As the former Vice Secretary of State, Vice President Monroe was not idle within the cabinet.
In fact, his current power as Vice President was no less than Washington's when he was Vice President.
His rich diplomatic experience as Vice Secretary of State for the previous four years allowed him to continue overseeing foreign affairs in this cabinet.
However, even the most capable person in charge of foreign affairs cannot speak with certainty in diplomacy. After all, it is a bilateral or even multilateral matter, and no single party can have the final say. Therefore, although Charles also set the general direction for diplomacy, he did not have too many specific requirements.
Basically, all matters were aimed at striving for goals, without detailed planning.
On the other hand, Charles' demands for foreign economic trade were very strict. He insisted that Monroe promote the Open Door Policy everywhere, and in a situation where European powers had already delineated spheres of influence in the Colonies, he tried his best to demand equal sharing of benefits. Monroe did not disappoint Charles' expectations and performed very well in this regard. By the end of his term, due to his long-term promotion of the Open Door Policy and the protection of America's interests, this practice was simply referred to as the Monroe Doctrine.
Compared to the ease of the economy and the unpredictability of diplomacy, military matters were both realistic and difficult.
Charles did not write detailed military plans in this outline, but as the fundamental army building of the nation, Charles undoubtedly attached great importance to it. Therefore, in the financial plan for the next few years, a large sum of military expenditure was added for building military academies and replacing new equipment.
The Pittsburgh steel mill can now not only produce high-grade muskets and ordinary cannons, but has also successfully developed rifled fortress cannons.
Although the application range of this type of cannon is still very small, Charles still planned to install a few near the mouth of the Delaware River when arranging the budget, to prevent the British navy from sailing up the river and threatening Philadelphia again in the future.
As for other important ports like New York, Boston, and Portsmouth, construction can only wait until the United States' finances are more abundant. Currently, the United States is profiting from the war in Europe, but after all, the United States has only been established for a few years, its strength and foundation are still very weak, and there are more places that need money, so not too much can be allocated to the military.
Anyway, the Great war in Europe is still in full swing and will continue for several more Anti-French wars. The great powers basically have no time to pay attention to America, so the American coastal defense can be considered safe for the next two or three decades.
What is truly worth doing in the military is the system and military academies.
The things that need to be done in terms of the system are very important, but many systems are still very difficult for the current United States army to fully master. Charles only ordered the establishment of the General Staff and the Joint Logistics Command of various arms, so that the combat efficiency and normal training efficiency of the army could be greatly improved.
The military academy expanded the original Pittsburgh Military Academy and added two new departments: Staff and Politics. There was not much specific management, but the establishment of these two departments made the Pittsburgh Military Academy truly resemble a modern military academy.
That night, Monroe and Hamilton discussed until very late at the Presidential residence.
The two outstanding figures naturally had their own views on the plans and arrangements proposed by Charles. However, in the end, they reached a consensus of full support.
On February 2, 1787, in front of Congress Hall in Philadelphia, Charles officially took the oath of office as the third President of the United States of America under the supervision of the Chief Justice.
Many people who witnessed the ceremony at the time believed that this merely signified the arrival of a new Presidential era. But years later, when these people recalled, they realized that this was clearly the beginning of a whole new society.
Just three days after Charles was sworn in as President, the negotiating delegation led by Monroe officially signed a treaty with France, in which France borrowed thirty million US dollars from the United States with Louisiana as collateral.
France immediately used this loan to purchase a large amount of supplies in the United States. And the United States also used this agreement to formally send troops to Louisiana to supervise its "collateral."
Then, just ten days later, the Anti-French Alliance in Europe announced that a general from Prussia would serve as commander, officially commencing the Second Anti-French war.
As soon as the news was announced, shipping between Europe and America was immediately affected. A large number of sailing ships no longer dared to sail directly to Europe, and could only detour via Africa or South America. Some who had long been engaged in European trade and could not change their business in a short time could only try to purchase steamships from shipyards.
Charles' bearing application was very successful and had already been successfully equipped on propeller drive systems, leading to the manufacture of a large number of high-speed propeller steamships. These steamships without paddlewheels not only saved cabin space but also sailed exceptionally stably, making them highly favored by new maritime professionals.
After this period, the era of steamships replacing sailing ships in America arrived ahead of schedule. Everyone saw that no matter how cheap sailing ships were, as their performance was increasingly surpassed by steamships, they would eventually be completely phased out.
The development of industrial technology is something that people can see with their own eyes and feel directly with their bodies.
However, the development of culture and academics often requires a very long time and deliberate attention to be appreciated.
A long time ago, Charles had already started building universities in Pittsburgh, Ohio, and other places. After nearly ten years of development, they now have complete disciplines and have cultivated a large number of talents. They have not yet shown their immense role in this country, but it is imaginable how great a change these universities and their graduates will bring to this country in the near future.
When Charles officially became President in 1787, he vigorously promoted and arranged various industries that were beneficial to the long-term development of the country.
In fact, many results would only become apparent later, but the most important immediate impact on the entire United States was Charles' "Westward Expansion Order."
This was a highly controversial order.
Because, without a doubt, this order brought immense development opportunities to the present and future United States. But at the same time, a large number of natives had to move from their homelands. And those natives who were unwilling to move, in conflicts with the westward expansionists, either killed the westward expansionists or were killed by them.
When the Westward Movement finally ended, both the westward expansionists and the natives suffered relatively heavy losses. Since the ultimate victory belonged to the westward expansionists, the natives naturally suffered greater losses.
Charles was not someone who turned ruthless after taking office. He maintained great sympathy for these natives and for the black slaves in the South. In his view, westward expansion would happen sooner or later, and it was better for it to happen a little earlier while he was President and could influence it.
Although he could not directly order a ban on some things that happened during the westward expansion process, he could try his best to introduce various policies to buy land from the natives through the gentlest possible means, allowing the relocated natives to be better settled, so that they would not have to fall one after another under the guns of the white people, as in true history.
Although the Americans who presided over the Westward Movement in real history made great contributions to the United States, later generations were not very willing to sing their praises, because the westward expansion process was truly full of too much barbarism and bloodshed.
The Westward Movement presided over by Charles also had bloodshed, but it was relatively much gentler, so it would eventually be sung by later generations. When it is sung, he is generally evaluated as having more merits than demerits.
Regardless of the fate of the natives, this Westward Movement indeed brought great benefits to America. A large number of mineral and plant resources were discovered, especially many open-pit gold mines, which set off a gold rush in the United States. Even many people from Europe and the Middle East heard rumors that America was full of gold, and traveled thousands of miles to the West to participate in the gold rush.
Compared to gold panning, for the long-term development of the entire country, the most important thing was the large number of newly opened farms.
With steamships, coupled with the dense river network in the Midwest, travel between farms along the riverbanks became very convenient. Various products could be directly transported to Pittsburgh for sale, and even transported to the East Coast via Lake Erie and exported to European countries.
While these lands were being developed, the plantation owners and farmers either paid to buy slaves or vigorously had their own children, which was very beneficial for the population growth of America.
However, the increase in black slaves was definitely not something Charles was happy to see.
In his view, slavery would eventually have to be abolished. When he discussed this with Monroe, he often instilled in him the concept of abolition, hoping that even if he himself could not abolish slavery in the future, Monroe would uphold his will and truly abolish it. The liberation movement of black slaves was undoubtedly very important and also very difficult. But Charles did not have the courage to directly sign the Emancipation Proclamation liCharlescoln; he was very afraid of being shot, so he was not prepared to abolish slavery through administrative means.
His biggest policy to combat slavery was taxation.
Charles' newly introduced tax policy stipulated that slave owners who kept one slave must increase their taxes by 10% as a special fund to compensate slaves.
Once ten slaves were kept, the tax would double, and for a hundred slaves, it would double again.
Such heavy tax blows indeed caused significant harm to the slave owners.
Initially, the burden of a single tax payment didn't feel like much pressure, but over time, they would realize that paying such heavy taxes made it more cost-effective to directly employ commoners.
Immediately, some slave owners came out to oppose it, but fortunately, it was a law enacted through normal parliamentary procedures, and the resistance of the slave owners did not immediately take effect, forcing many slave owners to reluctantly liberate their slaves and re-employ them as free citizens to reduce their tax burden.
For a time, many people thought that this special tax law, known as the "Free Citizen Employment Rights Protection Tax," could truly eliminate the slave system in the United States.
However, with policies from above, there were countermeasures from below; these slave owners and local governments like Virginia immediately acted in concert, changing the names of these slaves, and even having local governments issue tax refunds, among other methods, to continue protecting the interests of the slave owners.
The special tax achieved little success before being quietly blocked by several major slave-holding states.
The struggle with slave owners and the slave system was foreseeably long.
Charles did not stop there and quickly introduced new policies to combat the passive resistance of these slave owners.
And the slave owners, apart from not directly rebelling, also used every means to resist the government.
Amidst the continuous changes in the country, time quickly reached 1791, Charles' first term ended, and the United States was about to usher in its fourth Presidential election.
Regarding whether he could win this election, Charles and most people in the United States had no doubts.
For this election, Charles didn't even go out to campaign much; he could already secure the fruits of the next election simply by relying on his prominent political achievements and the strong backing of the Republican Party.
In the past four years, the increase in the strength of the nascent United States and the improvement in the living standards of its citizens were evident to all.
Just literally, the newly released GDP had nearly doubled from its first statistics in 1787.
As for the national wealth, the most obvious increase was that the per capita cultivated land exceeded a hundred acres.
With the development of the Midwest, where Louisiana is located, not only did per capita cultivated land increase sharply, but animal husbandry also developed rapidly, with an average of five sheep, three cattle, and more than one horse per person.
Even Madison, who was re-elected as a senator two years ago, expressed his utmost appreciation for Charles' political achievements.
Of course, he did not forget to claim a portion of the credit for himself.
However, in this election, besides the already completely weakened Federalist Party and the Freedom Party formed by Southern slave owners specifically organizing candidates to run, the largest opposition force, the Democratic Party, did not nominate its own candidate.
Some say it was because Jefferson failed twice in a row and was unwilling to continue.
Others say it was because the Democratic Party recognized the situation and was unwilling to waste energy participating in an election with no hope of victory.
As President, Charles did not pay much attention to the Federalist Party and the newly emerged Freedom Party.
No matter what they did, it would be impossible for them to pose a threat to him and the Republican Party within ten years.
As for what happens after ten years, that was beyond his current control or prediction.
Instead, he clearly understood and highly valued Jefferson's and the Democratic Party's ideas.
Since the establishment of the United States, the Republican Party had been in power, and many forces had become dissatisfied with the Republican Party's long-term enjoyment of governing benefits, with grievances accumulating more and more.
Now, because he was at his peak and his political achievements were indeed good, while he still held power and had not yet stepped down, they dared not oppose him, nor dared to abandon him and rashly choose a Presidential candidate whose background was unclear.
But this dissatisfaction and resentment were still accumulating over time.
Charles believed that when his term ended and the Republican Party nominated other new candidates, as long as the Democratic Party strongly put forward its own candidate, many forces might wish to choose a new face and a different way of governing when faced with two equally unfamiliar candidates.
Therefore, after successfully being elected as the fourth President, Charles did not become overly excited but decided that in the future, some matters should be handled by Monroe to gain more personal connections and political achievements in exchange for influence.
As long as power and influence were sufficient, why would he care about those tiny bits of jealousy accumulated in the darkest corners of people's hearts?
In this new four-year term, there were no particularly new major tasks to undertake.
Charles was very confident in his election; in the previous four years, he had already begun various long-term plans, so naturally, there was no need to slowly propose new plans.
Within his eight-year term, the political achievements that could be sung by future generations were countless, but the truly most important achievements were still in a few key areas.
His greatest military achievement was the establishment of the First Fleet of America within eight years.
All the warships of this brand-new fleet were new-style steam warships covered with one-inch thick iron armor.
With its full complement of ten ships, as long as the supply of coal was uninterrupted, it could directly go to Europe coast and contend with any powerful detached fleet of Britain.
Of course, in reality, constrained by technology and the demand for coal, this already very powerful fleet could only conduct the most active defensive operations in the coastal waters of America.
And now, the coastal defense capabilities of the United States were proceeding very smoothly under Charles' active demands to ensure continental security.
After landmines were initially manufactured, touch-sensitive naval mines were also mass-produced.
In previous naval battles, there had already been crude naval mines made of large barrels of gunpowder drifting, relying on impact to create sparks and explode.
Now, the scientists of the United States had truly created touch-sensitive naval mines fixed to the riverbed that would explode directly if a ship's bottom strongly touched them.
With these two powerful weapons, Charles believed he could absolutely rely on them to defend the maritime borders.
At least, during his term, the President's official residence would not be burned down by the British army.
Progress in the army was relatively much slower.
Although Charles had many weapon concepts in mind, both tanks and airplanes still presented too great a technical challenge.
Unpowered gliders had already been invented with Charles' support, but such items, which could only serve as toys for flight enthusiasts, had virtually no practical application in combat.
Therefore, achievements in this area were mainly reflected in the accumulation of various knowledge and related experience, with no substantial breakthroughs.
Let alone usable results.
The only feasible future land warfare weapon research for the next century was armored trains.
Unfortunately, on the American continent, the United States army basically did not need such high-level weapons, and it was obviously impossible for armored trains to cross the ocean.
So, in these years of reform, the United States army only acquired a better set of individual equipment, allowing various personal items to be carried and used more efficiently and conveniently.
As for other equipment improvements, apart from the regular increase in some artillery and rifles, there were basically no major changes.
However, in the long-standing research and development of hand-cranked machine guns, there had been results.
Machine guns that fired bullets by hand-cranked power had been manufactured.
It's just that the current firing speed was not ideal.
The cost-effectiveness had no practical meaning whatsoever.
The money spent on purchasing one of these machine guns and the lethality it produced were less than hiring a few more riflemen.
Therefore, Charles requested the research unit to continue developing machine guns with higher rates of fire and greater power, and to equip the troops only when they had practical combat significance.
Political achievements, on the other hand, mainly involved the welfare system and the improvement of election and deliberation procedures.
Just as the bloody democracy often seen in later generations, the nascent American democratic system was also frequently accompanied by brawls and violence, especially in election and deliberation procedures, where the frequency of violence was extremely high.
Charles had been continuously trying to make efforts in this regard for the past few years.
He did not have the later generations' concern that once a power organ intervened in election deliberation procedures, it would be accused of interfering with democracy.
He directly used his personal influence and Presidential power to nip in the bud various potential sources of violence, and on the contrary, he received praise from most people.
Even the Democratic Party, which particularly upheld the spirit of democracy, did not have very strong opposition in this regard.
After all, democracy in America was still very young, yet its advanced degree far surpassed Europe.
Even democrats would be somewhat complacent about the achievements made.
They did not have a clear understanding of what would be most beneficial for the development of democracy, so they mostly adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards Charles' actions and did not strongly oppose them due to foreseeable future restrictions.
And the establishment of the social welfare system was undoubtedly the greatest innovation that placed the United States ahead of all other countries.
Before this, even among historical republican states, no government had promoted government welfare systems on such a large scale as Charles' administration.
It was not only limited to children's education but also included attention to the vulnerable and regulations for social justice.
Large numbers of children were enrolled in public schools opened by the government, large numbers of elderly received financial subsidies from the government, and large numbers of homeless received social relief.
Although the extent of these various welfare systems was far from comparable to modern society two or three hundred years later, their variety and genuine caring spirit were absolutely comparable to later generations.
As a government, its political actions and achievements were undoubtedly the most numerous, and in fact, far more than the few mentioned earlier.
But many things, in the eyes of future generations, would certainly not be as important as these few.
In addition, many policies were temporary or implemented based on others' opinions, so they were not conventionally listed among Charles' greatest political achievements.
However, many economic achievements, which were actually specifically handled by others or implemented based on others' opinions, are at this stage entirely attributed to Charles' credit.
Most typically, the Monroe Doctrine, although named after Vice President Monroe, its actual credit was still attributed to Charles' administration and Charles as President.
After all, Vice President Monroe was also a member of Charles' administration.
In fact, there was some reason why the Monroe Doctrine was counted as Charles' economic achievement.
The current Monroe Doctrine was somewhat different from the historical Monroe Doctrine; its main focus was on the economy, demanding equal sharing of economic interests in the Colonies of various countries.
Besides the most basic most-favored-nation treatment, Charles did not want to contend for too many colonial rights and interests.
He knew that such rights and interests mainly benefited the colonizers and brought advantages in commercial economy, which primarily served national interests, but did not significantly affect the normal trade of merchants.
Under the most-favored-nation treatment, colonial merchants certainly could not compete with merchants from the United States.
Even without those special rights, the economic interests of United States merchants could be guaranteed, and their commercial independence could be fostered.
And when competing with merchants from other colonial countries, those special rights could not be applied, so there were not many demands in this regard.
What was truly strongly contended for was mainly placed on market competition, and what was naturally demanded was an equal share of economic interests.
In fact, due to the European war at this time, countries like Britain and France simply did not have the time and energy to pay too much attention to economic interests, so they were very relaxed about such matters.
In just four years, the United States achieved an equal share of economic interests in the Colonies that European countries had spent decades to finally establish.
Such political achievements were, of course, attributed to this Charles administration.
Under the premise of brilliant political achievements, winning the re-election was completely unquestionable.
The giant wheel of time always seems to move particularly fast when life is active and effective.
Charles felt as if he had just sworn in as the third President of the United States a few days ago, and suddenly woke up to find that his second Presidential term was also nearing its end.
Thinking back on the past eight years, it seemed many things had yet to be done.
However, at this point, Charles did not intend to make amends or seek re-election through constitutional amendment.
What he should do, what he must do, he had basically done.
As for what remained, it should develop as it should; everything would take its natural course.
This world, this country, was no longer his original world, that history.
As for how this country would develop next, how this world would develop, he only needed to observe calmly and appropriately urge through his influence.
Half of his life had been dedicated to responsibility; the remaining half would be lived for himself.
Looking at his family around him, Charles greatly anticipated a peaceful life ahead.
Under his personal management, the Republican Party's influence continued to grow significantly.
Even the situation where it was predicted more than three years ago that the Democratic Party might turn the tables in the fifth Presidential election ultimately did not occur.
Monroe, under Charles' special training, still used his reputation in economic construction to narrowly defeat Jefferson, successfully being elected as the fifth President of the United States.
Monroe vividly remembered Charles' contributions to his re-election; even though he only served one term as President and was ultimately replaced by Jefferson for the sixth Presidential term four years later, he still, during his term, publicized and confirmed Charles' achievements as much as possible, ensuring the public remembered Charles' contributions to the country, so much so that even after the Democratic Party came to power, they were reluctant to easily touch the almost deified Charles.
And such a twenty-year continuous rule by one party rarely appeared in later history.
Future generations, when evaluating the extremely high prestige of the Republican Party in the early days of the United States, never forgot to mention Charles, the founder and first leader of the Republican Party.
They believed that it was his outstanding talent that laid the foundation for the Republican Party's brilliance in the early days of the nation and its long-lasting strength thereafter.
Just as his achievements in the Republican Party were unanimously recognized by the people, his status and achievements in the history of the United States were also respected by everyone.
People not only highly praised his outstanding performance during his presidency but, more importantly, also lauded his role in the war of Independence.
Many people, after careful study, unanimously agreed that if it weren't for Charles' sudden rise in 1776, the history of the United States' war of Independence might have been rewritten.
This fact, not widely known during the war of Independence, was precisely true history.
1776 in America was truly the year this world genuinely changed.
The End