~the raw truth of the matter was there was no longer any sun where he lived. sure he saw it, for it grew the meager crops that woulf feed the people. this is what the socialist screamed for. Veiko was all talk. Dunfrete was not a simpleton. Before the Great war he had been a lawyer, but times were hard. His brothers had been killed in the war, his own business had been destroyed and under the new laws he was not allowed to do what he had been legally educated to do~
~the situation was Hopeless, What the Socialist were screaming for wouldnt work. And this great confederation that they were all apart of wasnt going to work. Socialist would take his families food, the Elitest would take his food as would the military. So another option must be found~
~The Great War had brought Glory to the MA, to the Venway Confederation. It had brought Death to his homeland. Merchants had grown in Wealth while the poor and disenfranchised had Unemployment.~
~how long would he tolerate watching Thousands of barrels of flour rot away in merchant stands while his neighbors could hardly procure enough to make a dumplin to satisfy hunger.~
~was this what the Socialist promised, was this what the MA promised. for he made no distinction between that of the MA, and that of the Venway Confederation. no, enough was enough...~
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~Where it started, it could not be pinpointed. even the secret police of the MA could not asscertain its orgin. but from Hagalz to Tipherfet. From one coast of Galen Thal to the other. a publication was spreading like wildfire. let the Socialist drown in the rhetoric of Veiko and the nationalistic shit of Dresden...for a new voice was being heard. one that would not be easily quieted...~
"Common Sense"
IN the following I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.
Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle of Galen Thal. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms, as the last resource, decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the Prime Minister, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.
It hath been reported of the late Mr. Lindenburgh (who tho' an able minister was not without his faults) that on his being attacked in the house of commons, on the score, that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied, "they will last my time." Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the country in the present contest, the name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent - 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.
By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new æra for politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans, proposals, to the commencement of hostilities, are like the almanacks of the last year; which, though proper then, are superceded and useless now. Whatever was advanced by the advocates on either side of the question then, terminated in one and the same point, viz. a union with Venway.
As much hath been said of the advantages of reconciliation, which, like an agreeable dream, hath passed away and left us as we were, it is but right, that we should examine the contrary side of the argument, and inquire into some of the many material injuries which this continent sustain, and always will sustain, by being connected with Venway. To examine that connection and dependance, on the principles of nature and common sense, to see what we have to trust to, if separated, and what we are to expect, if dependant.
I have heard it asserted by some, that as Galen Thal hath flourished under her former connections, that the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true, for I answer roundly, that Galen Thal would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no other power had any thing to do with her. The commerce, by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom.
“But they have protected us”, say some. That they hath engrossed us is true, and defended the continent at our expence as well as they hath admitted to.
Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of others, without considering, that thier motive was interest not attachment; that they did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from their enemies on their own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our enemies on the same account. Let Venway wave her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw off the dependance, and we should be at peace with all even while they are engrossed in war. The miseries of Van Dresden’s last war ought to warn us against connections.
It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradations we surmount the force of local prejudice, as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world. A man born in any town in Venway divided into parishes, will naturally associate most with his fellow parishioners (because their interests in many cases will be common) and distinguish him by the name of neighbour; if he meet him but a few miles from home, he drops the narrow idea of a street, and salutes him by the name of townsman; if he travel out of the county, and meet him in any other, he forgets the minor divisions of street and town, and calls him countryman; i. e. county-man; but if in their foreign excursions they should associate in Zhentil or any other part, their local remembrance would be enlarged into that of Vennish. And by a just parity of reasoning, all Vennish meeting in Galen Thal, or any other quarter of the globe, are countrymen; for Venway, Zhentil, and Middlelands when compared with the whole, stand in the same places on the larger scale, which the divisions of street, town, and county do on the smaller ones; distinctions too limited for continental minds. Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province, are of Vennish descent.
Besides, what have we to do with setting the world at defiance? Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all; because, it is the interest of all to have Galen Thal a free port. Her trade will always be a protection, and her barrenness of gold and silver secure her from invaders.
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew, a single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected with Venway. I repeat the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market, and our imported goods must be paid for buy them where we will.
The authority of Venway over this continent, is a form of government, which sooner or later must have an end: And a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and positive conviction, that what he calls "the present constitution" is merely temporary.
Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offences of Venway, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "Come, come, we shall be friends again, for all this." But examine the passions and feelings of mankind, Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me, whether you can hereafter love, honour, and faithfully serve the power that hath carried fire and sword into your land? If you cannot do all these, then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing ruin upon posterity. Your future connection with Venway, whom you can neither love nor honour, will be forced and unnatural, and being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.
This is not inflaming or exaggerating matters, but trying them by those feelings and affections which nature justifies, and without which, we should be incapable of discharging the social duties of life, or enjoying the felicities of it. I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinably some fixed object. It is not in the power Venway or others to conquer Galen Thal, if she do not conquer herself by delay and timidity. The present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the misfortune; and there is no punishment which that man will not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independance; I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true interest of this continent to be so; that every thing short of that is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity,—that it is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time, when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered this continent the glory of the earth.
Galen Thal is only a secondary object in the system of Vennish politics, Venway consults the good of this country, no farther than it answers her own purpose. Wherefore, her own interest leads her to suppress the growth of ours in every case which doth not promote her advantage, or in the least interferes with it. A pretty state we should soon be in under such a second-hand government, considering what has happened! Men do not change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name.
But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but independance, i. e. a continental form of government, can keep the peace of the continent and preserve it inviolate from civil wars.
Thousands are already ruined by Vennish barbarity; (thousands more will probably suffer the same fate.) Those men have other feelings than us who have nothing suffered. All they now possess is liberty, what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general temper of the continent, towards the Vennish government, will be like that of a youth, who is nearly out of his time; they will care very little about her. And a government which cannot preserve the peace, is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for nothing… I have heard some men say, many of whom I believe spoke without thinking, that they dreaded an independance, fearing that it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for there are ten times more to dread from a patched up connection than from independence. I make the sufferers case my own, and I protest, that were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and my circumstances ruined, that as a man, sensible of injuries, I could never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself bound thereby.
...I lay before you these arguements in good faith that it, in some way, raise the spirit that has long since resided in all of Galen Thal. I do not seek Violence, merely a change. For I find lack in the Socialist and therefore, seek an alternative. As before, this is not driven by pride, but instead, loyalty to a continent that is so powerful, but yet is so blind...
sincerely,
a revolutionary
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ooc Well, here you have it. was long, hard. and well. severely cut and altered. I did my best. this is from Paine's Common Sense. which for some reason I felt was fitting for the current situation. read it, sorry for the length, but it coudl have been alot longer.
enjoy...
enjoy it or die! for I spent a few hours, reading, butchering. while grammer may not be right all the way through its still readable.
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