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The Presidents: 1836-1936 - An Interactive US AAR

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I have decided not to run for another term as Governor of Illinois. While it has been a pleasure to serve the people of my great state for the last eight years, I must now focus on the needs of the nation and shift my focus away from state politics. I will continue to work for the common good of the American people, uphold the rights of the working man, and fight this reactionary tide of racism and faux federalism to the best of my ability and the limit of my power, but I will not do so from Springfield.

While I congratulate President-elect Sherman on his victory, I caution him strongly against the reckless policies of his predecessor regarding the nation's finances. There is a crisis looming in the shadows, born of stock-market speculation and borrowing on margin, and the bill for our indulgence in unrestricted capitalism will come soon. Without federal regulation, corporate oversight, or a strong safety net bolstered by progressive taxation, the working man will be the hardest hit by this coming storm.

Furthermore, while the majority of the country is content to allow the black man to be crushed beneath the bootheel of landed white Southerners, it will not remain so forever. A day of reckoning is coming, where we will be forced to truly recognize the lessons of the Civil War and allow our fellow human beings to co-exist beside us in equality, and history will vindicate my position even if the Electoral College did not.

I will take a short vacation following the end of my term, after which I will begin a tour of working-class neighborhoods in the South, giving speeches to the people and raising public consciousness on the injustices of Jim Crow. The Progressive Party will continue to fight for social justice and economic fairness in the Congress while I am gone.
 
((I was planning on making my farewell address today, but since I'm in the process of moving, and my internet access is... limited, at best, I'll hold off on that, and on making a new character))

Congratulations, Mr. Sherman! Remember, you must act moderately on civil rights; you may have been elected by the Southerners, but you cannot forsake the Northern and Western branches of the party.
 
((Been away on vacation for a week, now I'm back.))

I would like to congratulate our next president John T. Sherman. I hope he will lead lead country into great prosperity and peace.

- Governor C. Blancharde
 
{{OOC: I want to join, but idk in which party to join, my positions as politician would be free trade, laissez-faire, pro-military, secularism, pro-civil rights; I suppose that Federal?}}

Image of Van Wyck
Name: Andrew Van Wyck
Date of Birth: 1874
Party: Republican
History: A Northern Republican, Van Wyck was born in a wealthy Dutch-American family that resides in Boston. The family fortune, that comes from diverse investments in major shipping and financial companies paid for Van Wyck's economics degree in Dartmouth College. He entered Massachusite politics in 1906 and finally became a member of the House of Representatives in 1915.
Occupation: Massachusite Member if the House of Representatives & lawyer
 
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Seek75 said:
Do you have any particular reservations over what country you wish to be our ambassador for, Mr. Carlsson?
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I have always been ensuring peace in Europe, but if my talents are needed elsewhere I will accept. I have always leaned to a peaceful resolution of conflicts, since the Jarvis administration and the beggining of the great war.
 
Wonderful; another Northern Republican! Welcome Congressman van Wyck!
 
Nanwe said:
{{OOC: I want to join, but idk in which party to join, my positions as politician would be free trade, laissez-faire, pro-military, secularism, pro-civil rights; I suppose that Federal?}}
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((Depends on what you value most. Federals are more pro-military, pro-civil rights, and pro-secular, while the Republicans are pro-lassiez-faire. Both are pro-free trade.))
 
Sherman: The Peak​

The election of 1925 is generally marked as the high point of the Republican Party. John T. Sherman reigned supreme in the South, gaining 90% of the vote in those states, and broke Sullivan’s position in the Great Lakes area on the strength of the economy. The greatest reason for his victory though, seems to have been the Federal Party’s coalition platform, which, with its economic “fear-mongering” and determination to right social ills that had previously caused nothing but more trouble than righting them seemed worth, pushed the moderates into the Republican fold for 1925. Even in Federal strongholds like New England and the West Coast, the victory margins for the Party proved to be the smallest since Samuel Davis’ miracle victory in 1889.

election1925.jpg

1. Results for the election of 1925.​

The next four years were the Golden Age of the Republican Party in the same way that James Harrison’s second term was for the Federal Party. In the next four years, a large majority of the regulations set in place since Joe Hayden by the Democratic and Federal Parties would see themselves repealed. Banking for example, which had long been a low-regulation industry, was left with nothing but the basic restrictions on fraud and an inactive Federal Reserve.
It is debated whether the acceleration of economic growth in Sherman’s term to 21.8% was the result of the repeal of regulation, or the natural acceleration of growth as the American economy entered the last phase of the longest economic boom in history. On Wall Street, the Dow surpassed 1,200 points for the first time on September 28th 1927. The next time it would reach similar numbers would be in the mid-1950s.
Indeed, President Sherman due to the general prosperity of the American people, President Sherman in July 1926 announced that he considered the 10% flat tax to be “excessive”, as the US Treasury had a surplus of 88 billion dollars, and it was increasing by as much as 11 million dollars a day. Six months later, congress voted almost unanimously to bring the flat tax down to 7%. For the first time since 1904, the US budget experienced a deficit, but as long as growth continued, incomes were expected to catch up to the new tax rate.

longworth.jpg

2. Horace Simmons, Speaker of the House of Representatives (1925-1931).​

Sherman was the figurehead of the Republican Golden Age, but the man who made it a reality was Speaker of the House Horace Simmons. He relentlessly pushed for the deregulation laws proposed by fellow Republicans, and hammered down laws proposed by the opposition that did not conform to the vision he held for the United States government and its role in the life of the people. He laid this vision to paper in an essay published in early 1925; “The Relationship between a People and Their Government.”
In later years, Simmons would become recognized as one of the fathers of Libertarianism. In the late 20s though, Horace Simmons was simply known as the man who held Congress in his hands. John T. Sherman even called him “the most powerful man in the world”; for a president elected on not interfering, and refraining from using his presidential powers, having a man like Horace Simmons was an unexpected blessing.
Yet for all the change in America, the downsizing of the social programs expanded so rapidly in the last 30 years. As the enemy of Horace Simmons’ vision of a minimal government, the pensions, unemployment subsidies and healthcare services provided by the federal and state governments were in danger the moment he was voted Speaker of the House [1]. Between 1925 and 1929, all these programs lost 30-40% of their funding.
Despite the anger this provoked in certain demographics, Republican supremacy seemed assured, at least as long as the economy continued to grow at faster and faster rates. The governments of Britain and France however, were much less secure, in both their budgets and their positions. This stemmed largely from two situations; the continued civil war in Germany, and the massive debt to the US incurred during the Great War. The latter situation was exacerbated by the refusal of the Republican-led Congress to forgive these loans, something that the British and French governments had counted on ever since learning that they would get no help in paying these loans from German reparations payments.

freikorps.jpg

3. Federal German troops in Cottbus during the final push for Berlin, May 1927.​

The Federal German Army, having amassed troops on the Leipzig-Dresden Axis all through 1926, launched a major offensive spearhead for Berlin in February 1927. Pioneering new tactics that utilized the French and British-made tanks transported across the border in the last two years, the offensive was a stunning success, reaching Cottbus in early May. The resulting military collapse on the Communist side in areas west of Berlin as troops were rushed to defend the capital, allowed Federal troops to make it as far north as the border of Schleswig by August 1927. On September 2nd, the Federal German 1st Army entered the Berlin financial district, and captured the former Berlin Stock Exchange. The resumption of operations suspended since the revolution, in true German style the next day, allowed the Dow to reach the heights mentioned before. The capture of Karl Liebknecht and his government in the death throes of the fighting for the governmental district signaled the effective end of the German Civil War, after four years and over a million lives.
The calming down of Europe though, signaled the end of unquestioned American dominance for the next twenty years. As the rest of Europe finally began to recover from the long slump it had been in since 1917, the economies of France and Britain began to reach growth rates closer to the American ones. At its recorded peak in January 1928, US manufacturing had accounted for 42.4% of world manufacturing, and European manufacturing for 37.7%. In January 1929, those numbers would be 41.9% and 38.0% respectively [2]. The peak would not be surpassed again until 1942-5 [3].

nyse1928.jpg

4. The façade of the New York Stock Exchange on September 28th 1927.​

As the National Conventions of 1928 approached, all thus seemed right with the world. The Tumultuous Twenties seemed to have ended in Europe and the NYSE had rallied to new heights after a small downtick in late August, which was being called the definitive proof that America was immune to the business cycle that top economists had warned would bring an end to another abnormally large boom. It was practically a given that the Republican Party would continue to reign supreme. Even Federal and Progressive politicians had grudgingly accepted that the boom did not necessarily have to end in bust.

[1] – Education proved to be the only social program that Simmons agreed with, or respected, enough to leave alone.

[2] – 0.1% of world manufacturing shifted from the US to South America, which accounted for 17.2% of world manufacturing in January 1929. Of the 0.5% shift from the US, 0.3% was caused by growth and 0.2% by the reopening of German factories closed by the civil war.

[3] – The exact year is not known, as external circumstances prevented the US Department of State, which collected the statistics annually, from making measurements in certain major industrial nations.

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Exceptional Situation(s):

So, this will be a pretty election.

Primary time. Parties are: Republican, Federal, Independent.
 
Well done on these past for years Mr. President. Cutting taxes, reducing spending, and avoiding involving ourselves in Europe, I'm impressed! I doubt you will have any major opposition, and offer you a preemptive endorsement.

I would suggest, however, that you forgive at least some of the Anglo-French debts; when the economy experiences a downturn, as it surely will in the next decade (and possibly sooner), we want to ensure that Europe will have the means to recover effectively.

((I swear I'll get my farewell address up eventually... hopefully by Monday my new house will have internetz...

Oh, am I a father of libertarianism?))
 
Mr. Jarvis, while I agree that a portion of Anglo-French debt be forgiven, surely you must mean it be done for security when their economy experiences a downturn. All the evidence points to the fact that we in the United States have beaten the "business cycle". Our downturn was the slight slowing of growth after the war. The stock market has experienced its "hiccup". History points to another 30 years of growth before the next one.

- Jonathan Devon, Representative for Indiana's 12th Congressional District
 
I hereby declare that i will try again to run as president, under the republican banner with the same platform.
-William Horshington
((Oh, Mr.Jarvis what will we do without you :p))
 
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I declare my candidacy as an Independent

While we have had economic growth the safety net that supports those who struggle has been ripped away. The rich have amassed a great fortune under the Republican government while the workers are one accident, illness or layoff away from the streets. We must ensure that all Americans share in the great prosperity our nation enjoys.

I do not want to stifle the free market that our nation has prospered under but wish to make it more secure by allowing all to benefit from it. I will restore the pensions, healthcare and unemployment benefits that the President has cut. We must take care of the disabled, old and sick and not leave them alone to suffer. I propose a minor increase in taxes on the wealthy to 10% to fund these benefits.

On foreign affairs we must not become involved in the wars of Europe but must lead as a peaceful advocate for democracy and self determination for all peoples of the world.

Finally all Americans are guaranteed equal rights under Federal law and the states that restrict the rights of citizens under the "jim crow" laws are violating the Federal law passed after the civil war. Steps must be taken to guarantee the civil rights of all Americans.

Patrick Ryan - Progressive Party
 
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I declare my candidacy as a Republican.

The Anglo-French must repay everything, or our businesses may crash. We might have been lucky so far, but we musn't let our guard down! We must ensure the integrity of the German Federal government: our allies must not crumble under social strife. We must prevent radical ideologies from taking over this unstable nation, so that trading and peace can prevail and we can prevent another military conflict.

I have been a Senator for many years. I have done great deeds, both in my home state of Alabama and abroad as an ambassador to Jarvis' nation league, war-torn Europe and recently Germany. I have always vouched for peace, even if it meant unpopularity and if it raised suspicion during the times of the Great War. I warned everyone about the impending conflict in Europe and about our non-interventionism. I vouched for the men killed in the pacifist manifestation in Chicago many years ago, I vouched for a truce during the difficult months of our offensive in Europe and I helped rebuild Europe in such a manner that war was unfeasible. I stood by Republican presidents as a diplomatic advisor, ambassador.. you name it.. always in the name of PEACE and INDEPENDENCE from IMPERIALISM and TYRANNY. So now I stand, a distinguished diplomatic servant, trying to take my experience to the White House.

My term would be a term for PEACE, PROSPERITY and GROWTH! I will make sure our libertarian friends do not go over the limit, while keeping the thick of our populace fed and with high employment. I am a man of an open mind, ready to listen to advice from our opposition related to social programs and social liberties, but always with my mind on the federal states liberty, for I have always been a Southern man and I have been quite annoyed at the increasing centralization of powers by the former Jarvis administration.

I hope our voters listen to this old humble man, who may not be a big shot at politics or PR, but knows his thing and knows what is right for AMERICA!

-Ambassador Carlsson of Alabama, currently stationed in Germany.
 
So, assuming Horshington is running as a Republican, the Republican spots are taken.

Apart from that, we only have one Independent, and no Federals.
 
I, Governor Taggarman of Texas, will run on the Federalist ticket

We may very well be experiencing the largest economic boom in American history, even world history, but all booms end. It is inevitable. Eventually the increase in GDP will not be backed by actual demand of goods, and then prices will drop. I do not mean to be pessimistic, but we are at an opportunity to ensure the people of this nation do not get caught holding the bills when the times are direst. We must raise taxes back to a rate which keeps our budget at a surplus in order to prepare for collapse. We must be prepared to re-institute all those safety net programs for the unemployed at a dimes notice when things hit the proverbial fan. We have a duty to pick up the pieces when our private industry fails.

On a foreign notice, if we do not forgive the debt of France and England, we may very well be looking at a tumultuous few decades. Germany might very well have survived, but if we let Europe go broke then the people of Europe will begin to question their governments mandate.

As a government of the people, it is our responsibility to protect them when things go towards the worse. I propose a government which will do just that, prepare for the worst, without sacrificing our current boom in the process. Other candidates will just let the bust jackpot clime higher and higher until the chips fall.

I can only hope the citizens will vote for the candidate who will prepare for their defense, Governor Taggarman!
 
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