Part 9 – Not With A Bang, But With A Whimper
“The AIS,” it is said, “was split in two, just like General Scott had planned. However, they had become very good at fighting in the Western Half, starting with Bloody Iowa.”
Indeed, some of the fighting in Missouri spilled over into Kansas, where once offensive maneuvers began, their governor ordered attacks into it to seize territory and also to draw away Federal troops who were fighting in the East. This complicated things greatly, and though St. Louis was captured relatively early in the war – back in 1853 – it helped to prolong the fighting.
Texas became another key, and as General Scott and those along the Mississippi slowly squeezed the Eastern part of the AIS, the Western part showed a fair deal of vitality. As 1855 wore on, it was clear that General Scott was getting older, so President Seward offered to let him come back to Washington and run the War Department. Scott refused, stating that the Union had control of the Mississippi and therefore with Fremont’s help they could finish the war easily. He did, however, promise that if the war lasted till fall of 1856, he would retire and take the blame for the war lasting that long, thus helping Seward to secure re-election. However, he didn’t believe that was possible – his plan for dividing the AIS simply needed a few more divisions, as the Arkansas River was being claimed to allow them to “choke off the small remnant of rebels in the north of what’s left, while coming north from the base in New Orleans.”
That re-election seemed secure when Charleston was taken, but the selling point of it being “just like a large Indian war” began to wear on people a little as 1855 progressed. This was especially true when they realized that in some cases, the AIS was being attacked by Indians with the Union coming to the Indians’ rescue if AIS soldiers raided the Indians’ villages. This would promote better relations with the natives over the long haul.
As it was, Scott’s plan to continue to divide and conquer worked slowly through 1855 with the Union announcing that all parts north of the Arkansas River had been freed that summer. By September, they were only down to Texas, which held on valiantly but in the end was doomed to failure. As a token gesture, Sam Houston was appointed military governor of what the Union controlled of Texas till the state could organize a new Constitution which outlawed slavery. He lamented upon arriving in Austin, “I am sorry that I was not able to preserve this Union, that my people would not listen to my cries to avoid this senseless struggle, especially when we could have been compensated for our slaves instead of having our state devastated by these final battles of this terrible war.”
The Civil War came to a close toward the end of 1855. There would be sporadic guerilla fighting a few months into 1856, as a fair number of people had left slave states which had remained loyal to fight for the AIS. Virginia had been especially divided, and only well-respected people like General Lee kept more from fleeing; Lee had remained neutral, only helping to secure his native state when the governor asked for his help in putting down the rebellion within it, since the state hadn’t seceded.
He and other moderates believed that education would be vital and that it could be done, or at least attempted. In this, he agreed with Seward, who pushed for a really broad series of measures designed to help the Freedmen. Salmon P. Chase worked to set up a Freedmens’ Bank and run it, and he was considered for the role of Vice President; so, too, were Lincoln, Scott, and Fremont, though Scott wanted no part of it.
The AIS had ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. And, as the 1850s wore on, new political parties also arose from the old dust of the old.
In the celebration of the Union’s victory, political realities caused the former Whigs, Democrats, Free Soilers, and others to begin to separate along different lines. Some people wanted to just admit the states back and be done with it, some wanted to protect the Freedmen more – including Seward – and start a program of educating them, and some wanted to give them extensive rights immediately. Few wanted to exact revenge on the rebels, though there were some calling for revenge. The war hadn’t been as costly as it could have been. Also, the tactics used by the South in retreating in South Carolina and in parts of Mississippi and Texas had been almost as destructive, compared by some to the Russians retreating before Napoleon.
The amicable relationship between Seward and Marcy became strained. It was clear that he would pick a VP closer to his own political beliefs, but without a solid sense yet of what the parties were, it seemed best to select someone who would appease the supporters of larger government and more involvement in ensuring the rights of the Freedmen. Therefore, he settled on John C. Fremont. The war won, he went with a popular general – Scott didn’t want it, while Fremont was interested in the Presidency and would draw lots of votes from the West, whereas even salmon P. Chase was only from Ohio and there was talk that his opponents might run someone from the West; there was talk that, since Seward has only won states int he4 Northeast in 1852, that he ws “just a regional President.”
Fremont had been cleaning up the last of the guerillas and preventing the Southern states from going on campaigns to harm the Freedmen. However, leaders such as William T. Sherman, Joshua Chamberlain, and Ulysses Grant were good enough at eliminating any attempts on the part of whites to lynch former slaves. Fremont had been a Senator from California and was popular out there, and was seen as someone with an aptitude toward understanding Western interests. He wouldn’t have lots of “real” duties, allowing the Vice Presidency to become less important, as it had been in bygone days – there wasn’t a chance 3 Presidents could die in office in 20 years, was there?
Fremont’s lack of political skill would help to demonstrate that he would not be a good candidate for President in 1860, and he retired to California after Seward’s 2nd term. In the meantime, Seward had beaten the Democratic challenger quite easily – the Democrats had chosen to re-form under that name with others who wanted a less powerful President and less active national government. Lyman Trumbull became their candidate, a man who had supported the end of slavery and some rights for the Freedmen but who felt Seward might go a bit far – and that Fremont especially was. The party would have a much clearer shape by 1860, but as it was, they did win some states from Seward.
However, a few Southern states even gve Seward votes, seeing as he had been quite fair and lenient on them. Indeed, Seward pushed for the purchase of not only Alaska, but also Baja California from Mexico and also some of the desert area of Northern Mexico, stretching the U.S. border south to the 30th parallel from a point just northwest of what would become Big Bend Natioanl park westward to the Sonora River, following it north to the end and then going in a line to the Sonoyta, following it to the bend where it turns south, with Mexico retaining that part to give it a connection to Baja California, the U.S.-Mexico border then going West Northwest to the California-Mexico border.(1)
He also sought to buy various islands from Spain, all of which he hoped could be used to relocate Freedmen, though none of these purchases worked out because Congress was dead set against adding places with more blacks or people of mixed race; they felt the areas already acquired would be enough. The area purchased from Mexico would become Franklin Territory till it became a state - a Washington Territory was carved out of the part of Oregon Territory that didn’t become the state of Oregon in 1859.(2) He did, however, begin considering a possible U.S. presence in the Pacific since the U.S. had missed out on Japanese trade, looking into buying Guam from the Spanish, as well as the Danish virgin islands.
With Fremont not having the political clout he might have, Salmon P. Chase was elected President in 1860, promising to build the national treasury the way Seward had the country’s size. He also had a great influence on the Supreme Court.
The appointment of Nathan Clifford by President Buchanan after he succeeded Taylor as President(3) was one of few which would take place in the approximately 20 years between Daniel Webster taking office (he appointed Richard Rush in 1842 to fill the term of an ill New York Justice who retired) and 1861.
Seward had been able to nominate 2, as did President Cass. Seward first chose Benjamin Curtis, a noted Whig who served till his death in 1874.(4) His second choice came upon Rush’s death in 1859. Abraham Lincoln had been a calming voice in the Administration, and while he’d entered politics he seemed to have a natural inclination for wording things perfectly. His wit and wisdom, Seward considered, would be missed if he couldn’t reach the White House, but Seward also thought him to be a bit too compromising in some areas. Lincoln dithered a little, but his wife successfully convinced him that the Supreme Court would be better than the Presidency. It was a lifetime appointment. He could probably do much less than he would like as President; there was beginning to be some backlash against Seward’s powerful Presidency, so the next few seemed likely to be weaker. Therefore, Lincoln decided to accept. He famously said, “The great joy is I shall have several months off now, wherein I can enjoy things I may not have been able to as President.” For one thing, he wanted to see California, especially with Fremont’s talk of it, and even spoke of taking one of his breaks to see Jerusalem. While he'd only see California while riding the circuits, he retired a couple years before his death, allowing him time to go to see Jerusalem.
Chase, while President, appointed 4 Justices, leaving a huge mark upon the Supreme Court. He dithered on who to appoint when Chief Justice Taney died, but Lincoln had made some very good rulings, and his opinions were often concise yet very witty – perhaps too much so for the Court, some said. Still, Congress had become less radical in the last few years, and therefore it seemed less likely that he would get a major radical on the Court. He appointed Lincoln as Chief Justice, and the Lincoln Court wound up being the one to rule that the Federal government could eliminate lynching as the law was worded to protect slaves, and also that aprts of the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-1860s were Constitutional.(5)
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(1) In other words, Seward negotiates a larger purchase than OTL’s Gadsden Purchase, not only for a possible railroad for the South, but also for possible relocation of former slaves.
(2) So, if you’re keeping score, new states are New Mexico (but without the Gadsden Purchase part), Jefferson (Arizona without the Gadsden part but with the northern border of Arizona going from OTL border with Utah all the way to California), and Oregon (as OTL), but not Minnesota, because in TTL it’s divided at the Mississippi between Wisconsin and Iowa.
(3) To keep Court balance, Fillmore appointed a Northerner, and with Clifford from the same general area Buchanan appoints him a few years early.
(4) Curtis doesn’t resign over the Dred Scott decision in TTL.
(5) Not like the 1964 one of OTL, but a modified one sort of like OTL’s 1866 one with a few things from 1875 thrown in such as the right to serve on juries. Some parts would be ruled unconstitutional because of being seen as involving private and not public things such as transportation, but even watered down, it would mean fewer problems for blacks than in OTL.