Whipped this up on my break. Let me know others things I can include in this chapter! So many things will be impacted.
CHAPTER 42
THE SOLIDIFICATION
President George Armstrong Custer
The first years of Custer's reign were vicious and full of rapid-fire power-grabs. He was not stupid, and he knew that he had to centralize power and destroy his opponents immediately to prevent a possible civil war. According to the Second Constitution, freshly drafted in early 1882, religious freedom was still guaranteed, although every citizen now had to register which faith or denomination they belonged to. As the AFC Church took absolute control of the country, it experienced the largest growth of members in decades. Rather than list themselves as part of some minority denomination, many Americans just broke down and finally embraced the AFC as the only way forward in society.
There were still many stubborn and rebellious minority churches who held out under such pressure, such as many of the Baptist churches of the south, who refused to list themselves by religion as they thought it violated their rights. Custer would make a quick example out of them. One the night of June 17, 1882, the Great Raid of Peachtree took place, with Union officials rounding up the members of ten different churches, throwing them into prison wagons, and burning down their churches. This was the work of the Office of Racial and Religious Affairs, a new creation formed from the old Custer's Company mercenaries. Now they served as the secret police. The new "Supreme Marshal" of ORRA was George Washington Dewey, a former sailor during the Great American War, veteran of the Cuba Inferior Uprising, and radical Custer supporter. It was Dewey who took Miller's place as the commander of the Manifest Militias, and it was Dewey who orchestrated Teddy Roosevelt's daring raid to rescue Custer from prison. He was, interestingly, a Vermont native, and he became the first Vermont native to hold high office outside of his own state.
George W. Dewey, Supreme Marshal of the Office of Racial and Religious Affairs
As can be imagined, these events in Peachtree shook the nation, frightening many into falling into line, but hardening some others. But ORRA was ruthless, cracking down wherever insurrection struck. The period of 1882 to 1885 is known as the "Solidification," when Custer and the MDP rounded up and "got rid of" all their immediate adversaries. RUMP, which has somewhat opposed Custer's rise, was completely cleared out in late 1882. On October 31, ORRA performed a series of daring raids on RUMP headquarters across the country, arresting much of RUMP's leadership and its Chief, Josiah Reed, for high treason and plotting against the President. Josiah Reed and thirty other officers were executed by hanging for their crimes, and President Custer put his brother Thomas in as Chief of the Military Police. The Council of Jehovah exerted some control over ORRA, but the President made sure he would have complete dominion over RUMP. The old Blueshirts and volunteer brigades of the Revolution were absorbed into RUMP, for the most part, though many went back to their civilian lives.
Thomas Custer as Chief of the Military Police
The military too saw a massive purge in the officer corps, mostly in the winter of 1882. Several of the generals who opposed Custer and supported Claywell had quickly fled to Mexico and California following Claywell's suicide. Interestingly, Field Marshal Wyatt Jenkins, war hero and supreme commander of the Union Army during the Great American War,, was publicly supportive of Custer and the new government, but decided to retire from the Army and moved to Oregon "for good health and fresh air." What was even more interesting was that none other than former President George McClellan came out of retirement to once again take command. Now field marshal, he set about clearing any dissidents out of the ranks and surprisingly seemed quite eager to work for Custer. Little did anyone realize that Custer did this because he wanted McClellan to be in charge of a future war against Mexico, something which was on the top of his agenda. Custer also made it clear to the army that former Southrons were welcome, but if they ever showed the slightest hint of disloyalty, they would be purged from the ranks. At the same time, Custer increased the pay and greatly improved living conditions in the military, winning him much needed support.
The civilian world did not survive the Solidification unscathed by any means either. Rather it experienced quite the change. Shockingly, Custer was actually a reformer and hated the entrenched bureaucracy that "bogged down the Union in balderdash and hokum." RUMP went on a massive round-up in New York City, formerly the turf of the biggest organized crime syndicate front in the Union, the New York Port Authority. Among the members arrested for extortion, blackmail, and abuse of government funds was Chester Arthur, the biggest crime boss on the east coast. Custer declared that "No man, no matter his position, will get away with stealing from the taxpaying Betters of the land. Any person who breaks the law will be punished to its fullest extent." Next, Custer came through with giving women full equal rights and suffrage. Though the National Assembly was dissolved and presidential elections over, there were still local and state-wide elections. Women were among the Manifest Destiny Party's most ardent supporters, and many women were among the dead of the Washington Pub Revolt. Now they could file for divorce, inherit property, and enlist in the military's nurse corps and auxiliary corps, serving as messengers and secretaries. This was a calculated move by Custer to make everyone feel as united and useful as possible. He needed women to support him because "If the Anglo-Saxon mother respects the President, she will bring up her precious children to respect the President. And America shall be stronger each and every generation because of her."
One group that did not feel united or useful (though Custer cared little) were the Inferiors. Inferiors now had to really watch themselves. Ghettos became no-go zones, where only RUMP could go in and face the Irish, Slavic, and Spanish Inferiors. Custer made it very clear they were no longer even citizens. They were now "residents" and subject to further dehumanization. RUMP and ORRA officers would routinely go into Inferior neighborhoods with a high crime rate, grab the first young men they could get their hands on, and then they would hang them on the gaslights in the street for all to see.
