With Vice President Stephen. Douglas's consultative private meeting ended in an unhappy affair again, and although Lincoln was not lightly angered by this stubborn old friend, and especially dissatisfied with the political threats he made at every turn, he still did not say anything out of line. ⊙ Top Novel, www.

After all, although Lincoln and he did not have many political views, they really regarded him as a friend, and in the current situation, to be honest, Lincoln really didn't have many friends.

After some kind words and persuasion, and under the coercion of the other party, he made a promise that he would not negotiate with the Southerners privately, Lincoln watched the other party leave, and when this Stephen left the president's office, and Lincoln was the only one left in the whole room, Lincoln's smile immediately disappeared, and it became gloomy again.

Lincoln slowly walked to the desk and sat down, resting his elbows on the table, crossing his hands, and putting his chin up, and then he remained in this position, and began to fall into deep thought.

In the past, Lincoln also liked to meditate alone, but because there were always too many things to do, plus he had to worry about his image, and he often had to go out to various places, so the time for a person to meditate was very limited, but recently, it was clear that Lincoln had more things to do, but his time to meditate alone was getting longer and longer.

The reason for this is not only that Lincoln's mood has recently become more anxious and needs more alone time to relieve his gloomy mood, but also because of Lincoln's increasing authority.

In the sixties of the nineteenth century, the United States could only be regarded as a second-rate country of the new generation, but because this country did not have much historical background, it had a lot less baggage, and directly crossed the first-class physique, and started a system of separation of powers from the beginning, which was written into the Constitution.

The system of separation of powers has made the United States more dynamic, but once it encounters a serious incident. It's easy to lose cohesion, especially during the Revolutionary War, when the United States suffered from the dispersion of such regimes.

Therefore, after the founding of the United States, although it put a lot of shackles on the president, it also increased the power of the president, especially the power of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to the president, so that the president has the barrel of the gun.

Although in peacetime, the parliament and the courts can check the president so that the president will not be chaotic, but in times of war. Then the power of the president will begin to increase indefinitely, and it will gradually surpass the parliament and the courts.

Of course, the power of tradition is very strong, so in the beginning, President Lincoln was cautious and did everything with the opinion of outsiders, especially the opinion of Parliament.

However, as the war lengthened. With the situation unfavorable, there is a reason and a need for the president to wield more power, especially the unchecked, one-size-fits-all power.

If it is said that when the Homestead Law was enacted. Lincoln still used persuasion to persuade the parliament to vote first before announcing its implementation, and then the "Emancipation Proclamation" and "Compulsory Military Service". The Financial Restructuring Order (Note 1) or the Patriot Declaration (Note 2) directly bypassed the Parliament. I used the decree of the president to enforce it directly.

(Note 1: This financial restructuring order mainly refers to the bill on the paper currency of the US dollar and the reform measures such as the establishment of a national bank.)

(Note 2: This patriotic declaration is a national defense amendment to be precise, and because of its drastic content, it is also called a declaration of confiscation of property, or a declaration of robbers.)

Specifically, in addition to expounding the importance of territorial integrity, preaching the nobility of war, and arousing Americans' patriotic enthusiasm for joining the army, there are two important contents, namely the so-called confiscation regulations and honor tax reduction laws.

In this confiscation ordinance, all lawful citizens of the United States have the duty and duty to fight back against traitors and aggressors, and for these traitors and aggressors, the citizens of the United States not only injure and kill people legally, and there will be no legal punishment, but also reasonably and lawfully confiscate the personal property of these traitors and aggressors.

This part of the private confiscated property does not need to be handed over, but only needs to be reported, and it can be legally sold or collected in the United States. Regardless of the collection, if it is sold, it only needs to pay a certain transaction tax to the government in proportion. In addition, for real estate such as land and houses, the looted things can also become their own, and they only need to report to the government afterwards and pay a little patriotic tax to justifiably occupy these real estate. In other words, all kinds of stolen goods looted during the war can be legalized in the United States, and the U.S. government can recognize your ownership.

As for the honor tax deduction law, it means that as long as you join the army as a soldier, then you can exempt five people who are related to you from taxes. The tax exemption here mainly refers to the exemption from agricultural tax, so it was a bill to please the peasants, and it did arouse the enthusiasm of the peasants to join the army. ）

Obviously, the move to bypass parliament and force a heavy executive order to the nation in the name of the president without discussion is strictly unconstitutional, but President Lincoln did it anyway, and did it quite smoothly, almost without any resistance.

Of course, it would be false to say that there was no resistance, after all, it is impossible for the parliament to give up its power lightly, but these are extraordinary times!

Because of the war, the army has been greatly expanded, which makes Lincoln's guns stronger and harder, especially many temporarily conscripted troops, such as the Virginia Regiment, are basically loyal to Lincoln personally, which makes the voice of the council too loud.

In addition, because of that series of bills, such as the Homestead Act, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Patriot Proclamation, President Lincoln greatly curried favor with the people at the bottom, and the United States now seems to be indeed being invaded, which makes Lincoln very popular among many lower-class people.

Although there were a series of defeats ahead, Lincoln skillfully used these failures as weapons and pushed them on the heads of a series of politicians, capitalists and big farmers who did not deal with him, saying that it was precisely because of these people's obstruction and unpatriotism that they led to the defeat of the front, and directly used the anger of the people to turn these opponents into traitors, and reasonably and legally confiscated their property.

Because most of the opposition that Lincoln cracked down on were opponents of the parliament and the related rich and big capitalists behind it, the members of the parliament soon found that they had no threat to Lincoln, and even Lincoln could use the so-called Patriot Amendment to recklessly brand them as traitors, and then legally confiscate their property. They are at a loss for what to do.

After several such things in a row, not only did the prestige of the parliament drop greatly, but the members of the council inside quickly became Lincoln's echo worms in order to protect themselves.

In other words, those bills, ordinances, declarations, and so on that Lincoln enacted. In fact, the procedure is also legal, and it has been discussed and understood by the council, but now the parliament has become Lincoln's parliament, and Lincoln has become a dictator.

What the? Dissenter? These people were either branded as traitors by Lincoln in the name of the law, and were openly detained and shot to confiscate a qiē property, or they were killed by Lincoln's secret agents.

Among them, it can be done openly. Most of them were people who were not righteous and not very well-known, and for those opponents who were quite prestigious among the people, Lincoln used a less decent method.

Be a dictator. In addition to being able to play politics, there must also be a not-so-bright agency for private work, or a secret agency. Pinkerton's Patriotic Association and the Federal Intelligence Service. These became two of Lincoln's most important weights.

The Patriotic Association, is a radical youth organization, like picketing traitors and the like. A lot of them are doing it, and they are not much different from the red soldiers of the Red Dynasty period in another time and space.

The Federal Intelligence Service, or Aaron. The spy agency directly led by Pinkerton is doing things like collecting intelligence, assassinating and sabotaging, and is a very powerful spy organization both internally and externally.

Originally, the Patriotic Association and the Federal Intelligence Service were petty fights, but as the situation changed, the power of these two organizations also increased, and they are already household names in the United States of America today.

Of course, at the beginning, or Lincoln's original intention, he didn't want to be a dictator, or rather, in the early Lincoln, he still had some idealist feelings, which can be seen from his early campaign manifesto and policy program.

If Lincoln hadn't been a little naïve, he wouldn't have let the South go, he wouldn't have taken so long, and he wouldn't have mobilized so late to make a series of laws against the war, such as the Emancipation Proclamation.

Suffice it to say, if Lincoln had launched an offensive to the South in 1860, when he first became president, the situation would never have ended as difficult as it is now.

You must know that in 1860, the South was not fully prepared, and the gap with the North was even greater, and most importantly, Li Yongji was still busy with the civil war at that time, and he had no time or time to intervene in the American Civil War.

So, if Lincoln had done it in 1860, the war might have ended soon.

In addition, even if he didn't make a move in 1860, he had to wait until the South made the first move before he counterattacked, but in 1861, the Southern rebels made it clear that they wanted independence, but Lincoln still made all kinds of concessions, not only did not order the mobilization of the whole country, but also tolerated and compromised the South, and finally let the South gain an inch, and the situation became even more unfavorable.

After that, although Lincoln slowly reacted and began to become more and more assertive, by this time, foreign powers had begun to intervene explicitly, which once again caused the course of the war to encounter many uncertainties.

At that time, what Lincoln should have done was to make great determination and exert great efforts, learn from Napoleon during the French Revolution, mobilize the strength of the whole country, and do his best to extinguish the Southern rebels when the foreign intervention forces began to intervene, but Lincoln chose to back down again, and actually implemented a policy of compromise and concession to those countries that had already declared war on him, and did not even dare to declare war on them.

Although Lincoln seemed to do this to avoid further intensifying the contradictions with foreign interference forces, or China, Britain and France, and to avoid further deterioration of the situation, in fact, it actually undermined the morale of his own military and made the Union Army feel too much humiliation, but it could not burst out with the corresponding patriotism and courage.

If you want to make a comparison, Lincoln at that time was like a certain Wang in another time and space, who kept saying that he would save the country, but in fact he was suppressing his own people's morale, revealing his own weakness, and allowing the other party to gain further inches.

It can be said that if Lincoln had made up his mind to declare war on China, Britain and France at that time, and used this to inspire the whole country, then Li Yongji, who was still in the Red Fort at that time, was in the case. I really don't necessarily dare to lead the troops to the end.

You must know that although the motorized troops trained by Li Yongji in the Red Fort are powerful, after all, the number of people is too small, and advanced weapons do not mean that they are all in one fight, if the US army, or the federal army, can really not be afraid of sacrifice and abandon one qiē for the sake of the country and the nation, then even if Li Yongji leads the troops to the end, it is useless.

The reason is simple, although the machine gun cannon is fierce. But firepower is also a priority, and the most important thing is that it is people who operate these weapons, and once they face wave after wave of never-ending death charges, the psychological impact on them is also very huge, and it is very likely that they will not be able to bear it and collapse.

In history, there are countless examples of such mastery of advanced weapons, but they were defeated by units with inferior weapons, but high morale, in addition. Once this kind of nationwide war of resistance is formed, it will be a national war, and even if Li Yongji has a golden finger, he will not be able to bear it.

But. Lincoln's weakness made Li Yongji realize an opportunity, and he felt that he should give it a try and look at Li Yongji's appearance. His caution can also be seen.

For example, when Li Yongji first led his troops to land on the East Coast of North America, he did not go directly to the vicinity of Virginia. Instead went to New Orleans, and the route of the offensive was also along the Mississippi River, cautiously advancing on the protective side of the battleships.

Obviously, Li Yongji at that time was thinking that if something was wrong, he would immediately run away by boat, after all, water warfare is more dependent on technology, as long as it is next to the Mississippi River, even if he fails, it will not be too miserable.

However, what people didn't expect was that the U.S. military was so indifferent, and probably because of factors on the territory of the Union, they didn't realize that the American people, no, it was the people of the Union State who hated them, on the contrary, the people of the Union State hated the Union Army even more.

Seeing this situation, Li Yongji became even more bold, and began to move forward non-stop, hitting Memphis in one breath.

By this time, the situation had deteriorated beyond circumstances for the federal government, which also made Lincoln abandon all illusions. Pinkerton's flickering, or persuasion, decisively began to play dictatorship!

To this end, the Patriotic Association, the Federal Intelligence Agency, etc. have been established, and Lincoln has also been resolute, sweeping down all the opposition, and no longer speaking softly as before, but opening a pattern of killing your dictator/dictator/big devil if you don't obey.

However, despite this, Lincoln is still new to this path, and there are some things that have not yet been fully let go, such as friendship!

If it weren't for Lincoln's protection and connivance, this fiercely spoken Vice President Stephen would not have been able to continue to speak in front of him, and he would have been either beaten into the opposition or killed in various ways.

Actually, Aaron. Pinkerton has mentioned more than once that he wants to kill Vice President Stephen because he is the most vicious person who has been at odds with Lincoln, and he has recently sub-affected the operation of the Patriotic Association and the Federal Intelligence Agency.

Lincoln was also very entangled in this, and it was reasonable that he wanted to continue to keep this good friend, and for this reason, he talked to him privately more than once. In these conversations, he poured out his bitterness, and then bitterly told him that the reason for his actions was for the United States anyway.

Unfortunately, his friends didn't appreciate it, always sneered, and finally roared away.

In the past, Lincoln endured it, after all, in fact, this Stephen had no power, at most, he gathered a group of people to go to the parliament to oppose it, but now the parliament is Lincoln's followers, how can anyone really dare to go against Lincoln?

You know, someone else is not Stephen, who can have such a good friendship with Lincoln, if they dare to oppose and mock Lincoln so blatantly, they will choke to death in a minute or be hit by an unknown person's carriage on the road.

After a long time, Lincoln lifted his chin from his crossed hands, leaned back, leaned his whole body on the back of the chair, and then closed his eyes tiredly, sighed, and whispered, "You are pushing me, my friend!" Do you really have to force me to go that far? Forget it, for the sake of America, I am already destined to hell in the future, but you ...... Hey, I hope you don't hate me when you go to heaven. (To be continued......) R527