Now I never said who they might cause trouble for
though rest assured, at least one of the above mentioned will be showing up at some point. Though to be fair I've already mentioned the Dakota being something of a problem.Wrapped in Flames: The Great American War and Beyond
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Now I never said who they might cause trouble for
though rest assured, at least one of the above mentioned will be showing up at some point. Though to be fair I've already mentioned the Dakota being something of a problem.For today's inbound chapter I have to warn people I'm using some historical quotes that are rather offensive since they use some very non "PC" language.
Some observations:
Britain did in fact raise a German Legion during the Crimean War but it was to late to be deployed in that war. I have a suspicion that raising other non-British mercenary troops from Europe were mooted at this time.
So far in every Anglo-American war the Native Americans have been supporters of Britain and been armed by Britain. Are any less gentlemanly Britons going to encourage the Crow, Blackfeet, Lakota or others to take up arms against their Yankee oppressors (if the US can dabble in Ireland - even though they have no ready cash or arms to spare - why not Britain and America's oppressed peoples).
That's enough stirring the pot for one post...
Britain did in fact raise a German Legion during the Crimean War but it was to late to be deployed in that war. I have a suspicion that raising other non-British mercenary troops from Europe were mooted at this time.
So far in every Anglo-American war the Native Americans have been supporters of Britain and been armed by Britain. Are any less gentlemanly Britons going to encourage the Crow, Blackfeet, Lakota or others to take up arms against their Yankee oppressors (if the US can dabble in Ireland - even though they have no ready cash or arms to spare - why not Britain and America's oppressed peoples).
That's enough stirring the pot for one post...
As to British mercenary troops, they were recruited in the Crimean War, but that measure proved not only wildly unpopular. The British German Legion and the British Italian Legion were, as near as I can tell, never used in action and only served as garrison troops. The measure wasn't popular, and the legions were both disbanded as soon as hostilities cease. I don't see Palmerston recruiting those types of troops here. However, he may be more than willing to spend the money on military expansion at the moment.
Chapter 36: Fraught with Consequences
Chapter 36: Fraught with Consequences
“If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.... I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.” – Lincoln’s letter to Horace Greeley, August 22nd, 1862
“Politically, the situation in 1862 had gotten off to a poor start for the Republican Party. The gubernatorial elections in New York and New Jersey had seen the Republican governors cast out and replaced with Milliard Fillmore and Joel Parker respectively. Both men supported the war, but represented a vocal portion of the population who saw the Republicans as mismanaging the war effort, especially after the Black Month in August. In the House the Republicans took a beating losing 26 seats, while the Democrats picked up 31, largely due to anger over new taxes, inflation, and the handling of the war. In the Senate a similar story was told with the Party barely holding on and winning a single seat, placing it just above a precipitous deadlock at 30 Republicans to 29 Democrats.
The pro-war Democrats, and even those in favor of peace with the South, were inflamed by the intervention of England in what was seen as an American quarrel. However, some pro-peace men remained, but were in the minority for wishing for a general peace in 1862. The subsequent handling of the war, and the intervention of a foreign power, was seen as a failing on the part of the Lincoln government. Coupled with higher taxes, the loss of trade, and the economic struggles that came with the expanded war, the Democrats had a firm leg to stand on in the midterm elections and used their grievances like “a dagger in the back” wrote an angry Seward and Lincoln would, only half joking, refer to the “fire in the rear” at the heart of the nation…” Snakes and Ladders: The Lincoln Administration and America’s Darkest Hour, Hillary Saunders, Scattershot Publishing, 2003
Governors Joel Parker and Milliard Fillmore would both unseat Republican opponents in the governors races of 1862
“Though Lincoln’s choice to decide on a great course of action was in the eyes of many, the least politically advantageous, it must be said that it was the most moral choice. Indeed in a conflict that had cost so many lives it was one that took great moral courage, and Lincoln, was indeed a man of moral courage.
This decision, it must be stressed, was only possible with the string of victories Union arms had carried in September. Even with these victories it was perhaps difficult to imagine such a firm move towards the right. Only a man of such great calibre as Lincoln himself could have seen so firmly to make it. Through deep thought and contemplation, and communion with God, did he bring himself to this decision, and thus set the standard for the measure against which all future interactions with the African peoples could be measured…” The First Emancipation, Abraham Carver, Booker University, Alabama, 1930
“On Tuesday, October 21st, Lincoln called the members of the Cabinet to the Executive Mansion. There, he unveiled the fourth draft of his Emancipation Proclamation. In it, he outlined his order for the freedom of all slaves in the rebelling states through their forfeiture as property by their disloyal masters. He would stress, in time honored legalistic language, that this was an order carried out with his wartime powers, and had military implications. This of course, was well within the evidence of the Southern use of slaves for military purposes.
The acrimonious debates across the summer, slowly muted since September, were only marginally in evidence when this revelation burst amongst the cabinet. It was not a total shock, as Lincoln had been slowly sounding out each member in their views on slavery and the contraband issue since June. Stanton, Welles, Blair, Usher, and Seward (who had, unlike the others, seen every draft of the Proclamation) gave their unreserved support. There were however, two notable reservations.
Attorney General Bates, a border state man through and through, had significant reservations about the legality of the act. Though he supported the act in spirit, he realized that his fellow border state men fought “for the Union as it was” and had little interest in the freedom of slaves. Indeed he echoed the sentiment that “fifty thousand bayonets that stood for us may now be turned against us.” His greatest objection though, was that this might be challenged in the courts post war without a firm legal precedent.
Chase’s opposition was an entirely different beast. Though firmly in the radical camp, he understood immediately that this could curtail any chance he had of unseating the president and claiming his place on the ticket in 1864. Could they not, he argued, put off such a proclamation until another time? Preferably when political and military realities seemed less bleak? He encouraged Lincoln to wait, and per Welles’s notes was “the loudest and most argumentative man among us that day. Seeking every dodge, and every objection to the proclamation.” However, as the arguments wore on, he became the only voice in opposition and finally assented to Lincoln’s desires that it should be issued.
Lincoln would answer these pessimistic objections adroitly, “I wish it were a better time. I wish we were in a better condition. The action of the armies in Canada and Virginia could have been better than what they were. However, now is the time, and now is when I shall issue it.”
He declared then he would give the South over one hundred days to acquiesce and submit to arbitration, and perhaps join in the struggle against their former enemies. If not, come February 22nd 1863, all those in bondage to the Southern aristocrats would be “now and forever free” from their toils. On the 22nd of October he announced it to the nation…” Snakes and Ladders: The Lincoln Administration and America’s Darkest Hour, Hillary Saunders, Scattershot Publishing, 2003
The First Reading
“It is perhaps difficult for the modern reader to understand the true import of those events in 1862. Truly Bates worries that the Democratic Party would use the Proclamation “as a club” were well founded, but almost all of the Cabinet, save Seward, underestimated the powerful moral effect this would have, both at home and abroad. While when the Proclamation was issued on the 22nd it did not meet with universal approval, the dissention of Democrats to a man was not unexpected, it at least had the effect of smoothing over many of the fractious debates that had existed in the Republican Party. For the Radicals it did not go far enough, but their leading men, Charles Sumner, Benjamin Wade, Thaddeus Stevens, and Henry Wilson, were unanimous in their support, but scathing in their criticism at the “tepid” (Stevens) nature of that Proclamation. While recognizing the importance of supporting such a move, many remained quietly scheming in the background.
Democrats for their part, turned their ire on the administration with a vengeance. Lieutenant Governor of New York Horatio Seymour would write “If it be true that slavery must be abolished to save this Union, then the people of the South should be allowed to withdraw themselves from the government which cannot guarantee them the protection by its terms. In doing so, we shall be allowed to continue this struggle with England unhindered.” Many would go further than that, declaring the whole war unpalatable if it were in service to “the religious fanaticism of abolitionists” The Democratic Party of Ohio would go one step further in November, amending their publications with the party slogan to read “The Constitution as it is, the Union as it was, and the niggers where they are.”
In this the Democrats firmly made it a racial as well as national struggle, which would play a key part in the draft resistance in 1863…
For all the rancor regarding the Proclamation, it was clear that Lincoln had now “rethought the nature of the war” with his decision going forward. Far from the now infamous waffler he seemed in August with his open letter to Horace Greely, he now set himself on a course for a war just as revolutionary as the later struggle of 1915. Its nature would of course, exceed the confines of the current conflict. Welles would be uncannily prophetic when he wrote that the decision was “fraught with consequences, immediate and remote, such as human foresight could not penetrate.” To Arms!: The Great American War, Sheldon Foote, University of Boston 1999.
Ride for Liberty - The Fugitive Slaves, 1862
“The struggle that then took place, was truly the first of the revolutionary struggles that would ignite the South. Not since the enlightened guidance of Nat Turner had those held in bondage seen such light shining forth. While it would be a long struggle until the true liberation we enjoy today was found, it is without a doubt that any historian can trace it to this divinely inspired passage that it began…
This news spread like wildfire across the North and South, and then to the Palaces of Europe across the Atlantic. Predictably, the aristocrats of the South would deride it as inhuman and unfair and step up their oppression. The Lords of Europe of course, fearing as they do now the true and proper light of God given liberty, sneered at its contents and looked down their noses upon us. But we of bonded blood knew better.
First steps are always the most important, and who could deny that this true chance at freedom did not make more than one man simply dash for freedom as so many of our ancestors can attest?” The First Emancipation, Abraham Carver, Booker University, Alabama, 1930
Appendix to Chapter 36
This is, my humble attempt to suss out the reasoning and the display the first reactions to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation as it is being presented here in TTL in October 1862. For reference you should regard all the narrative chapters preceding this chapter as taking place before October 22nd. The decision to have the proclamation signed into law on the 22nd of February is not even remotely a coincidence in case you're wondering.
I hope I have managed to make the reasons why Lincoln decides to issue it clear, and why he issues it now in October rather than September as historically. Then issues some might take with it and reactions from future historians on how it is looked at.
We shall return to the foreign (British, Confederate, and general European) reactions at a later date as they will be mixed in with reactions to military events which will be taking place in November and December...
I hope I have managed to make the reasons why Lincoln decides to issue it clear, and why he issues it now in October rather than September as historically. Then issues some might take with it and reactions from future historians on how it is looked at.
We shall return to the foreign (British, Confederate, and general European) reactions at a later date as they will be mixed in with reactions to military events which will be taking place in November and December...
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Ok now I can comment on the Irish and Emancipation
The Irish demographics in the US are a little more clear cut in support for the war. They support fighting the South by and large, and definitely support fighting the British, especially in New York where longshoremen have been put out of work in droves by the blockade and so have either signed up in the regiments defending of New York, or are part of the party machine that got Fillmore elected as governor. Their support for Emancipation may prove better in this timeline where they blame the British for being out of work and they don't really need to fear for their jobs since there's hardly any work to be had.
In places like Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Detroit however...well that might prove a different matter.
This was perhaps the most spoilerific update so far, I'm glad someone caught that!
I'm just surprised no one has batted an eye at Milliard Fillmore as governor of New York.
The book is called "The First Emancipation" which implies there is a second. I'm willing to bet they lose but the CSA frees their slaves at some point in a second emancipation.
But I really really doubt those said black freeman will have equal rights in the deep south
We're just getting into 1863! You can't expect me to spoil that detail! But rest assured, for now the Confederates have plenty of fight left in them
Read the quote.
Presumably, they're freed at some point. Which is good, but not truly free. Then at some point there's another event (revolution?) that erupts and everyone is freed. It must happen before 1930 when the book is published.
That seems strangely early and seems to imply the south survived so surviving CSA then? Damn Canuck you shouldn't hint like these it makes my brain hurt
That seems strangely early and seems to imply the south survived so surviving CSA then? Damn Canuck you shouldn't hint like these it makes my brain hurt
My hints my be bad for your health
*whistles absently*
I'm told my humor should come with a similar health warning.
RodentRevolution
Banned
I am not sure why we are complaining, the butterflies you have unleashed in this thread have wiped us all out anyway