Charles was prepared to wait and see, not stating his position, letting his supporters and Madison's supporters fight it out first to observe Madison's attitude towards this matter. If he could tolerate those who didn't support him, then he might tolerate Charles. But if he suppressed his opponents and intended to be an autocratic President, then for his own safety, Charles might have no choice but to personally step forward and contend for the presidency.
This waiting period didn't last long.
After all, Franklin's resignation couldn't be delayed indefinitely. Three days later, the House of Representatives convened first to discuss Franklin's resignation.
Originally, this resignation didn't even need discussion; a direct vote to accept would suffice. Everyone knew that Franklin's physical condition was irreversible.
However, some old Republican Party members loyal to Franklin insisted on retaining him. On this matter, neither Madison nor Charles found it appropriate to openly oppose, lest outsiders think they were eager to remove Franklin to become President themselves. Therefore, both Madison's and Charles's supporters within the Republican Party tacitly allowed these individuals to represent the Republican Party in requesting Franklin's retention.
The resignation was debated for two days. The Democratic Party and the Federalist Party, lacking sufficient seats, ultimately had no choice but to approve the proposal from those Republican Party members: to issue a congressional letter to express their regret and comfort regarding Franklin's resignation. Simultaneously, a congressional resolution was passed to commend Franklin's contributions to the nation during his tenure, and his request to resign was not approved.
Franklin naturally understood his physical condition and couldn't accept the retention. He quickly submitted his resignation again, expressing gratitude for Congress' efforts but reiterating his intention to resign.
This time, those congressmen who had already expressed their loyalty and duty were no longer prepared to delay. Under the impetus of powerful figures from all parties, after an easy vote in the House of Representatives, Franklin's resignation was forwarded to the Senate.
The Senate was even more efficient, passing it immediately that same afternoon.
By evening, Madison was sworn in as interim President under the supervision of the Chief Justice.
Compared to the transfer of the presidency, the upcoming proposal for an early general election would be far more complex.
The first disagreements emerged, once again, from the Republican Party.
Charles, as the leader of the Republican Party, sat with a gloomy expression in his Speaker of the House seat, listening to a Republican congressman below him speak voluminously:
"Congressmen, gentlemen, since the acting President has now been sworn in, there is no vacancy in the Presidential power. An early election will inevitably disrupt the long-established Presidential election schedule, bringing great inconvenience to the nation's succession. More importantly, I believe that all major political parties are certainly not adequately prepared for an early election..."
A Republican congressman, defying the opinions of most in Congress, spoke in the House of Representatives against holding an early general election. Charles didn't need to investigate closely; a quick glance was enough to see the shadow behind this congressman: none other than lord Madison, who had just been sworn in as interim President. Perhaps feeling that being an interim President was quite impressive and wanting to continue enjoying the Presidential experience, Madison, for some unknown reason and disregarding the questionable legitimacy of his interim presidency, actually signaled his supporters to suddenly oppose an early general election.
Before the congressman's words even faded, various voices of opposition emerged.
"Madison is not the President we elected; we do not recognize Madison exercising all Presidential powers."
"Exactly! The time for a Presidential election has already arrived. A new President must be elected immediately, without a moment's delay."
"No law prohibits an early general election. On the contrary, in the current situation, not holding an early general election will simply not quiet the debates in our Congress."
Many congressmen, disregarding procedural rules, stood up to speak without permission. Most of them were Democrats and Federalists who eagerly anticipated the general election.
And many Republican congressmen who supported Madison also stood up to retort, unwilling to be outdone. The Republican Party was too powerful in Congress. These people previously had little regard for Democratic and Federalist congressmen. Even now, though supporting Madison, they still felt they represented the Republican Party before Charles stated his position.
"Silence! gentlemen, please observe parliamentary order!" Charles reluctantly banged the gavel.
Previously, he might have subtly favored members of his own party. But this time, he immediately intervened.
Charles's authority in the House of Representatives was unquestionable. Order was quickly restored in the chamber. However, the debate did not cease. The congressmen who subsequently gained the floor fiercely debated whether to hold an early general election. For a time, the early general election proposal, which was initially thought to be unquestionable, actually became an issue requiring thorough discussion.
Charles was helpless in this situation and could only announce an early recess, requesting that all parties first reach an internal consensus before proceeding to a mandatory vote in the House of Representatives.
Subsequently, an annoyed Charles immediately, in his capacity as party leader, announced a Republican Party parliamentary caucus meeting, calling all Republican congressmen to deliberate on this matter before a vote.
The result of the parliamentary caucus meeting was also a scene of contention.
Charles didn't directly participate. He hadn't even decided whether he genuinely wanted to participate in the next general election, so he naturally wasn't willing to state his position early and fall out with Madison prematurely.
He merely quietly counted heads and discovered that one-third of the total Republican congressmen opposed an early general election, which was tantamount to implicitly supporting Madison.
This figure indeed greatly surprised Charles. It meant that in such a short period, Madison had surprisingly gained the support of one-third of the Republican Party members. This was truly difficult for him to accept.
He had painstakingly built the Republican Party, believing his control had never slackened. He had always thought that even Franklin, as President, couldn't mobilize more than 30% of Republicans against Charles. As for Madison, who was previously only Vice President, his absolute support had never exceeded 10%. He never imagined Madison now had one-third support. He didn't believe Madison had been secretly scheming much earlier, concealing a large number of supporters; that was impossible. While one or two supporters could be concealed, a one-third support ratio would be too difficult to hide. It now seemed the only possibility was that Madison, after gaining the power of interim President, began to rapidly court congressmen within the Republican Party, persuading them to become his supporters.
The strongman President, Madison, truly lived up to his reputation as a strongman.
Charles knew he had to make a decision now.
Many of those currently supporting Madison were still unaware of Charles's stance, so they naturally believed there was no mistake in supporting the party's President. However, if Charles did not state his position, and Madison was given some time to delay until the next scheduled Presidential election, these people could very likely be co-opted into Madison's inner circle using his Presidential power. By then, even if Charles, as party leader, stood up against Madison, a fellow Republican, those congressmen might not necessarily respond.
From this point, Charles also guessed Madison's true intention in opposing an early general election. He wasn't trying to continue enjoying the interim presidency, but rather wanted more time to use his Presidential position to win over more sympathetic forces. He wasn't directly competing with Charles for Presidential candidate supporters right now; instead, he wanted to transform ordinary supporters into his steadfast core strength. Charles had been waiting to see how Madison would treat his opponents, but he had been looking in the wrong direction all along.
Realizing this, Charles did not hesitate. He immediately summoned James and other core family members and quietly began to make arrangements at the grassroots level of the Republican Party.
Since Madison was prepared to take the elite route, Charles would take the grassroots route.
Charles was not only prepared to teach Madison a lesson but also to teach a lesson to those upper-level congressmen who might abandon him in the future and support Madison. In front of himself, who possessed unique election techniques, neither Madison, the interim President, nor the ordinary congressmen could act outside of his shadow. The Republican Party was his Republican Party, and the support for the Republican Party was primarily his support. Without him, the Republican Party's nominated congressmen might not necessarily win in the general election.
In a luxurious manor in Richmond, black slaves carried exquisite food into the hall, lighting the candles on luxurious silver trays, preparing to welcome their master's distinguished guests.
After the guests had eaten and drunk their fill, these slaves could only savor the leftovers in the kitchen.
They did not know that at this moment, those distinguished guests were discussing an important issue that might concern their fate.
"Gentlemen, the Democratic Party is not trustworthy, and the Republican Party and the Federalist Party are all a bunch of northerners. Since Mr. Franklin is no longer President, we no longer need to have any reservations and can think of other solutions."
"Exactly! We absolutely cannot let this fellow Madison become President."
A large group of slave owners privately stirred up trouble.
They were also uneasy and eager to get a piece of the pie in the Presidential election, preferably by putting forward a President who supported southern slavery and plantation economy.
Most of the politically talented slave owners in the South had joined the Democratic Party. Those gathered here today were either political figures with political ambition but no political talent, or large slave owners who strongly advocated slavery. These people had significant power behind them, but their political talent was truly limited. After discussing and deliberating for a long time, they couldn't come up with a solution. In the end, they only reached a consensus that they must participate in this Presidential election. If the Democratic Party could not make satisfactory promises to their side, they would not rule out supporting or recommending others.
Just as Philadelphia was in an uproar over whether to hold an early general election, a group of Europeans who had traveled across the ocean to America stepped into Charles' earl's castle.
The matter the French came to discuss this time was still related to the Anti-French war.
Although the war was currently paused, both the French Revolutionary Government and the Anti-French Alliance Countries knew very well that the flames of war would reignite soon.
Therefore, while the high-ranking officials of both sides were vying for political interests, the military below was already making preparations for war.
France suffered heavy losses during the last Anti-French Alliance invasion, but an even greater loss was due to many elite troops loyal to the king being disbanded because of the Revolutionary Government's improper handling before the battle.
It was simple to disband the army, but now it was very difficult to reorganize it.
Especially various equipment and personnel required a great deal of effort to prepare.
As the chairman of the General Aid to France Association, all matters concerning the shipment of supplies to France were coordinated and arranged by him, the Speaker of the House.
Therefore, this time, the envoy sent by France to request aid naturally came to him.
"Purchase warhorses?" Charles looked at the French envoy in front of him with some disbelief.
"That's right! Honorable Speaker, the Revolutionary Government is preparing to form new cavalry units, but the number of warhorses in the country is insufficient.
As you know, if the cavalry is not on a large scale, its power is limited, so we can only seek to purchase warhorses from abroad to make up for the shortfall, and America is now our only option," the envoy said with certainty.
Charles nodded, knowing that the envoy's words made sense.
In fact, the horse trade between America and European continent had always been ongoing.
The Americans' Eurocentric view made them particularly admire famous horses from European continent, and many wealthy capitalists and slave owners liked to keep famous horses from European continent on their estates.
At the same time, because of America's vast grazing environment, coupled with its own production of some unique horse breeds, American horses were also often sold by merchants to Europe.
Transporting live livestock like horses across the vast ocean was very difficult, and many animals would die on the way due to prolonged confinement in the cargo hold.
Even if they survived and reached the other side of the ocean, they would need a period of recuperation to fully recover.
Therefore, ordinary economic livestock were usually directly made into barrels of cooked meat and sold to the other side.
Only more precious livestock like horses would be carefully cared for during transportation.
But this also made the price of those horses very high, and only merchants with certain special secrets could transport them in small quantities.
However, these people did indeed become immensely wealthy by selling horses.
Now, the French wanting to buy horses in America was indeed somewhat feasible, because America itself had a large number of horses.
Whether natives or white pioneers, in America where roads were not developed, they were accustomed to using horses to carry people and goods.
The varieties were also very complete; various famous European horses, or mixed-breed horses, were all available in sufficient quantities.
Now that America itself was not fighting a war, the high-quality warhorses needed by the cavalry could be pulled out in tens of thousands at any time.
On Europe, even France, where horse breeding was very developed, found it almost impossible to achieve this scale.
Similarly, countries like Britain and Prussia would naturally find it difficult to assemble tens of thousands of new cavalry at once.
If the French truly succeeded in transporting American warhorses to France and forming a new cavalry force of tens of thousands, it would absolutely reverse the balance of power on the Anti-French war battlefield.
"Then how many warhorses do you intend to purchase?" Charles asked with some doubt.
"Ten thousand! Ten thousand warhorses that can be ridden directly into battle," the envoy replied excitedly.
"Ten thousand warhorses that can be used directly?" Charles exclaimed.
He was startled by the French envoy's words.
He had initially thought they were only interested in the few thousand horses on his estate, but he never expected the envoy to ask for ten thousand mature warhorses in one go.
warhorses that could be ridden directly into battle were not ordinary horses.
Charles' estate currently kept several thousand horses of various types, but at most only a few hundred could truly be ridden directly into battle.
warhorses needed to be trained.
If you told it to go forward, but it turned and ran, or if you told it to stop, but it restlessly wanted to keep running, that would definitely cause big problems, let alone further accustoming it to gunshots and cannon fire.
These all required special training and naturally could not be replaced by ordinary horses.
"Aside from the warhorses exclusive to the American army, if you want to find ten thousand qualified warhorses from ordinary civilian horse farms, you'll probably need to scour the entire America."
Because of practical needs, Americans now liked to raise horses, and there were naturally many horses that could be ridden directly into battle.
Ten thousand was not a problem in terms of quantity.
But they also liked horses very much, and not everyone was willing to sell their mature warhorses that they had personally raised.
Charles saying he would have to scour the entire America to buy ten thousand warhorses was not an empty threat.
"I believe the American Government, in consideration of our traditional friendship, should step forward to help, shouldn't it?" the envoy said slyly.
"If anyone comes forward to help our France at this time, I think at least the French descendants in America will certainly support him greatly."
"Haha!" Charles laughed.
This fellow, it seemed, had chosen the timing of the current election to make his request to him.
There were already many French descendants in America, and in the years before and after the Anti-French war, nearly tens of thousands of Europeans immigrated, most of whom were French, and they already had a significant influence on America's election situation.
He indeed needed the support of the French descendants, but he still couldn't give in easily.
"Indeed, if we become a bit closer with France, we can certainly win the French descendants' identification with the country.
However, I estimate that those of Spanish descent, Prussian descent, and so on, would probably be very uncomfortable." "This... we merely wish for the Honorable Speaker to come forward and help us contact the American army's horse suppliers.
As long as we can get your covert support, we are also willing to covertly encourage French descendants to support any of your actions," the envoy said hesitantly, stating his request.
"Uh..." Charles opened his mouth, unsure what to say.
The American army also had cavalry, and the supply of military horses was ample and well-guaranteed.
However, unlike the dragoons accustomed to Europe, American cavalry were basically a combined infantry-cavalry force, primarily armed with firearms and rarely using sabers, and as for the spears still equipped in Eastern European continent, there were none at all.
The warhorses of these cavalry might not be as good as the standard warhorses of European cavalry, but they were certainly much stronger than ordinary horses.
Charles' Pittsburgh horse farm provided dozens of warhorses to the American army in Pittsburgh every year, but if this envoy wanted to use these horses, not only would the Secretary of the army not agree, but he himself would not agree either.
After all, for them, America's security was still paramount at present.
During Charles' westward expansion, there had been multiple conflicts with natives.
Now, the American army's only war was in the Midwest, which was related to Charles' interests.
How could he possibly agree?
Thinking about how easily the envoy spoke, as if as long as Charles helped them buy horses, they could mobilize all French descendants to support him.
In reality, the voting tendencies of these French descendants could not be decided or influenced by one Frenchman at all.
To risk losing in the West for some political promises that might not be fulfilled, Charles was very unwilling in his heart.
"Honorable Speaker, have you tried contacting interim President Madison?"
Charles suddenly thought of a possibility.
Although his influence in the army definitely surpassed Madison's, for such a military supply business involving warhorses, the French should first approach the President and get his approval, shouldn't they?
"Of course we did.
President Madison himself agreed, but he couldn't persuade the Secretary of the army, so we could only come directly to you.
After all, he is also a member of the Republican Party and was promoted by you.
And coincidentally, you are also the chairman currently coordinating and planning aid to France, with the authority to directly intervene in this matter," the envoy confessed honestly.
This made Charles, who had initially worried about a Madison conspiracy, breathe a sigh of relief.
Since they had approached Madison, and he had agreed but failed to accomplish it, that left a trace.
It seemed he also wanted to win the votes of French descendants but didn't succeed.
He wasn't deliberately pushing this difficult business onto him, so there couldn't be a big trap.
"My dear French friend, indeed, this matter absolutely cannot be concluded unless the Secretary of the army's permission is obtained.
Moreover, please forgive my frankness, the transportation of ten thousand warhorses is also an extremely difficult matter.
I estimate it will take at least a year and a half to transport them all to France, and then another half a year of recuperation before these warhorses recover to their optimal state.
It requires a full year for the formation cycle, and I worry that the Anti-French Alliance will probably have launched a new attack by then."
This envoy seeking aid was actually asking for help with an exaggerated request, and had not truly intended to get ten thousand warhorses.
Hearing Charles' explanation, he cooperatively said:
"In that case, let's do this: first order three thousand, using all sixty of our combined cargo ships to transport them to France at once, and then try to acquire and transport as many as possible, counting whatever amount gets transported."
Charles considered it for a moment and felt that this was somewhat feasible.
Gathering three thousand at once was relatively much simpler.
Even for ships, it would probably only require converting all cargo ships sailing to France into horse transport ships.
But the issue of buying horses still needed to be discussed with the army Department.