Carmac Kneale

Carmac Kneale (1829-1907) was a Lathadun politician who served as the first Premier of Lathadu from 1871-1881, and again from 1886-1890. He was a prominent leader of the Anti-Aristocrat Movement and rose to a leadership position within the Peasant and Laborer's Party (now the Democratic Laborer’s Party) at the time of the establishment of the Republic of Lathadu. As the political leader of Lathadu, he commanded wide networks of supporters and was celebrated as a populist champion for people across the nation.

Kneale was born in the underdeveloped southwest of Lathadu in 1829. After working as a traveling salesman and attending multiple schools, Kneale became licensed for the practice of law. Following a brief legal career in which he represented many poor plaintiffs, Kneale served on the Calleebane Public Service Commission. As Commissioner, he represented many Tenant’s Unions or other class actions against large defendants with his powerful rhetorical style. After Kneale successfully argued before Pol Cabmuc when he served as a city judge, Cabmuc praised him as, “the most brilliant lawyer who ever practiced” before the court.

In 1854, following a series of speeches Kneale delivered on the growing economic and class divisions in Lathadu, Lanshad Teige issued a list of subversives to be arrested in his broader order enacted martial law. Kneale joined the underground network of Anti-Aristocrats in resistance to the Teige government, and following Teige’s overthrow by the military, led the Anti-Aristocrats to their first electoral victory. Once in office, Kneale expanded social programs, organized massive public works projects, and instituted several national holidays surrounding the harvest. Through political maneuvering, Kneale and his party became the political titans of Lathadu, a legacy that has lasted to this day.

Childhood
Kneale was born in 1829 near Shillishgoo, a small town in southwest Lathadu. While Kneale told followers at times that he was born in a log cabin to an impoverished family, they lived a “comfortable” life in a modest farmhouse and were well-off compared to neighboring families. A century before, many villages in the region were hesitant to send fathers and sons to fight wars against the Ordrish. Caroly Teare, mayor of Shillishgoo at this time, is credited to have said, “who wants to fight to help the landowners keep more of the rents for themselves?” Kneale later embraced these populist sentiments in his own politics.

One of twelve children, Kneale was home-schooled until age eleven. In the town school, he earned a reputation as an excellent student with a remarkable memory and convinced teachers to let him skip grades for more challenging material. He also proved himself a capable debater, which earned him the attention of the prominent landowner Hugo Canell at age 15. Canell gave Kneale an undisclosed amount of money as a scholarship to study in Calleebane. However, the money only covered two years’ worth of study, prompting him to begin working as a traveling salesman in northern and central Lathadu.

Education and marriage
In late 1848, Kneale began attending religious schooling at the urging of his mother, a devout Ayekist. Living with his older brother Moris, Kneale attended for only one semester, rarely appearing at lectures. After deciding he was unsuited to the life of a cleric, he focused instead on law. Borrowing one hundred dearme from his brother, he attended further schooling in Calleebane for a semester. To earn money while studying law part-time, he continued to work as a salesman. Of the four courses he enrolled in, Kneale received one incomplete and three passes. He later confessed that he learned little at this time as there was “too much excitement in the city, all those gaming houses and everything.”

Kneale met Roseen Quirk at a baking contest he’d been paid to promote to sell shortening by a local merchant. The two began a two-and-a-half-year courtship and married in 1850. On their wedding day, Kneale had no cash and had to borrow money from his fiance to pay for the officiant. Shortly after their marriage, Kneale explained to his wife his political aspirations. The Kneals had a daughter, named Roseen, who went on to serve as a national representative, and two sons: Kieran, who went on to be elected as a representative and serve as Dean and namesake of the Kieran Kneale Law School of Calleebane, and Robart, who became a renowned engineer and mathematician.

Kneale enrolled in law school once again in the fall of 1851. After a year of study that concentrated on the courses necessary to be admitted as a barrister, he successfully petitioned the city court for permission to practice law. According to Kneale, “I came out of the courtroom seeking office.”

Legal Career (1851-1854)
In 1851, Kneale established a practice in Calleebane, generally representing poor plaintiffs in worker’s compensation and tenancy cases. In 1853, he successfully ran for office and joined the Calleebane Public Service Commission. On the Commission, Kneale forced utilities to lower rates and ordered some utilities to extend service to more rural areas. He became increasingly populist in character at this time, speaking out against establishment figures he’d dubbed cronies. In 1854, Kneale grew infuriated at the actions of Lanshad Tiege and spoke out against him publicly on numerous occasions in order to publicly denounce him. The feud climaxed later that year, when Tiege formally declared martial law and called for the imprisonment of numerous public figures, including Kneale.

Silent Years (1854-1870)
The period known as the Silent Years in effect began when an ambush party of Anti-Aristocrat volunteers attacked a pair of Federation soldiers who had been dispatched to intercept Kneale as he fled Calleebane. The two men were shot dead during the engagement, which had no advance authorization from the still-nascent Anti-Aristocrat movement. However, the Anti-Aristocrats announced official support for the actions shortly thereafter, officially endorsing armed struggle against the Teige Government. From that time, Kneale filled a number of roles within the wider Anti-Aristocrat movement. That summer he was elected First Minister of the Anti-Aristocrat Caucus (and therefore, in the doctrine of the group, de jure First Minister of Lathadu). Later that year, he was made Director of Intelligence for the Anti-Aristocrat Militia, which now had a mandate to pursue an armed campaign.

Cooperating with figures like Pol Cabmuc and the Forest Brothers, Kneale functioned as Director of Organization and Adjutant General for Volunteers, spending much of his time organizing the Volunteers as an effective military force. Although Kneale had no military experience himself, he counted many with such experience as his advisors, and employed his rousing rhetorical styles in inspiring the men under his command. Kneale was determined to avoid massive destruction that would come with civilian targets and risk their popularity with the masses; instead, he directed a guerrilla war against the Teige government, suddenly attacking then just as quickly withdrawing, minimizing losses and maximizing effectiveness. At one point, Kneale issued an order for much of his force to, “disperse into the country like rabbits, and harass our enemy wherever you find him away from populated and civilized places.”

The Teige Government responded with escalation of the war, and arming of various rural paramilitary groups in order to combat their control of these regions. Officially or unofficially, many of these groups were given a free hand to institute a reign of terror, shooting civilians suspected of aiding the Anti-Aristocrats indiscriminately, invading homes, looting, and burning fields. As the war began in earnest, key leadership figures such as Doon Forbes travelled to neighboring Ordrey for an extended speaking tour to raise funds for the beleaguered Anti-Aristocrats. While fairly successful in financial terms, the tours were followed by grave political conflicts in the expat Lathadun population within Ordrey, which threatened their broad unity in support for the rebels.

Back in Lathadu, Kneale arranged for loans to fund the activities of the Anti-Aristocrats, continued organizing their forces, and managed arms-smuggling operations from Edury, effectively leading the Anti-Aristocrat government in hiding. Local cells received supplies, training, and had a largely free hand to develop the war in their own region. These were the “flying cells” that comprised the bulk of the Anti-Aristocrat forces for the duration of the Silent Years. Kneale regularly oversaw regional strategy in meetings with regional commanders, as well as regional organizers like Cabmuc who reported directly to him. They were supported by a vast intelligence network of men and women in all walks of life that reached deep into the Teige government’s administration of the country.

In 1864, following the Tiege Government’s prominent announcements that it had successfully killed rebel agent ringleader Iney Quayle (ancestor of current Premier Alden Quayle) and had the insurgents on the run, Kneale ordered the execution of several known agents of the Tiege government in a series of coordinated strikes. In retaliation, members of the Lansdhad’s personal constabulary went to Ooylshugrey, where a sports match was taking place between two popular local teams. The officers fired on the crowd shortly after the game began, killing eleven and wounding sixty-five. Many agents of the Tiege government either fled the country to Ordrey or Salia, or directly to Ushteyghoo out of fear that more reprisals would follow. About the same time, a local cell in northern Lathadu took no prisoners in a bitter battle with government forces at Lheimmeyushtey. In many regions, government forces became all but confined to the strongest barracks in the larger towns as rural areas fell increasingly under rebel control.

Many historians agree that 1864 was the beginning of the end for the Tiege government. His deployment of his private constabulary to conduct killings troubled many in his staff, who had advised against the execution of Quayle and began to increasingly doubt his ability to bring an end to the conflict favorably. The Anti-Aristocrats enjoyed widespread support from the population at nearly every level of society, and their eyes and ears reached deep into the Teige government’s administration. As Kneale had hoped, their patterns of guerilla attacks won them success without sacrificing the public’s view of their movement. Meanwhile, the Tiege government’s agents dwindled in number, fearing that they would become victims of Tiege’s anger as others had. In 1869, the fever finally broke, when General Asmund Hambil, formerly Tiege’s closest advisor, overthrew the Tiege government in a bloody battle that ended in Tiege’s death. Shortly after, Hambil invited Kneale and other rebel leaders to treat in Ushteyghoo. In a show a pure confidence, Kneale rejected the invitation but followed it of one of his own: attend the peace conference he would soon be holding in Calleebane.

Premier of Lathadu (1870-1880)
From the beginning of the Calleebane Conference, it was clear that Kneale was in charge of the proceedings. With this backdrop, Kneale opened with a fiery speech denouncing the depths of inequality and hardship that had seized the nation due to the indifference of the monied classes, criticizing the former administration but notably directly little ire toward the military itself. He also announced the formation of the Peasant and Laborer’s Progressive Party, and declared that elections should soon be held with universal suffrage in order to ensure that all were properly represented. In the following negotiations, General Hambill agreed to conduct elections and respect their results as the de facto head of state. He followed through on this promise in 1870, in an election that overwhelmingly delivered victory to the Peasant and Laborer’s Progressive Party and Kneale himself, bringing in more than 85% of the popular vote. Kneale had endorsed many other candidates while running for office, including Moira Quirk, his own sister in law. Many agree that his leadership was crucial in keeping the Anti-Aristocrats politically unified, and some delegations had begun to waver. By the terms agreed upon at the Calleebane Conference, Kneale would be the first Premier of the Republic of Lathadu.

After assuming office in 1871, Kneale set about fully organizing the government past the bare bones terms agreed upon in 1869. He delivered many long, theatrical speeches before the new Diet that were transcribed and printed, drawing national attention. Kneale also often spoke publicly at this time, with viewing areas crowded with onlookers. During the first 100 days of his term of Premier, he enacted radical policies to redistribute much of the nation’s wealth, nationalize key sectors, and increase state collaboration with trade unions in the organizing of Lathadu’s economy. He also worked to establish a national social safety net for the elderly and disabled, placing his allies in charge of implementing said programs across the nation. Kneale’s political machine, as some called it, with a tightly-wound system in which Kneale ensured that only those who shared his vision received key posts. If any official acted contrary to his orders, he would cut him out of future consultations on the distribution of national funds and patronage, often placing them in the hands of their rivals if they aligned closer to Kneale than they did. After his first term began to come to an end in 1875, Kneale handily won reelection with 81% of the vote.

At the dawn of his second term, Kneale revealed a series of bills collectively known as “the Kneale Plan” to further redistribute wealth. Together, they would cap existing fortunes, limit annual income, and cap individual inheritances, with all funds going to expand existing social programs or fund new ones relating to modernization of infrastructure and industry. In a national first, Kneale delivered a speech announcing the Public Prosperity Plan as it was called, recorded on wax cylinders to be distributed throughout the nation. The legislation would use the taxed wealth of the estates to guarantee every family basic households grants of cash, as well as proposals for improved education and vocational training, assistance to farmers, public works projects, increased pensions for the elderly, land reclamation projects to improve and reclaim land in and around the Aarnieu Delta, and free basic medical services in what Kneale described as a “war on disease.” These reforms, while ambitious and far-reaching, were very popular with the nation as a whole.

To implement these bold reforms, Kneale formed the Ministry of Public Prosperity to serve directly as his vehicle of change. A national network of offices were established for the enactment of Kneale’s policies that stretched across the nation, with special attention paid to his old stomping grounds in the rural southwest. Kneale’s office is said to have received thousands of letters a week, resulting in his hiring of 35 clerks to write responses. The official newspaper of the Peasant and Laborer’s Progressive Party, called simply The Progressive, was controlled closely by Kneale and averaged a circulation higher than that of any other national paper in its time. Kneale drew international attention as well: Myrish writer interviewed Kneale in 1876, noting that he was, “a boisterous and charismatic figure. He abounds in promises.”

After office (1881-1885)
As his second term began to wind to a close, Kneale announced that he would respect the rule established by the Calleebane Conference that a leader not serve more than two terms consecutively. He personally favored his Minister of State and Defense Edard Corlett, for whom he advocated extensively to take over. Kneale and Corlett had been close allies since the Silent Years, and Corlett echoed Kneale’s main stances in virtually every aspect. Determined to install the successor of his choice, Kneale wrote to Corlett: “Dear Ed: Do you want any action about those other officials? I’ll break their necks with the utmost cheerfulness if you only say the word.” Using his influence, Kneale was able to succeed in confirming Corlett at the party nominee, from which electoral victory was all but assured.

Corlett promoted a more cautious progressivism than Kneale after entering office, preferring magistrates rather than civil servants or politicians to make basic decisions of fairness, especially in labor disputes. He proved to be a less adroit politician than Kneale, lacking the energy and personal magnetism, along with the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Kneale so formidable electorally. When Kneale realized that lowering tariffs would risk inflaming tensions inside his own party by pitting manufacturers and farmers against merchants and consumers, he stopped discussing the issue in his speeches. Corlett ignored the risks and tackled the issue of tariffs directly, encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates and cutting deals with union leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting laws signed early in Corlett’s tenure were too high for most reformers but also low enough to anger the party’s traditional base, effectively alienating all sides. While the crisis was building inside the party, Kneale found himself effectively on the sidelines, frustrated at his own miscalculation.

Kneale had attempted to refashion Corlett into a second version of himself, but as soon as Corlett began to display his individuality, the former Premier expressed his disenchantment. Corlett did not consult Kneale about any of his cabinet appointments, and began his term with several notable policy departures. Kneale and others in the radical wing of the party were dissatisfied over Corlett’s policies concerning adjudication of labor disputes and his handling of the tariff when he concentrated more power in the hands of the conservative wing of the party. Despite expressing optimism publicly for the Corlett Government at late as 1883, Kneale privately urged progressives to take control of the party at the local level and avoid splitting the party in a way that would hand a majority to any potential rival coalitions.

In late 1883, a party chapter of the Peasants and Laborer’s Progressive Party endorsed Kneale for their nomination for party head. The endorsement was made by the leader’s of Corlett’s home town, a stunning early blow. Kneale at first conspicuously declined to make a statement that he would accept or decline the nomination. Soon thereafter, he was recorded to have said publicly, “I am really am sorry for Old Ed. . . I am sure he means well, but he means well feebly, and he does not know how! He’s utterly unfit for leadership, and this is a time when we need leadership!” He finished the speech by saying, “if the people make a draft on me, I shall not decline their call to serve.”  Later that year, speaking before a local convention for the progressives, he openly identified himself as such - even endorsing popular review of judicial decisions. In reaction to Kneale’s proposals, Corlett said, “Such extremists are not progressives - they are political emotionalists and neurotics.”

Kneale began to envision himself as the savior of the party from sure defeat in the upcoming 1885 elections. In 1883, he announced in Calleebane, “I will accept the nomination if it is tendered to me. I hope that so far as possible the people may be given the opportunity to choose through direct primaries to express who shall be the nominee. The 1884 primaries between various local party apparatuses were hotly contested in many locations; predictably, Kneale performed better in rural areas and Corlett in urban ones, although urban races were much closer. Although Kneale was favored by these results, it was the National Convention of that year that resolved the feud definitively. Speaking before the various party heads, Kneale delivered a passionate speech to convince them to place their faith in him; he begged that renomination of Corlett would hand the elections to opposition forces, and that the party needed his leadership once more. Many broke with Corlett afterwards, prompting Kneale to win the nomination on the first ballot. With the party once again united behind Kneale, it swept the 1885 elections, winning 61% of the vote. Whether Corlett would have lost had he received the nomination is a matter of debate for many, but regardless, Kneale was back in power.

Assassination attempt
In 1884 while campaigning in Lathadu’s southeast, Kneale was shot by a tavern owner named Anghus Myley. The bullet lodged in his chest, with Myley firing from 4.5 meters away in the crowd. Myley was immediately disarmed, captured, and might have been killed had Kneale not commanded to crowd that he remain unharmed. Kneale assured the crowd he was well and ordered police to take him into custody and that no violence be done to him. A veteran of the Silent Years and their brutality, Kneale correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung, but agreed at the insistence of the police and his wife Roseen to see medical treatment. Preliminary probes suggested the bullet had lodged in Kneale’s chest muscle, but did not penetrate any further. Doctors concluded that it was less dangerous to leave it in place than to attempt to remove it, and Kneale carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life. Kneale spent only two weeks afterward recuperating before returning to the campaign trail, during which he refused to suspend his campaign. Instead, he ran his campaign from his hospital bed, producing a famous photo of Kneale issuing orders to his staff from bed. He later wrote a friend about the bullet that remained inside him, “I do not mind it much, no more than if it sat quietly in my waistcoat pocket.”

Premier of Lathadu (1885-1890)
In his third inauguration, Kneale said in one of his most remembered speeches, “This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its businesses, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatsoever manner will best promote the general interest. This assertion is an explicit one. . . the would-be aristocrats must know that any attempt at monopoly or oligopoly stands in direct opposition to the people and their party. I challenge them to name a greater power than the people in this fight. . . not the Sugar Trust, not the Harvester Trust, or any other.”

Kneale saw the growing commercial consortiums that had lobbied for reduced tariffs under Corlett to be the architects of the near-collapse of his party, prompting him to set about on a campaign of anti-monopolization of several private sector industries. Although he acknowledged that many such businesses were a necessary party of the Lathadun economy, he set out to prosecute the “bad trusts” that he claimed restrained trade and charged unfair prices. He brought numerous suits against these perceived “bad trusts”, leaving them in the hands of worker’s cooperatives and unions. He also proposed the creation of the Ministry of Labor and Cooperation in 1886, including the Bureau of Trusts and Corporations, an organ that would be significantly empowered to fight bad trusts.

In a moment of frustration, party member Colby Kneen commented on Kneale’s desire for control over domestic policy making: “That fellow behind the big desk wants everything from the birth of the moon to the death of the sun.” Biographer Mariot Kelly states, “Even his friends occasionally wondered whether there was any custom or practice too small for him to attempt to regulate, update, or otherwise improve.”  In fact, he even ordered changes made in the minting of a coin he disliked, and ordered the State Printing Office to adopt simplified spellings for a core list of 500 words to promote “simplicity and uniformity within the spelling of the Gundiagh language, and free it from any undue foreign influences of it past.”

Kneale’s third and final term was largely characterized by the breaking down of bad trusts and continuance of his most popular programs, as well as silently rescinding many orders issued by the Corlett government. By 1887, Kneale himself acknowledged that he was too old for another five year term and agreed to not run again, insteading nominating Fergus Cain. Cain was a young firebrand who began his political career in Lathadu’s growing industrial unions, and to Kneale represented the ideal candidate for Lathadu’s future; a young pro-union progressive who also understood the economic side of change. With the endorsement of Kneale and his machine, Cain successfully won election as the third man to win office as Premier of Lathadu.

Later life (1891-1907)
Following the end of his third term as Premier, Kneale served informally as an advisor to Cain and many other key figures of the party. Although he did not play the role he had behind the scenes after his second term, he did exert a fair amount of influence on the party and Lathadun politics. He officially retired to a modest home by Loch Bowen in the southwest, near the family of his wife. There, he worked the rest of his life supervising irrigation and flood control projects and promoting free medical clinics and education for the nation’s poor. He also continued to speak out about international issues and in favor of expanded political and human rights across the world. Kneale died of lung cancer in Loch Bowen in 1894 at the age of 78. He is buried there alongside his wife, Roseen, who died four years later.

Kneale bequeathed to posterity a considerable body of writing: essays, speeches and tracts, articles, notes, and official documents in which he had outlined plans for Lathadu’s future economic and cultural development, as well as voluminous correspondence both official and personal in nature. Selections have been published in The Path to Liberty (1948) and in Cormac Kneale in his Own Words (1977).

Personal life
Kneale’s mother, an elderly widow, inspired his fondness and respect for older people. She had spent her youth caring for her own invalid mother and raising her siblings, a pattern repeated with Kneale and his eleven siblings. Although fairly prosperous most years, the entire management of their family farm fell to her after her husband passed away. In a society which honored hospitality as a prime virtue, Mrs. Kneale was eulogized as a “hostess in ten thousand.” Of her six eldest, five were girls, all of which avowedly doted on Kneale, the youngest of the twelve. He could be abrasive, demanding, and inconsiderate of those around him at times, but frequently made up for such transgressions with gestures such as confectionary and other small gifts.

In 1850 he wedded Roseen Quirk. To the relief of his mother, he would resume Ayekist religious practice (though retaining secularism as a political position) despite his hostility to religion as a young man, in large part thanks to Roseen’s influence. By the time they met, Roseen was an accomplished tailor and cook, but was also very well read. Visitors to their home reported that the two would enter sudden, spirited debates on issues large and small as if no company were present, and cease as quickly as they began. Kneale is recorded as having had numerous affairs, both during the Silent Years and his tenure as Premier; however, she remained at his side throughout his tenure and the two maintained a loving relationship until his death, suggesting she forgave his indiscretions.

As an adult, Kneale was a complex man whose character abounded in contradictions. Despite serving as Treasurer for the Anti Aristocrats and enacting sweeping financing reforms, he never seems to have pursued much in the way of personal profit. Indeed, he was sometimes all but homeless during the Silent Years, living much as he had during his days as a traveling salesman. While openly fond of command and quick to take charge, he had an equally large appetite for input and advice from individuals at every level of organization. A man of fierce pride, this attitude was tempered by a sense of humor that included a keen sense of the absurd in his situation. He was capable of bold, decisive actions on his own authority, but at critical junctures could also work with others and even bow to the will of the majority, if presented with no other options.

Legacy
Kneale’s role in the fight to establish Lathadu as a modern state and the process of guiding it afterwards turned him into a legendary figure for much of the country. In 1908, Ordrish sociologist Asa Camerin encountered rural children in parts of Lathadu who not only insisted that Kneale was alive, but that he was still Premier. Although no longer governing, Kneale’s policies continued to be enacted in Lathadu by his successors, who inherited the framework of his political machine and have remained a powerful force in national politics. Within the Peasants and Laborer’s Progressive Party (now the Democratic Laborer’s Party (DLP)), he set in motion two factions - “progressives” and “nationalists”, the latter of whom would go on to create the Lathadun National Party (LNP). For decades after his death, Kneale’s political style inspired imitation among many of Lathadu’s politicians, who borrowed from his rhetoric and policy of strong social programs.

Following Kneale’s exit from office, a kind of family dynasty emerged: his sister in law Moira Quirk was elected in large part thanks to his endorsement, and served faithfully as an ally. His son Kieran served as a member of the National Diet for five terms before retiring from his political life to serve as Dean at the Calleebane School of Law. So impactful was his time there that the university was renamed the Kieran Kneale Law School of Calleebane upon his retirement, a name that persists to this day. Kneale’s daughter Roseen also served in the National Diet, before securing a high-level nomination to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the ambassador to Salia.