Confederate Union

by Alan Sewell

  Table of Contents

  Foreword

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  Afterword

  Foreword

  The Civil War is the favorite subject of alternative history discussions because it was such a close-run struggle that any number of minor deviations from actual events might have changed its outcome. This book addresses a question even larger than the war itself. What if the South had not seceded?

  The pivotal event that enabled the South’s secession was the disruption of the Democratic Party during its convention in Charleston, South Carolina in March 1860. Alabama “Fire Eater” William Lowndes Yancey had made it his life’s work to lead the South into secession and independence. To take the South out of the Union he understood that it would first be necessary to divide and destroy the Democratic Party that bound the North and South together. In 1860 events aligned in his favor and he succeeded in leading the delegates of fifteen Slave States out of the convention.

  After its disruption in Charleston, the Democrats split into three factions --- a Northern faction headed by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, a Southern Rights faction headed by John Breckinridge of Kentucky, and a “Constitutional Union” faction headed by John Bell of Tennessee.

  In the general election that followed, the fragmented Democrats were beaten by Abraham Lincoln’s united Republicans, who received an electoral vote majority while winning less than 40% of the popular vote. The vote was especially close in several Free States. In the four-way contest Lincoln won California with only 32% of the popular vote and Oregon with 36%. He barely prevailed in Illinois with 50.7% and in Indiana with 51.1%.

  If the Democrats had not discredited themselves by dividing into three competing factions, could they have prevailed in those four states, giving Stephen Douglas the electoral vote majority? A vigorous campaign by a Democratic Party united under Stephen Douglas would surely have carried California and Oregon and may well have picked up the few thousand votes it needed to win Indiana and Illinois.

  Douglas was considered by many to be the more experienced candidate of wider national appeal who would know how to avoid civil war. Even with his party split into three factions, Douglas won Sangamon County, Illinois, Lincoln’s home of twenty-five years. The three-way split is known to have cost Douglas the votes of people who preferred a Republican electoral victory to having the election decided by an unruly House of Representatives, where it would have been decided if none of the candidates had received an electoral vote majority.

  This book begins its alternate history with the Democratic Party’s Convention in Charleston where Yancey will make his appeal for the fifteen Southern Slave States to bolt the party. Stephen Douglas and Jefferson Davis make a compact to defeat Yancey and keep the party united. In the general election the united Democrats elect their ticket. There will be no secession of the South. But what about the anti-slavery men in the North? Will the United States, now styled the “Confederate Union,” still be their country?

  1

  Stephen Douglas Home, Washington City, April 24, 1860

  Senator Stephen Douglas sipped his whiskey, allowing inebriation to work its effect of enhancing his charm. Tonight he called upon all his powers of persuasion. His fellow Senator Jefferson Davis sitting across the table was a difficult case.

  Douglas looked Davis in the eye and enunciated every word slowly and clearly.

  “If we allow our party to divide and make war against itself a Republican will be elected President. If Seward, Chase, or Lincoln is elected President our nation will divide and make war upon itself. Is that not the least desirable of all outcomes?”

  Davis shifted uncomfortably. Part of his discomfort was physical. The accumulated infirmities of a strenuous life punctuated by illness had made his body sore and his demeanor stern. And then there was Douglas who always discomfited him. As a temperate man of religious spirit Davis could not help but dislike the hard-drinking agnostic. He saw Douglas as a “silver-tongued Cicero,” a polished orator who constructed his positions more on the basis of expediency than principle.

  However, all who were acquainted with Douglas admired his unsurpassed skill in leading raucous political factions into compromise agreements on the great political issues of the day. This assessment led Davis to reply critically but without malice.

  “You know as well as I that Southern Democrats have lost faith in the national party because they do not trust you. You solemnly promised that your doctrine of Popular Sovereignty would protect, as lawful property, our slaves in the Territories. You revoked that promise as soon as it became inconvenient to your own ambitions. For that reason we are no longer able to place our confidence in you.”

  Douglas sipped his whiskey again. He had been party to many great political compromises consummated over liquor. He regretted that Davis had asked for nothing stronger than minted tea. It was hard to charm a sober man. Perhaps the intoxicating aroma of fine food and cigars in Douglas’ richly furnished library would have their own characteristics conducive to persuasion.

  Douglas put down his drink, folded his hands on the table, and leaned forward, again looking directly at Davis.

  “Popular Sovereignty is founded on nothing more or less than what I believe as principle: that slavery may be allowed into territories whose settlers are amenable to having it, but not into territories where it is opposed.”

  Davis sighed in frustration. “And that turned out to be a sham, didn’t it? It allowed the Abolitionists to seize Kansas before our people had a fair chance to stake their claims. It has emboldened them to become obnoxious and unyielding. Now they insult us in the vilest terms in Congress. They spirit our slaves away on the Underground Railroad. They sneer at the Fugitive Slave Laws. They threaten to murder slave owners who seek the lawful return of their property. They sent John Brown to incite our slaves to rise up against us. We have reports from all over the South of Abolitionists caught conspiring with our slaves.”

  Davis shook his head. “We cannot and will not remain part of a country whose Northern majority has declared war against us. We cannot and will not remain part of a party that joins with our enemies to destroy us. What is it about that that is so difficult for you to understand?”

  Douglas thought about challenging Davis’ presumption of “Abolitionists conspiring with slaves all over the South.” He knew those reports were fanciful, but what did it matter what he believed? It only mattered what the Southerners believed. They saw John Brown’s raid and the other affronts that Davis had mentioned to be a declaration of war against them. They felt sufficiently provoked to leave the national Democratic Party and then go out of the Union if the Republicans beat the divided remnants of the party in November’s election.

  “I would rather die than see this country extinguished,” Douglas finally replied, hoping to prompt Davis into answering in kind.

  “I have never desired that outcome either,” answered Davis. “But I would sooner see the South vindicate its rights outside the Union than be degraded into the humiliating surrender of our rights within it.”

  “Then we must strengthen the South’s position within the Union so that your rights to acquire more territory for Slave States will be assured. I am thinking of a way for us to accomplish that together.”

&
nbsp; Davis was skeptical. What do you have up your sleeve this time, you little grog-drinking, electioneering demagogue?

  Douglas manifested his expression of persuasive seriousness perfected in decades of political controversies. He spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, as if letting go of a cherished secret.

  “I have learned from Buchanan’s Cabinet that Napoleon III, with the backing of Britain, has planned the conquest of Mexico. France will justify the intervention both as a recovery of debt and a measure necessary to restore civil government in Mexico. Once Napoleon has possession of the country he will never give it up. With Britain backing him we will not be able to drive him out.”

  Davis nodded in reluctant agreement. “My position has always been that the only way to maintain order in Mexico is to annex the country. Of course the Yankees thought they knew better and prevented it. So now the French and English are coming in ahead of us.”

  Douglas was relieved that Davis appeared to accept the veracity of the information he had presented. Douglas had colored it a bit. It would have been more accurate to say that Napoleon III “contemplated” the conquest of Mexico rather than that he had already “planned” it. The extent of Britain’s complicity in the scheme was unknown. Douglas had surmised that Britain would back France, though he had heard no evidence of it.

  However it was generally known that Napoleon III had designs on Mexico, embroiled in a sectarian civil war that would soon force it to default on repayments of its French loans. The French Emperor openly coveted Mexico as his seat of empire in the Americas. And the European powers had a long history of invading Latin American countries under the pretext of collecting debts. So the substance of the story Douglas told ran generally toward the truth. Perhaps Davis had already heard the same story from his own contacts within President Buchanan’s administration.

  “We can keep the Europeans out of Mexico by annexing it before they do,” promised Douglas with confidence. “We will vindicate the Monroe Doctrine while bringing American civilization to Mexico. The South will gain a new territory for slavery as large as all of our existing western territories, and one that you will not have to share with the Abolitionists.” He paused, waiting for Davis to object along the lines he had anticipated. He smiled inwardly as Davis obliged him.

  “Congress, with its Northern majority, will never vote to approve our intervention in Mexico, let alone its acquisition,” countered Davis. “We had to drag them kicking and screaming into the war in ‘46. Even then they would not allow us to obtain half of what we had just expectations of receiving. The Yankees would rather Napoleon have Mexico than us.”

  The Yankees would prefer to have Mexico become a province of Napoleon’s Empire without slavery than to enter the United States as Slave States!

  Douglas downed another swig of whiskey. Thrusting both arms forward he answered in a whisper that had the force of a shout.

  “This time we won’t have to depend upon the thumb-sucking Congress! We will ask the states to mobilize their militias and send them into Mexico. We will plead the case that the French threat from Mexico is so imminent as will not admit of delay. The militias of the Southern States will heed our call. After they have liberated Mexico, Congress will have no choice but to bring the country into the Union as Slave States!”

  Again Davis responded as Douglas had expected. “That is a very tall promise, Senator. Our party is in its present state of disorder because so many of its Southern members believe that your previous promises have been lacking in sincerity.”

  Douglas looked Davis squarely in the eye. “This promise is sincere because it has to be! Our party and our nation have been brought to the brink of disunion because past compromises have not been carried out in good faith by either party. We can’t remain united if any more promises are broken.”

  Davis remained poker-faced. Say something to convince me that this is a serious plan, not another one of your harebrained schemes intended to defraud the South like Popular Sovereignty turned out to be.

  Douglas gestured emphatically. “Our acquisition of Mexico will be part of a Grand Compromise that will restore permanence to our Union!” He paused for effect. “I expect the South to accept the restoration of the Missouri Compromise Line, relinquishing claims to slave territories north of 36-30. The Free States in turn will agree not to interfere with slavery south of the line, including in the new states we will acquire from Mexico. After we have brought Mexico into our Union as Slave States, we will ask the British to sell us the Canadas. That will bring the Northern Expansionists, men like Seward, into our party. The Republicans and Abolitionists will never again threaten us.”

  Douglas showed his most persuasive face. “Wouldn’t the South much prefer these fertile tropical lands to the arid deserts of our western territories? Wouldn’t your slaveholders prefer to expand their plantations while remaining in the Union? Wouldn’t you like to insure that these promises will be executed in the same good faith as they are made?”

  Davis was surprised by the seriousness of the plan. He had expected only vague generalities. Then a warning sounded in his mind. What if he is trying to trick you into playing along until he wins the election? What’s to stop him from repudiating his promises after the election? He has done that before with Popular Sovereignty.

  But the word “you” had grabbed his attention, as Douglas had intended, conjuring up the vision of being a partner in a grand venture. Acquiring Mexico would be the grandest venture since the Louisiana Purchase. In an instant so brief that Davis was not even aware of it he decided that he should give credence to the plan. He leaned forward and asked, “What is to be my role in this….design?” The skepticism was gone from his voice.

  “I am asking you to form a Compact with me to unite our party,” replied Douglas, sensing a closing of the deal. “The party must not be allowed to split into Northern and Southern factions pledged to separate candidates. The Compact will result in my nomination as President and yours as Vice President. The office of Vice President will not preclude you from accepting, if you desire it, a field command of the militias that the states will be sending into Mexico.”

  Douglas paused to glean Davis’ reaction to the idea of assuming field command in Mexico. He noticed that Davis had leaned back in his chair and put his hand on his chin.

  “After we have brought Mexico into our Union,” Douglas added, “I want you to unite the South behind my effort to annex the Canadas. Then we will acquire Cuba and Central America. Our Union will fulfill its Manifest Destiny of becoming coextensive with the Northern Continent. We will have Slave States and Free States to settle for another hundred years. There will be no reason for us to make war among ourselves.”

  Douglas handed Davis his Letter of Compact. Davis rapped his knuckles on the table as he read it. It consisted of but three sentences pledging both men to unite in support of the party’s nominee. Of course the unwritten consequences of the letter that Douglas had talked about went far beyond its brevity.

  Douglas waited anxiously while Davis read and reread the letter, rapping the table all the time. Douglas was as much discomfited by Davis as Davis was by him. He knew Davis to be a true patriot who loved every inch of the country, including the Northern States. Yet Davis also believed that the states were sovereignties having the unconditional right to secede from the Union at any time their people decided. Douglas thought Davis’ notion that any nation could disassemble itself when part of its people became annoyed with the general government was absurd.

  And then there was Davis’ sense of honor. A graduate of West Point, Davis had contributed substantially to America’s victory in the Mexican War. Yet he denounced war at all occasions, condemning its destruction of life and property. Davis would welcome the acquisition of more territory from Mexico but he would not want to acquire it dishonorably by an unprovoked war of aggression.

  Davis was indeed wrestling with these issues as he read the Compact. Douglas had succeeded in softening his object
ions to invading Mexico by posing it as a war to “liberate” the Mexicans from the French. However, Douglas’ proposal to invade Mexico with Southern militias without asking Congress to declare war was provocative. Making war against foreign nations was the one area where Davis acknowledged the Federal Government’s supremacy over the states. They could claim that the Southern States must act on their own because the chaos in Mexico posed “such imminent danger as will not admit of delay” though no principled man would be comfortable with that explanation.

  Davis also well knew how his namesake, President Thomas Jefferson, had purchased the Louisiana Territory from the first Napoleon, contrary to his belief that the Constitution did not permit the U.S. to annex foreign countries, as Louisiana then was. Since then other territories, including Florida, Texas, and the Mexican Cession of 1848, had been obtained by various degrees of military intervention.

  These interventions had raised a fury of opposition in the beginning but it had faded away after the annexations were consummated. It would be the same with Mexico. Once the fighting started most Americans would rally to the colors. He wouldn’t be proud of acquiring Mexico this way, but he decided he would do it for the national interest, as Jefferson had rationalized acquiring Louisiana.

  The larger difficulty would be what to do with the millions of Mexicans that would be acquired with the land. They were an alien people, speaking a foreign tongue, embracing Catholicism, and divided into a rigorous class system of peons, landowners, and clergy. If anything united them it was universal hostility to slavery, the very institution that the South wanted to impose upon them after annexing their country. This problem had stumped Davis ever since he had first considered it during the first Mexican War when Southerners had talked about annexing all of Mexico. Southern slaveholders wanted Mexico’s land, not its people.

  Davis had concluded that Mexico’s Indian population would have to be subjugated then forcibly removed from the fertile tropical lands the Southern slaveholders coveted just as the American Indians had been removed from the fertile lands of the South. Davis’ stomach churned as he thought of the brutality this would inflict on a people who had never done him any harm.