It lives! Hurrah and Jubilee!
I think that's a solid cabinet. Hopefully Seligman can help the United States avoid some of its OTL financial problems in the post war period.
Oh and I'm excited to see how some of the states developed based on the governors and senators they picked in those last couple updates. South Carolina and Mississippi going full black super majoirty is always nice but those alliances in Texas and Lousiana are very interesting. Honestly it would be cool if Texas gets more German immigrants as a result.
Now that's an idea! How to get more immigrants from the Germanies though...?
Always glad to see a post on this most excellent of a timeline. Shame the Navy is at the bottom but to be honest naval tech is going to be rapidly changing so much that at this time unless your are GB riding the wave is going to be costly, so a decade or so of just maintaining might not be bad.
The Navy is this President's blind spot. You'll have to wait for the Busted Flush Presidency...
Hmmm... seems good ol' Kearny definitely has his biases on what's meritocratic and not meritocratic in his grand gesture of forging a new American political order. and I'm not even talking about how heavily he's dipping into personal connections for solid subordinates to his executive will, or how much he's relying on like New York good society as a replacement metric in the absence of just doing Spoils patronage, all of that's not too abnormal as far as non-Spoils presidential and cabinet politics are concerned. But more just how his fundamental organizational philosophy seems to put little stock in much of any kind of networking with Congress and what could very well be much more meritocratic candidates, even with the more parliamentary kinds of networking that aren't just open graft. (It also seems that in all this there's not too much disruption in what classes of people are to be considered meritocratic civil servants, without any kind of populist seismic shift pulling up lots of self-made men or anything, just breaking open some political office out of the hands of the antebellum political class specifically).
Kearny has the mantra of the right man for the job and also views the cabinet like a combination of staff officer and military theatre commanding subordinates... Also including the President and VP there are 5 generals and 1 militia general and one judge-advocate general...
A few questions regarding the United States ITTL:
1) How large is the army at the start of the Kearny Administration, compared to roughly the same time as IOTL?
2) What are the standard issue weapons of the army? Also, what of support weapons/artillery?
3) When will the Proclamation of Abandonment, the Confiscation Act and the Undesirable Aliens Act be repealed? While I'm on the subject, how badly have they been abused?
1. Chapter 147 - Congress voted an establishment of 80,512 officers and enlisted men. This meant that the regular army would, on paper at least, expand to 44 regiments of infantry and 20 regiments of cavalry (later reduced in 1868 to 15).
2. Oh lord I'd have to think about that one...
3. Its not imminent...
It's alive! Alive!! MUA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!
Seriously, though, really glad to see this back. I've lost count of how many times I've reread this story. (Rubs hands) Now, how do we think President Kearny is going to react to the Franco-Prussian War?
Oh god now I have to remember what I'd planned and get the chronology to work.
Welcome Back! I had almost given up hope of seeing the details of everything foreshadowed
The biggest task is re-reading this and my notes to ensure I pick up on the foreshadowing I engaged in "checks notes" over 10 years ago...