Julius Pope

**Julius Pope** (January 1, 1792– October 4, 1841), often referred to pejoratively as 'Nero' during the American Civil War, was an American statesman, a mulatto, a slaveholder, and a member of the Times family who was elected as the fourteenth president of the United States, a position which he would serve as only briefly, from inauguration until his coma after the Pope-Hood Duel, December 2 1837. Despite being a northerner and a free mulatto, he regardless defended the institution of slavery and heavily sympathized with the south. In defense of slavery, he contended that slavery ensured that "those destined for slavery would be economically secure and morally civilized", and that the minimum wage that had to be given to slaves was an "unreasonable northernization", as slaveholders already had to take care of slaves. Some historians consider Pope's worldview to be proto-fascist in its rejection of liberal values, defense of slavery, and perspectives toward race.

During his coma, John Livingston's Emancipatory Edict pushed the country on the brink of Civil War. After recovering, he pledged allegiance to the newly formed "Republic of the Southern Confederacy", becoming a major catalyst of the American Civil War which followed. Despite being President and a Ohioan mulatto, his actions became a catalyst for the states which, up until that point, only threatened secession to preserve slavery, to actually, despite the impeachment of John Livingston and the ascension of John C. Calhoun to the Presidency, go ahead and secede from the United States.

Afterwards, Pope was appointed vice president of the Southern Republic, and at times led Confederate armies himself. During his Vice Presidency, he was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of many atrocities during the American Civil War. He became the first person to be executed for "crimes against humanity". He was hung, drawn, and quartered in Atlanta at the order of the Oglethorpe Freedman's Council. Pope is often ranked as one of the worst Presidents.

## Presidency (January-December 1837)

### Pre-inauguration

In the 1836 election Pope received 36.6% of the vote beating out second place Cornelius Vanderbilt by nearly 10%. However, the electoral college fell into deadlock, with Pope receiving 153/313 electoral votes, 4 votes shy of a victory. In the House of Representatives, Pope received 16 votes, enough to become the next President. In the senate, abolitionist John Livingston of the “Liberty Party” was elected Vice President as a compromise. In his inaugural address, Pope promised to fix the “horrid disaster” that was the Senate, and to bring economic salvation after the economic collapse the Panic of 1831 brought to the nation

### Domestic Policy

#### Economy

Pope supported the National Recovery Act of 1837, built off of the Union Recovery Act which was vetoed by President Vanderbilt in 1834. The Act bailed out larger corporations along with cutting taxes and creating new industrial jobs in northern factories. The act is attributed to the “Purge of 1837”, in where thousands of smaller businesses were bought out or destroyed by larger counterparts.

This act caught the attention of the Supreme Court, who ruled on May 14th the act violated the 4th Amendment as it called for the seizure of private factories by the government for public use.

In June, Pope supported another economic act known as the Economic Rehabilitation Act of 1837, a successor to the National Recovery Act. This act instead bailed out large businesses and encouraged these companies to open their own factories. The Michigan and Ohio area saw a significant boom in industrial jobs and factories, with near-monopoly sized companies having control over entire cities worth of factories. This once again attributed to the Purge of 1837. An estimated 45% of small businesses in the North were either bought out or put out of business by these monopoly sized companies. In the south, Pope pushed for the idea of “Industrial Slavery”, which called for the industrialization of the southern states and employment of slaves in new factories. Goods produced would be exported to the world. The final part of the act lowered tariff rates on many products.

The Railroad Act of 1836 was expanded on by Pope in the Railroad Amendment Act of 1837. This amendment created a government loan program to companies willing to employ working men for constructing a “Continental Railroad” which would stretch from Virginia to Missouri.

#### Slavery

Pope was an advocate for slavery and supported the practice. Opposed to the “Slave Act of 1800” (which established the 100$ Clause, a way for a slave to be legally freed). Pope brought the Slave Act of 1800 to the Supreme Court with the argument it took away the legal property of a man, as his administration recognized slaves as property of their masters. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court sided with Pope, ruling that the Slave Act of 1800 violated a mans property rights. A protest rebellion was organized in a free-slave settlement in the state of Williamson, with Pope responding by sending in armed forces into the area. Pope also supported the "Fugitive Slave Act", which would legalize hunting escaped slaves.

His rabid defense of slavery came as a shock to many when being exclusively exposed to his heritage, that of a northern one. He himself was the descendant of slaves. However, in his home state of Ohio, many lobbied to legalize slavery once more, including him and his family, and so it became that Julius Pope was both a northerner, a slaveholder, and a person of color. His defense of slavery was considered rather radical by his contemporaries. After his Presidency and during the Civil War, he would write:

> The competition among laborers to get employment begets an intestine war, more destructive than the war from above. There is but one remedy for this evil, so inherent in free society, and that is, to identify the interests of the weak and the strong, the poor and the rich. Domestic Slavery does this far better than any other institution. Feudalism only answered the purpose in so far as Feudalism retained the features of slavery. To it (slavery) Greece and Rome, Egypt and Judea, and all the other distinguished States of antiquity, were indebted for their great prosperity and high civilization; a prosperity and a civilization which appear almost miraculous, when we look to their ignorance of the physical sciences. In the moral sciences they were our equals, in the fine arts vastly our superiors. In the science of government and of morals, in pure metaphysics, and in all the walks of intellectual philosophy, we have been beating the air with our wings or revolving in circles, but have not advanced an inch. But this high civilization and domestic slavery did not merely co-exist, they were cause and effect. Every scholar whose mind is at all imbued with ancient history and literature, sees that Greece and Rome were indebted to this institution alone for the taste, the leisure and the means to cultivate their heads and their hearts. But this high civilization and domestic slavery did not merely co-exist, they were cause and effect. Every scholar whose mind is at all imbued with ancient history and literature, sees that Greece and Rome were indebted to this institution alone for the taste, the leisure and the means to cultivate their heads and their hearts.
>
>
>

#### Industrialization

Julius Pope, early on, made it clear that he preferred to fully industrialize than preserve the complementary North-South split economy of the United States. However, the form which he advocated industrialization was considered rather odd, and lacked major support. Although he would never get the chance to further this ideology, he supported slavery, be it temporary or permanent, as an alternative to wage labor, and it would be through this that industrialization would occur in both the North and South. He sought to industrialize the South via slavery, and further sought to begin American participation in the slave trade once more.

#### Williamson Slave Revolt

Pope's pro-slavery policy had some serious ramifications. The Slavery Act, which Pope repealed, allowed those enslaved to buy their freedom for $80, established a minimum wage for slaves (Compelled Allowance Policy), and created the State of Slavetonne, later named Williamson. The repeal effectively blocked slaves from gaining their freedom upon their own will. Thus, on the morning of June 6th, 1837, John Williamson, the son of Henry Williamson, the former Governor of Slavetonne and an extreme abolitionist, had lead a rebellion in the heart of the state demanding the Slave Act of 1800 be put back into place. He sent this letter to President Julius Pope.

> *Presented by John Williamson, son of Henry Williamson*
> The nation of the United States has proven itself a nation with a monopoly on violence against the black man by overturning the Slave Act of 1800, an act put in place via a democratic nation-wide referendum. As such, the state of Williamson and the Williamson black community can no longer call this nation our home, and as such declare immediate succession from the United States of America.
>
>

By November, John Williamson expanded his army westward into the eastern Williamson state area. However, Pope ordered that federal troops from New York arriving at the battle scene now. A push back attempt into the state from the North is ongoing, with the Williamsonian army suffering heavy casualties. John Williamson issued this plea to the United States in response.

> To the United States of America.
>
>
> Our nation is that one of peace and prosperity. We simply pray for a life free of oppression and of tyranny, for we follow the proverb of Thomas Jefferson that all men are created equal and endowed with the rights of life, liberty , and the pursuit of happiness. One nation, one republic, one people under god, a Republic of freedom and of prosperity, a Republic of equality and democracy. These ideals set were realized by President Burr when he made the Act of 1799, but our great United States of America has lost this idea. I love the union, but I will stand with my people first in the face of oppression. We do not want to fight, and we do not want to harm any more of our white brethren. We simply want our people to thrive.
>
>
>
> —Sincerely, John D.H. Williamson
>
>

By December, the Free Republic of Williamson had mostly been defeated. A resurgence became of the Republic later on, however, as they would go on to fight the Confederacy on the side of the Union.

### Pope-Hood Duel

After an argument against Governor of Delaware Patrick D. Hood over slavery and the President's actions against the slave revolt, Pope and Hood engaged in a duel which ended with Pope hospitalized and presumed death. Vice President Livingston was inagurated, and after Livingston's attempt to abolish slavery, the south seceded from the union in Late 1837, forming the Southern Republic.

As it turns out, Pope was alive, and later defected to the Southern Republic.

## Civil War

~~The Civil War was brutal and the Civil War change the people.~~

~~Julius in battle was a mastermind and his troops will tell you that in their Memoirs they will praise Julius as though leader of the Revolution against government overreach and for institutions of the South. Only entering his forties he would fight on the battlefield and lead from the front and was the main reason for the union losing Washington and most of Maryland during the  coldest day of the war and almost forced the union into peace the Confederate president. As Confederate vice president he modernized the military system into something that looks more modern and it showed on the battlefield at the Confederate military constantly destroyed Union Army even with it smaller military size.~~

~~But even with all of this even all of the military genius put on display and the full power and might of the Southern industry and Manpower put to bed couldn't stop the Union and soon  the number disadvantage was so big that even after stopping the Union Army in their March toward Richmond Julius could not win with the amount of men he had, during the last few stages of the war in the last remaining months of the Confederacy Julius snapped,  maybe it was the anger from losing the war, maybe it was knowing that he would be hanged once he was captured and maybe even forgotten, maybe it was just the simmering Insanity that many of his friends said he had, Or maybe it was the spirit of Miyles Times.We will never know but what we do know is this in the last few months of the war a black Rebellion broke out and Julius just like the one before it set out to putting it down with the most brutal methods possible and conducting a genocide of the black population in the south.~~

~~Along with killing almost all Union pows the confederate government authorized a complete declaration of war on all remaining neutral States and a estimated  700000 to 1.1 million died in what they call the Darkest Day. as the Army retreated and Richmond fell Julius would flee into the deepest part of the South but he would not make it far as black Rebels would destroy his last few remaining men and hang him upside down ending the disgraced leader.~~

~~He would die America's 14th President, Confederate vice president, A mass murderer, disgraced and finally broken hearted.~~

~~Julius had eight children hundreds of illegitimate children because Operation Delta~~

The crossed-out text is to be replaced due to poor-quality.