u/Muted-Film2489

Decade of Resentment

The term Salutary Neglect, first coined by Edmund Burke in a speech to the House of Commons in 1775 described the unofficial policy of the British crown towards the 13 colonies from the collapse of the Dominion of New England in 1689 to 1763, allowing them a great deal of local autonomy, so long as they remained loyal to the government. It helped develop a sense of independence and self-sufficiency and enabled colonial assemblies to wield significant power over the royally-appointed governors through their control of colony finances. After the Seven Years' War in which Britain had gained large swathes of new territory in North America at the Treaty of Paris, it was decided by Parliament that the colonists should help pay for the large debts that Britain had accrued on their behalf. The Sugar Act of 1764, the Currency Act of 1764, and the Stamp Act of 1765 all aimed at increasing authority in and revenue from the colonies, all passed without any consultation from the colonies themselves. These provocations would be the fuel for the first attempt to establish an independent American nation.

Riots against the Stamp Act of 1765

After the rebellion was successfully put down, the British government enacted a brutal policy of subjugation, restructuring, and financial extraction upon the 13 colonies to ensure that a revolt against British rule could never again take shape. First, Parliament passed the Authority Acts, formally dissolving the local colonial governments and reorganizing the 13 colonies into direct crown colonies under a state of permanent martial law, with British generals appointed as military governors endowed with absolute power. To enforce the Crown’s will, British regiments were permanently stationed in major troublesome hubs like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia and colonists were forced to house and feed these occupying troops at their own personal expense.

British troops sent to Boston to enforce the Authority Acts

British soldiers were empowered to search towns, farms, and private homes to systematically confiscate all firearms, gunpowder, and cannons at their discretion. Trial by jury was suspended along with all other civil liberties. The Church of England was established as the official state church for all of the 13 colonies and all other religions were banned, forcing the sizable Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Quaker populations to pay taxes to support Anglican bishops sent from London. Massive new levies were exacted against the colonists to finance British war debts incurred while crushing the rebellion in addition to taxes imposed to pay for the Seven Years’ War. The Royal Navy placed a permanent blockade on American ports to foreign trade, forcing the colonists to sell raw materials exclusively to London at rock-bottom prices. The estates, plantations, and businesses of executed rebel leaders like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Hancock and the Washington family were seized by the Crown with millions of acres of land gifted to loyalists, British soldiers and Hessian mercenaries. The sons and daughters of African bondage toiling on southern plantations would merely trade one set of chains for another. Promises made by the British to enslaved people owned by Patriots that they along with their families would be emancipated were completely hollow.

Et tu, Benedict?

In formal acknowledgement of the indispensable role his betrayal played in crushing the First Revolution, Benedict Arnold was appointed Royal Governor of the Province of New York in 1784. Living a life of isolated luxury with his increasingly paranoid wife Peggy, Benedict would gain a reputation as a brutal enforcer of the Crown's will. The name Benedict Arnold was as likely to evoke strong feelings of disgust and betrayal among the everyday colonist as that of Judas Iscariot. Even among the Loyalist aristocracy that controlled New York, the Arnolds were looked down upon and many of them found Benedict’s treachery to be distasteful. Arnold never dared to travel outside of his mansion at Fort George without a sizable security detail first accompanying him.

Benedict Arnold's home at Fort George, Province of New York

This was for good reason, as underground resistance groups like the Sons of Liberty constantly hatched assassination plots against him and most of the servants who worked at his mansion were in fact posing as spies for the Patriot resistance. Benedict Arnold would spend the rest of his life wracked by guilt and regret over his decision to sell out his comrades for a gilded existence working as a stooge for King George III.

Seeds of Resistance

After spending over a decade studying abroad in France and Switzerland, an 18-year-old Benjamin Franklin Bache returned to Philadelphia only to find his family's printing press destroyed by a gang of British loyalists in September 1787. Vowing to carry on the legacy of his grandfather, he managed to restore the press, secretly publishing vehement editorials and pamphlets against the tyrannical British to arouse the desire for liberty among the people. With the help of couriers from the Sons of Liberty, these inflammatory documents were smuggled to sympathetic households across the colonies right under the nose of unsuspecting British soldiers, cementing Bache’s role as a key figure in the vanguard of the post-revolutionary opposition to British rule. The example first set by the colonists in demanding their natural rights from an oppressive monarchy would inspire another revolution in the heart of Old Europe, the consequences of which no one could possibly have foreseen. Such is the tempestuous nature of history.

The Arnold Conspiracy

By August 1780, the United States of America was losing its war of independence, as far as Benedict Arnold was concerned. The “Southern Strategy” adopted by Great Britain following their defeats at the Battles of Saratoga in 1777 and its withdrawal from Philadelphia in 1778 was beginning to bear fruit, most notably in its Siege of Charleston, which saw the surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln and the capture of over 5,000 American regulars on May 12th. This convinced the embittered, ambitious, and highly indebted Benedict Arnold that now was the time to switch sides and to deliver final victory to the Kingdom of Great Britain while doing so. After weeks of negotiations with General Washington himself, he was granted command of the prestigious post at West Point, which also gave him command of the American-controlled portion of the Hudson River on August 3rd, 1780.

The Beverly House, Benedict Arnold's headquarters at West Point

On August 15th, he received a coded letter from British Major John André with a final offer from his superior, Lieutenant General Henry Clinton: £20,000 and no indemnification for his losses in exchange for the surrender of West Point. Benedict accepted the offer and began deliberately weakening the fort’s defenses in preparation for a British assault. Knowing General Washington's exact itinerary, he smuggled a coded letter to André detailing Washington's exact return route from a meeting with French General Rochambeau in Hartford, Connecticut. Armed with Arnold's intelligence, Clinton dispatches an elite cavalry strike team from the Queen’s Rangers, led by Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe. 

Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe, Leader of the Queen's Rangers

They slipped past the American lines into Westchester County. On September 25th, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Marquis de Lafayette arrived at West Point to have breakfast at Robinson’s House with Arnold and his wife, Peggy Shippen when armed British soldiers surrounded the dining room and captured Washington, Hamilton, and Lafayette. At noon, the Union Jack was raised over Fort Clinton at West Point, isolating New England from the rest of the rebellion and cutting the colonies in half. Heavily guarded, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Marquis de Lafayette were loaded onto the HMS Vulture.

The HMS Vulture

News of Washington’s capture, Benedict Arnold’s treachery, and the loss of the Continental Army’s most important fortification soon reached the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, sending the delegates into a panic. Now convened at the York Court House, the Continental Congress appointed General Nathaniel Greene as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on November 9th, 1780. Despite Greene's brilliance as a military tactician, the capture of West Point and its unifying, charismatic, capable leader proved devastating to the morale of the Continental Army, triggering mass desertions and defections. The British arranged for Marquis de Lafayette to be placed in house arrest in London where they successfully bargain for the French to withdraw their support for the Americans in exchange for his release, along with a prisoner swap for a prized British general captured by the French in the Caribbean. Marquis de Lafayette returned to France in the spring of 1781, seeking to transform France into a republic rather than moderately transition into a constitutional monarchy as he’d originally hoped for, where he would soon position himself as an heir to Washington’s legacy.

Marquis de Lafayette

General Washington arrived in England aboard the HMS Vulture in January 1781 where he was paraded through London in chains and eventually imprisoned in the Tower of London, placed in the Beauchamp Tower, a high-security prison. In February 1781, George Washington stood trial for High Treason at Westminster Hall. Refusing to recognize the authority of the British Crown and declaring himself a sovereign citizen of the United States of America, Washington’s tall stance and composed demeanor soon won the apprehensive British spectators over to his side, but failed to move the judges overseeing his trial. 

The Trial of George Washington

He was found guilty of High Treason and sentenced to death by public hanging, drawing, and quartering. Though King George's advisors pleaded with him to commute Washington's sentence to avoid creating a permanent martyr, King George refused to show any leniency to a convicted traitor. An example would have to be made to ward off any future revolts. On March 26th, 1781, General George Washington was publicly hanged, drawn, and quartered, as the Treason Act of 1351 demanded. Though sporadic fighting between Patriot militias, British regiments, and Indian tribes allied with both parties continued for another 2 years with General Nathaniel Greene waging a brilliant guerilla campaign in the South, the public execution of George Washington was a catalyst for widespread public grief in the colonies and a total collapse in Patriot morale, with the Continental currency became entirely worthless as a result. 

The Continental Congress was formally dissolved in September of 1783, with its final act being to authorize Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams to sign an unconditional surrender treaty, which they did on May 12th, 1784, the Treaty of London. King George III ordered Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and John Adams to be executed by hanging along with the other 53 signatories of the Declaration of Independence, proving Franklin’s famous quip that they would either all hang together or hang separately to have been prophetic. Not all 56 of the signatories were executed, with some managing to evade capture for years, hiding inside the newly-pacified 13 colonies under false identities, always one step ahead of the British. Thomas Paine was ordered to be executed as well, but he successfully fled to France before it could be carried out, still hoping that he would live to see his dream of a free United States realized. What he couldn’t have known at the time was that he would play a pivotal role in sparking yet another revolution.

Thomas Paine in his study in Paris

Hello, everyone.

Over 2 years ago, I put out this poll asking you whether or not I should begin an alternate history series based on the New Campaign Trail mod about an America created in the aftermath of a 2nd American Revolution inspired by the French Revolution. From the beginning, it was clear that there was a real desire in this community to follow the historical trajectory, and I had a strong desire to develop it.

During that time, I graduated from college with a Bachelor's, and spent over a year trying to find a job.

My last post was about 2 months ago, ending with the conclusion of the 1848 Whig Convention. Since then, I've left my previous job working as an Independent Contractor as I realized I wouldn't be able to sustain the daily schedule the position required. I've also begun to reflect on this series, how I've slowly but surely lost my passion for it.

This is why I have decided to discontinue the current United Republic of America series effectively immediately.

This does not mean the end of alternate history writing for me, far from it.

I want to create a new alternate history series based on the original premise, and I'd like to enlist your help in doing so.

Comment below this post if you're interested in this new project and DM me for further details: u/Muted-Film2489.

Until then, I hope you all have a great rest of your day.

Salut!