federalist divisions. The military faction of the party had been pleased, but Northern Industrialists hated the idea of allowing more agrarian states into the union.

When Adams, to the surprise of many, declined to run again in 1812 the National Federalist convention reached a dead-lock. The party split at the convention, with no candidate decided upon two ran – Hamilton and Clinton – with the party roughly split between the two. This division in the National Federalist vote allowed another challenger, with the lowest percentage of the vote ever for a Presidential Candidate, to win the office of the Presidency…
 
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1813-1820: James Monroe/James Madison (Democratic Federalist)

An early anti-federalist and follower of Thomas Jefferson’s, James Monroe’s political comeback seemed highly unlikely. Having been an enemy of Hamilton’s in the ratification movement, he became even more of an enemy after his ascension as Vice President. He was loathed by the Washington administration and was critical of it in the press, descending into personal attacks against “The senile tyrant” Washington and his “Jumped up creole puppet master”. His very brief arrest under the Sedition Act, as it turned out, was annulled with the repeal of the Sedition Act, and he quickly pivoted himself as the leader of the Democratic Federalists and the chief rival of President Adams to run the country. It was his time in prison which allowed him to befriend fellow radical James Madison, who would become his Vice President.

Entering office after a triumph over a divided National Federalist field, Monroe began by immediately repealing some of the tariffs put into place by the National Federalist administrations, as well as doing away with any pretence of fusion between state and military (aside from his ceremonial title as Commander in Chief). His economic policy favoured farmers over industrialists, and diminished the role of the National Bank, making it little more than a currency administration system. The protestations of the Hamiltonians were many, especially following Hamilton’s return to the Senate, but they fell on deaf ears.

Madison reduced tension with France, paying reparations for the annexation of the Louisiana Territory, and diminishing the size of the Federal Army. Fearing that future Presidents would seek to use the army as a tool to stay in power, Monroe passed the “War Act”, requiring Congressional Approval for the military to be deployed by the President. This restriction of the power of the executive seemed like a win for the anti-Federalist camp, even if it was coming from a supposedly “federalist” party.

Winning re-election against Aaron Burr in 1816, Monroe continued to lead a profoundly non-interventionist administration, preferring American isolation from the rest of the world, and an economy based upon private activity not state interference. The political machines and patrons of the north continued to hate him, and attacks in the press became increasingly nasty and aggressive. The words of Aaron Burr, in particular, were seen as an affront to Monroe’s honour.

It was these insults, and a chain of personal disputes from their time in the senate, which would lead to the infamous “Monroe-Burr Duel”. In the duel both participants “threw away their shots”, but a radical National Federalist opposed to Monroe had discovered the duel’s location. Taking advantage of the commotion accompanying any duel, the man shot the President in the chest as he shook hands with Burr, killing him almost immediately. The architect of a smaller state, Monroe was the first President to die in office, paving the way for the first Vice President to succeed the President directly…
 
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1820-1821: James Madison/VACANT (Democratic Federalist)
1821-1825: James Madison/Eldbridge Gerry (Democratic Federalist)

Much like Monroe’s, James Madison’s political comeback had seemed unlikely to many and with so many opposed to his “subversive actions” it is unlikely he would have made it to the Presidential Mansion without Monroe’s tragic death. As it was he ascended to the highest office in the land in the last year of Monroe’s term, and did nothing aside from formalising the rules of succession with an amendment to the Constitution. This was a major reform at the time, and saw a surprising degree of support (for a Democratic Federalist proposal) from former Vice President Alexander Hamilton.

After winning the election of 1820 with Elbridge Gerry by his side Madison began to continue the reforms undertaken by his predecessor. Having once been Hamilton’s ally (and Monroe’s enemy) in ratifying the Constitution, Madison quickly became his worst enemy, stripping down the army and navy he had worked so hard for to their bare bones. Madison was as radical as his predecessor in every way.

In addition to this Madison made numerous attempts to improve ties with France, sending tributes to Lucien Bonaparte’s court and continuing the payment of reparations for the invasion of Louisiana. Britain, having finally ceased to be at war with France reluctantly, now saw the young United States as an enemy once again, and hostility between the two began to fester. It was only through careful diplomatic manoeuvring that Madison was able to revert war over the borders between Canada and Maine. The “Monroe Doctrine”, named in honour of his predecessor, recognised the UK’s right to maintain colonies in the Americas, and tried to re-establish cordial relations.

Unfortunately for Madison, his term of office saw the re-emergence of the National Federalists, especially after John Quincy Adams briefly served as President of a National Federalist Senate following Madison’s ascension to the Presidency. With a strong figure to unite around, the National Federalists were a competent and credible force once again – one capable of taking back the House of Representatives and thus controlling both houses for the first time in a decade. Old hostilities damaged Madison further, with many former anti-Federalists wishing one of their own to be President, and clashing with the President at the convention as a result.

Madison was nominated, bur in a close race was beaten by the National Federalist candidate. He would retire from politics and became an eminent figure in his home state of Virginia, writing a history of the United States as a nation and a piece of literary uchronia titled “Had it Been Another Way” in which he imagined a scenario where Washington was the first President not Jefferson. It remains popular to this day, although it has been criticised for having the same original seven Presidents…
 
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1825-1829: John Quincy Adams/Rufus King (National Federalist)

The son of former President John Adams, John Quincy Adams quickly rose through the ranks of the National Federalist Party. With the support of the tariff reformer Henry Clay, he was able to re-form the National federalist electoral coalition, saving the party and bringing it back from the brink of destruction. He was praised as a hero by its supporters, and built up a reputation as a populist, with his neo-classical oratory attracting the attention of the masses as he praised the ideals of public education and “Civic Eloquence”. Whilst behind the scenes Adams was every bit as patrician and aloof as his National federalist predecessors, he seemed like a man of the people to most.

When he returned to power Adams immediately began to reinstitute the reforms first put in place by his fellow National federalists. Whilst, at first, this transition led to economic woe in the south, Adams pressed ahead with it and it won him the affections of his Northern base of supporters. Industry was booming, partly in thanks to the desire for new weaponry as a result of the resumed conflict between the Austro-British Coalition and the forces of Bonapartist France. The USA had aligned closely with Britain under Madison, and with the signing of the “Washington Treaty” in 1827 this relationship only became closer.

At home Adams was able to repeal restrictions on his power to call the country to war after a series of skirmishes with rebel forces in Spanish Florida. Calls for State Militias to be re-instated instead were shot down, and many called into question why the constitution, a document which contained such provisions yet was readily ignored, was still being used. It was kept, partly because of the sentiments of the son of one of its signatories, but became increasingly irrelevant in the national body politic. More and more the rights of the states were being eroded.

Adams, unlike his father, proved an authoritarian President, instating what he called the “Civil Discipline in the Press Act”, which was essentially a set of press-regulations which recalled the restrictions of the Sedition Act decades earlier. Seeking to silence critics once and for all he also passed the “War Patriotism Act” making it illegal to be in any way critical of the government during a time of war or conflict. This was decried by even his own father (albeit privately) and was one factor which his opponents were able to grasp onto.

Nevertheless, entering into the 1828 Presidential Election Adams looked secure, and won a plurality of the vote and a majority of the Electoral College. Assuming electors would stay faithful (as they always had done) Adams then proceeded to perform his most controversial act yet – joining the Anglo-French War on the side of Britain. Immediately derided by even his own Vice President, Adams faced a mass-popular backlash. With Rufus King’s support the Electoral College’s “Anti-War” National federalists turned on Adams and elected a National Unity ticket…
 
Ok I actually have two more to do, but I shan't do either tonight, and may not be able to tomorrow. Still I've had a good crack at this and hope to finish it soon!
 
Why does Washington live longer?
He doesn't have the stress of office as soon, and is in generally better health which gives him a few more years, as well as the fact that the events which led to his death didn't happen ITTL (although as the TL hints how long he actually lived is up for debate).
 
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