Wild North America 1846

washington white house

"Shet, you damn guy, tell me, why are you doing this? Don't we have enough troubles?

God, I curse you to hell, you stupid bastard... idiot... Now the whole country is in an extremely dangerous situation, are you happy about this?

Because of your reckless behavior, we lost the state of Tijuana, and the United States cannot now go to war against the Kingdom of Tang Dynasty. The glory of the country and our cherished persistence are bruised and swollen by the Easterners. What can I do?

?

Tell you idiot, there's nothing I can do.

The war against the South is now at a critical period. Any accident may cause the huge sacrifices of the past three years to be wasted. We cannot afford to lose this war, let alone start a new war.

I can only pretend to be dumb, the White House can only pretend to be dumb, and the US federal government will become the laughing stock of all Europeans.

All this is because of you, damn Attorney General Mr. Richardson, please help me send my regards to you and all your relatives, including your mother, and let them all go to hell..."

In the Oval Office, President James Buchanan's extremely angry shouts and curses were heard, and then a "crackling" sound was heard. It seemed that the president was smashing something.

Secretary of State Michael Hughes and White House Chief of Staff Huntingston looked at each other in the corridor and smiled bitterly. They really didn't want to enter the Oval Office at this time.

They are not mean-spirited people, they just look for the boss to be scolded.

But there is no way

The matter to be reported today must be signed by Mr. President before it can be implemented, so the two of them knocked on the door and went in without waiting for the President to speak.

Entering the Oval Office, it was a mess.

The pieces of porcelain that fell from the table and the broken ornate desk lamp (kerosene lamp) were mixed with pieces of scattered documents. Even the president's chair was smashed, leaving only three legs lying miserably on the side.

Attorney General Richardson stood aside with a depressed face, his face was as gray as a dead man, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked terrible.

Hearing the knock on the door, President James Buchanan looked over with a livid face. Secretary of State Michael Hughes could only cough twice in embarrassment and pretend to be relaxed, saying, "Dear Mr. President, please forgive me for being inappropriate here."

It’s time to bother you. This is the most critical moment for the American Federation, and we need your guidance.”

"Maybe I'm taking the blame? This country is going through a long cold night, and I can't see where the light is?" President James Buchanan seemed to have aged ten years all of a sudden, and his head of white hair was nothing like when he first took office.

He is high-spirited and full of ambitious plans.

President James Buchanan was born in a typical Irish immigrant family in Pennsylvania, with 11 brothers and sisters. He was the eldest son and placed too many expectations on his parents.

He looked at Secretary of State Michael Hughes and White House Chief of Staff Huntingston, both of whom were holding a stack of documents. He frowned subconsciously, and a feeling of resistance arose in his heart.

There is really so much bad news that it has become numb.

President James Buchanan suppressed the boredom rolling in his heart, and his face softened a little before he said, "Oh, it seems that you have brought something that requires my participation. Tell me...what is it?"

"Mr. President, this is the "Emancipation Proclamation" that has just been drafted. I have carefully reviewed the document to ensure that there is no wrong spelling and that it is inspiring enough. I hope that the official announcement of this historic document can help with the current difficult situation.

To have a beneficial impact on the situation, this requires your personal signature."

"Bring it here." President James Buchanan showed a hint of self-mockery at the corner of his mouth. He took the "Emancipation Proclamation" and simply turned it over, saying in a teasing tone;

"I bet that as soon as I officially sign this damn document, the 17,000 white slave owners in the South will become the eternal enemies of the Buchanan family, and there will be at least 10,000 people willing to pay $500 to kill me, and maybe

No less than a big white slave owner in the House of Representatives is willing to spend more money to send me to hell. In order to free these niggas, I will become the most hated president in the history of the United States. Doesn’t this sound like that?

Very contradictory?"

"I don't want to deceive you, Mr. President. It's true. Although we all sympathize with the white slave owners in the South, they did nothing wrong to defend their property?" Secretary of State Michael Hughes nodded with a heavy face, revealing the sentiments of the northern upper class.

Universal true thoughts.

He paused and continued;

“But from the standpoint of the American Federation, we all have to do something against our will, including allowing those lowly niggas to obtain legal free status.

The stubborn Yankees resisted very resolutely, which cost us too many soldiers and supplies. Military mobilization used almost all social forces, and there were not many young white boys left.

The normal production of factories was severely affected, farmland was deserted, and the national finance had to borrow high-interest debt from the British and French powers who took advantage of the situation to maintain this war with no bright future.

at this critical moment

Any help is an extremely valuable bargaining chip. The "Emancipation Proclamation" in your hand can bring exactly what we need, disrupt the Southerners' position, and perhaps win some black slaves to join us.

As long as 1/10 of the 4 million black slaves in the South join the army, we will have 400,000 more cannon fodder, and we will be 10% more certain of winning the final victory.

This document harmed the fundamental interests of white slave owners in the South, disrupted their position, and was of great benefit to the Union.

Mr. President, we need it.

By signing this document, you will go down in history forever with your great contribution of liberating 4 million black slaves. This is a brilliant political achievement, enough to place Mr. President among the best American presidents in history."

"The price is that the Buchanan family is despised by all the Southerners, and I may be shot at any time on a street and lie down in a cold, smelly ditch and die miserably."

"Dear Mr. President, everything has advantages and disadvantages."

"That's nice. My Secretary of State, please help me find my quill and ask the secretaries to bring me a bottle of ink. I will sign this damn document even though I don't agree with it."

President James Buchanan shook his head. Although he was in the dizzying position of the presidency, he actually had no choice. Both the military and the capitalists needed this document, including the party that elected him as the presidential candidate.

Compared with personal interests such as honor and disgrace, these forces are more afraid of losing the war, and then it will be over.

At this time, White House Chief of Staff Huntingston came forward and gently placed a document next to the Emancipation Proclamation that President James Buchanan was about to sign.

President James Buchanan looked at this high-interest loan contract guaranteed by the government, frowned and asked dully, "Have you run out of money again?"

"Yes, dear Mr. President, the Commander-in-Chief, General Ambrose Everett Burnside, is trying every means to recruit and train the army. The dollars are being used up faster than an avalanche. He can only continue to pay tribute to the hateful French loan sharks."

Borrow money."

"What's the specific content?"

"The plan was to borrow 500 million francs worth US$125 million for a period of 7 years at an annual interest rate of 16.2%. Originally, it was discussed at 15%, but after the incident of missing Tijuana, those treacherous French loan sharks insisted on raising the interest rate.

These are the final conditions negotiated.”

"Damn the British, the damn French, the damn Orientals, and the damn Richardson (U.S. Attorney General), I curse you all to go to hell..." President James Buchanan suddenly became furious again

, he cursed a few times, then stopped his mouth, pouted his mouth helplessly, and said, "Put it here, I will sign it when I find my quill. I am really tired every day."

ah!"

We can't blame President James Buchanan for his crazy complaints. What he inherited was a mess.

When he took office as president, the huge war loans borrowed from the U.S.-Tangshan War that ended in 1849 had not yet been repaid, and the government had been running fiscal deficits for eight consecutive years.

Before the outbreak of the Civil War, the southern states had owed northern banks US$300 million. When the war broke out, the banks were unable to pay back the arrears, and hundreds of banks had no choice but to declare bankruptcy.

If we really lose the fight, this huge sum of money will be completely wasted and it will be impossible to recover it.

The financial crisis that broke out in the United States in 1857 had already weakened the securities market. The outbreak of the Civil War further intensified the financial crisis on Wall Street. The New York market plummeted one after another, and the stock prices on Wall Street fell to the point where they were worthless.

.

A suicide frenzy was staged on a high-rise building on Wall Street. Speculators who had lost all their money lined up on the rooftop and then jumped off without hesitation. It was like raining. The scene was truly spectacular.

It is said that at the most recent time, the New York City Council pulled away seven carriages full of corpses from Wall Street, all of which were former wealthy people.

In order to raise funds for the war, the federal government used various methods such as taxation, borrowing, and printing banknotes to raise funds. Almost all methods were used.

In the first year of the war

By the end of 1857, the cumulative financial debt of the federal government had reached 91 million U.S. dollars, and the treasury was so empty that even a mouse would shed tears, feeling that survival was not easy.

As a last resort, Treasury Secretary Chase came forward to beg his grandfather and grandma. After exhausting all overt and covert methods, he borrowed US$50 million as reserves from Wall Street financial giants and issued hundreds of millions of US dollars in federal bonds at an interest rate as high as 8.3

%, equivalent to 2.2 cents of interest per day for every $100 of bonds issued.

As a result, the federal government's debt will rise to $517 million in one year, which is unprecedented in the history of the U.S. national debt.

In the early days of the war, both the North and the South were in financial crisis. The South relied on borrowing money from the Tang Kingdom to survive, without even considering how to repay it in the future.

Because I couldn't repay it at all, I simply broke the jar and threw it away.

In 1857, the Great Depression began in the United States. The Washington government had run fiscal deficits for eight consecutive years, mainly relying on short-term loans to make up for it.

Short-term loans mainly come from loan sharks in countries such as Britain and France, and the interest rates are generally as high as 12% to 13%. As the brutal war enters its third year, the interest rates of short-term loans have also risen sharply, and some have reached as high as 16%.

At the beginning of 1857, the federal government's national debt was only $27.8 million.

But after the war broke out, in just a few months, the federal government's national debt had soared to $64.8 million by the end of 1857, and the rate of expansion was disappointing.

At the most difficult time, there was not even enough money in the national treasury to pay salaries to members of Congress, so we had to pay in debt.

In 1857, the first year when the war broke out, the U.S. government's annual expenditures were only US$74.2 million at most. However, in the third year of the war, that is, in the first quarter of 1859, the government expenditures exceeded US$75.69 million, which means that the annual expenditures

There is a staggering figure that may exceed US$300 million, and most of the money is borrowed.

While the U.S. federal government (the North) was frantically issuing national debt, it also borrowed a large amount of high-interest short-term foreign debt and lived a life of borrowing.

The basic situation now is that the Tang Kingdom lent money to the southern United States, and loan sharks from Britain, France and other countries lent money to the northern United States.

As the civil war became more and more brutal, and they fell into a tug-of-war, it became more and more difficult to borrow money, and the interest rates were getting higher and higher. If the interest compounded for four years, the principal and interest would be added together, it would be a big problem, that is, a loan of 500 million francs would be borrowed continuously.

It will cost 1 billion francs to repay with interest.

The longer the time, the higher the total amount including principal and interest will be.

Why are loan sharks from Britain, France and other countries willing to lend money to the northern government of the United States?

The loan sharks are not stupid. It is clear at a glance which of the north and south of the United States is stronger and which is weaker. Even if the northern government loses the war, the foundation of the regime will still not be threatened. At most, it will only recognize the division of the north and the south.

Therefore, for high-interest loans lent to the U.S. federal government (North), you basically don’t have to worry about not being able to get them back.

At most, it will take a little longer. The U.S. federal government still has a good reputation in this regard, and its economic strength is stronger. Compared with the southern rebel government, the risk of borrowing is naturally smaller. Of course, this kind of cost-effective business must be done.

The French loan sharks, in particular, benefited greatly from the last war between the United States and Tang Dynasty. The United States Federation did not hesitate to fulfill its repayment obligations after the war, and its creditworthiness is quite good.

Therefore, the French are highly motivated to lend money to the U.S. federal government (North), accounting for more than 80% of foreign loans, totaling 1.12 billion francs, or about 280 million U.S. dollars.

Excluding the current high-interest loan, the interest rate on foreign loans in the past was about 9.5% to 13.6%, which is generally lower than the interest rate borrowed by the southern government.

This shows that international loan sharks are optimistic that the U.S. federal government (the North) will eventually win this brotherly war.

Even if nothing happens, the U.S. federal government will not collapse.

Due to the combined effects of the poor domestic economic situation and the disastrous war, prices in the northern United States have skyrocketed, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has dropped sharply, and the economic situation is very grim.

In 1857, the inflation rate in the northern United States reached 700%, and the government had to announce that it would abandon the policy of converting the U.S. dollar into equal amounts of gold, which in turn led to a crazy depreciation of the U.S. dollar like falling off a cliff.

By May 1859, the inflation rate reached an astonishing 9,000%, and the dollar bills issued by the northern federal government were now like waste paper. The final victims were still the people and capitalists in the north who purchased national debt.

It can be said that the economy of both the north and the south of the United States is in a mess, but the war must be fought with gritted teeth!