Atticus Hilton

""Atticus Praxides Hilton was widely referred to as the most powerful American of the 22nd century. Born out of two political dynasties, the Hiltons and Faloons, he used both his family name and his own strategic mind to build a new nation out of his grandfather's crumbling dictatorship, eventually overtaking that nation in his own dictatorial manner.

Early Life and Education
Atticus was born on the 15th of March, 2051 to Diana Elizabeth Hilton (as well as his deceased father Praxis Alexander Faloon II). He came from the powerful and well-known Hilton political family, which was headed up by his grandfather, then-Governor of Minnesota Samuel A. Hilton. Diana, estranged with her father, resided in the family house in Connecticut, where she raised Atticus through childhood. At early ages, Atticus showed a proficiency for strategic games and exercises, and excelled greatly in school.

When he was 9, his grandfather became the A.C.E., forcing the boy and his mother to take on an even greater security detail than they had before and causing Diana a great deal of distress. She disagreed strongly with the work of her father and, once muzzled by her father's policies, turned to booze and other substances to cope. This is when Atticus began to develop a resentment towards his mother, as he began to have to take more and more care of her through his later childhood and early adolescence. At age 13, he penned a letter to his grandfather that fabricated stories of his mother colluding with insurgent groups so that he might send his security forces to take her into custody and leave him to his devices, but he never sent it. Instead he received another form of escape. The prestigious Phillips Andover Academy (most likely at the behest of his grandfather, who, after visiting the family home, saw how badly the boy needed out) sent an unprompted offer of admission to the young Atticus, who accepted immediately. He did not return to the New Canaan house for many years.

Time at Phillips Andover Academy
At school, Atticus excelled greatly, though he was not the loudest nor the most gregarious in his class. He did not make a great deal of friends in his peers, but rather with the faculty. He came up to many of the professors after class to discuss the day's lecture or offer a new thought. While he succeeded in nearly all subjects, none seized his fascination more than history, particularly classical antiquity. Those who knew him at the time recall that he seemed fascinated to no end with the Roman Republic and the Athenian Democracy and the Spartan Aristocracy. His roommate even recalls that young Atticus would slip away in the dead of the night and break into the library so he could find more books on the subject. This fact would, however, spell doom for Hilton's time at the academy.

In 2068, in the spring of his Junior year, Atticus Hilton was out one night in the library when a security guard doing a routine check around campus noticed his flashlight. When pursued, Atticus leapt onto a bookshelf which toppled over and smashed the guard's leg. Atticus was expelled, though not charged with any crimes for fear of further angering President Hilton.

Atticus was forced to return home to his mother, who had grown even worse in her substance abuse in his years away. The boy, now almost an adult, was finding it more and more difficult to tolerate life at home. He applied and got into Harvard despite his expulsion, however his mother did not want him to leave again. In the short time he had returned back home she had developed a dependency on him. She tried to send a letter withdrawing from Harvard's admission offer, but Atticus intercepted it before it could go out. Little is known about the exact sequence of events that followed, however one thing that was clear that Atticus was furious with his mother.

The Hilton Fire
On December 12, 2068, at about 9:30pm, Atticus Hilton emerged from the house after a screaming match with his mother and ordered the guards to stand down and vacate the premises. It's unclear why they obeyed, as they were under strict orders to remain put. The next few hours are only available to the public through various witness statements, as Atticus Hilton's deposition is sealed by the state. At about 9:45, a neighbor recalls hearing the screaming match start up again, as well as some glass shattering. At 10:03, the alcoholics anonymous meeting in the church behind the house let out, and various witnesses from there recall seeing Diana pacing in the third floor bedroom, the only light on in the house. At 10:46, the same neighbor claims he smelled smoke outside when he opened his door, and called 911 to report it. At 10:53, another neighbor recalls seeing the first bits of the fire and, running out of her house, hearing a woman's shrieks from inside the house. Finally, at 11:04, the fire department arrived to find the house engulfed in flames, the armed guards and Atticus not present.

While the fire department was able to extinguish the home fast enough, they were unable to save any possible inhabitants. They found a single burnt body, though they could not identify it at first and so did not know whether it was Atticus or Diana. This was cleared up shortly afterwards, when the pastor of the church behind the home, fearing the fire may have damaged the chapel, arrived to find Atticus in the sanctuary, sitting in one of the pews and staring at the cross in front of him. The pastor noted that the boy had a look in his eye that he hadn't seen before, one that seemed to stare at something as though it was not there. Once the boy noticed the pastor, he began stuttering some story about a fight and how he had gone to the church for spiritual guidance and the house just went up in flames.

It's unclear how the fire started or who started it, many suspected Atticus to be the perpetrator but none could ever prove it. The armed guards were "recalled" by the President, who many suspect had them executed, and Atticus was granted emancipation for his final 3 months before turning 18. He moved to Boston and prepared to attend Harvard in the fall of 2069, taking with him only a locket his mother wore and the letter he wrote but never sent to his grandfather all those years ago.

Time at Harvard University
Atticus began attending Harvard just as the Second Civil War kicked off. As such, he entered campus with an already very public persona, something he avidly tried to avoid. Despite this, the school year progressed somewhat normally as Samuel Hilton's security forces were heavily protecting the New England region.

Atticus once again excelled academically, though descriptions of him in college paint him as a much colder, calculating academic than the bright and curious one he seemed to be at Phillips Andover. He did, however, keep up his habit of following up with professors about the material and delving deep into it after class, though he mainly only did that with his Roman History professor. The Professor would give Atticus extra readings, exclusive tutorials, and, eventually, introduced him to two other students he saw as very bright: William Conway and Richard Bartlett. The three of them together became fast friends, if you can call them that, and formed the New Constitution Society, a student group dedicated to, at first, supporting President Hilton's New Constitution, however in his first public break with his grandfather, Atticus later changed the organization into a protest-oriented group in favor of a more legislative constitution. This made waves with the central government, however the President, had a standing order to allow his grandson to function independently, so nothing was immediately done about it. Many dissidents, finding that they could use Atticus' group as a shelter from censorship, joined the cause, and eventually the New Constitution Society became the largest student group on Harvard's campus.

Polarian Party
In 2073, as Samuel Hilton's power seemed to begin to wane and Bluejayism fell out of favor with a disillusioned New England, Atticus graduated and set out making the New Constitution Society the new ideological center of New England politics. He began organizing secret town hall meetings run by Conway and Bartlett, developing a party platform, and, in 2074, announced the first major opposition party since the start of the civil war: the Polarian Party. Initially, he stayed at the sidelines of the party's public image. One of the first few members of the NCS, Sarah Bailey, was made Polarian party chairwoman, though all of the party's actions were unofficially guided by Atticus. With the collapse of the Bluejay Party and his grandfather's subsequent death in 2075, the Polarian party became the natural replacement. It held all the popular tenets of Bluejayism -- actionable government, centralization -- however also valued above all the legislative branch of government. Later that year, they gained the allegiance of Hilton's former forces and began fighting the Crimson Rebellion against Coovrey and the US Army.

The Crimson Rebellion sparked a number of other rebel movements across the US, tired of war and not wanting a return to normal. In Texas, Rose A. Faloon, the daughter of popular president and Bluebonnet Praxis Faloon, began a communist revolution alongside aging leftist Oliver Hoffman. The South erupted into a series of warring factions from Dixie-apologetic-neoconfederates to Afro-communists. The West faced a series of peaceful depositions of capitalist leaders in the establishment of decentralized communes, which was quickly cut short by the Korean invasion of California. All this instability also prompted smaller insurgency groups in Arizona and the Great lakes.

Appointment to Praetor
Back in Boston, the war was causing hard times and a loss of morale by the people. Hilton, seeing they needed a boost, replaced Bailey with himself as chair of the Polarian party and renamed it the Pars Republius (Party of the Republic). On the 14th of April, 2078, he declared the birth of the New American Republic, a nation to replace the United States should it win the rebellion. A snap election was held that placed Conway as the consul of the Republic, who appointed Bartlett his top General and Hilton as the Interim Praetor (governor) of New England, now named the Core Republic.

Now in control of New England, Hilton began enacting policies that would return the illusion of normality to the people, especially in Boston. He put on market fairs and festivals to show the prosperity of the New Republic and policed information of hardships in cities like New York that were undergoing terrible battle. His policies worked, and the approval of the Party skyrocketed as he began enacting them.

In 2079, despite his reforms, dissent and betrayal were common in the Core Republic, which the new nation couldn't afford so early on. Hilton called a town meeting in the Boston Commons on the 20th of February, presenting 14 individuals accused of treason against the Republic. He announced on that day that the loose bunches of military forces that had previously been defending and securing the cities of the Core Republic would be consolidated into one: the Vigilum Civilian Militia. This military group, answerable to him and him alone, executed the 14 traitors, now called the Original Fourteen as they were the first of many victims of Hilton's personal army.

As the Crimson Rebellion continued, Hilton asserted himself as the de-facto executive of the Republic, establishing a Senate in Boston, holding elections, and governing all domestic affairs while Conway and Bartlett fought in the war. In 2080, he was contacted by the Commonwealth of Europa on behalf of the Assembly of States and asked to sit at the St Louis Peace Convention.

Treaty of St Louis
In the winter of 2080, Hilton arrived in St Louis to serve as the representative of the New American Republic at the peace convention. At this convention, he negotiated the NAR a fairly comfortable position on the continent. He convinced the arbitrators to add a commerce clause which stated that only regulated mints in the Republic could produce continental currency, he expanded his nation's access to Virginia, and even got the great lakes region declared the Northwest Territories after they failed to present their own constitution. In the end, with the signing of the treaty by Bartlett and its enactment on New Years Day in 2081, Hilton was seen as the hero who defended the newly named Second American Republic at the convention.