Until Every Drop of Blood Is Paid: A More Radical American Civil War
- Thread starter Red_Galiray
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That lies in the future, for their main raison d'être was support for the Greenbacks, which don't exist yet.
Lecompton and Topeka are fairly close and trying to cut the Kansas Territory into two pieces that would setting things would be very difficult.
Follow up question so were southern unionist celebrated then? But even in modern times there seems to be little focus on them, to me there is more information on vlack unionist soldiers than there is on southern unionist who were very important to the union.
Yeah, in the future.
Nah, Southern Unionists were reviled by the Confederacy and its citizens, who saw them as traitors to the South. Unionists in the border states were similarly despised by Confederate sympathizers. On the other hand, the North saw them as allies, but since these Unionists were often democrats who opposed Republican policies and supported slavery, they weren't idolized as heroes.
They kind of did OTL, supporting the pro-Union guerrillas in Missouri.
Chapter 4: The Crime against Kansas
Chapter 4: The Crime Against Kansas
The situation in Kansas briefly improved before the election of 1856. The Pierce administration, hitherto dormant and ineffectual, had suddenly jumped into action to keep Frémont away from the White House. The Crime against Kansas was a very effective campaign measure that carried the Republicans to their smashing victory in the 1854 mid-terms. Bleeding Kansas had smeared the reputation of the government, and it threatened to bring Buchanan down as well. In August, the territorial governor Wilson Shannon resigned, and Pierce appointed John W. Geary as his replacement. A commanding veteran of the Mexican War who had restored order in a California overwhelmed by the Gold Fever during his tenure as Mayor of San Francisco, Geary came into Kansas “carrying a Presidential candidate in his shoulders”. Using Federal troops, Geary stopped the violence that raged throughout the territory, closing the wound for the time being. The strategy worked, and Buchanan managed to win the presidency. But soon enough the gash opened and started to bleed again.
The corrupt territorial legislature at Lecompton, which did not represent the free-soil majority in Kansas, ignored Geary’s pleads and called for a constitutional convention. It was clear that the legislators intended to rig the election, appointing pro-slavery sheriffs, commissioners, and judges, who could easily suppress the anti-slavery vote. Furthermore, they specified that the new Constitution would go into effect without a referendum. Geary denounced this “felon legislature” and vetoed the bill to call a convention, to no avail for they almost immediately passed it over the veto. The officials turned against him, and many border ruffians started to send almost daily dead threats. The situation was too much for him, especially because he could find no support on the lame-duck Pierce administration.
Geary already had strong doubts about the Kansas slaveholders before his appointment, and he was appalled by the Border Ruffians’ intentions to force the territory to accept slavery. He was a Democrat and no friend of abolitionists, but still a firm believer in law and order. To deny the will of the majority would be criminal, unconstitutional and immoral. Geary considered resigning, but he ultimately decided against this, hoping that incoming President Buchanan could offer greater help. But Buchanan was more loyal to the South than to Geary. The President-elect, a Pennsylvania Yankee, believed that all the problems the Union was facing were the result of abolitionist agitation. What’s more, Buchanan felt indebted to the South, and Southerners, both moderates and fire-eaters, weren’t going to let him forget that he won mostly thanks to a Solid South. They demanded admission of Kansas as a Slave State.
Geary placed himself at the center of the fight, and the increasing violence of the pro-slavery side eventually forced him to the Free-soil faction. These liberty fighters found in him someone to rally around. This only increased Border Ruffian animosity. It seemed that Geary was now only using his Federal Troops against them. Tensions increased until the Battle of Osawatomie. Thousands of Border Ruffians were ready to attack the free-soil city. Decided to not yield to another such humiliation as the Sacking of Lawrence, the Free-Soilers stood ready nearby. Geary declared the actions of the Border Ruffians were illegal, and proclaiming that his duty compelled him to stop them, he directed his troops to defend Osawatomie. The Border Ruffians were defeated and had to retreat, having lost five men. The Anti-Slavery men celebrated, but the celebrations were cut short when the recently inaugurated President Buchanan wired Geary, demanding his resignation.
John White Geary
News of the battle had quickly spread throughout the country. Southerners were inflamed by passions, and furious Senator and Congressmen demanded the court-martial of Governor Geary. Geary, they said, had committed a “monstrous injury” on the “honor, property and life of the Southern people”. He was but a “low criminal”, a “Black Republican abolitionist” hell-bent of stealing and murdering together with his rabble of “New-Englander fanatics”. “Blood has been spilt, our rights have been refused. We cannot, we must not accept a Union that sanctions the murderous intentions of that Yankee ruffian”, declared DeBow’s Review, a popular New Orleans newspaper. An outpour of support came from other Yankees. Governor Geary, “was simply enforcing the National laws against the actions of a felon group”, declared the New York Evening Post. Frederick Douglass supported his actions, arguing that “nothing would stop the evil, corrupting actions of the Slavocracy except decisive action”. Senator Lincoln wrote advocating a moderate position as usual, but he denounced Southern attempts to court-martial Geary as illegal obstructionism. Senator Seward decided to court Lincoln, by then a recognized leader of Midwestern Republicans. After a lengthy talk, Lincoln and almost all other Senate Republicans signed a resolution vowing to protect Geary against the action of the “illegitimate” Lecompton Legislature. This was especially necessary because the Legislature wanted to prosecute Geary for treason and anti-slavery agitations, actions punished by execution under their slave plank.
This threat troubled Lincoln. The Slave Power was once again willing to punish and murder an innocent man to protect their beloved institution. Lincoln took to the stump and delivered a speech where he criticized Stephen A. Douglas’ doctrine of popular sovereignty. Douglas, he argued, was ignoring the vital issue. Slavery in a territory was not a question for the settlers only, it was a national question that had to be faced. Additionally, aside from the national ramifications, the doctrine itself was flawed for there was no consensus on whom decided whether to make the territory free or slave, opening the way for a minority to take control, through fraudulent means if necessary. The speech wasn’t revolutionary, for it only repeated views Lincoln had already expressed in other speeches. The true development was that Lincoln finally embraced the Republican doctrine of Freedom National. This doctrine held that the Federal Government should assail slavery and not allow it to exist in places under Federal control, such as forts, territories, and Washington D.C. The Government, Lincoln explained, had the express duty to advance only freedom and to place slavery in the course to extinction. If the Slave Power used the government to foment and nurture the institution, the government had become corrupt and a complete change was needed. Lincoln was basically articulating his belief that there existed a massive pro-slavery conspiracy. And this belief was strengthened by the actions of Lecompton.
Buchanan at first intended to allow Geary to resign in peace. He even had his replacement ready: the Mississippian Robert J. Walker, who had served with Buchanan in Polk’s cabinet. But when the South learned of this they rose in uproar. “We are betrayed!”, many cried. “Mr. Buchanan’s administration went into power on southern votes, yet he shields treason and protects murder”, said Robert Toombs. The Border Ruffians who sieged Osawatomie became honest laborers, assaulted by Geary’s abolitionist hordes. They threatened to secede unless the administration prosecuted Geary for his alleged crimes. Buchanan bowed to the pressure and Geary was arrested. Free-Soilers stood ready to defend him, but he accepted his fate. But this wasn’t the end of the matter. An abolitionist mob broke Geary out from his prison in Lecompton and took him to Topeka. The legislators demanded Walker to pursue them using the Federal troops he had at his disposal. He obliged, but when he reached Topeka it was too late: Geary had been speeded away to Canada. Buchanan sought extradition, but it was denied. Furious pro-slavery settlers kidnapped 6 free-soilers and shot them in front of a ditch – one for every man they lost at Osawatomie plus one for Geary.
Geary rose to the status of National Hero in the North, for facing the Southern slavers and not allowing himself to be swayed by Buchanan’s administration. “A manlier, more honorable act has never been performed”, exulted Salmon P. Chase. “Governor Geary’s actions are those of a true patriot”, said many editorials. “A direct blow against the slave power” wrote William L. Garrison. He was demonized by the South, which quickly found in Buchanan a scapegoat. “Negligent failure... dishonorable old man… double-faced Black Republican”, were some of the insults charged at the President. The situation didn’t improve when Southerners got word that Buchanan and Walker backed a referendum. “The President has appointed yet another traitor to the territory of Kansas, with the evident intention of destroying slave property and southern honor”, exclaimed Jefferson Davis in righteous fury. They once again threatened to secede, while Buchanan’s southern cabinet members turned against him.
Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.
Meanwhile, Walker called for another election in Kansas, which resulted in a smashing pro-slavery victory. But fraud was soon uncovered. Walker refused to sanction the Lecompton Convention or their Constitution, which enshrined slave property as sacred and prohibited amendment to repeal the institution. Due to an anti-slavery boycott, the Constitution only represented a fifth of the people of Kansas. It was sent to Congress immediately without a referendum, despite Walker’s pleads. However, Northern Democrat opposition made it impossible to gather enough votes. To appease the consciousness of their colleagues, Southern Democrats promised a referendum. But it was one without substance, for it only allowed voters to choose between a “Constitution with Slavery” and a “Constitution without Slavery”. But the later stated that slave property was inviolable, only forbidding further importation of slaves into the territory, an unenforceable order. Walker tried to sanction an anti-slavery Legislature, and he denounced the “vile fraud” of Lecompton. But he was met with a demand to resign from Buchanan, who was swayed by Southern threats.
The reaction from Northern Senators and Congressmen was explosive. The South was exerting pression and coercing the President of the United States into doing their bidding. The Slave Power controlled the entire country, and the government was just a sham. Or at least so said Thaddeus Stevens. Even moderates such as Lincoln were appalled by this outreach. “We cannot present weakness in the face of this assault”, Lincoln told his secretary, “we must do something”. But it wasn’t the Republicans who did something. Instead it was the Northern Democrat Leader Stephen A. Douglas, who stormed into the White House. The Lecompton Constitution was but a fraud, a work of trickery that would destroy the Northern wing of the Democratic Party. It was a travesty of popular sovereignty that Douglas would oppose. Buchanan threated the Illinoisan, reminding him of the fate of the anti-Jacksonian congressmen: “"I desire you to remember that no Democrat ever yet differed from an administration of his own choice without being crushed.”. Douglas then reminded Buchanan that he was no Jackson.
The Lecompton constitution was submitted to the voters. Fraud and free-soil boycotts ensured the victory of the Constitution with Slavery. The rival legislature at Topeka tried to submit its own referendum, but the Lecompton Legislature declared it to be illegal and deputized militia to arrest its members. They appealed to Walker, who decided to help them. “I can’t repudiate the example set by Geary”, he wrote, “he was the only true and brave man in all of Kansas”. A standoff that may well have become a second Osawatomie took place. The Border Ruffians ultimately left, while Walker certified the Topeka Legislature as the rightful law-making body of the Territory, before leaving, the second governor to be run off the state by border ruffians, and the fourth to fail to stop the bleeding in three years.
The Topeka Legislature held a referendum where the voters rejected the entire Constitution almost unanimously. But it was too late. The Lecompton Constitution had been submitted by Buchanan to Congress. “Kansas is at this moment as much a slave state as Georgia or South Carolina”, the President said. Douglas led the opposition. He knew the South would never forgive him, and that put his presidential ambitions in peril, but approving the constitution would destroy the Northern Democracy. He, his faction and the Republicans joined together, vowing to oppose this to the very end. But they failed. The Senate quickly approved admission of Kansas. The real battle was fought in the House. Many Douglas Democrats joined their leader and voted with the Republicans against admission. But many more absented or fell into line. “We must not cave into the demands of the Black abolitionists”, said one Northern Democrat who bitterly remembered Geary and Osawatomie. “If we don’t act now”, said another, “the Black Republican legions will march and submit our Union into chaos”. By a vote of 118 in favor to 114 against, Kansas was admitted into the Union as a slave state in April, 1858.
The North blazed with fury. The administration and the Democratic Party had pushed slavery down the throats of the Kansans, against their will. They had snubbed democracy and destroyed popular sovereignty. It was the greatest of insults. “We can no longer tolerate the heavy clutches of slavery!” Seward told a New York crowd. “I could do nothing but weep for our poor nation”, wrote a Massachusetts man. “I am disgusted by this farce. The Democratic Party must be destroyed”, said an Indiana lawyer. Senator Lincoln despaired. The South had used murder, fraud and threats to force the admission of Kansas. But there was a glimmer of hope. “The ballot box is the solution”, he told supporters in Illinois, “we must strike back against the Slave conspiracy that threatens to engulf our nation, so that we can take back the government and restore the ideals of the founders”. But privately he started to doubt if compromise would be enough. They hadn’t stopped at anything to instate slavery in Kansas. Would they stop to instate slavery in the entire nation? “We need action”, he finally told his wife, “we must not allow another fraudulent victory”. He then proceeded to enumerate the victims of the Slavocracy, starting by Dredd Scott, the star of the Supreme Court decision that caused furor in the North and sowed doubt in Lincoln in 1856.
Dred Scott
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Admiral Halsey
Banned
Starting to look like Abolition of slavery is going to be a goal from the outset of the war.
And so, the country continues to teeter into civil war.
Great update, @Red_Galiray! Seems to me the battle lines are being hardened. Republicans in the north vs Southerners in the South. Abolitionism vs slavery. North vs South. What’s interesting is the Northern Democrats. Considering the break by a Douglas against the South, could we see the Northern Democrats break into their own third party?
Great update, @Red_Galiray! Seems to me the battle lines are being hardened. Republicans in the north vs Southerners in the South. Abolitionism vs slavery. North vs South. What’s interesting is the Northern Democrats. Considering the break by a Douglas against the South, could we see the Northern Democrats break into their own third party?
so this is setting up the necessary political capital for a radical reconstruction and will this lead to separatist in southern California becoming even more vocal( South California almost seduced from the union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_in_the_American_Civil_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_in_the_American_Civil_War
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A thought, the more radicalized that things are, the higher the chances that the Republicans will nominate Seward, I'm curious as to why the Republicans go with the more moderate Lincoln (yes, Lincoln is radicalizing, but I'm not sure he would go farther than Seward.) Of course this assumes that Seward is still alive in November 1860...
What if the south anger by some incident become even more radical and start to view all blacks as should be slaves and try to kidnap blacks everywhere in a much bigger, bigger, bigger with them even blacks with free black cards are kidnapped and exc alienating anyone in the north who had sympathy for the south and now we have the necessary justification for something akin to de Nazification
Try and peel off potential Unionists, and or conservatives in the North?
As opposed to before, when they viewed anyone African-American north of the Mason/Dixon line as being a "escaped slave", and prone to being recaptured?
In meridie est destrui!
Perhaps. Lincoln's views are changing, but he is a smart and practical politician. Declaring that abolition is the goal from the start would bring many problems, especially in the critical first months where he has to stop the border states.
Thank you! It's probable that the Democrats will split earlier. IOTL they, for all purposes, split into a Southern and a Northern wing for the election of 1860. The split may happen before the midterms now.
I don't know why exactly California would separate from the Union ITTL... Even if it tries it would be quickly subdued by Federal troops.
This.
The main reason why Republicans nominated Lincoln instead of Seward is because it was believed that Lincoln could successfully carry the Lower North. Even though things are radicalizing, Seward still has many enemies within the Republican party, a bad smell from Thurlod Weed's political machine, and a long record as a radical. Lincoln, by contrast, is more beloved by the midwest and though his views are changing, his actions are still those of a moderate.
They already considered slavery to be a political and social blessing. For them slaves weren't human. Also, oh, wait until you hear of the Fugitive Slave Act...
Fugitive Slave act was done before the POD. Some of the reaction to the FSA, OTOH help radicalize both sides iOTL, Maybe we could have something lovely like Buchanan trying to use the army to enforce the FSA in Vermont?
My point was that the kidnappings Wolttaire described were already happening IOTL. There is definitively room for further controversy regarding the act though.
We could have another large effort by slaveowners to capture escaped slaves in Cass County Michigan lead to a large battle with National Guard troops in Michigan or something lovely like that.