Northern Confederation: Difference between revisions

Although the Great Confederation was ultimately fluid, some of the most important governing institutions of the Northern Confederation were in existence for all or a majority of its existence. For the first century after the Great Confederation, the central body was an institution translated as the National Conference which served as the only unifying element of the Confederation. In the first five decades of the Confederation, the National Conference met once or twice a year in different cities across the Confederation. This first Conference had few direct powers, instead serving as an arbitration board and a committee of correspondence, ensuring that important issues affecting Confederation members were known to the other members. In this form, the Conference usually met with 15 to 40 delegates. The delegates were not elected or chosen by their nation; instead, a number of trusted and well-known individuals were chosen by the nations, often more than one nation at a time. This class of men, a kind of pseudo-{{wp|lobbyist}}, would usually come from healers or other respected, learned men throughout the Confederation. In time, however, the motives of this class of delegate was called into question, as some who represented multiple nations would receive bribes to favor the interests of one of their clients over another. In [[1741]], such a conflict of interest sparked a riot in Kaigwa, where the Conference met, precipitating a number of changes. The national heads and councils of the Confederation's members imprisoned the learned men and replaced them with chosen delegates from among their number. The post-1741 Conference then employed a one-nation, one-vote scheme, and accordingly the number of delegates expanded dramatically. It also took on additional legislative powers after 1741. This form of the Conference persisted through the enactment of the Received Guidances in [[1847]]. By that period, the National Conference adopted a three session a year schedule meeting in April, July, and October, rotating host cities but usually held in Kaigwa, [[Housatonic]], and elsewhere; the prominence of these cities, which became a prominent cultural feature of Confederation life, led to the establishment of National Conference halls in these cities. These buildings became politically divisive and represented the growing imbalance of power in Confederation members. The most prominent members of the Confederation began to agitate for proportional representation rather than one-nation, one-vote representation.