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This Mighty Scourge of War: A Reconstruction-Era Quest

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[X] Plan: Legitimacy first, First Nations a close second
-[X] Accept the terms of the Camp Napoleon Council…
-[X] …and submit the agreement for Senatorial approval.
-[X] Order the military to prioritize Reconstruction
 
[X] Plan: Legitimacy, First Nations, Booth
[X] Plan: Go Big, Do Not Go Home
 
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    • Scheduled vote count started by Kirook on Feb 6, 2024 at 4:46 PM, finished with 52 posts and 45 votes.
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    Chapter 7: Whose Voices Are Heard?
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    • November 7, 1865

    Negotiations with the Camp Napoleon Council continued for most of the month, with the President attempting to hammer out an agreement that could be placed before the Senate without being framed as a surrender to indigenous forces. Those extra weeks allowed him to secure several additional concessions, most prominently a system of indemnities and local tribunals to take frontier raiders to task and a guarantee of transit rights through native territories (which was highly controversial within the Council, but necessary to restore the flow of gold and silver from the West). With the treaty shored up, it came time to submit it to the Senate—where, despite questions of jurisdiction and objections from those who felt it still gave up too much, it passed with a slim majority.

    However, work on the frontier was still not done. Renegotiating the terms and then rallying the votes in the Senate to pass it had delayed the final ratification significantly, allowing the ongoing conflict to simmer for several more weeks. In addition, many on the frontier still felt betrayed even in spite of the additional articles added to the treaty. The Utah Mormons' war with Chief Black Hawk only intensified, and the pro-Confederate bushwhackers received a steady stream of new recruits, who attacked indigenous tribes alongside pro-Union targets (although in many cases this backfired, strengthening the tribes' ties to the Union). Ultimately, while reports from the Texas campaign showed promising signs of advance as the Army's logistical woes began to abate, the knockout blow against the last Confederate state failed to materialize. It likely would not do so for at least a month to come.

    Back East, Reconstruction was finally beginning in accordance with the agreement President Foster had reached with Congress, but progress was slow. Though any hope for organized militant resistance had vanished with the swift crushing of the remaining Confederate armies east of the Mississippi, white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the Golden Circle were springing up to combat it, and the occupation forces were unable to fully put them down with most military resources being directed westward.

    The continuing, though diminishing, issues in the South and West raised a question about the President's promise to hold an election: could the votes be properly counted? Though contact with the West Coast was being slowly reestablished, fears remained that violence might escalate again and interfere with the polls. Some advisors suggested that since it was a special election anyway, it could be postponed until the various conflicts began to die down; but since Foster had given his word to Congress that the election would be held, this would likely come at a cost…

    THE STATE OF THE NATION:

    National stability is shaky.
    The government's legitimacy is middling.
    The capital is nervous.
    The mood of the War Democrats is angry.
    The mood of the Liberal Republicans is angry.
    The mood of the Radical Republicans is angry.
    There is one major Confederate army remaining in the field.
    The status of Reconstruction is struggling with white supremacist resistance.
    The intensity of conflict on the frontier is dropping.
    Of the assassins of Lincoln and his trusted subordinates, one has been killed, four have been captured, one has escaped to Confederate territory, and the rest have gone to ground.

    Hold the election immediately.Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.Postpone the election until Texas has been recaptured and Reconstruction state governments are fully implemented.
    This will satisfy Congress, and thereby strengthen the unity of the National Union Party, but is likely to cause problems with voting in unstable regions, meaning that the legitimacy of the election might suffer.This will mildly annoy Congress but will maintain the legitimacy of the election.This will maximize participation in the election, including among freedmen and Southern Unionists, at the cost of greatly annoying Congress.
     
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    • Hold the election now.

    We need to get Congress on board with a potentially quite radical slate of policy for Reconstruction, and it's not like I'm inclined to give the rebellious states the franchise for this next election anyway. The whole point of Reconstruction is, well, a total political reconstruction of the former Confederacy.

    [X] Hold the election immediately.
     
    [X] Postpone the election until Texas has been recaptured and Reconstruction state governments are fully implemented.

    Look, it's not like we didn't intend to keep our promise when we made it, it's just that some stuff's come up...
     
    [X] Hold the election immediately.

    Taking longer also gives the former confederate states more time to influence the election their way rather than violently lashing out. I'm fine with legitimacy loss if it's from southern violence fucking up their elections.
     
    [X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.

    I don't want to damage our legitimacy right now and I want to keep Congressional discontent to a low roar, because we need that relationship to make Reconstruction work. This is an acceptable compromise.
     
    [X] Postpone the election until Texas has been recaptured and Reconstruction state governments are fully implemented.
     
    [X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
     
    [X] Postpone the election until Texas is brought back under Union control.
     
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