1869-1872 Prelude
The 1868 presidential election pitted the Republican candidate Ulysses S. Grant with the Republican Party campaigning on Grant's popularity and the Union victory while the Democrats candidate would be Horatio Seymour with Democrats criticizing the Republican Reconstruction policies, and campaigned very explicitly on an anti-black, pro-white platform. Grant easily won a majority of the electoral vote while the popular vote was far closer with Grant only having slightly above 300,000 more votes than his Democrat counterpart. Grant victory in several southern states was thanks in part due to votes he had received among the newly enfranchised freedmen in the South, while the political disenfranchisement of many Southern whites helped Republican margins. There also was the benefit that Texas, Virginia and Mississippi had yet rejoined the Union and so their electors were unable to participate in the election. His presidency by his third year, saw successes such as the stabilization of the post war national economy, ratification of the 15th Amendment and additance of all Southern states back into the Union while Ku Klux Klan by early 1871 was entering a rapid decline.
He had appointed African Americans and Jewish Americans to prominent federal offices and had created the first Civil Service Commission, advancing civil service more than any prior president though with Congress highly unlikely to act upon any recommendations that would threaten the spoiler system. Not to say that all has gone well so far during the Grant presidency with the controversy over the failed annexation of Santo Domingo, the numerous scandals such as Gold Ring and Whiskey Ring involved members of the Grant Administration. Still despite such setbacks, President Grant pushed forward with his various policies and goals and in May 1871 would see him add a new one, an 8 hour work day for much of the American workforce. Influenced by recent events in France and Spain and his personal sympathies for the working class, he would present to Republican leaders in Congress his proposal for an 8 hour work day for all American workers with the exception those working in family businesses and agriculture and to pair it with the repeal of the current income tax stature to boost support for it. His arguments that the threat of the International Workingmen's Association could only be contained with labor reform would succeed in convincing Congress to send an eight-hour workday law to his desk for his signature.
As well, by executive order, Grant restored the 20% wage cut suffered by federal employees that occurred upon the passage of 1868 eight-hour law for federal employees. This had the unintended effect of the Radical Republicans rallying to the President, along with ending their fragmenting and who with now the backing of the working class, would win by elections for the House of Representatives in New York and Ohio, cutting into the momentum of anti-administration "Liberal Republicans" and Democrats. Radical Republicans would be in a commanding position in the coming 1872 presidential election but this was not without costs as Liberal Republican-Democratic coalition was formed to oppose the policies of the Grant Administration, it would have the support of the Easterners, Episcopalians, the wealthy, academics, and the growing middle class wanting a return to antebellum normalcy. The Republican Party, dominated by a rejuvenated Radical or "Stalwart" faction, was supported by Westerners, Catholics and Christian evangelicals, farmers, freedmen, and working class Americans who wanted increased social mobility, which would come quicker than expected for some groups.
By 1872, Reconstruction had achieved a number of successes such as Freedman taking part in elections and with somewhere in the hundreds of Freedmen serving in various offices across the South. Southern state governments funding public schools for all children of those states while the Freedmen Bureau had assisted in the creation of Churches and the negotiation of contracts to help with fairer pay for the Freedman laborers and their was the 14th and 15th Amendments to secure various rights for the former slaves among other achievements. Those successes were at the very least equaled by numerous and growing failures such as the failure to protect the Second Amendment rights of Freedmen, most being Union veterans, the growing fragmentation of the White-Black coalition of voters, Southern planters trying to all but recreate slavery via sharecropping and other such systems. One of the most fatal blows was the failure to prevent the North from losing interest in Reconstruction and by the current year they simply wanted Reconstruction over and to let the South manage its own affairs. Of course one would think the numerous massacres committed against Blacks by White militias and acts of terror by groups such as the KKK would teach them the folly of such a course action but they simply didn't care anymore.
Which made long term support of Reconstruction politically unpopular and a political liability and in part because of this had seen the Liberal Republicans split from the party. Grant could keep Federal troops in the South for hopefully five more years if he won re-election but whoever the next President is, they would pull out the troops and it would only be a matter of time before the Southern Democrats would regain control of Southern governments via the ballot and the bullet and the eventual total failure of Reconstruction. A bitter reality for President Grant as he was watching it slowly unfold but Grant was going to do his damndest to deny those bastards a total victory and he had a plan and that being to convince as many Southern Freedmen to migrate. Not to the West or the North as they were not wanted there but rather to the Deep South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia which have or are close to a Black majority and if enough Freedmem and their families moved to those six states then hopefully there be would be enough Freedmen voters to keep Radical Republican governments in power that would look after their interests and protect their rights and with time regain seats and control of legislatures such as Georgia General Assembly which the Democrats had won back control of in December of 1870. Some Federal troops would be moved from Texas and Virginia to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia to ensure sufficient numbers of soldiers to protect White and Black Republican voters and ensure they could safely vote at polls.
As well to counter a potential resurgence of the KKK in these states and fight against terror attacks by similar groups with the Federal troops in those six states would remain for the time being to protect Reconstruction while Federal troops in the rest of the Southern states undergoing Reconstruction be pulled after the 1872 elections had concluded and sent to the Western frontier as weather permits and knowing full well what would follow in much of the South. He would ask Congress to use what remained in the Freedmen's Bureau budget along with one final boost of funds to build some new housing in the six previously mentioned states with the Army and the Freedmen Bureau working together to help coordinate the movement of vast numbers of Freedmen and their families to each of the six states and at the conclusion of the year, the Freedmen Bureau would be shut down. President Grant would as well reach out to well off members of the Black community in the North to organize aid and investments to assist and build up existing and newly arrived Freedmen communities in the previously mentioned six Southern states. Grant would as well try to convince Radical Republican leaders for a one year program to offer funding to Northern industrialists to build industry in the South such as Steel works and Cotton mills or expand what little industry exists in the South. This would not be a massive investment that would wipe out the tens of millions dollar size federal budget surplus that was being projected for 1872 but rather a modest effort to give a minor boost to Southern industry that if well managed and nurtured with Northern investment in the future would create much needed jobs and taxes to stabilize the finances of Southern and perhaps make tariffs a far less dividing issue between the North and the South.
To help convince Congress to agree to his funding requests by having a new source of revenue created for Congress by beginning selling off Federal lands in the South and not lacking for it as about 1/3rd of the South is owned by the Federal government and suggest after 1872 to use that money to pay down the Federal debt. Grant suspected that Radical Republicans would be unhappy with ending Reconstruction in all but six states but he would argue better for the Freedman ability to be able to have life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness in six states instead of zero. There would also be those that might doubt this plan being able pull off such an exodus and that would be successful and to them he would point to how in Texas the former slave population had doubled by 1870 mostly due to migrating former slaves and without any help. President Grant as well sought to convince Congress to expand the navy and the Marines over concerns of growing European intervention in the Americas and as well use this opportunity to argue for funding to repair shore facilities that were starting to degrade and for their continued maintenance. As the election drew ever closer, Grant would follow tradition and would not engage in active campaigning and would instead focus upon his various duties and signing various bills and one of the more notable ones during this time being the bill which would establish the Yellowstone National Park and the first national park in the United States.
For the goals he set for 1872, many would not be met but the most important one, his plan to ensure the preservation of Freedman rights in the Deep South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia and selling off certain Federal lands in the South, where migration of Freedmen would secure the legislatures of those Southern states to ensure Republican control past his political generation. The result would be the end of Radical Reconstruction guaranteed at bayonet point and the beginning of a dominant party system that united the agrarian and silver interests of the Western States, factor workers in the North, and the Freedmen "Junto" monopolizing political power in the Deep South. Grant easily won renomination as the Republican candidate for the Presidency and the hardline Radical Republican, Governor Edmund J. Davis of Texas, for the Vice Presidency. The Democrats initially did not directly nominate any candidate to oppose Grant and pushed for Horace Greeley, prominent abolitionist and long-time editor of the New-York Tribune, who had was championed by the "Liberal" Republican Party; A splinter organization of anti-Grant Republicans. Though Democrats eventually thought backing the Liberal Republican slate would consign them to irrelevancy, just as the Whig Party had been doomed by endorsing the Know Nothing candidacy of Millard Fillmore in 1856. Democrats instead nominated former Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black for the Presidency and James A. Bayard Jr. for the Vice Presidency.
The opposition being divided handed the Presidency to Grant, which saw every state cast their electoral vote for Grant except Maryland, which Greeley won by half a percent. The Republican wave spread to both Congress and every state legislature. Republicans gained 88 seats in the House of Representatives and a gain of 6 seats in the Senate as state legislatures realigned to oust both Liberal Republicans and Democrats. It was a commanding victory but one that would herald a new phase of militancy in the South, as well as beginnings of a political realignment between the supporters of Republicans and Democrats. As the end of the year approached, many predictions and expectations about what 1873 would brings,though these would be utterly upended when ten minutes into the new year, the entirety of America and Alaska and all Americans abroad would vanish while in Haiti every single person, structure, etc would vanish but naturally the world cared far more about the two giant gaping spots where America used to be, that rapidly became filled in with the surrounding oceans as coastlines around the world found themselves changing and the world adapting to this new and unstable era, there remained the question, what had happened to the Americans and the Haitians.
………..
So this a prelude for an ISOT timeline for an America that I played on a nation state game, that only lasted for two turns unfortunately. Despite how short the game, I was fascinated by what would happen next with my America in nation game, so I decided to create this TL. Of course being isoted, it's course going to be very different if it had remained on the 1873 world.
He had appointed African Americans and Jewish Americans to prominent federal offices and had created the first Civil Service Commission, advancing civil service more than any prior president though with Congress highly unlikely to act upon any recommendations that would threaten the spoiler system. Not to say that all has gone well so far during the Grant presidency with the controversy over the failed annexation of Santo Domingo, the numerous scandals such as Gold Ring and Whiskey Ring involved members of the Grant Administration. Still despite such setbacks, President Grant pushed forward with his various policies and goals and in May 1871 would see him add a new one, an 8 hour work day for much of the American workforce. Influenced by recent events in France and Spain and his personal sympathies for the working class, he would present to Republican leaders in Congress his proposal for an 8 hour work day for all American workers with the exception those working in family businesses and agriculture and to pair it with the repeal of the current income tax stature to boost support for it. His arguments that the threat of the International Workingmen's Association could only be contained with labor reform would succeed in convincing Congress to send an eight-hour workday law to his desk for his signature.
As well, by executive order, Grant restored the 20% wage cut suffered by federal employees that occurred upon the passage of 1868 eight-hour law for federal employees. This had the unintended effect of the Radical Republicans rallying to the President, along with ending their fragmenting and who with now the backing of the working class, would win by elections for the House of Representatives in New York and Ohio, cutting into the momentum of anti-administration "Liberal Republicans" and Democrats. Radical Republicans would be in a commanding position in the coming 1872 presidential election but this was not without costs as Liberal Republican-Democratic coalition was formed to oppose the policies of the Grant Administration, it would have the support of the Easterners, Episcopalians, the wealthy, academics, and the growing middle class wanting a return to antebellum normalcy. The Republican Party, dominated by a rejuvenated Radical or "Stalwart" faction, was supported by Westerners, Catholics and Christian evangelicals, farmers, freedmen, and working class Americans who wanted increased social mobility, which would come quicker than expected for some groups.
By 1872, Reconstruction had achieved a number of successes such as Freedman taking part in elections and with somewhere in the hundreds of Freedmen serving in various offices across the South. Southern state governments funding public schools for all children of those states while the Freedmen Bureau had assisted in the creation of Churches and the negotiation of contracts to help with fairer pay for the Freedman laborers and their was the 14th and 15th Amendments to secure various rights for the former slaves among other achievements. Those successes were at the very least equaled by numerous and growing failures such as the failure to protect the Second Amendment rights of Freedmen, most being Union veterans, the growing fragmentation of the White-Black coalition of voters, Southern planters trying to all but recreate slavery via sharecropping and other such systems. One of the most fatal blows was the failure to prevent the North from losing interest in Reconstruction and by the current year they simply wanted Reconstruction over and to let the South manage its own affairs. Of course one would think the numerous massacres committed against Blacks by White militias and acts of terror by groups such as the KKK would teach them the folly of such a course action but they simply didn't care anymore.
Which made long term support of Reconstruction politically unpopular and a political liability and in part because of this had seen the Liberal Republicans split from the party. Grant could keep Federal troops in the South for hopefully five more years if he won re-election but whoever the next President is, they would pull out the troops and it would only be a matter of time before the Southern Democrats would regain control of Southern governments via the ballot and the bullet and the eventual total failure of Reconstruction. A bitter reality for President Grant as he was watching it slowly unfold but Grant was going to do his damndest to deny those bastards a total victory and he had a plan and that being to convince as many Southern Freedmen to migrate. Not to the West or the North as they were not wanted there but rather to the Deep South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia which have or are close to a Black majority and if enough Freedmem and their families moved to those six states then hopefully there be would be enough Freedmen voters to keep Radical Republican governments in power that would look after their interests and protect their rights and with time regain seats and control of legislatures such as Georgia General Assembly which the Democrats had won back control of in December of 1870. Some Federal troops would be moved from Texas and Virginia to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia to ensure sufficient numbers of soldiers to protect White and Black Republican voters and ensure they could safely vote at polls.
As well to counter a potential resurgence of the KKK in these states and fight against terror attacks by similar groups with the Federal troops in those six states would remain for the time being to protect Reconstruction while Federal troops in the rest of the Southern states undergoing Reconstruction be pulled after the 1872 elections had concluded and sent to the Western frontier as weather permits and knowing full well what would follow in much of the South. He would ask Congress to use what remained in the Freedmen's Bureau budget along with one final boost of funds to build some new housing in the six previously mentioned states with the Army and the Freedmen Bureau working together to help coordinate the movement of vast numbers of Freedmen and their families to each of the six states and at the conclusion of the year, the Freedmen Bureau would be shut down. President Grant would as well reach out to well off members of the Black community in the North to organize aid and investments to assist and build up existing and newly arrived Freedmen communities in the previously mentioned six Southern states. Grant would as well try to convince Radical Republican leaders for a one year program to offer funding to Northern industrialists to build industry in the South such as Steel works and Cotton mills or expand what little industry exists in the South. This would not be a massive investment that would wipe out the tens of millions dollar size federal budget surplus that was being projected for 1872 but rather a modest effort to give a minor boost to Southern industry that if well managed and nurtured with Northern investment in the future would create much needed jobs and taxes to stabilize the finances of Southern and perhaps make tariffs a far less dividing issue between the North and the South.
To help convince Congress to agree to his funding requests by having a new source of revenue created for Congress by beginning selling off Federal lands in the South and not lacking for it as about 1/3rd of the South is owned by the Federal government and suggest after 1872 to use that money to pay down the Federal debt. Grant suspected that Radical Republicans would be unhappy with ending Reconstruction in all but six states but he would argue better for the Freedman ability to be able to have life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness in six states instead of zero. There would also be those that might doubt this plan being able pull off such an exodus and that would be successful and to them he would point to how in Texas the former slave population had doubled by 1870 mostly due to migrating former slaves and without any help. President Grant as well sought to convince Congress to expand the navy and the Marines over concerns of growing European intervention in the Americas and as well use this opportunity to argue for funding to repair shore facilities that were starting to degrade and for their continued maintenance. As the election drew ever closer, Grant would follow tradition and would not engage in active campaigning and would instead focus upon his various duties and signing various bills and one of the more notable ones during this time being the bill which would establish the Yellowstone National Park and the first national park in the United States.
For the goals he set for 1872, many would not be met but the most important one, his plan to ensure the preservation of Freedman rights in the Deep South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia and selling off certain Federal lands in the South, where migration of Freedmen would secure the legislatures of those Southern states to ensure Republican control past his political generation. The result would be the end of Radical Reconstruction guaranteed at bayonet point and the beginning of a dominant party system that united the agrarian and silver interests of the Western States, factor workers in the North, and the Freedmen "Junto" monopolizing political power in the Deep South. Grant easily won renomination as the Republican candidate for the Presidency and the hardline Radical Republican, Governor Edmund J. Davis of Texas, for the Vice Presidency. The Democrats initially did not directly nominate any candidate to oppose Grant and pushed for Horace Greeley, prominent abolitionist and long-time editor of the New-York Tribune, who had was championed by the "Liberal" Republican Party; A splinter organization of anti-Grant Republicans. Though Democrats eventually thought backing the Liberal Republican slate would consign them to irrelevancy, just as the Whig Party had been doomed by endorsing the Know Nothing candidacy of Millard Fillmore in 1856. Democrats instead nominated former Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black for the Presidency and James A. Bayard Jr. for the Vice Presidency.
The opposition being divided handed the Presidency to Grant, which saw every state cast their electoral vote for Grant except Maryland, which Greeley won by half a percent. The Republican wave spread to both Congress and every state legislature. Republicans gained 88 seats in the House of Representatives and a gain of 6 seats in the Senate as state legislatures realigned to oust both Liberal Republicans and Democrats. It was a commanding victory but one that would herald a new phase of militancy in the South, as well as beginnings of a political realignment between the supporters of Republicans and Democrats. As the end of the year approached, many predictions and expectations about what 1873 would brings,though these would be utterly upended when ten minutes into the new year, the entirety of America and Alaska and all Americans abroad would vanish while in Haiti every single person, structure, etc would vanish but naturally the world cared far more about the two giant gaping spots where America used to be, that rapidly became filled in with the surrounding oceans as coastlines around the world found themselves changing and the world adapting to this new and unstable era, there remained the question, what had happened to the Americans and the Haitians.
………..
So this a prelude for an ISOT timeline for an America that I played on a nation state game, that only lasted for two turns unfortunately. Despite how short the game, I was fascinated by what would happen next with my America in nation game, so I decided to create this TL. Of course being isoted, it's course going to be very different if it had remained on the 1873 world.