John Foreman

John Williams Foreman (October 10, 1819 - January 2, 1873) was the 2nd President of the Dominal Base from 1859 until his death in 1872. He served as the Sector 2 supervisor from 1845 and head general on the base from 1850 until his succession to the presidency. As President, he oversaw Mary's War and the subsequent reconstruction process until he was assassinated.

Early Life
Foreman was born on October 10, 1819 in Trenton, New Jersey, the same hometown as his predecessor, Henry Gorshing.

President of the Dominal Base
After Henry Gorshing's death on September 5, 1859, Foreman took the position as President of the Dominal Base. Amid rising protests over his lack of leadership and arrogant nature, the Dominal administration argued that he was bound by Gorshing's wishes. There were many disillusioned soldiers on the base when Gorshing died, but protests didn't truly begin until September 20, 1859, when he declared that in order to continue expansion and avoid stagnation, new secondary alliances would be pursued with other bases in the near future. This outraged the majority of the soldiers because it violated the tertiary alliance with Mary's Base, which contractually obligated the Dominal Base to be exclusive in its alliances. Protests continued into October, leading to the loss of many operations in many buildings. To make matters worse, on October 20, 1859, Foreman authorized the construction of the Alliance Agency, which would be responsible for pursuing secondary alliances. In the dead of the night, protesters attempted to burn down the wooden framework in the west wing of Sector 3, forcing Foreman and emergency services to work throughout the night to put out the fire. Two days later, on October 22, continuing development on the building resulted in heavy protests. In response, 45 protesters were shot and killed by the Dominal police forces under Foreman, the first instance of violent police action against protesters in the Dominal Base's history. A wall of armed police guards protected the contractors into the wintertime. The Alliance Agency began its operation on January 14, 1860, with a groundbreaking ceremony. John Foreman attempted to force cooperation, but 700 protesters bombarded the event with gunfire. In the night, a bomb exploded in the west wing, about twenty feet from the building. Many people began believing that the Dominal Base was going under. The following day, President Foreman cruelly authorized the use of military force against the protesters. An hour later, Dominal soldiers stepped into the crowd and open fired into the protest, killing 88 people in front of the Agency. This effectively quelled unrest as leaders of the protest backed off and reluctantly allowed operations to continue. On March 28, 1860, a new secondary alliance was initiated with Sarah's Army, causing a new bout of unrest among protesters who supported the one-sided tertiary alliance with Mary's Army. In the wake of an impending protest threat, Foreman authorized further police action.

Death
A year-long political crisis began on October 17, 1870, when Foreman was poisoned during his dinner by a resentful cook in the office's kitchen. The incident sent him to the hospital in Sector 3, with many of the protesters on the base hoping that he would die from the sickness. By February 1871, hwoever, Foreman recovered completely from his sickness, emerging from the hospital and encountering thousands of protests calling for his resignation. Denying the request politely, he made his way back to his office without ever authorizing military force against the protests. He was visibly weak from his time in the hospital. On April 2, 1871, he assembled a contingency force designed to get revenge on any soldier or officer that deposed him by force in the coming years. He noted his waning strength and realized that his political position was in a vulnerable spot. On April 15, a young soldier named Walter Worley was named the head of the secret contingency force under President Foreman; his mission was to kill anyone who succeeded Foreman by military force. "I will only die," Foreman declared within a secret group meeting, "by peaceful death." In September of 1871, Foreman took a tour to many neighboring bases, negotiating neutrality agreements and primary alliances in an attempt to win over the people. His conduct that led to Mary's War had ruined his reputation throughout the base. Half a decade after its end in 1866, his approval rating was still suffering from it, noted in January 1872 at 13%. Many operators wanted to see him resign. When the Occupant reached his 40th birthday in June 1872, there was no celebration. Instead, many protested for his resignation, even maintaining a silent, mounrful vigil for the victims of the war. His attempts at reconciliation did not impress the base. In the end, Mary's War and the subsequent lack of recovery that damaged Foreman's legacy enough to warrant a coup d'etat. On December 26, 1872, Thompson Jacobs, backed by seven other armed soldiers, broke into President Foreman's presidential compound on Sector 3 and shot him in the back of the head before escaping through a window. The armed police guards that patrolled the building had been distracted by a fire the coup force set a hundred feet away. Foreman was immediately rushed to the hospital in a fit of blood, where he rested in a coma. Jacobs and the armed coup force disappeared to Sector 1 and awaited his death. Since he was in a coma, Foreman couldn't name the next successor to his presidency. On January 2, 1873, in the early hours of the morning, John Foreman died of his head wounds sustained during the shooting a week before. He was buried in the cemetery on Sector 1 as the Second President.