Ulysses Perry

    

His Excellency Ulysses Perry MP, PC
Official Portrait of Perry in 1872
3rd Prime Minister of Sierra
In office January 13th, 1874 – February 14th, 1874
Monarch	Charles I
Deputy	Issac Johnson
Preceded by	Richard Trist
Succeeded by	Issac Johnson
In office June 5th, 1867 – June 5th, 1872
Preceded by	Richard Trist
Succeeded by	Richard Trist
Member of the K.S. House of Commons for San Joaquin's 1st district
In office November 27, 1858 – Feburary 14, 1874
Preceded by	William D. Herbert
Succeeded by	Rupert Cromwell
Personal details
Born	May 9, 1828 San Joaquin Valley, Alta California, Mexico
Died	February 14, 1874 (age 45) Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, San Joaquin, K.S.
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s)	Catherine Perry
Children	Joseph John Isaiah Clair Gregory Alexander
Residence	Getty House
Profession	Lawyer Solider Farmer Writer
Religion	Roman Catholic 1828 - 1845 Deist

Part of a series on the
Republicanism in Sierra
Organizations Antimo Bear Flag Movement National Republican Party New Republican Caucus Sierran Liberation Army Sierran Republican Army Social Democrats United Farmers' Front
Individuals Mark Bishop Carson Davis Robert Pike Ermert Isaiah Landon Ulysses Perry G. R. Santiago Christopher Shephard Trevor XI Luis Ochoa Gutierrez
History California Republic Constitution Convention Sierran Civil War Second California Republic Convention of 1903 Sierran Cultural Revolution Opposition The Disturbances Assassination of Steven Hong Red Rock Castle crisis
Ideology Abolitionism Anti-monarchism Democracy Federalism Provincial rights Republicanism Revolution Separatism Socialism Communism Landonism
Related topics Democratic-Republican Party of Sierra Monarchism in Sierra Landon family Styxie
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Ulysses Perry (born Ulysses Alexander Perry; May 9, 1828–February 14, 1874) was a Sierran lawyer, writer, statesman and politician who served two terms as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sierra from 1867 to 1870 and January 1874 until his death in February of that year. Previously he had served as the first Leader of the Opposition from 1858 to 1867 and 1872 until 1874. The founder of the Democratic-Republican Party and served as its leader from 1858 up until his mysterious death in 1874.

In 1838, Perry and his family were forced to leave after Mexican soldiers forced their removal, destroying their crops and property. In 1845, out of retaliation, Ulysses formed an underground militia with his father to fight against the Mexican forces around his home of Sacramento. He was captured and was brutally abused, which after escaping, he was reported as becoming more brute and harsh with the oppressing forces as a direct result of the event.

Never attending university, Ulysses was taught by instruction by his mother through the Bible and classical literature. During his youth, he was forced to speak Spanish at church services, and was also knowledgeable in Latin. He was particularly interested in translating books from Spanish to English, forming the private collection for the incoming Prime Ministers.

After the war, Perry was instrumental in supporting the interests of the farmer and common man. He was a vocal Republican and was supportive in forming the California Republic. He was elected as a local representative for the short-lived nation. It was not until the 1858 did Perry become a radical Republican, and developed a deep hatred of the newly appointed King Charles I. Vowing to reduce or even eliminate the powers of the monarchy, he was elected to the Parliament of Sierra with several other of his subordinates under the party name of the Democratic-Republican Party of Sierra in the first election in 1858. He and his fellow party men supported the ideals of agrarianism, republicanism, protectionism and early forms of progressivism.

After forming the Democratic-Republican Party, he ran as the party's nominee for Prime Minister in the 1858 Sierran federal election and while he lost, he served as a major opposition leader of the Royalist Party before being elected Prime Minister in the 1867 Sierran federal election and formed the first Democratic-Republican government in Sierran history. Perry would develop a major fued with Louis I which defined his premiership along with his struggle with the Royalists who sought to prevent Perry from abolishing the monarchy. Perry would remain in office in both the August 1869 election and September elections due to his popularity as a war-time leader during the War of Contingency, though he eventually lost the 1872 Sierran federal election and remained as Leader of the Opposition until the January 1874 Sierran federal election.

On February 14, 1874, Perry was found missing in his home and his body was found later that day. His death was ruled a suicide and was given a state funeral, but his death caused major issues and tensions to emerge as his death was accused of being a murder ordered by the monarchy and/or the Royalists. This lead to the instigation of the Sierran Civil War where Isaiah Landon, Senator for San Joaquin and ally of Perry in the Senate, lead the republicans against the monarchy in the war as head of the Second California Republic. The war ended in 1877 with a monarchist victory and the nation's support for the monarchy was intensified post-war.

In the modern era, Perry's premiership has become highly controversial, though historic assessment rates Perry's tenure positively. The issue is focused on Perry's desire to abolish the monarchy and support for republicanism, which remains controversial in modern Sierra. While the official story is that Perry had committed suicide, a substantial portion of Sierrans believe that Perry was assassinated. In the modern era, Perry is regarded as a hero in the modern Sierran republican movement and remains a major folkhero with many calling him a "saint" of the movement.

Early life

Ulysses was born on May 9, 1828 to Sebastian and Susan Perry in a remote location in the San Joaquin Valley. His family were illegally squatting the the Mexican province, yet upon the discovery by the Mexican government, agreed to stay if they converted to Roman Catholicism. Ulysses was taught in both Latin and Spanish at the local churches school and sought to become an ordained priest. He was fascinated by older literature and slowly lost his religious touch by the age of 16 when he had stolen books from a local abandoned white settlers home. Enjoying the writing of Thomas Paine and the ideals presented in The Age of Reason, Ulysses formally declared in his journal as a child that he had renounced his belief in Christianity and instead believed in a deistic conception of God.

It was at the age of 16 that his family was evicted from their home by the Mexican government. They were told to return to America but refused in doing so and instead ventured north to settle in the city of Sacramento. It was here Ulysses founded a local guerrilla warfare group that participated in raids targeting Mexican camps and caravans. The group gained the name of "Northern Gringos" after several Mexican papers began reporting them as so in the capital city of Mexico City. Perry was a high-priority target among local politicians and he evaded capture twice.

It was during the Mexican–American War that Ulysses began taking into account in his personal memoirs of his group's actions. He declared ambitions for a Californian Republic, independent from both the United States and the Mexican Empire. Following the Republic's independence, Perry continued patrolling his home area with his militia.

On a hot summer day in June 1848 that Perry recorded him and his group catching settlers from the South transporting illegal slaves into California. The situation divulged into a argument and finally a violent confrontation, ending with Ulysses killing all five of the armed slave owners. Ulysses gave safe passage for the slaves to Sacramento, yet was questioned by his followers for allowing "impurity" into the land. Ulysses was quoted saying to his men, "It is the duty for us to right the wrongs of our brothers- for their sin is ours to bare and we will not let men be shackled and then emancipate them only to be sent into the wilderness to die. I will not have it. "

Gaining much of his wealth from attacking incoming slave traders and attacking caravans, he and his group established farms around the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and settled down from their troublesome lives. It was suspected that during Ulysses' lifetime, he had killed up to 55 men. He established a local public school that he and his former group provided generous donations to upkeep. The school was regarded as the most prestigious education campus in the country, and would later take on the name of University of Sierra, Bernheim. It was during his life as a farmer that he met his wife Catherine Aston, a much like minded individual of Ulysses. She was a suspected atheist and supporter of racial intermarriage. She was also a prominent speaker for women's suffrage.

Early political career

The political stability of the Californian Republic began to crumble and the nation created a constitutional committee. Perry was selected as a delegate and traveled to the committee to create a new constitution. Siding with the republican factions, he failed short of a completely republican nation as moderates favored compromise with the royalists. The Constitution of 1858 was declared with the formation of a monarchy and the California Republic was dissolved in favor of the Kingdom of Sierra. Smith Charles Miller, the president of the delegation, was chosen as the kingdom's first sovereign, a man whom Ulysses took deep hatred for. Attending the coronation at San Francisco alone, Ulysses claims in his memoirs to "...witness the staining of our country..". Ulysses formed the Democratic-Republican Party a day after the coronation, and rallied support from the farmers of the Central Valley, women who sought suffrage, and those who opposed a national bank. When Smith appointed a Governor in San Joaquin and other Central Valley provinces while serving as interim prime minister, Ulysses used this to ride into the election of 1870 as the Royalists and the King were outward opponents to democracy.

After forming the Democratic-Republican Party, Perry ran in the 1858 Sierran federal election, the first election in Sierra to the newly formed House of Commons against the Royalist Party lead by Frederick Bachelor, Sr. where he and his party won 17 seats which made up the opposition. Throughout the 1860s, Perry would help form and organize the Official Opposition and to oppose the Royalist government of Frederick Bachelor, Sr. and later Richard Trist.

Prime Minister

First ministry

Elected in 1870, he assumed the popular vote of nearly 54.8% against the Royalist candidate Richard Trist, whom many of the Democratic-Republican painted as a 'dog with his tale between his legs' and that Ulysses was a commanding individual who was in the best interests of the people rather than the businessman or the crown. He gained the most support from the the densely populated rural areas of northern California. It was during the election that suspicions of his wife became publicized and the religious right used the couples non-religious standings as "Satanic". Ulysses swore in on a copy of a Kings James Version Bible, which did settle much of the accusation, but the general tone of the couple remained negative in the more religious areas of the nation.

As prime minister, Ulysses restricted the power of the Royal Monetary Authority of Sierra, lowered tariff rates, and promoted the adoption of the silver standard. He and Parliament passed legislation capping the power of big business in Sierra including a myriad of antitrust laws. In addition, a hallmark of Ulysses' tenure as prime minister was checking the power of the king. It was Ulysses' desire to abolish the monarchy altogether but deciding to reserve such a plan toward the end of his term, he attempted to restrict Smith's power by holding a parliamentary convention to review and revise sections of the Constitution pertaining to the monarchy.

Perry returned to the nation's capital of that year around October, his party fared well with the midterm elections and processed a solid majority. He passed sweeping laws such as subsidizing many farming activities (with unprecedented support from his own rival, the King) and began major public works that assisted the growth of industry. His highly protective trade tariffs prevented cheap goods from flooding Sierran markets and allow for a local factory boom in San Francisco City and Oakland. He supported higher taxes on the wealthy, yet gave incentives to grow business in the western empire.

In the early spring of 1874, he passed legislation that enforced secular standings within the county, penalizing any religious favoritism within the country and reaffirming the kingdom's separation of church and state. He and the Parliament Democratic-Republicans began drawing up plans to dismantle the Crown of Sierra; they wanted to usher in a presidential republic, a goal that would be achieved through a constitutional convention. With such plans being drawn up against the very basis of the country, conservative sediment grew from generally negative to hostile.

Death of Catherine Perry

On July 2, 1872, his wife was found dead in middle of the night by a groundskeeper. It wasn't a week until Ulysses found out the incident while drafting a bill to mandate protectionist policies on imported goods from Mexico. He was distraught, and feel into a deep depression. He left the Parliamentary secession, which the Royalists rejected and demanded the secession continue; in deep anger with the already rowdy members ordered guards to escort them out and not allow them to reentry. Returning to his estate, he discovered that his wife's death was a homicide conducted by an unknown suspect or suspects. Ulysses already began to draw connections to the religious right, the royalists and ultimately the King. While condolences were rampant from all sides, Ulysses proclaimed in his memoirs "...I will purge this world of the self-righteous fanatics, their King...[and] their parliamentary members. "

Assassination

Main article: Assassination of Ulysses Perry

On February 14, Ulysses returned to his estate to burn his home to the ground after claiming that he was being haunted by his wife's restless ghost who could not pass on to Heaven. The burning was conducted during an intense tule fog and requested that his armed guards leave him so he could walk the same route he walked with his wife along the San Joaquin when she was still alive. He said to the guards, "My greatest grief is the loss of my love of my life. I only hope that in the eternal dream that we may walk arm in arm along the River of Styx like we did along the Sacramento..." and proceeded to walk alone into the dense fog.

Several shots fired, causing the guards to rush to the Prime Minister's aid. It was nearly a mile away where the men found a trail of blood leading to the river. While the guards testimony reports that the markings indicated he was dragged, official reports claim it was suicide. His body was never found. It wasn't until 1998, that investigators returned to the case and proclaimed that it was indeed a assassination and that the body was most likely taken down river into the Suisun Bay.

Reports of Ulysses' death received grief and sorrow from his supporters and constituents. For moderates and Royalists, Ulysses' behavior and the belief that his death was suicide was startling. With his death, many Democratic-Republicans were deeply angered, especially more so when an official government commission stated that his death was due to suicide. Exploding into violent demonstrations and protests, the outrage derailed towards a full-blown civil war after Perry's friend, Isaiah Landon, called for open arms days after. The war would last four years, and throughout it, the war was called in part to seek vengeance for Perry. Ultimately, Perry's ideals for a republic would be crushed as Landon's actions and the onslaught of the war defused popular support for republicanism.

Since his death, Perry has been in the center of national folklore and interest. His virulent opposition to the King and his troubled final years have spawned conspiracy theories and speculation of his life. There have been widespread reports and sightings of Perry's "ghost" near the reported site of his death in Suisun Bay and at Parliament Building in Los Angeles.

Positions

Regarding the social norms at the time, Ulysses sought the total purity of the state and was quite militant in the Parliament on the subject. He introduced several bills that held quotas for immigration, demanding that European Americans and continental Europeans be given free land freely over their African or Mexican counterparts. Perry rejected slavery in the state and was quite harsh on the manner, he regarded it the thief of freedom and the theft of white jobs.

He regarded the Chinese people as a industrious race and supported their immigration to the coastal cities, just rejected their presence in the rural areas of Sierra. He also provided several grants to Chinese religious temples that wanted to be settled and many regarded his position on the East Asian immigrants as "respectable".

Personal life

Religious views

Ulysses and his family were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism, which later in his life denounced and claimed that "...the ritualistic nature of the Mexican Roman Catholic Church resembles that of a pagan, Indian or negro voodoo ceremony..." and provided that he never attended after the war. After reading works by Thomas Paine, Perry became a deist, a view that was the subject of much controversy while he was prime minister.

Quotes

• "My greatest grief is the loss of my love of my life. I only hope that in the eternal dream that we may walk arm in arm along the River of Styx like we did along the Sacramento..." - His last remarks to the guards, regarding the death of his wife early in his term as Prime Minister.

• "The model for our party's foreign policy will to shake with the right, while holding a rock in the left. Never shall we yield to tyranny, nor allow them to brute the innocent."

• "Let the Mexicans sprout their ideologies of tyranny, It will always be a enjoying thought to see the Mexican serpent hung from a tree..."

• "America seeks to oppress the negro and thus dangers the purity of the Sierran soil, for they will flock in hordes and outnumber us. It must be principle to our policy to suppress negro immigration, but we must reject the policy of slavery for its injustice."

Songs

"By and By, Arm In Arm Along The Banks of the San Joaquin"

By and By, we will all walk along the banks of creation.

We will all see the end and the beginning, from mouth to tributary. Arm In Arm Along the Banks of the the San Joaquin.

Given all I had, I would of never left her. Marry and gay all in the summer days, I would of never left my sweet heart dear. Speaking kindly to the darkies, orientals, I would of never left my sweet heart dear. Dear Catherine, she is the stream and tributary. By and By, Arm In Arm, Along The Banks of the San Joaquin

By and By, we will all walk along the banks of creation We will all see the end and the beginning, from mouth to tributary. Arm In Arm Along the Banks of San Joaquin.

Cultural collection

• The Course of Empire (acquired 1868)
• The Voyage of Life (acquired 1866)
• The Catskills (acquired 1871)
• The Architect's Dream (acquired 1870)