From the Diary of Johan Zol – Vulpios 26
Last evening, at supper, the Chief Educator announced to us the matter of elections, and of the duties and prerogatives of the Commander of the Group. The Commander commands the whole company of sixty children, directs all its activities, and is seated among the Command of the Battalion. From that moment, through the entire meal—where no meat was served us, but only vegetables, bread, and water—the sole subject of discourse was the election of the Commander. Olher, the eloquent son of an Alvaldstadt advocate, began at once to pass from table to table, declaiming of the rights of man that must be secured even within the school, and thereby winning to himself adherents, speaking in a learned tongue which carried the semblance of wisdom. I must confess that I too wished to be Commander, for I have ever loved glory. I conferred with Jeder, Lorans, and Magpie, that we should found a party, and present a common candidate. I persuaded them that I should be that candidate, promising that in the event of my victory I would create for them other dignified functions, just as the Republican Assembly institutes new offices, committees, and charges. Then we went to the table where sat Tajer and Breler, and invited them to join our party, which they readily did.
At dawn, at two and a half Republican hours, we assembled in the great hall adorned with banners, each of us sixty seated in order, so that we felt ourselves true members of the Sovereign People. Never had I felt such trembling of the spirit. Our five departmental educators—the tiller of the earth, the craftsman, the merchant, the man of the manufactory, and the jurisconsult—were seated together in their working attire. The Chief Educator called for those who would present themselves as candidates for Commander. Olher rose first, I directly after him. There stood also stout Bronter, whose father had perished in the wars and whose brother was annihilated for the burning of castles, and who as the strongest ever posed as leader of boys; Andreas, the best pupil in learning; and boastful Rober, whose parents had been servants of tyranny, though they changed their side before the Liberation and lent their gold to the Republic.
The candidates were placed in a row in the midst of the hall. The Chief Educator declared that each would have one hour to prepare a discourse on the theme: “What Republican Children of Alvald May Do for the Republic.” We were given each a sheet of paper, pen, and ink, and led into a chamber apart to compose our orations. After the hour, we returned to the hall; the order of speeches was drawn by lot.
Rober read first: a composition like unto those declaimed in royalist seminaries, though draped in Republican garb. He spoke of honoring the Constitution, of studying diligently, of choosing the Commander democratically, of obeying him, of aiding one’s educators in their crafts, and of receiving as friends the werewolves and vampires. All assented in principle, but he read in so flat a voice, and all knew too well his upbringing among the privileges of tyranny, so that his applause was tepid. Bronter, the stout, recounted the sacrifices of his father and brother, and warned against jealous commanders who might annihilate greater Republicans than themselves. The manufactory worker, whose own son had perished with Bronter’s brother, rebuked him: “Speak not of the deeds of your family, but of your own; for in the Republic the merit belongs to the citizen and to the state, not to bloodlines.” Many children were confused, some applauded him loudly.
Then Andreas spoke, that brightest scholar. He declared that the foremost duty of Republican children was to perform their school tasks faithfully, and gave vivid instances how each lesson served both the future citizen and the survival of the Republic itself. He concluded that he who learned best would be the most useful citizen. His applause was slightly stronger than Rober’s.
Olher, however, spoke extempore for near fifteen minutes. He asked first not what children owe the Republic, but what the Republic may rightly demand of them; he cited the Preamble of the Constitution, rehearsed the inalienable rights of man, declared that the classroom was a commonwealth as the Nation is, that all pupils enjoyed sacred rights against their educators, including the “holy right of insurrection against tyranny.” No child, he said, could be compelled to work or to learn, nor punished for refusing. The artisan educator countered: “If labor is needed that the Republic may defeat her foes, is it not the duty of every Republican to labor? If educated citizens are required for her survival, is it not the duty of every Republican child to learn? If monarchy triumphs, all rights will vanish. Is not therefore service to the Republic a duty holier than all rights?” Olher replied that the question was sheer demagoguery, that the Republic itself becomes tyranny if it restricts liberty, and he declared that he in advance disputed the validity of the election for Commander of the Group, since therein the Educators possessed tenfold the voting right compared with the pupils—a thing neither Republican nor democratic—which reminded him of the privileges of the Hederven nobility and guilds, of the Bautian elite that chooses itself, and of the Tildeland landholders who in one of the houses of their parliament possess votes according to the quantity of land they hold.
The Chief Educator responded gravely to all of Olher’s objections, for the elections themselves were at once the true school of Republicanism, saying that the tenfold voice of the Educators did not signify the existence of two classes of voters, but rather the protectorate of full-grown citizens over the minor ones, in the very interest of the children; for the Group could not be equated with the Sovereign People, since the Sovereign People are self-sufficient, but the Group is not, and also because the minor citizens had not yet taken the civic oath which alone renders their rights and duties equal with those of the full citizens of the Republic.
Yet Olher continued to maintain that each man, by nature, the moment he acquires reason sufficient for judgment, has the right to take the civic oath and become a full citizen (which, he was certain, every one of the minor citizens present was already prepared to do); and that the arguments for a protectorate of adults over children carried no greater weight than those for a protectorate of aristocracy or other privileged orders over all citizens.
All this produced joy among a great number of the children, who delighted in the idea of lessening the authority of the Educators; so that Olher’s speech was several times interrupted with cries of “Hurrah!”, and at its close, amid loud applause, there were also heard some shouts of “Honour the Constitution, citizens!” and “Long live the Republic!” Even the Educator of Law appeared truly satisfied with his exposition, though at the end she declared that it was not wholly in conformity with the natural law, which grants to man full consciousness and reason—both necessary for so grave a matter as the taking of the civic oath—only at the completion of his twentieth year, and by virtue of which minors, in case of violating Republican law, cannot be punished with the same severity as adult citizens; and where there are not equal duties, there can also not be equal rights.
At last my turn arrived. I resolved to read word for word the text I had prepared beforehand, yet with the gestures of the great tribunes of the people. The first part of my text spoke of well-known examples of Republican children who had already given their lives for the Republic, such as the ten-year-old Emil Dustel, who before royalist bayonets sang the Anthem with Republican words. I said that all must envy them, for they died for liberty, and that by their sacrifice it is a great honor to be a minor Guntrelandite Republican, and a great responsibility to attend a Republican school. Of all Republican children, I said, the same must be expected, should the need arise.
I described the value of the assistance which the Republican Educators receive in their labors from the children whom they educate, and the benefit for the Republic entire. I wrote that whatever is useful to the Republic is a common obligation, and that whosoever does not fulfill his obligations with the greatest conscientiousness is nothing other than a traitor and a friend of the royalists, since by his passivity he eases their return to power; and that for the Republic duties come first, and only then rights.
I said also that we must look to our regional commander, who enforced a strict law even when it fell upon his Republican comrades, and thereby displayed the firmness of the Republican law. I declared too that the Republican children of Alvald must be such that royalism sees in them not children but only Republicans.
At the end I fulfilled what I had promised to Magpie in return for his support: namely, I gave the electoral promise that our party, should I be elected, would find a wounded bird and heal and tame it as the symbol of our group. For my speech I received great applause, though also some cries of “Boo!”
When the final speech was done, the Chief Educator again took the word and announced that the voting would be carried out secretly, by the casting of balls into one of five sealed boxes placed behind the curtain. Should no candidate obtain an absolute majority, a new vote would be taken between the two candidates who had gained the most votes. After the Commander, in the same manner, his deputy would be chosen from among the remaining candidates. Each child was to have one vote, and each Educator, casting balls of different colors, ten votes.
Immediately a line was formed for the vote, and all went one by one behind the curtain. During the voting Olher approached me, congratulated me on my speech, but said that it contained a summons to dictatorship and the suspension of natural rights, and that therefore I ought not to be elected Commander, and that he would protect the other children from such ideas.
After the voting the Chief Educator unsealed the boxes and counted the votes publicly. As soon as the balls were drawn it was plain that Andreas, the best pupil, would triumph: he had five of the six great balls, and eleven small ones, sixty-one votes in all. I was third with seventeen—one great and seven small balls—for which I felt great civic honor. Olher had twenty-two, Bronter sixteen, and Rober four.
But the time had come to select the Deputy Commander, and forthwith the new election began. I especially hoped for the votes of the Educators, for I knew they disliked Olher—above all the farmer, the craftsman, and the manufacturer—since he in labor spoke more of his rights than he worked, and was always undisciplined, and in the agriculture lesson had by negligence trampled the plants the other children had sown, excusing himself by saying that Representative Hrebs with his partisans had ploughed up the garden of the royal palace in Eustata and uprooted all its plants.
The results were more than favorable: I received the most, with forty-two votes, three of the six Educators voting for me. Olher was second with forty-one, including one Educator’s vote. Rober at first had twenty-eight, now with two Educators’ votes, but all votes for him were annulled, for the Chief Educator had heard that he promised some children money if they would vote for him.
The second round came! The boxes were again sealed and carried behind the curtain, but now there were only two. With excitement I awaited the results, and scarce could I believe how close I was to the place of Deputy Commander, though all pointed that I should indeed attain it: for more than one Educator’s vote, which was without doubt the Jurist’s, could hardly have gone to Olher.
And as soon as the boxes were opened, it was plain that five of the six great balls lay in my box, and it was clear too that more than eleven of the small balls were likewise within it. What joy! Deputy Commander of the Group, second among sixty young Republicans in hierarchy!
