A New American Century: The Rise of the American Right (1904-)

[DKrol]

A New American Century: The Rise of the American Right (1904-)

Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States on September 14, 1901 after the death of William McKinley. McKinley was a beloved figure within the Republican Party, able to unite and draw support from all wings of the Grand Ol' Party. Roosevelt was a beloved national figure, renowned for his courage and valor during the Spanish-American War. Within the Republican Party, however, Roosevelt was not universally supported. He was much more closely linked with the up-and-coming Progressive movement than McKinley and the majority of Republicans and his trust busting campaigns were not popular within the Party. RNC Chairman Mark Hanna, a longtime ally of McKinley, began pulling strings within the Party almost immediately after Roosevelt's ascension to ensure that "the proper factions" regained control of the White House in 1904.

The Business Wing of the Republican Party was firmly for Hanna himself over Roosevelt, and Hanna was prepared to challenge Roosevelt, however Hanna contracted typhoid fever in the first week of 1904. Before the end of the month, Hanna was dead and his successor as RNC Chairman, Henry Clay Payne, was firmly a Rooseveltite. By the time the Republican Convention convened in Chicago, a majority of the Party's leadership was opposed to Roosevelt, while the common people of the United States were in love with him. After several ballots, with a variety of anti-Roosevelt candidates available, the President was renominated. Although some delegates wanted to nominate a member of the Business Wing as Vice President to moderate the ticket, the Party Bosses had another plan in mind and instead pushed for Progressive Representative Robert R. Hitt, who was nominated almost unanimously.

This was not acceptable for the leadership, who feared Roosevelt would take an electoral mandate and turn it into a full embrace of the Progressive movement. Instead of embracing the President, the senior leadership of the Republican Party quietly sent a delegation to the National Party Convention in New York City to work out a plan. Should the National Party nominate a member of the Republican Party on their ticket, the GOP Bosses would divert much of their financial support to the National Party ticket to bring it to national prominence. At the National Party Convention, made up of fewer than 300 delegates, two Republicans were considered for President: Robert Todd Lincoln and Charles W. Fairbanks. Lincoln would bring immense national name recognition to the ticket, although he had not held any official government office since 1893, while Fairbanks was lesser known but was an active and vocal member of the Senate. On the third ballot, Robert Todd Lincoln was nominated by the National Party for President with National Party icon Edward Waldo Emerson as his running mate.

The Democrats also saw an opening for a return to conservatism. After having lost two straight elections with a liberal ticket topped by Williams Jennings Bryan, Party Bosses looked for someone from the conservative Bourbon Democrat coalition built by Grover Cleveland. Considered an early favorite, Cleveland ruled out a fourth run for the White House, instead throwing his support behind Texas Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey. Also running for the Democrats were former Attorney General Richard Olney, another Bourbon Democrat, and William Jennings Bryan. At the Saint Louis Convention, the heft of a former President weighed heavily on the minds of the delegates. Bailey was nominated for President, although the Vice Presidency went to moderate Congressman James R. Williams.

1904 Presidential Election Polls, Chicago Tribune - August 2, 1904
President Theodore Roosevelt/Congressman Robert Hitt (R) - 28%
Senator Joseph Bailey/Congressman James Williams (D) - 27%
Businessman Robert Todd Lincoln/Orator Edward Waldo Emerson (Nat.) - 18%
Undecided - 27%

[Enderman]

Very promising. Keep up the good work, Krol!

[DKrol]

Former Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, 1904 National Party Candidate for President

The election of 1904 would go down in history as one of the most active in history. From the moment the conventions ended, the candidates and their surrogates began crisscrossing the nation in the hopes of drawing just enough support to clinch the White House.

Robert Todd Lincoln began his campaign with a trans-continental whistle stop train tour, setting out from New York City on August 5. He gave speeches in Harrisburg, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Baltimore, MD; Columbus, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Chicago, IL; Des Moines, IA; Topeka, KS; Elko, NV; Olympia, WA; Salem, OR; Sacramento, CA; San Francisco, CA; and San Diego, CA over the course of five months from the back of a red-and-gold painted train car. His campaign speeches highlighted his ties to American politics, especially drawing on his beloved father, as well as drawing contrasts between himself and President Roosevelt. At a speech in Chicago, Lincoln said “Mr. Roosevelt wants to create more national parks. I think that’s a fine goal. What Mr. Roosevelt does not understand, sadly, is that more parks mean less jobs! I will never put the value of a few trees above the importance of keeping Americans at work.” At every stop, Lincoln’s speeches drew massive crowds and received coverage from all of the major papers.

Senator Joseph Bailey also embarked on a whistle stop train tour campaign, with a slightly different set of targets than Mr. Lincoln’s. Mr. Bailey’s train made stops in Lancaster, PA; Charleston, WV; Wheeling, WV; Indianapolis, IN; Chicago, IL; Belleville, IL; Kansas City, MO; and Wichita, KS. In his speeches, Bailey chided big party bosses and proclaimed “A battle is being fought for the future of our democracy. Do we want to have our presidents selected in smoky hotel rooms by Charles Murphy and the Tammany Hall goons?” Bailey also paid lip service to the idea of democratically elected Senators but personal writings of his reveal that he was truly worried about “the kinds of people who the citizens would elect” if given the opportunity. 

President Roosevelt was not able to campaign as frequently as the other candidates, due to his time commitments of being president, and relied heavily on his running mate and other surrogates to pitch his case for him. Congressman Hitt, as a foreign policy expert, spent much of his time on the campaign trail talking about the Administration’s foreign policy goals. Hitt said, at a press conference in New York City, that the Roosevelt/Hitt Administration would focus on “establishing a permanent presence for the United States in Latin America”, as well strengthening the American Navy. A speech by Governor Bob La Follette (R-WI), who was serving as a domestic policy spokesman for the Republican ticket, received far more coverage in the national press, however, when he proclaimed “By the end of President Roosevelt’s term, every man in America will be making at least 50 cents for every hour of hard work!”  The idea of a $.50 minimum wage shocked all but the most radically minded citizens. President Roosevelt was forced to issue a press release walking back La Follette’s statement, instead insisting that his goal would be working towards a better standard of living for the American people. But the narrative was still set by the press: Roosevelt was more radical than anyone had imagined.

The negatives for the Roosevelt campaign continued. Senator Bailey and the DNC took out a full page ad in several major papers, attacking the Roosevelt White House for extreme corruption. The ad read “President Roosevelt says that he is fighting corruption, when in fact he is one of the most corrupt men in the nation. His White House is no more than a breeding ground for cronyism and black mail.” The central basis for the claim was a series of payments, authorized by President Roosevelt, within the Bureau of Corporations. Roosevelt admitted to authorizing the payments but denied the allegations of black mail, instead saying that they were routine disbursements. Robert Todd Lincoln picked up on the attacks on Roosevelt’s “two-faced image” with corruption, saying “The level of trust between a President and the people must be secure. The people could trust my father. They will be able to trust me. Can we trust President Roosevelt? The facts would seem to indicate otherwise, but I will leave the judgement to the American people in November.”

For the first time, President Roosevelt looked to be in a very vulnerable position.

1904 Presidential Election Polls, Chicago Tribune – October 7, 1904
Senator Joseph Bailey/Congressman James Williams (D) - 33%
Businessman Robert Todd Lincoln/Orator Edward Waldo Emerson (Nat.) - 28%
President Theodore Roosevelt/Congressman Robert Hitt (R) - 22%
Undecided - 17%

[Lord Byron]

Good update.

Waiting for more...

[DKrol]

An update will come this afternoon or this evening, I promise.

[DKrol]

Businessman Robert Todd Lincoln/Orator Edward Waldo Emerson (Nat.) – 254
Senator Joseph Bailey/Congressman James Williams (D) - 158
President Theodore Roosevelt/Congressman Robert Hitt (R) - 64
 
For the first time since Zachary Taylor in 1848, a President was elected who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican. Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the beloved 16th President, had swooped into politics himself by lifting up the mantle of American conservatism and fighting against President Roosevelt’s Progressivism. He ran a strong campaign, promising to raise tariffs to protect American goods, battling the corruption that was known to plague politics, and practicing retail politics better than any candidate for the presidency. Lincoln’s campaign redefined the very idea of an American presidential campaign, ending the theory that voters liked the idea of a presidential candidate to float above and grace them, occasionally, with a public speech.

President Roosevelt accepted the results of the election gracefully, at least in public. He gave a press conference the following day and said he had sent a telegram to Lincoln, congratulating him on “properly understanding the sentiments of the American people”.  Privately, however, Roosevelt was furious with Lincoln. Papers from Roosevelt’s records show he called Lincoln “the most divisive man I have ever had the displeasure of facing”, adding “His ego is so inflated by his name that he forgot the curtesy due to a President of the United States”. Papers from Lincoln’s records show that the incoming President attempted to extend an olive branch. In their first meeting after the election, a luncheon held at the Waldorf-Astoria, Lincoln offered Roosevelt the position of Secretary of the Interior, an office he felt would allow Roosevelt “the freedom to continue his work for conservation.” Roosevelt saw the offer as a slight and declined. Instead of filling his cabinet with men like Roosevelt, Lincoln instead fully embraced the business class that got him elected, giving many offices to the sons of the men who had supporter him and largely financed his campaign.

Cabinet of Robert Todd Lincoln
Vice President: Edward Waldo Emerson
Secretary of State: Charles W. Fairbanks
Secretary of the Treasury: Nelson W. Aldrich
Secretary of War: Joseph Wheeler
Attorney General: William H. Taft
Postmaster General: Thomas N. Hart
Secretary of the Navy: John Davis Long
Secretary of the Interior: George Washington Vanderbilt II
Secretary of Agriculture: James Wilson
Secretary of Commerce and Labor: James Ross Mellon

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Neat. Hope to see more.

[Kingpoleon]

Very good.

[DKrol]

Speaker of the House of Representatives Joseph G. Cannon

There were also elections for Congress on November 8, 1904. Few Senators formally left the Republican Party for the National Party, although many did shift their policies closer to the ideas that Robert Todd Lincoln had run on. Several Congressmen chose to run as Nationalists, seeing the popular tide with them. House Speaker Joseph Cannon flirted with the idea of switching to the National Party but, when the Republican Conference officially moved their “Policy Agenda” to the right. Once all of the votes were certified, the Republicans held a majority in both Houses.

Speaker Cannon held on to his position, while Republican Leader Sereno Payne stepped down. Elected in Payne’s place was James Eli Watson of Indiana. John Sharp Williams held control over the Democratic conference, barely. In the Senate, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge became the unofficial leader of the Republican conference, while Senator Hernando Money filled that role for the Democrats. Senator George S. Nixon became the main spokesperson for the Nationalists in the Senate while their leader in the House was Charles Curtis.

House of Representatives – 59th United States Congress
Republicans - 207
Democrats - 156
Nationalists - 23

Senate – 59th United States Congress
Republicans - 52
Democrats - 32
Nationalists - 5
Independent – 1

Senators Elected in 1904
California: Frank Putnam Flint (R, Hold)
Connecticut: Morgan Bulkeley (Nat., Gain)
Delaware: Henry A. du Pont (R, Hold)
Florida: James Taliaferro (D, Hold)
Indiana: Albert J. Beveridge (Nat., Gain)
Maine: Eugene Hale (R, Hold)
Maryland: Louis W. McComas (R, Hold)
Massachusetts: Henry Cabot Lodge (R, Hold)
Michigan: Julius C. Burrows (R, Hold)
Minnesota: Moses E. Clapp (R, Hold)
Mississippi: Hernando Money (D, Hold)
Missouri: William Warner (Nat., Gain)
Montana: Thomas H. Carter (Nat., Gain)
Nebraska: Elmer Burkett (R, Hold)
Nevada: George S. Nixon (Nat., Gain)
New Jersey: John Kean (R, Gain)
New York: Chauncey Depew (R, Hold)
North Dakota: Porter J. McCumber (R, Hold)
Ohio: Charles W. F. Dick (R, Hold)
Pennsylvania: Philander C. Cox (R, Hold)
Rhode Island: George H. Utter (R, Hold)
Tennessee: William B. Bate (D, Hold)
Texas: Charles Allen Culberson (D, Hold)
Utah: George Sutherland (R, Hold)
Vermont: Redfield Proctor (R, Hold)
Virginia: John W. Daniel (D, Hold)
Washington: Addison G. Foster (R, Hold)
West Virginia: Nathan B. Scott (R, Hold)
Wisconsin: Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (I, Gain)
Wyoming: Clarence D. Clark (R, Hold)

[DKrol]

The East Portico of the Capitol on Inauguration Day, 1905

On March 4, 1905 Robert Todd Lincoln became the fifth President sworn in by Chief Justice Melville Fuller. The return of the Lincoln family to the White House thrilled so many Americans that an unanticipated number of them made the trip to Washington to try and see the new President. In his inaugural address, Lincoln quoted his father’s second inaugural address, saying “two score and five years ago my father stood on these very steps, in the waning months of the Great Rebellion, and called for the country to come together at the end of the bloody war. I now call on the country to once again come together, after a strenuous and competitive election.” Lincoln also laid out his basic policy agenda for the next four years, declaring his support for a hands-off economic policy and an “active” foreign policy.

An issue that appeared on the President’s plate almost from the first day was labor. Several labor unions, similar to the medieval trade guilds, had sprung up across the nation and the world in an attempt to obtain concessions from business leaders to protect workers. President Lincoln took a non-committal approach to these unions in public, although in private his writings showed he deeply disapproved of them and their “impediment to the process of production”. The issue came to fruition in March of 1905, when the Supreme Court ruled (in the 6-3 decision Lochner v. New York) that a state law limiting the number of hours an employee can work are unconstitutional. Secretary of Commerce and Labor James Ross Mellon applauded the ruling, calling it “a victory for the American economy”.

Lochner did not quell the labor movement. In April, the Chicago Teamsters union announced a work stoppage in support for a small, local clothing company. The stoppage quickly grew to include almost all labor in the city of Chicago, a major center of commerce within the United States. Riots broke out across the city, killing nine citizens within the first week. Fearing for the safety of the city, Governor Charles S. Deneen declared a state of emergency after two weeks of riots and work stoppages and ordered the National Guard into the city “to finish the job the local police force had failed”. Deneen ordered the Guardsmen to march in formation into the city, with weapons drawn, in an effort to scare the strikers back to work. Deneen never intended for the Guardsmen to open fire on the strikers.

Once the strikers saw the Guardsmen coming, however, things took a turn for the worst. The strikers immediately turned their full violent rage against the Guardsmen and attacked them, some say out of fear for their own lives. The Guardsmen, fearing for their own lives, responded by firing into the crowd. Captain Michael Ennis later told reporters he had ordered the Guardsmen to “fire into the air, to scare them back”, although there are conflicting reports from observers about this. Regardless of what orders where given, shots were fired into the crowd. 34 strikers and two Guardsmen where dead when the chaos ended and Chicago police restored order.

Public opinion on the Chicago Teamsters Strike was mixed. A poll conducted by the Des Moines Register and Leader found that about 21% of people living in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Wisconsin supported the strikers, while 37% supported the police. The remaining 42% felt that there was a need for “greater information before an opinion can be made”. President Lincoln, a Chicago-area businessman with the Pullman Company, stood with the Guardsmen. He took a train from Washington to Chicago in June to dedicate a memorial for the two Guardsmen. In his address, Lincoln said “While several American lost their lives during this crisis, we must stand by the rule of law. My administration will never support any actions by any individual or group of individuals that seek to break down law and order in this country”.

A few weeks after President Lincoln dedicated the Illinois National Guardsmen’s Memorial, the First Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World was held in Paris, France. Chicago was intended to be the original home of the Convention, but Mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne rejected their request for a permit for the gathering. When the Central Organizing Committee for the Industrial Workers of the World showed up in Chicago to scope out sites for the convention, even though the Mayor rejected the permit request, Dunne had the police forcibly bar them from using public roads and bridges, effectively barring them from the city.

Days after the IWW Organizing Committee was banned from Chicago, President Lincoln and Secretary Ross Mellon announced that the IWW would not be welcome in any city in the United States. Through several governors, President Lincoln showed that the National Guard stood at the ready to break up any gathering of the “radical workers alliance”. In the first seven months of his presidency, President Lincoln made it clear that his United States of America would not be the breeding ground for the labor movement.

[DKrol]

A new post will be here by Monday!

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

A new post will be here by Monday!

I'm gonna be watching what you do with one John "Silent Cal" Calvin Coolidge Jr.

[DKrol]

Frank Steunenberg, Governor of Idaho (1897-1901)

The labor movement continued to dominate President Lincoln’s first year in office. In early December, Russian Bolsheviks led an uprising in the city of Moscow, preaching the Communist principles of the labor movement and attempting to topple Tsar Nicholas II. While the Imperial Russian Army suppressed the uprising with relative ease, the feelings of the uprising were not suppressed. Only a week later, a group of Russian peasants rose up Kiev, toppled the local government, and established their own communist government in the city.

President Lincoln and Secretary of State Charles Fairbanks were content with ignoring the situation in Kiev, as there was an ocean between the Russian Bolsheviks and the American laborers. They were content, that is, until Christmas Day 1905. At a reception in Washington, D.C. hosted by Vice President Emerson, a bomb exploded at the private residence of Deputy Attorney General Charles Bonaparte. Two of Bonaparte’s butlers were killed but, more alarming, Frank Steunenberg, the notably anti-Labor former governor of Idaho, was also killed in the blast. Within hours of the bombing, the Western Federation of Miners, on whom Steunenberg had used the National Guard while governor, had released a statement praising the assassination of Steunenberg as “the beginning of the Great Revolution in the United States”.

President Lincoln was enraged by the assassination. He was also deeply afraid of the possibility of a Kievan uprising in the United States. At a press conference held three days after Christmas, he denounced the assassination as “a remnant of the tactics employed by the Indians to instill fear upon our Founders. But our Founders did not give in, nor shall we.” He announced his desire for the creation of the Bureau of Investigation, a federal law enforcement group, charged with “enforcing the laws of the United States across state boundaries, ensuring the rule of law and order, and rooting out those who wish to cause harm to Americans” and asked Congress to pass a bill, written by Senators George S. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, “with the haste necessary to protect the United States”. To lead the BOI, pending Senatorial approval, President Lincoln tapped former Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh. 

The Nixon-Lodge bill was opposed by the Democrats, who feared the BOI may take actions against the Klan, and some of the Old Guard Republicans who worried about the impact the BOI would have on interstate commerce. The more progressive Republicans applauded the bill, as they hoped it would be used to break up trusts and monopolies, while the Nationalists and most Old Guard Republicans supported it for a staunchly different reason, they hoped it would crush the labor movement and keep the nation safe. After a 72 hour debate, the House passed the bill 244 to 142 and sent it to the Senate. Just shy of the 40 votes needed to maintain a filibuster, the Democrats caved and allowed a vote on the bill after only a few hours of debate. It passed 58 to 32, was sent to the President, and was signed. MacVeagh’s nomination was ushered along with the bill, passing with 84 to 6.

With a new agency dealing with investigating, capturing, and trying the internal enemies of the United States, things quieted down, at least domestically for a few months. President Lincoln’s administration chugs along, keeping the labor movement suppressed and ensuring laissez-faire economics reign supreme. The President vetoed both the Meat Standards Act and the Clean Food and Drug Act in March, 1906 after the bills squeaked through Congress with a hodge-podge coalition of Progressive Republicans and Democrats. In April, however, his hands off approach would face its hardest test.

On April 18, a massive earthquake ripped apart the city of San Francisco along the San Andreas Fault. Homes, businesses, and government buildings were destroyed. Fires, caused by the deadly combination of natural gas lines and newly implemented electrical wires, consumed much of the city and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died in the week following the earthquake and an astounding $235 million was lost in damages. Immediately, Governor George Pardee (R-CA) telegraphed the President to inform him that the damages “are so great as to dissuade many investors from rebuilding”.

In a cabinet meeting after the impact of the earthquake was fully assessed, the cabinet was divided on the proper course of action. Vice President Edward Emerson and Secretary of State Charles Fairbanks argued that the city should front the full costs of rebuilding, after all “they built their damned city on the Fault”. Attorney General William Taft disagreed, saying that “the people of San Francisco are Americans. We should help them in their time of crisis. Send food, send water, send cash! They’re dying out there.” Secretary of the Interior George Washington Vanderbilt II and Commerce and Labor Secretary James Ross Mellon agreed that the government should leave the rebuilding process to municipality and the state, but offered, as independently wealthy men, to invest large sums in the city. President Lincoln thought that the Vanderbilt-Mellon investment would be an appropriate course of action for the financial aspect of the recovery process. But the city was still burning, with bands of looters pillaging whatever wasn’t rubble. Many local police and the National Guardsmen assigned to the city simply abandoned their posts and joined the looters. President Lincoln directed Secretary of War Joseph Wheeler to order Major General Adolphus Greely and the Pacific Division into the city, establish order, and hold the city until the BOI could arrive to determine a long-term course of action. Newspapers applauded the President’s deft hand in “managing the balance between the federal government, the cities and states that comprise the nation, and the individual duties of a citizen”.

With his domestic politics tested thoroughly, it would only make sense for President Lincoln’s foreign policy to be put on the hot seat. At his inauguration, President Lincoln promised an “active” foreign policy. Many questioned what exactly that meant and hoped for an opportunity to see it play out. That opportunity arouse in August of 1906. The Cuban Republic, formed after the Americans left Cuba in 1902, was failing. President Tomas Estrada Palma was unable to hold the country together after contentious elections in 1905 and sent a letter to President Lincoln asking him to intervene and save Cuba from falling into chaos and terror. The President was more than eager to grant that request.

[DKrol]

Elihu Root, who became Secretary of War after the death of Joseph Wheeler in 1906, played a major role in the Colonization of Cuba

Thanks to the Platt Amendment, written by then-Senator Elihu Root, President Lincoln needed only an executive order to grant Palma’s request and invade Cuba. He did so, signing Executive Order 42001 on September 1, 1906. More than 7,000 American soldiers landed in Cuba on September 15, under the command of Colonel Earl Thomas. They quickly captured Havana, installed businessman Charles Francis Adams, Jr. as Administrator of Cuba, and set out to complete their secondary objective: Protect the interests of the American sugar industry. Adams commissioned the building of roads connecting the population centers to the more rural sugar plantations and granted charters for a series of military academies on the island to “instill, in the Cuban people, a sense of duty, honor, and loyalty”. The Liberal Party of Cuba, the group that had caused the disturbances for Palma, welcomed Adams’ government in the hopes that, after Adams and Thomas left, they were be the preferred Cubans to take up leadership of the island.

The trouble with the Liberals' plan was that President Lincoln had no plans to withdraw from Cuba. Lincoln, unlike his father, was a firm believer in Manifest Destiny. On November 2, the eve of the 1906 midterms, President Lincoln called a joint session of Congress to deliver a major policy speech. He laid his foreign policy agenda, which has since been called “The Lincoln Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, and announced his plans to colonize Cuba. Explaining his central philosophy, Lincoln said “The American people have been blessed by their Creator with the brightest minds, the sharpest wits, the calmest tempers, and the fastest guns. The Lord has given us these gifts because we are his people, the new Israel, and we shall not waste them. We must expand our borders, depose despots and tyrants, and secure for many more people the blessing of American liberty.” Towards the end of the speech, Lincoln made it clear that he had no plans of returning Cuba to the Cubans, going so far as to express an interest in annexing several Caribbean islands and creating one “American Atlantic Islands” territory.

The Progressive Republicans balked at Lincoln’s expansionism, citing the many pressing issues at home. Congressman William U’Ren took to the House floor the day after the President’s speech to rail against “this President’s complete disregard to the rights of the American people. His focus has become so set on increasing his territories that he cannot see the Americans who are dying from working 20 hours days, six day weeks, for only pennies a day.” Prominent Old Guard Republicans and Nationalists, like the bi-partisan Senate Leadership team of Henry Cabot Lodge and George Nixon, applauded the President for, in their minds, recognizing the greatness of America. Many Bourbon Democrats agreed with their conservative allies, with Senator Joseph Bailey personally introducing the Bailey Bill, or “An Act to Organize the Islands of Cuba, Isla de la Juventud, and All Other Lands Formerly Held by the Republic of Cuba into the Cuban Territory”. The bill was popular but, as Congress was in recess for the midterm elections, it was not able to receive a vote under the 59th Congress.

President Lincoln was very popular in 1906 and the Congressional elections of that year showed it. For both the Senate and the House, there was a Nationalist candidate for almost race, with many Old Guard Republicans switching to the National Party. Lincoln himself did not campaign for any candidates, instead focusing on the annexation of Cuba, but he did pen a generic statement of support, distributed to the candidates he chose to support, and advised them to publish it in their local newspaper.

House of Representatives – 60th United States Congress
Republicans – 173 (-34)
Democrats – 144 (-12)
Nationalists – 74 (+51)

House Leadership
Speaker Joseph G. Cannon (R)
Minority Leader Champ Clark (D)
Minority Leader Charles Curtis (Nat.)

Senate – 60th United States Congress
Republicans – 44 (-8)
Democrats – 29 (-3)
Nationalists – 16 (+11)
Independent – 1 (+/-0)

Senate Leadership
Majority Leader Robert Jackson Gamble (R)
Minority Leader Joseph Bailey(D)
Minority Leader George S. Nixon (Nat.)

[DKrol]

Thoughts, questions, comments, or concerns?

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Great stuff.

[Enduro]

How far are you going with this? I would like this see how the World Wars happen in this timeline.

[DKrol]

How far are you going with this? I would like this see how the World Wars happen in this timeline.

I have plans for the First World War. That is as far as I have thought about at this point, but I may extend it depending on the feelings at the time.

[Kingpoleon]

Onwards, against Mexico and Canada!

Hoping for an American-German alliance.

[DKrol]

Peter S. Grosscup, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1906-1921)

In October of 1906, Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown announced his intentions to resign from the Supreme Court upon the confirmation of his successor. President Lincoln had hoped to make an impact through the Supreme Court and saw his opening here. His selection process was a thorough analysis of every possible nominee’s record on two issues: Civil Rights and labor. On November 13, President Lincoln appointed Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Peter S. Grosscup to the seat, citing his strong anti-labor history with the Pullman Strike. Grosscup was easily confirmed to the Supreme Court by a unanimous vote on November 15 and seated on the Court on November 16.

The next item on the Senate’s agenda, after it came into session for the 60th United States Congress, was the Bailey Bill. With support from almost all parties (Nationalists, Old Guard, and Democrats favored it for the economic benefits), the bill was quickly passed through the Senate (83-7) and the House (348-43) and sent to President Lincoln on March 28, 1907. The next day Lincoln formally appointed Charles Adams, Jr. as Governor-General of the Cuban Territory. The Senate quickly confirmed Adams to that post as well.

Much of the third year of President Lincoln’s term was devoted to expanding the United States’ border. With Cuba formally established as a territory, President Lincoln sought to expand the idea of a Greater Atlantic Territory. When an earthquake struck Jamaica the island was thrown into disarray. Within days three American Navy ships and 500 Marines arrived in the Port of Kingston, offering medicinal aid and food supplies. That aid, however, was rejected by the British Governor of Jamaica, who promised that British aid was coming. The American ships remained in the harbor, and the British ships failed to arrive, leading to public outcry for the Americans to land, ignore the Governor, and help the people. Under the command of Admiral George Dewey the Marines stormed Kingston and quickly suppressed the local government, winning the hearts of the locals through the distribution of rice, beans, and medicine. Within days, an American government was established in Kingston with the British Colonial government forced to flee to Nassau, Bahamas.

The British did not accept the loss of the profitable Jamaican Colony easily and quickly sent a force to reclaim it. They amassed a force on the Turks and Caicos Islands, comprised of 800 men under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, and launched an assault on Kingston on June 1. Although the British had more men and more ships at their disposal, the Jamaican people remembered how the British Governor had done nothing to provide relief after the earthquake and pursuant tsunami and fire. Faced with such a large popular upheaval, the British government, led by Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, recognized that this could not be settled with a small expeditionary force. On June 22, 1907, Parliament declared war on the United States. President Lincoln responded on June 24 and asked Congress for a declaration of war. The conservative majority obliged and granted that request on June 26. President Lincoln sent Admiral Dewey a letter granting him carte blanche authority to handle the war and “take any actions that will ensure the victory of the American people over their enemies”.

President Lincoln, like his father, had his administration quickly wrapped up in a war. The American public was largely irrelevant towards the war, known in the media as the War of Atlantic Expansion. The French, a longtime enemy of the British, joined the Americans and declared war on the United Kingdom on June 27. The Netherlands, led by the conservative-liberal Liberal Union, also feared an increase in British hegemony in the Caribbean and declared support for the Franco-American alliance. With the majority of the colonial powers in the region allied against the British, many expected this to be a quick war with a decisive American victory.

With the War of Atlantic Expansion being mostly limited to small naval skirmishes around the Caribbean islands, President Lincoln set his sights towards the 1908 election. While his focus was on the Caribbean, Lincoln gained his first challenger for the race: former President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt declared, on July 8, that he would be seeking to return to the White House “for the common man” as a Republican. He was not challenged by another Republican candidate for President, although Senator Henry Cabot Lodge announced his intentions to have President Lincoln nominated as the Republican candidate and establish a merger between the Nationalists and Republicans.

The Democratic race was as shallow as the Republican race. Former Confederate Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner declared his intentions in the pursuit of the more conservative Bourbon Democrats. Running as the standard bearer for the more progressive Democrats was famed lawyer Louis Brandeis. Two-time Presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan considered throwing his hat into the ring but recognized that he had little to run on after the issue of the Gold Standard was settled in the McKinley Administration and chose instead to endorse Brandeis.

President Lincoln, with high popularity, was all but assured the National Party nomination and, likely, the Presidency. He formally announced his plans to run for another term as President on December 2, 1907. Many Old Guard Republicans, Old Guard Democrats, and Nationalists came out and endorsed the President. Senator Harry M. Teller, who became a Nationalist after the 1906 elections, did not endorse the President. Instead, in a speech on January 3, 1908, Senator Teller announced he would be challenging the President for the nomination of the National Party. Teller cited the President’s “rampant abuses of our military to advance his personal goals” as the main cause for his running. President Lincoln refused to comment on the primary challenge in public, instead saying “We are engaged in a war less than 100 miles from our shores. It would be unfitting for a President to devote even a moment’s thought to politics”.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

I'd rather a reconciliation with the Brits but looks plausible.

[Kingpoleon]

I'd rather a reconciliation with the Brits but looks plausible.

Germany + France + America is interesting. Worst case scenario, Germany is neutral. The Netherlands by this point was their economic and military ally.

[DKrol]

An update within 24 hours!

[DKrol]

James Gillett, Nationalist Governor California (1907-1913)

By 1908, racial tensions in the Western states between the immigrant Japanese and the native Americans were reaching a boiling point. This was especially true in California, where more than 1% of the population were Japanese immigrants. In May of 1908, the California State Legislature passed a bill segregating Japanese immigrants from state schools. Governor James Gillett (Nat.-CA), having been in office for less than a year, had not expected to be thrust into the national spotlight so soon. When the bill arrived at his desk, however, it came with a reporter from all of the majors newspapers of the day. Governor Gillett called President Lincoln and asked for his opinion on the issue and received a swift reply; the President said “Sign the damn thing”.

After the signing of the bill, President Lincoln sent Secretary of State Charles Fairbanks to Tokyo to speak with the Emperor and his government about the influx of Japanese to American shores. Fairbanks, traveling with three ships from the Navy Pacific Fleet, easily negotiated a treaty with a very pro-United States outcome. The Japanese government would not issue visas for emigration to the United States in exchange for allowing the wives and mothers of Japanese men already in the United States to join their husbands and sons. Fairbanks hailed the treaty as “the clearest victory for the American people in a century”. In an election year, the Nationalist-led conservative majority in the Senate was looking for something to rally their forces around. Led by Minority Leader George Nixon, the Nationalists and their allies immediately opened debate on the treaty and a ratification vote was scheduled.

The easy ratification process, however, was interrupted by a shift in the War of Atlantic Expansion. After suffering losses to the Franco-American alliance on the Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Bahaman Islands, the British launched an assault on the Port of Miami. Attacking in the middle of the night, many industrial ships in the port and homes near the port were hit by British mortar fire. The American fleet quickly chased the British away, once the sun came up and word was sent that Miami was under attack, but a lot of damage was inflicted before they arrived. More than 100 civilians were killed in the Sacking of Miami.

President Lincoln was furious when Navy Secretary John Davis Long informed him that civilians had been killed. He immediately sent a telegraph off to British Prime Minister Henry Herbert Asquith with the stinging warning “American lives have been lost. This will not be easily forgotten.”

Overnight, the War of Atlantic Expansion exploded from an afterthought for the American people to a rallying cry. Senators Henry Cabot Lodge and Albert J. Beveridge, Congressmen Joseph Cannon and James E. Watson, and Presidential Candidate Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner were all calling for a direct assault on the British homeland in response to the Sacking of Miami. Many other politicians, newspaper editors, and public figures were calling for some kind of advanced response. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, however, took a different approach.

At a rally in Columbus, Ohio on June 3, Roosevelt implied that Lincoln had brought the attack on by being “overly aggressive in his expansionistic policies in the Caribbean”. Roosevelt assailed Lincoln as “a war monger, creating conflict for the sake of conflict.” At a press conference later in the day, Roosevelt was asked how he would respond to the Sacking of Miami if he was still president. Without a moment of pause, Roosevelt said “I’d call [Admiral George] Dewey home. I’d call the ships home. I’d stop this silly war.” Senator Harry Teller, challenging President Lincoln for the Nationalist nomination, issued a statement endorsing “the ideas promoted by President Roosevelt”.

Having a former President criticize him so openly infuriated President Lincoln. When he read about Roosevelt’s statement in the evening edition of the Washington Post, Lincoln slammed his glass of whiskey on the table, startling his wife, Mary. His journal shows that it was Roosevelt’s comments that forced Lincoln’s hand towards an attack on the British homeland. That following morning, June 4, President Lincoln sent a telegram to Secretaries Long, Fairbanks, and Root informing them that he would be taking the war to the British shores. He also dispatched telegrams to French President Armand Fallieres, Dutch Prime Minister Theo de Meester, and Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Maura informing them of his intentions to “bring war to London” and asking for their support. As an afterthought, he also sent a telegram to German Kaiser Wilhelm II.

As it would turn out, that telegram would be the most important.

[Kingpoleon]

To London!