Nathan Hopley
| Nathan Hopley | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Hopley taken in 1900 from his "good side." | |
| 10th President of Libertas Omnium Maximus | |
| In office January 1, 1893 – January 1, 1899 | |
| Chancellor | Andrew Ramsey |
| Preceded by | Edgar Dalton |
| Succeeded by | William Baker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 8, 1836 Megaryon Plains, Provisional Iustitian Government |
| Died | September 16, 1909 (aged 73) Litudinem, Passarelle, Libertas Omnium Maximus |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Awards | Cross of Extraordinary Service |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Libertas Omnium Maximus |
| Years of service | 1853-1878 |
| Rank | Major |
| Unit | 11th Cavalry Regiment |
| Battles/wars | War of the Seven Provinces |
Nathan Hopley (May 8, 1836 - September 16, 1909) was a Maximusian conservative politician and military leader who served as the 10th President of Libertas Omnium Maximus from 1893 to 1899. A hero of the Great Frontier War, Hopley began his meteoric political career in 1886, becoming the first National Conservative governor of Elizabeth Province, the first National Conservative President of Libertas Omnium Maximus, and a figurehead for the conservative intellectual revival of the 1880s and '90s. After his retirement from politics following the end of his second presidential term, Hopley became chairman of the National Conservative Party's general operations committee, a position which he retained until 1906.
Early Life and Military Career[edit | edit source]
Nathan Hopley was born in 1836 in the Megaryon Plains region of what is today Elizabeth Province, one year before the outbreak of the Iustitian Civil War, to Daniel and Martha Hopley. His paternal grandmother was of mixed Khersonsic/Eonedic heritage, making him the first person not of full Eonedic ancestry to go on to become President of Libertas Omnium Maximus. Hopley received little formal education, working on the apple orchard of a neighbor for most of his adolescent years. At the age of 16 or 17, he enlisted in the Maximusian Army, initially serving as a bugler.
In 1857, Hopley was placed on a special commissioned officer track with the 11th Cavalry Regiment, which was subsequently deployed on a surveying expedition in the Empyrean Mountains of northern Libertas Omnium Maximus. During the expedition, Hopley lost a fingertip to frostbite and became completely deaf in his left ear after the regiment became trapped by an avalanche in February of 1859. Despite the disastrous turn of events, no men were lost over the course of the enterprise and Hopley was said to have demonstrated exemplary leadership during the ordeal. He spent the next decade of his career on a series of similar surveying and cartographic operations in northern and northwest Libertas Omnium Maximus. His men also assisted the Army Engineer Corps in constructing a telegraph line running through the high desert of western Cambria in 1866.
At the onset of the War of the Seven Provinces, Hopley's regiment was stationed near the border of Lematre Province and was among the first regular units to be mobilized following the declaration of war on April 12th, 1875. [...] During a skirmish with entrenched Laeralite militia forces on June 11, 1877, Hopley was grievously wounded by an artillery salvo, leading to the loss of his left eye. He spent the remainder of the war in a field hospital and was honorably discharged in March of 1878. He was later honored with the Cross of Extraordinary Service, the second highest Maximusian military decoration, for his "heroism in combat and intrepid leadership in wartime."
Political Career[edit | edit source]
In the years following his discharge, Hopely became a vocal advocate for the establishment of a federal-level veterans' pension fund, which had been suggested by a number of progressive legislators since the early 1870s but was never passed into law. He even considered running for an elected administrative position within the short lived Fraternitas Universalis, a precursor political movement to the Progressive Citizen's Party, but left the organization as a result of fundamental political and religious disagreements with other members. He remained committed to expanding government benefits to veterans for the rest of his life.