The American Montfort – Master Thread

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The American Montfort

A participatory election series set in a parliamentary United States

LIST OF PRESIDENTS of the UNITED STATES
1. George Washington (Independent, Virginia) April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1795
2. Thomas Jefferson (Republican, Virginia) March 4, 1794 – March 4, 1807
3. James Madison (Republican, Virginia) March 4, 1807 – March 4, 1813
4. John Marshall (Federalist, Virginia) March 4, 1813 – present

LIST OF PRIME MINISTERS of the UNITED STATES
1. Alexander Hamilton (Federalist | Federalist majority) September 11, 1789 – March 4, 1792
2. Thomas Jefferson (Anti-federalist | Anti-federalist minority) March 6, 1792 – October 24, 1792
3. Elbridge Gerry (Independent | Anti-federalist minority with Independent support) October 27, 1792 – March 4, 1795
–. Alexander Hamilton (Federalist | Federalist majority) March 5, 1795 – March 4, 1801
4. Albert Gallatin (Republican | Republican majority) March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1807
–. Albert Gallatin (Republican | Republican minority) March 4, 1807 – March 4, 1810
5. Henry Clay (Independent Republican | Ind.Rep.—Rep. coalition majority) March 9, 1810 – March 4, 1813
6. Rufus King (Federalist | Fed.—Nat.Rep. coalition majority) March 5, 1813 – March 4, 1816
7. John Quincy Adams (National Republican | Nat.Rep—Dem.Rep. coalition majority) March 4, 1816 – March 4, 1819
–. John Quincy Adams (National Republican | Nat.Rep. minority with Fed. support) March 4, 1819 – present

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The 1788–89 United States general election
The first election under a new Constitution was not without rancor, and suspicion of the project conceived at Philadelphia would linger long after the last of the delegates added their name to the document; but in 1788, Americans by and large were tired of the years of chaos under the Articles of Confederation, and they delivered a heavy mandate for those who were coming to be called "Federalists." At the presidential election, the new electoral college voted unanimously for General Washington, who began a six-year term as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789. Meanwhile, the efforts of Colonel Hamilton to secure a strong majority for the new administration were rewarded in the House of Representatives, where the Federalists would hold 46 of the available 65 seats. While the opposition did well in the South, sweeping Georgia and Virginia and putting up strong showings in the Carolinas, elsewhere the election was a romp for the Hamiltonian faction: in New England the Anti-federalists did not win a single seat, and only five of the nineteen Anti-federalists in the lower house came from north of the Mason-Dixon line. Thus armed with the confidence of the people, the Federalists set out to organize the new regime as the second act of the American Revolution began.


Federalists, 46 seats
Anti-federalists, 19 seats

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The First Hamilton Ministry, 1789–1792
In spite of the dire predictions of its detractors and the ill-concealed hopes of European monarchies, the government of the Constitution would survive the three years of the first Congress' tenure—albeit not without controversy. While President Washington was formally the head of state, the general's advanced age and diminishing health meant that in practice the secretaries Cabinet would carry out the administration, and the young Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton emerged as a de facto prime minister. Under Hamilton's leadership, the Cabinet carried out a series of initiatives to establish the credit and legitimacy of the new government: some, as legislation to establish the federal judiciary, passed the House with little cause for rancor; but Hamilton's bold financial policy, outlined in his First Report on the Public Credit, proved so divisive that it threatened to turn the Congress against itself before the government was out of the cradle. Considering strong national credit to be the foundation of the country's prosperity and independence, Hamilton proposed to assume the debts incurred by the states during the War for Independence and to finance this policy with the creation of a National Bank. Anti-federalists and members from states whose debts were paid howled the prime minister had sold himself to speculators and British financiers, and though the bill narrowly passed, it was the end of Hamilton's congenial relationship with James Madison, who crossed the floor to join the opposition as the 1791 general election approached.

The 1791–92 United States general election
For three years Alexander Hamilton had served his president and his country as prime minister, and if his tenure in office had proved the efficacy of Federalism to restore the legitimacy of the central government after the disastrous 1780s, the elections of 1791 and 1792 similarly proved its limitations. As a member of Cabinet and the leader of his party on the House floor, Hamilton demonstrated a political acumen that allowed him to achieve much in a relatively short period of time; yet his ambitious financial program proved more controversial than even his enemies originally anticipated, and his pro-British sympathies in the brewing conflict in Europe offended those who continued to view London as the natural enemy of the American republic. Aided by a ruthless press opposition, who branded Hamilton a monarchist and a would-be tyrant robbing the poor to feed the rich, the Anti-federalists led by James Madison made huge gains in the House of Representatives, picking up fifteen seats and all but annihilating the Federalists south of the Mason-Dixon line, where Hamilton's allies would hold just eight seats in the new House. Even so, the stalwart support of New England for the Federalists and a strong showing for the government in New York, where the Hamiltonian slate actually gained a seat from the opposition, prevented an outright victory for the Anti-federalists, who found themselves just short of a majority when the House gathered again at Philadelphia in the new year. With neither faction able to claim a clear mandate to govern, and the membership of the House almost evenly divided, the question of who was to lead the next government—and how—hung heavily in the air as Congress reconvened in Philadelphia on the fourth of March 1792.


Federalists (Alexander Hamilton) 35 seats (-11), 48.2% popular votes
Anti-Federalists (James Madison) 34 seats (+15), 51.8% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Jefferson and Gerry Ministries, 1792–1795
As members convened for the first session of the Second Congress on March 4, 1792, the loss of the sturdy Federalist majority that had supported Alexander Hamilton for three years was keenly felt by the prime minister, as a decidedly more hostile chamber moved for a vote of confidence in the government. Though he narrowly survived by a majority of two votes, the thinness of the margin convinced Hamilton to step aside—setting arguably the most important precedent of his tenure. President Washington then turned to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, the lone Anti-federalist in the Cabinet, whose ministry lasted less than eight months before it, too, was felled by a vote of no-confidence. With few options remaining and neither faction able to command a majority, Washington finally offered the post to Massachusetts Anti-federalist Elbridge Gerry, who succeeded in forming a government on October 27.

Vain and short-tempered, Gerry had been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but refused to sign the final document on principle, and in 1791 was one of two Anti-federalists elected to the House from Massachusetts. In spite of this, his reputation for independence and support for Hamilton's Bank of the United States allowed him to succeed where others had failed and form a minority government with support from Independent Federalists. This, by all accounts, was the first and last success of Gerry's administration. Starved for revenue, the national government began to buckle under its debts after legislation to impose a slew of new taxes narrowly failed in the House, while Gerry's support for the nascent French Republic was embarrassed by the arrival of Citizen Genêt and reports of atrocities committed by the Jacobins in the "Reign of Terror." Meanwhile, the defeat of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers raised anew the threat of Indian raids on the frontier as the Miami Chief Little Turtle continued his ascent.

The 1794–95 United States general election
Try as he might, James Madison was unable salvage his party's reputation from the wreckage of Elbridge Gerry's disastrous tenure as prime minister, and the 1794 elections would prove an even greater repudiation of the Anti-federalist government than 1791 for the Federalists. Having spent the years in opposition plotting his vengeance and cultivating a powerful propaganda machine to equal the Anti-federalist press, Alexander Hamilton gave himself to the nation as the savior of the hour, vowing to restore the stability and credit of the Union. In spite of the best efforts of the Anti-federalists, now "Republicans," to brand him an elitist and an Anglophile, the election was a stunning success for the Federalist ticket, which carried four-fifths of the seats in the House of Representatives and majorities in the delegations of all but three states. Massive though the victory was, whether this effusion of support spoke more of fondness for Hamilton or disgust for Gerry—who lost his own seat in humiliating fashion—was brought into question by the result of the presidential election, which saw Hamilton's arch-nemisis Jefferson gain the office on the strength of his personal reputation in spite of the Republican collapse. With these bitter rivals as head of state and head of government, the stage was set for much conflict in the halls of Philadelphia as the new Congress was seated and the Second Hamilton Ministry began.


Federalist (Alexander Hamilton) 84 seats (+49), 77.8% popular votes
Republican (James Madison) 21 seats (-13), 22.2% popular votes


Former Prime Minister Thomas Jefferson (Republican, Virginia) 70 electors, 40.8% popular votes
Chief Justice John Adams (Federalist, Massachusetts) 49 electors, 29.6% popular votes
Representative Aaron Burr (Republican, New York) 16 electors, 18.6% popular votes
Senator Thomas Pinckney (Federalist, South Carolina) 4 electors, 11.2% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Second Hamilton Ministry, 1795–1798
With the seating of the Third Congress in March 1795, a dourful President Jefferson begrudgingly named Alexander Hamilton prime minister, inaugurating a period of cohabitation during which president and Cabinet would be constantly at odds. Though his role as head of state was mostly ceremonial, Jefferson did possess the veto—a power that would loom heavily in Hamilton's considerations as he set about consolidating his rule.

Backed by a sturdy majority in the House of Representatives, Hamilton began his second tenure in government with two principle objectives: the strengthening of the national credit, and the restoration of amicable relations with Great Britain. In a series of articles adopted by the House in 1795 and 1796, Hamilton defined a distinctly national economic policy, raising tariffs on foreign imports to protect American manufacturing and imposing several new taxes—including the so-called "Whiskey Tax"—to finance the national debt. These measures were met with boisterous opposition among the Republican opposition: the tariff was vetoed by President Jefferson on constitutional grounds and passed again by a two-thirds majority in the House, while the Whiskey Tax was met with actual rebellion in some Western Pennsylvanian counties and subdued only when army led by Hamilton in person arrived to enforce the law. Across the sea, a working relationship with Great Britain was restored with the Pickering Treaty, to the outrage of the Republicans and the disappointment of even some Federalists, the former of whom charged that the prime minister had sold his soul to George III. The treaty contributed to rising tensions with the French Republic, now led by the Directory of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, leading to confrontations between the French and American navies in the Atlantic.

The 1797–98 United States general election
Hamilton's second ministry had won him no shortage of enemies and inflamed the passions of the Republican press; yet the 1797 elections demonstrated he had also retained the confidence of the people. In spite of scattered losses for the government in Western Pennsylvania, parts of New England, and south of the Mason-Dixon line, the Federalists retained control of the House of Representatives, and Hamilton was returned as prime minister with a large—albeit reduced—majority. Yet while Republican gains were too few to flip control of the chamber, they were sufficient to expose the government to a veto on a party-line vote—a circumstance that would prove significant in the next Congress.


Federalist (Alexander Hamilton) 67 seats (-17), 61.5% popular votes
Republican (James Madison) 39 seats (+18), 38.5% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Third Hamilton Ministry, 1798–1801
No sooner had the Fourth Congress assembled at Philadelphia in the spring of 1798 than news arrived from France that would send tremors to the heart of the American republic. The previous year, acting on the counsel of his advisors, Hamilton has dispatched a diplomatic commission of three men—John Marshall, John Jay, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney—to Paris in the hope that war with the French Republic might yet be averted. Perceived by some as an uncharacteristic gesture of moderation on the part of the admitted Anglophile, Hamilton's actions were borne from a cool assessment of the political reality: the American people had no stomach for a war that would surely tear the Union apart, and the Union had no army to fight such a war. Yet whatever Hamilton had expected the French reply to be, he was unprepared for the report that arrived from Paris in April 1798: the commissioners had been turned away at the door in lieu of a bribe paid into the coffers of the Directory and an additional fee to its head, M. Talleyrand, while the French government was quietly outfitting privateers to harass American ships in the Atlantic.

The so-called "X,Y,Z," Affair inflamed public opinion against France and convinced many—including the prime minister—that the outbreak of war was only a matter of time. When the House reconvened on May 15, Hamilton presented them with the full transcript of the commissioners' report and a series of legislative proposals to move the government to a war footing. In swift succession, Congress voted to finance construction of a new federal navy and to raise a standing army of 25,000 men. The outraged Republicans were unable to prevent passage of these measures; but when Hamilton moved to confront the "enemy within" with the proposal of the Alien and Sedition Acts vesting the government with authority to deport foreign émigrés suspected of treason and to jail those who spoke against the government's wartime policies, President Jefferson vetoed both measures—inspiring charges that Jefferson himself was a French agent. A furious Hamilton moved to impeach Jefferson for exceeding his constitutional authority, but Jefferson was acquitted in the Senate by three votes, where presiding over the trial Chief Justice John Adams privately shared the opinion of many that Hamilton had gone a bridge too far.

In the face of this defeat, Hamilton briefly contemplated resigning and leaving "this den of traitors to its madness," but was persuaded by the Cabinet to stay on, and in the summer of 1799 Congress granted his request for a declaration of war with France.

The 1800–01 United States general election
If Hamilton expected the public to rally to his banner, time would tell he had grossly overestimated the country's appetite for war, and the election of 1800 would be remembered as among the nastiest and most closely-fought campaigns in American history. Whilst hardline Federalists had eagerly anticipated the opportunity to throw their rival Jefferson from thew Executive Mansion, the botched attempt at impeachment had rather increased goodwill and admiration for the president, who was reelected in a landslide over Hamilton's chosen candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. The contest for control of the House was far closer: led by a triumvirate of Madison, Albert Gallatin, and Aaron Burr—derisively named the "Richmond Junto" by the Federalists—the Republicans launched an all-out assault on the government's record and the unpopular war with France, to the result that for the first time since the inception of the Constitution, the Federalists lost their majority status in the lower chamber, as the opposition made massive gains in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas. Though the final margin was slim—the Republicans held a majority of six seats in the House when the last votes were counted—it was enough to topple Hamilton's administration, clearing the way for a new government in a new century.


Republican (Richmond Junto) 56 seats (+17), 54.2% popular votes
Federalist (Alexander Hamilton) 50 seats (-17), 45.8% popular votes


President Thomas Jefferson (Republican, Virginia) 122 electors, 74.2% popular votes
Former U.S. Ambassador Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Federalist, South Carolina) 16 electors, 25.8% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The First Gallatin—Madison Ministry, 1801–1804
The Republican triumph in 1800 foresaw the most significant shift in the policy of the central government since Hamilton's first ministry, as the Federalist majority that had endured since 1789 gave way at last to a government led by the so-called "Richmond Junto" of Madison, Gallatin, and Burr.  In the Cabinet that formed following the seating of the Fifth Congress in March 1801, Madison—now leading the Republicans in the Senate—took Jefferson's old post of Secretary of State and Gallatin became Treasury Secretary and titular prime minister, while Burr was given the War Department in gratitude for his role in carrying New York for the Republicans. In practice, the government of the next three years was largely a collaboration of Madison and Gallatin, leaving the ambitious Burr to scheme from the shadows. It was to be a fruitful partnership. The fall of the Directory and the ascension of Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul of France made possible mutual ratification of the Treaty of Orleans in 1802, formally restoring peace between France and the United States. Domestically, the repeal of the Whiskey Tax and most other taxes imposed by the previous administration would be cited as Gallatin's chief accomplishment, while the government was forced to accept only a modest reduction to the protective tariff after a proposal to eliminate it entirely narrowly failed in the House.

The 1803–04 United States general election
The opposition entered 1803 in high spirits, hopeful of toppling Madison and Gallatin both three years after the "Revolution of 1800" delivered Congress into the hands of the Republicans. The result was something quite different. Instead of the abject defeat of the administration predicted by delusional Federalist editorials, some of which predicted the presidential party would carry only Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee, the government was returned for a second term by a larger majority than its initial election, while a convoluted plan to restore the Federalists to control of the chamber through an alliance with dissident Republicans led by Aaron Burr failed to bear fruit. In New York, Ohio, and Kentucky—where the Burrite slate was formally endorsed by the Federalist organization—the dissidents managed majorities over the official Republican ticket, while the Federalists held loyal New England with only minor losses; but elsewhere the government slate was victorious by wide margins, carrying majorities in every state delegation south of New York save three.


Republican (Albert Gallatin and James Madison) 82 seats (+26), 56.0% popular votes
Federalist (Timothy Pickering) 43 seats (-7), 32.0% popular votes
Burrite Republican (Aaron Burr) 17 seats (New), 12.0% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Second Gallatin—Madison Ministry, 1804–1807
Improved relations with France and victory over the corsairs of Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli characterized the foreign policy of the second Gallatin—Madison administration, whose efforts to protect American trade with Europe amidst the war raging between Great Britain and Napoleonic France yielded mixed results in the period from 1804 to 1807. The jewel of their labors was the 1804 acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France, which doubled the size of the country with a single stroke of a pen resolved long-standing tensions regarding American merchant access to the port of New Orleans. Peace with Britain proved more elusive, as continued American trade with the Continent inspired fury in the Court of St. James, and American merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic became frequent prey of the Royal Navy.

Domestically, the events of the next three years were closely entwined with the decline and fall of Aaron Burr, who responded to the defeat of his faction in the 1803 general election by dueling and killing the man he held most responsible: former Prime Minister and chieftain of Federalism Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton's death at Burr's hand ruined the latter's reputation and exposed him to charges of murder, and the onetime Secretary of War fled west, where he became embroiled in the affair that came to be known as "Burr's Rebellion." The full extent of the role Burr may have played in encouraging discontent among the inhabitants Western Kentucky was never fully known. What seemed clear enough, was that in the spring of 1806, a ragtag company of two-hundred-odd white settlers in Western Kentucky took up arms in rebellion, responding to Indian raids and the perceived encroachment of federal power. The rebels seize several courthouses and expelled what few agents of the central government there were to be found; but by late July, the rebellion had begun to lose momentum, and the remaining rebels surrendered to the Kentucky militia.

Letters produced after the fact suggested Burr had some prior knowledge of the rebels' intentions, and had for a time hoped to use the uprising to detach Western Kentucky from the Union, and by taking New Orleans, establish an empire west of the Appalachians. Hazy plans for an expedition down the Mississippi outlined in correspondence with British agents in Canada fell apart, and Burr took no further action to pursue secession; but the publication of his letters to James Wilkinson, a general in the United States Army and a Spanish agent who for a time encouraged Burr's plans before turning on him, raised a fresh storm of controversy, and facing charges of treason, Burr fled to Texas.

The 1806-07 United States general election
In spite of the furious opposition of the Federalists, who gave their all to topple the Republican administration in 1806, Albert Gallatin proved himself equal to the storm, surviving charges of incompetence and even disloyalty to return to Philadelphia still the largest party in the House.  Two years after Hamilton met his end at Weehawken, the Federalist challenge proved largely impotent in the face of a superior Republican organization, and the party managed only marginal gains, failing even to crest one third of the seats in the lower chamber. Yet the success of the Independent Republicans across the West and Mid-Atlantic, as well as Virginia, where James Monroe led the anti-Madison Republicans, left the government short of an overall majority, forcing Gallatin to offer accommodation to the renegade leaders in the next Congress. The race for president was similarly narrow, Madison besting his rivals by a majority of four votes in the electoral college, becoming the third son of the Old Dominion to occupy the Executive Mansion that had so far seen only Virginians live under its roof.


Republican (Albert Gallatin) 71 seats (-11), 47.0% popular votes
Federalist (Timothy Pickering) 46 seats (+3), 35.0% popular votes
Independent Republican (Henry Clay) 25 seats (+8), 18.0% popular votes


Secretary of State James Madison (Republican, Virginia) 93 electors, 48.0% popular votes
Former U.S. Ambassador Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Federalist, South Carolina) 42 electors, 24.0% popular votes
Secretary of War George Clinton (Republican, New York) 40 electors, 28.0% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Third Gallatin Ministry, 1807–1810
Returning to Philadelphia in the spring of 1807, Prime Minister Gallatin presented a vigorous program of government to the members of the new House of Representatives, and the 1807–1810 Congressional term saw passage of several significant legislative items in spite of the limits imposed by a minority government. Foremost among these was an ambitious federal internal improvements plan, outlined in Gallatin's 1808 Report, which called for construction of an extensive network of roads and canals to bind the new states of the Trans-Appalachian West to the rest of the Union. While the united opposition of Federalists and "Old Republicans" led by Virginia's John Randolph prevented passage of the earlier, more expansive version of the infrastructure bill, Gallatin was able to secure funding for an extension of the Cumberland Road. In the realm of foreign affairs, Gallatin narrowly secured Congressional approval for an extension of the 1795 treaty with Britain. In the acrimonious battle on the House floor, the government was upheld by the votes of Federalist members after War Hawks in the Republican caucus joined Clay's Independents to vote against ratification. Tensions were only further exacerbated by the Chesapeake-Leopold affair, when sailors of the HMS Leopold seized the USS Chesapeake off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia and impressed members of the crew into the Royal Navy—an incident that left Clay and the War Hawks howling for revenge.

The 1809–10 United States general election
War fever gripped the country as Americans went to the polls in the fall of 1809. For all Gallatin's careful efforts to maintain neutrality in the conflict raging in Europe, the constant flow of new stories that told of American sailors abducted on the high seas and pressed into the service His Majesty's navy, combined with rumors that British agents in Canada were fermenting unrest among the tribes of the Northwest, inflamed the passions of a public that would accept no substitute to satisfaction. With the most extreme among the Federalists agitating with equal fervor for war with France, Gallatin's calls for calm fell upon deaf ears: and the general election delivered a stunning defeat for the government, as the majority of Republicans in the South and West defected to the "War party" and the banner of Henry Clay. While the regular Republicans held their own in Pennsylvania and made gains in New England, where some moderate Federalists abandoned their party in disgust for the antics of the "Essex Junto," elsewhere the government slate was obliterated. Only Virginia, where the regular Republican slate—made up mostly of "Old Republicans" whose first loyalty was not to Gallatin, but John Randolph—won enough seats to deny the Independents a majority of the state's delegation and threw several more to anti-war Federalists who carried them by pluralities, prevented Clay from forming a majority government, yielding a hung parliament.


Independent Republican (Henry Clay) 60 seats (+35), 41.9% popular votes
Republican (Albert Gallatin) 46 seats (-25), 29.1% popular votes
Federalist (Timothy Pickering) 36 seats (-10), 29.0% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Clay—Gallatin Ministry, 1810–1813
Though his Independent Republicans were by far the largest party in the House at the start of the Eighth Congress, the result of the 1809 elections left Clay still twelve votes short of an overall majority, forcing the new prime minister to appeal to his predecessor, Albert Gallatin, who still sat as the member for his Pennsylvania district, for the support of the regular Republicans to form a government. The resultant coalition government—the first of its kind in American history—saw Clay assume the Treasury Department and the title of prime minister, Independent Republicans James Monroe and William Lowndes named respectively Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy, while Gallatin became Secretary of State and John Quincy Adams—a moderate Federalist turned Gallatin Republican—took over as Attorney General. Gallatin additionally secured assurance from Clay that he would not seek a declaration of war against Britain without further provocation—a proviso Clay considered fulfilled by the Battle of Tippecanoe. The narrow failure of a bill to recharter the Bank of the United States rounded out 1811, and in a special session of Congress, the House narrowly voted for war on New Year's Day, 1812.

The 1812–13 United States general election
War split the House and the country along sectional lines on the eve of the 1812 general election, the resulting Congress reflecting the deep divisions which President Madison privately feared would tear the Union apart. In the South and West, where the war was popular, Clay and his 'Democratic' Republicans were the victors of the day, carrying the delegations Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia en masse along with the single district of the new state of Louisiana. Elsewhere, the battle was close and vicious. The government was obliterated north of the Mason-Dixon line, carrying two of New York's twenty-seven districts and none in Maryland and Pennsylvania, where the Federalists made huge gains. Gallatin's 'National' Republicans managed to hold Pennsylvania and compensated for losses in Virginia and the Carolinas with small gains in New England, where the bulk of the plunder went to the Ultra-Federalists and the Essex Junto. Meanwhile, competition between Democratic, National, and Radical Republicans allowed the Federalists to bring in a small harvest of coastal constituencies in Virginia, North and South Carolina which they carried by pluralities. The end sum was a Congress hopelessly divided, with the two largest factions forty-odd seats short of a majority. Republican disunity and anti-war sentiment likewise bled over into the presidential race, allowing John Marshall to oust the incumbent Madison in a rout, the first Federalist to win the office in the party's history, while Madison became the first president to leave office otherwise than by his own volition.


Federalist (Rufus King) 56 seats (+20), 26.9% popular votes
Democratic Republican (Henry Clay) 53 seats (-7), 26.9% popular votes
National Republican (Albert Gallatin) 40 seats (-7), 23.1% popular votes
Ultra-Federalist (Essex Junto) 27 seats (New), 19.2% popular votes
Radical Republican (John Randolph) 6 seats (New), 3.8% popular votes


U.S. Representative John Marshall (Federalist, Virginia) 137 electors, 58.3% popular votes
President James Madison (Republican, Virginia) 59 electors, 29.2% popular votes
Timothy Pickering (Ultra-Federalist, Massachusetts) 22 electors, 12.5% popular votes

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The King—Gallatin Ministry, 1813–1816
The House of Representatives that met for the convention of the Ninth Congress in March 1813 was a body markedly changed from that which had sat for the last three years. The 1812 elections fractured the main parties along factional lines, yielding a fractured chamber with no clear majority for the wartime government of Prime Minister Henry Clay. When the House met for the first time on March 4, a vote of no-confidence was narrowly passed, and recognizing the hopelessness of his situation, Clay agreed to step aside.

He was succeeded by Rufus King, a noted anti-slavery politician from New York, who negotiated a tricky alliance with Albert Gallatin to become the first Federalist prime minister since Hamilton himself held the office. A careful mixture of tact and political savvy would allow King to sustain this uneasy marriage of rivals for the next three years. With Gallatin as Secretary of State, the coalition negotiated an end to the War of 1812 after the defeat of the American invasion of Canada and subsequent repulse of a British invasion of upstate New York brought fighting to a stalemate: the Treaty of Geneva, ratified in 1814, was to be Gallatin's last great achievement in public life, as the weary statesman yielded leadership of the National Republicans to his protégé, John Quincy Adams. With support from the Ultra-Federalists, the government likewise succeeded in re-establishing the Bank of the United States, though once again hopes for a federal internal improvements act failed to gain traction in the House in face of the combined objections of Federalist and Radical Republican members.

The 1815–16 United States general election
For a time, King's ministry seemed to benefit from the outpouring of nationalist sentiment that followed the end of hostilities in 1814; but as the general election drew nearer, the prime minister's hawkish protectionism and his party's obstruction of the internal improvements bill turned the pivotal Mid-Atlantic against him. Instead, the voters delivered the government to John Quincy Adams, whose National Republicans made large gains across the Northeast for a plurality of near twenty seats in the lower chamber over their closest rivals. Elsewhere, nominal Republican candidates thrashed their Federalist challengers in all but three states, as Clay's Democratic element held their base in the West whilst Radicals pledged to John Randolph of Roanoke took Virginia, Georgia, and Delaware. Among the twenty mainline Federalists to lose their seats was Rufus King himself, who handed the government over to Adams and returned to New York.


National Republican (John Quincy Adams) 61 seats (+21), 33.3% popular votes
Democratic Republican (Henry Clay) 44 seats (-9), 23.8% popular votes
Federalist (Rufus King) 36 seats (-20), 19.0% popular votes
Radical Republican (John Randolph) 26 seats (+20), 14.3% popular votes
Ultra-Federalist (Essex Junto) 12 seats (-15), 9.5% popular votes

[Kingpoleon]

What is happening in France? Does a bigger War of 1812 cause Britain to have Wellington and other top commanders in Canada, causing heavy losses for the Coalition?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

What is happening in France? Does a bigger War of 1812 cause Britain to have Wellington and other top commanders in Canada, causing heavy losses for the Coalition?

In a manner of speaking. While Wellington would remain in Europe as IOTL, the hawkishness of the Clay Ministry forced Britain to begin strengthening her North American garrisons as early as the fall of 1810. The absence of those troops from Europe was keenly felt, and Napoleon managed to fight the Coalition to a stalemate in 1814, keeping his crown but prevented by failing health from mounting a campaign to reclaim mastery of Europe. His death (untimely or fortuitous, depending on one's perspective) in 1818 was followed by the ascension of his son, Napoleon II, who is considered something of a weakling by the government in London—prompting whispered talk of a Bourbon restoration as we move into the 1820s.

[Kingpoleon]

What is happening in France? Does a bigger War of 1812 cause Britain to have Wellington and other top commanders in Canada, causing heavy losses for the Coalition?

In a manner of speaking. While Wellington would remain in Europe as IOTL, the hawkishness of the Clay Ministry forced Britain to begin strengthening her North American garrisons as early as the fall of 1810. The absence of those troops from Europe was keenly felt, and Napoleon managed to fight the Coalition to a stalemate in 1814, keeping his crown but prevented by failing health from mounting a campaign to reclaim mastery of Europe. His death (untimely or fortuitous, depending on one's perspective) in 1818 was followed by the ascension of his son, Napoleon II, who is considered something of a weakling by the government in London—prompting whispered talk of a Bourbon restoration as we move into the 1820s.

Hmm... Is Cambacérès Regent, I assume?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

What is happening in France? Does a bigger War of 1812 cause Britain to have Wellington and other top commanders in Canada, causing heavy losses for the Coalition?

In a manner of speaking. While Wellington would remain in Europe as IOTL, the hawkishness of the Clay Ministry forced Britain to begin strengthening her North American garrisons as early as the fall of 1810. The absence of those troops from Europe was keenly felt, and Napoleon managed to fight the Coalition to a stalemate in 1814, keeping his crown but prevented by failing health from mounting a campaign to reclaim mastery of Europe. His death (untimely or fortuitous, depending on one's perspective) in 1818 was followed by the ascension of his son, Napoleon II, who is considered something of a weakling by the government in London—prompting whispered talk of a Bourbon restoration as we move into the 1820s.

Hmm... Is Cambacérès Regent, I assume?

That seems a reasonable assumption.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Adams—Clay Ministry, 1816–1819
The administration of John Quincy Adams put the prime minister's unrivaled experience in foreign affairs to good use, the death of Napoleon in 1818 marking the end of one era and the beginning of another in the history of world diplomacy. As Europe considered the character of the young French Emperor, Napoleon II, Adams set out to define a new school of American foreign policy: the so-called Adams Doctrine, outlined at the Congress of Panama in 1818, declared American neutrality in the affairs of Europe and vowed to oppose further efforts by the European powers to reclaim their lost colonies in the Americas. Successful in his efforts to promote stronger ties with the newly independent states of Latin America, Adams found domestic prosperity more elusive. While the government was able to secure passage of legislation to finance an ambitious internal improvement scheme, the Panic of 1817 effectively brought the project to a halt, as the failure of several state banks plunged the country into recession.

The 1818–19 United States general election
In spite of the difficult economy, Adams retained the confidence of the voting public, and with the opposition divided against itself was able to to return to government with an expanded plurality in the House of Representatives. Despite capturing barely 35% of the popular vote, the National Republicans carried just shy of eighty seats in the lower chamber, for a margin of twenty-eight seats over Clay's Democratic element. The Federalists, meanwhile, suffered the worst defeat of their history, winning fewer seats even than Randolph's Radical faction, who held their majorities in Virginia, Georgia, and Delaware and added four North Carolinian constituencies to their caucus. The Federalist collapse notwithstanding, President Marshall easily won reelection with support from National Republicans and some conservative Radicals, sweeping the electoral college and defeating his nearest rival in the popular vote, Governor William Clark, by a margin of nineteen points.


National Republican (John Quincy Adams) 79 seats (+18), 34.5% popular votes
Democratic Republican (Henry Clay) 51 seats (+7), 27.6% popular votes
Radical Republican (John Randolph) 30 seats (+4), 17.2% popular votes
Federalist (John Sergeant) 25 seats (-11), 20.7% popular votes


President John Marshall (Federalist, Virginia) 140 electors, 51.7% popular votes
Governor William Clark (Democratic Republican, Missouri Territory) 87 electors, 31.0% popular votes
Secretary of War James Monroe (National Republican, Virginia) 0 electors, 17.2% popular votes