The American Monarchy

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George Custer is still alive, and was not killed fighting Indians.

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The American Monarchy: 1875

Northern elections took place in March of 1875, with each state electing one Senator. In Ohio, Nebraska, Kansas, California, Nevada and Pennsylvania, elections could not be held, and the state legislatures elected Senators. All Senators ran as part of the National Union Party. The Northern Senate once again elected John Bingham, of Ohio, as Prime Minister. In the South, Prime Minister Breckenridge died of a heart attack in February 1875, and Jefferson Davis (C-MS) was elected Prime Minister. As one of his first acts, Davis passed the Revenue Act of 1875, establishing an income tax to fund the war effort. In the North meanwhile, Robert II pushed the Senate to invest in the manufacturing of Richard J. Gatling’s field gun, an invention that had been overlooked during the 1860s, but which Robert II believed could turn the tide of the war in the North’s favor.

Southern successes continued in the spring. In Nebraska, the pro-Northern government was captured and executed, and the South established control over the state. Southern forces continued to cross the Ohio River, landing in southern Illinois and Indiana. In Ohio, McClellan had moved his forces east, and by April, southern Ohio was firmly under Southern control. Brig. Gen. Garfield had been promoted to Major General during the winter, and led a number of assaults against Southern fortifications in Ohio, with few results. The Battle of Lancaster on March 19th, 1875 was particularly bloody. Garfield had been given command of 40,000 soldiers, and assaulted the fortifications at Lancaster. Southern General Braxton Bragg commanded roughly 20,000 men. However, Southern artillery and firepower turned back two frontal assaults. The third assault managed to push Bragg’s forces back, but they were able to retreat to defensive positions. Garfield’s troops were left with low morale and nearly 10,000 casualties, and he called a retreat.

In the Eastern Theater, Gen. Sherman had been relieved of his duty and sent to Indiana to command forces there. He had been replaced with General Ambrose Burnside, who had continued the building of trenches and fortifications around Pittsburgh. In the Spring, Stonewall Jackson attempted to break through Burnside’s defensive lines and take Pittsburgh, but the First Battle of Pittsburgh (from April 3rd to April 21st) proved to be a crushing Southern defeat. Burnside’s Northern troops, while inexperienced, were armed with advanced rifles and backed up by artillery. Wave after wave of Southern assaults were unable to advance the line more than a few miles. Jackson broke off his assault in late April, and ordered his forces east. In June, they were stopped outside of Philadelphia by Northern General John Pope. Philadelphia soon came under siege, as Southern forces moved into New Jersey.

In Iowa, a repeat of the bloody trench warfare outside Pittsburgh occurred. Northern General Frémont’s trenches held against the assaults of Southern troops under Gen. Frost, but Frémont soon realized that the Southern trenches could not be broken either. The position of Frémont’s and Frost’s armies was essentially unchanged moving into the summer of 1875. Elsewhere in the Western Theater, Lt. Col. George Custer had signed a treaty with Lakota and Cheyenne tribes in the Dakota Territory, ending years of warfare. The treaty established an alliance between the Northern United States and the Indian tribes, and principally blamed the Southern government for various historical abuses. King Robert II, when hearing of the treaty, was initially upset, but soon realized that the Indian tribes would be a helpful ally, and pledged to give the tribes greater autonomy when the war had been won. During the summer, the Northern Senate passed a Revenue Act, similar to the South’s, as well as the Conscription Act, calling for a nationwide draft.


Control of Northern and Southern Forces, Summer 1875

The situation in the North deteriorated further in the second half of 1875. King William had been informed by British diplomats that Great Britain was willing to come to William’s aid, if the King could prove that his army could break the stalemate that was evolving. In a telegram delivered to William, the British remarked that “a suitable victory in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia would do much to earn our material support against the rebels.” With this news, King William wired Gen. McClellan and Gen. Jackson, ordering them to move on Pittsburgh as soon as possible. With Garfield’s forces temporarily defeated, McClellan raced east, to the outskirts of Pittsburgh. Burnside’s forces in Pittsburgh had few fortifications and trenches on the western side of the city, and by the time Burnside realized that McClellan was going to attack the city from the west, it was too late.

The Second Battle of Pittsburgh began on October 21, 1875. General Jackson attacked first, his goal to take the city without McClellan. Since the First Battle of Pittsburgh, General Burnside’s forces had been reinforced with Gatling guns and heavier artillery, and Jackson’s first assault was brutally cut down. On the second day of the battle, Jackson tried to maneuver and hit the city from the North, but Burnside’s cavalry was able to defend Jackson’s attack, despite heavy casualties. Jackson shelled the defensive lines with mortars and cannon for a week, before attacking against on the 30th. This time, after three assaults, and 7,000 Southern casualties that day alone, Burnside’s defensive line broke. Northern forces hastily retreated into the trenches directly outside the city of Pittsburgh, but by the 1st of November, McClellan had arrived, and Burnside’s forces were surrounded. Burnside hunkered down inside Pittsburgh, where it would take another two weeks of assaults before Burnside retreated, with the aid of Northern reinforcements from New York. Pittsburgh was surrendered on November 17th, 1875. Of the 40,000 Northern soldiers defending Pittsburgh, 21,000 were killed or captured. The Southern army had suffered much greater casualties, however, numbering nearly 53,000. The victory, in a strategic sense, would ultimately prove to a Pyrrhic one, as the South had spent such considerable resources on the capture of the city, that their army in Pennsylvania would be un-operational until the summer of 1876. Until then, waiting for reinforcements, Jackson set about to turning the North’s trenches and fortifications to his army’s own use.

Following the conquest of Pittsburgh, Great Britain promised King William material aid, soldiers, and a naval blockade. In New England and New York, there was fear that Britain would soon invade, and in New York City, there were initially scattered riots, though martial law and the closeness to the city of Southern forces in New Jersey soon quieted the civil unrest. There were however some successes for the North in 1875. At the Battle of Elkhorn, a combined force of Northern cavalry and Indians led by George Custer and Sitting Bull attacked and routed a larger force of Southern cavalry. Custer hoped to liberate Nebraska by the spring, and then aid Frémont in Iowa. Elsewhere, Gen. Ulysses Grant invaded Missouri at King Robert II’s request. Robert hoped to surround Southern forces in Iowa, as well as prompt a rebellion in Missouri by abolitionist forces. More good news followed in December, when New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, feeling threatened by an aggressive Great Britain, allied themselves with the King Robert II and pledged troops and aid.


Control of Northern and Southern Forces, Winter 1875

[Lief 🗽]

Unfortunately, I'm incredibly busy this weekend. Hopefully within the next few days.

As for the west, none of the two sides are really focusing on California or Nevada, and King Robert's forces in California are unorganized and without any real leadership. King William's supporters are slowly moving north through California and Nevada.

[Lief 🗽]

Tomorrow, definitely. I've been juggling college apps, homework, and an exchange student living with me for the past 2 weeks.

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The American Monarchy: 1876

In January of 1876, Southern Prime Minister Jefferson Davis and King William met in the capital at Washington, were they were briefed by the Secretary of War George Goldthwaite (C-AL), leaders of Congress, and General Thomas Jackson, who left the front in Pennsylvania to brief the King and Prime Minister. Goldthwaite warned Davis and William that General Frost’s position in Iowa was weak, and that superior Northern forces led by Frémont would eventually overwhelm the trench lines cutting across the state. But Davis and the King were focused on taking Philadelphia, believing that the conquest of the city would effectively end the war. King William also called for a more rapid advance into California, before British troops from Oregon could invade the state.

Meanwhile, the Northern government had fled from Scranton, relocating to Toronto. With the fall of Pittsburgh, things in Pennsylvania looked bleak. Northern Prime Minister John Bingham pushed the Second Revenue Act through the Northern Senate, calling for higher revenue tariffs and a slight increase in income taxes. Conscripts and new recruits in New York and New England were just becoming battle ready, and King Robert II ordered them to Pennsylvania as soon as possible. Meanwhile, militias were being hurriedly raised in Ontario and Quebec, as a British invasion seemed imminent. The only real successes were happening in the Midwest, where Ulysses Grant had successfully invaded Missouri and a combined Northern-Plains Indian force led by General Custer and Sitting Bull had pushed back into Nebraska. The front in Indiana and Ohio had turn into a bloody, trench-war stalemate, with horrendous casualties on both sides.

General Grant struck further into Missouri during the spring of 1876, routing unprepared Southern forces. The vast majority of trained and equipped Southern troops had been sent to the trenches in Iowa, leaving Missouri defended by raw, ill-equipped recruits. Pro-Robert guerillas in Missouri were also spread throughout the state; they launched a number of attacks on Southern troops and by April of 1876 had, with Grant’s support, secured St. Louis. By May, Grant had taken Jefferson City, the state capital, and installed a pro-Robert government. The government’s first action was to abolish slavery, angering many pro-slavery Missourians, and leading to renewed guerilla warfare, this time between pro-Robert and pro-William factions. Fresh off success, Grant then marched his army to Kansas City, where he was halted by what was left of Southern forces in the state, reinforced by guerillas, militias and troops retreating from Kansas and Nebraska. In the Battle of Westport, Grant assaulted the Southern army’s makeshift fortifications over a period of two days, finally taking the city of Westport on the second day of the battle. Southern forces by this point were tired, hungry and out of supplies and ammunition, and thousands of soldiers surrendered to Northern forces. Unfortunately, Grant had been badly wounded in the battle and died a week later, on June 14th, 1876. Southern General G.T. Beauregard had arrived in southern Missouri five days earlier, and reinforced New Madrid, as he waited for reinforcements from the Deep Southern states.

During this same time, the South had made slow advances in Pennsylvania, nearly completely encircling the city of Philadelphia. But Northern General John Pope had made a maneuver that would have taken mere weeks take six months, as his troops regularly sallied outside the city, offering Southern General Jackson’s troops bitter resistance. But by June, Generals Jackson and McClellan had managed to completely surround Philadelphia, and, despite heavy casualties, Jackson and McClellan prepared themselves to take the city. British and Southern ships had blockaded much of the New England and New York, and Southern commanders were confident that they would be able to take Philadelphia before reinforcements from New England were even equipped for battle. Things fared somewhat better for the North in the plains though, as General Custer retook the Nebraskan capital of Lancaster in April of 1876. His largely cavalry forces had moved quickly against ill-prepared and overly-stretched Southern troops, forcing them to retreat into Iowa and Kansas. At the same time, the Southern commander in Iowa, Daniel M. Frost, was losing the war of attrition against General Frémont, as Frémont’s trenches were protected by Gatling guns and newly introduced barbed wire, a battlefield innovation that had happened largely by accident during a skirmish at a cattle ranch. Frost’s position was precarious, and with the loss of Missouri and Nebraska, he had become nearly surrounded.


State of the War: June 1876

Custer continued his rapid advance into Kansas, taking the north of the state by the end of July and linking up with Northern forces (now commanded by once again re-assigned Gen. William Sherman) in Kansas City. With Southern General Daniel M. Frost completely surrounded, Sherman, Frémont, Custer and Sitting Bull met in Lancaster in August and drew up plans for a final assault against Frost’s by-now heavily fortified trench lines, spanning nearly the entire width of the state. In September they advanced, Sherman from the South, Custer and Sitting Bull from the West, and Frémont from the North. The fighting was especially bloody in the North, Frémont’s troops constantly slowed by dug-in Southern resistance. Custer and Sitting Bull used their cavalry to cut Southern supply lines and burn and pillage the sympathetic ranches and farms that had been supporting them with food. Sherman also employed scorched earth tactics, though his army also fought numerous bloody battles to break Frost’s trenches. By the beginning of October, however, after nearly a month of battle and 95,000 casualties total, Frost’s remaining forces, by this point reduced to primarily melee combat due to a lack of ammunition, surrendered. Further Northern successes came later that October, when reinforcements from New York and New England finally arrived in Pennsylvania. Jackson and McClellan, realizing they were outnumbered, broke the siege of Philadelphia, allowing General Pope’s garrison in the city to be reinforced by new recruits. Rather than go on the offensive, however, Pope stayed in the city, confident that his trenches and fortifications would prevent Southern conquest.

By this point, what King William had believed would be a quick and effortless war was turning into one of the bloodiest conflicts in world history. Trenches had cut across Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with neither side able to gain the upper-hand, despite mounting casualties. The capture of Pittsburgh had not knocked the North out of the war, and in fact seemed to have done more damage to over-stretched Southern armies in Pennsylvania. King William demanded that Jefferson Davis call for nationwide conscription and told the Prime Minister that, if need be, the black population would need to be drafted as well. Northern advantages in industry and population were beginning to prevail in this war of attrition.

In the North, the mood was slightly more positive, though the bloody war was exacting a toll on the nation’s spirit. Nonetheless, in a speech before the Senate on October 17th, 1876, King Robert II called on people of the North to not waver in their pursuit of victory. Privately, before Prime Minister Bingham’s cabinet (comprising only of a Secretary of State, Treasury and War due to reasons of practicality), Robert concluded that unless the British invaded soon, victory would be won by Christmas of 1877. He also confided that at the next Northern victory, he would issue a royal proclamation abolishing slavery, which would hopefully end Britain’s alliance with King William. Unfortunately, during this very meeting, British troops began their invasion; British cavalry invaded from Oregon into Dakota Territory, as British militias spilled over the border south into California. At the same time, a British army 30,000 strong landed in northern Quebec, quickly advancing into New Brunswick and Maine as well.


State of the War: December 1876

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The American Monarchy: 1877

The British advance into the Dakota Territory was rapid, and it forced King Robert to divert his forces in Missouri to the north. General Custer was ordered to return to the Dakota Territory, while John C. Frémont led his troops that had claimed victory in Iowa north to the Mississippi River border of Wisconsin. Unfortunately for King Robert, both Custer and Frémont were not able to move fast, as there was still considerable guerilla activity in Kansas and Missouri that needed to be dealt with. With almost no resistance, British forces were able to move quickly, their only hindrance arriving in the form of the harsh winter weather. By March, guerilla activity had been brought somewhat under control, and Custer and Frémont moved north. In April, with Missouri relatively defenseless, General G.T. Beauregard led reinforcements from Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas further north, against General Sherman’s fortified army. Sherman, realizing that Beauregard’s army was nearly twice the size of his own, refused to meet the Southern general in battle, instead retreating across the state, leaving scorched earth in his path. This strategy managed to delay Beauregard’s advance and sap the morale of his forces. Despite this, Beauregard knew that reinforcements were on the way, due to the recent passage of the conscription acts in the South.

In California, British troops proved to be completely inept and poorly trained, and the scrappy Californian defenders won numerous battles against them. By May, the British had been pushed back into Oregon, but the British invasion had allowed Southern troops to quickly move north through California, and by the summer of 1877, California and Nevada had been nearly completely conquered by Southern troops. At sea, the British aided the South in blockading most of the Californian coast. Meanwhile, in the Dakota Territory, Custer proved unable to decisively defeat the invading British, and their advance continued largely unchecked. By the summer, British forces had beaten Custer to the Mississippi, where Frémont was ill-prepared to defend Minnesota. In Quebec, King Robert II had quickly levied militias and soldiers to defend against the British advance. Luckily for King Robert, the winter slowed down the British considerably, and with superior knowledge of the terrain, British forces were slowly pushed back. Further, with the threat of British conquest, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick relented, and voted to join the United States as crown dependencies in March. The Northern Senate approved the entry during that same month, though a furious Jefferson Davis passed a resolution condemning and rebuking the two nations and supporting Britain. The Battle of Fort Fairfield in early May proved to be the deciding battle of the British campaign. The British had taken Fort Fairfield with little fight months earlier, but a combined force of militia from Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and New Hampshire, backed up by an army detachment commanded by Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain, besieged the fort and captured and killed nearly 5,000 British soldiers by the time the fort had been taken in mid-May. With a full sixth of their invading army claimed by casualties in the one battle alone, the British retreated and regrouped into upper Maine and Quebec.

As summer approached, with the Northern army pre-occupied with defending against the British, King William ordered a massive offensive along the Ohio River Front. Southern military leaders realized that military training was unnecessary when assaulting the Northern trench lines in frontal assaults, and as such, the huge number of Southern conscripts arrived with little training and poor equipment. To further boost numbers, William had ordered a draft of all black men aged 18 to 40, compensating slave owners for their drafted slaves with hastily printed bank notes backed up by a shrinking gold reserve. The 1877 Ohio River Offensive began during the early morning of May 3rd, 1877. Southern generals employed massive frontal wave assaults at key points along the over five-hundred mile long front¹. While the Northern trenches held the first assaults, as they always did, masses of soldiers eventually overwhelmed Northern defenses, and for the first time in two years, the stalemate along the Ohio River front was broken.  By the end of June, Southern forces had advanced nearly one-hundred miles north into Indiana, with additional advances in Ohio and Illinois, though they had incurred staggering casualties, with about 19% of fighting soldiers killed, and casualty rates at nearly 60%.


State of the War: July 1877

The Southern government realized that these high casualty rates would eventually destroy the army, but King William had many more reinforcement conscripts, and if it was needed, he was more than willing to draft every last slave in the county to preserve his government. In Missouri, during July and August, Sherman continued to slowly retreat, delaying Beauregard’s advance into northern Missouri and Iowa. On the other side of the Missouri, the Southern advance continued undeterred, human wave tactics overwhelming Northern trenches and fortifications. General James Garfield, commander of the forces on the Ohio River Front found himself overwhelmed, as assault after assault kept coming against his lines. By September, he was forced to order a general retreat, hoping that if his forces could regroup further north they would be able to stem the Southern onslaught. A number of bloody battles closed out the 1877 Ohio River Offensive. At the Battle of Peoria in central Illinois, Northern forces held off Southern assaults for 48 straight hours before finally succumbing, though the Southern forces in the battle suffered casualties seven times higher than their northern adversaries. The Battle of Wabash in Indiana unfolded similarly, once again resulting in a Southern victory, but at a devastating price. Finally, General Jackson, reinforced with recruits who had actually been trained and equipped for battle, moved north from Pittsburgh in September, breaking through the Northern trenches and met up with the army in Ohio. By November, after two months of bloody, slow advances, Jackson reached Lake Erie, successfully splitting the north in two.

Though all seemed lost in Pennsylvania and on the Ohio River front, in Dakota, General Custer was able to push back the British, with the help of Sioux and Lakota tribes that had cut their supply lines. Finally, at the Battle of Little Bighorn on September 3rd, General Custer and Sitting Bull surrounded the retreating British force. In the bloody massacre that ensued, the British fought to the last man, taking the Indian war chief Sitting Bull with them. After the battle had been won, George Custer ordered Sitting Bull’s body returned to his tribe, and wrote King Robert II, requesting a funeral in the capital in remembrance of the Indian chief, a companion and friend that Custer had grown incredibly close to. Despite the loss of a valued ally, the battle was a clear strategic victory for the North, as it forced the British out of the Dakota Territory. Custer immediately turned his forces south, speeding back to Missouri. The British were also defeated in Quebec during September, though delaying actions by the British allowed most of the British invasion force to escape the mainland and sail back to Newfoundland. Quebecois militia prepared themselves to follow the British north, but King Robert II specifically forbade it. With Southern forces on the verge of victory in Pennsylvania, within miles of Chicago, and in nearly full control of California and Nevada, Robert understood that he would need the British to be at the very least neutral if he was to succeed. He also needed new allies. In the winter of 1877, with the enemy at the gates, King Robert II sent envoys into Utah territory, further south into Mexico, and across the sea to Prince Edward Island.


State of the War: December 1877

¹Added to the sickening display of death that characterized the 1877 Ohio River Offensive was the tendency of Southern generals to use their black soldiers in the first assaults, effectively using them as cannon fodder, saving the white soldiers for the later, safer assaults.

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I'll update this weekend, and hopefully get to the end of the Civil War.

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The American Monarchy: 1878

King Robert II’s envoys first arrived in Utah Territory, which had remained loyal to King William. The diplomatic mission was led by Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of the former Prime Minister. The Governor of the territory, Samuel Beach Axtell (a Constitution Party loyalist), would not be turned to King Robert’s side, so Lincoln instead met with John Taylor, leader of the LDS Church. While initially apprehensive, Lincoln convinced Taylor to lead his fellow Mormons in open rebellion against King William’s government. The Northern government would offer them support and, following victory in the war, would give the LDS church greater autonomy over Utah Territory. In early March, Mormons rose up in open revolt, killing Governor Axtell and taking control of the territory. With General George Custer’s arrival in early April, Mormon and Northern forces managed to take control of Utah territory, as well as push into Nevada. The conquest of Utah allowed Northern forces to once again use the Transcontinental Railroad, allowing much needed troops and supplies to finally arrive in California. By the summer, Californian forces had begun to retake much of the state.

Diplomats meeting with Porfirio Díaz in Mexico and British representatives in Prince Edward Island were less successful. Mexico refused to join King Robert II while the British were still at war, and Díaz himself did not want to join what he saw as the losing side in the struggle. The British, while no longer enthused about invading once again, were still wary about supporting what was in their eyes a revolutionary government. King Robert II reasoned that he needed a crushing victory to prove to Mexico that victory was attainable and so that he could issue the royal proclamation he had been meaning to issue for over a year now, one that would end Britain’s involvement and convince Mexico to join the war on his side.

The situation on the Ohio River Front was precarious, for both sides. Southern forces were within miles of Chicago, Indiana and Ohio had been nearly completely conquered, and Beauregard was crossing the Missouri border into Iowa. But the 1877 offensive had left the Southern army in miserable shape. Most of the soldiers serving had been injured before in battle. Food was scarce, and disease ran rampant. Death rates were astronomical and the Southern economy was suffering. The Senate in Washington was bitterly divided, and elections had not occurred since 1868. Many Senators began calling for new leadership, and King William regularly threatened to dissolve the Senate if more money was not appropriated. Marshall Law prevailed in many Southern cities as draft riots broke out throughout the country. Nevertheless, King William believed that victory was close at hand. Reports from the front were positive, and he had little idea of the bloodshed occurring, only that his forces were coming out victorious.

But by April, when the South began its march on Chicago, it had become apparent that their own tactics had sapped their very own strength and morale. At the Battle of Des Plaines, Southern wave tactics failed for the first time since the offensive had begun. Northern defensive positions on the north side of the river easily cut down the first waves of advancing Southern troops as they tried to ford the shallow river crossings. As the day continued, Southern forces began to break, refusing to charge ahead, many units too under-manned to operate effectively. A charge by emboldened Northern troops late in the day finally broke the Southern line, and Chicago remained in Northern hands. The Southern advance in Indiana was also halted at a number of crucial skirmishes. Exhausted Southern troops in many cases refused to fight or retreated at the beginning of battle, and in a few isolated incidents they even mutinied. Near Philadelphia, reinforcements from New England that had been fighting the British in Quebec and Maine finally arrived, and pushed back Southern forces after three weeks of bloody trench warfare. In Pennsylvania, General James Garfield regained the Erie Coast at the Battle of Ashtabula River. With support from ships on Lake Erie and a coastal invasion of troops from Ontario and Michigan, Garfield soundly defeated the worn-out forces of Southern General Jackson. Jackson’s army, the largest and best-trained army in the entire Southern military, was reduced to a shell of itself by the end of the three-day battle, running low on ammunition, suffering low morale, under-manned and having lost its artillery in the retreat.

Most importantly, Garfield’s heroic victory had significant repercussions: a week after the victory, on May 1st, 1878, King Robert II issued the Royal Proclamation of Emancipation, a royal decree signed by every single Senator. The Proclamation permanently abolished slavery in the United States. The Proclamation was immediately positively received in Britain, where the British parliament agreed to recognize King Robert II as the true king of the United States and cease all hostilities. In Mexico, word of the Proclamation and Britain’s neutrality, as well as the numerous Northern victories that year, convinced the government to declare war on the Southern United States, to help instate King Robert II (and win the good-will of the United States). Mexican troops began spilling over the border in early June 1878.


State of the War: June 1878

Reinforcements and ammunition arrived in California in the early fall, and with aid from General Custer, the Southern troops in the state were quickly pushed back. Southern General Edmund Kirby Smith, Commander of the Western Theater, called for reinforcements from the states of Sonora and Hamilton, but the governors of those states were unable to send help, as their own states were quickly falling to Mexican forces. Southern forces in Hamilton regrouped in the state’s capital of Hamilton City, determined to hold the capital against Mexican forces. President Porfirio Díaz had appointed Manuel González as commander of Mexican forces invading Hamilton and Sonora. While the Mexican army was nowhere near as technologically advanced as Southern forces, González’s troops outnumbered the defenders of Hamilton City nearly 3 to 1, and were better prepared than the Southern defenders, who were mostly militia and conscripts. Hamilton City fell in early October, and with its fall, Southern resistance in the state effectively ceased. Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, held out longer than Hamilton City, but by the end of October, and weeks of bloody fighting, it had fallen. Southern resistance in the Southwest was effectively over by the beginning of November, when Custer’s forces moved into northern Sonora and South California Territory.

In Texas, the situation was just as bad for King William. The border between Mexico and Texas had been left largely undefended, and the state’s government was poorly prepared to repulse a Mexican invasion. King William was unable to divert troops from the Ohio River or Pennsylvania, and the hastily-raised Texan militias were unable to effectively fight Mexican forces. Elsewhere west of the Mississippi, abolitionist guerillas in Kansas and Missouri raided Southern positions and government installations, taking back northern Kansas by the end of the year. General Sherman, after nearly a year of delaying Southern General Beauregard’s advance, struck back. Due to the extensive use of scorched earth tactics by Sherman and constant harassment by guerillas, Beauregard’s army was in terrible shape. At the Battle of Platte River, General William Sherman prevailed in a three-day battle against Beauregard’s troops. While Beauregard had assumed a strong defensive position, turning back the first day’s Northern assault, Sherman managed to outflank Beauregard’s position on the second day, and partially surrounded a large detachment of Southern forces. On the third day, with heavy losses the day before, Beauregard’s defensive line was easily broken. With the loss at Platte River, Beauregard was forced to retreat, with Sherman on his heels.

Along with losses in the Southwest and Missouri, King William saw perhaps his greatest setback in the Ohio River Theater. General James Garfield led a huge offensive against Southern forces beginning in August. He had been reinforced with nearly 100,000 recruits from New England, New York and the Canadian states. Garfield’s offensive shifted the entire front faster than had ever been seen in the entire war. Southern armies were undermanned and undersupplied. Mutinies increased dramatically. There were many incidents of Southern officers surrendering to Northern forces without a fight. By the end of the year, Ohio and Indiana had been completely liberated, with only a few remaining pockets in southern Illinois. Garfield began to prepare his armies for an invasion of Kentucky and Virginia, at King Robert II’s request.


State of the War: December 1878

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Pittsburgh is still under Southern control, though Northern forces are just outside the city.

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The American Monarchy: 1879

In January of 1879, with such rapid, wide-ranging losses throughout the country, there was a sense of confusion and despair in the Southern capital of Washington. Jefferson Davis, threatened by both National and Constitution party Senators, stepped down. The Senate hadn’t seen elections in a decade, and through resignations and deaths its makeup had changed considerably. Before the war began, the national party had held more seats than their coalition partner, the Constitution party. But in the early stages of the war, with support largely behind Breckenridge and then Davis, the Constitution party had slowly increased its lead by winning a vast majority of by elections, eventually claiming a majority in the Senate. The Constitution party put up John H. Reagan of Texas for Prime Minister, confident that their superior numbers would elect him over the National candidate, but moderates in the party unexpectedly broke with the leadership, and helped Thomas F. Bayard (N-DE) become Prime Minister. Bayard was a moderate, and campaigned before his fellow Senators on a platform of ending the war, recognizing the Royal Proclamation of Emancipation, and recognizing King Robert II as rightful King. Bayard served as Prime Minister for only a week; an enraged King William labeled him a traitor and ordered the Senate dissolved. Bayard and his supporters (and even many in the opposition), arrived at the Senate regardless, calling the dissolution illegal. King William’s personal guard broke into the Senate chamber and arrested Bayard and all other Senators.

The collapse of the Southern government went hand in hand with the collapse of their armed forces. Southern troops were finally defeated in Illinois in February of 1879. Guerilla forces, backed up with Northern arms and artillery, pushed the South out of Kansas by the end of March. Mexican forces continued to advance rapidly. King William had ordered the conscription of Texan forces in the state and sent Brig. General Simon Buckner to command troops in the state. However, King William had lost nearly all of his authority by the spring of 1879, and Buckner refused to leave his home state of Kentucky as Northern forces were about to invade. With Texan forces unorganized and demoralized, Mexican and Northern troops marched into the capital of Jackson and Houston by the summer. The Prince of Texas, King William’s brother-in-law, had resigned his position and left the state when the Mexican army invaded, leaving the Speaker of the Texas Parliament, Richard B. Hubbard in charge of the state. Hubbard reluctantly surrendered to Mexican-Northern forces, and led the Parliament in taking an oath of allegiance to Robert II. Nathaniel Banks, commander of Northern troops in Texas, also forced the Texan Parliament to abolish slavery, in compliance with the Royal Proclamation of Emancipation. General George Custer also arrived in the state in May, with news that he and his men, with Mormon support, had liberated the entirety of Sonora, Hamilton, California and Nevada and the territories of Lower California, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

In the East, Garfield’s crossing of the Ohio River proved to be incredibly successful, with Southern forces continuing to fall back in disarray. General Sherman had retaken Missouri entirely by the spring, with Beauregard finally surrendering in Northern Arkansas. In May, Garfield was relocated to Ohio, where he led a successful invasion of Virginia. Western Virginians welcomed Garfield with open arms, and resistance was initially weak. In Washington, King William was still determined to win the war, and he had ordered all forces in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the southern states that had not yet been invaded to regroup in central Virginia, where they were placed under the command of immensely popular General McClellan. William hoped that McClellan’s popularity with the troops would help the morale problems that Southern armies had been suffering across the country. General Jackson was told to abandon Pittsburgh and regroup in Maryland (Delaware had already fallen in February), where he was told to dig in and prevent Northern General John Pope from advancing further.

In August, Sherman took New Orleans without a fight, and then marched west to Lafayette, meeting up with Mexican forces and Generals Custer and Banks. After a few weeks of rest, Sherman and his troops crossed the Mississippi River into the state of Mississippi. Meanwhile, McClellan threw all his remaining forces against General Cleveland, in a last ditch effort to turn the war around. The Three Weeks Campaign was the result. In a return to the tactics of maneuver that had begun the war, for three weeks McClellan and Garfield battled across the state of Virginia. McClellan initially claimed the upper-hand, pushing Garfield back into western Virginia. But despite early successes, Garfield won the critical Battle of Lynchburg, and the next two weeks of the campaign consisted of a number of skirmishes, culminating in the Battle of  Petersburg on September 3rd, 1879, where Garfield forced McClellan to surrender. Garfield then took his army north, taking Richmond. When General Jackson heard that Richmond had fallen, he sent an emissary across the trench-lines to Northern General Pope, offering his surrender. Thomas Jackson surrendered on September 17th, 1879, and on October 10th, General John Pope from the north and General James Garfield from the south marched into Washington. Thomas Bayard was released from jail, along with his fellow Senators. They famously walked from their jail cells through the city into the Senate, where they re-convened, many still in prisoner’s uniforms. Thomas Bayard was again elected Prime Minister by the Senate, and Garfield, Pope and Bayard signed a treaty of unconditional surrender. A week later, the bodies of King William, his wife, Queen Consort Rebbecca, and their new-born son William were found in Arlington Palace.

In the North, there was rejoicing. A war that had seemed unwinnable at its outset had now, five years later, been won. King Robert II was inaugurated in the capital on Christmas Day, 1879, surrounded by generals, politicians, and soldiers. He paraded through the streets, as a jubilant crowd of onlookers cheered. The nation was weary of war, and in a speech in front of the capital, King Robert II promised healing, rebuilding, and peace. The political situation of the country still needed to be sorted out (the question of Mormon and Indian autonomy, reconstruction, the insurance of the rights of ex-slaves, and new elections were all pressing issues), but for a few weeks at the end of 1879, the United States, once again united, was able to celebrate the end of bloodshed. The American War of Succession was over.

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The American Monarchy: 1880 - 1884

King Robert II called for a constitutional convention to be held in Washington during May 1880. He invited delegates from all the Northern states to attend, as well as Southern states that had formally pledged allegiance to King Robert II and abolished slavery (Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, Sonora, Hamilton and Virginia as of March when King Robert called for the convention). Each state sent three delegations: some including governors, others businessmen, others soldiers and officers, even labor leaders. Robert began the convention on May 2nd, 1880. Abraham Lincoln, the 71-year-old former Prime Minister and three-term governor of Illinois, was selected as President of the convention. The convention quickly passed the fourteenth amendment, formally banning slavery throughout the United States. Three weeks later, the fifteenth amendment was ratified, enshrining equal protection and due process into the constitution, and providing a broad definition of citizenship. King Robert II forced the sixteenth amendment through the convention, which increased the monarch’s and royal council’s power considerably by proclaiming the following:
1)   The monarch was given the final say in appointing sovereigns of royal dependencies.
2)   The monarch was given final consent regarding the Senate’s election of a Prime Minister.
3)   The Royal Council was given greater legislative power, with the ability to initiate non-spending bills. The Royal Council would also need only a simple majority vote to deny passage of bills (no longer 2/3s) and had to vote on all bills passed by the Senate.

The convention also established military governments in many Southern states, and temporarily removed their right to representation in the government.  West and East Florida were reorganized into the state of Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina into the state of Carolina and Alabama and Mississippi into the state of Mississippi, all in an attempt to dilute the “radical South’s” influence in Washington. Finally, at the close of the convention in late July, King Robert II set elections for the Senate in February 1881, giving politicians suitable time to organize into parties and write platforms and state legislatures and military governments time to prepare for an election.

The unity government that had governed the North for the duration of the war had been made up of a Whig-Liberty coalition. The two parties, perpetual coalition partners with similar policy planks, met in August 1880, and the smaller Whig party agreed to merge into the Liberty party. A convention was held in September of 1880, in the city of Pittsburgh. Large swaths of the city were still in ruin, and the Liberty convention was meant to be a reminder to all Americans of the sacrifices of war. John Bingham, of Ohio, who had served as Northern Prime Minister during the war, won an easy election as party leader, after war heroes James Garfield and William Sherman declined to be drafted or run for the Senate. The Constitution Party largely disappeared, seen as a traitorous and racist organization. The National Party took in many former Constitution senators, and held a convention in Richmond, Virginia, where after thirty ballots, Augustus Garland of Arkansas narrowly beat Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware. The National Party was unorganized and was unable to run candidates for many races. The Populist Party was also founded in the fall of 1880, courting farmers in the west, and led by James Weaver of Iowa.

As most Americans expected, the Liberty Party won a resounding victory in February of 1881. The National Party was disorganized and bankrupt, and much of its base in the Deep South had yet to be re-admitted. The Populist Party took advantage of the National’s disorganization, and ran as the sole alternative (often successfully) to the Liberty Party in western states. John Bingham was easily elected Prime Minister (this time of the entire United States) when the Senate convened in March.



The Senate following the Election of 1881:
Liberty Party: 155 seats
National Party: 63 seats
Populist Party: 26 seats
Total: 244 seats

The Government as of March 1881:
Prime Minister: John Bingham (L-OH)
Deputy Prime Minister: Benjamin Butler (L-MA)
Majority Whip: Rutherford B. Hayes (L-OH)
Secretary of State: Robert Todd Lincoln (L-IL)
Secretary of the Treasury: George F. Edmunds (L-VT)
Secretary of War: John Pope (L-OH)
Attorney General: Charles Devens (L-MA)
Secretary of the Interior:  Samuel J. Kirkwood (L-IA)


Prime Minister John A. Bingham

Prime Minister Bingham quickly lead his party in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1881, which served to counter-act the Black Codes that had been passed in a number of Southern states. The Reconstruction Act was also passed, funding the military governments in Southern states and setting asides millions of dollars in aid to the war-torn regions of the country. Most of the money was spent in the Ohio River valley, and focused on investments in urban and industrial infrastructure. The Populist Party lobbied heavily for relief for farmers in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Dakota Territory, areas that had been ravaged by pillaging and scorched earth tactics, but eastern industrial interests defeated the Populists’ proposition.

The Gold Coinage Act was debated and eventually passed in 1882. It called for the phasing out of “greenback” paper money that had been printed on both sides during the war, a return to the gold standard, and the demonetization of silver. Again, the Populist Party, representing western miners and farmers, came out vehemently against the proposal, but they held little sway. The National Party, seeking to gain the favor of rich bankers and industrialists in the Mid-Atlantic States came out in favor of the proposal, and it passed overwhelmingly, by a vote of 192 to 44. The Royal Council passed the bill unanimously. Also in 1882, King Robert II married Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, the 30-year-old daughter of prominent businessman William H. Vanderbilt. The couple’s first child, Crown Prince George Henry Lee, was born in 1883.

The Royal Council, by 1883, had admitted the state of Colorado. The Royal Council had also admitted New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as crown dependencies. The issue of admitting Deseret as a crown dependency, as had been promised during the war, was not settled so quickly. There were many in the royal council who were wary of giving the Mormons greater autonomy, worried that they would set up an independent theocracy. To settle these fears, the Senate passed a series of bills in 1883 outlawing bigamy in the crown dependency of Deseret, shrinking its area significantly from that originally proposed, and outlawing dual office holding within the LDS church and the government of Deseret. With the passage of these bills, the Royal Council narrowly voted to declare Deseret a crown dependency, by a vote of 15 to 11.

By 1884 violence and voter-intimidation had become a problem in the South, as states tried to hold elections to the state legislatures. Military Governors William Sherman, James Garfield, and John C. Fremont were authorized in the Voting Rights Act of 1884 to use federal soldiers to prevent voter intimidation and combat guerilla organizations in the South. In many states habeas corpus was temporarily suspended, but Prime Minister Bingham made it clear that his administration saw the protection of voting rights as one of the most important goals of Southern reconstruction. Pursuant to this aim, the Senate passed the 17th Amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote, regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude. While a handful of Northern Liberty senators, who supported the old party plank of universal suffrage, pushed for the inclusion of gender in the amendment, John Bingham did not want to jeopardize the amendments passage. The amendment passed 175 to 67 in the Senate and 25 to 2 in the Royal Council. The subsequent Re-Admission Act required that re-admitted Southern states ratify the 17th amendment.

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James G. Blaine is a Liberty backbencher from the state of Maine.

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Thanks for all the comments guys, and thanks to Ernest for the helpful suggestions.

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The American Monarchy: 1885-1889

By 1885, all Southern states had been re-admitted into the Union, though race relations in Southern states remained tense. Though the economy was weak, the Liberty Party was popular throughout the North and Midwest and amongst Southern blacks, and in the summer of 1885, John Bingham dissolved the Senate and called for elections. At the Liberty Party convention, held in Cleveland, John Bingham declined to run for a second term, citing his age and health. Rutherford B. Hayes and Robert Todd Lincoln threw their hats in the ring, but many delegates felt that a stronger candidate was needed. Eventually, James Garfield, after heavy lobbying, agreed to run for his old Ohio Senate seat and assume leadership of the party. The war hero was immensely popular, perhaps one of the most popular people in the country. At the National Convention, there was again a struggle between Northern interests and Southern interests. After a record 83 ballots, Thomas F. Bayard (N-DE), secured victory. Many southern delegates threatened to walk out, but after a stirring speech, Bayard was able to unify most of his party. He was a strong supporter of laissez-faire governance and the gold standard, and believed that federal troops should leave the Southern states to govern themselves. Ultimately, Senator-turned-General-turned-Senator James Garfield led his party to victory in November of 1885, and was elected as Prime Minister in January 1886. While the National Party had seen gains in the North, distrust of Bayard and his pro-business policies led the Populist Party to pick up the votes of many Southern whites.

The Senate before the Election of 1885:
Liberty Party: 155 seats
National Party: 63 seats
Populist Party: 26 seats
Total: 244 seats



The Senate following the Election of 1885:
Liberty Party: 171 seats (+16)
National Party: 84 seats (+21)
Populist Party: 50 seats (+24)
Total: 305 seats

The Government as of January 1886:
Prime Minister: James Garfield (L-OH)
Deputy Prime Minister: Robert Todd Lincoln (L-IL)
Majority Whip: Rutherford B. Hayes (L-OH)
Secretary of State: Robert Todd Lincoln (L-IL)
Secretary of the Treasury: John Sherman (L-OH)
Secretary of War: William E. Chandler (L-NH)
Attorney General: Charles Devens (L-MA)
Secretary of the Interior:  Samuel J. Kirkwood (L-IA)


Prime Minister James Garfield

In the early months of Garfield’s first term, a depression hit much of the United States, termed the Panic of 1886. Railroad companies that had expanded rapidly since the late 1860s and through the 1870s due to heavy government funding during the war, declared bankruptcy across the country, and banks in the Northeast began to fail. Coupled with poor economic conditions in Europe, unemployment sky-rocketed to 11% by the end of 1886. The passage of the Gold Coinage Act in 1882 that had returned the country to a gold standard was also blamed. There was heavy lobbying by sections of the Liberty and National Parties and most of the Populist Party to embrace bimetallism or a silver standard in response to the economic depression, but Prime Minister Garfield and Opposition Leader Bayard were both strong supporters of the gold. In the South, the depression destroyed the struggling factory economy that was developing, and there was a resurgence of agriculture and share-cropping. Strikes brought the railroad industry in the Midwest and the Northeast to its knees. King Robert II was apprehensive at first about using government intervention to end the strikes, but as the shutdown of railroads and factories caused the depression to worsen, he reluctantly called in federal troops. The large Midwestern cities of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cleveland, among others, were shut down for days and weeks as mobs of striking workers and federal and state troops clashed. By the end of 1887, the majority of strikes had ended, but the economy had still not rebounded.

As federal troops returned to the North to break up strikes and the nation’s treasury dwindled, Garfield and Robert II were forced to abandon much of the Southern Reconstruction. By 1888, federal troops had been pulled out of Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Virginia and parts of Carolina. A combination of worsening economic conditions and the end of Northern protection meant that many of the social and economic freedoms blacks had gained in the South began to disappear in the Upper South. Garfield was adamant that federal troops remain the Deep South, to protect the black voting blocs that largely supported his party. In many counties and cities, black voter intimidation returned and Jim Crow laws were passed. In an attempt to further protect civil rights in the South, the Liberty Party passed the Civil Rights Act of 1888, guaranteeing blacks the same treatment as whites in public places and criminalizing poll taxes and literacy tests. The Civil Rights Act passed overwhelmingly in the House, and narrowly in the Senate by a vote of 19 to 15.

The Depression crushed the National Party in the South, where poor, angry white farmers turned to the Populist Party, which blamed Northern business and freedmen for the economic situation. Populists took control of governorships and state legislatures and took five National Party seats in by elections during 1888. While free blacks rallied around the Liberty Party, Populists in the South increasingly used racist rhetoric to gain voters. In the Senate in Washington, Prime Minister Garfield came under constant attack for his inability to solve the economic crisis. Another series of strikes had broken out across the country and there were calls for a no confidence vote against Garfield. Garfield’s whip, Rutherford B. Hayes, reported to the Prime Minister in October 1888 that the Populists and Nationals would be able to siphon enough support from angry Liberty Senators to narrowly bring down the government. In an effort to satisfy Populists, Garfield had Secretary of State Robert T. Lincoln negotiate the purchase of land east of the Snake River from the British. Garfield also lobbied the Royal Council for the admission of 4 new states in the west: Montana, Wyoming, Dakota and Lakota. With the western faction of the Populist Party temporarily satisfied, Garfield avoided a no confidence vote.

The economy began to rebound in late 1888, and Garfield was ready to dissolve the Senate and call a snap election when the body reconvened that March. But in January 1889, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the newly created American Federation of Railroad Workers (AFRW) ¹ called a strike. The economy plummeted again, and the Populists again called for a no confidence vote. Before the vote could even be held, James Garfield was injured in an explosion on April 17th, 1889 in Washington. The explosion was blamed on anarchists, and a number of anarchists and immigrants accused of being anarchists were rounded up, arrested, and convicted. Garfield survived the explosion, but resigned as Prime Minister and Senator on May 28th, 1889, stating that he was unable to lead the country in his  condition. Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State Robert T. Lincoln became Prime Minister the next day. He reigned over the Senate for only a week, as a no confidence motion was passed against his government on June 4th, 1889, by a vote of 147 to 141. King Robert II set the election for September.


Prime Minister Robert T. Lincoln

¹ The AFRW had been founded two years earlier by Eugene V. Debs a veteran of the American War of Succession and a hero of numerous battles in Indiana and Ohio. Eugene Debs (often called “Sergeant Debs” by his supporters) had built up quite a bit of notoriety during the war. He later wrote that we was originally a pacifist, but had been drafted and fought for his country regardless. During the war he had come into contact with German immigrants who had been drafted by the North, who introduced him to the writings of Marx and Engels.

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Snake River is the river comprising the western border of our Idaho. Lakota was the name chosen for what we call Idaho, in commemoration of Lakota leader Sitting Bull.

General Custer remains an important general. While he was approached by some National supporters to run for the Senate or a Governorship, he had little interest for politics.

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Secretary of State Robert Todd Lincoln was able to negotiate the purchase of the Snake River territory in exchange for ending the small reparation payments Great Britain had promised the United States following their intervention in the war of succession. The British had barely settled the area, and American settlers had had de facto control of the territory since the end of the war.

The Royal Council approved the entry of the four new states with little debate.

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The American Monarchy: 1889 - 1894

Both the National and Liberty Parties held their conventions in New York City. At the National Convention, Thomas F. Bayard narrowly won re-election on the first ballot, with heavy backing from Northern Nationals, as Southern nationals, due to the railroad strike, were largely unable to attend. Robert Lincoln, as the current Prime Minister, won re-election on the first ballot. Most Liberty Party supporters knew that they had no chance of retaining a majority and anticipated a colossal defeat. While Nationals were slightly more optimistic, their pro-business platform and policies had alienated Southern whites and westerners, and most Northerners still considered them the party of the South. The Populist Party held their convention in New Orleans, where a bitter battle was fought between the Western and Southern wings of the party. James Weaver (P-IA), Benjamin F. Shively (P-IN), and Thomas E. Watson (P-GA) all fought for the nomination. Weaver represented Western interests, while Shively gained the support of Midwestern labor unions, and Thomas E. Watson gained the support of Southern delegates. After a day of speeches, Watson gained control of the party on the first ballot, and Weaver and Shively made speeches stressing party unity. The Populist Party went on to win a crushing landslide victory in September, nearly wiping out the Liberty and National Parties. State legislatures and governorships throughout the country also fell to the Populists. The party was truly a big tent party, comprising Western ranchers, miners, unions, socialists, communists, poor immigrants, Southern whites, and even middle-class voters tired of the faltering economy. At 33, Thomas Watson was the youngest Prime Minister ever and commanded a majority nine seats short of a 2/3 majority.

The Senate before the Election of 1889:
Liberty Party: 170 seats
National Party: 75 seats
Populist Party: 60 seats
Total: 305 seats



The Senate following the Election of 1889:
Liberty Party: 68 seats (-102)
National Party: 43 seats (-32)
Populist Party: 198 seats (+138)
Total: 309 seats

The Government as of November 1889:
Prime Minister: Thomas Watson (P-GA)
Deputy Prime Minister: James Weaver (P-IA)
Majority Whip: Ignatius L. Donnelly (P-WI)
Secretary of State: James Weaver (P-IA)
Secretary of the Treasury: Benjamin F. Shively (P-IN)
Secretary of War: James H. Kyle (P-DA)
Attorney General: Bernard Reyes (P-HM)
Secretary of the Interior: Henry Heitfeld (P-LK)


Prime Minister Thomas Edward Watson

The Populist Government of Prime Minister Watson immediately set about to reform the American economy. Watson pushed the Barker Fair Labor Act through the Senate with little debate. The law mandated an 8-hour work day in most industries, and passed by a vote of 197 to 105. When it was sent to the Royal Council, the bill failed by a vote of 14 to 29. Decrying the Royal Council as a “body beholden to the banking interests and against the common man”, Watson pushed forward with legislation meant to reinvigorate the economy. The Free Silver Act passed in March 1890, allowed the coinage of silver at a 16:1 ratio to gold. The Populist party was wildly pro-silver, and with the pro-gold National and Liberty voting blocs reduced to just over 1/3 of the Senate, the Free Silver Act passed overwhelmingly, by a vote of 201 to 97. Once again, the Royal Council blocked the bill, which was seen as too radical, by a vote of 19 to 23. Unable to influence the economy, Watson then turned to another of his party’s central policy planks: direction election of Royal Councilors. Working for weeks to lobby Senators from the Liberty and National parties, Watson scheduled the vote for August 20th, 1890. As voting closed, enough Liberty and National Senators had crossed over for the amendment to pass, by a vote of 203 to 96. It was then sent to the state legislatures, most of which were Populist-controlled. Elections for the Royal Council would be held every four years, starting in November 1894.

By 1891, the economy had begun to improve, and the frequency of strikes died down rapidly as Unions and businesses successfully negotiated higher wages and shorter work days. Faced with a conservative Royal Council, Prime Minister Watson was forced to abandon many of his proposed economic reforms and instead concentrate on governmental reforms. In 1891, his government focused on passing a number of civil service reform laws. Elsewhere in the country, state governments controlled by the Populists passed laws mandating secret ballots and establishing referendums, recalls and initiatives. While Watson had pushed for nationalization of railroads during his election campaign, he understood by 1891 that the Royal Council would be ardently against such a plan. Instead, he passed the Interstate Railroad Regulation Act, establishing a commission to regulate the railroad industry to ensure fair rates, among other things. The act passed in the Royal Council with little opposition.

As the Senate convened in March 1892, Watson gave a speech outlining his goals for the year. He argued that with the economy now back on its feet, it was time to go ahead with many of his party’s economic reforms. By the time the Senate had recessed for the summer, Watson had passed two important economic bills: the Coxey Anti-Trust Act, which limited trusts, cartels and monopolies, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed at the behest of unions, which halted Chinese immigration. Both acts garnered nearly unanimous support in both the Senate and Royal Council.

In 1893, Watson attempted to pass child labor laws, but the Royal Council made it clear that they would block any attempts at a federal child labor law. With his economic plans once again denied by the Royal Council, Watson led his party in over-turning the Civil Rights Act of 1888, by a vote of 157 to 148, with many Western and Midwestern Populists voting against the Prime Minister. The Royal Council also narrowly over-turned the Civil Rights Act, but King Robert II vetoed the bill, and Watson lacked the votes to over-ride the king’s veto. The split in his party over the act evidenced the first strains in his huge coalition of different interests. As 1893 came to a close, Watson tried to pass an amendment to the constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote, but it fell 10 votes short of the necessary 2/3 margin. At the start of the 1894 term, Prime Minister Watson passed the Railroad Workers Compensation Act, an attempt to protect and compensate railroad workers injured on the job. A month later, a similar act, protecting miners, was passed. In May, Prime Minister Watson attended, with King Robert II, the first game of the American Football League, in New York City. Brooklyn F.C. would win a close game against Boston F.C., with a final score of 4-3¹. Watson revealed to King Robert II that he planned to dissolve the Senate the next day and asked for August elections.

¹The American Football League was founded in 1894 by nouveau riche businessmen in the Northeast. Based on the rules established in England, football (or soccer in the vernacular), had become prominent at many Northeastern universities and was actively promoted by King Robert II, a fan of the game. The rules of the game had been codified in 1873, but it had remained a college game during the war period and the immediate post-war period. By 1894, it had grown in popularity and a professional national league was created. For the next few decades, football and baseball would compete for the title of national pastime.

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Will there be a Spanish-American War? I am assuming that this will add Puerto Rico and Cuba, which would be very interesting.

With memories of the War of Succession still fresh in most American's minds, there hasn't really been an impetus for war or expansion, and military and especially naval spending has dropped considerably.

Great Update, as per usuall. Just wondering has William Jennings Bryan made an appearence in the TL yet? He would make a great Populist Prime Minister. And I think many would agree.

GO POPULISTS!!

Bryan has not (yet) entered political life. In OTL, he went to school in Illinois and then Chicago during the 1870s and early 1880s, though, in my timeline, with the Illinois as a major front in the war, he had to postpone formal education until the 1880s. In the late 1880s, he moved to Lancaster, Nebraska (Lincoln, Nebraska in our timeline) and is thinking of running for the Senate in 1894.

Dakota seems kinda awkward, I'd recommend dividing it into two seperate states to make it look better.

Actually, I have the opposite criticism. The reason the West was broken up into many small states in real history was because the Republicans saw dividing it up as being to their political advantage because they were strong there. (This has changed over time, of course, though the Republicans are indeed strong there now.) Since Liberty was very weak in the area, I find it unlikely that they'd have admitted "Montana", "Idaho" and "Wyoming" as separate states, given that doing so surely helped empower the Populists.

At the same time, I doubt that the government would have been willing to create such a colossal state, as it would be ungovernable. One of the reasons in our history that Dakota territory was split up was that the two population centers of the territory were on opposite ends of Dakota.

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Obviously, I tried a different format for this update. Please tell me which one you like more.

The American Monarchy: 1894 - 1898

June 1894- Liberty and National Party leaders enter into talks about a possible alliance. After a week of talks, the two parties decide that the only way that they can wrestle power away from the Populists is a merger. The National and Liberty parties become the Liberal Party, stressing a gold standard, laissez faire economics, and a strong military. At their convention in New York City, former New York Governor Grover Cleveland was courted to run for the Senate and lead the new party, but he declined. After 23 ballots, the convention eventually settled on Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio. Hanna had the backing of numerous industrial and business leaders, and the Liberal party would spend a record amount on the election.

July, 1894- The Populists hold their convention in Omaha, Nebraska. While Watson is popular, there are clear divisions within the party, with a Western-Progressive bloc, a Southern bloc, and a socialist bloc emerging. Watson is able to win re-nomination on the first ballot, and stresses that his party needs a strong showing in the upcoming elections going into the first Royal Council elections in November.

August 7th, 1894- The Populist Party maintains control of the Senate. With no more vote-splitting in the Northeast, the Populists lose a number of seats. However, with Populist governments in many Southern states, there is wide-spread disenfranchising of black voters, allowing the Populists to make further gains in the South. Western states, Populist strongholds, also gain many seats after reapportionment.

The Senate following the Election of 1894:
Populist Party: 231 Seats (+33)
Liberal Party: 134 Seats (+19)
Total: 365 Seats



October 1st, 1894- The Senate reconvenes and Thomas Watson is elected to a second term as Prime Minister. In his speech before the Senate he outlines his party’s major goals within the next four years: passing a graduated income tax, passing the Barkley Fair Labor Act (establishing a national 8-hour workday), passing a federal minimum wage, passing universal suffrage, and lowering the tariff on essential goods.

November 6th, 1894- The first direct elections to the Royal Council take place. Many Councilors are elected as independents, though the Populists do gain a majority in the chamber.

The Royal Council following the Election of 1894:
Populist Party: 23 Seats
Liberal Party: 13 Seats
Independent: 8 Seats
Total: 44 Seats



February 1895- Both Houses reconvene. Prime Minister Watson begins debate on the Wilson-Debs Revenue Act, reforming and decreasing tariffs, and implementing a small, graduated income tax to make up for lost revenue. The vote for the Act went largely along party lines, though some in the Liberal Party supported the promise of tariff reform and were willing to substitute an income tax for the tariffs. The act passed 245-112.

April 1895- The Wilson-Debs Revenue Act is passed by a vote of 28 to 14 in the Royal Council.

May 1895- King Robert II, in a speech before the Senate, decries the lack of military spending. “Our military, once forced to become the most advanced in the world when our nation was torn apart by bloodshed, is now obsolete,” the King passionately argues. He calls for increased military and naval spending, and renewed expansion. Prime Minister Watson speaks the next day, after consulting with his cabinet: he will refuse the King’s request, arguing that “the plight of the worker, the farmer, the woman, and the child is, to my government, a more pressing concern than imperialism for the benefit of a privileged few.” However, freshman Senator Eugene V. Debs, famous war veteran and rising star of the socialist bloc of the Populist Party, comes out in favor of the king’s proposal. Despite support from Liberals and many in the Populist party, Watson and his cabinet are able to kill the proposal by the summer recess.

September 1895- Watson once again brings up the Barkley Fair Labor Act, establishing an 8-hour work day. Populist Senators eagerly amend the bill, attempting to add as many labor protections as they can, knowing that the Royal Council will pass the bill this time.

October 1895- The Barkley Fair Labor Act passes in the Senate, by a vote of 227 to 124. The act mandates a 10-hour work day, sets a national minimum wage, and adds numerous union protections. The Royal Council approves it later that month, by a vote of 29 to 13. King Robert II, still angry that his military proposals were not even debated, contemplates vetoing the bill, but instead allows it to become law without his signature.

February 1896- Benjamin F. Shively, Secretary of the Treasury, resigns to become Governor of Indiana. Prime Minister Watson decides to appoint one of the new freshman Senators to the post, eventually coming to Senators Eugene Debs (P-IN) and William Bryan (P-NE). The selection exposes a serious split in the Populist Party, as Debs has become the de facto leader of the Socialist bloc and Bryan is the rising star among Western and farming interests. Watson eventually settled on Debs, angering many Western Senators.

May 1896- In an effort to restore party unity, Prime Minister Watson creates the cabinet post of Secretary of Agriculture, promoting Kittel Halvorson (P-WI) to the post.

August 1896- The Senate once again takes up debate on the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Despite heavy lobbying from women’s groups, the King, and leaders of both parties, the amendment narrowly fails to garner the 2/3 majority needed, with the final tally at 239 to 119.

October 1896- In a cabinet meeting, Watson and his cabinet debate the legislative goals of the next term. Eugene Debs brings up King Robert II’s proposal for increased military funding, but Watson angrily cuts off the Senator.

February 1897- Eugene Debs is invited to Arlington Palace by King Robert II. Robert, after having heard that Debs supports him, commends the young Senator on having a place in the cabinet so soon into his career. Robert convinces Debs to force a vote on a bill increasing military and naval funding, assuring the Senator that with support from the Liberals and dissenting Populists, the bill will pass.

March 1897- Debs threatens Prime Minister Watson with resignation if his military bill is not brought up for debate. Watson agrees, confident that he can defeat it and unwilling to let Debs resign, a move that would surely break apart his party.

April 1897- The Debs-McKinley Army and Naval Expansion Act is put up for debate. Written by Eugene Debs and William McKinley (L-OH), the bill calls for doubling the size of the United States army, investing heavily in evolving rifle technology; increasing production of artillery and Gatling guns; increased production of steam-powered, steel warships with a goal of increasing the size of the American navy to top 5 in the world by 1910; and the subsequent creation of the Royal Atlantic and Royal Pacific Fleets. Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State James Weaver calls the bill “the beginnings of aggressive imperialism”, while Opposition Leader Hanna supports the bill as "the first step in re-invigorating this great nation following the crisis of the last decade.” After nearly a month of debate, Watson is shocked to see the bill pass by a margin of 197-162, as nearly 1/3 of his party supports it.

Mary 1897- The Royal Council votes on the Debs-McKinley Act, deadlocking at 21-21. King Robert II is constitutionally charged with breaking the tie, and he of course votes for the bill. In a triumphant ceremony, photographed by all the papers, the King signs the bill, flanked by Eugene Debs, William McKinley, Opposition Leader Hanna, General George Custer, and other current military leaders.

June 1897- While the Senate is in recess, the Supreme Court overturns the income tax provision in the Wilson-Debs Revenue Act. A week later it overturns the majority of the Barkley Fair Labor Act. Watson, at his home in Georgia, wires major newspaper, claiming that his government will amend the constitution to allow the bills’ passage.

September 1897- The 19th Amendment, allowing the Senate to levy income taxes, narrowly garners a 2/3 margin in the Senate. It will be ratified by the mostly-Populist controlled state legislatures.

January 1898- The Senate passes the Barkley Federal Labor Act, applying most of the provisions in the Barkley Fair Labor Act that affected private business to the federal government. The Royal Council will pass it a week later.

March 5th, 1898- Prime Minister Watson refuses to pass Eugene Debs’ proposed budget. The budget includes spending corresponding with the goals of the Debs-McKinley Act, but Watson, still angry about the bill’s passage, orders that the military appropriations in Debs’ proposal be halved. Debs demands that it be debated, as he is Secretary of the Treasury. When Watson refuses, Eugene V. Debs resigns from the government, and, with the backing of a significant portion of the party, calls for a no-confidence vote.

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1898 - 1902

On May 6th, 1898 the no confidence resolution against Prime Minister Watson came up for a vote. Opposition Leader Mark Hanna led his 134 Senators to vote against the Prime Minister. Watson had quickly lost control over his party the week before, as it had broken into three factions: a Socialist faction, led by Debs, holding most of the Populist seats in the North and Midwest; a Southern faction led by the Prime Minister; and an agrarian, progressive faction holding most of the Western Populist seats led by James Weaver. On May 5th, Weaver had given Watson his word that he would support the Prime Minister, and most in Weaver’s faction followed him in support of Watson. Nevertheless, with Debs’ support, the no confidence motion passed 211 to 145.

At the Liberal convention in New York City, Mark Hanna was re-nominated on the first ballot. “Americans want optimism, free enterprise and opportunity,” Hanna argued. “While the socialists, anarchists and communists seek to break this nation apart, we seek to establish a foundation of mutual trust and success between the laborer and the employer.” The Populist Party held its convention in Baltimore. Thomas E. Watson was nominated without opposition. The Prime Minister reminded all convention delegates that their party had “in one decade, done more for the working man, woman and child than any party in the nation’s history,” but Speaker of the Wisconsin State Senate¹ Robert M. La Follette’s keynote speech stole the show.  Finally, in Philadelphia, surrounded by labor activists and union workers, “Sergeant” Debs founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP). While he called for socialist reform, he also called for a stronger military, “so that the emancipation of the worker may extend beyond American shores.”

On Election Day, the Liberals were able to claim a slim majority of seats, largely due to SDP-Populist vote splitting across the country, but also due to some Populist-fatigue in parts of the nation. The Senate would meet again in late November for a short session, but in early November the elections for the Royal Council were held. Once again, the Liberal Party made gains, taking a majority of the chamber. Following the elections, there was talk in both the Populist and Social Democratic Parties about implementing proportional or run-off voting, as the combined popular vote of the Populists and SDP had been greater than that of the Liberals.

The Senate before the Election of 1898:
Liberal Party: 134 Seats
Populist Party: 151 Seats
Social Democratic Party: 80 Seats
Total 365 Seats



The Senate after the Election of 1898:
Liberal Party: 185 Seats (+51)
Populist Party: 113 Seats (-38)
Social Democratic Party: 67 Seats (-13)
Prohibition Party: 1 Seat (+1)
Total 365 Seats



The Royal Council after the Election of 1898:
Liberal Party: 24 Seats (+11)
Populist Party: 15 Seats (-8)
Social Democratic Party: 4 Seats (+4)
Independent: 1 Seat (-7)
Total: 44 Seats

The Government as of December 1898:
Prime Minister: Mark Hanna (L-OH)
Deputy Prime Minister: John Sherman (L-OH)
Majority Whip: Theodore Roosevelt (L-NY)
Secretary of State: John Sherman (L-OH)
Secretary of the Treasury: William McKinley (L-OH)
Secretary of War: Garret Hobart (L-NJ)
Attorney General: Joseph McKenna (L-CA)

Claiming an electoral mandate, due to his majorities in both chambers, Mark Hanna won a vote along party lines to become the new Prime Minister when the Senate briefly convened in December 1898. Thomas Watson would become opposition leader. When the Senate reconvened again in March 1898, Prime Minister Hanna made it clear to the entire Senate that he would follow a course of government reform and government reduction. By the end of December, Prime Minister Hanna had, with the support of the SDP, passed a budget dramatically increasing military spending (though only slightly reducing government spending in other areas). In 1899, still claiming a mandate, the Prime Minister attempted to pass the McKinley Tariff, dramatically raising tariff rates, above the level they had been before Watson’s government had cut them. Owing to his small majority, the vote was incredibly close, largely along party lines. While some moderate Liberals were initially leaning against the tariff, the young, charismatic Majority Whip Roosevelt was able to keep the caucus together, and the McKinley Tariff passed by a vote of 183 to 180. It easily passed in the Royal Council, by a vote of 24 to 18.

Hanna’s success as Prime Minister was short-lived. He had spent most of his political capital on the McKinley Tariff (which was unpopular among most voters) and the moderates in his party were unwilling to support many of his later proposals. While he was able to pass the Gold Standard Act of 1899 towards the end of the year, reaffirming a gold-only monetary system with full support from his party as well as some cross-over support, his further proposals failed. His early 1900 Revenue Act, dramatically cutting income taxes, failed by a close vote of 173 to 182. By the spring of 1900, Hanna’s government, unable to accomplish any of its legislative goals, was on the verge of collapse.

On June 20th, 1900, Chinese rebels (styled “Boxers”) surrounded and laid siege to the Legation Quarter in Peking, an area housing the British, French, American, Belgian, Dutch, Russian, and Japanese legations. Though the American presence was smaller than that of the other European powers in China, due to some two decades of unofficial and official policies of isolationism, the Prime Minister still saw the siege as an act of war. In a meeting with King Robert II on June 22nd, the Prime Minister asked the King for an expedition of troops and ships to defeat the Boxers in China and protect Western interests. Hanna and Robert II both saw an opportunity to expand American influence. Through June and July sensationalist stories ran in the American press about the atrocities committed by the Boxers in Northern China and the heroic stories of the international defenders in Peking. By July, an international, nine-nation force (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the UK, and the USA) had arrived in China and liberated Peking.

The fighting ended quickly, with the Boxers defeated by the end of 1900. While only a few American soldiers had participated, the American army and navy were celebrated as heroes on their return home. American forces had quietly taken control of ports in Hawaii (an island chain that had been embroiled in years of fighting between the Hawaiian monarchy and American corporations), and the Cannon Act, passed in 1901 with Liberal and SDP support, formally annexed the Hawaiian island chain. After the passage of the Cannon Act, Hanna realized that his party, with cross-over support from SDP (and some Populists) could effectively govern on foreign policy issues. Furthermore, the boost of popularity he had received following the intervention in China and the annexation of Hawaii had saved his government.

Since the 1890s, American newspapers had written sensationalist stories about the revolution occurring in Cuba, just South of American shores. Americans, still confident over the easy victory in China, now called for aid to the Cuban rebels. Secretary of State William McKinley was sent to Spain to negotiate Cuban independence in 1901. To back-up McKinley, King Robert II had ordered the American fleet to surround Cuba. After a grueling month of negotiations, the diplomatic envoy led by McKinley returned in 1902 to the United States with a promise of greater political freedom in Cuba. Prime Minister Hanna himself then traveled with a group of diplomats to Cuba, where he met with Máximo Gómez and other Cuban leaders and the Spanish government on the island. By the summer of 1902, the three sides had signed the Treaty of Havana, granting the island of Cuba an autonomous, democratic government as part of the Spanish empire. The Prime Minister returned to the United States triumphant, and with the popular support of the people, he called for elections later that year.

¹In Wisconsin, the Speaker of the State Senate was also the head of state. By the late 1800s, state governments varied wildly: some still had governors, often with either a bicameral or unicameral legislature; others had only a unicameral legislature, with the speak of the legislature effectively acting as the state’s executive; still others were governed by royal appointees (the royal dependencies of Texas, Deseret, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia).

[Lief 🗽]

First past the post, with whichever candidate secures a plurality of the vote winning.

[Lief 🗽]

Tomorrow, probably. I spent the entirety of today getting my December 1st college apps in.

[Lief 🗽]

The American Monarchy: 1902 - 1906

The Social Democratic Party held its convention first, in El Paso, Hamilton¹. There was no question that Eugene V. Debs would be re-nominated: he was the SDP. Debs committed his party to compete across the country, seriously contesting in the West and South, as well as the Northeast and Midwest. Thomas E. Watson was easily re-nominated at the Populist convention in Atlanta. While Watson attempted to stop them, many of the delegates gave virulent speeches against American internationalism. They decried the conquests of Hawaii, the invasion of China, and the meddling in Spanish affairs. The press (usually fairly biased towards the Liberal Party already) defined the Populists as a group of mad isolationists following the convention’s conclusion. Finally, Mark Hanna had organized a parade through the streets of St. Louis bringing him to the convention hall. He was re-nominated unanimously and promised a continuation of his government’s policies. The election that November was the first in which voters elected both a Senator and a Royal Councilor on the same day, and the Liberal party saw solid gains in both chambers.

The Senate after the Election of 1902:
Liberal Party: 233 Seats (+48)
Populist Party: 96 Seats (-14)
Social Democratic Party: 73 Seats (+4)
Prohibition Party: 0 Seats (-1)
Total 402 Seats



The Royal Council after the Election of 1902:
Liberal Party: 27 Seats (+3)
Populist Party: 13 Seats (-2)
Social Democratic Party: 4 Seats (+0)
Independent: 0 Seats (-1)
Total: 44 Seats



Prime Minister: Mark Hanna (L-OH)
Deputy Prime Minister: William McKinley (L-OH)
Majority Whip: James R. Garfield (L-OH)
Secretary of State: William McKinley (L-OH)
Secretary of the Treasury: Elihu Root (L-NY)
Secretary of War: Theodore Roosevelt (L-NY)
Attorney General: Joseph McKenna (L-CA)

Mark Hanna overhauled nearly his entire cabinet, as many cabinet members had died or resigned. He made the immensely popular William McKinley Secretary of State and Deputy Prime Minister, and promoted New York Senator Theodore Roosevelt from Whip to Secretary of War. Prime Minister Hanna now enjoyed a solid majority, enough to govern on both foreign/military issues and the domestic issues he was chiefly concerned with. In 1903, his government easily passed the Gold Standard Act of 1902, establishing gold as the only standard for redeeming money and completely outlawing bimetallism.  Later in the year, the Prime Minister pushed for a third time for a constitutional amendment granting women suffrage. Finally, the 19th amendment passed by a vote of 321 to 73, and was sent to the states. It was ratified by ¾ of the states by 1905. The year 1905 also saw the admission of 3 new states: Arizona, Oklahoma and Lincoln (the re-named territory of Lower California). The Populists and SDP had pushed for Arizona and Lower California to each be divided into two states, but the Liberals controlling the Royal Council ensured that two more SDP-Populist swing states would not be added to the Union.

In 1904, the political situation in Cuba again broke down. Political gridlock and a domineering Spanish presence had rendered the Cuban government useless, and it was disbanded in late 1903. By 1904 the island was once again embroiled in war. Prime Minister Hanna contacted the Spanish government in Madrid in May and demanded full independence for Cuba, as it had become apparent to his government that Spanish and Cuban cohabitation was not possible. King Alfonso XIII refused, and the Prime Minister asked King Robert II to order the Atlantic fleet to Cuba. The Pacific fleet, under Admiral Dewey, was also put on alert. King Robert II personally contacted Alfonso XIII in early June, threatening that if Cuba wasn’t granted full independence, the United States would go to war. In the Senate, Prime Minister Hanna pushed through the War Readiness Act, calling for a large increase in army troops and putting 64-year-old George Custer in command of the Army. When Alfonso again refused to grant Cuba full independence, the Royal Council, by a vote of 30 to 12, declared war on Spain.

The war did not last long, as the Spanish were wholly unprepared. Secretary of War Theodore Roosevelt²  had continued to build the navy, believing that a strong navy was essential to the United States’ continued presence on the world stage. The Spanish navy, on the other hand, was obsolete and ancient, and the Spanish fleet in the Caribbean was quickly routed. American troops landed in Cuba and Puerto Rico, easily defeating the Spanish garrisons. General Custer met with Cuban leaders and took Havana in August, 1904. In the Pacific, Admiral Dewey silently and easily annexed the Philippines. By the fall, the Spanish had been defeated, and Alfonso XIII sued for peace. In the Treaty of Paris, Spain relinquished control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The treaty was ratified in the Senate, but an amendment guaranteeing Cuba its independence was defeated. Hanna and the liberal government pushed for the annexation of the island, and the Platt Act, supported by the government in 1905, made Cuba a royal dependency. Looking to Deseret as an example (which functioned with much greater autonomy than the other states), most Cuban leaders were satisfied, especially as the Platt Act also called for millions of dollars in investments in Cuban infrastructure.

Prime Minister Hanna contemplated calling elections, as he and his Liberal Party had become incredibly popular and the economy was booming. Throughout 1905, he was able to repeal many of the regulations passed by Watson’s government, and Attorney General Joseph McKenna was instructed to use the Coxey Competition Act to break up some of the larger unions, as the act technically covered unions. The SDP and Populists called foul, but the Supreme Court upheld Hanna’s reading of the act. In 1905, the German government invited Prime Minister Hanna to send a diplomatic delegation to Berlin. The Kaiser had been impressed by the industrial and military build-up of the United States during Hanna’s administration, and had felt particularly isolated after the Morocco Crisis of 1905. Kaiser Wilhelm II thought that the United States would make a powerful ally and a counter to France’s new ally in Great Britain.

Secretary of State William McKinley and Princes George and Charles³ left for Germany in 1906, where they met with Kaiser Wilhelm II, his wife Augusta Viktoria, and their children. Charles became enamored with Princess Viktoria Luise (who was 2 years younger than him and the Kaiser’s youngest child), but had to devote most of his time, along with his brother, to representing his father and the United States to the German people. The two princes toured much of the country, meeting with German officials and generals. Crown Prince George was particularly impressed with the German General Staff and the heavy militarization of German society in comparison to his own. Meanwhile, Secretary of State McKinley signed a non-aggression pact with Germany and invited German diplomats to come to America for further negotiations. The Princes and McKinley were greeted triumphantly on their return to the United States. Later in 1906, King Robert II, Prime Minister Hanna, German Crown Prince William and Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow signed the German-American Pact of Alliance in Washington. The signing of the pact (and it’s ratification in the Senate) coincided with elections in the Royal Council, where the Liberals and SDP made slight gains.

The Royal Council after the Election of 1906:
Liberal Party: 29 Seats (+2)
Populist Party: 13 Seats (+0)
Social Democratic Party: 6 Seats (+2)
Total: 48 Seats



¹A young Doroteo Arango Arambula would attend the convention. He was born to a Mexican soldier and his wife, who had been stationed in the state of Hamilton during the War of Succession. The young man would later change his name to Francis Villa (after his grandfather) when he entered local politics in Hamilton.
²Senator Roosevelt initially attempted to resign as Secretary of War and join the fight in Cuba, but the Prime Minister and his wife advised him against it. For the rest of his life, Theodore Roosevelt would call his decision to not fight in Cuba his greatest regret.
³Prince Charles Alexander Robert Lee was King Robert II’s second son and fourth child, born in 1890. King Robert II also had two daughters, Princess Paulina and Princess Martha, born in 1885 and 1888.

[Lief 🗽]

Tomorrow, probably. I spent the entirety of today getting my December 1st college apps in.

Oh where did you apply?

University of Texas at Austin yesterday.

Here's a list of Prime Ministers, Opposition Leaders, and Kings and their heirs:

List of American Prime Ministers:
Alexander Hamilton (R-NY): 1791-1803
James Madison (WR-VA): 1803-1811
Aaron Burr (WR-NY): 1811-1815
John Q. Adams (R-MA): 1815-1820
William H. Crawford (R-GA): 1820
James Monroe (WR-VA): 1820-1825
Daniel D. Tompkins (WR-NY): 1825-1826
Aaron Burr (WR-NY): 1826-1829
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1829-1836
Andrew Jackson (J-TN): 1836-1842
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1842-1850
Daniel Webster (N-MA): 1850-1851
James K. Polk (C-TN): 1851-1855
Abraham Lincoln (W-IL): 1855-1866
Charles Winthrop (W-MA): 1866-1869
Clement Vallandigham (N-OH): 1869-1872
John C. Breckenridge (C-KY): 1872- 1875
Jefferson Davis (C-AL): 1875-1879
Thomas F. Bayard (N-DE): 1879
Vacant: 1879-1881
John Bingham (L-OH): 1881-1886
James Garfield (L-OH): 1886-1889
Robert T. Lincoln (L-IL): 1889
Thomas E. Watson (P-GA): 1889-1898
Mark Hanna (L-OH): 1898- ??

List of Opposition Leaders:
Thomas Jefferson (WR-VA): 1791-1799
Aaron Burr (WR-NY): 1799-1803
George Clinton (R-NY): 1803-1805
John Q. Adams (R-MA): 1805-1811
DeWitt Clinton (R-NY): 1811-1812
Rufus King (R-NY): 1812-1815
James Monroe (WR-VA): 1815-1820
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1820-1829
Andrew Jackson (J-TN): 1829-1836
Henry Clay (N-KY): 1836-1842
Martin Van Buren (W-NY): 1842-1846
Abraham Lincoln (W-IL): 1846-1855
James K. Polk (C-TN): 1855-1862
Sam Houston (C-TN): 1862-1864
Clement Vallandigham (N-OH): 1864-1869
Charles Sumner (L-MA):1869-1874
Vacant: 1874- 1881
Augustus Garland (N-AR): 1881-1886
Thomas F. Bayard (N-DE): 1886-1894
Mark Hanna (L-OH): 1894-1898
Thomas E. Watson (P-GA): 1898- ??

List of American Monarchs:
King George I: 1791-1799
    Prince George: 1791-1799
King George II: 1799-1853
    No heir: 1799-1831
    Prince Robert: 1831-1853
King Robert I: 1853-1873
    Prince William: 1853- 1873
King William I: 1873-1879
    No heir: 1873-1879
    Prince William: 1879
King Robert II: 1879- ??
    No heir: 1879-1883
    Prince George: 1883 - ??

[Lief 🗽]

1) Regarding Arizona: I assumed that the territory of New Mexico wouldn't have been named New Mexico had it not been bordering the country of Mexico, which it isn't in this timeline.

2) Race relations are at about at the same level they were in our timeline. The rise of the Populists and the economic panic in the 80s and 90s silently ended southern Reconstruction. The Supreme Court has been somewhat more pro-civil rights, as they are appointed by the King, but Jim Crow laws exist nonetheless in the South.

3) There's something of a lesser nobility. The Virginia plantation owners originally formed a de facto noble class in the 1800s, as the royal family was largely based in Virginia, but this ended during and after the civil war. The rich, upper class is still engaged in the excesses of the Gilded Age, but with the King and his royal family as a sort of figurehead for rich. While Arlington Palace in Virginia is still the royal family's official home, they enjoy most of their time with the upper class of New York, which in large part prompted the marriage of the Vanderbilt's into the royal family.

EDIT: As an addendum to #2, voting rights for blacks aren't as restricted in the South as they were in our timeline, though the elections can still hardly be called fair.