Joseph C. Hartley

Joseph Clifton Hartley, Jr. (born 13th February 1873) is a Vesperian politician, trade unionist and former steel worker currently serving as the member of the United States House of Representatives for Winhesia's third congressional district, a position he has held since he was first elected to the house in 1903, being elected by the same district in each election afterward. A member of the Progressive Party, he has been a noted figure in Vesperian politics since his entry into the house. Heavily aligned with the reformist faction of the Progressives, he has maintained a long influence in the Progressive Party due to his national fame. He was the Progressive Party's Vice Presidential nominee for the 1920 United States presidential election - which he and Thomas R. Wilson lost to incumbent President Frederick R. Hamilton - and the party's presidential nominee in the 1928 United States presidential election, which he lost to incumbent President Sebastian R. Olson.

Youth
Joseph C. Hartley was born in Treston, West Winhesia, on February 13th, 1873, the son of Joseph C. Hartley, Sr. and the French-born immigrant Thérèse Baudelaire. He was born out of wedlock into an extremely poor family, his parents being engaged to marry at the time of his birth. Five months prior to his birth the ongoing Vesperian Civil War led the family to move out of Winhesia, which had sided with the Confederate States, and into the breakaway West Winhesia, which sided with the United States. His father, who was desperate for money, decided to enlist with the Union Army in the hopes of making some money to send back to his struggling family. Hartley would thus never truly meet his father, as the elder Hartley was killed in active service in May 1873, just three months after the birth of his son. After the death of his father, he and his mother received a very small pension from the United States Army, though this was not enough to live on. After the end of the civil war, they moved back to Winhesia. His mother was forced to take a job as a seamstress, while Hartley's paternal grandmother took the struggling pair to live in her modest apartment in Louisberg, Winhesia. His mother would die in 1886 after contracting Tuberculosis, leaving Hartley orphaned and in the custody of his grandmother at the age of thirteen. His grandmother would die just two years later, in 1888, leaving Hartley in the custody of his uncle, William Hartley, and his wife Elizabeth.

Steel Work
Hartley attended a very run-down and underfunded school and received only a basic education. Despite his financial disadvantages, he was considered gifted and was encouraged to attempt to win a scholarship at Anston University, one of Winhesia's top universities. He was ultimately unsuccessful in his bid to gain a scholarship, so left education at the age of sixteen. He immediately went into work at a steel mill in southern Louisberg, where he would earn a very basic wage. He continued to live with his uncle in this time (who worked at the same steel mill) who attempted to give him some additional financial support to help the younger Hartley become self-sufficient. At age nineteen, he had scraped together enough money to move out of his uncle's house, and moved into a shared apartment with three others. He continued his work in the steel mill, where he would become involved with one of the most prominent steel trade unions. He was involved in several walkouts from the mill, becoming a campaigner for better pay and improved worker's rights.

Union Leader
He rose to become the leader of the Louisberg Union of Steel Workers, now mixing his time between performing steel work himself and leading the charge for improved conditions and higher wages. In 1896, he joined the Winhesia Social Democratic Party, a minor political party which had not seen any electoral success. He was encouraged to run for Mayor of Louisberg in 1897 as the Social Democratic candidate, and he did so. However, he was defeated in the mayoral race by the Federalist candidate, leaving him to drop any political ambitions for the time being. He continued his work as a union leader for several more years, being responsible for an extremely notable strike in late 1897 and early 1898 which gained national attention. After the resolution of the strike, which saw an increase in the wages of the workers and improved working conditions, he was invited to the White House by then President Wilfred B. Tomkinson, who congratulated him on the success. After their meeting, he joined the Progressive Party. Tomkinson encouraged Hartley to pursue a seat in congress, which he did in the 1898 midterm elections. He was unsuccessful in gaining a seat, however. He would thus continue his work in the union until 1902, when the local Progressive organisation urged him to run for congress again. He did so, running an energetic campaign in the highly industrialised Louisberg, which comprised the majority of Winhesia's third congressional district. His youth, and his personal experiences in industry and with poverty, earned him popularity in the area. In the local election, he defeated the Federalist candidate by a landslide, becoming a member of congress.

First Four Terms (1903 - 1911)
A newcomer to Charton politics, Hartley was immediately viewed as an outsider by the politicians of the time and snubbed by many of the establishment politicians, even by some members of his own party, particularly the Whig faction. Upon his entry into congress, the Progressives had lost their majority in the house, and the house became dominated by the rival Federalist Party under Speaker William T. Hunter. Essentially in political limbo at the beginning of his term, he began to align with a faction of reformists within the Progressive Party, particularly associated with then three-term Merland Congressman Richard M. Wallace. Meanwhile, Hartley had a dislike for the incumbent Progressive President Ronald C. Pointon, who was a former Whig and was one of the people whom Hartley deemed "a Progressive in name only", those who were members of the Progressive Party but were generally not aligned with the original values of the party as outlined by Tomkinson. In the 1904 presidential election, Pointon declined to run, and Hartley endorsed fellow congressman John F. Howard for the Progressive nomination. Howard was defeated by Notonia Senator Maldon J. Bryant, who became the nominee, before he was ultimately defeated in the general election by the Federalist nominee, Winhesia Governor Christopher D. Hawkins. In congress, Hartley became known for his furious arguments in favour of improving conditions for the poorest in Vesperian society and his insistence on the breaking of monopolies held by the ultra-rich. He often came into conflict in the house with then Totford congressman Frederick R. Hamilton, who would go onto become Governor of Totford and later the 40th President of the United States. Throughout Hartley's first four terms, the Federalists retained a majority in the House of Representatives, which would be changed in 1911.

Fifth through Ninth Terms (1911 - 1920)
The Progressives gained a majority in the 1910 midterm elections, which created a new Progressive-dominated house in the congress beginning in 1911. Former Minority Leader Charles G. Herrod now became the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Hartley surprisingly approved of Herrod. Although he was not as progressive in his ideals as Hartley was, Herrod was sympathetic to many of the ideals promoted by Tomkinson, the founder of the Progressive Party. With the Progressives in the majority in the house, Hartley received the chairmanship of the House Select Committee on Labour, in which he would attempt to promote sweeping reforms of labour laws. The Labour Committee proposed more bills than it had ever done before during Hartley's chairmanship, though many of these bills were either struck down by Whigs in the Progressive caucus, or by the Federalist senate, or by the Federalist President Christopher D. Hawkins himself. In 1912, Hartley attempted to encourage Wallace to run for president, but without success. The nomination was instead won by former Vice President Nelson F. Edwards, another former Whig politician, who Hartley reluctantly endorsed for the sake of party unity. Edwards would go on to win the election against the fractured Federalist Party, ushering in another era of Progressive Party dominance in Vesperian politics, controlling the presidency and the house. Hartley became one of the most rebellious representatives when it came to voting against government bills, many of which he believed did not go far enough, or contradicted Progressive ideals. After Wallace left the House of Representatives in 1913 and entered the senate, Hartley became the effective leader of the more reformist faction within the house.

Later, in 1916, Hartley again reluctantly endorsed Edwards in the presidential election as it became clear that he would not be unseated as the party's nominee. However, in the general election, Edwards was defeated in a landslide by the Federalist nominee, Hartley's old rival in the house, Frederick R. Hamilton, who became president in March 1917. Hartley was appalled by the results of Hamilton's presidency, including Vesperian intervention into the Great War and the subsequent attempts to crush worker strikes in several states, most notably the Merland strikes in 1919 and 1920. He viewed Hamilton's policies as extremely damaging to the country at large, and believed they sowed extreme class division in Vesperia. As a result, when the 1920 election came around and Wallace announced his intention to run for the Progressive nomination, he spent a bit of time in Winhesia campaigning on behalf of Wallace, due to the fact that Winhesia held extremely strong delegate significance in the primaries. However, polls in Winhesia remained firmly for Wilson, the Whig faction's favourite candidate to win the nomination. In late March, as the tide was very much in Wilson's favour, Hartley gave his support to the Senator and endorsed him. He said that he hoped to work with Wilson on crafting a progressive platform for the party to run on and preserving party unity.

1920 Vice Presidential campaign
Early during the Progressive Party's 1920 presidential primaries, he supported Senator Richard M. Wallace. However, as time went on and the primaries swung in favour of Senator Thomas R. Wilson, Hartley endorsed Wilson in order to have a say in the party's platform. During April, a deal was struck between Wilson and Hartley, in which Wilson offered the Vice Presidential nomination to Hartley. Hartley would accept, and in late April he was announced as the Progressive Party's Vice Presidential nomination for the 1920 election, solidifying the Wilson-Hartley ticket. His selection was strategic, firstly in an effort to win over Reformist Progressives and Wallace voters, and to win over Winhesians by nominating one of their own. Early in the campaign, it appeared as though the Progressives would easily sweep the election, defeating Hamilton, as Senator Wilson began with a strong lead in national polls. However, the race began to significantly tighten as time went on, thanks in part to a recovery of the economy, a strong campaign from President Hamilton and the issue of the Progressives having to defend from attacks on two fronts, both from Hamilton and Frank H. Cassidy. The result was inconclusive on election night, with the states of Mancehamia and Pencia being contested, but ultimately the Wilson-Hartley ticket was defeated by Hamilton after the latter achieved victory in Mancehamia. Most devastatingly, Hamilton had carried Hartley's home state of Winhesia, which he was deeply upset by.

Marriages and Family
In 1892, he met Madeline Matthews, and would begin dating her. They married the year later, though the marriage quickly deteriorated. They found that in truth they had little in common, and Madeline became alienated from her husband due to his political agitation and involvement with the unions causing him to be away from home for long periods of time. They divorced in 1895, having had no children, and she would move away to Merland. He then remained alone for the next seven years, before he met Abigail Williams in 1902. She had volunteered to work on his campaign for congress, and the two quickly became close. They began a relationship, later marrying in 1905. They'd have two children: the first, Claudia, was born on 10th October 1908. The second, William, was born on 5th June 1913. He was adoring of his family, and did his best to give his children a comfortable life in comparison with the hardship he himself had sustained in his youth. As a congressman, he lived in a simple townhouse in Charton with his family, while maintaining an apartment for use in his district in Louisberg.