Reap What You Sow (2)

Escaping Georgia, which had already become a paradise for the rioters, was not as easy as it sounded. If it were discovered that the governor and the assemblymen were fleeing, a pursuit party would undoubtedly swarm after us.

The assemblymen spent every day in extreme tension, careful even with the sound of their own breathing.

“Hoo….”

“W-we made it! We’re finally safe!”

The moment we crossed the Alabama state line, they burst into tears and snot, clutching their chests as if they were survivors who had just escaped hell.

Thanks to my information—no, my god-like judgment—we didn’t face the main force of the rebels, which reportedly numbered over 100,000, nor did we encounter a single rioter head-on.

Of course, to add a touch of thrilling tension, there were times we narrowly skirted around scouting parties of rioters. Perhaps that was why the assemblymen were even more moved, offering prayers to God in gratitude for their survival.

“My God… finally… we’ve finally escaped that hell!”

“Colonel Seuret, this is all thanks to you. If it weren’t for you, I truly don’t know what would have happened to us….”

“Colonel Seuret should have been in command from the very beginning! If he had been, that idiot of a governor….”

Inside the carriage heading toward the capital, the surviving Georgia officials and assemblymen began to grumble openly. They were furious, and rightfully so. They had been on the verge of being captured and strung up by the very people they had looked down upon—the blacks—so it was no wonder their stomachs were churning.

Fortunately, Governor Joseph Brown, who had become the designated punching bag for their peace of mind, did not hear them. He had completely lost his mind, unable to hear even the muttering right next to him. He was merely hanging onto his saddle like a soulless corpse beside me.

Naturally, the news of our arrival in Montgomery turned the capital upside down. A governor and an entire state assembly had abandoned their capital and fled in the dead of night. This was not just a simple military defeat; it was an indirect signal that the pride of the Confederacy had collapsed.

Thanks to this, we were immediately summoned to the President’s temporary office as witnesses. It was a meeting that felt more like a hearing, with most of the cabinet ministers and key assemblymen in attendance.

Bang!

Realizing the situation, Joseph Brown slammed his hand on the desk and shouted.

“Georgia! We must dispatch troops to Georgia immediately! We must pull Johnston’s army if we have to…!”

“Governor, have you lost your mind?”

Before Davis could even answer, Secretary of War Breckinridge, leaning back in his chair, coldly cut him off.

“General Johnston is currently facing Sherman’s massive army in Atlanta! Did you not hear the report? They are in a situation where combat is impossible because their supply lines have been cut!”

“That is exactly why we must send reinforcements!”

“You want to pull those troops away and turn them toward a burning rear? That sounds like you’re suggesting we just hand Atlanta to Sherman on a silver platter!”

“Why don’t you understand that staying as we are is the same as handing Atlanta to those Northerners anyway!”

Davis mediated, pressing his throbbing temples.

“Governor Brown, calm yourself! Even General Johnston himself has expressed his intention to retreat because his supplies are cut off! Sending an army to Georgia now would be too great a loss. It would be no different than throwing soldiers into a fire; who would follow such an order?”

To begin with, even if we requested support from other states, no one would listen to the government anymore. They had seen Georgia being trampled by a black riot because they lacked troops; what governor would be crazy enough to listen to a request to give up their own forces? If there were any fools who complied, the planters would likely start a riot before the blacks did.

Nevertheless, Governor Joseph raised his voice toward the President with reddened eyes, as if it were not his own responsibility.

“A loss? A loss, you say! Isn’t all of this the President’s fault!”

“What did you say!”

“Because you conscripted all of Georgia’s elite troops to Virginia! Even though those rioters were plotting, we were completely in the dark! With the number of militia reduced to less than half, how could we possibly maintain public order effectively!”

Raising my voice and fighting back here would be the same as admitting the other side’s argument. Davis’s gaze turned toward me, the only one standing calmly in the room.

“Colonel Seuret. You were on the scene. As the Deputy Commander of the Public Security Forces, could you not have prevented this situation?”

This wasn’t an attempt to shift the blame to me, but rather a request for evidence to shut that man’s mouth, right? I placed all the documents the President so desperately ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted onto the desk, just as he wished.

“Mr. President. The moment I arrived in Milledgeville, I reported the importance of the golden time to the Governor on several occasions.”

“Hmm….”

“This is a report documenting every situation from the moment I arrived in Georgia until we escaped Milledgeville. I have recorded a detailed timeline at two-hour intervals, so please refer to it.”

Breckinridge, who picked up the document first, read the contents aloud.

The gazes of everyone looking at me were filled not with reprimand, but with sympathy.

“Is this true, Governor Brown?”

“T-that is! I thought Colonel Seuret was suspicious…!”

“Mr. President! Colonel Seuret’s report is all true!”

“The Colonel did his best! If it weren’t for him, all of us, including the Governor, would be hanging from the blacks’ execution stands by now!”

“It was the Governor who ignored his warnings!”

“That’s right! Thanks to him, at least we survived!”

In an instant, all arrows turned toward Joseph Brown. Of course, the Governor didn’t simply admit everything as his own fault. Turning his arrows toward the President, he changed targets and lunged at Davis.

“This is all because the Secretary took away my troops!”

“What did you say!”

“This is all because you insisted on moving Robert Lee to the rear! If he had commanded our army…!”

“If you put it that way, I could point out that the President’s judgment wasn’t the best either! If you had allocated more budget and troops to the Public Security Forces….”

“If you’re just going to blame the President, what is the reason for the existence of the positions of Secretary or Governor! If you don’t want to take responsibility and only want to enjoy the rights, then hand over your seats to someone else right now!”

Watching the three men endlessly hurling accusations at each other, I realized that the essential course of a failing organization had arrived.

Prepare your excuses and justifications. It is time for the delightful game of passing the bomb to avoid responsibility.

Washington D.C., The White House. The cabinet meeting room, which had been filled with razor-sharp tension, was enveloped in a strange atmosphere different from usual today.

“They say Georgia has been completely turned upside down by a rebellion… how should we take this?”

Secretary of State William Seward scratched his head, looking down at the bundle of telegrams that had already become crumpled from being checked over and over again, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Should we view this as a state of anarchy caused by a rebellion?”

“It is not a simple rebellion or riot, Secretary. According to detailed reports, we can see that this is a perfectly planned operation. Railways, ports, logistics, telegraphs. Every artery of the South was severed simultaneously in just one night.”

Secretary of War Simon Cameron shook his head with a dry laugh.

“Could this be John Brown again? How much does that man…!”

“No.”

Abraham Lincoln stroked his chin lightly, sharing the materials that had come up to him.

“In this report, which meticulously records the Georgia situation, John Brown’s name cannot be found anywhere. It is surprising, but we must view it as something they brought upon themselves.”

“Wait… if that’s the case, a backlash could actually occur. The moment this is defined as a barbaric riot by slaves, public opinion sympathizing with the South might arise…!”

“That will not happen, Secretary.”

Lincoln gave a bitter smile and showed the headline of the morning newspaper printed today.

Before the government could even set an official position, the machinations of Rockefeller and Carnegie had already seized public opinion. And with a perfect two-track air strike.

The White House officials were completely unaware, but Andrew Carnegie was frantically pouring out articles that would make the dopamine of Northern citizens explode.

The articles, along with provocative sketches, vividly described scenes of blacks being tortured like animals and the process of them rising up on the farms to become incarnations of vengeance. The public openly clicked their tongues at the cruelty of the South, and the prevailing reaction was that the blacks had every reason to do so.

But at the same time, established media outlets like the New York Times, funded by John D. Rockefeller, began to shed light on this uprising from another perspective.

The articles Rockefeller sent out emphasized that this uprising was not a riot fueled by anger, but a struggle with a systematic structure. Stories even leaked out that the blacks themselves were judging only the most heinous individuals, and that compassionate planters were actually under their protection.

Agitation (Carnegie) and Discipline (Rockefeller). These two images spread across the Atlantic and throughout Europe.

London, England. In Hyde Park, human rights activists raised their voices day after day, saying, “How can the British Empire, the leader in the abolition of slavery, remain silent!”

However, inside the Palace of Westminster and the Parliament, they could not exactly welcome and embrace this situation.

“This is a riot! It’s the specter of the French Revolution coming back to life!”

“Are we to support those who burn private property and kill their masters! This is not a Southern problem, but a threat to civilization as a whole!”

What the British establishment—no, the European establishment—feared most was revolution from below. Abolishing slavery was fine. It was naturally a welcome thing. But slaves rising up, killing the masters who had been oppressing them, and overturning the country was by no means a good sign. Who knew what side effects would occur if this flowed into Europe.

But very fortunately, Prime Minister Palmerston had enough time to prepare for this situation in advance.

“So this was the event that would change public opinion, which the Baron’s informant spoke of. It is a very… surprising and shocking commotion.”

“Prime Minister.”

“I know. Parliament currently welcomes the abolition of slavery, but it would be a big problem if this were to give false hope to terrible communists.”

Palmerston decided to play the trump card he had prepared, as discussed in advance with Baron Eldery. The point was that he just had to make it clear that this black uprising was not a riot to overturn the state.

The next day, the official commentary on the front page of The Times was as follows.

The article clearly defined that the situation in Georgia was not an anti-state protest like a revolution. The uprising in the South was not a riot, but God’s judgment on a group that maintained the barbaric institution of slavery. It was not an anti-state protest. To begin with, the South was not even a nation recognized by Europe.

This commentary was a kind of signal flare thrown ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into the European diplomatic community.

“The South is barbaric, and to begin with, they are not a nation, but merely a union of malicious landlords who squeezed slaves!”

“Our British Empire foresaw this very situation, which is why we abolished the slave trade and put so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠much effort into making slavery disappear from the world. This is also the dignity of the British Empire, which foresaw the future….”

“The collapse of a group that maintained slavery is the natural order of things, and this can be proven by the Georgia struggle.”

It was already disgusting that country bumpkins who just sold cotton were acting like aristocrats, so once public opinion was set, there was no need to worry about what others thought.

All of Europe, including Britain and France, issued official expulsion orders to the Confederate diplomatic envoys who had been knocking on doors trying to get at least a meeting. It was the moment the South received a diplomatic death sentence.