Admiral Halsey
Banned
I mean looking at it again just barely. They really need to be a different color.
The Union Forever: A TL
- Thread starter Mac Gregor
- Start date
On average, quite a bit darker - by about 20%. That is ye old TACOS color, if I remember correctly, as most of the map tends to be.
Shows up quite a bit different; could just need some contrast adjustments.
2022: Foreign and Domestic Developments
2022
Foreign and Domestic Developments
Various undersea mining machines used by Triton Limited
Various undersea mining machines used by Triton Limited
In January, the New Zealand firm Triton Limited commenced regular undersea mining operations in the Bonaparte Sea. Operating at a depth in excess of 1500 meters, Triton Limited suffered a number of initial setbacks. However, by the end of the year, it reaped commercially viable quantities of copper, gold, and sulfides. Triton Limited’s success sparked a rush, as other companies endeavored to break into this growing industry.
After nearly one and half decades of intermittent negotiations, Bahrain became the ninth member of the Union of Gulf Emirates on February 26. This ended over 150 years as a British protectorate. Bahraini Emir Sheikh Isa bin Muhammad Al Kahlifa flirted with complete independence but concerns about Persian aggression had caused him to seek safety in the UGE.
In March, tensions flared between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Romania. In Jassy, demonstrations sponsored by the populist government of Ilie Albescu, loudly called for greater autonomy of Romanian speakers in Russian Bessarabia. In retaliation, Russian Prime Minister Rafail Ivanov closed several border crossings across the Prut River, and deployed additional troops to the region. German Chancellor Boehler struggled to defuse the situation. While Boehler did not wish for a confrontation between the Association of European States and the Orthodox Council, the recent loss of the Netherlands made him hesitant to castigate an ally.
In the spring, the Commonwealth of Madras launched its first satellite using a solid fuel autophagy booster. By consuming the booster casing as additional fuel, the rocket was able to carry a heavier payload than more conventional launch systems. The manufacturer, Srinivas Astrodynamics, widely publicized this success, marketing itself as an inexpensive launch alternative.
American retailer Harley’s began allowing customers to purchase goods by automated checkout. Consumers select their items, and upon leaving the store are automatically scanned and charged. Without having to stop and empty their shopping carts or open their wallets, the system decreased wait times and improved customer satisfaction. Although Harley’s was forced to admit later that theft increased by 10% during their third quarter.
Having settled a long running border dispute with Guatemala the previous year, the Dominion of British Honduras gained full independence from the United Kingdom on June 2 as the Republic of Belize. The Belizean government of President Cole Bradley remained divided on whether to stay in the ComNat or join the LAR, as it weighed the benefits of each alliance.
The XXVII Summer Olympiad was held in Mexico City. President Adela Maricruz Casal presided over the opening ceremonies.
During autumn, the Chinese Directorate of Health announced a successful kidney transplant using gene editing. The designer organ, harvested from a pig, was grown to be compatible with the patient Fen Yashu. While some heralded the process as a medical breakthrough, others fretted that this was only the latest step in China’s reckless advance in genetic technology.
In October, the film Undaunted debuted to massive commercial success. Directed by H. Arthur Neal, it used revolutionary special effects for both the spaceship and Martian surface, seamless blending actors and props with computer generated images. The film would go on to break Sacred Honor's record for the most Griffith wins with twelve. Jason Shadle, who played Damian Graham, would accept his award alongside the famous astronaut the following year.
In the American midterm elections, Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2014. The Senate was effectively split down the middle, allowing Vice President Kuklinski to serve as the deciding vote. Most polls showed that concerns over the slowing economy, not foreign policy, motivated voters.
On November 20, troops from the Congo crossed the Lualaba River into the Independent Congolese Republic, under the guise of pursing ICR backed guerrillas. Léon Mihambo, who had succeeded his father Augustin as Congo’s leader earlier that year, sought to solidify his rule by military action. Invoking the collective defense clause of the Coalition for a Democratic Africa, ICR Premier Naasson Luneno called for aid. East African Prime Minister Wycliffe Ndugai was the first to declare war against Mihambo’s regime followed shortly thereafter by South Africa, Katanga, Gordonia, and Zambezia. In turn, Abyssinia, Umbangi, and Angola joined the fray on the All-African Alliance side, plunging the continent into war.
Troops of the All-African Alliance advance into the Independent Congolese Republic
December, 2022
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True. Probably this go very ugly, speciality if China is somehow involved. And there we might see first usage of nuclear weapons in warfare. This might go as costly as was Asian-Pacific War.
Profile: Jacobo Chavarria
This bio was written by me, with edits by Mac Gregor.
Jacobo Chavarria (1906-1961)
Jacobo Chavarria was born in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela on April 28, 1906. His parents were both of criollo families that had resided in Venezuela for several generations. His father Elian Chavarria (1877-1946) was a high ranking general in the Venezuelan Army and a staunch opponent of Venezuelan President Juan Vicente Gómez (1857-1935), as General Chavarria saw President Gómez as a symbol of leftist foreign influence over Venezuela. His mother Christina Chavarria née Herrera (1883-1939) was a local school teacher. His parents were of the upper class, and moved to Caracas in 1915 when the young Jacobo was only nine years-old. As a child, Jacobo was educated in numerous different boarding schools in Caracas. After reaching adulthood, he left Venezuela for Spain and was educated at the Complutense University of Madrid from 1924 to 1928. In Madrid, Chavarria became enamored with corporatism and became a close student of corporatist theorists such as the French theorist Edouard Desrochers (1882-1949) and the Bohemian theorist Jan Karel Blommaert (1890-1937). After his return to Venezuela, Chavarria joined the Venezuelan Army where he began to serve as an infantry officer. After twelve years in the Venezuelan Army, he was promoted to the rank of general in 1940 when he was only thirty-four years old, largely thanks to favoritism and his father’s connections with members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
After President Juan Vicente Gomez died in 1935, Venezuela elected the left-leaning President Augusto Perez (1879-1943). In 1942, Perez was succeeded by Roberto Varela (1889-1955) of the center-left Liberal People’s Party of Venezuela. General Jacobo Chavarria, an increasingly influential member of the armed forces, saw President Varela, who during the 1942 elections ran on a platform of improving relations with the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Brazil, as a puppet of foreign imperialists and a sellout against the Venezuelan people. In 1947, General Chavarria and other coconspirators in the Venezuelan Armed Forces began planning for a coup against President Varela. Finally, after two years of planning, on June 14, 1949, General Chavarria and his supporters launched a successful putsch and took control of the central government in Caracas. The overthrown President Varela fled by private plane to Santiago, Chile, where he lived until he died of a heart attack in 1955.
Although an admirer of the regimes of Elbio Paz Armenta (1892-1949) in Peru and Celso Serrano (1895-1949) in Bolivia, Chavarria declared that Venezuela would remain neutral in the Second Atacama War in the weeks after appointing himself President of Venezuela. However, Chavarria allowed for the establishment of a volunteer unit, the Bolivar Division, to be sent to fight in the Bolivian Army against the forces of the United States of America and its allies. Seeing considerable action during the war, after the armistice in December, 1949, the Bolivar Division was withdrawn back to Venezuela.
Throughout the 1950s, President Chavarria continued to cement his control over all elements of Venezuelan society. Before long, Chavarria and his government completely dominated the Venezuelan government and public institutions, and soon after had control over many aspects of everyday life. Chavarria also proved himself to be a ruthlessly efficient and harsh ruler. He brutally suppressed any form of descent and jailed numerous political dissidents, journalists, comedians, actors and intellectuals. In 1953, Chavarria merged several organizations into the Partido de Unidad Nacional Venezolana (PUNV) or the Venezuelan National Unity Party, cementing his complete and total control over Venezuela and officially turned Venezuela into a corporatist police state.
Throughout his presidency, the economy of Venezuela was stringently regulated for the benefit of the state, all trade unions were state owned, and Venezuela’s growing oil revenues were used to fund the rapid expansion of the military. While not as prominent as the buildup of the armed forces, Chavarria did make an appeal to the mostly impoverished mestizo and indigenous peoples of Venezuela, funding public works projects such as, roads, airports, factories, schools, orphanages, and numerous Roman Catholic institutions.
Starting in the early years of his presidency, Chavarria began a long and lasting friendship with Bolivar Division veteran Colonel Vicente Saturnino (1920-2002). In 1955, President Chavarria promoted his friend Saturnino to the rank of general. Saturnino quickly became Chavarria’s de-facto deputy, and was then groomed to be his successor as the president of corporatist Venezuela.
After almost twelve years in power, President Chavarria died in Caracas of cancer on May 27, 1961 at fifty-five years of age. His funeral was held in Caracas on June 12, 1961. After his funeral, Chavarria was buried in a large mausoleum outside of Caracas. After a brief power struggle in the Venezuelan government, General Saturnino was swiftly installed as the new president of Venezuela. While hailed by many Venezuelan right-wingers as a hero at the time, after the end of corporatism in Venezuela in 1979, Chavarria’s body was exhumed and his mausoleum demolished. With the consent of his closest living relatives, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered over Lake Maracaibo. Today, Chavarria is largely remembered for the brutality of his regime and for setting Venezuela on the path towards defeat in the Asia-Pacific War.
Jacobo Chavarria (1906-1961)
Jacobo Chavarria was born in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela on April 28, 1906. His parents were both of criollo families that had resided in Venezuela for several generations. His father Elian Chavarria (1877-1946) was a high ranking general in the Venezuelan Army and a staunch opponent of Venezuelan President Juan Vicente Gómez (1857-1935), as General Chavarria saw President Gómez as a symbol of leftist foreign influence over Venezuela. His mother Christina Chavarria née Herrera (1883-1939) was a local school teacher. His parents were of the upper class, and moved to Caracas in 1915 when the young Jacobo was only nine years-old. As a child, Jacobo was educated in numerous different boarding schools in Caracas. After reaching adulthood, he left Venezuela for Spain and was educated at the Complutense University of Madrid from 1924 to 1928. In Madrid, Chavarria became enamored with corporatism and became a close student of corporatist theorists such as the French theorist Edouard Desrochers (1882-1949) and the Bohemian theorist Jan Karel Blommaert (1890-1937). After his return to Venezuela, Chavarria joined the Venezuelan Army where he began to serve as an infantry officer. After twelve years in the Venezuelan Army, he was promoted to the rank of general in 1940 when he was only thirty-four years old, largely thanks to favoritism and his father’s connections with members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
After President Juan Vicente Gomez died in 1935, Venezuela elected the left-leaning President Augusto Perez (1879-1943). In 1942, Perez was succeeded by Roberto Varela (1889-1955) of the center-left Liberal People’s Party of Venezuela. General Jacobo Chavarria, an increasingly influential member of the armed forces, saw President Varela, who during the 1942 elections ran on a platform of improving relations with the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Brazil, as a puppet of foreign imperialists and a sellout against the Venezuelan people. In 1947, General Chavarria and other coconspirators in the Venezuelan Armed Forces began planning for a coup against President Varela. Finally, after two years of planning, on June 14, 1949, General Chavarria and his supporters launched a successful putsch and took control of the central government in Caracas. The overthrown President Varela fled by private plane to Santiago, Chile, where he lived until he died of a heart attack in 1955.
Although an admirer of the regimes of Elbio Paz Armenta (1892-1949) in Peru and Celso Serrano (1895-1949) in Bolivia, Chavarria declared that Venezuela would remain neutral in the Second Atacama War in the weeks after appointing himself President of Venezuela. However, Chavarria allowed for the establishment of a volunteer unit, the Bolivar Division, to be sent to fight in the Bolivian Army against the forces of the United States of America and its allies. Seeing considerable action during the war, after the armistice in December, 1949, the Bolivar Division was withdrawn back to Venezuela.
Throughout the 1950s, President Chavarria continued to cement his control over all elements of Venezuelan society. Before long, Chavarria and his government completely dominated the Venezuelan government and public institutions, and soon after had control over many aspects of everyday life. Chavarria also proved himself to be a ruthlessly efficient and harsh ruler. He brutally suppressed any form of descent and jailed numerous political dissidents, journalists, comedians, actors and intellectuals. In 1953, Chavarria merged several organizations into the Partido de Unidad Nacional Venezolana (PUNV) or the Venezuelan National Unity Party, cementing his complete and total control over Venezuela and officially turned Venezuela into a corporatist police state.
Throughout his presidency, the economy of Venezuela was stringently regulated for the benefit of the state, all trade unions were state owned, and Venezuela’s growing oil revenues were used to fund the rapid expansion of the military. While not as prominent as the buildup of the armed forces, Chavarria did make an appeal to the mostly impoverished mestizo and indigenous peoples of Venezuela, funding public works projects such as, roads, airports, factories, schools, orphanages, and numerous Roman Catholic institutions.
Starting in the early years of his presidency, Chavarria began a long and lasting friendship with Bolivar Division veteran Colonel Vicente Saturnino (1920-2002). In 1955, President Chavarria promoted his friend Saturnino to the rank of general. Saturnino quickly became Chavarria’s de-facto deputy, and was then groomed to be his successor as the president of corporatist Venezuela.
After almost twelve years in power, President Chavarria died in Caracas of cancer on May 27, 1961 at fifty-five years of age. His funeral was held in Caracas on June 12, 1961. After his funeral, Chavarria was buried in a large mausoleum outside of Caracas. After a brief power struggle in the Venezuelan government, General Saturnino was swiftly installed as the new president of Venezuela. While hailed by many Venezuelan right-wingers as a hero at the time, after the end of corporatism in Venezuela in 1979, Chavarria’s body was exhumed and his mausoleum demolished. With the consent of his closest living relatives, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered over Lake Maracaibo. Today, Chavarria is largely remembered for the brutality of his regime and for setting Venezuela on the path towards defeat in the Asia-Pacific War.
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Holy smokes! What an amazing timeline! I just finished reading the thread (or at least all of the MacGregor updates). Amazing work put in by all for YEARS!
I study and teach 18th and 19th-century history, and I'd be interested in contributing profiles here and there for folks who overlap the POD. Keep up the stunning work!
I study and teach 18th and 19th-century history, and I'd be interested in contributing profiles here and there for folks who overlap the POD. Keep up the stunning work!
Thanks for your support! I would love to see some more profiles. Send them to me in a PM. Cheers!
Culture: E Pluribus Unum Society
So I got kinda carried away with my first profile for this timeline. Here, with Mac Gregor's edits and blessing, is the E Pluribus Unum Society...
Historical Background
After the Civil War and nationwide emancipation of slaves, many of the antebellum social movements searched for ways to organize themselves and advocate for social change in the postbellum era. Movements that had been united by the anti-slavery issue found themselves at odds in the late 1860s and early 1870s, as activists split over differing priorities. As the last enslaved African-Americans were emancipated on New Year’s Day 1868, the dominant activist force in the North was the American Anti-Slavery Society. It found itself increasingly disunited as activists argued about whether to focus on political rights for Black Americans or for women. Some rejected the need for further activism at all with the stain slavery now eliminated. Eventually, three new organizations emerged out of the AASS.
The American Freedmen’s Foundation was created in 1865 by Lewis Tappan, Martin Delany, and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Its mission was to provide funding and support for freedmen moving to the west in the First Migration to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1865 as well as securing property for those who remained in the South.
The Society of American Patriotic Ladies was created in 1867 by the leading participants of the Seneca Falls and Worcester women’s rights conventions of 1848 and 1850. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony served as co-chairs of the society, which had a mission of providing more political rights and independence to American women, including financial emancipation, property rights, suffrage, and parental rights.
The National Association for Negro Advancement was founded in 1871 by Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison and marked their reconciliation from the antagonism between both men during the 1850s. Its mission was the advancement of political rights for African Americans across the United States.
Founding the Society
In the spring of 1876 representatives from a variety of social and political movements met in Rochester, New York to discuss a way to coordinate their efforts in the future. Activists at the Rochester Convention hammered out common goals and understandings. On May 11, 1876, the delegates signed a charter officially creating the E Pluribus Unum Society. According to their first publication, the Common Declaration of the Rights of People, the Society “makes our mission the tireless support and encouragement of our powerless, unfortunate, and dispirited compatriots,” and that “we will demonstrate to the nation and to the world that the union of our people is at its strongest when we mold ourselves into one out of the many.”
The E Pluribus Unum Society was designed to be an alliance of social movements rather than a replacement for them. A board of governors ran the Society and it was among the first national organizations to allow both interracial and mixed-sex leadership. Throughout the last third of the 19th-century the leadership of the Society read like a dramatis personae of antebellum activists; including the likes of Susan B. Anthony, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, William Lloyd Garrison, Thomas W. Higginson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, among others. In the 1880s, former president Abraham Lincoln was named the honorary head of the Society’s Board of Governors, Lincoln exchanged several letters with Society board members, which remain treasured artifacts of American post-war thinking.
The Early Years and First Wave Civil Rights (1876-1913)
The Society’s early work focused on expanding suffrage rights and education for all Americans. Many women’s and black colleges received support from the Society and many graduates became Society members. As the turn of the century approached, the Society increasingly also took on the cause of orphans, veterans, and the mentally ill. While the Society became well regarded in the Northeast and much of the West, it was often afforded pariah status in the former Confederacy. As such, in the late 19th centuries, the Society was generally associated with the Republican Party.
At the turn of the century, the Society began to make inroads across the nation regarding voting rights and ending legal discrimination by federal and state governments. One of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1900s, black Atlanta businessman George Washington Harley, became a leading member of the Society’s Board of Governors in 1904. Harley’s personal friendship with white Methodist preacher Reverend Samuel G. McGuffey turned Atlanta into a southern bastion of civil rights activism. Under Harley’s long stewardship, the Society became one of the major proponents of the 14th Amendment in 1905 and the 15th Amendment in 1913. The Society leveraged the patriotism of black soldiers returning from the Great War and women who flooded the workforce to keep America’s economy robust tipping the balance for passage and ratification. Many of George W. Harley’s innovative organizing tactics are still used today in Society training manuals.
The Post-War Years (1910-1940)
Following the Great War, the E Pluribus Unum Society increasingly looked beyond the United States. Coordinated by controversial businesswoman Victoria Woodhull, international chapters of the Society and affiliated pro-democracy organizations sprung up in Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, Rome, Budapest, and Prague during the 1910s and 1920s. These chapters often became affiliated, explicitly or otherwise, with liberal political parties and were typically led by local activists rather than Americans. The Society dedicated a portion of its proceeds to support the activities of their international chapters and affiliates. Unsurprisingly, the international chapters were frequently denounced by reactionary and authoritarian elements as tools of American influence. During the Red Terror in Hungary, the American liaison to the Budapest chapter of the Society, Rose Poliquin, was horrifically executed as a foreign agent by a Communist mob. In 1924, the Society began issuing the Poliquin Medal of Freedom to Society members who demonstrated dedication and sacrifice to the mission of the organization.
The Society was honored to have former president Robert Todd Lincoln served on the Board of Governors from 1916 until his death in 1926. Under RTL, the Society dedicated its resources to the enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments. While implementation went smoothly in most states, the Old South erected numerous legal barriers to full implementation, especially with regard to suffrage. In addition, racial segregation laws were strengthened after the war in response to the First Wave of the Civil Rights Movement.
In the 1920s and 1930s the E Pluribus Unum Society largely lost its supporters in the federal government, as segregationist Democrats and corrupt, risk-averse Republicans alternated power. Society members worked strenuously to make inroads with Democrats in Washington, but their labors produced little action to change the segregationist policies that ruled in the South and parts of the North. As the Second Migration of blacks out of the South began in the late-1910s, the Society poured resources into integration and cultural exchanges between Black Americans and the various white cultures in northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. State governments were lobbied to support inclusive job training and hiring practices for all working class job seekers. The Society was deeply divided on economic questions during this period. Some strongly favored advocating for improved conditions in factories and worker rights, while others feared that common cause with socialist or communist elements would undermine the Society’s effectiveness on other issues.
The Society also increased its outreach in the Caribbean. By the mid-1930s, an increasing proportion of new Society members hailed from the island region. One of the most well-known activists to come out of the Caribbean in this era was Thomas Reynoso from Santo Domingo. By 1940 the Havana and Santo Domingo Society chapters rivaled the New York City and Boston chapters in membership.
Second Wave Civil Rights (1940-1952)
In the 1940s the Society continued their strong focus on the segregationist policies in the South. In 1942 the Society’s national headquarters moved to Atlanta. In 1943 the Society was instrumental in organizing the conference which led to the October 19 Atlanta Declaration in the halls of the Atlanta Baptist Church. The following Sunday the white Reverend Zachary Templeton and black Reverend Carlton Robertson, both leaders of the local Society chapter, announced the permanent merger of their congregations. The Declaration was well received throughout the United States excluding the South, which in some states saw even harsher measures passed into law.
Throughout the 1940s the Society sponsored the so-called “Cry of Freedom Rides” in which activists from across the country converged on the South by ship, autobus, and train to participate in sit-ins, marches, and other forms of protest against the prevailing racist laws. Reynoso became one of the leading figureheads of this movement along with such famous names as Corinne Reid, Anthony Masterson, and Emma Mendes Stephen. Society organizers received plaudits for the protesters' universally peaceful actions, even in the face of very public acts of violence by local governments.
Upon the election of Georgia governor Leroy R. Conner as president, the Society found a staunch ally in the White House for the first time since Theodore Roosevelt nearly thirty years earlier. Conner had stunned southern politics when he endorsed the Atlanta Declaration and participated in Society-sponsored forums throughout his terms as governor. The Society had several members elected to the new Congress, among them the future political dynamos Emmanuel Crespedes (R-CU), Charles Francis Adams III (R-MA), and Wilmer Brown (R-NE).
After the Columbia, South Carolina race riot in 1950, the Society rapidly expanded around the nation. The Civil Rights Act of 1951 was viewed as a triumph for the Society, with the tireless efforts of activists and organizers as the driving force behind its passage. By 1952, Society chapters had organized in every state. Some states, like Massachusetts, New York, and California, each claimed over half a dozen chapters within their borders.
Decentralized Era (1952-1969)
Seeing themselves as largely victorious on the home front, the Society turned its attention to Latin America in the 1950s. E Pluribus Unum Society chapters popped up in Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires. Peru and Bolivia sought out the Society’s input as they rebuilt their governments in the aftermath of the South American War. Corporatist Venezuela was less receptive and banned Society outreach. The late ‘40s into the ‘50s also saw the Society lobbying the United Kingdom over the war in India, with Senator Adams declaring the United Kingdom “has let its imperial ambitions overshadow its long commitment to safeguarding the rights of the people. A people, currently denied a voice in their own governance, will surely react with revolution, as history has demonstrated time and again. It is long past the time for Britain to learn this lesson.” In the 1950s the Society worked strenuously to provide political and economic opportunities for Chinese refugees from Hainan, who had resettled by the tens of thousands across the Pacific and western states. Chih-Ping Soong became the first Chinese-American to serve on the Society’s Board of Governors in 1954.
The late 1950s through the early 1970s were trying for the E Pluribus Unum Society. As the Second Civil Rights Era successes faded, disagreements developed about what to focus on next. Factions increasingly developed within the organization and its affiliates. Internationalists wanted to push the Society’s efforts abroad to the next level, pushing pro-democracy, women’s rights, and racial equality across the globe, especially winding down colonialism in Africa and Asia. The internationalists were led by Bulloch “Bully” Roosevelt and Martin Del Rio. Domestic progressives saw new frontiers of social change that the Society could enter, including women’s health issues like birth control and abortion, the growing Uranian Movement which fought for recognition and freedoms for those attracted to the same-sex, and the rights and restoration of American Indians. They were themselves often divided against one another. Honora Weld, Theresa Rossi, Lily Foster, Iacobo Fernandez, Rona Heydinger, John Paul LeMay, Joseph Blackfeather, and Melody Niitouu were among the leadership of the different progressive factions. Other members supported a focus on reconciliation to solidify the gains made in the first half of the century by promoting anti-racist cultural exchanges within the United States. Gabrielle Appella, Arthur G. Wilson, and Shanaya Fontaine led this faction. This fracturing of affiliates led to this decentralized era for the Society. The Board of Governors produced few notable leaders as more single-issue-based organizations took the lead throughout the 1960s.
A New Mission (1969-1981)
1969 was a watershed year for the E Pluribus Unum Society. That year Martha B. Denger rose to prominence in the Society’s leadership. On September 24, Denger released The Moral Prerogative, a treatise and guiding principle for the E Pluribus Unum Society moving into the 1970s. The Moral Prerogative reframed the mission of the Society by clearly linking its founding Common Declaration with the burgeoning Religious Left movement. This linkage more explicitly brought the Society into left-wing economic politics, a realm it had previously avoided taking much of an advocacy role. Under Denger’s stewardship, the Society pushed policies promoting economic justice, not merely political access. While this change in focus was applauded in some quarters, it proved to be highly controversial. Many traditional elements of the Society’s membership were linked to more economically conservative elements in the business community, some of whom were alienated by Denger’s rhetoric against “the injustices of unfettered capitalism.” Denger pointed to the Society’s early work furthering education, helping widows, orphans, and the mentally ill as clear evidence for the path forward.
In 1972, one of Denger’s allies in Congress, Senator Rupert Stubbs (D-UT), was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic Party. His signature issue was a labor and business reform package that would require labor representation on corporate boards, sectoral bargaining, and shared security accounts. Although Stubbs lost the election, Denger used the campaign to introduce the new face of the Society to Americans. The campaign also marked the first time the Society had campaigned on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket.
Another effect of Denger’s ascendency was the fracture of the progressive faction from the Society. While Denger embraced the internationalist and reconciliation factions, many socially progressive movements ran afoul of Denger’s moral scruples. “The family is the core of our union,” she said. “The surest way to build up those who are most in need is to strengthen families so that each generation grows up on stronger footing than their parents.” This platform involved limiting abortion and a general rejection of nonconformist sexual orientations, such as homosexuals. Some organizations that split from the Society in the early 70s include the Women’s Action League (1969), the Pink Wave (1970), and the Uranian Association of the Americas (1970).
Despite the loss of the more socially radical progressive factions, the Society continued to have a preeminent role in activist culture. While relations between Denger and President Sterling Gavin were relatively frosty, progress was made in the push for a family leave policy. The Society campaigned hard for the historic candidacy of Margaret L. Stewart (D-CA) in the presidential campaign of 1976. Stewart’s Forward Together campaign borrowed extensively from the Society’s platform. After her election, Stewart heaped praise on the organizational efforts of Martha Denger and the Society and pledged to be “a partner and friend” to the Society and its initiatives.
Stewart’s words were not empty. Even in the face of mounting foreign challenges President Stewart opened up her term with a massive push on infrastructure projects and economic reform in her first 100 days in 1977. Senators Stubbs and Skyler Almassy (R-IL) worked to build a bipartisan coalition in support of the Forward Together initiative. The Society’s Legislative Director Roberta Spencer lobbied Congress furiously, organizing chapters nationwide to get lawmakers from both parties to commit to the final policy package. The Economic Recovery and Reform Act (ERRA) was signed by President Stewart on May 26, 1977. This massive legislative package accomplished an enormous amount, including a number of priorities of Denger, the Society, and the Religious Left, including paid family and medical leave, corporate board reform, sectoral labor bargaining, shared security accounts, grants for school and hospital repairs and construction, and job training programs for displaced workers. Upon the passage of the ERRA, the Society notched another win on their belt for “American unity and progress,” as Denger put it in her farewell address.
The Society largely backed the administration during the Asia-Pacific War but pushed for greater refugee aid and anti-imperialist policies. As the 1970s turned into the ‘80s, the E Pluribus Unum Society shifted its focus again, this time led by the internationalists.
Defenders of Democracy (1981-1995)
In the early 1980s, the global order underwent a series of shifts. With the Technate of China increasingly flexing its muscles in Asia, popular rebellions against the monarchies in Iberia, and the gradual decolonization of Africa, the perception in the United States was that global democracy faced a crossroad. As Archibald Roosevelt declared at the Society’s Global Conference in San Juan in November 1984, “we stand at a moment in time in which the forces of democracy have dozens of bright paths upon which to travel. Should we fail to follow these paths to glory, we can be assured that our adversaries will eagerly cast these paths into darkness.”
With his rousing oratory, Roosevelt led the charge for the Society to embrace a more international role in pro-democracy advocacy. Chapters were opened across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and independent Africa, with the stated aim of developing democratic culture and institutions, fostering political equality, and fighting the corruption that made developing countries vulnerable to anti-democratic forces. Following the Iberian conflicts, the Society established a presence in both Portugal and mainland Spain to prevent both countries from backsliding into autocracy. The Society had mixed results and their resources were spread increasingly thin by the late 1980s. Portugal’s former colonies in Africa proved to be perplexing challenges for democracy-building. Likewise, Society efforts in Commonwealth nations in Africa were met with cool responses, as governments hampered Society operations. Iberia was seen as a relative success in comparison, but Asia proved to be the crown jewel of the Society’s foreign campaigns. With the growing threat of China and its satellites, the Society helped Burma, Siam, Malaya, and Japan design cultural and institutional bulwarks against technocratic aggression. In Japan, in particular, the Society was credited for the growing support for democracy throughout the 1980s.
Alongside Archibald Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln IV rose into prominence in the 1980s in both US politics and the Society’s Board of Governors. While the tag-team of a Roosevelt and a Lincoln was beloved by the news media, critics in the Society’s left-wing viewed the leadership as hawkish and anachronistic. Technocracy was frequently cast as a global bogeyman and the rhetoric employed by the Society throughout the 80s and 90s was surprisingly harsh for a non-violent organization. The Board of Governors was accused of sidelining prominent female voices like Shanaya Fontaine and Georgia Westwood, who wanted to keep the Society in a more explicitly pacifist role, focused more on building on successes in the United States rather than “missionary work across the tumultuous world,” in the words of Westwood. Contrary to the critics, Fontaine, Westwood, and their allies were important contributors to the 1994 establishment of Democracy Day as a federal holiday, making the act of voting more convenient to millions of American voters.
The internationalist faction hit several stumbling blocks in the mid-’90s. First, in 1993 the conservative Motherland Party of the Imperial Eurasian Federation banned E Pluribus Unum Society chapters within the federation. Chapters in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Warsaw, Helsinki, and Tallinn were raided by federal police and shut down. Society Director for Eurasia Kasper Zajak was jailed in Krakow for trumped up charges of “disturbing the peace”. Zajak was awarded the 1994 Poliquin Medal of Freedom in absentia by the Board of Governors. In spite of overtures made by the Society, the United States, and the League of American Republics, the IEF refused to release Zajak. The IEF crackdown on the Society’s pro-democracy, and allegedly pro-separatist activities in Eurasia led the other countries in Orthodox Council to shutter Society chapters, greatly weakening the Society’s activity in the least democratic areas of Europe.
More damaging to the Society’s international involvement was the Stoler Arms Scandal. In December of 1994, the regional Society Director of Bangkok, Joshua Stoler, was revealed to have assisted gun-runners for the Commonwealth, smuggling arms to groups fighting against the Technocratic Union in northern Siam and Burma. Stoler had been a rising star within the Society’s internationalist wing and was sent to Southeast Asia with much fanfare as “the vanguard of democracy.” While no governors of the Society were implicated in the scheme, the reputation of the internationalists was sullied by the knowledge that the non-violent tenets of both the Common Declaration and the Moral Prerogative had been compromised. In 1995 the internationalists lost their control of the Board of Governors, with the liberal faction of Morgan Guzman seizing the reins of the Society.
The Liberal Order (1995-Present)
The liberal takeover readjusted the outlook of the E Pluribus Unum Society as the new millennium approached. The focus went from aggressive advocacy of democracy around the world to advocating for the rights of people to live in accordance with their conscience free from intervention from government manipulation. Guzman did avoid completely retrenching the Society from foreign engagement. The release of Kasper Zajak remained a top priority for the Society, and publicity efforts had led to varying levels of unrest across the western regions of the IEF, especially in Poland, Ukraine, and Finland. Ultimately, in 1996 Zajak was released from custody, stripped of his citizenship, and deported to the United States. Zajak was hailed a hero for Polish self-determination upon his arrival to Society headquarters in Atlanta.
In addition to the recovery of Zajak, Guzman increasingly turned the Society’s muscle towards the plight of American Indians. Cherokee leader and Society Governor Frank Semissee had been a student of Joseph Blackfeather and took the lead in the 1990s campaign to remove federal oversight of native peoples, repeal laws suppressing native language, culture, and self-determination. Guzman and Semisee highlighted sympathetic native stories in the mass media. In June 1999 Congress passed the American Indian Liberty Act and President Franklin M. Blanton signed the measure stating that it “heralds a new era for the relationship between American natives and the United States government.”
Guzman also turned attention back toward cultural progressives. She had seen for years that the rejection of the feminist and uranian factions of social activism in the late 20th-century had driven those movements into the arms of technocratic parties. Guzman was determined to leverage the clout of the Society to highlight the differences between an individual women’s right to regulate her own body and the government eugenics-based abortions in the Technocratic Union. For the first time, the Society lobbied state governments to relax their abortion laws. Gifted orators and debaters like Jean Kowalski and Hanna Singh led the public relations and lobbying efforts. By 2007 twenty-three states had, in one way or another, liberalized their abortion laws.
The liberals also emphasized the implicit liberty of uranians to follow their hearts to loving relationships within the construction of the American family. While the liberals stopped short of endorsing the radical “free love” movement, their very public campaign in the early 2000s opened the door to a gradual sea change in American attitudes toward uranian love. The Society made history by electing John Paul LeMay, longtime leader of the Uranian Association to the Board of Governors in 2003. As with abortion, the Society’s clout was instrumental in mainstreaming the uranian rights movement. By 2015 fifteen states recognized same-sex relationships and the Supreme Court ruled 8-3 in Gadsby vs Alabama (2012) that the criminalization of homosexual conduct was unconstitutional.
Events abroad continued to draw the Society’s attention across the ocean. The outbreak of the IEF Civil War in 2001 could not escape comment by the Society. While the Society reluctantly followed the directive of the federal government and refused to favor the Reformers or the Conservatives in the conflict, Guzman jumped on the opportunity to reestablish the Society’s presence in the newly independent states of Finland, Poland, and the Baltic. Kasper Zajak was repatriated to Poland where he led the Democracy First movement in eastern Europe throughout the 2000s. The Society used its network of global chapters to help coordinate the international response to the millions of refugees fleeing the violence in Eurasia. At the end of the war, it was instrumental in the resettlement process for over a million displaced Ukrainians, Reformist Russians, and others.
Additionally, the Society hosted the Dutch evangelist reformer Arend Beulens at the Global Faith Conference in Seattle in 2006. While Beulens never formally became a member of the Society, his Rainbow Revival movement shared several goals that the Society held for the globe, even as he emphasized liberal Christianity more than the modern Society, which by the late 2000s was deliberately non-denominational. The amity between Beulens and the Society led to new tensions between German chapters of the Society and the conservative elements in the Reich.
When Guzman retired in 2013 the stewardship of the Society fell to Alexander Graziani. Graziani had strongly supported the liberal order established by Guzman over nearly two decades. Under Graziani, the Society became a sponsor of the annual International Ecoist Convention, where it sits firmly in the liberal wing of the fractious ecoist movement. Graziani has become a strong force lobbying the US government on “green” initiatives, saying at the 2017 Ecoist Convention in Brussels, “the cause of liberty and freedom for humanity dies with the death of our planet. Over 140 years ago, the E Pluribus Unum Society was founded on the principle that we can become one out of many, but our forebears could hardly imagine the challenges that our own progress towards that goal would create. For the last century, we have proven that humanity, whether free or oppressed has the capacity to destroy our world. We must now prove that we can save it.” Graziani’s focus on environmental issues has generated criticism from numerous quarters that think that he is leading the Society far from its original mandate.
The 2022 outbreak of war in Africa has led the Society to galvanize its global network to pressure governments to prepare for a wave of refugees fleeing the fighting. Nora Vanderwaal the Society Director for Sub-Saharan Africa was forced to evacuate Society organizers from a number of All-African Alliance nations. Other recent developments include the Society Director for Germany Ernst Boehm’s overtures in Berlin to diffuse the simmering tensions with the Dutch Republic.
Society Headquarters
The headquarters of the E Pluribus Unum Society resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Recently rebuilt in 2008, the Society Headquarters is a major attraction for visitors to the “Capital of the South.” The famous statues of G. W. Harley and Rev. McGuffey welcome visitors to the adjacent Society Museum of the American People. Cast in bronze in 1958, their inward hands are joined over their heads as they gaze up at an obelisk on which is engraved the Battle Cry of Freedom, excerpts of the Declaration of Independence, the Common Declaration, and the Atlanta Declaration. Since its grand reopening in 2012, the Society Museum has expanded on its reputation as an equal partner to any of the Smithsonian National Museums. Through its origins, struggles, triumphs, and controversies, the E Pluribus Unum Society will undoubtedly remain an important player for human rights and democracy on the global scene for years to come.
The E Pluribus Unum Society
The E Pluribus Unum Society was founded during the Reconciliation Era and has since grown into one of the world’s premier human rights and pro-democracy organizations.
Historical Background
After the Civil War and nationwide emancipation of slaves, many of the antebellum social movements searched for ways to organize themselves and advocate for social change in the postbellum era. Movements that had been united by the anti-slavery issue found themselves at odds in the late 1860s and early 1870s, as activists split over differing priorities. As the last enslaved African-Americans were emancipated on New Year’s Day 1868, the dominant activist force in the North was the American Anti-Slavery Society. It found itself increasingly disunited as activists argued about whether to focus on political rights for Black Americans or for women. Some rejected the need for further activism at all with the stain slavery now eliminated. Eventually, three new organizations emerged out of the AASS.
The American Freedmen’s Foundation was created in 1865 by Lewis Tappan, Martin Delany, and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Its mission was to provide funding and support for freedmen moving to the west in the First Migration to take advantage of the Homestead Act of 1865 as well as securing property for those who remained in the South.
The Society of American Patriotic Ladies was created in 1867 by the leading participants of the Seneca Falls and Worcester women’s rights conventions of 1848 and 1850. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and Susan B. Anthony served as co-chairs of the society, which had a mission of providing more political rights and independence to American women, including financial emancipation, property rights, suffrage, and parental rights.
The National Association for Negro Advancement was founded in 1871 by Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison and marked their reconciliation from the antagonism between both men during the 1850s. Its mission was the advancement of political rights for African Americans across the United States.
Founding the Society
In the spring of 1876 representatives from a variety of social and political movements met in Rochester, New York to discuss a way to coordinate their efforts in the future. Activists at the Rochester Convention hammered out common goals and understandings. On May 11, 1876, the delegates signed a charter officially creating the E Pluribus Unum Society. According to their first publication, the Common Declaration of the Rights of People, the Society “makes our mission the tireless support and encouragement of our powerless, unfortunate, and dispirited compatriots,” and that “we will demonstrate to the nation and to the world that the union of our people is at its strongest when we mold ourselves into one out of the many.”
The E Pluribus Unum Society was designed to be an alliance of social movements rather than a replacement for them. A board of governors ran the Society and it was among the first national organizations to allow both interracial and mixed-sex leadership. Throughout the last third of the 19th-century the leadership of the Society read like a dramatis personae of antebellum activists; including the likes of Susan B. Anthony, William Wells Brown, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, William Lloyd Garrison, Thomas W. Higginson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, among others. In the 1880s, former president Abraham Lincoln was named the honorary head of the Society’s Board of Governors, Lincoln exchanged several letters with Society board members, which remain treasured artifacts of American post-war thinking.
The Early Years and First Wave Civil Rights (1876-1913)
The Society’s early work focused on expanding suffrage rights and education for all Americans. Many women’s and black colleges received support from the Society and many graduates became Society members. As the turn of the century approached, the Society increasingly also took on the cause of orphans, veterans, and the mentally ill. While the Society became well regarded in the Northeast and much of the West, it was often afforded pariah status in the former Confederacy. As such, in the late 19th centuries, the Society was generally associated with the Republican Party.
At the turn of the century, the Society began to make inroads across the nation regarding voting rights and ending legal discrimination by federal and state governments. One of the leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement of the early 1900s, black Atlanta businessman George Washington Harley, became a leading member of the Society’s Board of Governors in 1904. Harley’s personal friendship with white Methodist preacher Reverend Samuel G. McGuffey turned Atlanta into a southern bastion of civil rights activism. Under Harley’s long stewardship, the Society became one of the major proponents of the 14th Amendment in 1905 and the 15th Amendment in 1913. The Society leveraged the patriotism of black soldiers returning from the Great War and women who flooded the workforce to keep America’s economy robust tipping the balance for passage and ratification. Many of George W. Harley’s innovative organizing tactics are still used today in Society training manuals.
The Post-War Years (1910-1940)
Following the Great War, the E Pluribus Unum Society increasingly looked beyond the United States. Coordinated by controversial businesswoman Victoria Woodhull, international chapters of the Society and affiliated pro-democracy organizations sprung up in Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, Rome, Budapest, and Prague during the 1910s and 1920s. These chapters often became affiliated, explicitly or otherwise, with liberal political parties and were typically led by local activists rather than Americans. The Society dedicated a portion of its proceeds to support the activities of their international chapters and affiliates. Unsurprisingly, the international chapters were frequently denounced by reactionary and authoritarian elements as tools of American influence. During the Red Terror in Hungary, the American liaison to the Budapest chapter of the Society, Rose Poliquin, was horrifically executed as a foreign agent by a Communist mob. In 1924, the Society began issuing the Poliquin Medal of Freedom to Society members who demonstrated dedication and sacrifice to the mission of the organization.
The Society was honored to have former president Robert Todd Lincoln served on the Board of Governors from 1916 until his death in 1926. Under RTL, the Society dedicated its resources to the enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments. While implementation went smoothly in most states, the Old South erected numerous legal barriers to full implementation, especially with regard to suffrage. In addition, racial segregation laws were strengthened after the war in response to the First Wave of the Civil Rights Movement.
In the 1920s and 1930s the E Pluribus Unum Society largely lost its supporters in the federal government, as segregationist Democrats and corrupt, risk-averse Republicans alternated power. Society members worked strenuously to make inroads with Democrats in Washington, but their labors produced little action to change the segregationist policies that ruled in the South and parts of the North. As the Second Migration of blacks out of the South began in the late-1910s, the Society poured resources into integration and cultural exchanges between Black Americans and the various white cultures in northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. State governments were lobbied to support inclusive job training and hiring practices for all working class job seekers. The Society was deeply divided on economic questions during this period. Some strongly favored advocating for improved conditions in factories and worker rights, while others feared that common cause with socialist or communist elements would undermine the Society’s effectiveness on other issues.
The Society also increased its outreach in the Caribbean. By the mid-1930s, an increasing proportion of new Society members hailed from the island region. One of the most well-known activists to come out of the Caribbean in this era was Thomas Reynoso from Santo Domingo. By 1940 the Havana and Santo Domingo Society chapters rivaled the New York City and Boston chapters in membership.
Second Wave Civil Rights (1940-1952)
In the 1940s the Society continued their strong focus on the segregationist policies in the South. In 1942 the Society’s national headquarters moved to Atlanta. In 1943 the Society was instrumental in organizing the conference which led to the October 19 Atlanta Declaration in the halls of the Atlanta Baptist Church. The following Sunday the white Reverend Zachary Templeton and black Reverend Carlton Robertson, both leaders of the local Society chapter, announced the permanent merger of their congregations. The Declaration was well received throughout the United States excluding the South, which in some states saw even harsher measures passed into law.
Throughout the 1940s the Society sponsored the so-called “Cry of Freedom Rides” in which activists from across the country converged on the South by ship, autobus, and train to participate in sit-ins, marches, and other forms of protest against the prevailing racist laws. Reynoso became one of the leading figureheads of this movement along with such famous names as Corinne Reid, Anthony Masterson, and Emma Mendes Stephen. Society organizers received plaudits for the protesters' universally peaceful actions, even in the face of very public acts of violence by local governments.
Upon the election of Georgia governor Leroy R. Conner as president, the Society found a staunch ally in the White House for the first time since Theodore Roosevelt nearly thirty years earlier. Conner had stunned southern politics when he endorsed the Atlanta Declaration and participated in Society-sponsored forums throughout his terms as governor. The Society had several members elected to the new Congress, among them the future political dynamos Emmanuel Crespedes (R-CU), Charles Francis Adams III (R-MA), and Wilmer Brown (R-NE).
After the Columbia, South Carolina race riot in 1950, the Society rapidly expanded around the nation. The Civil Rights Act of 1951 was viewed as a triumph for the Society, with the tireless efforts of activists and organizers as the driving force behind its passage. By 1952, Society chapters had organized in every state. Some states, like Massachusetts, New York, and California, each claimed over half a dozen chapters within their borders.
Decentralized Era (1952-1969)
Seeing themselves as largely victorious on the home front, the Society turned its attention to Latin America in the 1950s. E Pluribus Unum Society chapters popped up in Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires. Peru and Bolivia sought out the Society’s input as they rebuilt their governments in the aftermath of the South American War. Corporatist Venezuela was less receptive and banned Society outreach. The late ‘40s into the ‘50s also saw the Society lobbying the United Kingdom over the war in India, with Senator Adams declaring the United Kingdom “has let its imperial ambitions overshadow its long commitment to safeguarding the rights of the people. A people, currently denied a voice in their own governance, will surely react with revolution, as history has demonstrated time and again. It is long past the time for Britain to learn this lesson.” In the 1950s the Society worked strenuously to provide political and economic opportunities for Chinese refugees from Hainan, who had resettled by the tens of thousands across the Pacific and western states. Chih-Ping Soong became the first Chinese-American to serve on the Society’s Board of Governors in 1954.
The late 1950s through the early 1970s were trying for the E Pluribus Unum Society. As the Second Civil Rights Era successes faded, disagreements developed about what to focus on next. Factions increasingly developed within the organization and its affiliates. Internationalists wanted to push the Society’s efforts abroad to the next level, pushing pro-democracy, women’s rights, and racial equality across the globe, especially winding down colonialism in Africa and Asia. The internationalists were led by Bulloch “Bully” Roosevelt and Martin Del Rio. Domestic progressives saw new frontiers of social change that the Society could enter, including women’s health issues like birth control and abortion, the growing Uranian Movement which fought for recognition and freedoms for those attracted to the same-sex, and the rights and restoration of American Indians. They were themselves often divided against one another. Honora Weld, Theresa Rossi, Lily Foster, Iacobo Fernandez, Rona Heydinger, John Paul LeMay, Joseph Blackfeather, and Melody Niitouu were among the leadership of the different progressive factions. Other members supported a focus on reconciliation to solidify the gains made in the first half of the century by promoting anti-racist cultural exchanges within the United States. Gabrielle Appella, Arthur G. Wilson, and Shanaya Fontaine led this faction. This fracturing of affiliates led to this decentralized era for the Society. The Board of Governors produced few notable leaders as more single-issue-based organizations took the lead throughout the 1960s.
A New Mission (1969-1981)
1969 was a watershed year for the E Pluribus Unum Society. That year Martha B. Denger rose to prominence in the Society’s leadership. On September 24, Denger released The Moral Prerogative, a treatise and guiding principle for the E Pluribus Unum Society moving into the 1970s. The Moral Prerogative reframed the mission of the Society by clearly linking its founding Common Declaration with the burgeoning Religious Left movement. This linkage more explicitly brought the Society into left-wing economic politics, a realm it had previously avoided taking much of an advocacy role. Under Denger’s stewardship, the Society pushed policies promoting economic justice, not merely political access. While this change in focus was applauded in some quarters, it proved to be highly controversial. Many traditional elements of the Society’s membership were linked to more economically conservative elements in the business community, some of whom were alienated by Denger’s rhetoric against “the injustices of unfettered capitalism.” Denger pointed to the Society’s early work furthering education, helping widows, orphans, and the mentally ill as clear evidence for the path forward.
In 1972, one of Denger’s allies in Congress, Senator Rupert Stubbs (D-UT), was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic Party. His signature issue was a labor and business reform package that would require labor representation on corporate boards, sectoral bargaining, and shared security accounts. Although Stubbs lost the election, Denger used the campaign to introduce the new face of the Society to Americans. The campaign also marked the first time the Society had campaigned on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket.
Another effect of Denger’s ascendency was the fracture of the progressive faction from the Society. While Denger embraced the internationalist and reconciliation factions, many socially progressive movements ran afoul of Denger’s moral scruples. “The family is the core of our union,” she said. “The surest way to build up those who are most in need is to strengthen families so that each generation grows up on stronger footing than their parents.” This platform involved limiting abortion and a general rejection of nonconformist sexual orientations, such as homosexuals. Some organizations that split from the Society in the early 70s include the Women’s Action League (1969), the Pink Wave (1970), and the Uranian Association of the Americas (1970).
Despite the loss of the more socially radical progressive factions, the Society continued to have a preeminent role in activist culture. While relations between Denger and President Sterling Gavin were relatively frosty, progress was made in the push for a family leave policy. The Society campaigned hard for the historic candidacy of Margaret L. Stewart (D-CA) in the presidential campaign of 1976. Stewart’s Forward Together campaign borrowed extensively from the Society’s platform. After her election, Stewart heaped praise on the organizational efforts of Martha Denger and the Society and pledged to be “a partner and friend” to the Society and its initiatives.
Stewart’s words were not empty. Even in the face of mounting foreign challenges President Stewart opened up her term with a massive push on infrastructure projects and economic reform in her first 100 days in 1977. Senators Stubbs and Skyler Almassy (R-IL) worked to build a bipartisan coalition in support of the Forward Together initiative. The Society’s Legislative Director Roberta Spencer lobbied Congress furiously, organizing chapters nationwide to get lawmakers from both parties to commit to the final policy package. The Economic Recovery and Reform Act (ERRA) was signed by President Stewart on May 26, 1977. This massive legislative package accomplished an enormous amount, including a number of priorities of Denger, the Society, and the Religious Left, including paid family and medical leave, corporate board reform, sectoral labor bargaining, shared security accounts, grants for school and hospital repairs and construction, and job training programs for displaced workers. Upon the passage of the ERRA, the Society notched another win on their belt for “American unity and progress,” as Denger put it in her farewell address.
The Society largely backed the administration during the Asia-Pacific War but pushed for greater refugee aid and anti-imperialist policies. As the 1970s turned into the ‘80s, the E Pluribus Unum Society shifted its focus again, this time led by the internationalists.
Defenders of Democracy (1981-1995)
In the early 1980s, the global order underwent a series of shifts. With the Technate of China increasingly flexing its muscles in Asia, popular rebellions against the monarchies in Iberia, and the gradual decolonization of Africa, the perception in the United States was that global democracy faced a crossroad. As Archibald Roosevelt declared at the Society’s Global Conference in San Juan in November 1984, “we stand at a moment in time in which the forces of democracy have dozens of bright paths upon which to travel. Should we fail to follow these paths to glory, we can be assured that our adversaries will eagerly cast these paths into darkness.”
With his rousing oratory, Roosevelt led the charge for the Society to embrace a more international role in pro-democracy advocacy. Chapters were opened across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and independent Africa, with the stated aim of developing democratic culture and institutions, fostering political equality, and fighting the corruption that made developing countries vulnerable to anti-democratic forces. Following the Iberian conflicts, the Society established a presence in both Portugal and mainland Spain to prevent both countries from backsliding into autocracy. The Society had mixed results and their resources were spread increasingly thin by the late 1980s. Portugal’s former colonies in Africa proved to be perplexing challenges for democracy-building. Likewise, Society efforts in Commonwealth nations in Africa were met with cool responses, as governments hampered Society operations. Iberia was seen as a relative success in comparison, but Asia proved to be the crown jewel of the Society’s foreign campaigns. With the growing threat of China and its satellites, the Society helped Burma, Siam, Malaya, and Japan design cultural and institutional bulwarks against technocratic aggression. In Japan, in particular, the Society was credited for the growing support for democracy throughout the 1980s.
Alongside Archibald Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln IV rose into prominence in the 1980s in both US politics and the Society’s Board of Governors. While the tag-team of a Roosevelt and a Lincoln was beloved by the news media, critics in the Society’s left-wing viewed the leadership as hawkish and anachronistic. Technocracy was frequently cast as a global bogeyman and the rhetoric employed by the Society throughout the 80s and 90s was surprisingly harsh for a non-violent organization. The Board of Governors was accused of sidelining prominent female voices like Shanaya Fontaine and Georgia Westwood, who wanted to keep the Society in a more explicitly pacifist role, focused more on building on successes in the United States rather than “missionary work across the tumultuous world,” in the words of Westwood. Contrary to the critics, Fontaine, Westwood, and their allies were important contributors to the 1994 establishment of Democracy Day as a federal holiday, making the act of voting more convenient to millions of American voters.
The internationalist faction hit several stumbling blocks in the mid-’90s. First, in 1993 the conservative Motherland Party of the Imperial Eurasian Federation banned E Pluribus Unum Society chapters within the federation. Chapters in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Warsaw, Helsinki, and Tallinn were raided by federal police and shut down. Society Director for Eurasia Kasper Zajak was jailed in Krakow for trumped up charges of “disturbing the peace”. Zajak was awarded the 1994 Poliquin Medal of Freedom in absentia by the Board of Governors. In spite of overtures made by the Society, the United States, and the League of American Republics, the IEF refused to release Zajak. The IEF crackdown on the Society’s pro-democracy, and allegedly pro-separatist activities in Eurasia led the other countries in Orthodox Council to shutter Society chapters, greatly weakening the Society’s activity in the least democratic areas of Europe.
More damaging to the Society’s international involvement was the Stoler Arms Scandal. In December of 1994, the regional Society Director of Bangkok, Joshua Stoler, was revealed to have assisted gun-runners for the Commonwealth, smuggling arms to groups fighting against the Technocratic Union in northern Siam and Burma. Stoler had been a rising star within the Society’s internationalist wing and was sent to Southeast Asia with much fanfare as “the vanguard of democracy.” While no governors of the Society were implicated in the scheme, the reputation of the internationalists was sullied by the knowledge that the non-violent tenets of both the Common Declaration and the Moral Prerogative had been compromised. In 1995 the internationalists lost their control of the Board of Governors, with the liberal faction of Morgan Guzman seizing the reins of the Society.
The Liberal Order (1995-Present)
The liberal takeover readjusted the outlook of the E Pluribus Unum Society as the new millennium approached. The focus went from aggressive advocacy of democracy around the world to advocating for the rights of people to live in accordance with their conscience free from intervention from government manipulation. Guzman did avoid completely retrenching the Society from foreign engagement. The release of Kasper Zajak remained a top priority for the Society, and publicity efforts had led to varying levels of unrest across the western regions of the IEF, especially in Poland, Ukraine, and Finland. Ultimately, in 1996 Zajak was released from custody, stripped of his citizenship, and deported to the United States. Zajak was hailed a hero for Polish self-determination upon his arrival to Society headquarters in Atlanta.
In addition to the recovery of Zajak, Guzman increasingly turned the Society’s muscle towards the plight of American Indians. Cherokee leader and Society Governor Frank Semissee had been a student of Joseph Blackfeather and took the lead in the 1990s campaign to remove federal oversight of native peoples, repeal laws suppressing native language, culture, and self-determination. Guzman and Semisee highlighted sympathetic native stories in the mass media. In June 1999 Congress passed the American Indian Liberty Act and President Franklin M. Blanton signed the measure stating that it “heralds a new era for the relationship between American natives and the United States government.”
Guzman also turned attention back toward cultural progressives. She had seen for years that the rejection of the feminist and uranian factions of social activism in the late 20th-century had driven those movements into the arms of technocratic parties. Guzman was determined to leverage the clout of the Society to highlight the differences between an individual women’s right to regulate her own body and the government eugenics-based abortions in the Technocratic Union. For the first time, the Society lobbied state governments to relax their abortion laws. Gifted orators and debaters like Jean Kowalski and Hanna Singh led the public relations and lobbying efforts. By 2007 twenty-three states had, in one way or another, liberalized their abortion laws.
The liberals also emphasized the implicit liberty of uranians to follow their hearts to loving relationships within the construction of the American family. While the liberals stopped short of endorsing the radical “free love” movement, their very public campaign in the early 2000s opened the door to a gradual sea change in American attitudes toward uranian love. The Society made history by electing John Paul LeMay, longtime leader of the Uranian Association to the Board of Governors in 2003. As with abortion, the Society’s clout was instrumental in mainstreaming the uranian rights movement. By 2015 fifteen states recognized same-sex relationships and the Supreme Court ruled 8-3 in Gadsby vs Alabama (2012) that the criminalization of homosexual conduct was unconstitutional.
Events abroad continued to draw the Society’s attention across the ocean. The outbreak of the IEF Civil War in 2001 could not escape comment by the Society. While the Society reluctantly followed the directive of the federal government and refused to favor the Reformers or the Conservatives in the conflict, Guzman jumped on the opportunity to reestablish the Society’s presence in the newly independent states of Finland, Poland, and the Baltic. Kasper Zajak was repatriated to Poland where he led the Democracy First movement in eastern Europe throughout the 2000s. The Society used its network of global chapters to help coordinate the international response to the millions of refugees fleeing the violence in Eurasia. At the end of the war, it was instrumental in the resettlement process for over a million displaced Ukrainians, Reformist Russians, and others.
Additionally, the Society hosted the Dutch evangelist reformer Arend Beulens at the Global Faith Conference in Seattle in 2006. While Beulens never formally became a member of the Society, his Rainbow Revival movement shared several goals that the Society held for the globe, even as he emphasized liberal Christianity more than the modern Society, which by the late 2000s was deliberately non-denominational. The amity between Beulens and the Society led to new tensions between German chapters of the Society and the conservative elements in the Reich.
When Guzman retired in 2013 the stewardship of the Society fell to Alexander Graziani. Graziani had strongly supported the liberal order established by Guzman over nearly two decades. Under Graziani, the Society became a sponsor of the annual International Ecoist Convention, where it sits firmly in the liberal wing of the fractious ecoist movement. Graziani has become a strong force lobbying the US government on “green” initiatives, saying at the 2017 Ecoist Convention in Brussels, “the cause of liberty and freedom for humanity dies with the death of our planet. Over 140 years ago, the E Pluribus Unum Society was founded on the principle that we can become one out of many, but our forebears could hardly imagine the challenges that our own progress towards that goal would create. For the last century, we have proven that humanity, whether free or oppressed has the capacity to destroy our world. We must now prove that we can save it.” Graziani’s focus on environmental issues has generated criticism from numerous quarters that think that he is leading the Society far from its original mandate.
The 2022 outbreak of war in Africa has led the Society to galvanize its global network to pressure governments to prepare for a wave of refugees fleeing the fighting. Nora Vanderwaal the Society Director for Sub-Saharan Africa was forced to evacuate Society organizers from a number of All-African Alliance nations. Other recent developments include the Society Director for Germany Ernst Boehm’s overtures in Berlin to diffuse the simmering tensions with the Dutch Republic.
Society Headquarters
The headquarters of the E Pluribus Unum Society resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Recently rebuilt in 2008, the Society Headquarters is a major attraction for visitors to the “Capital of the South.” The famous statues of G. W. Harley and Rev. McGuffey welcome visitors to the adjacent Society Museum of the American People. Cast in bronze in 1958, their inward hands are joined over their heads as they gaze up at an obelisk on which is engraved the Battle Cry of Freedom, excerpts of the Declaration of Independence, the Common Declaration, and the Atlanta Declaration. Since its grand reopening in 2012, the Society Museum has expanded on its reputation as an equal partner to any of the Smithsonian National Museums. Through its origins, struggles, triumphs, and controversies, the E Pluribus Unum Society will undoubtedly remain an important player for human rights and democracy on the global scene for years to come.
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Man, now I want nothing more than to visit Atlanta and take a leisurely tour, and take up my whole day looking at all of the history and taking pride in the great legacy of the society! I can't wait for what you contribute next!
Excellent job George_Apley. The E Pluribus Unum Society has been an area I wanted to explore for some time. Cheers!