Wilfred B. Tomkinson

Wilfred Banford Tomkinson (5th June 1838 - 8th December 1899) was a Vesperian politician and social reform advocate who served as the 36th President of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1899. One of the founding members of the Progressive Party, Tomkinson was the first Progressive Party president in Vesperian history. Prior to his presidency, Tomkinson served as a Member of the Notonia State House of Representatives for the 17th Williamston district. In 1890, he was elected to the United States Senate as a Senator from Notonia, and took his seat in 1891. In 1896, he put himself forward as the Progressive Party's nomination for President of the United States, battling incumbent Federalist president Martin R. Townsend. He received the nomination essentially by acclamation, as he was one of the most popular figures of the progressive movement. Tomkinson proved extremely popular thanks to his platform of sharing wealth and standing up for the worker, which won him massive support among the lower classes. He won the 1896 election by what is considered a landslide, winning 53.3% of the popular vote, 185 electoral votes and 11 states (as well as the District of Charton). He served as president for two and a half years, pioneering significant social reform throughout his term before his assassination in December 1899.

Tomkinson began his career involved in the administration of several labour unions in his home state of Notonia. Later, he would move to Charton and become involved in several left-wing political circles, and became part of a group of progressives who were unhappy with the Whig Party, believing them far too similar to the Federalists in policy. In 1885, Tomkinson was part of a group of four who formally registered the Progressive Party with the Federal Electoral Board, creating an official political party. As time went on, support for the Whigs continued to drop and support for the Progressives continued to rise, which ultimately led to the Progressives overtaking the Whigs as the primary opposition to the Federalists. Tomkinson was later elected to the United States Senate, in which he served from 1891 until 1897. While in the senate, he became well-known for his controversial views, which were considered extreme by many of the political moderates of the day. His outspoken nature and willingness to fight publicly for the rights of the lower classes earned him much popularity among the lowest in society, and he won the presidency in 1896. The political establishment were always discontent with the Tomkinson presidency, and viewed his former Whig Vice President Ronald C. Pointon as a more acceptable choice. As a result of the controversy surrounding him, Tomkinson was gunned down while hosting a public meet-and-greet in Charton on December 5th, 1899. He died three days later, on December 8th, a day shy of the 14th anniversary of the founding of the Progressive Party. He was deeply mourned by the populace at large and by his party, who turned him into an almost martyred figure. He was succeeded by Vice President Pointon, who became the 37th President.

Youth
Wilfred Banford Tomkinson was born on June 5th, 1838, in Hanthrop, a village in the Williamston area of Notonia. He was the fifth child of Andrew and Mary Tomkinson, who together ran a failing farm and were relatively impoverished by the time of Wilfred's birth. The Tomkinson family were relatively prominent in Hanthrop, which was an extremely impoverished community which had long been neglected by local, state and federal authorities. As a result, he had a rural upbringing with modest means, which would go a long way in shaping his future frugality and care for the welfare of the poor. From a young age, Tomkinson showed remarkable precociousness and intelligence. Later in his youth, he became determined to be able to finance an education for himself, as his parents lacked the resources to provide quality education for their children. He worked several jobs throughout his childhood in an effort to scrape together enough money to afford further education, and continued to work night jobs as he attended school in the day. In his teens, while attending a campaign rally, he came into contact with Whig State Senator Hiram P. Michaels who recognised his ability and decided to apprentice the young Tomkinson. This marked a drastic turnaround in his life, as the childless Michaels adopted Tomkinson in all but name. Michaels sent Tomkinson to the University of Notonia, financing his education from then on.

After graduating from university, Tomkinson became involved in several political groups in favour of sweeping social reform within Vesperia. However, the political climate of the day was not on the side of these self-proclaimed "Progressives". Rather, the largest political issues of the day were the debates over slavery and states rights, with tensions in the south over these issues becoming increasingly heated.

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Background
Many elements of Vesperian society were growing increasingly discontent with the rapidness of the reform being engineered by the Tomkinson administration. Perhaps the loudest objections came from those within the Federalist Party, as well as several wealthy businessmen and industrialists. Increasingly high tax rates on the wealthy and never before seen levels of regulation within the economy led to outrage with the president. The anger grew so high that a plot soon began to form against the president - importantly though, this plot did not intend to murder the president, but rather to force his resignation. Ultimately, it came down to one dissident person involved in this plot to take matters into his own hands. This person was to be David Young, the son of the extremely wealthy business owner Martin Young, who was noted in the field of clothing manufacturing. Having developed a deeply personal hatred for the president and having several mental issues, David Young had hatched a plot of his own to kill President Tomkinson.

Shooting and Death
At 9:46am on December 5th, 1899, President Tomkinson left the White House, alongside his younger son Richard, to travel to Liberty Park, on the other side of the city, where he was to perform one of his regular meet-and-greets. Tomkinson always insisted on low levels of security - he had decided that he wished to be viewed as one of the people and did not think it appropriate to be surrounded by armed bodyguards as he talked with those who had come out to see him. This lack of security ultimately would prove to be the president's undoing. Initially, the meet-and-greet went well, the president conversing with several enthusiastic members of the public. Further on, however, David Young was waiting in the crowd for his target to come near. As the president made his way down the line of people, Young broke through the crowd, raised his gun, and fired seven shots in the direction of the president. Chaos erupted at once, the crowd began to panic and scream, with a stampede of people running away, which led to the trampling of four people - three of whom died. Two bullets hit the president's son, Richard, killing him almost instantly. One bullet struck the president directly in the chest, while another struck him in the leg. A bystander was hit by another bullet, which proved to be a severe but not fatal wound. Two of the bullets missed. Two men near Young jumped upon him at once, wrestling the gun from his grip and pinning him to the floor as police charged toward the scene. The president was severely wounded, being quickly taken back to the presidential carriage and rushed back to the White House, where a team of doctors were quickly assembled.

President Tomkinson was mortally wounded by the shot to the chest, which had severed an artery in his heart and caused severe (but at that time unnoticed) internal bleeding. The bullet had lodged itself in the president's chest and it was determined that it would do more harm to attempt to remove the bullet than to leave it in. The President regained consciousness on November 7th, which led to some initial hope for a recovery. He was told of the death of his son on the evening of November 7th, which caused him so much grief that he slipped back into unconsciousness. He would not awake again. Vice President Pointon was quickly summoned to Charton (he was at an engagement in Merland at the time), with the expectation that he would be sworn in as Acting President in the hope that President Tomkinson would recover. First Lady Josephine Tomkinson, who had been visiting their former home in Notonia at the time, rushed back to Charton to be with her husband when she received the news. She would not make it back in time to see his final moments. President Wilfred B. Tomkinson died at 11:38am, on the morning of December 8th 1899. According to doctors after examination, the cause of death was internal bleeding caused by the gunshot wound to his chest. The outpouring of grief throughout the nation was immense - many flowers and tributes were left outside the gates of the White House. Vice President Ronald C. Pointon was quickly sworn in as President of the United States at 12:03pm. Pointon later commented, "God knows I wanted the presidency, but not this way."

Aftermath and Legacy
David Young, the now successful assassin, was tried from March until September 1900. Both major presidential candidates in the 1900 presidential election, Ronald C. Pointon and Louis M. Hamilton, took an active interest in the trial and campaigned for the assassin to be brought to justice. Young's attorneys argued that he should not be executed on the grounds of diminished responsibility - his mental capacity was under question. The trial was highly publicised, and Young himself showed no remorse for killing President Tomkinson. During his trial, Young said, "God told me to put Tomkinson to death because he was destroying everything that makes this country great." Lead Judge Thomas J. Palmont debated for several months with his team whether or not diminished responsibility was significant justification. In addition, Young's wealthy father had launched a campaign to spare Young from death, instead pressing for him to simply be sentenced to life in prison for his crime. Ultimately, however, Palmont ruled that diminished responsibility was not a justification in this case and that Young "would have to face the ultimate consequence for the murder of the President of the United States." Palmont therefore sentenced Young to death by electric chair, with the sentence to be carried out in November 1900, just over a year after the murder of President Tomkinson. Young was put to death on November 13th 1900, by three jolts in the electric chair. His body was tossed into a pauper's grave on the prison grounds. His father, Martin Young, committed suicide by gunshot two years later.

Tomkinson became a martyr for the Progressive cause, as it was believed that the primary motivation for his murder was his political convictions. Tomkinson remains a venerated figure amongst Reformist members of the Progressive Party and the shock and horror of his assassination has been remembered by many in the decades which followed. Tomkinson's political legacy was immense - he left a huge mark on the nation which could not be erased, and his assassination forever engraved him in the minds of the people as an almost mythical figure. Several Progressive politicians would make the claim to be attempting to continue the legacy of President Tomkinson, most notably famous 1920 presidential candidate and Senator Richard M. Wallace. His surviving son, George C. Tomkinson, has said that anyone claiming to carry the banner of his father is "bogus" and that "nobody else could stand up to everything that he [Tomkinson] stood for."