James W. Mitchell

Mitchell in 1922

**James William Mitchell** (born March 17th, 1868) is a Pacific politician and businessman currently serving as the 10th President of the Pacific States, an office he has held since 1919. A member of the Republican Party, Mitchell previously served as the 11th Governor of Oregon from 1903 until 1911, and as a Pacific States Senator from Oregon from 1911 until 1918. Mitchell won election to the presidency in the 1918 presidential election, in which he extremely narrowly defeated Progressive nominee William Stephens during the second-round runoff election. He became the first Republican president since 1907, after twelve years of Progressive control of the presidency under Hiram Johnson. He was re-elected in the 1922 presidential election, being sworn in for a second term.

Born in Astoria, Oregon to a comfortable middle class family, Mitchell attended the University of California, Berkeley, which he graduated in 1890. The following year, his father died, leading to him inheriting his family's properties and factories. Over the coming years, Mitchell developed an interest in politics, leading to him registering as a Republican in 1896 and quickly becoming active in Oregon politics. Already a well-known figure locally, he served briefly on the city council in Astoria, before being appointed by Governor Jacob H. Neff to a senior administrative post within the state's Department of Land Affairs in 1901.

In 1902, Mitchell narrowly prevailed in the Republican primary for that year's gubernatorial election, and was later that year elected as the 11th Governor of Oregon in the general election. He served eight years as Governor, before stepping aside and instead running to be one of ten Republican nominees for Senate. He came first in the primaries, granting him the first priority for Republican allocated seats after the general election. He was thus elected to the Pacific States Senate, and took office in 1911. He remained in the Senate until 1918, when he resigned to take office as President. As President, he received credit for a booming economy over the course of his term, and generally remained very popular. He decided not to run for re-election in the 1926 presidential election, instead endorsing his Vice President, Roland L. Crowley.

## Early Life (1868 - 1902)

### Childhood and Education

James William Mitchell was born on March 17th, 1868 in Astoria, a small town in Clatsop County, Oregon. He was born alongside a twin brother, George Charles Mitchell, who was the weaker of the two and who died at the age of three months. His father, Leonard Clark Mitchell (1839 - 1891), was born in Massachusetts, and moved west with his parents at the age of eleven, at which point they settled in Northern California. When the Oregon territory was integrated into the United States, the family moved there, settling in the newly built up coastal town of Astoria. Mitchell's father had, over time, become locally prominent as a manufacturer of furniture and household goods, and the family lived a comfortable, middle class lifestyle, though the noted frugality of his father meant that they often went without what Leonard deemed "frivolous luxuries". His mother was Marjorie Paulson (born 1846), who had been born in California but whose family originated in New York State. She was a deeply religious woman who did part-time charity work helping to care for poor children, and instilled in her son the values of charity and the necessity for those of means to help the poorest and the neediest in society. Over time, his parents had two more children - a son, Henry John, better known as "Harry" (born 1872), and a daughter, Irene (born 1877).

As a child, Mitchell was described as boisterous and outspoken, and was considered a troublemaker in the local community. On one occasion, he was found to have been responsible for breaking a glass window of one of his neighbour's houses with a ball, and had attempted to lie his way out of it and cover up his responsibility. His father was a strict disciplinarian, and attempted to instill good behaviour in his children through harsh means, often physical punishment for misbehaving. The young James and his father had a strained relationship, which would never quite be entirely affectionate and their small rift lasted until the elder Mitchell's death in 1891 at age 52, while he had a very close and loving relationship with his mother. He attended school locally, and was an above-average student considered by his teachers to have a surprising amount of skill in practical problem-solving and a firm grasp of the key subjects that were studied according to the curriculum at the time. Later, he moved temporarily to California, where he attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied law and graduated in 1890.

### Father's Death and Business Career

After graduation, he returned to Oregon, where he took an increased role in the family business owing to his father's illness, which was later diagnosed as lung cancer. His father deteriorated quickly, and died on June 22nd, 1891, aged 52. He took over his father's business and became the primary heir to the money he did leave. At the time, he was just 23, his younger siblings were 19 and 14 respectively, and Mitchell was forced to assume more responsibility for taking care of his family following the death of his father. Despite his law degree, the early death of his father and the necessity to maintain the businesses as a means of income led to him abandoning his ambitions to pursue a career in law. He expanded the business outside of the local area, franchising several stores to stock and sell furniture created in Mitchell's workshops. His innovations in the business proved successful, which led to an increase in the profits of the business and Mitchell's personal income.

His mother would remarry in 1893 to a local politician, Roger Arthur Dwyer-Harrington, whom Mitchell grew to dislike intensely, as did his siblings. The rocky relationship between Mitchell and his stepfather led to a temporary estrangement between mother and son, which would only be rectified after Dwyer-Harrington himself died in 1905, two years into Mitchell's governorship of Oregon. Meanwhile, his brother, Harry, became one of Mitchell's closest confidants, and would eventually be the person who Mitchell would pass the running of the family business onto after he entered politics.

[WIP]

## Presidency (1919 - Present)

### Cabinet Appointments

*\*denotes a cabinet member retained from the Johnson administration*

### Inauguration and Early Actions

Mitchell was inaugurated as the 10th President of the Pacific States on January 3rd, 1919 at the Pacific States Capitol building, just over a week after the election was finally settled in his favour throughout the Supreme Court decision in Stephens v. Mitchell. The inauguration was attended by a large crowd of over 30,000 on the Capitol Mall, and several foreign dignitaries attended. Outgoing Vice President Stephens attended the inauguration, which was seen as a positive way of putting an end to the disputes over the election in the name of national unity and stability - Mitchell and Stephens openly shook hands at the occasion after Mitchell had taken the oath of office. Following the oath ceremony, there was a customary inaugural parade and an inaugural ball later that evening. The new President and his family moved into the Executive Mansion, vacated earlier the same day by President Johnson. Almost immediately, the new First Lady found the mansion in a state of disrepair in several areas after lack of care for conservation by previous first families, and set about at launching a new conservation effort for the mansion.

President Mitchell's first act in office was to issue an executive order repealing President Johnson's indefinite executive cap on immigration to the Pacific States from Asia and issuing a new order instating a slightly more lenient cap in preparation for the legislation on immigration he had pledged to get to the floor of Congress within his first 100 days. Mitchell also directed the armed forces to bolster defences of the border with Arizona and Utah after tensions with the Confederate States had been flaring up for some months prior to his inauguration.

[WIP]

## Marriage and Family

Mitchell met Anna Louise "Lou" Gardner in 1898 while operating one of his stores, and they quickly developed a friendship which would soon advance into love. They married in 1899, and would have two children together. Their first child, Henrietta, was born in 1900. She later married Lawton Pennington, and they had two children, Mitchell (named in honour of his grandfather) and Jack. Their second child, Joseph, was born in 1907, during Mitchell's term as Governor of Oregon, and was just eleven when his father won the presidency, leading to him spending much of his later childhood in the Executive Mansion.