Timeline 31

[stevep]

   mobiyus

   Norville probably had the best idea as it would save a lot of bloodshed to leave the Indians in peace. [At least until later when someone gets a stupid idea such as Los Vegas. ]

  I did actually wonder if the good water sign was a trick and it was actually foul or poisoned in some way and a lot of the unit would end up dead, although this could happen anyway depending on whether this is a big ambush or a quick but successful hit and run.

  Mind you a lot would depend on what happens in Texas as well because if one does come to terms with the Indians and the other doesn't they have the option of escaping over the border if being pursued.

  Did the US make any use of camels OTL?  Would see like a good idea to try and I know they were used in Australia, with a feral population in some areas I believe.

  Steve

[mobiyuz]

Jun 21, 2019 10:35:05 GMT stevep said:

   mobiyus

   Norville probably had the best idea as it would save a lot of bloodshed to leave the Indians in peace. [At least until later when someone gets a stupid idea such as Los Vegas. ]

  I did actually wonder if the good water sign was a trick and it was actually foul or poisoned in some way and a lot of the unit would end up dead, although this could happen anyway depending on whether this is a big ambush or a quick but successful hit and run.

  Mind you a lot would depend on what happens in Texas as well because if one does come to terms with the Indians and the other doesn't they have the option of escaping over the border if being pursued.

  Did the US make any use of camels OTL?  Would see like a good idea to try and I know they were used in Australia, with a feral population in some areas I believe.

  Steve

It's based on a real-life thing that never really got off the ground where in 1856, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (yes, that Jeff Davis) proposed using camels as an alternative to horses in the desert southwest.

[mobiyuz]

TL31 Focus: The Socialist Schism

Socialism is a word with a lot of concepts attached to it. For some, it’s seen as a gateway to communism, while others see it as “communism lite”, and others see socialism and communism as separate entities entirely. Naturally, like any ideology, there are debates and different schools of thought, but that isn’t the concern here. Instead, what will be discussed is what is considered by some to be the “Catholic-Orthodox Split” of socialist thought: that of the divergence between the North American School of Socialism and the European School of Socialism, and the driving forces behind the schism in these two schools of thought: Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx.

 

Karl Marx, ca. 1875 

Karl Marx, born in what would one day become the German Empire, is considered by some to have been the founding father of modern socialist thought (various forms existed prior to him, but his works crystallized much of the modern dogmas). In 1848, at the peak of the liberal revolutions sweeping across Europe, he and his partner Friedrich Engels published a small pamphlet named the Communist Manifesto, intentionally written in simple terms and with a short length to appeal to the working class, rather than intellectuals. Stateless for many years because of his publications, Marx lived in London for much of his life, and it was in the British Museum that he wrote many of his works, including the three-volume text Das Kapital in 1867.

Abraham Lincoln, ca. 1869

Abraham Lincoln was born on the American frontier in Kentucky, but lived most of his life in the US state of Illinois. Entering politics in the pro-business Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th and final president of the United States from 1860 to 1866, when he was deposed in a coup that led to the rise of Freedonia. Between 1866 and 1884, Lincoln was also stateless, traveling across much of North America and forming his own thoughts on socialism, which were crystallized into a seminal work of American political thought, New Common Sense. The pamphlet was effectively the main work that broke North American and European socialism apart, and became a foundational work for many North American socialist movements.

A preserved pamphlet from the first printing of New Common Sense, from the 

National Historical Archives of Boston, New England 

The split was already in the making by then, however. Between 1869 and 1871, Lincoln and Marx, who had already been in contact by then, began to exchange a series of letters while Lincoln lived in Toronto, Ontario that are appropriately called the Lincoln-Marx Letters, often used as a corollary to New Common Sense. The letters began as a discussion of the present state of socialism, but soon the two began to diverge in their arguments. Lincoln was, as he had always been, pro-business, and had created several monopolies in his time in office by legislative fiat. As part of this, Lincoln’s view on the matter was not simply to abolish corporations and create worker’s communes, but instead to adapt the existing system and strengthen the workers through means such as collective bargaining rights, a national minimum wage, and other means such as state pensions.

Mackenzie House in Toronto, Canada, where Lincoln lived 

while writing New Common Sense 

This was where the schism began. Marx saw the rise of industrialism as making communism’s rise inevitable, and a revolution would overthrow the existing social order to create an entirely new one. Given that Marx lived in Europe at a time when aristocracies and absolute monarchies were the norm, this is to be expected. Lincoln, by contrast, did not see a revolution as inevitable or even necessary. Instead, his view on the matter was that a gradual shift in the system through existing means (namely, democratic governments) could bring about a system that could have things such as private businesses in a world where workers and their rights were still guarded. It is in these letters that Marx and Lincoln truly diverged from each other, as their opinions started fairly similar but eventually separated over the course of their letters.

A copy of one of the original Lincoln-Marx Letters, sent by Marx to Lincoln on 19 June 1870

In the 1870s, socialism was still largely dominated by Marxist thought, and the general opinion of socialism was that of red banners in the streets, bomb-throwing anarchists, and generally undesirable effects on society. It was the letters that inspired Lincoln to begin going on speaking engagements across the continent, where he continued to develop his theory of socialism independently from Marx. Lincoln partook in several debates and discussions, and gave several speeches to slowly rebuild his influence in the now extinct United States, and began to write the first draft of New Common Sense around the early 1880s. It was in New Common Sense that Lincoln took a different inspiration: Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet Common Sense (from which the title of Lincoln’s work was derived) was seen as a foundational document for American democracy.

Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense and one of Lincoln's primary inspirations.

New Common Sense was, much like Common Sense and the Communist Manifesto before it, a fairly short pamphlet of about 45 pages. Indeed, it was arranged similarly to Common Sense, being split into 4 sections: How We Got Here, Here And Now, Where We Can Go, and a short afterword. How We Got Here was Lincoln’s analysis of the 90 year history of the United States through a quasi-Marxist perspective, discussing the “class struggles” as they pertained to various conflicts such as the American War for Independence, the Indian Wars, the War of 1812, and finally the War of Dissolution. Here And Now went on to describe a viewpoint of the modern political landscape of the 7 Post-American Nations, describing that a common theme among all of them were various failings in their governments and the weakness of the people subject to those governments. Where We Can Go described in detail what Lincoln believed should be implemented and the effects they would have, and the afterword drew an analogy that will be repeated here:


“The current state of the common man’s affairs is much like an old boiler, corroded and weakened. Many in the present day have seen fit to simply patch it over again and again, trusting that it will hold. Others hold that the boiler is destined to explode. It is instead possible that the boiler can be properly repaired and restored to working order, provided that the necessary methods are used.”


The pamphlet was a smash hit across North America, though its distribution was banned in Freedonia and restricted in the Confederate States of America. The chief measure of its success was, much like the Communist Manifesto, that it was written in short, concise terms that were intentionally made accessible for the common man, while not going so far as to alienate those wealthy individuals who were most likely to be hostile to the kind of arguments made in the Communist Manifesto. However, one place that it was not successful in was Europe. In Europe, many Marxists were unswayed by the pamphlet’s assertions, and even Marx himself argued shortly before his death in 1886 “How can Lincoln truly expect such change to come through the ballot box, when vast swathes of this continent are denied such a luxury? Does he perhaps expect the German Kaiser to disrobe some of his power willingly? Or perhaps for the Tsar to eagerly give his citizens the right to vote? His naivete comes from his assumption that such methods can be applied universally.”

A Lincolnist rally in Omaha following the publication of New Common Sense, ca. 1886

And so, the final nail in the schism came. Between North America and Europe, the lines were drawn and the largest schism in socialist thought was finally manifested. Some political scholars and historians have described the split between Lincoln and Marx as so significant that Lincolnism couldn't accurately be called "socialism", but should have its own term applied to it, one of the most common being "social liberalism" or "market socialism" or "social democracy", the latter term of the three being the most common in the modern day. Regardless, the influence of this ideology cannot be overstated, laying a foundation for the American Left that continues into the modern day.

[stevep]

   mobiyus

   This gives the worrying suggestion that modern social democracy doesn't develop in Europe as it did OTL but only in N America - which ironically it didn't OTL in the US.  That could be very bad for stability and economic development in Europe unless its only delayed or some form of alternative for peaceful but radical reform develops.  A Europe where Maxism is the only form of socialism is not likely to be a good place to ne for anyone.

 

  Steve

[mobiyuz]

Part 6: Rise of the Progressives (1885 - 1892)

On 9 September 1885, Robert W. Waterman gave a speech from the steps of the Grizzly Hotel in Sacramento, in which he gave a scathing critique of President Gorham, the Freedom Party, and Californian politics in general, in what became known as the "New Era of Progress" speech, an excerpt is given here:

"As we march toward the future, we can either embrace the course that history is guiding our country or resist it. If we resist, then much like the ship caught in a storm, we will be torn asunder just as the country once called the United States was torn asunder. If, however, we can turn our sails into the wind, we may be propelled into a bright and shining future, where we may indeed bear true faith to the very first article of our constitution, that all men and women are by their natures free and independent, and have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and happiness."

With the speech delivered, the Progressive Party of California soared into existence, rapidly absorbing support from across the country. Its platform rested on three key planks: breaking down the legal barriers between the ethnic groups of California, creating protections for workers in California, and securing the right of women to vote. In one bound, this secured them a large base of support centering around immigrants, Hispanic-Californians, and Asian-Californians, along with the more progressive Anglo-Californian men, as well as support from women who could not yet vote, immediately launching them to national prominence in a political climate where their supporters felt alienated and disenchanted with Californian politics. This also had the side effect of crippling the Freedom Party beyond repair, and seeing the situation unfolding many of the more conservative wing of the party also deserted and joined with the Bear Flag Party, thus leaving only a handful of support for the Freedomites. They quickly faded from the national scene, not even putting up a candidate for the oncoming 1886 election, while the Progressives quickly nominated Waterman as their candidate for the election at the beginning of the campaign in October.

The first Progressive Party National Conference, where Waterman was nominated for the Presidency.

In the ensuing election, Waterman was up against Assemblyman Washington Bartlett, considered to be a very moderate Bear Flagger. The election was notable for being the first instance where presidential candidates publicly met to debate each other, on Waterman's invitation. On 9 November 1885, Waterman and Bartlett met in the New Republic Hotel in Oakland for the debate, where Waterman tapped into a populist vein and spoke passionately about the needs to protect workers and minorities through the country, while Bartlett presented himself as a moderate, "stay the course" candidate. Unfortunately for Waterman, the crowd assembled for the debate that day was almost universally white men, and as such the newspapers could report on the crowd's "lack of enthusiasm" without lying. Regardless, the reports of his arguments reached across the country, even earning him support among Mormons who felt that he could soothe the tensions with Eureka and help them finally achieve statehood. As a further symbol of this, Waterman nominated Romualdo Pacheco, a prominent Californio and Hispanic-Californian politician, to be his running mate for the Vice Presidency.

Robert Waterman (left) and Washington Bartlett (right), the primary opponents of the Election of 1886

When the election finally came in 1886, despite a massive surge in turnout from non-Anglo voters, Bartlett managed to win 55% of the national vote and as such won the election to become the 5th President of California. However, Waterman and the Progressives were now firmly established as a force to be reckoned with on both the national and local levels. San Francisco, for example, elected Levi Ellert as a Progressive candidate for mayor, setting it against the BFP political machine controlling the state that operated out of Oakland. Sierra Nevada, meanwhile, elected John S. Hager to the Governorship, as well as electing a Progressive-majority state senate. All across the country, the Progressives had elected mayors, senators, assemblymen, governors, and were appointed to various positions throughout the governments of the country, as well as replacing the Freedom Party entirely in both the Senate and the National Assembly (although with a slightly reduced percentage of seats). The Progressives had outperformed all expectations for the first election, and it was obvious that they were here to stay.

A political cartoon making light of infighting within the Bear Flag Party during the election.

After the heated passions of the election, Bartlett managed to appeal to a wide part of the country with something of a return to peace, even being willing to compromise with the Progressives and accepting their help with his own plans for reforming education in the country. Bartlett himself was a notable character, having three things that made him interesting to the populace at large. The first was that he was not a very ostentatious man, and it was often said of him "he had nothing in his pockets aside from some lint", in reference to his lack of influence by railroads or other business influences. The second was that he was the first (and insofar only) unmarried President of California, though this wasn't terribly relevant. The third was that he was by his heritage Jewish and was himself lapsed in practicing the religion, thus making him the only Jewish president of California, although he and the party went to fair lengths to brush aside. Bartlett's efforts toward reform, though, did not make him many friends on either side of the aisle, where the BFP thought he went too far and the Progressives didn't think he went far enough.

President Bartlett, painted shortly after his inauguration

Quite unexpectedly, Bartlett became another historical first among Californian presidents when he died in office on 4 October 1887. Vice President George C. Perkins succeeded him as President, and as a much more conservative figure immediately pumped the brakes on Bartlett's limited reforms, and promptly made the decision to strike down a piece of legislation that would have moved against the California Pacific Railroad for being a monopoly, while also reaffirming the Haight Manifesto of separate but equal, and denying Deseret statehood. Almost immediately the national mood moved against him, despite support from the BFP base. In the election of 1888, the Progressives managed to unseat enough Bear Flaggers in the National Assembly to win a majority of seats, and came close to threatening the BFP majority in the Senate. Almost all at once, politics in California heated up massively, with Senator Waterman again leading the charge against the incumbent administration. This was only further stoked by the Tenderloin Riots of 6 January - 8 January 1888, when residents of the Tenderloin District of San Francisco (the name "Tenderloin" is a recent nickname for the neighborhood) rioted against the businesses that controlled both their jobs and their boarding houses. The riots were further inflamed when Mayor Ellert refused to send city police against the rioters, sympathetic to their cause, which precipitated Governor Edward Pond to send the state militia in to put it down, leading to a situation where there were brief clashes between city police and the state militia.

President George C. Perkins, the second shortest-serving president in California.

A new conflict came to plague the Californian administration in the east. Not only were the Sand Wars still ongoing with no discernible progress or wearing down of the Native Californian resistance, but Deseretian resentment over continuing to be denied statehood led to a brief flare-up of violence where Californian soldiers stationed in the territory were attacked by locals, acts of sabotage were carried out against railroads and telegraph lines, and for a time it legitimately seemed like Deseret would attempt secession from California. While an increase in military forces in Deseret managed to discourage immediate acts of rebellion, it did pull forces away from the Sand Wars and thus a new outbreak of Native attacks on Anglo-Californian settlements followed shortly afterwards. Reporting on the Sand Wars also made the situation more public, with reporting on atrocities carried out against Native Californians by the army reported daily in western newspapers. The San Francisco Morning Call, one of the most subversive newspapers of the day, summarized it as such: "The government has apparently forgotten the old adage 'Let thee among you without sin be the first to cast stones', and has instead subscribed to a much more modern adage of 'shoot first, ask questions later'." This was made particularly clear when on 19 August 1889, Californian military units massacred an entire village of Apache natives, with little evidence that they had been involved in the resistance against California. And as if to make Perkin's situation worse and the Progressive's better, a new, almost entirely unrelated force came into the picture: John Muir.

Muir in a promotional photograph taken in 1902.

A Scottish immigrant who had arrived in the 1870s, Muir immediately felt himself drawn to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he set himself up in the as yet untamed wilds of the mountains. His time in the mountains also gave him a great deal of time to practice his own photography there, and when he came down from the mountains his photographs caught the public's interest like wildfire. It was this interest that led Muir to begin advocating for land to be set aside from being developed, for the express purpose of preserving the natural beauty of California. In fact, the advocacy of the "Mountain Goat" was one of the precipitating factors in the creation of the Sierra Club, the first national environmental activist organization in California, and Muir was quickly appointed president. Not only was his photography of the Sierra Nevada catching the public's eye, it was also the work of other photographers who publicized landmarks such as the California Redwoods, the Grand Canyon, the Farallon Islands, and the Great Salt Lake. When contrasted with the squalid, dilapidated quality of many cities, the expanding, polluting industry, and the expanding farmlands, many Californians were now afraid that the entirety of the country would be developed and the country's natural beauty destroyed. This was thrown into especially sharp focus when it was announced that President Perkins had signed off on preliminary plans to build a railroad through Yosemite Valley, widely considered one of the most picturesque parts of California.

The Irish Hills slums of San Francisco, photographed in 1890

With John Muir allying himself to the Progressives, the election of 1890 saw the Progressives widen their majority in the National Assembly while securing a majority of seats in the Senate, leaving Perkins high and dry. In the effort to try and keep the Progressive actions down, he began to make liberal use of his veto powers, among which he had been afforded a unique line-item veto power. This level of inaction between Executive and Legislative led to calls for the line-item veto to be scrapped, only for the Supreme Court to uphold it in Conagher v. Perkins and resulting in the power remaining, sending Perkin's approval rating, and by extension that of the BFP, plummeting through 1891 as the next election approached in 1892. Once again, Waterman ran for the Presidency with Pacheco as his running mate, using the broad dissatisfaction with the current administration and situation in California to stoke the flames of support across the country. His opponent, Governor Edward Pond, desperately attempted to use "red scare" tactics to paint the Progressives as out-and-out communists who were about to touch off a revolution that would subject California to red tyranny. It even went so far as for city and state elections to attempt to institute literacy tests and poll taxes in an effort to discourage non-white voting, though these were very quickly denounced by Congress and ultimately declared unconstitutional by a 4-3 ruling in the Supreme Court in Chiang v. San Jose. The end result was a 62% vote for Waterman, and the Progressives expanding their hold in both houses of Congress. All at once, California had become the first nation in the world to elect a socialist government into power, even if the "socialist" aspect was only just one part of their platform. For hundreds of thousands across California, the chance for change had finally come.

[stevep]

   mobiyuz

   Good update and some volatile times but sounds like some much needed political and social reform is going to occur.  Sounds like some big steps to reducing internal discrimination of minorities along with rights for women and possibly some equivalent of Teddy's anti-trust act against big business, along with the beginnings of an environmental movement.

   I did notice a couple of suspected typos.

"Vice President George C. Perkins succeeded him as President, and as a much more conservative figure immediately pumped the breaks on Bartlett's limited reforms"

   Suspect that should be put rather than pumped or is the latter an American expression?

  Also

"Not only were the Sand Wars still ongoing with no discernible progress or wearing down of the Native Californian resistance, Deseretian but resentment over continuing to be denied statehood"

  That doesn't sound right to me?  Should it be built possibly?  Or but should be before Deseretian rather than after?

  Steve

[mobiyuz]

Jun 23, 2019 11:25:21 GMT stevep said:

   mobiyuz

   Good update and some volatile times but sounds like some much needed political and social reform is going to occur.  Sounds like some big steps to reducing internal discrimination of minorities along with rights for women and possibly some equivalent of Teddy's anti-trust act against big business, along with the beginnings of an environmental movement.

   I did notice a couple of suspected typos.

"Vice President George C. Perkins succeeded him as President, and as a much more conservative figure immediately pumped the breaks on Bartlett's limited reforms"

   Suspect that should be put rather than pumped or is the latter an American expression?

  Also

"Not only were the Sand Wars still ongoing with no discernible progress or wearing down of the Native Californian resistance, Deseretian but resentment over continuing to be denied statehood"

  That doesn't sound right to me?  Should it be built possibly?  Or but should be before Deseretian rather than after?

  Steve

Thank you for pointing that out. And as far as I know,both "put" and "pumped" would be appropriate, since I'm typing as a Californian with a very mixed vocabulary in terms of slang phrases and the like.

[stevep]

Jun 23, 2019 12:32:36 GMT mobiyuz said:

Jun 23, 2019 11:25:21 GMT stevep said:

   mobiyuz

   Good update and some volatile times but sounds like some much needed political and social reform is going to occur.  Sounds like some big steps to reducing internal discrimination of minorities along with rights for women and possibly some equivalent of Teddy's anti-trust act against big business, along with the beginnings of an environmental movement.

   I did notice a couple of suspected typos.

"Vice President George C. Perkins succeeded him as President, and as a much more conservative figure immediately pumped the breaks on Bartlett's limited reforms"

   Suspect that should be put rather than pumped or is the latter an American expression?

  Also

"Not only were the Sand Wars still ongoing with no discernible progress or wearing down of the Native Californian resistance, Deseretian but resentment over continuing to be denied statehood"

  That doesn't sound right to me?  Should it be built possibly?  Or but should be before Deseretian rather than after?

  Steve

Thank you for pointing that out. And as far as I know,both "put" and "pumped" would be appropriate, since I'm typing as a Californian with a very mixed vocabulary in terms of slang phrases and the like.

  OK thanks for clarifying.  Sounds like its a language culture thing then.  When someone says "pumped" in Britain its mostly along the lines of pumped up which would mean more pressing the accelerator so to speak than putting the breaks on.

[mobiyuz]

Jun 23, 2019 20:27:36 GMT stevep said:

Jun 23, 2019 12:32:36 GMT mobiyuz said:

Thank you for pointing that out. And as far as I know,both "put" and "pumped" would be appropriate, since I'm typing as a Californian with a very mixed vocabulary in terms of slang phrases and the like.

  OK thanks for clarifying.  Sounds like its a language culture thing then.  When someone says "pumped" in Britain its mostly along the lines of pumped up which would mean more pressing the accelerator so to speak than putting the breaks on.

Well, it can also mean that in the United States too, depending on the context you use it in.

[lordroel]

Jun 23, 2019 4:33:25 GMT mobiyuz said:

Part 6: Rise of the Progressives (1885 - 1892)

On 9 September 1885, Robert W. Waterman gave a speech from the steps of the Grizzly Hotel in Sacramento, in which he gave a scathing critique of President Gorham, the Freedom Party, and Californian politics in general, in what became known as the "New Era of Progress" speech, an excerpt is given here:

"As we march toward the future, we can either embrace the course that history is guiding our country or resist it. If we resist, then much like the ship caught in a storm, we will be torn asunder just as the country once called the United States was torn asunder. If, however, we can turn our sails into the wind, we may be propelled into a bright and shining future, where we may indeed bear true faith to the very first article of our constitution, that all men and women are by their natures free and independent, and have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and happiness."

With the speech delivered, the Progressive Party of California soared into existence, rapidly absorbing support from across the country. Its platform rested on three key planks: breaking down the legal barriers between the ethnic groups of California, creating protections for workers in California, and securing the right of women to vote. In one bound, this secured them a large base of support centering around immigrants, Hispanic-Californians, and Asian-Californians, along with the more progressive Anglo-Californian men, as well as support from women who could not yet vote, immediately launching them to national prominence in a political climate where their supporters felt alienated and disenchanted with Californian politics. This also had the side effect of crippling the Freedom Party beyond repair, and seeing the situation unfolding many of the more conservative wing of the party also deserted and joined with the Bear Flag Party, thus leaving only a handful of support for the Freedomites. They quickly faded from the national scene, not even putting up a candidate for the oncoming 1886 election, while the Progressives quickly nominated Waterman as their candidate for the election at the beginning of the campaign in October.

The first Progressive Party National Conference, where Waterman was nominated for the Presidency.

In the ensuing election, Waterman was up against Assemblyman Washington Bartlett, considered to be a very moderate Bear Flagger. The election was notable for being the first instance where presidential candidates publicly met to debate each other, on Waterman's invitation. On 9 November 1885, Waterman and Bartlett met in the New Republic Hotel in Oakland for the debate, where Waterman tapped into a populist vein and spoke passionately about the needs to protect workers and minorities through the country, while Bartlett presented himself as a moderate, "stay the course" candidate. Unfortunately for Waterman, the crowd assembled for the debate that day was almost universally white men, and as such the newspapers could report on the crowd's "lack of enthusiasm" without lying. Regardless, the reports of his arguments reached across the country, even earning him support among Mormons who felt that he could soothe the tensions with Eureka and help them finally achieve statehood. As a further symbol of this, Waterman nominated Romualdo Pacheco, a prominent Californio and Hispanic-Californian politician, to be his running mate for the Vice Presidency.

Robert Waterman (left) and Washington Bartlett (right), the primary opponents of the Election of 1886

When the election finally came in 1886, despite a massive surge in turnout from non-Anglo voters, Bartlett managed to win 55% of the national vote and as such won the election to become the 5th President of California. However, Waterman and the Progressives were now firmly established as a force to be reckoned with on both the national and local levels. San Francisco, for example, elected Levi Ellert as a Progressive candidate for mayor, setting it against the BFP political machine controlling the state that operated out of Oakland. Sierra Nevada, meanwhile, elected John S. Hager to the Governorship, as well as electing a Progressive-majority state senate. All across the country, the Progressives had elected mayors, senators, assemblymen, governors, and were appointed to various positions throughout the governments of the country, as well as replacing the Freedom Party entirely in both the Senate and the National Assembly (although with a slightly reduced percentage of seats). The Progressives had outperformed all expectations for the first election, and it was obvious that they were here to stay.

A political cartoon making light of infighting within the Bear Flag Party during the election.

After the heated passions of the election, Bartlett managed to appeal to a wide part of the country with something of a return to peace, even being willing to compromise with the Progressives and accepting their help with his own plans for reforming education in the country. Bartlett himself was a notable character, having three things that made him interesting to the populace at large. The first was that he was not a very ostentatious man, and it was often said of him "he had nothing in his pockets aside from some lint", in reference to his lack of influence by railroads or other business influences. The second was that he was the first (and insofar only) unmarried President of California, though this wasn't terribly relevant. The third was that he was by his heritage Jewish and was himself lapsed in practicing the religion, thus making him the only Jewish president of California, although he and the party went to fair lengths to brush aside. Bartlett's efforts toward reform, though, did not make him many friends on either side of the aisle, where the BFP thought he went too far and the Progressives didn't think he went far enough.

President Bartlett, painted shortly after his inauguration

Quite unexpectedly, Bartlett became another historical first among Californian presidents when he died in office on 4 October 1887. Vice President George C. Perkins succeeded him as President, and as a much more conservative figure immediately pumped the brakes on Bartlett's limited reforms, and promptly made the decision to strike down a piece of legislation that would have moved against the California Pacific Railroad for being a monopoly, while also reaffirming the Haight Manifesto of separate but equal, and denying Deseret statehood. Almost immediately the national mood moved against him, despite support from the BFP base. In the election of 1888, the Progressives managed to unseat enough Bear Flaggers in the National Assembly to win a majority of seats, and came close to threatening the BFP majority in the Senate. Almost all at once, politics in California heated up massively, with Senator Waterman again leading the charge against the incumbent administration. This was only further stoked by the Tenderloin Riots of 6 January - 8 January 1888, when residents of the Tenderloin District of San Francisco (the name "Tenderloin" is a recent nickname for the neighborhood) rioted against the businesses that controlled both their jobs and their boarding houses. The riots were further inflamed when Mayor Ellert refused to send city police against the rioters, sympathetic to their cause, which precipitated Governor Edward Pond to send the state militia in to put it down, leading to a situation where there were brief clashes between city police and the state militia.

President George C. Perkins, the second shortest-serving president in California.

A new conflict came to plague the Californian administration in the east. Not only were the Sand Wars still ongoing with no discernible progress or wearing down of the Native Californian resistance, but Deseretian resentment over continuing to be denied statehood led to a brief flare-up of violence where Californian soldiers stationed in the territory were attacked by locals, acts of sabotage were carried out against railroads and telegraph lines, and for a time it legitimately seemed like Deseret would attempt secession from California. While an increase in military forces in Deseret managed to discourage immediate acts of rebellion, it did pull forces away from the Sand Wars and thus a new outbreak of Native attacks on Anglo-Californian settlements followed shortly afterwards. Reporting on the Sand Wars also made the situation more public, with reporting on atrocities carried out against Native Californians by the army reported daily in western newspapers. The San Francisco Morning Call, one of the most subversive newspapers of the day, summarized it as such: "The government has apparently forgotten the old adage 'Let thee among you without sin be the first to cast stones', and has instead subscribed to a much more modern adage of 'shoot first, ask questions later'." This was made particularly clear when on 19 August 1889, Californian military units massacred an entire village of Apache natives, with little evidence that they had been involved in the resistance against California. And as if to make Perkin's situation worse and the Progressive's better, a new, almost entirely unrelated force came into the picture: John Muir.

Muir in a promotional photograph taken in 1902.

A Scottish immigrant who had arrived in the 1870s, Muir immediately felt himself drawn to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he set himself up in the as yet untamed wilds of the mountains. His time in the mountains also gave him a great deal of time to practice his own photography there, and when he came down from the mountains his photographs caught the public's interest like wildfire. It was this interest that led Muir to begin advocating for land to be set aside from being developed, for the express purpose of preserving the natural beauty of California. In fact, the advocacy of the "Mountain Goat" was one of the precipitating factors in the creation of the Sierra Club, the first national environmental activist organization in California, and Muir was quickly appointed president. Not only was his photography of the Sierra Nevada catching the public's eye, it was also the work of other photographers who publicized landmarks such as the California Redwoods, the Grand Canyon, the Farallon Islands, and the Great Salt Lake. When contrasted with the squalid, dilapidated quality of many cities, the expanding, polluting industry, and the expanding farmlands, many Californians were now afraid that the entirety of the country would be developed and the country's natural beauty destroyed. This was thrown into especially sharp focus when it was announced that President Perkins had signed off on preliminary plans to build a railroad through Yosemite Valley, widely considered one of the most picturesque parts of California.

The Irish Hills slums of San Francisco, photographed in 1890

With John Muir allying himself to the Progressives, the election of 1890 saw the Progressives widen their majority in the National Assembly while securing a majority of seats in the Senate, leaving Perkins high and dry. In the effort to try and keep the Progressive actions down, he began to make liberal use of his veto powers, among which he had been afforded a unique line-item veto power. This level of inaction between Executive and Legislative led to calls for the line-item veto to be scrapped, only for the Supreme Court to uphold it in Conagher v. Perkins and resulting in the power remaining, sending Perkin's approval rating, and by extension that of the BFP, plummeting through 1891 as the next election approached in 1892. Once again, Waterman ran for the Presidency with Pacheco as his running mate, using the broad dissatisfaction with the current administration and situation in California to stoke the flames of support across the country. His opponent, Governor Edward Pond, desperately attempted to use "red scare" tactics to paint the Progressives as out-and-out communists who were about to touch off a revolution that would subject California to red tyranny. It even went so far as for city and state elections to attempt to institute literacy tests and poll taxes in an effort to discourage non-white voting, though these were very quickly denounced by Congress and ultimately declared unconstitutional by a 4-3 ruling in the Supreme Court in Chiang v. San Jose. The end result was a 62% vote for Waterman, and the Progressives expanding their hold in both houses of Congress. All at once, California had become the first nation in the world to elect a socialist government into power, even if the "socialist" aspect was only just one part of their platform. For hundreds of thousands across California, the chance for change had finally come.

Good update mobiyuz.

Had to google John Muir after seeing his picture in you update.

[mobiyuz]

Jun 24, 2019 3:40:14 GMT lordroel said:

Jun 23, 2019 4:33:25 GMT mobiyuz said:

Part 6: Rise of the Progressives (1885 - 1892)

On 9 September 1885, Robert W. Waterman gave a speech from the steps of the Grizzly Hotel in Sacramento, in which he gave a scathing critique of President Gorham, the Freedom Party, and Californian politics in general, in what became known as the "New Era of Progress" speech, an excerpt is given here:

"As we march toward the future, we can either embrace the course that history is guiding our country or resist it. If we resist, then much like the ship caught in a storm, we will be torn asunder just as the country once called the United States was torn asunder. If, however, we can turn our sails into the wind, we may be propelled into a bright and shining future, where we may indeed bear true faith to the very first article of our constitution, that all men and women are by their natures free and independent, and have inalienable rights to life, liberty, and happiness."

With the speech delivered, the Progressive Party of California soared into existence, rapidly absorbing support from across the country. Its platform rested on three key planks: breaking down the legal barriers between the ethnic groups of California, creating protections for workers in California, and securing the right of women to vote. In one bound, this secured them a large base of support centering around immigrants, Hispanic-Californians, and Asian-Californians, along with the more progressive Anglo-Californian men, as well as support from women who could not yet vote, immediately launching them to national prominence in a political climate where their supporters felt alienated and disenchanted with Californian politics. This also had the side effect of crippling the Freedom Party beyond repair, and seeing the situation unfolding many of the more conservative wing of the party also deserted and joined with the Bear Flag Party, thus leaving only a handful of support for the Freedomites. They quickly faded from the national scene, not even putting up a candidate for the oncoming 1886 election, while the Progressives quickly nominated Waterman as their candidate for the election at the beginning of the campaign in October.

The first Progressive Party National Conference, where Waterman was nominated for the Presidency.

In the ensuing election, Waterman was up against Assemblyman Washington Bartlett, considered to be a very moderate Bear Flagger. The election was notable for being the first instance where presidential candidates publicly met to debate each other, on Waterman's invitation. On 9 November 1885, Waterman and Bartlett met in the New Republic Hotel in Oakland for the debate, where Waterman tapped into a populist vein and spoke passionately about the needs to protect workers and minorities through the country, while Bartlett presented himself as a moderate, "stay the course" candidate. Unfortunately for Waterman, the crowd assembled for the debate that day was almost universally white men, and as such the newspapers could report on the crowd's "lack of enthusiasm" without lying. Regardless, the reports of his arguments reached across the country, even earning him support among Mormons who felt that he could soothe the tensions with Eureka and help them finally achieve statehood. As a further symbol of this, Waterman nominated Romualdo Pacheco, a prominent Californio and Hispanic-Californian politician, to be his running mate for the Vice Presidency.

Robert Waterman (left) and Washington Bartlett (right), the primary opponents of the Election of 1886

When the election finally came in 1886, despite a massive surge in turnout from non-Anglo voters, Bartlett managed to win 55% of the national vote and as such won the election to become the 5th President of California. However, Waterman and the Progressives were now firmly established as a force to be reckoned with on both the national and local levels. San Francisco, for example, elected Levi Ellert as a Progressive candidate for mayor, setting it against the BFP political machine controlling the state that operated out of Oakland. Sierra Nevada, meanwhile, elected John S. Hager to the Governorship, as well as electing a Progressive-majority state senate. All across the country, the Progressives had elected mayors, senators, assemblymen, governors, and were appointed to various positions throughout the governments of the country, as well as replacing the Freedom Party entirely in both the Senate and the National Assembly (although with a slightly reduced percentage of seats). The Progressives had outperformed all expectations for the first election, and it was obvious that they were here to stay.

A political cartoon making light of infighting within the Bear Flag Party during the election.

After the heated passions of the election, Bartlett managed to appeal to a wide part of the country with something of a return to peace, even being willing to compromise with the Progressives and accepting their help with his own plans for reforming education in the country. Bartlett himself was a notable character, having three things that made him interesting to the populace at large. The first was that he was not a very ostentatious man, and it was often said of him "he had nothing in his pockets aside from some lint", in reference to his lack of influence by railroads or other business influences. The second was that he was the first (and insofar only) unmarried President of California, though this wasn't terribly relevant. The third was that he was by his heritage Jewish and was himself lapsed in practicing the religion, thus making him the only Jewish president of California, although he and the party went to fair lengths to brush aside. Bartlett's efforts toward reform, though, did not make him many friends on either side of the aisle, where the BFP thought he went too far and the Progressives didn't think he went far enough.

President Bartlett, painted shortly after his inauguration

Quite unexpectedly, Bartlett became another historical first among Californian presidents when he died in office on 4 October 1887. Vice President George C. Perkins succeeded him as President, and as a much more conservative figure immediately pumped the brakes on Bartlett's limited reforms, and promptly made the decision to strike down a piece of legislation that would have moved against the California Pacific Railroad for being a monopoly, while also reaffirming the Haight Manifesto of separate but equal, and denying Deseret statehood. Almost immediately the national mood moved against him, despite support from the BFP base. In the election of 1888, the Progressives managed to unseat enough Bear Flaggers in the National Assembly to win a majority of seats, and came close to threatening the BFP majority in the Senate. Almost all at once, politics in California heated up massively, with Senator Waterman again leading the charge against the incumbent administration. This was only further stoked by the Tenderloin Riots of 6 January - 8 January 1888, when residents of the Tenderloin District of San Francisco (the name "Tenderloin" is a recent nickname for the neighborhood) rioted against the businesses that controlled both their jobs and their boarding houses. The riots were further inflamed when Mayor Ellert refused to send city police against the rioters, sympathetic to their cause, which precipitated Governor Edward Pond to send the state militia in to put it down, leading to a situation where there were brief clashes between city police and the state militia.

President George C. Perkins, the second shortest-serving president in California.

A new conflict came to plague the Californian administration in the east. Not only were the Sand Wars still ongoing with no discernible progress or wearing down of the Native Californian resistance, but Deseretian resentment over continuing to be denied statehood led to a brief flare-up of violence where Californian soldiers stationed in the territory were attacked by locals, acts of sabotage were carried out against railroads and telegraph lines, and for a time it legitimately seemed like Deseret would attempt secession from California. While an increase in military forces in Deseret managed to discourage immediate acts of rebellion, it did pull forces away from the Sand Wars and thus a new outbreak of Native attacks on Anglo-Californian settlements followed shortly afterwards. Reporting on the Sand Wars also made the situation more public, with reporting on atrocities carried out against Native Californians by the army reported daily in western newspapers. The San Francisco Morning Call, one of the most subversive newspapers of the day, summarized it as such: "The government has apparently forgotten the old adage 'Let thee among you without sin be the first to cast stones', and has instead subscribed to a much more modern adage of 'shoot first, ask questions later'." This was made particularly clear when on 19 August 1889, Californian military units massacred an entire village of Apache natives, with little evidence that they had been involved in the resistance against California. And as if to make Perkin's situation worse and the Progressive's better, a new, almost entirely unrelated force came into the picture: John Muir.

Muir in a promotional photograph taken in 1902.

A Scottish immigrant who had arrived in the 1870s, Muir immediately felt himself drawn to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he set himself up in the as yet untamed wilds of the mountains. His time in the mountains also gave him a great deal of time to practice his own photography there, and when he came down from the mountains his photographs caught the public's interest like wildfire. It was this interest that led Muir to begin advocating for land to be set aside from being developed, for the express purpose of preserving the natural beauty of California. In fact, the advocacy of the "Mountain Goat" was one of the precipitating factors in the creation of the Sierra Club, the first national environmental activist organization in California, and Muir was quickly appointed president. Not only was his photography of the Sierra Nevada catching the public's eye, it was also the work of other photographers who publicized landmarks such as the California Redwoods, the Grand Canyon, the Farallon Islands, and the Great Salt Lake. When contrasted with the squalid, dilapidated quality of many cities, the expanding, polluting industry, and the expanding farmlands, many Californians were now afraid that the entirety of the country would be developed and the country's natural beauty destroyed. This was thrown into especially sharp focus when it was announced that President Perkins had signed off on preliminary plans to build a railroad through Yosemite Valley, widely considered one of the most picturesque parts of California.

The Irish Hills slums of San Francisco, photographed in 1890

With John Muir allying himself to the Progressives, the election of 1890 saw the Progressives widen their majority in the National Assembly while securing a majority of seats in the Senate, leaving Perkins high and dry. In the effort to try and keep the Progressive actions down, he began to make liberal use of his veto powers, among which he had been afforded a unique line-item veto power. This level of inaction between Executive and Legislative led to calls for the line-item veto to be scrapped, only for the Supreme Court to uphold it in Conagher v. Perkins and resulting in the power remaining, sending Perkin's approval rating, and by extension that of the BFP, plummeting through 1891 as the next election approached in 1892. Once again, Waterman ran for the Presidency with Pacheco as his running mate, using the broad dissatisfaction with the current administration and situation in California to stoke the flames of support across the country. His opponent, Governor Edward Pond, desperately attempted to use "red scare" tactics to paint the Progressives as out-and-out communists who were about to touch off a revolution that would subject California to red tyranny. It even went so far as for city and state elections to attempt to institute literacy tests and poll taxes in an effort to discourage non-white voting, though these were very quickly denounced by Congress and ultimately declared unconstitutional by a 4-3 ruling in the Supreme Court in Chiang v. San Jose. The end result was a 62% vote for Waterman, and the Progressives expanding their hold in both houses of Congress. All at once, California had become the first nation in the world to elect a socialist government into power, even if the "socialist" aspect was only just one part of their platform. For hundreds of thousands across California, the chance for change had finally come.

Good update mobiyuz .

Had to google John Muir after seeing his picture in you update.

Oh yeah, he was super important in getting the environmentalist movement off the ground in the United States. He actually spent time with President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite to help push him further toward getting it preserved as a national park.

[mobiyuz]

24 June 1891
Above Yosemite Valley, Sierra Nevada Mountains

Robert Waterman was having a difficult time keeping up with Muir, who was moving over the rocks like a man half his age. "Slow down, Mountain Goat. I'm just an old man."

"Well, I'm an old man meself, and you don't hear me complaining." That gentle Scottish brogue somehow just made it even more funny, and Waterman couldn't help but chuckle at it. "Either way Bertie, not much longer." He also couldn't keep himself from chuckling at the nickname that Muir had given him, apparently it was a nickname that people named Robert or Albert or any other kind of name that ended in "Bert" often got in his native Scotland.

"Excellent. I'm going to need to rest once we get there." He was panting heavily, but doing everything he could to keep up. With the way that Muir seemed to just leap and bound over the rocks, it was no wonder everyone called him "the Mountain Goat".

"We're already here." He was standing at the edge of a cliff, and when Waterman took a look over the edge he recoiled from the sheer force of the vertigo. Peeking back over the side, it seemed very much like there was a straight drop of what must have been 2,000 feet down the side of the cliff to the valley floor. To the north, the twin plummets of Yosemite Falls were visible in full force, while the granite monolith given the moniker El Capitan rose just as dramatically from the valley floor to the west, and to the east the sheer face of Half Dome soared into the air, while down on the floor the Merced River wound its way out of the valley and toward the much larger San Joaquin Valley. It was almost an entirely overwhelming sight, so much so that Waterman lifted a hand to his mouth, feeling tears welling up in his eyes.

"I see you've got much the same reaction I once did." Muir gazed out over the length of Yosemite Valley. "Back when I first came to the valley, I felt an urge to see it from above. And I remember the day that I summited Half Dome, right over there. It was like being on the doorstep of the Heavenly Kingdom, and if I just reached out my hand..." Here he reached his hand toward the sky. "...I could touch the face of God himself. This whole valley feels like it was shaped by God, and I feel there is no other explanation for it. God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods." Here he turned to face Waterman with a serious expression. "But he cannot save them from fools."

"Ah. You're referring to President Perkins' plan for the railroad?"

"Of course I am."

"You needn't worry yourself, Mountain Goat. I intend to run the office of President as I would my private business. There are two things I will never tolerate, dishonesty and inequality."

Muir smiled and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "So you do intend to ally yourself with the Sierra Club, then?"

"Much more than that, Muir." He sat down on a rock, panting a bit. The air was much thinner up here. "What would you say if, supposing I do get elected this time around, I were to offer you a position in my cabinet...say, as Secretary of the Interior?"

Muir's smile could be seem quite clearly through his beard. "It'd be enough to drag me down from the mountains for a while, I'm sure."

"So you would say yes, then? After all, the Progressives control both houses of Congress now. Confirming your appointment would take all of an afternoon."

"Until then, Mr. Senator, you'll have to forgive me if I intend to stay in the mountains for just a while longer. Should you win your election, I will gladly follow ye down the mountains and do everything in my power to protect these mountains, these forests, and every bit of land in this country that I possibly could."

"You're just lucky we have that option. Until it gets sold to some private organization, all the land in California is owned by the Federal Government. It's all too easy to just say that we're never going to sell some of it. In places like the Confederacy, they don't have that option."

"I know that, Bertie. I've had more than one federal agent try to evict me from this valley on grounds of 'squatting', but they could never get anyone who cared enough to actually carry it out." Muir reclined against a rock. "After all, what's some harmless old man high in the mountains going to do?"

"Do you just try and use the word 'mountain' in every sentence on purpose or is it some form of tic?" Waterman chuckled warmly, as did Muir.

"I suppose it just comes from living out here for so long. I'm a part of them as much as they are a part of me."

Waterman's smile grew just as broad. "And I intend to keep it that way."

[mobiyuz]

Part 7: The Early Waterman Years (1892 - 1895)

Immediately after his inauguration on 14 February 1892, Robert Waterman set about following through on his campaign promises with a vigor, stating "What we do in these first hundred days sets the course for the next 6 years." As such, the government immediately introduced the new Omnibus Reform Bill of 1892, which primarily concentrated first on civil rights. Among them were explicitly outlawing poll taxes, grandfather clauses, or literacy tests as illegal blocks to voting, outlawing segregationist housing policies, and asserting that all citizens were in fact equal, and outlawing discrimination based on race in the federal government. Despite a Progressive majority in both houses of Congress, the BFP opposition managed to put up enough of a challenge to keep it from immediately passing, followed by a legal challenge in the Supreme Court in the form of Sullivan v. Waterman, which used the principal of "separate but equal" in an attempt to block the Reform Omnibus. However, in the arguments presented in favor of the bill, evidence was provided to showcase that the "separate but equal doctrine" was not being upheld, and moreover that it was intentionally not being upheld, thus effectively rendering it moot, and declaring that segregation based on race was unconstitutional. It should be noted, however, that this was not long after Waterman announced plans to "stuff" the court with pro-Progressive justices, as many as 7 to double the number, and not long afterwards the court ruled in its favor.

A rare photograph of the California Supreme Court in session, taken
during the Sullivan v. Waterman case through a concealed camera.

Though the bill successfully moved through Congress and began the first steps toward breaking down the barriers between the country's ethnicities, there were still more battles to be fought, and one of them was in the form of Deseret. Since 1889, the Mormon Church had been under the leadership of Wilford Woodruff, who was slightly more willing to enact reforms within the church. Upon Woodruff's offer, he was brought to Eureka to meet with Waterman over the division between the LDS Church and the Californian government on 10 July 1892. The meeting was held with closed doors, and as such the exact content of this meeting has been lost to time. One theory is that President Waterman had evidently threatened to use the Mormon Church's acts of sabotage and resistance as evidence to move its classification from a religious organization to a political one, revoking its protections as a religion and subjecting it to the further powers of the Californian government. Another source claims that Waterman also threatened to revoke its religious protections, but instead used that as a threat to revoke its tax-exempt status. What is known is that not long afterwards, Woodruff returned to Salt Lake City and declared that he had received a revelation to end the practice of polygamy, though continuing it in the spiritual afterlife. For Waterman, this was sufficient, stating "I was tasked with governing temporal matters, what they do in the next life is beyond my concern."

Wilford Woodruff, 4th President of the LDS Church and the "Great Reconciler".

As a final show of what was called the "Mormon Concordat", Deseret was finally admitted as a state on 7 October 1893. Before this, however, Waterman also sought to bring the other persistent issue from the east to a close. Having lasted for almost 30 years now, the Sand Wars were deeply unpopular in California's cities and in its government, and Waterman began seeking a compromise solution. In contrast to his meeting with Woodruff, President Waterman's meeting with leaders of the Navajo (Diné) was highly publicized, and came to a resolution to create a new state in the form of the new State of Navajo, created with the direct intention of being a state set aside for the Native Californians, with the unspoken agreement that Anglo-Californian settlement would be banned in the state. Of course, the new state's territory was thinly-settled desert, and the state promptly lagged behind all other states in terms of development, prosperity, and general wellness for decades, but it was a step that the leaders were happy to take. For other, less populous tribes, the Federal Government instituted the "Reservation System", designed to set areas of land aside for the sole use and development of the native tribes associated with them. This took place across the entirety of California, from Klamath to Arizona. Again, though, these reservations would very quickly fall behind the rest of the country.

The new flag of the State of Navajo, still in use today.

With the battle for civil rights well under way, in mid 1893 the battle for worker's rights were begun. Although compared to the east, California was still a fairly rural, agrarian nation, it did have a significant industrial sector based on mining and manufacturing, and even in the agricultural sector there were workers actively unionizing. The first salvo in this battle was the Basic Wages Act of 1893, which after a great deal of arguing and fighting settled that the new federal minimum wage would be set at ¢0.25/hour nationwide, the first such law to be passed in the world. This was soon followed with the Safety Standards Act that same year, mandating that workers in dangerous positions be instructed on how to safely perform their tasks with minimal risk of injury, as well as declaring that the "hard hat" become mandatory for all workers in mines, tunneling, construction, and shipbuilding, inspired by workers who had strapped their metal food bowls to their heads to help mitigate the risk of injury. And immediately following upon that, the government soon instituted a basic injury pension, intended to assist workers who had been injured so badly they could no longer work. Naturally, these gained a great deal of ire from the conservative factions in California, but for the wider populace, having a government sympathetic to the workers was functioning as a sort of safety valve for revolutionary sentiment, draining support away from what had once been small communist conspiratorial rings and further ingraining the former communist parties that now formed part of the Progressives into the existing system.

The Sacramento Railroad Strike of 1894, when railroad workers throughout the city of Sacramento went on strike for increased wages.

In 1893, a new issue came from the southern border, one that presented a new issue. The Second Mexican Empire, a French imperialist project that they had promptly abandoned once Germany unified and became their all-consuming issue, was bankrupt. More than that, they were severely in debt to almost every foreign power in Europe, and were fearing yet another European invasion. In desperation, the government of Maximilian II approached California with an offer to sell them the Baja California Peninsula for the sum of ¢3,500,000. Waterman and the government were receptive, but the government decided to press it a bit further, with some forces urging the purchase of the state of Sonora as well. Mexico refused to sell off the whole state, needing the valuable copper mines to serve as a source of taxable revenue.
Eventually, a stretch of land between the Gila River and the Gulf of California was agreed upon, in order to ensure that California would control both banks of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, as well as dividing the islands in the Gulf between them on what was roughly a line right down the middle. Even with "Sonora Norte" thrown in to sweeten the deal for California, California insisted on the initial price of ¢3.5 million, something that Mexico really didn't have the ability to fully oppose. As a result, the Mexican Government redrew the "line in the sand" that marked the border with California, and the sale was made official with the 1893 Treaty of Eureka that ceded the territories that now make up the Mexifornian states of California. It was definitely hyped up in the press back in California, with many people trumpeting how "The Californias were reunited at last", referencing how California prior to the purchase made up the bulk of what had once been Alta California.

The border changes of the 1893 Treaty of Eureka, showing lands annexed by California and created as territories.

1893 also saw another significant expansion for California, although it was more in the vein of what it represented rather than the size of the expansion. Owing to instability in the east, trade in that direction was never fully guaranteed, and this meant expanding trade with the orient. Stopovers for Californian ships quite often came in the Kingdom of Hawaii, which had a friendly if distant relationship with California, and also had California as its largest trading partner. At this time, Queen Liliuokalani was actively seeking foreign support to prop up her reign in the face of foreign business interests growing more powerful. In exchange for this, along with giving Hawaii a lump sum of ¢1,000,000, California would be granted a lease around a rectangular territory anchored on the Kahului Bay of the island of Maui, legally still Hawaiian territory but subject to the rule of Californian law for a period of 75 years. The new Kahului Leased Territory would thus serve as the new stopover for Californian ships traveling to East Asia, developing the city as a new major port for the Kingdom and ensuring friendship between California and Hawaii.

A map showing the Kahului Leased Territory in the wider context of the Island of Maui.

It was in 1894 that the newest battle began in what was by then already a successful presidency, the battle to create a constitutional amendment that would ensure women the right to vote nationwide. This process already had several powerful allies such as Sarah Knox, who had been leading her own campaign to win women the right to vote, allying herself to the Progressives almost immediately. Of course, unlike other programs, this one proved to be much more contentious, as even the Progressives were split on the issue of universal enfranchisement. In fact, the recently admitted state of Deseret proved to be one of the biggest roadblocks to this goal, having almost immediately become the country's most conservative state and standing against any effort to enfranchise women, an aftereffect of the Mormon culture's heavily patriarchal bent. Women's suffrage had actually once been a suggestion in the territorial legislature as a means to show that far from being a backwards and uncivilized group, that the Mormons were in fact just as progressive, if not more so, than the "gentiles" of the rest of California. Not to imply that women could not vote at all, as several states and counties and cities had enfranchised women, such as the city of San Francisco, the state of Navajo, and the state of Klamath.

An anti-suffrage postcard from 1895

The constant, unending push for increased civil and political rights gained a great deal of opposition. In the election of 1894, the Progressive majorities in the Senate and National Assembly were both reduced, increasing the resistance to the Progressive agenda. Later that same year, on 8 June 1895, a man fired a pistol at President Waterman while he gave a speech in Oakland, though the bullet bounced off his rib and he survived. Further demonstrations against the government's agenda also continued to increase afterwards, though no further attempts to assassinate President Waterman were made. There was, however, a successful effort to murder Assemblyman Roderick Hobarth, Speaker of the Assembly and one of the chiefest vocal proponents of the President's agenda, on 4 January 1895. Fears were rising that rather than a communist or socialist revolution, the coming revolution would be a conservative-dominated one, and see the efforts made toward breaking down social, ethnic, and class boundaries would be cast asunder.

A dramatization of the assassination of Assemblyman Hobarth, the first major political assassination in Californian history.

Seemingly once again, California was on the verge of civil disruption, possibly even some form of civil war. Waterman himself was quoted in April 1895 as saying "I feel that I am caught in the midst of some great and horrible war." His statement would prove to be amazingly ironic when just weeks later, a real war would begin.

[stevep]

   mobiyuz

   Well good progress socially and politically - in fact a hell of an amount for the time period and for a US successor state. A little surprise that California was interested in the Mexican lands which are pretty much barren I believe. Pity that Mexico isn't doing much better in TTL than ours. Presume by now Maximillian has departed, although he might still be about and elderly?

   Sounds like the internal stress will be deflected by a foreign conflict although since there wasn't a big conflict at this date OTL I'm wondering what will come up?  Probably something between one of the US successor states I suspect but see what happens.

  What's the status of Canada now?  Wondering without a strong US threat from the south whether instead of a dominion its a kingdom instead and if so who the king is.  Think there was some talk about one of Victoria's younger son's for the role at one point.

  Steve

[mobiyuz]

Jun 25, 2019 9:59:21 GMT stevep said:

   mobiyuz

   Well good progress socially and politically - in fact a hell of an amount for the time period and for a US successor state. A little surprise that California was interested in the Mexican lands which are pretty much barren I believe. Pity that Mexico isn't doing much better in TTL than ours. Presume by now Maximillian has departed, although he might still be about and elderly?

   Sounds like the internal stress will be deflected by a foreign conflict although since there wasn't a big conflict at this date OTL I'm wondering what will come up?  Probably something between one of the US successor states I suspect but see what happens.

  What's the status of Canada now?  Wondering without a strong US threat from the south whether instead of a dominion its a kingdom instead and if so who the king is.  Think there was some talk about one of Victoria's younger son's for the role at one point.

  Steve

By this point, seeing how horrible the shattering of the USA was, republicanism in Canada was pretty much rendered extinct, and Canada's been moving along as a single unit in much the same way. The Canadian National Railroad is one of the primary coast-to-coast lines in North America at this point, and has subsumed the US' role as the largest country in North America. Alaska, though, is still a Russian colony. Having a lack of people to sell it to, Russia simply decided to try and actually get something out of it, slowly beginning the process of colonizing it more intensely. At least, it would have if the discovery of gold along the Yukkhana River in 1893 hadn't sparked the biggest gold rush in North America since the Californian Gold Rush, but that's a story for another time.