Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

The Presidents: 1836-1936 - An Interactive US AAR

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Show only dev responses
Gloa said:
I propose a Gold and Silver Act and a very small Freedom Bill of 1854.

Gold and Silver Act
Article 1. The Department of the Interior will assess the metal producing regions of the western territories - particularly those where gold and silver are found, but also those where copper, iron, or other such minerals may be mined. An organized review of current mining rights by individuals and corporations in the area will be undertaken, and proof of claims will be distributed to those with valid mining rights for certain areas of land. The Department shall also issue claims for federally owned or unclaimed land.

Article 2. Individuals or corporations who are found to be mining in areas without a proof of their claim shall be fined.

Article 3. Persons who willfully damage the property of others in their mining processes may have their proof of claim revoked and may be compelled to compensate for damages done. Mining processes on federal lands will be regulated for damage to the soil and basic safety for hired laborers.

Article 4. Individuals or corporations which own persons in servitude may purchase mining claims for the release of the persons in servitude, based on market prices. Any released slave shall be free in perpetuity. Freed slaves will be provided the same options as in the Freedom Bill.

Freedom Bill of 1854
Article 1. The Freedom Bill of 1845 will be continued, save that the responsibilities there delegated to the Department of the South will be taken by the Department of Citizenship.

((we haven't had much legislation for awhile, so I thought to add these in - also, the second bill is important if Brass wishes to remove the department but keep the old Freedom Bill))
Click to expand...

((Should we not wait until the update to propose new bills? I mean we do not know what crises may arise.))

BigBadBob said:
Please, stop arguing over the name of the Civil War.

You may refer to it as what you will, but should these names become weapons for insulting others, I will impose a strict "Civil War"-only rule.
Click to expand...

((Car "War between the States" work as the "v" key on my laptop doen not. (I copied and pasted that one, im in a hotel right now so my laptop is my only computer)))

keynes2.0 said:
((Really? Really? Any name can be justified via 'I was raised that way'?))
Click to expand...

((Quit it, I mean no offense to anyone. That is what its called where I am from. Is it somewhat biased towards southerners? yes. I wonder why a bunch of SOUTHERNERS would use the name that favors thier side))

((I see that you believe yourself knowledgeable in the Civil War, so am I. You represent the Northern Position, I represent the Southern one. It is inevitable that we will hae disagreements due to this fact. I respectfully request that any future debates be about more serious issues and be conducted via PM))

((Damn that was a lot of v's, oh the wonders of copy and paste))
 
Last edited:
In the event that I must impose name censorship, The War Between the States and the Civil War are accepted terms.
 
Gloa said:
Article 4. Individuals or corporations which own persons in servitude may purchase mining claims for the release of the persons in servitude, based on market prices. Any released slave shall be free in perpetuity. Freed slaves will be provided the same options as in the Freedom Bill.
Click to expand...

Surely this must be illegal. I do not see how a person who owns a slave would be prohibited from purchasing a mining claim until they free their slave can be constitutional. Give everyone the equal right to be able to mine these prospected areas.

((I think that is what Article 4 is saying, I apologise if I interpreted it wrong))
 
King50000 said:
Surely this must be illegal. I do not see how a person who owns a slave would be prohibited from purchasing a mining claim until they free their slave can be constitutional. Give everyone the equal right to be able to mine these prospected areas.

((I think that is what Article 4 is saying, I apologise if I interpreted it wrong))
Click to expand...
Article 4 is simply acting as a continuation of the policies of the Freedom Bill. Slaveowners may purchase mining rights, as they purchased land, by freeing slaves rather than with cash. They of course may also use other methods of payment and are not obligated to purchase land with freedom - and those who already have established and clean claims would not be forced to purchase them with this. Of course, given the free-state nature of the West, I am not sure what they would do with those slaves, if they decided to pay in cash instead.

That article is not very clearly worded, I must admit. Does anyone have a better revision of the article to add in instead?

Projekt 919 said:
((Should we not wait until the update to propose new bills? I mean we do not know what crises may arise.))
Click to expand...
((I figure these are pretty crisis-neutral - although a crisis might change their passability a lot - and BBB can always have it so that they were never proposed if there was a really big change))

Mikeboy said:
May I ask what effects the Gold & Silver Bill may have upon the Indian community?
Click to expand...
The Indians could find their mining rights - for the land claims that they have had recognized would of course also give them unquestionable valid mining rights - to be very profitable. If you would suggest further amendments to the bill to promote native development and preservation I would definitely consider adding them in.
 
Gloa said:
The Indians could find their mining rights - for the land claims that they have had recognized would of course also give them unquestionable valid mining rights - to be very profitable. If you would suggest further amendments to the bill to promote native development and preservation I would definitely consider adding them in.
Click to expand...

Maybe an addition allowing any future rare and/or valuable metals and rocks found on a Native reservation to be owned soley by the tribe inhabiting that area, and a claim written up for the locals, plus a Federal Loan to help jump start the mining of any found minerals.
 
Brass: Approaching Fever Pitch​


The election of 1853 was one dominated by the divide of the Davis Compromise. Brass’ policies appealed to a North that was becoming increasingly tired and distrustful of the South, and more specifically the SNM. President Walsh on the other hand, with his promise of continued freedom for slavery, seemed the South’s only hope after General Davis’ withdrawal from the race.
The most prominent, and peculiar, element of the election was the silence of as much as a quarter of the country’s political decision makers. The wing of the Democrat Party that felt slavery could not be ignored, but would not vote for Brass, elected to stay on the sidelines along with the moderates of the former Whig Party [1]. They simply resolved to undermine the more radical policies of the winner.
Jeremiah Brass became the man whose entire time in office seemed doomed to be engulfed by the bitter feud over the great divide of North and South. Brass was the first president since King to be elected with almost no votes from the South. It was a detail that would reflect on all his actions in office.

uselectionchart1853.jpg

1. Results for the Presidential Election of 1853.​

The response from the South was immediate. The day Brass was inaugurated; a senator in South Carolina proposed that, should Brass attempt to impose a disbandment of the SNM, or worse, abolition, they would secede. The senator’s speech spread like wildfire through the entire South, and Alabama even drafted a document announcing their secession from the Union.
Despite this, Brass announced that he was going through with his plan for the SNM. The militia would lay down its arms, or suffer the consequences. The stage seemed set for a full-blown war between the federal government and the SNM. However, the SNM’s leaders were still mostly army men.
For all the South’s talk and drafting up of documents, their final decision would still be influenced disproportionately by the opinion of the army. The Southern portion of the United States’ military at the time was still mostly made up of veterans of the Mexican-American War. The opinion on secession of these veterans was summed up most effectively by the statement of a major who had fought at Coyotes [2]; “My friends did not die fighting Santa Anna for freedom, and the sovereign right of this union of states, just for some hothead in Richmond or Raleigh to sunder that union over the issue of some militiaman’s gun”.
Brass on the other hand, was not yet aware in February-March of 1853 that the South would not secede without its armed men. So, Southern politicians endeavored to eke out a deal of some sort before the President called their bluff. Meanwhile, Brass too had begun to doubt whether it was worth it to risk Civil War over his distrust of the SNM.
The result of negotiations between the President and General Davis was the accord known as the “Great Compromise”. The Department of the South would continue to exist and deal with matters in the slave states, and in return the South’s representatives would support the creation of the Department of Citizenship. The SNM would be downsized, with more than half of the organization laying down its arms, in return the President would keep the ban on abolition in effect, but slavery would return as a debatable subject.

davis1853.jpg

2. A picture taken of General Davis during the negotiations.​

The problem was that the SNM had outgrown Davis and Khur. Their word no longer held as much sway in the organization in 1853, and many of the militia units that were to be disbanded refused to lay down their arms. The result was that Khur and Davis were both pulled out of their retirement to fight the organization that they had created.
The Southern portion of the Army was mobilized to forcibly take the weapons of militia units who refused to disband peacefully. They were joined by the units in the SNM who were not to be disbanded [3], and the battles between the SNM and the rebels would become the bloodiest and most brutal of the entire rebellion. All in all, the refusal to obey Davis and Khur’s orders would cost the lives of at least 34,000 members of the SNM, and some 7,000 US Troops, over the course of the year.
The heaviest resistance to disbandment was met in North Carolina, where 90% of the state’s militia rebelled. Most of the US Army’s casualties thus came from fighting here. The only states in which anywhere near as many federal troops died were Mississippi and South Carolina. Davis and Khur are to this day seen as traitors in the state, which stands in stark contrast to their reputation elsewhere as men who did what was necessary and took the matter into Southern hands, preventing Northern intervention.

militiamen.jpg

3. A small group of SNM members from Virginia take a break, late 1853.​

Despite being remembered mostly for the bloodshed in the South, Brass’ term was one of general economic prosperity and technological advancement. The industry of the North continued its explosive growth, fueled further by the increasing demands of an expanding military that constantly required newer and better equipment.
The military itself developed weapons and tactics at an alarming rate for peacetime. The Army was constantly finding new ways to manufacture weapons, and the military experience of the South allowed it to pioneer tactics that had never been seen before in the field of war. The European powers dismissed the United States military as a “colonial oddity” at the time, but by 1857 the US Army could probably have taken on, and beaten, even the French military [4].
The population of the country experienced a significant rise too, as immigrants slowly began to see the US, with its growing and innovative industry and great swathes of land, as a land of opportunity and new beginnings. It was in Brass’ term that the Department of Citizenship managed to carry out a census of the entire nation that had previously been thought impossible. At the beginning of Brass’ time in office, there were 25 million people in all of the states combined, by late 1856, there were 4 million more. However, all these achievements were overshadowed by the gathering storm in the South.
In the years after the suppression of the SNM, the veterans of the Mexican-American War had almost all retired, and been replaced by a new generation of soldiers. These younger recruits, with no previous experience of a true war, had no compunctions with secession. As the National Conventions of the Democrats and Republicans convened in December 1856 to nominate their presidential candidates, the safeguard that had prevented a full-blown secession in 1853 was gone.

[1] – These moderates went on to form a small and mostly unsuccessful party of their own, based on the principles of the most famous Whig Moderate, former President Cameron. Cameron however, never endorsed the Cameronite Party.

[2] – The major in question would later lead US troops into combat against rebelling SNM units in Alabama and Mississippi.

[3] – The units which stayed loyal to the federal government were often the oldest units in the SNM, and thus felt more loyalty to Davis and Khur than to the organization as an entity.

[4] – Reportedly, the only European power that did not underestimate the United States was Britain, which regularly sent officers to observe new American tactics and buy American weapons in places such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

-------------------------------

Exceptional Situation(s):

Alright guys, this time it’s serious. You could cut the tension with a knife.

It’s primary time (Republican or Democrat) and I want knives, lots of them. If you have legislation lying around, propose it. Let’s strike a match in a room full of gas.
 
Last edited:
I, Nicolas Khur, here by announce that I shall not return to retirement, and take up a position under General Davis in the SNM. I will work with Davis and my contacts within the Army to ensure that such a revolt from within the SNM against the nation will never again occur. As long as the South is part of this Union, the SNM will never again fire on Federal troops or talk of secession.
 
((After reading the recent updates in this AAR, I am thinking about making a return....Have the socialists come into play yet? And, if not...could we bring them about a bit early?))
 
Seek75 said:
((I don't think it's a good idea to break up the anti-slavery side just yet, so I'd suggest waiting until after the Civil War if you really want them.))
Click to expand...

((I was just about to say the same, started comming across that the more I thought about it. This way a Socialist movement could actually survive, rather than be blended into one side or the other))
 
Red Cesar said:
((After reading the recent updates in this AAR, I am thinking about making a return....Have the socialists come into play yet? And, if not...could we bring them about a bit early?))
Click to expand...
((No, not yet. The radical Left is mostly based around abolitionism. It would have to be at least after the Civil War when a socialist movement could actually gain ground. You could always return as a non-socialist to prepare the way for a socialist character [such as the father of a later prominent socialist], or perhaps come in now as a young man and develop a socialist/communist declaration [in the place of Marx or other authors who in the real world timeline brought the issue into worldwide attention] emerging from the tribulations and capitalist damages of the Civil War))
 
((Thought I'd point out that Cameronism includes various aspects of social liberalism which you can use a base for a more pure socialist platform.))
 
((I was the most prominent liberal, leftist character in this thread til I took a two week break, and I might introduce a new radical character...more sane minded this time, perhaps.))
 
I, Senator John Hensdale of Virginia, proclaim that I will be running for nomination for President of the United States under the Democratic Party. I do so to save the country we all live in from the radical Republicans, who we have seen, by the bloodshed in the South, are on a war path to tear this country apart!
 
Frymonmon said:
I, Senator John Hensdale of Virginia, proclaim that I will be running for nomination for President of the United States under the Democratic Party. I do so to save the country we all live in from the radical Republicans, who we have seen, by the bloodshed in the South, are on a war path to tear this country apart!
Click to expand...
And by bloodshed, my esteemed fellow member of Congress would be referring to the bloodshed caused by the lawlessness of certain southern nationalists who rose up against their own militia and the Union? It seems hardly like the Republicans are on a war path to tear the country apart - but rather that they are the only things holding it together, when the Democrats would just leave such secession-minded ruffians armed and organized.
 
Not to mention that, after all, it was under Walsh, a democrat, that the south suffered from riots and economic mis-management. Bleeding Texas also rode along the coat-tails of Andrew Jackson, another Democrat.
 
As a veteran of the Mexican War and a fellow soldier, I am willing to step forward as a negotiator with the SNM to try to reach a peaceable disarmament. Perhaps our outgoing or incoming administration would be willing to put forward a package to recruit a quota of personnel from the SNM ranks into the regular army or some similar form of compensation to try to mitigate hard feelings or bloodshed.

However, if a general rebellion does break out, the 14th Hoosier Infantry and myself stand ready to use all necessary force to ensure that peace, lives and property are secured.

In service,
Colonel Mandrake
 
(( I assume the Ratio is still in effect. Correct?))
(( Wow, if the SNM wasn't compared enough to the SA already it has now grown beyond control and had to be put down in a "Night of the Long Knives" Fashion))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back