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Thread: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

  1. #141

    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    As the United States Secret Service was created in 1865 and I couldn't find anything like it formed earlier, it raises the question of that due to the Bureau des Travaux Spéciales assassination attempts on Charles-Napoleon resulting in the death of several Americans(and a seagull), the more violent conclusion of the Canadian Revolt of 1837, and Texas' Revolution that perhaps such a date may be earlier in WEF. There could be other reasons, such as the Federalists remaining in power, the fact the U.S. gets Canada, which may make groups like the Knights of the Golden Circle form earlier in the South as a kneejerk reaction to the Canadian provinces becoming free states as well. Also, with Filibustering probably on the rise amongst some circles in the U.S. and KGC-esque groups forming early could also support the formation of such a agency.
    Last edited by Xion; May 07, 2014 at 05:07 PM.

  2. #142
    Agamemnon's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Perhaps the Regulator-Moderator war occurs in 1837 or 8 instead of 1839 and due to an inability on Eggers's part to make peace with them he loses the next election? That could explain that. I know that Eggers would definitely push for Indian and Tejano citizenship, and there's no way he'd jive with an intrusion on the private lives of individuals like the slavery law. He's a compensated abolitionist, though he isn't going to make that a campaign issue and he's definitely not running on an antislavery platform, just a "status quo" plank regarding slavery. So basically Egger's modification of the Texan Constitution would be:
    1. Indians that speak or learn English get citizenship
    2. All Tejanos that fought and families automatically get citizenship, other Tejanos may be subject to English language requirements to satisfy nationalists
    3. Slavery legal, but slaveowners have the right to do what they wish with slaves and slaves that can earn the money can buy their freedom - descendants of slaves and other blacks not formerly enslaved that pass a literacy test can become citizens

    I'm kind of assuming there were restrictions on the Tejanos too, but I don't really know.

    I can easily see the Regulator-Moderator conflict becoming very political very quickly. Perhaps a famous Regulator or Moderator winds up either in Chesser's cabinet or connected to a member of his cabinet, leading to government backing of that faction in some kind of shady activity or micro-war or something (maybe the Regulators decide to sack a Mexican village between the Nueces and Rio Grande or something and it almost starts a war with Mexico because Chesser's char supports them or something). Then the other faction starts campaigning for the Unionists, and we wind up with a situation like Weimar Germany where paramilitary groups fight the political campaigns with bullets. That could then result in Chesser losing the presidency over the scandal, since he's already stated he isn't going to follow Lamar's IRL example of bankrupting Texas. Over time the Moderators (or Regulators, if they wind up siding with me, though I kinda am inclined to think the Regulators would join the Nationalists) would become associated with the semi-Whig ideology of the Unionists, leading them quite nicely into being Texan Jayhawks once the Civil War starts if the war lasts that long. Heck, maybe they're both eventually incorporated into the State Militia, or maybe the State Militia rotates with the political party. Who knows, it could be really interesting and it sounds like it could be the big issue that separates Chesser and I since, to be honest, Chesser's description of his character doesn't sound at all like a Nationalist nominee and he needs something to separate the two of us, or he may as well be my VP.

  3. #143
    Pericles of Athens's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    I feel I need to chime in on the whole anti-slavery sentiment that your proposed Eggers seems to be pushing. Slavery at this point was already deeply ingrained in the Texan culture and in its people, any attempts to dislodge/weaken it wouldn't end well and certainly wouldn't make you (or the Unionists) any friends. Hell one of the many reasons for the Texan Revolution was the right to keep their slaves, as Mexico outlawed the practice, and anti-black sentiments were held by many Texans because a fair number rebelled from their masters in order to join the Mexicans (who were offering freedom). The Unionists shouldn't be the party of anti-slavery, as their real life parallel (obviously) won out in Texas, yet Texas was integrated into the Union as one of the most radical Slave states in the bunch.

    Edit
    In fact I think it more logical that the Unionists and Nationalists parties would be different flavors of Democrats rather than Whigs and Democrats respectively, Sam Houston himself was a Democrat after all. And in the WEF verse Texas is likely to be even more radicalized not less so.
    Last edited by Pericles of Athens; May 07, 2014 at 11:15 PM.


  4. #144
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    A new Northern family for y'all tonight, the Federalist Dowd family - they're returning from 1792 as the starting Governors of NJ. Haven't been able to draw the family tree yet, will do so later. As you might have guessed, there's now a pattern to these updates, alternating between Northern and Southern families. Next up will be either the Drummonds of Virginia or the Simonses of North Carolina.

    Dowd of New Jersey


    The Federalists have been disparaged by many as a cabal of overambitious nouveau-riche social climbers who came from 'less than dirt', especially the Southern gentry for obvious reasons, but in truth they had once been a strictly aristocratic club made up largely of powerful old families whose original (and perhaps still current?) goals included making America into an oligarchy for its citizens' own good - and the Dowds of New Jersey are a living reminder of those times. Their line reaches back to James Dowd, fourth son of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat dispossessed & executed by Oliver Cromwell for his longtime Royalist service under the Earl of Ormonde back in 1650 who later made something of himself by joining James, Duke of York (later King James II) in seizing New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664. This James Dowd was more than happy to become one of the first English settlers to call the newly-conquered colony home in an effort to rebuild his family's ruined fortunes in the New World, and it just so happened that a perfect natural harbor on the northeastern coast of New Jersey was the core of his new land. His son and grandson took advantage of the corrupt Clarendon governorship of 1702-1708 and a sixty-year land dispute with New York to aggressively expand their business and territory, and by the time of the American Revolution, soon-to-be Continental Congressman Leonidas Dowd was the second-richest and most powerful men in the state; how utterly convenient then that the only New Jerseyan family greater than his, the Fitzroys, stayed loyal to the British while he sided with the Patriots throughout the Revolutionary War, allowing him to snap up their possessions before the dust settled.

    Since those days, the Dowds have remained the single heaviest hitter among New Jersey's elite. They have been commercial magnates for over 150 years, juggling one of America's shipping giants (the aptly named 'Dowd Navigation Company', active since 1675) and the New Jersey Railroad & Transportation Company in addition to working closely with other Federalist families of often-lesser origin; for example, in 1830 they traded their silk mills to the Sakers for an equal number of small-arms and explosives factories, and in 1835-6 they generously funded the New York Fannings' campaign for that state's Governorship through intermediaries. When they aren't using their money to outright support Federalist campaigns, they can be found either patronizing artists (so long as said artists manage to capture their good side for posterity, of course), making a show of providing charity to the needy regardless of color, or pouring dough into public works such as the Delaware and Raritan Canal to make the average New Jerseyan's life easier...and making it easier for them to win elections later as well. Their commercial empire, tremendous political influence and impeccable 150+ year pedigree - which even most Southern planters have difficulty matching - all add up to make them sterling examples of American 'plutocratic aristocrats', if such a thing were even possible.

    That said, the Dowds aren't all sunshine and rainbows. They definitely did not get to where they are now by being honest, that much is clear: besides Leonidas Dowd's aforementioned convenient shift of allegiance during the Revolutionary War, he and his descendants kept a tight grip on the Governor's seat through an increasingly powerful political machine and the bribery or intimidation of their enemies, and have never shown themselves to be above sabotaging the businesses of rivals or performing a little industrial espionage to make sure the profits keep rolling in either. The Dowds are dedicated to amassing power, not advancing a specific social agenda, and don't allow silly things like 'consciences' stand in the way of their ambitions; at the tumultuous 1824 Federalist convention Senator Julius Dowd advocated neutrality or even open support in regards to the 'Peculiar Institution' to safeguard the party's shrinking Southern base, and later in the early 1830s he also supported courting nativists instead of adopting an immigrant-friendly policy, but in both cases the Dowds were more than happy to switch sides and pretend they never supported slavery/nativism once it became clear that a majority of the other Federalists stood against them. It took until 1835 for Julius's younger brother Governor Augustus Dowd to crack under Federalist pressure and take serious steps toward the abolition of slavery in New Jersey (the state had earlier decreed that no black born after 1804 could be born a slave, but did not outright abolish the institution), which he has done by trying to buy slaves from their masters and then immediately setting them free while avoiding a unilateral abolition of the institution in an attempt to avoid angering either side too much; and in 1844, his son and successor Theodosius Dowd saw to it that suffrage for people of color was protected under the state's new constitution; but only the hopelessly naive would believe he silenced the voices of white supremacists who sought to remove their right to vote under the 1776 New Jersey constitution through benevolent means, or that he wouldn't have backed said supremacists instead if he didn't think he could use the immigrant and black bases to his advantage. He is now rumored to be planning to end slavery completely throughout New Jersey before the end of his second term as Governor. A favorite tactic of the Dowds is to reflect any accusations of anti-Americanism they receive right back at their opponents, no matter how many stories they have to distort or outright invent to do so - suffice to say they didn't make 'Quid est veritas?' (What is truth?) into their motto for no reason.

    At present, Theodosius Dowd remains Governor of New Jersey. He and his ancestors' plotting has produced a remarkably odd political situation where he, a cynical & power-hungry aristocrat coming from a distinguished lineage of cynical & power-hungry aristocrats who arguably represents all that is wrong with the Federalist Party, is being supported by an alliance of blacks, (primarily Catholic Irish or German) immigrants and a majority of New Jersey's upper or middle-class whites - whose backing he has won by hook or by crook - against the Democratic Vroom family, populists who hail from humble origins and are backed by the majority of the state's poor 'native-born' Protestant whites as well as upper-class families opposed to him; where normally, Federalist candidates tend to be up-and-coming parvenus leading progressive coalitions against established elites with socially conservative supporters. The Dowds remain lukewarm backers of abolition and other reform causes, pushing these agendas solely to secure support from their chosen bases and often coming under fire from Federalist 'true believers' like the Sakers for not being committed enough to the 'good fight'.

    Governor Theodosius Dowd, NJ


    Name: Theodosius Dowd
    Date of Birth: December 4th, 1794 (age 51)
    Ethnicity: Middle American
    Religion: Episcopalian
    Occupation: Business Tycoon
    Position: Governor
    Home State: New Jersey
    Allegiance: USA
    Faction: Federalist Party

    Personality: Stoic, patient and meticulous to the point of humorlessness, Theodosius Dowd is not a man who known to allow his passions or snap judgments get to him. He prefers to make his own decisions after much careful deliberation and guesswork in regards to all the possible outcomes (especially any backlash he might face), throw around as much honey or vinegar as necessary to ensure its acceptance behind the scenes, then finally allow others to do all the talking for him once the move has become set in stone in all but name. This way, he has been able to slowly but surely solidify major changes in New Jersey as his father and grandfather did before him; where his old man Augustus ended slavery in 1844 through this exact strategy, he managed to preserve both black suffrage and his ability to run for consecutive terms as Governor of NJ in 1844. Suffice to say that though Dowd, like the rest of his family, may not genuinely believe in the Federalist Party's plans to build a better America as anything other than a great way to consolidate more power in their hands, there is no denying that he's very good at enacting their agenda anyway, if slowly - in private company he has often compared his more outspoken and radical comrades to a raging forest fire, burning bright but also quick to burn out and leaving nothing but ashes in their wake, while inviting them to compare him to a slow but implacable glacier that can shape continents over centuries or millennia. The sluggishness of Dowd's methods, his questionable conviction and the radically progressive agenda of the Federalists unsurprisingly do not mix well, but the New Jerseyan Governor has thus far resisted his fellow Federalists' criticism and pointed to both the results of his cautious approach & Aesop's 'tortoise and hare' fable to justify working on his own terms.

    Issues:

    Central Government: Sweeping federal powers, commitment to restrict slavery

    Religious relations: Grudging tolerance of other faiths

    Tariffs: High tariffs

    Slavery: Total, compensated abolition

    Immigration: Open immigration

    Military: Strong standing army

    Social welfare: Limited welfare networks are acceptable

    National Bank: The Bank must survive

    Foreign relations: Realpolitik

    Other Dowds
    Theodosius's family:
    • Winifred Dowd (née Simons), b. 15 December 1797 (age 48). Theodosius's wife and sister of both Governor Walter Simons II of North Carolina & Dr. William P. Simons. A short, plain-faced and rather heavyset middle-aged woman with stringy jet hair, dark beady eyes and the unfortunate large ears common to the Simonses. Being stuck in the middle between an icy, domineering natural autocrat and a mad scientist for her brothers, it's little surprise that she has grown up to be a meek and quiet woman who usually unquestioningly does with whatever her husband, brothers or in-laws tell her to do and who is prone to bursting into tears when placed under pressure. To his credit, the normally cold Theodosius has expressed some fondness (or is that simply pity?) for her and does try to accommodate her to the best of his ability.

    Lucilla Dowd: B. June 17 1792 (age 53). The only child of the late Julius Dowd and Theodosius's cousin. Tall and thin but more than capable of carrying herself with a grace & elegance that few others can imitate like most Dowd women, more handsome than beautiful now that she's in her middle years with streaks of gray beginning to crop up in her brown hair. Having married fellow New Jerseyan aristocrat Jonathan Newell - a man of a decidedly disagreeable temperament - back in 1808, she's had years of practice at calming down angry men and manipulating them into doing her bidding without setting them off, a skill that's made her invaluable to her cousin. When not playacting the demure old lady for guests or keeping her ill-tempered husband out of trouble, Lucilla takes to the shadows to become Theodosius's unofficial advisor in allmost all matters, from 'what to have for dinner tonight' to 'should I support going to war with X'.

    Hadrian Dowd: B. March 16 1796 (age 49). Shorter and stouter but brawnier than his older brother Theodosius, with short brown hair and a formidable beard to complement his often-angry eyes. A career officer in the US Navy who first served under his father in 1812, where he proved himself a tenacious fighter with no shortage of bravery (despite the inferiority of their vessel compared to the British warships they battled) and a loyal subordinate; however, as he climbed the ranks he also turned out to be a competent but unimaginative & uninspiring officer, and he himself does not expect to rise any higher than the rank of Captain that he holds now. serious, disciplined and ill-tempered man who brooks no disobedience on his ship, has been known to punch those of lower or equal rank than/to him for any joke that he perceives as the least bit offensive, and is considered a martinet by his men. He has never married and is notoriously disinterested in women, to the consternation of his kin who worry that the rumors swirling around him could be bad for their careers.

    Lucius Dowd: B. 12 December 1812 (age 33). Theodosius' eldest son and heir-apparent. A tall and spindly man with close-cropped brown hair, a goatee and cool blue eyes that rarely seem to smile when his lips do. A career politician who has cultivated his own patronage machine as an extension of his father's and who emerged as a champion of the Federalists in the New Jersey General Assembly, the state's lower house, before moving to the US House of Representatives - it's clear that the apple didn't fall very far from the tree in his case. That said, he is considerably friendlier than his father, though it may well be an act. Many New Jerseyans have rightly assessed him as a highly ambitious and courteous statesman who's grown much under his father's wing, but is no longer truly dependent on him either.

    • Ada Dowd (née Forrester), b. 17 August 1816 (age 29). Lucius's wife and daughter of Thomas Forrester, another Federalist 'old breed' aristocrat of sorts. A bulky and hard-eyed, but not quite ugly woman with long dark hair, known for her short temper and ability to boss even her husband around. Lacking the patience or grace to get involved in politics, she busies herself with playing the socialite while at home or indulging in her true passion - riding in the countryside - when not.
    • Manlius Dowd, b. 9 June 1838 (age 7). A large boy with a mop of the Dowd brown hair and his mother's gray eyes, whose girth is about half-and-half muscle and fat. Takes after his mother over his father in temperament, and fond of getting into scraps with other children.
    • Camilla Dowd, b. 14 May 1842 (age 3). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Constantine Dowd: B. 18 May 1815 (age 30). Second son of Theodosius Dowd. As tall and thin as his older brother, but with a longer face and an impressive handlebar mustache instead of a long goatee. A career soldier like his uncle, though he went into the Marines rather than the Navy. Also like his uncle, he is notoriously gruff and unappreciative of nonsense, and doesn't care much for politics. However, he is less prone to physically striking those who offend him right off the bat (he'd rather curse them out to their faces instead and give them the chance to strike first, which he believes is more sporting) and definitely doesn't seem to share his er, less than socially acceptable proclivities.

    • Helen Dowd (née Knight), b. 6 July 1820 (age 25). A niece of Rupert Knight, occasional Whig Governor of Maryland and rival of that state's current Democratic Governor George Beaton. A pretty and petite woman with bright golden curls and soft porcelain skin, but dreadfully shy and prone to playing the wallflower whenever anybody (even the family servants, much less her tough and intimidating husband) is around.
    • Aurelius Dowd, b. 19 July 1841 (age 4). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Augustine Dowd: B. 14 April 1820 (age 25). Third son of Theodosius Dowd. As expected of someone with asthma, he is physically frail and unable to strain himself for any great period of time (except, apparently, when it came to conceiving his twin daughters), and possesses only a thin wispy mustache that contrasts poorly with his older brothers' impressive facial hair. Unable to join the Navy or explore the world as he wanted to in his childhood, Augustine dove headfirst into his other great passion - writing - and now works for his father's ally's newspaper The Evening Journal, one of the state's more prominent Federalist papers. He is widely regarded by other members of the New Jersey elite as the only Dowd to actually care about what he's preaching, and genuinely seeks a peaceful abolition of slavery and the preservation of harmony between the states.

    • Bridget Dowd (née Lynam), b. 19 October 1823 (age 22). Youngest daughter of David Lynam, an Irish Catholic politician from Leinster who worked under Daniel O'Connell to attain Catholic Emancipation and has sat in the British Parliament as an MP of the Repeal Association since 1832. A brown-haired beauty taller than her husband, blessed with a graceful form and long fingers. Known to be kind and soft-spoken, but definitely not without a touch of iron in her, as those who have crossed her can attest to.
    • Fabiola Dowd, b. 17 June 1844 (age 1). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Paula Dowd, b. 17 June 1844 (age 1). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Theodora Dowd: B. 19 November 1824 (age 21). Only daughter of Theodosius Dowd. Though chubby in her youth, she has since grown up into a gorgeous young woman with a tall, slender frame, elegant brown curls that fall to her back, and brown eyes. Sheltered throughout much of her life by her overprotective father and brothers, she is a naive soul whose interests lie in writing (much like Augustine, the brother she is closest to) and singing, and who has the unfortunate tendency to believe the world works like a fairy tale; none of her kin have had the heart to correct her yet.

    EDIT: Oops, didn't see the above posts. Will respond more thoroughly to them either tomorrow or Friday.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; May 08, 2014 at 10:21 AM. Reason: cleaned up some mistakes

  5. #145
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    @Rose As we discussed earlier, this is actually a pretty sound idea. Such an agency would be restricted from operating on American soil (at first, anyway) since any antebellum American government employing anything resembling a secret police would be committing political suicide, so for the first few years of the game I'd expect it to look & act more like the CIA - strictly operating against foreign countries and intelligence agencies - rather than an early to mid 19th century FBI/NSA. That said, when the ACW happens, or even before that if things get crazy enough, this agency adopting an internal role is also definitely possible. I'd imagine the mid to late 1830s, what with the French BTS trying to kill the exiled Napoleon III several times and offing American citizens along the way, would be a good time for such an agency to be created.

    Anyone got any ideas for this intel agency's name? Failing that, yea/nay votes?

    @Aggy & Perry (addressing you both together since your comments are kinda linked) It's true that a reason for the Texans' revolution in the first place was that many of the settlers were slaveowners, and Mexico had explicitly outlawed slavery. That said, Eggers still doesn't have to be a fan of the Peculiar Institution himself (even with the radicalization of American racial politics being put on the fast track that doesn't mean the North & South have become hiveminds for/against slavery either, as racist Doughfaces in the North who back slavery and analogues of the Grimke sisters who happen to be committed abolitionists hailing from freaking South Carolina still exist) and while he really won't make that many friends by speaking out against it, as long as he doesn't actually try to abolish or seriously curtail it his credentials as one of Texas's Founding Fathers should keep him from being a political nonentity. After all, his constitutional amendments don't even actually weaken slavery if I'm reading them right, they're just allowing slaveowners to free their own slaves out of their own volition.

    I'm inclined to agree that he'd indeed still face a political wipeout by pushing them anyway since even given the above, it's still ready ammunition for his enemies to blast him as a 'negro/Indian/Papist Mexican lover'. But that actually works pretty neatly to explain why he would lose the 1838 and '41 elections - too few people want to vote for the 'candidate of Mexico/the Indians/miscegenation', even if he is basically half the reason their country still exists (the other half being Santa Anna). Come 1844 however, a big enough screw-up by the Nationalists - that Regulator/Moderator business Agg's detailed in his post, bungled raids into Mexico (or heck just Texan-claimed territories that are under de-facto Mexican control) that invite the Emperor Agustin's retaliation, etc. - as well as everyone calming down enough to go 'hey, Eggers might be telling the truth when he was all like 'I'm not kicking slavery in the balls, just keeping government nice & small' a couple years back' would be enough to narrowly get him back into power in 1844. The Tejano and Indian vote - there are some free blacks but they're way too few in number to matter - can't hurt either, though ofc the Nationalists would have to fail in repressing them first; going off the Expanded Moderator/Regular War idea, perhaps whichever side becomes the Unionist militia succeeds in defending their passage to the polls (and/or indulges in some 'mathematical tricks' when the time to count the ballots comes around) in the 1844 election?

  6. #146

    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Goldwater View Post
    @Rose As we discussed earlier, this is actually a pretty sound idea. Such an agency would be restricted from operating on American soil (at first, anyway) since any antebellum American government employing anything resembling a secret police would be committing political suicide, so for the first few years of the game I'd expect it to look & act more like the CIA - strictly operating against foreign countries and intelligence agencies - rather than an early to mid 19th century FBI/NSA. That said, when the ACW happens, or even before that if things get crazy enough, this agency adopting an internal role is also definitely possible. I'd imagine the mid to late 1830s, what with the French BTS trying to kill the exiled Napoleon III several times and offing American citizens along the way, would be a good time for such an agency to be created.

    Anyone got any ideas for this intel agency's name? Failing that, yea/nay votes?
    Of course, the internal role would come once the ACW/crazy stuff begins. Probably will mainly be used against Texas(until if and when they join the Union) and Mexico for this game, the ACW game may see it and a potential Confederate counterpart being more involved internally and in the war. I support this, of course. Name..perhaps the name you suggested, Office of Military Intelligence(OMI)?

    Edit : Also, if anyone is interested in a tie to the von Wolfes, feel free to ask. They're still just a military family but have a history of being involved in Legionville in peacetime.
    Last edited by Xion; May 08, 2014 at 09:29 PM.

  7. #147
    Pericles of Athens's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    I may have misunderstood Aggy's post. I suppose it'd be realistic enough if Eggers personally wasn't a fan of Slavery, but even with his misgivings the Unionist Party as a whole (not every single member, but the majority of them) should still be card carrying supporters of the Peculiar Institution.

    Edit
    As for naming the Presidential Mansion I think the Presidential Palace would suffice, though I think such extravagance (reminiscent of Kingly Palaces) wouldn't go over all that well with the less well to do around the nation. Could lead to greater accusations of elitist corruption right from the founding of the nation, might be an interesting dynamic to add onto of all the other tension.
    Last edited by Pericles of Athens; May 08, 2014 at 11:13 PM.


  8. #148
    chesser2538's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    So I guess this is off the table. =)

    Under the Patronage of the venerable General Brewster

  9. #149

    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by chesser2538 View Post
    So I guess this is off the table. =)
    That was never on the table to begin with as design of the capital was done in 1792.

    Edit :...That's from 1911 apparently. No way it can be included until a potential WW1 WEF that is relatively unlikely.
    Last edited by Xion; May 08, 2014 at 11:12 PM.

  10. #150
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Now to balance out the NJ Dowds...(also like the Dowds, haven't had the time to paint their family tree yet)

    Drummond of Virginia


    What makes a gentleman a gentleman? Is it his bloodline, in which case most of the planter dynasties of the South can rightly consider themselves gentle-born sirs & ladies? Is it his wealth, in which case the great merchant families of the North have them beat? Or is it their virtuous lifestyle and behavior towards others, of which the hardy men of the West will boast much about? The Drummonds of Virginia would answer 'all three', and unlike the case with many other prominent politicians from all ends of the country they usually actually mean it. Not only is the Drummond dynasty old even by Southern standards - they count themselves among the First Families of Virginia, with roots reaching back into the late 1640s - and one of the state's largest landowners, but their scions are noteworthy for their honorable conduct towards everyone around them, without regard for color or social standing; the family's first prominent leader on the national stage, Continental Congressman and occasional Governor Edward Drummond, defended the presence of maroons on American soil and defied those among his fellow Southerners who would enslave them after the Revolution on grounds that doing so after they'd shed their blood and sweat for the Stars & Stripes would be the epitome of dishonorable conduct. Slaves belonging to a Drummond master can generally expect humane treatment, and it is a family tradition for every Drummond patriarch to free those slaves under his direct control upon his death while their heirs would sooner slit their own throats than fail to go through with their last wills even if it means risking economic ruin - after all, what is money worth compared to a man's honor?

    Thus, the Drummonds have become the face of respectable conservatism in Virginia. They've raised their children the way they were raised, which is to say to be brave, chaste, charitable, honest, pious and to never ask of others something they cannot ask of themselves - and it's shown in the number of friends they've won with their 'honey over vinegar' approach. Their myriad blood ties to the other great families of Virginia, quiet piety and affability keep them welcome friends to the rest of the Old Dominion's elite, even if some of these other families may well agree with the assessment that they're a touch naive. They are known for not breaking their word under any circumstances, not even with Negroes and Indians, which has encouraged many middle- and lower-class Virginians to work for/with and vote for them. And their military record during the War of 1812 has gotten even the angriest of Yankees, those who will never hesitate to call the unfortunate mess 'a Southerner's war and a Northerner's fight' - like say, the Sakers of Massachusetts or the Rogers family of Rhode Island - to afford them a touch of grudging respect.

    That said, there is a downside to all of this. Several, actually. Though the Drummonds might be honorable even to slaves, they don't actually have anything against the institution of slavery itself, which most of them (like many Southerners) believe to be a benevolent institution that plays a key role in civilizing what would otherwise be a mob of irresponsible rape-happy natural maniacs; the Boxley Rebellion of 1831, which got then-Governor Franklin Drummond to fly into an uncharacteristic panic, only solidified these beliefs. Though it's a tradition for every Drummond patriarch to set their own slaves free, they only do so under the belief that over their lengthy lifetime together those slaves have been 'properly civilized' and made ready for freedom, and of course they wouldn't dream of touching those slaves under their children or grandchildren's control. In addition, while they're a lot friendlier to poor or middle-class whites than many of their more snobbish peers, try as they might few Drummonds can avoid coming across as patronizing (though that might be because outside of campaign season and the workplace, like other planters they just don't have much contact with lower-class whites, period). Finally, thanks to that very same code of honor they prize so much the Drummonds can really hold a grudge - many Drummond men have gotten themselves killed or injured in duels over matters of honor where they could have just sued the pants off of the offender, but by far their most infamous generational grudge has been with the Shields family, their paramount rival for the Governorship of Virginia; their hatred for each other dates back to a minor land dispute in the 1710s, but it has since taken on political connotations as well.

    At present, Ernest Drummond has moved out of his ancestral Rosebery Plantation back to the Virginia Executive Mansion to take up the reins in 1843. Like his father and grandfather before him, he has strictly held himself to a chivalric code of conduct and doesn't spend his every waking moment arguing the merits of slavery, quite unlike most of the other great families of the South who are prone to shouting their support for the Peculiar Institution from the rooftops at every given opportunity. That said, he's certainly still living the Drummond-Shields feud; he has been known to call rival patriarch Durward Shields 'scum' and (especially uncharacteristic for his normally clean-mouthed character) worse both to his face and behind his back for his less-than-honorable behavior in & out of office and his support for the enslavement of the 'wrong kinds' of whites, something all Drummonds consider beyond the pale, while Shields in turn considers him & his family a bunch of arrogant fools stuck in the 15th century who have no idea how the world works and is more than happy to inform Ernest of this face-to-face.

    Governor Ernest Drummond, VA


    Name: Ernest Drummond
    Date of Birth: July 18th, 1795 (age 50)
    Ethnicity: Tuckahoe
    Religion: Episcopalian
    Occupation: Gentleman
    Position: Governor
    Home State: Virginia
    Allegiance: USA
    Faction: Whig Party

    Personality: Ever composed, dignified and steely-eyed, Ernest Drummond is the very picture of an Anglo-Saxon gentleman. He does not feel any need to state his opinions more than once, after which whoever he's talking to should understand him, and certainly not one who needs to raise his voice to make himself heard - anybody who's heard of him knows better than to speak while he's speaking, and even Northerners respect him enough for his Army service in the War of 1812 to refrain from interrupting him. His opinions aren't far from what a Southern Whig is expected to have, really - like many former Low Federalists he's still a supporter of a strong central government, so that learned minds of gentle birth (such as himself) may better guide their less fortunate brethren to a better future with their gentle but firm hands, but like the Democrats he opposes he is a staunch defender of slavery, even if he is less frequently vocal about it than them. That said, like most Drummonds he's also more of a friend to the lower class than a good number of his fellow planter barons; when the less affluent Cohees of western Virginia and the merchants of Baltimore challenged the state's older constitution, which restricted suffrage to landowners, he worked closely with fellow moderate planters to convince his father, then-Governor Franklin Drummond into reducing the requirements for the franchise in the state's 1830 Constitution, and when said man died of a stroke in 1838 he still freed the elder Drummond's slaves as per his will even though he was facing some debt problems of his own at the time. When Ernest pulled himself out of debt shortly afterwards due to a surge in cotton prices, he considered it nothing short of divine favor for his honorable conduct, and is certain that God will never forsake him or his heirs so long as he keeps that up.

    Issues:

    Central Government: Balance of powers

    Religious relations: Establishment of a Protestant national church

    Tariffs: Low tariffs

    Slavery: No abolition

    Immigration: Heavily restricted immigration

    Military: Reliance on state militias & volunteers

    Social welfare: Limited welfare networks are acceptable

    National Bank: The Bank must survive

    Foreign relations: Expansion for Manifest Destiny's sake

    Other Drummonds
    Ernest's family:

    • Amelia Drummond (née Molyneux), b. 15 December 1796 (age 49). Ernest's wife and a younger daughter of the 2nd Earl of Sefton, a British aristocrat and sportsman best known for opposing the construction of the Liverpool & Manchester Rail Line; he did not approve of their relationship, so she eloped with Ernest just before the War of 1812, outraging the Earl. A tall, handsome woman with golden eyes and dark red hair that have yet to show any streaks of gray. Calm, calculating and always carrying herself with grace, she is a perfect mirror and complement to her similarly stoically dignified husband.

    Roger Drummond: B. 5 May 1797 (age 48). Ernest's younger brother and a Senator. Tall and proud with the traditional Drummond blond hair, sideburns and steely gray eyes, which would make him a clone of his elder brother if he weren't so much more muscular. Formerly a soldier in the US Army, and like the rest of his class at Legionville he was made to graduate early so he could be sent to fight in the War of 1812 - where he was captured at the Battle of Queenston Heights and held in British custody until the war's end. After retiring from the Army at the rank of Colonel in 1840 to go into politics, he met his former captor, the brother of now-Canadian Governor John Fitzgibbon, and became fast friends with him.

    Alexander Drummond: B. 15 August 1813 (age 32). Ernest's oldest son and heir-apparent. A tall, strong and handsome man with close-cropped blond hair and great sideburns that have gotten his brothers to jokingly refer to him as 'Alex the Lion'. Like his father and brothers, he holds himself to the Drummond code of honor and makes a point of treating everyone he meets politely, even condemned criminals and other undesirables. Presently serving in the US Army as a Cavalry Colonel.

    • Jane Drummond (née Page), b. 17 August 1819 (age 26). Alexander's wife and daughter of James Page, another prominent Virginia planter and State Senator. A gorgeous and lively young woman with naturally curly blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a slender frame. An adoring housewife who stays out of politics, as expected of her by much of polite society.
    • Sarah Drummond, b. 17 April 1838 (age 7). A pretty, round-faced little girl with her mother's hair and dimples, and her father's traditional Drummond gray eyes. Known to be friendly, exhibiting no problems in playing with the children of the house slaves, and highly excitable.
    • Lionel Drummond, b. 4 June 1840 (age 5). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Anne Drummond, b. 13 July 1844 (age 1). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Reginald Drummond: B. 19 September 1815 (age 30). Second son of Ernest Drummond. Taller than his brother but less muscular, and also red-haired and amber-eyed like his mother. As the family's middle child, he was under tremendous pressure to outdo his brothers and thus both stand out from them & attract the eyes of his parents. He is rumored to hold abolitionist sympathies, quite unlike the rest of his kin, though if these rumors are true he hasn't allowed that to stop him from getting along with them. Presently serving in the US Army as an Infantry Colonel.

    • Susan Drummond (née Byrd), b. 7 October 1818 (age 27). Second-youngest daughter of John Byrd, another Virginia planter and scion of one of the state's First Families. A tall, graceful beauty with a long neck and blonde hair that's a darker gold than what the Drummonds are known to sport. Patient and reserved, she is known to be a dependable advisor to her husband and in-laws in both politics and housekeeping.
    • Francis Drummond, b. 18 August 1836 (age 8). A skinny boy with his father's red hair and his mother's dark green eyes. Highly spirited and adventurous, he is often reprimanded by his parents for taking risks in his adventures.
    • Abigail Drummond, b. 16 May 1840 (age 5). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    John Drummond: B. 6 June 1818 (age 27). Third son of Ernest Drummond. Shorter and more slender in build than both of his older brothers, as their father believes is fitting for the family's 'baby'. More outgoing than most Drummonds are known to be, his jovial and carefree nature has won him plenty of friends. And just as well - being less martially inclined than his brothers, John has instead gone into politics and has recently won his first term in the Virginia House of Delegates.

    • Edith Drummond (née Fitzhugh), b. 14 May 1828 (age 17). Youngest daughter of Joseph Fitzhugh, another scion of one of Virginia's First Families and a close friend of Ernest Drummond. A vivacious young woman with reddish-blonde hair and a set of perfect white teeth. Bubbly and gregarious, she is often the one who introduces her husband to new allies and supporters.

    Thomas Drummond: B. 16 January 1816 (age 29). Only son of Roger Drummond and nephew to Ernest Drummond. Has nothing in common with his father beyond their blond hair, being short and reedy with his late mother's green eyes and a thin mustache. A born politician, unlike most of his kin he has no problem with breaking the rules to get ahead, and in fact he has probably done just that to beat out his competition for one of Virginia's House seats. Currently sits as a Representative in Concordia.

    • Eleanor Drummond (née Pendleton), b. 17 November 1820 (age 25). Daughter of Joseph Pendleton, a powerful planter and Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. A slender, brown-haired beauty with doelike eyes and soft hands. Smarter than she looks, and rumored to be a political advisor to her husband behind closed doors.
    • Thomas Drummond II, b. 20 September 1839 (age 6). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Evangeline Drummond: B. 5 July 1819 (age 26). Only daughter of Roger Drummond and niece to Ernest Drummond. A woman whose traditional Drummond good looks - flawless porcelain skin, wavy fair hair and grey eyes - are unfortunately ruined by her bad teeth. Nevertheless, she is a spirited lady who is quick to laugh, quick to anger and quick to forgive, and is especially passionate when it comes to fashion. Married to Archibald Fitzhugh, her cousin John's wife's brother.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; May 25, 2014 at 08:01 PM. Reason: cleaned up some mistakes

  11. #151
    chesser2538's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    I knew that, It sure is hard to emote sarcasm through a forum post.

    Under the Patronage of the venerable General Brewster

  12. #152
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Another Northern family today. The last two were Northeasterners, so this & the next one will be Midwesterners to balance them out. The next two Southern families will also be Trans-Appalachians, likely Cohees, to contrast with the Eastern Seaboard Tuckahoes you've seen so far. As these families are generally fairly new and/or small compared to the Eastern dynasties, they won't have family trees.

    Trimble of Ohio


    The Trimbles are one of their state's newer yet most powerful political families, having first gained prominence when their late patriarch Stewart Trimble (1761-1835, originally born in New York) became the state's seventh Governor as a Democratic-Republican in 1818. Though initially staunchly committed to small government and agrarian ideals, Stewart moderated his positions as time wore on and he built a paper mill in Cincinnati, squarely placing himself in the National Republican wing of that old party. When the aggressively pro-slavery faction succeeded in hijacking the 1824 Democratic-Republican convention, he and his son John walked out with most of the other National Republicans and joined forces with a majority of their former enemies, the Low Federalists to found the Whig Party, on whose ballot Trimble won the 1830 gubernatorial election. As abolitionists and opponents of big government in equal measure, Stewart and his heirs vigorously opposed both the Ohioan Federalists led by their perennial rivals the Shannons, and the Democrats' attempts to set up their own party infrastructure in the state in the 1830s and early '40s; in what was probably the first time they had agreed since well, forever the Trimbles and Shannons worked together to lock the Democrats out of the state, ensuring that all gubernatorial contests in the Buckeye State would feature only the Whigs and Federalists as serious contenders.

    As Northern Whigs, the Trimbles have never been the most radical of political dynasties. While it is true that they are abolitionists, and that their forefathers did walk out of the 1824 Democratic-Republican convention out of their unwillingness to work with a party that demanded they view slavery as a positive good, they are also gradualists and compromisers who will be satisfied with simply restricting slavery in the territories rather than abolishing it outright whether with or without compensation money. Though they have reversed their old agrarian ideals and are now in tepid support of government subsidies for developing industries & railroads, particularly their own of course, they still oppose 'overly generous' subsidies and have taken some care to not look like a bunch of undemocratic industrial plutocrats to their rural constituents. Most notably, they are firm nativists who have wasted no time in displaying their hostility towards Catholics and immigrants in general, though this is likely a reaction to the Catholicism of their primary rivals the Shannons, and though they've never quite called for an end to all immigration forever Stewart Trimble and his son & grandson after him have supported tightening citizenship requirements and favoring 'native-born' Protestants over immigrants for jobs. This shows in the staggering similarity and slightly subtler contrasts between their base and that of the Shannons; both command coalitions of upper and middle-class white Protestants, poor whites ('native' Protestants for the Trimbles, Irish and German immigrants for the Shannons) and African-Americans, both 'native Americans' and Maroon descendants (those not wishing to compete for jobs with immigrants backing the Trimbles, those willing to work for social justice with immigrants favoring the Shannons).

    At present, their patriarch is Stewart's grandson Rutherford, who has just narrowly defeated Thomas Shannon in last year's gubernatorial election. Not a man to rock his own boat, Rutherford has been careful not to publicly stray far from the platform of moderate abolitionism, moderate government involvement in the economy and nativism that his family is known for. However, in his private correspondences he has been using stronger terms than his father and grandfather ever did in his attacks on the institution of slavery; time will tell if this is all just a PR stunt engineered to steal liberal-minded and/or black voters from the Ohio Federalists, or a genuine movement towards common ground with his more radical rivals on that particular issue. Wherever it may lead, this development coincides with the growing strength of Ohio's long-impotent Democratic Party, who under the new leadership of the Huntingdon family from Kentucky, put up their best performance in nearly 20 years in 1844.

    Governor Rutherford Trimble, OH


    Name:
    Rutherford Trimble
    Date of Birth: July 18th, 1804 (age 41)
    Ethnicity: Midwesterner
    Religion: Presbyterian (Reformed)
    Occupation: Business Tycoon
    Position: Governor
    Home State: Ohio
    Allegiance: USA
    Faction: Whig Party

    Personality: A dour and introspective man, Rutherford Trimble is the very picture of the Northern intellectual on a good day; at his worst, he can be out of touch with his family & constituents and hopelessly mired in thought exercises or guessing games to effectively make decisions. Though not one known for long and grand speeches, Trimble is a prolific writer and philosopher who has written numerous essays on subjects from the virtues of capitalism to the need to protect America's western territories from the tendrils of Slave Power, and routinely hosted other eggheads at his villa on the shores of the Great Lakes until the duties of his Governorship left him with too little time for such dinners. That said, though one would imagine an intellectual should be open to new ideas, Trimble is in truth a stubborn man who prefers to reach his own conclusions after first reviewing all the evidence at hand and the works of older thinkers, and then staunchly defending his positions without compromise (especially odd for a Whig, since as the Shannons have pointed out, this makes him an 'uncompromising compromiser') until and unless evidence for the opposite position becomes insurmountable; his tendency to think for himself and then stubbornly pursue his own conclusions is also likely the cause behind his muted, but definitely more radical, abolitionism relative to the other Trimbles. He founded the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1841, which has more or less served as the Whig Party's main mouthpiece in Ohio ever since, and to this day he still publishes his lengthy thoughts on domestic and international matters in its pages.

    Issues:

    Central Government: Balance of powers

    Religious relations: Establishment of a Protestant national church

    Tariffs: Low tariffs

    Slavery: Free soil, no abolition

    Immigration: Heavily restricted immigration

    Military: Mix of federal & volunteer/state forces

    Social welfare: All men must stand on their own feet

    National Bank: The Bank must die

    Foreign relations: Expansion for free states

    Other Trimbles
    Rutherford's family:

    • Susan Trimble (née Locke), b. January 9 1799 (age 46). Rutherford's wife and daughter of John Whiskey Locke, owner of the Toledo Blade newspaper. A stout, plain-faced woman with dark hair usually done up in a bun and stern eyes that her children have learned to fear, even as they enter their adult lives; no doubt her unexceptional looks and tyrannical personality drove many suitors away until she finally found a willing match in Trimble, just short of her 30th birthday. A strict disciplinarian who rules the Trimble household with an iron fist and whom her famously stubborn husband never dared challenge even after becoming Governor, but politically uninvolved to his (and his allies') tremendous relief.
    • Saul Trimble, b. May 18 1831 (age 14). Rutherford's eldest child and only son. Inherited his mother's dark brown eyes, but otherwise lean and gruff-looking with russet hair just like his father. Also known to be musically inclined, and especially gifted with the piano (being pressured by his mother into taking daily piano lessons from age 6 onward probably helped, though).
    • Katherine Trimble, b. August 30 1836 (age 9). Rutherford's eldest daughter. An unhappy little girl who greatly physically resembles her mother, save for the red-brown hair she inherited from her father. An avid reader and writer like her father who does not appreciate being forced into dancing lessons by Susan, but goes along anyway out of fear.
    • Harriet Trimble, b. 12 February 1838 (age 7). Rutherford's younger daughter. Dark-haired and brown-eyed like her mother, but skinny and horse-faced. Like her older sister, she has been forced into dancing lessons she has little love for.


  13. #153
    Agamemnon's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Barry Goldwater View Post
    @Aggy & Perry (addressing you both together since your comments are kinda linked) It's true that a reason for the Texans' revolution in the first place was that many of the settlers were slaveowners, and Mexico had explicitly outlawed slavery. That said, Eggers still doesn't have to be a fan of the Peculiar Institution himself (even with the radicalization of American racial politics being put on the fast track that doesn't mean the North & South have become hiveminds for/against slavery either, as racist Doughfaces in the North who back slavery and analogues of the Grimke sisters who happen to be committed abolitionists hailing from freaking South Carolina still exist) and while he really won't make that many friends by speaking out against it, as long as he doesn't actually try to abolish or seriously curtail it his credentials as one of Texas's Founding Fathers should keep him from being a political nonentity. After all, his constitutional amendments don't even actually weaken slavery if I'm reading them right, they're just allowing slaveowners to free their own slaves out of their own volition.

    I'm inclined to agree that he'd indeed still face a political wipeout by pushing them anyway since even given the above, it's still ready ammunition for his enemies to blast him as a 'negro/Indian/Papist Mexican lover'. But that actually works pretty neatly to explain why he would lose the 1838 and '41 elections - too few people want to vote for the 'candidate of Mexico/the Indians/miscegenation', even if he is basically half the reason their country still exists (the other half being Santa Anna). Come 1844 however, a big enough screw-up by the Nationalists - that Regulator/Moderator business Agg's detailed in his post, bungled raids into Mexico (or heck just Texan-claimed territories that are under de-facto Mexican control) that invite the Emperor Agustin's retaliation, etc. - as well as everyone calming down enough to go 'hey, Eggers might be telling the truth when he was all like 'I'm not kicking slavery in the balls, just keeping government nice & small' a couple years back' would be enough to narrowly get him back into power in 1844. The Tejano and Indian vote - there are some free blacks but they're way too few in number to matter - can't hurt either, though ofc the Nationalists would have to fail in repressing them first; going off the Expanded Moderator/Regular War idea, perhaps whichever side becomes the Unionist militia succeeds in defending their passage to the polls (and/or indulges in some 'mathematical tricks' when the time to count the ballots comes around) in the 1844 election?
    That's basically what I was getting at. Also, Barry told me in the past that, unlike the rest of the South, Texas was recently-enough colonized that it wouldn't be 100% Democrat, and Whigs had a fighting chance, at least in this alt-TL. Eggers isn't explicitly a Whig and he's not explicitly speaking out against slavery (and he is kind of a moderate on abolition anyway, as he wants gradual compensated abolition rather than instant uncompensated abolition), he's merely challenging a couple aspects of the IRL Texan Constitution that, as sitting president at its writing, he'd take big issue with, none of which are really huge things - slavery isn't threatened in any way by allowing the freedom to free slaves, and regarding citizenship it's a basic meritocratic system that can be easily defended in a rational (read: not consisting of racists yelling " lover!" over you) debate. In fact, though this is rather later, even the most racist folks I've met are willing to look at a black guy as at least not below them if they're "a good " and have earned their respect. I think that same concept can be easily defended against anyone willing to speak logically about the subject, even if it's through a racist-tinted worldview.

  14. #154
    Pericles of Athens's Avatar Vicarius Provinciae
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    I'm not arguing that Eggers himself cant be what seems to be a Free Soiler, all I'm saying is that the Unionists as a whole shouldn't be the party of Compensated Abolition as doing so would be political suicide. Granted Texas wouldn't be 100% Democrat, in OTL or ATL, but I fail to see the logic of the Unionists (as a whole) standing as Free Soilers and the Nationalists as Democrats, as both parties should be composed heavily of Pro-Slavers to pander to the majority of the Texan population that supports the institution(as OTL or not Texas should have a deeply entrenched Pro-Slavery Society).


  15. #155
    Agamemnon's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    I'm not saying the party is a bunch of Free Soilers, I'm saying Eggers is and he's not going to like a couple provisions of the Texan constitution as it was IRL. However, it does make sense that there could be a fairly large (though by no means majority) Free Soil element, as the planters and such would be all for slavery, but the Frontiersmen and Western settlers were never into slavery.

  16. #156
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    We should note that Elisha Pease, a Connecticut-born Texan (so like, an actual Yankee) was fairly elected to a full term as Governor in 1853 & '55 Texas as a 'Unionist', or pretty much a Whig in all but name. This same guy went on to side with the Union and become an appointed governor for at least a little while under Reconstruction, so he probably wasn't the biggest fan of slavery either, and the Texans who elected him likely knew that too.

    As for the Whig/Democrat divide in Texas, I'd imagine that once they've outgrown their old Unionist/Nationalist shells the Whigs would usually face an uphill battle against the naturally more dominant Democrats, but they wouldn't completely cease existing as is the case in other parts of the Deep South (SC, GA, AL, MS). The growing cities will provide a core of urban middle to upper-class businessmen who want cheap black labor (which slavery stands in the way of, since all those blacks are instead stuck working for planter barons who aren't going to approve of factories & railroads being built on/across their turf) and have little incentive to ideologically commit themselves to slavery, and the Tejanos + any Indian citizens will also provide minority bases to tack on to that. The poor white farmers & workers will be the deciding factor here, and while I'd be inclined to say endemic racism will normally drive them into the Democrats' arms, they aren't a hivemind and they won't keep blindly voting in Democrats if either they screw up massively, the Whigs can offer them a genuinely better deal that also doesn't ruffle their feathers too badly, or both.

    For Eggers himself, I'd agree that coming out as an outright abolitionist would hurt him pretty badly in the polls, and at best the rank-and-file Texan Whigs will be ambivalent towards slavery; any other actual abolitionists will also have to keep it on the down-low. That said, his role as the Sam Houston of WEF should mitigate that somewhat, even if it won't be enough to reverse it entirely. If he's clever he'll stick to gradual, less obvious ways of weakening slavery, like promoting the growth of industry or inviting immigrants who don't give a damn about/are hostile to slavery to begin with (famously, most German Texans were either ambivalent or actively opposed to slavery, and a bunch of them were slaughtered by the Confederates for resisting the draft) to produce a new base for him to work with.

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    Agamemnon's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    I had no intention of speaking out against slavery. When the Civil War starts, depending on circumstances I may go either way (though most likely Union), and if I wind up in the Union I may begin actually talking about slavery. But right now I'm just not addressing it. Regarding Indian citizenship and such, the fact that Eggers himself is 1/4 Indian could convince some people to go along with it, especially if there are English requirements and literacy tests and such to make it easier to swallow. Part of the Indian citizenship thing will also be that I want to avoid the IRL war with the Indians, at least in Texas, and granting them rights (even if they aren't the land rights they want) will hopefully mitigate that.

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    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Now to balance out the Trimbles of Ohio, here come Mississippi's ruling family.

    Hogg of Mississippi


    The old families of the South like to characterize the 'new men' of the North as rude, tasteless, overambitious boors who came from nothing yet hate the very lower classes they hailed from anyway. How unfortunate then, that the Hogg family that rules Mississippi should fit that exact bill! Originally poor Scots-Irish laborers who had toiled alongside black slaves under the Hambright planter family of Georgia since the days of their forefather Jack Hogg (that's to say the 1730s), Hogg patriarchs have always shown an insatiable ambition to rise higher and higher in the social hierarchy of the American Deep South, to the point where nobody could look down on them ever again. The first Hogg to try to realize this ambition was Jack's son Robert, who fought as part of a Southern guerrilla band following the fall of Charleston and lost a leg in battle with the Loyalists. He was able to use his back pay & plunder to buy himself a small farm west of the Appalachians, but naturally this was far from enough for the Hoggs. Due to Robert's injury, it fell to his sons Joseph and Arthur to further advance the Hogg name when the Whiskey Rebellion came around; they helped tar & feather several tax collectors before joining the rebels in hopes of winning fame and getting to loot Eastern cities, but were less successful than their old man to put it mildly - word of Shawn Bohannon's defeat at Legionville reached their column while they were still marching through the Appalachians, and like the rest of their compatriots they fled back home before even firing a single shot. However, Joseph's son Brutus proved to be either the visionary or simply the lucky man the family needed, for he was the first Hogg to move out west to Mississippi, staked claims on highly fertile cotton-growing land, and aggressively expanded the family's lands & assets until by 1836, the Hoggs had become one of the state's wealthiest and most powerful planter family in their own right, with 150+ slaves and a loud voice in political matters...though they still have quite a ways to go in winning the respect of the more established 'Tuckahoes', who still consider them upstarts.

    This little fact drives Brutus and his heirs mad to no end: becoming filthy rich planters in their own right is fine & dandy, but what they really crave is acceptance into the Old South's aristocratic elite, which is impossible so long as all they see when they look at the Wyolah Plantation is a bunch of 'red-necked parvenus' who came from dirt, lucked out and developed the gall to think that that makes them equals. That said, the behavior of Brutus and the other Hoggs doesn't exactly help on that front either; they may want the other planters to accept them, but that doesn't mean they're just going to let the older families walk over them - indeed, as far as Brutus is concerned such a show of weakness would only convince the plantocracy even further that they aren't fit to be called equals to the Rutledges, Wilsons or Drummonds - and so in true Scots-Irish tradition they are always more than happy to answer insults with insults or blows with blows, which paradoxically drives the old dynasties to hate them even more anyway as now they're coming across as 'barbaric white trash who have the nerve to strike back at their genteel natural superiors'. The Hoggs' extreme racism, even by the standards of the Deep South, and ready contempt for the other Cohees to whom they were once equal, but who they openly consider fools not half as bright and hard-working as themselves who are jealous of their triumphs, has also unsurprisingly failed to win them any friends on the opposite end of the political spectrum (though when push comes to shove, as demonstrated by the 1844 gubernatorial election said cohees still tend to grudgingly vote for the Hoggs over their more established aristocratic rivals despite their virtually-identical platforms, as at least they have had some experience of a poor white's life).

    As of today, the aged Brutus Hogg still rules his family with an iron fist, and is attempting to do the same (rather less effectively) with the rest of Mississippi after winning his first term as Governor just a year ago. Though he's finally realized that the Tuckahoes will still never see him as an equal no matter what he does and knows all too well that the Cohees he once called his peers resent him for his successes, he is far too stubborn to deviate from his combative course, and has only become more bitter, cranky and vindictive as old age sets in; it isn't unreasonable to say that at this point, he genuinely loathes the Tuckahoes even though he still wants to be counted among their ranks, if not replace their position at the respected pinnacle of Southern society. As the Federalists have never bothered to set up a Mississippi branch and the Whig Party's fortunes in the state are barely worth mentioning, the state Democrats have fractured in all but name into Hogg's own 'populist faction' and a slightly more moderate 'establishment faction' led by the coastal Tuckahoe Hiram Foote, who spend most of their time & resources frustrating the populists' agenda at every possible turn and in doing so further contribute to Brutus Hogg's migraines.

    Governor Brutus Hogg, MS


    Name: Brutus Hogg
    Date of Birth: June 19th, 1792 (age 53)
    Ethnicity: Cohee
    Religion: Southern Baptist
    Occupation: Gentleman
    Position: Governor
    Home State: Mississippi
    Allegiance: USA
    Faction: Democratic Party

    Personality: Ornery, ill-mannered, stubbornly set in his ways, virulently racist and filled with hate for anything he can't (or doesn't care to) understand, at first glance Brutus Hogg fits the Eastern Seaboard stereotype of the 'red-necked white trash' Cohee perfectly - until one realizes that unlike most other Cohees, he is filthy rich and quite powerful. In truth, Hogg is a very bitter product of his unforgiving environment - he came from dirt, had to fight against unscrupulous fellow Cohees and the occasional arrogant planter-baron for every scrap of his fortune, and upon finally realizing the American Dream, found that not only did the Tuckahoes he once idolized held him in utter contempt for ever thinking he could be equal to them but many of the Cohees now also envied & resented him for his success. When the world hates you so much, isn't it fair to hate it right back? Brutus Hogg says 'hell yes'. He has adopted an ostentatious lifestyle - poring over as many classics as he can get his hands on, at least trying to keep up with the latest fashion and treating guests to hideously expensive feasts in his gaudy mansion, all to thumb his nose at the Tuckahoes and rub his wealth in their faces. As for the Cohees, his rage at their naked resentment of his new status (which he considers a personal betrayal) drives him to go so far as adopting the Rutledge line on slavery and publicly arguing that 'white slavery' is a good idea, and though when called out on it he's quick to pretend that he only means it's good for 'Yankees, Injuns and Papist Mexicans' to maintain public support, in the back of his mind he feels that nothing would better suit those who dared shun him for simply being more successful at life than they ever could be than the whip and chain. All this said, in his heart of hearts Brutus Hogg really does still crave the acceptance and adoration of both classes of white Southern society just as he did in his youth, even as he is slowly coming to terms with the fact that it is virtually impossible (which, as he has sometimes had the grace to admit in private, is partially his fault).

    Issues:

    Central Government: Weak federal government, except to defend/expand slavery

    Religious relations: Active discrimination against non-Protestants

    Tariffs: No tariffs

    Slavery: Expansion of slavery beyond territorial & racial bounds

    Immigration: Shut down immigration entirely

    Military: Reliance on state militias & volunteers

    Social welfare: All men must stand on their own feet

    National Bank: The Bank must die

    Foreign relations: Expansion for slave states

    Other Hoggs
    Brutus's family:

    • Prudence Hogg (née Tucker), b. 7 August 1795 (age 50). Brutus's wife and fourth sister (out of eleven children) of a former neighbor of his in backwood Georgia. A short, squat woman with messy dark brown hair, a fat round face and beady eyes. Surprisingly boisterous and jovial, even around Tuckahoe women who laugh at her and call her a 'pig with some lipstick painted on her' behind her back, and a much-needed positive influence on her children. Even her husband, whose hatred for basically everyone else is notorious, is known to deeply love her and to have fought duels for her honor with the same planter gentlemen he once aspired to follow.

    Robert Hogg II: B. 15 June 1811 (age 34). Brutus's eldest son and heir-apparent. Short and pot-bellied like his mother but with a head full of dark hair, a wild black beard and dark blue eyes like his father. A simple (one could say brutish) man of simple tastes who is controlled by his instincts and passions, he doesn't care about social status nearly as much as his father or brothers and is satisfied with the simple knowledge that they're already better than the other Cohees and richer than some Tuckahoes - so what if they dislike him? No sense in stressing yourself out over what your inferiors think of you, after all. Works as an overseer under Brutus.

    • Elizabeth Hogg (née Harding), b. 24 January 1817 (age 28). Youngest daughter of Henry Harding, a struggling Tuckahoe planter who held his nose and arranged her marriage to the Hogg heir in exchange for financial aid. A lithe, graceful woman with full red lips, ivory skin and silken blonde hair who'd be even more beautiful if she didn't constantly look like there's a bag of dung in front of her. Unlike her father & mother-in-law, she and Robert most definitely do not get along; she considers her husband an uncivilized simpleton and their marriage a sham, while he hates her in turn for constantly talking down to him and never ceasing to make frivolous demands for the latest luxuries.
    • Cletus Hogg, b. 13 May 1836 (age 9). A huge boy, half-fat and half-muscle, with his father's dark hair & eyes. Known to be extremely aggressive and spiteful, once breaking his little brother's arm just for playing with a toy he'd discarded not two seconds earlier, and to always be on the lookout for any excuse to get into a fight.
    • Linus Hogg, b. 26 July 1838 (age 7). Thin, light-haired and tall for his age, quite like his mother, but has clearly inherited his father's darker eyes. No less combative than his older brother, whom he utterly loathes and who once broke his arm for very little reason, but unlike Cletus he is capable of restraining himself when faced with only mild provocations and is genuinely protective of his younger siblings.
    • Elizabeth Hogg, b. 7 March 1841 (age 4). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Aaron Hogg, b. 17 December 1843 (age 2). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Benedict Hogg: B. 6 September 1814 (age 31). Brutus's second son. The tallest and handsomest of his brothers with perpetually finely combed dark hair, dark blue eyes and a strong, muscular figure, like his father in his youth but better. Also like his father, an aggressive social climber who is always out to hoard more money, find ways to secure the respect of the Tuckahoe class without compromising his own self-esteem, and spit on any Cohee who dares envy and resent him for his status rather than kneel to and praise him as he really wants them to. Works as a slave trader.
    • Hazel Hogg (née McAllister), b. 15 November 1818 (age 27). Third daughter of a Cohee carpenter, whom Benedict tragically (in his eyes, anyway) married just before his father started heading into politics and attracting the eyes of the Tuckahoe class. A tall, skinny woman with a pencil-thin neck, hazel eyes and a mop of straw hair. A fiery woman who makes no secret of despising her husband for routinely cheating on her with their slaves and treating her as a millstone around his neck, while he in turns thinks she's just slowing down his ascent up the social ladder - after all, if they weren't married he'd be free to pursue a Tuckahoe match.
    • Jane Hogg, b. 16 March 1837 (age 8). A short, skinny girl who heavily takes after her mother in appearance, but has inherited her father's dark blue eyes. A friendly, innocent child who is definitely unaware that her father is attempting to arrange a socially favorable marriage for her almost daily.
    • Julian Hogg, b. 6 December 1838 (age 7). A wiry boy with his father's dark hair and his mother's hazel eyes who is known to possess a surprising amount of strength, despite his thin frame. A scrapper like his cousins Cletus and Linus, but a lot friendlier when his blood isn't up.
    • Buck Hogg, b. 9 February 1841 (age 4). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    William Hogg: B. 17 April 1815 (age 30). Third son of Brutus Hogg. Short and squat like his mother, with wild brown hair and a lot of stubble around his large face. Constantly aggressive and a drunkard, he has killed half a dozen men in duels (some for good reasons, such as insulting his family; others, fought for reasons like 'I didn't like the way he looked at me'), exhibited tremendous pleasure in whipping or killing slaves for the smallest infraction - something even his brothers and father disapprove of because hey, that's good money he's destroying - and has been known to smash even his brothers' faces against desks or walls for calling him a 'Toad'. Currently an infantry Captain in the US Army.

    • Adriana Hogg (née Weekes), b. 9 December 1812 (age 33). Eldest daughter of a Cohee field hand working for Brutus Hogg. A lean jet-haired woman with dull gray eyes and several missing teeth. Quiet, unassuming and always careful not to upset anybody, especially not her infamously hot-tempered husband, and lives in terror of William's infamous rages (drunken or not).
    • Martin Calvin Hogg, b. 28 March 1835 (age 10). A fat boy with his mother's black hair. Acts tough like his cousins, but quails when they (or anybody remotely threatening) so much as glares in his direction.
    • Oliver Hogg, b. 7 September 1837 (age 8). Almost as round as his older brother, but with a mop of his father's brown hair instead. Quiet and prefers to be left alone, but more than capable of defending himself when needed, as even his violent cousins can attest to.
    • Joan Hogg, b. 19 December 1840 (age 5). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Bartimaeus Hogg, b. 4 January 1842 (age 3). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Christina Hogg, b. 26 May 1843 (age 2). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Theresa Hogg: B. 14 June 1817 (age 28). Eldest daughter of Brutus Hogg. A rail-thin woman with stringy dark-brown hair and very large blue eyes that always seem moments from popping out of their sockets. Highly emotional and prone to mood swings, from cheerfully laughing along one moment to suddenly weeping or screaming in fury the next. Married to James McKeown, one of her father's slave overseers.

    Clarence Hogg: B. 19 June 1819 (age 26). Fourth son of Brutus Hogg and the first of his triplets. Barrel-chested, muscly and of average height, with a square face and a bushy black beard. Yet another social climber with hopes of marrying a genteel planter's daughter or sister, which is why he has spurned all offers of marriage thus far. A slave trader like his second brother Benedict.

    Conan Hogg: B. 19 June 1819 (age 26). Fifth son of Brutus Hogg and the second of his triplets. Barrel-chested, muscly and of average height, with a square face and a bushy black beard. Like his older brother, he too hopes to marry high someday, though he has allowed his baser passions to get the best of him and is father to several illegitimate children with both Cohee women and slaves. An accountant assigned to manage the family's paperwork.

    Cyrus Hogg: B. 19 June 1819 (age 26). Fifth son of Brutus Hogg and the youngest of his triplets. Barrel-chested, muscly and of average height, with a square face and a bushy black beard. Not as concerned with social success as his brothers, he has settled down and generally advises his kin not to go through with their oft-harebrained schemes to make more money or acquire respect for the family name. Works as a slave overseer for his father, but rather unlike his brothers he doesn't approve of unnecessary cruelty.

    • Leah Hogg (née Ross), b. 5 August 1824 (age 21). Daughter of Martin Ross, a former soldier who owns a small general store near the Hogg lands. A tall, lean young woman with sandy blonde hair and pale blue eyes. A prolific writer who is in contact with many women from merchant families across the South.
    • Amy Hogg, b. 16 July 1842 (age 3). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Darla Hogg: B. 1 February 1822 (age 23). Second daughter and youngest child of Brutus Hogg. A short, unattractive woman with often-greasy black hair, dull eyes and an overweight figure. An avid reader (especially of romance novels) and optimstically dreams of the day when a handsome prince will sweep her off of her feet. Still unmarried.
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; May 12, 2014 at 11:17 PM.

  19. #159
    Barry Goldwater's Avatar Mr. Conservative
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    I had some free time tonight, so I've written up the second Midwestern family of this cycle, this time from Indiana.

    Also: Aggy, likely going to bat for the Union? Next pigs will fly while cats & dogs start getting along

    Pugh of Indiana


    The Pughs are another family of humble origins that has only recently gained any degree of importance. Their first ancestor to actually live on American soil, Bevan Pugh, was a Welsh carpenter who moved to New York in 1767 and who later enlisted in the Continental Army during the early years of the American Revolution with his sons, only to be captured almost immediately afterwards at the disastrous Battle of Trenton and perish of his infected injuries in British custody. Of his sons, three died over the course of the Revolution, two from illness and one from a British musket ball to the face at Yorktown 1780; only the youngest and sole American-born brother, noted lunatic Bedivere Pugh, survived because he was too young to join the fight (having been born in 1771), and he too would fall before British arms anyway once he escaped from the asylum where he'd been committed for five years & chose to follow in his family's footsteps at the beginning of the War of 1812 under a false name, which got him a place in the American front line at Queenston Heights. Bedivere's oldest son Benjamin moved to Indiana in 1816, where by 1830 he had attracted local renown as the 'King of Lumberjacks' for his ability to chop up any kind of wood faster & more cleanly than any other man in the state before going into politics, and had also founded the nucleus of his Allied Lumber Corporation with a loan from the Bank of the United States.

    Though their state was free from its foundation, Indianans were generally ambivalent towards Negroes - but not Pugh, who staunchly believed slavery to be 'just plumb wrong' from his childhood and treated his black workers & coworkers with respect. Choosing to imitate the Federalists whose socially liberal beliefs mirrored most of his own but running under the Whig Party banner due to his disagreement with their beliefs on the ideal size of the federal government, in 1840 Pugh went up against the state's then-long time Governor, hideously corrupt and draconian local aristocrat Alexander Dunning of the Democratic Party. The campaign was marred with vicious attacks on the new Whig coalition of middle & upper-class white liberals, immigrants and blacks (both 'native-born' Africans and Maroons) as well as Pugh himself, who was branded the 'candidate of miscegenation' and worse in Democratic Party pamphlets. Nevertheless, Dunning's corruption was so severe - and so severely publicized, both by Whig agents and whistleblowers in his own government - while Pugh's harmless eccentricities and working-man credentials had made him so popular that the Whigs nearly won out. Only rampant corruption and the intimidation of the state's black voters by a private militia on Dunning's payroll stopped him from winning, and in the process of their terror campaign Dunning's men also killed Benjamin's middle brother Byron and his wife Charity by burning down their home with them still inside. In 1843, a vengeful and heavily disillusioned Pugh once again ran as the Whig candidate in the Indiana gubernatorial election, formed the exact same alliance he did last time, and prepared for Dunning's dirty tricks; thus this time around the Democratic 'Coal Burners' defeated by Whig 'Ragdolls' in riots across the Hoosier State, and Pugh narrowly defeated Dunning. Besides throwing his predecessor in prison on corruption & murder charges, Pugh's administration to date has been marked by efforts at internal development and the promotion of racial harmony through the continued existence of the Ragdolls and the employment of a 'divide blacks from immigrants to allow them both to prosper' strategy similar to what the Federalists pulled off in 1836 New York. Pugh has also fostered a friendship with Michigan Governor Hosea Church, and the two Whigs can often be found supporting each other.

    Today, Benjamin Pugh is halfway through his first term as Indiana's Governor. He remains supported by an alliance of affluent liberal whites, primarily Irish and German immigrants, and African-Americans; needless to say, they remain just as threatened by racist and nativist pressures as they were before his election, and so far from disbanding his unofficial 'Ragdoll' militia Pugh has orchestrated their integration into local police departments (or outright had cities that didn't have police departments, such as Indianapolis itself, to found them and immediately induct as many Ragdolls as possible into their ranks) in order to give them a veneer of legitimacy. Though this (as well as Pugh's stated intention to take advantage of the amendment of the Indiana state constitution to remove its ban on Governors serving more than two consecutive terms under Dunning) obviously isn't quite a clean tactic, it is working, and even some Indiana Democrats will grudgingly admit that nothing Pugh has done so far really compares to Dunning's excesses before him. Of course, speaking of the Dunnings, they are not at all pleased at their patriarch's incarceration at Pugh's hands, and Alexander's son Crispin has assumed leadership of the battered-but-still-breathing Indiana Democrats to avenge his father in future gubernatorial elections.

    Governor Benjamin Pugh, IN


    Name: Benjamin Pugh
    Date of Birth: July 8th, 1800 (age 45)
    Ethnicity: Midwesterner
    Religion: Lutheran
    Occupation: Business Tycoon
    Position: Governor
    Home State: Indiana
    Allegiance: USA
    Faction: Whig Party

    Personality: Like most Pughs, the King of Lumberjacks is a very odd fellow. He stridently follows the family tradition of giving names starting with the letter B to all Pugh boys, and those which start with the letter G to all Pugh girls, which he & his kin claim was ordered of his 17th-century ancestor and Parliamentarian footsoldier Rhodri ap Hugh by God Almighty Himself; he is known to care for a flock of black ducks, who have become the official symbol of his family, and to have his favorite pet duck waddle after him into even important press conferences or meetings with high-ranking Whigs; he credited his 1843 victory to God, the Ragdolls, his loyal voters and his 'invincible beard'; and he carries both a revolver and hatchet on his person at all times, both to defend himself in case the Dunnings send an assassin after him again and to intimidate anybody who dares say 'life isn't worth living' near him by drawing the latter and offering to behead them on the spot, all on top of his radical beliefs on race & society. All this said, his eccentricities aside Pugh is a surprisingly astute politician - nobody who was merely a lunatic could politically prosper with his radical views & hold together a coalition of groups thought to be natural opponents of each other as he did twice, much less overcome Alexander Dunning's dirty tricks, and operate the Allied Lumber Corporation while serving as a Governor - and a highly ambitious man as well, who despite being aware that his humble origins and less than socially acceptable behavior will mean the elites of the USA are unlikely to ever fully accept him, is looking to give his family a headstart into their ranks by securing a lasting legacy in Indiana. That may be slightly less difficult than expected, as the relatively harmless nature of most of Pugh's idiosyncracies and his genuinely gruffly affable, down-to-earth manners have made him increasingly popular with the Hoosiers even despite his radical beliefs on race, friendliness to immigrants and brash outspokenness.

    Issues:

    Central Government: Balance of powers

    Religious relations: Harmonious religious mosaic

    Tariffs: Low tariffs

    Slavery: Total, uncompensated abolition

    Immigration: Open immigration

    Military: Mix of federal & volunteer forces/state militias

    Social welfare: Limited welfare networks are acceptable

    National Bank: The Bank must survive

    Foreign relations: Expansion for Manifest Destiny's sake

    Other Pughs
    Benjamin's family:

    • Mary Pugh (née Carroll), b. 15 April 1805 (age 40). Benjamin's wife and a third-generation Irish-American, whose grandparents immigrated during the Revolutionary War. An auburn-haired woman of average height with brown eyes and callused hands from her working days in a textile mill. Known to be quite pleasant, if a bit rough, and especially charitable to minorities such as blacks or her fellow Irish, but also prone to flying into fits of rage when her Catholicism or ethnicity are attacked.
    • Boniface Pugh, b. 5 June 1831 (age 14). Benjamin's third son. A lean, mean young man with smallpox scars across his face. An ornery scrapper, he has become a drummer boy in the Indiana state militia and is learning carpentry from his uncle outside of his duties.
    • Gertrude Pugh, b. 3 July 1834 (age 11). A short girl with gray eyes and brown hair usually done in braids. Actually Benjamin's niece, being the only child of his and Balthazar's middle brother Byron, but effectively adopted into his family after her parents were murdered by Dunning's Coal Burners in 1840. Unsurprisingly for someone who lost her parents at such an early age, she has grown up to be timid and withdrawn.
    • Beavis Pugh, b. 17 February 1837 (age 8). Benjamin's fourth son and the elder of his twin boys. A skinny boy with auburn hair, brown eyes and buck teeth. Known to be an energetic and passionate prankster, easy to please and easy to anger, but his jokes can be quite mean-spirited at times, and he really isn't one to forget a grudge either.
    • Buford Pugh, b. 17 February 1837 (age 8). Benjamin's fifth son and the younger of his twin boys. A skinny boy with auburn hair, brown eyes and buck teeth. Much more laid-back than his twin, though he always finds himself dragged along for Beavis's misadventures whether he likes it or not, and also more considerate of others' feelings, but has great difficulty focusing on any single task.
    • Gardenia Pugh, b. 15 August 1838 (age 7). Benjamin's second daughter. A brown-haired little girl with large brown eyes to match. Highly excitable to the point of being unable to sit in one spot for more than a few minutes, and known to follow - and blow the whistle on - her older twin brothers whenever they stalk off to pull pranks.
    • Brendan Pugh, b. 8 January 1840 (age 5). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Gwendolyn Pugh, b. 9 November 1841 (age 4). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Balthazar Pugh: B. 9 July 1806 (age 38). Benjamin's youngest and only surviving brother, born shortly after their father Bedivere was carted off to an asylum after attempting to assassinate New York Governor David Lloyd by lighting 10 tons of dung under the belief that he was the reincarnation of Llywelyn the Last and Lloyd, that of Edward Longshanks. Shorter and wider than his brother, but muscular and barrel-chested, and certainly not lacking in the facial hair department either - his beard is even longer and thicker than Benjamin's, leading some observers to mistake him for the older brother. Much quieter and less excitable than either of his brothers, to the point where many Whigs remember him as 'that completely silent guy who stood uncomfortably close to Benjamin Pugh' during the 1840 and '43 gubernatorial election campaigns, but no less deadly with an axe and firearm if provoked, as his opponents in the Ragdoll-Coal Burner street battles had the misfortune of finding out firsthand. Currently one of the Hoosier State's Representatives in Congress.

    • Dorothy Pugh (née Field), b. 28 October 1820 (age 25). Daughter of John Field, a small-time Indianopolis merchant. A petite woman with flowing dark hair, cool gray eyes and a certain flexible grace to her movements from years of dance lessons. Plays the part of a cultured housewife in public, but known to be quite bossy and demanding in private.
    • Bennett Pugh, b. 19 May 1839 (age 6). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Genevieve Pugh, b. 14 November 1840 (age 5). Too young to be notable in any regard.
    • Grace Pugh, b. 7 March 1843 (age 2). Too young to be notable in any regard.

    Barnaby Pugh: B. 16 August 1823 (age 22). Benjamin's eldest son and heir-apparent. A tall, thin young man with a thin mustache and perpetually neatly combed brown hair, doubtless inherited from his father. An obsessive-compulsive mathematician and extreme perfectionist who once starved himself half to death for getting less than perfect scores at Harvard, and then felt shame over failing to kill himself flawlessly until his sister Guinevere literally slapped him out of his funk. Now works as a clerk for his father's Allied Lumber Corporation.

    Basil Pugh: B. 12 March 1825 (age 20). Benjamin's second son. Broad and tough in build with rippling muscles, wild auburn hair that has always resisted his efforts to comb it and a fast-growing red beard. Currently an officer of the brand-new Indianapolis police department, but his true passion is dance, and under the tutelage of Italian dance instructors he shows an impressive amount of grace for a man of his size; he is becoming a minor local sensation after helping to foil a bank robbery, and pummeling two of the robbers into unconsciousness, all while off-duty and armed with nothing but dance moves adapted into impromptu street fighting techniques.

    Guinevere Pugh: B. 10 June 1828 (age 17). Benjamin's eldest daughter. A tall, slender and beautiful young woman with auburn hair that comes close to her waist, dark blue eyes, flawless skin and a winning smile. Also blossoming into a talented dancer like her older brother Basil, except obviously far less likely to get laughed at (even especially by her own siblings).
    Last edited by Barry Goldwater; May 15, 2014 at 01:46 PM. Reason: called the Allied Lumber Corporation 'company' once

  20. #160
    Agamemnon's Avatar Comes Limitis
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    Default Re: WEF 3.0 19th-Century Iteration Planning Thread

    Gotta say, I like those folks.

    Barry, now I have to post pics of me in my Union uniform later this summer.

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