Isaiah Landon

Isaiah Clayton Landon (November 5, 1817 – April 13, 1874) was an -born Sierran politician best known for his instrumental role in the Sierran Civil War as the leader of the self-proclaimed Second California Republic and the Republican faction. Known for his vitriolic disdain for monarchism and Jacobitism, Landon was an avowed republican, and in his later years, a very vocal, and amassed support from large segment of Sierran workers and farmers, primarily those from the Styxie. His legacy, particularly with his controversial military decisions, has become ubiquitous with public perception of republicanism in Sierra, either as vilified, dangerous, and incendiary by opponents or revered as brave, heroic, and passionate.

Hailed as a republican and a socialist, Landon's opposition to the Sierran monarchy ultimately failed. Following his surrender at the end of the civil war in 1877, Landon was placed on a lifelong house arrest at his Fresno residence. Landon represented one of the most prominent republican figures in Sierran history, and was among the last of the so-called "Radical Democratic-Republicans" leaders who advocated for the abolition of the monarchy in the 19th century.

Landon is one of the best-known republicans and socialists in Anglo-America, and spent the remaining eleven years after the war under, writing the majority of his works criticizing monarchism, capitalism, and social blights in Sierra, including his most famous work, Exploitation in the Modern Age. While Landon has been revered romantically in contemporary times as a revolutionary, his military tactics, especially those towards the end of the civil war, and his governance as the Republic's only chairman have been met with controversy, and has attracted criticism. Landon is also the paternal grandfather of Robert Landon (1901-1909), Sierra's 9th Prime Minister who was a Democratic-Republican.

In America
Isaiah Landon was born to Henry Landon and his wife Abigail Whitman, on November 5, 1817 in,. The eldest of six children, Landon's family was poor and lived as non-slaveholding. Unable to afford higher education, Landon stopped after completing eighth grade and worked on the farm with his father and brothers, picking tobacco and other crops. Although Landon spent much of his childhood and young adulthood on the farm, he developed an interest in politics, law, and philosophy. Never attending a university, Landon was largely self-taught, as he frequently visited the local library, attended local town meetings and engaged in public forums, expressing his opinions and seeking to solve issues. Landon eventually found work as a journalist, earning enough money to provide for his family. Although Landon did not approve of slavery, he believed that it was a fundamental and entrenching institution of the South and according to his personal journals, he at one point, planned to own several when he was able afford to.

Landon met his future wife, Martha Rita Cunningham in 1843 while working on a story in Charleston. Although they were friends, Landon developed romantic feelings for Cunningham, love that was temporarily unrequited solely because Cunningham's family was wealthier while the Landons were poor. Determined, Landon began searching for additional jobs away from the farm in addition to reporting, and worked on a workshop, before contracting in 1848. Physically ruined, news of gold and clean air in California prompted Landon to use his savings to travel there. Cunningham, who was disowned by her family over irreconcilable differences, ran off with Landon together and embarked on a six-month journey in a clipper to San Francisco City.

In California
Arriving to California penniless, as the cost of the journey was all his savings, Landon and Cunningham were thrown into after they failed to afford their shipping company's extraneous fees. During Landon's captivity, his health had greatly deteriorated, and he nearly collapsed in the midst of hard, physical labor, and was forced to be nursed back by an on-site physician. After four months locked in a San Francisco City jail, the two were released, and were taken in by a friendly society of American socialists in the city. The friendly society, known as the Benevolent Association of Freeman (later renamed the Bay Area Republicans), which consisted of individuals with and  ideas, strongly influenced Landon's views, and shaped his ideology and later attitudes toward monarchism. After spending a little more than 8 months in the company of the Benevolent Association, Landon and Cunningham set off for Sacramento, in hopes of finding enough gold to settle and establish a farm somewhere in the Central Valley, and potentially form an experiment community based on the Benevolent Association's ideals and tenets.

When Landon and Cunningham arrived to Sacramento, he encountered the lawlessness and chaotic conditions that were commonplace around the gold mines. When Landon attempted to stake his own area for mining, he was viciously beaten by a group of prospectors who claimed he was trespassing their property. Fleeing, he and his fiancé departed to Juno (then known as Knights Camp) where Landon tried to set up his own newspaper there instead of searching for gold. He had developed reservations on undertaking a life in agriculture, believing it was in his purpose to educate others. He created The Working Knight's Gazette which focused on social justice and problems in the minefields, and managed to circulate a few hundred papers for five issues before he was forced to close operations by local business owners who refused to subsidize his explicitly socialist views. Landon once again left, revisiting the idea of owning his own farm, but had gained his own posse of followers, who were intrigued by Landon's ideas.

In June 1851, settling in the outskirts of Bernheim, the most populous settlement in inland northern California, Landon and his followers purchased a large plot of land, where he founded the community of the Grace Colony, whose population peaked at 67. It was here where Landon finally married Cunningham, and had their first child, Joshua, born at the colony. From here, Landon was able to achieve his goal of producing a nationally read newspaper, raising objections to the ineffectiveness of the Californian government and its failure to improve the conditions of the exploited. He founded The Liberty Bell Press, which instantly became popular in not only in Bernheim, but throughout San Joaquin and Santa Clara, as it was cheap and affordable, and was "the voice of the people". Landon faced threats by ranch owners and statesmen alike, demanding that he cease publication, and so, in order to defend the integrity of the paper and his colony, Landon armed his followers, a move that was seen with great alarm by many Californians. His followers were ridiculed as "drunkard, faux-philosophers" and "illiterate, algerine hobbledehoys", and were mockingly called "Landonites", or the "Thirteenth Tribe of Israel".

When there was news that the government of California was holding a national convention to revise the constitution, Landon's supporters pressed for him to be invited, but the demand was flatly denied by the Convention, and Landon slammed the decision, decrying it as an act of "trampling and strangling democracy". Although Landon was unable to attend the Convention in 1857, he played a minor role, speaking with members of the Convention's republican faction, and offering his suggestions for the plans drafted up. Among the individuals he spoke with, he befriended future Sierran prime minister Ulysses Perry, who became a close friend and political ally of Landon.

In Sierra
When the Constitution of 1858 was ratified, transforming the Republic of California into the Kingdom of Sierra, Landon strongly opposed the change, heavily criticizing the new direction of the country, and joined the Democratic-Republicans. Although Landon's socialist ideas would not gain traction within the party, he was held with great esteem among the party for his affirmative republicanism, and concern for the welfare of the Sierran working class. Landon became a regional party director, overseeing party members in the Bernheim area, and urging his followers to vote in Democratic-Republicans. He frequently sparred with the landed aristocracy and titled farmers, and organized farmers' strikes in order to improve working conditions while he served party regional director.

Landon is credited with the development of labor unions and federations in Sierra, helping with the foundation and organization of the Order of Farming Countrymen and Brotherhood of Railroad Workers. Landon himself however, never formed his own labor organization, and nearly all of the unions which formed rejected Landon's socialism, as well anarchism, emphasizing instead, a "virtuous form of republicanism". Downplaying his own socialist ideas, Landon focused on promoting "class-conscious republicanism", and campaigned across the Styxie in garnering political consolidation into the various unions set up.

Political career
In 1869, several labor organizations and party leaders in San Joaquin encouraged voters in the upcoming elections the next year to vote for Landon. Landon, who had earned himself a reputable status as a fiery orator and highly prolific writer, became a household name among Democratic-Republican supporters and Royalist opponents alike throughout the country. The Grace Colony, which had disbanded, was still the residence of the Landon Family, and visitors flocked to the estate in hopes of meeting Landon. Landon began placing serious consideration in running for one of San Joaquin's two electable seats in the Senate, which was about to be vacated by incumbent Democratic-Republican Russell K. Deavy, who was stepping down after two terms in office, and did not intend to seek another term. By the end of the 1860s, San Joaquin had effectively become staunchly Democratic-Republican, and had a Democratic-Republican supermajority within its legislature. With no other Democratic-Republican challengers wishing to oppose the highly popular Landon, and no viable Royalist candidate, Landon ran virtually unopposed and won the 1870 senatorial election. In addition, his friend, Ulysses Perry, who had also gained immense popularity, was elected as Prime Minister, becoming the first Democratic-Republican to hold the office.

As a senator, Landon led the "Radical Democratic-Republican" wing in Parliament, grandstanding and striking down any laws that he believed advanced the institution of monarchy. He was highly, and refused to vote for any bills that included hidden s and taxes. Earning the nickname, "Old Man No", Landon was known for his lengthy filibustering speeches, disrupting sessions, and threatening to fight his own peers if they tried to interrupt him. On two instances, Landon was forcibly removed from the Senate chamber. An account by fellow Senator Marcus Bragg, 1st Lord Bragg (R-SF) wrote the following rather colorfully: "[Landon], the ornary fool went about waking snakes [causing a commotion], and was most considerable of a nuisance through his own shameful conniption [hysteria], disrupting the peace in these most sacred halls." Landon was an outspoken supporter for the, and supported laws to restrict the private monopolization of railroads and infrastructure. He frequently joined his friend, the Prime Minister Ulysses Perry, and fellow Senator Frederick Bailey (DR-SC) in criticizing the political influence of King Smith I, and called for an auditing of the Royal Family's personal finances, and demanded that the King be forced to attend parliamentary sessions requiring his royal assent.

On February 18, 1874, Prime Minister Perry was killed, and at the time, the circumstances of his death was unknown and officially categorized by the government as an apparent suicide. Although his body was not found, Perry's own bodyguards claimed that the prime minister was shot several times, before being tossed into the. Immediately following this, Landon, as many others, suspected that Perry's death was politically motivated and at foul play at the hands of the King and his supporters. Angered, Landon privately consoled the Perry family, and called for a thorough investigation on Perry's death, a motion that was delayed due to legal complications surrounding Perry's own death. In Perry's place, his deputy prime minister, Issac Johnson, succeeded Perry as Acting Prime Minister, but publicly came out stating that he agreed with the government's explanation (specifically, from the Royal Bureau of Investigation) on Perry's death, which was suicide. However, Landon noted that the two eyewitness accounts claiming Perry was shot several times proved inconsistent with a suicidal death. The Royal Bureau of Investigation asserted that Perry may have shot himself in the abdomen several times, before falling backwards into the river, and drowned.

Following the incident and the political drama that ensued, Landon first began contemplating an armed rebellion around March 1874. Private notes and accounts revealed that by that time, he had already devised a rudimentary plan to recruit his own followers, and unify republican clubs and unions in overthrowing the Sierran monarchy, and installing a republican regime. Seeking to avenge Perry's death, who was revered as a national hero, Landon returned to San Joaquin frequently, overseeing the training of his followers, and assessing the infrastructural ability of the Styxie in withstanding retaliation from the Kingdom. By 1874, the capital of Sierra had moved from San Francisco City to Porciúncula, over 350 miles further south, and virtually all of the institutions of government including the monarchy had relocated there. Landon believed that if he was able to seize control of San Francisco City, it would be possible for maintaining a firm control over his potential breakaway state, which he envisioned would be guided by republican principles.

Concurrently with Landon's own plans, the political culture of Sierra had become radicalized and polarized, with ordinary Democratic-Republicans angered by Perry's death, and staging protests, and in some cases, even violent riots and vandalism against government buildings. Finally, confident with the resources and popular support he had acquired, Landon made the decision to incite rebellion, and on April 13, 1874, Landon delivered an impassioned speech before citizens in Bernheim, urging citizens to take up arms, and to overthrow the monarchy. His speech, the Bernheim Address, listed various grievances the monarchy had allegedly committed against the people, and mirrored the language of the American. He called for the restoration of the California Republic, and the expunging of all monarchists who sought to undermine the Republic, and believed it was necessary for the common man to retake their nation, and rights against the upper echelons of Sierran society.

Sierran Civil War
Immediately following Landon's provocative speech, he personally led an armed storming of the San Joaquin Provincial Capitol and the Governor's Mansion, removing elected officials from their offices, and capturing other buildings, including the local ammunition depot. Many members of the Sierran Crown Armed Forces and law enforcement, rather than fight back, joined Landon's rebellion, and quickly led to a Bernheim firmly under republican control. News of Landon's speech, and the decisively successful takeover of Bernheim spread through telegram, inspiring other disgruntled citizens throughout the Styxie and beyond into revolting. Landon, realizing his own successes, declared himself the leader of the self-proclaimed Second California Republic, and founded the Standing Executive Committee, the republic's center of operations and administration, and served as its chairman. He appointed several of his own followers, as well as Senator Paul Peterson (DR-SJ), as sitting members of the Standing Executive Committee, and oversaw prominent generals including, Hubert Fisher, and Edmund York swear loyalty to him, and the Republic.

The Republic made rapid advances, taking over much of the Styxie within a month, taking advantage of the ill preparation of the Monarchist forces against the Republican forces through sheer, overwhelming forces and numbers. Landon's plan included seizing the former capital of San Francisco City, as well as the town of Monterrey, which would effectively allow Landon to control the entire northern part of Sierra comfortably. Landon also relied on the spontaneous rebellions that occurred throughout the Kingdom, in hopes of linking up with "liberated" towns as Landon's ultimate goal was to send troops southward, all the way to the capital of Porciúncula. The Republic's enormous gains in a relatively short time was attributed to Landon's delicate, and concise management and planning, as well as the fervent spirit among his followers in carrying out the cause. While the war waged on, Landon also oversaw providing basic utilities and essentials to his people, forming a legislature and working on a constitution. Landon distributed the land among the people, selling Republic-held land to farmers at exceptionally low prices, and incentivized them into producing crops efficiently. He encouraged workers and farmers to cooperate together, and allowed unions to organize local working projects and factories.

By the beginning of 1875, San Francisco and the surrounding region had already fallen to the Republic, and Landon diverted his attention to the south, commanding troops to begin marching towards the Southwest Corridor through. General Johnston, who was charged with leading the Republican forces through Tejon Pass, made the folly in believing the Monarchist forces were camped south of the pass in, rather than at the Pass itself. Miscalculating their location, Johnston and his men were ambushed, trapped, and brutally defeated. The event, now known as the Folly at Tejon Pass, was a pivotal moment in the Sierran Civil War which marked the downfall of the Republic. Following this crushing defeat, the Republic made no more significant advances, and instead, lost territory as the Kingdom launched an exhaustive counter-invasion campaign against Central Valley and beyond.