A More Imperfect Union: A History of these United States

[Planita13]

Greetings! This timeline is the spiritual successor to A Shining Valley, which was posted on AH.com which can be found here. As it was my first timeline, it was messy and crude as it experience significant revision over the months, which honestly ruined the narrative in many ways. For the past couple months I’ve been growing increasingly dissatisfied with the direction that timeline was heading. In the end, I finally decided to start anew. I hope this is one will be much less chaotic and disjointed than this one. ASV won't be truly gone, as I will be incorporating many aspects of my old timeline into this new one. Even the lake will make it. As with my old one this is going to be another graphics timeline filled with various maps, wikipages, wikiboxes, and graphics.

A Shining Valley wasn’t my first attempt at an alternate history timeline, there were a lot of false starts that never really got off the ground. One of them was a United States timeline where the country plunged into civil war after a disputed election of 1800. I abandoned it after my history professor called it unhistorical, but the idea of a United States that was hobbled early in its life stuck with me. Now after after revisiting the idea with an entirely new perspective an entire year later, it has lead to this timeline.

The PoD is a United States split over disagreements with the country’s founding documents. However Simply put the basic PoD is that Alexander Hamilton is much more of an ass, to the Anti-Federalists and it all spirals out of control. With its sundering, the United States will face a more tumultuous history sparking events that will ripple around the world for centuries to come. Most of the timeline will focus on the United States, progressing chronologically throughout TTL America’s history. However, there will be glimpses of the radically different modern period, posts about the happenings beyond America’s borders and a combination of both.

After some consideration I've imported my timeline from AH.com, and I hope you guys will enjoy it. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, I would be happy to hear it! While this timeline will largely progress as I have planned out, I still would cover any suggestions that you may have. I hope that this will be a great timeline that we will all enjoy.

 

[Planita13]

When the American Project began in a small building in Philadelphia in 1776, the European powers looked upon the new nation with a sense of unease. Many monarchs watched the events unfolding in America with a certain level of trepidation, fearing liberal agitation in their lands based upon the ideals of the American revolutionaries. When the British were brought to heel by the tenacity of the Americans, and the deep but not endless coffers of the French, the ancient regimes in Europe looked on with a certain level of unease. However as the new republic struggled amid economic misfortune and ineffective governance, the wise men in Europe's courts foresaw it as the beginning of the end of a foolhardy regime, doomed to fail from the very beginning. What followed however, only marked the first chapter of a long and tumultuous history of the many United States of America.

To the Federalists, the events of the past several years was evidence of the inherent weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. Led by Alexander Hamilton, they led the call for a new governing document, a new Constitution. However Hamilton with his lack of tact, alienated the Anti-Federalists even before the Constitutional Convention began. As the delegated assembled in Philadelphia, both sides quickly became unable to agree on a path forward. The Federalists were simply unable to convince their opponents to abandon the Articles of Confederation, who was skeptical of Hamilton's machinations. George Washington as President of the Convention, did his best to calm the flames of passion, but the stress and overwhelming July heat took his toll on him. In late July after trying to settle a spirited debate of the day, Washington suffered a major heatstroke. While he did not die, he had to withdraw to recover. Without his presence and his wisdom, the Convention was dealt a mortal blow. The Anti-Federalists walked out soon after and spread the word of the Federalists' plans that would allegedly lead the way to a new tyrannical order. Nevertheless, the Federalists pushed on and without major opposition the Convention approved a new constitution. The publication of the new document would elicit both approval and outrage across the country. As state legislatures across the country took up the document for debate, the chain of events that would infamously be called the Great Disunion were set in motion.

As states ratified the new Constitution and others refused to, the country began to effectively split into two; one administered by the new Constitution and the other by the Articles of Confederation. Protests for or against ratification often devolved into riots and violence across the 13 states, all the while as state governments squabbled in their legislative chambers. Finally in 23 May 1789, South Carolina became the last state to ratify the Constitution, leaving five states under the old Articles. The division of the country left its citizens at each other's throats, but what prevented an earlier Civil War was the death of Geroge Washington in June of 1790 at his estate in Mount Vernon. Mr. Washington never fully recovered from his heatstroke in 1789, which left him greatly weakened and in poor health. Those who came to implore his help were shocked at his gaunt frame, once healthy. Kept out of the public eye, as it was believed that knowledge of his poor health would worsen the current situation. It is said that Washington’s frail health grew worse and worse as the country divided. Ironically, his death shocked the American people into uniting in a common grief, at least for a little while. His last words were printed into every newspaper in the country and announced in all public squares. With tears in his eyes, he told to his faithful wife, Martha Washington, “It is over, our struggles have come to nothing” and he was gone. It seemed that way at the time but he was wrong, of course. However the road to the United States of today would be long and bloody, full of false starts and promises, but in the end their struggles would be validated. This is the story of the long hard road to the United States of America

 

[Planita13]

The Trenton Republic and the Williamsburg Confederation were the two successor states to the original United States of America. Of course both claimed to be the true United States, so modern historians often refer to them as the Trenton Republic and the Williamsburg Confederation after their first capitals. The Republic embodied Hamilton Federalist ideals of a strong central government and especially a central bank. While his “British Plan” was never seriously considered, as the first President Hamilton was in a strong position to mold the new Republic according to his ideals. Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson was elected President by Congress, representing the states that remained under the Articles of Confederation. He and his fellow Confederalists faced a rather dire debt crisis, they believed that it could be solved without resorting to so called Hamiltonian tyranny. As the brief sense of common grief over George Washington’s death faded away, all Americans were faced with their bare divisions. Already within the first year tensions were brewing as conflict between the two states and their own citizens grew. Even though states like Pennsylvania were in the Republic, it did not mean that all of its citizens were loyal Federalists, happy to be under Hamilton. A similar dilemma was faced by the states in the Confederation. Above all however was that the division of the country, occurred on lines that split both countries in many enclaves, complicating an already worse situation. As the months went by and divisions between former men in arms deepened, the stage was set for their first Civil War.

 

[Planita13]

The Whiskey Rebellion​

When the United States split into two, the decision of what governing principle to follow fell upon each state’s legislature. Rhode Island and New Hampshire didn’t even consider the new Constitution, but in every other state the matter saw spirited debate in the state chambers. Over the course of an eight month period, the states voted one way or another to stay on the Articles or to go onto the new Constitution. This time saw significant unrest between Federalists and Confederalists who alternated between marching in the streets or clashing with each other in violent riots. By the time South Carolina joined the Republic, the last state to do so, it was clear that the Great Disunion had done more than divide the country; It clearly showed the division in the states itself. Regardless of whether the state was in the Republic or the Confederation, there were angry citizens agitating for a different government. In less than five years, America became a powder keg of anti-government sentiments and it didn’t take long for a spark to ignite the pile.

As part of the Republic’s plan to settle war debt that they adopted from the states that joined the Republic, President Hamiltion turned to taxation. At that point, the Republic’s government primarily collected revenue from import taxes, which Hamilton believed was already raised as high as possible. Thus he felt he had no choice but to place an excise tax on alcohol produced in the country to gather revenue. Taxes by themselves were unpopular but Hamilton believed it would be the least controversial as he thought it would effectively be a luxury tax. In reality in the western regions of the Republic, alcohol was central to their livelihoods. Farmers in what was then Western Pennsylvania were particularly incensed as the tax made whiskey, the alcohol popular in the region, much more expensive. With cash hard to come by on the frontier, excess grain was brewed into whiskey which was either sold or used as currency itself. For these farmers in Western Pennsylvania, already a hotbed of Confederalist sentiment, the so called Whiskey tax was a threat to their livelihoods.

Resistance began almost immediately when tax collectors were sent to the region, largely with the goal of chasing them off. Violence sporadically erupted in the year of the resistance, mostly by angry mobs feathering and tarring tax collectors. However the situation dramatically escalated in its second year, when the Federalist government began cracking down on distillers who refused to pay the tax, sending federal marshals to make arrests. In response the farmers, decrying Hamiltonian tyranny, rose up in revolt in May 1793. The majority of the revolters, such as its impromptu leader David Bradford, were Revolutionary War veterans who began proclaiming their grievances laced with slogans and protests used by the American Revolutionaries decades earlier.

Their protests found sympathetic ears in the Confederation, although Thomas Jefferson did not want to involve the Confederation in the tax protest. However the rebels found allies among local officials and citizens in Virginia and New York, which began sending many weapons over the border. Meanwhile Hamiltion faced with a major threat to federal authority, ordered that the rebellion was to be suppressed. He tasked Arthur St. Clair with gathering militia forces in the Mid Atlantic and then leading an expedition to the rebel controlled areas. Quickly gathering a force of 6000 militia forces from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware St Clair began their march in early August to western Pennsylvania.

Instead of striking fear into their hearts, the word that Hamilton had ordered the rebellion to be crushed only emboldened them. While St Clair was mobilizing his troops, sympathetic volunteers who had been watching the turmoil from New York and Virginia for over a year joined the ranks of the rebels. By the time St Clair reached the region, the rebel force was over 2000 strong. Nevertheless they were outnumbered, so the rebels led by James McFarlane attempted to avoid a direct confrontation. However as St. Clair attempted to control an unruly population, McFarlane was unable to control his troops, who were angry at the occupation. A house raid on a Confederalist sympathizer on August 28, went wrong as its occupants called for help. The situation escalated into a battle as troops from both sides moved in.

The battle was chaotic and leaderless as both St. Clair and McFarlane were unable to coordinate their men. In the end the Federalist’s overwhelming numbers won the day, forcing McFarlane and his forces to scatter. However as St. Clair gathered his forces, he soon realized that the battle had only been the beginning. The battle had only galvanized further support among the population in Western Pennsylvania, while the story of patriotic farmers standing up to their Federalist oppressors made headlines across the country. The stream of Confederalist volunteers became a flood, as St. Clair’s forces began to run out of supplies while being harassed daily by ambushes. In an act of desperation, federalist forces began seizing food stores from local farmers to feed themselves, which turned out to be the final straw.

In September 1793, the counties under Confederalist control declared their independence from the Trenton Republic, forming the Free State of Allegheny. By that point, the Whiskey Rebellion had escalated into a major diplomatic crisis between the Republic and the Confederation especially after it was known that Confederation citizens joined the fight. The path to war was sealed when Virginia officially recognized the rebel state when St. Clair and his forces were driven out of the region that month. Tensions reached their peak as Confederalist and Federalist militias mobilized to their respective borders. By that point over a year's worth of propaganda had the populations of both states itching for war. For the Confederalists, they believed that they had to win another fight for freedom against the Hamiltonian spider, while the Federalists declared the very existence of America was at stake and a war to defend the Republic need to be fought. In this tense atmosphere did not take long for the first shots to ring out when militia clashed in the new state of Allegheny, sparking the First American Civil War.