President Ashton, with his slim popular mandate, set to work on shaping the nation into his own image. He passed several policies, which collectively are now known as the “Blood and Iron Acts”. These acts angered thousands of miners within the nation, causing hundreds of deaths. This was one of the first nails in Ashtons coffin. Not only were the acts unpopular, but the people were growing tired of the Democratic Parties dominance of the New England political landscape. As well as this, Marcus Morton leaked to the press how he regretted choosing such an ‘old guard backwards reactionary’ as his successor. The Democratic Party was starting to fail, with several prominent members – including Morton himself – leaving the party and joining the Federalists.
The policy, Marcus Morton, and a Miner.
President Ashton, with him being an interventionist at heart, was delighted when he heard that the profits of the New England Eastern Rail Co., Ltd were falling. The company, whose founder and chairman is previous President Marcus Morton, reported that the companies’ profits were down 120% since the last quarter. This sudden spiral into losses had forced Morton to declare the company bankrupt. Ashton, seeing a chance to boost his popularity, declared that the government would bail out the company with a large grant, then offer it a loan with low interest rates.
New England Eastern Rail Co, Ltd. was 'saved' by Ashton.
Moments after signing off the grant, news came in of an international crisis. The conflict was over the colonial region of Columbia, and who should be the imperial masters of it. France, seeing this as a chance to topple the United Kingdom’s colonial dominance, joined the United States side in the crisis. No other great power saw this, and Emperor Ferdinand of Austria is quoted as saying
“this petty disagreement between old Imperials and new is not worth the international stages time.” After a few weeks of negotiations, the United Kingdom was declared the victor, and was given full rights over the region.
The report that President Ashton received, along with the telegram announcing the end of the crisis.
Ashton was set on creating a plan that would boost his ratings before the up-coming election. He decided to create a foundation of doctors that would be paid to go around and heal the sick; no matter their wealth or class. He announced the plan in a speech in a cold morning in November of 1843
. “It is with joy that I announce today the founding of the Ashton Health Foundation. This foundation will pay and supply doctors to go around and heal the sick of New England, no matter who they are!” The speech was met by roaring applause from the crowd. This, however, took its toll on Ashton. The speech gave him a cold, the cold developed into a chest infection, the chest infection was later diagnosed as pneumonia. Three weeks later, the president was announce dead. His VP, Cornelius Vanderbilt, was sworn in as President for the final year before the elections. He was a hated man, reactionary and a, as he once described himself, ‘poor hater’.
Portrait of President Cornelius Vanderbilt
The international stage was being to take note of New England’s technological prowess, with several great powers sending praises to New England. This, as well as the opening and expanding of new factories, spurred the nations industry on. The people of New England were now determined to become the global power house in industry. In just under 10 years, New England went from a country with three failing factories and just one rail line in Boston, to having several incredibly successful factories and the North-South Line connecting the countries north and south. The people were proud, and on the 30th anniversary of independence, the whole nation celebrated.
New England truly shows Technological Prowess!
In the final weeks of Vanderbilt’s unpopular presidency, he removed undid several popular acts, and made the Ashton Health Foundation defunct, claiming they were a “waste of government money”. This marked the end of the Democratic Parties dominance. The election was called, and Vanderbilt stood uncontested within his own party. The Federalists too experienced a similar situation, as Peterson – who was now no longer a young man and was in his 30s – was given another chance as the nominee. Vanderbilt focused mostly on attack campaigns, saying that the liberal Federalists were “unholy doom bringers”. The people however took no heed to him, instead focussing on the charismatic and brilliant Joseph Peterson. He took the nation by storm, and focused his campaign on policy and past-experiences. He told the nation how he and the Federalists campaigned for many of the, as he called it, ‘nicer’ policies – including the Ashton Health Foundation. Marcus Morton even came out and said the nation would be foolish to choose Vanderbilt, saying that even his presidency was closer to that of a liberal one. After weeks of campaigning, the nation took to the polls and the results were announced.
Joseph Peterson had won, ending the 30 year dominance held by the Democratic Party.
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Authors Notes:
Nothing much happened whilst getting this update, so I had to improvise with the whole Ashton thing. Also, my friend wanted it to be a stupid death and that's the one we settled on.
Also, how often should I update? Once a day? Every two days? It doesn't take too long to get a new post ready - 30-60 minutes - so I could do it daily and be done quickly, especially since I have a week off from school. Also, I reckon there'd be about 19 or so more updates (ever five years plus a "world after 1936" sort of post, if I get there
), does that seem too much? I reckon the updates would become less and less frequent as the game became slower.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!
