LETTER OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC COMMAND

OF THE REPUBLIC OF GUNTRELAND
CITIZEN HERMANN HENSCHER

TO CITIZEN REINER KUNZE

Eustata, 27th of Paser, Year Nineteen

Citizen Reiner Kunze,

The Committee of Public Command has received your Catalogue of Injustice, wherein you reveal to the Republic the most infamous royalists and their servile accomplices upon the island of Alvald, together with the shameful and inhuman deeds by which they have distinguished themselves during the long years of the past ten years.

Since the Republic is nothing less than the earthly realization of pure Virtue, the best Republican is he who applies Republican Virtue in every circumstance as the guiding principle of life. And in a world of immorality and lawlessness — that negation of the Republic — the first duty of a Republican is to declare war upon Vice, until Vice is no more. You, by documenting each crime against Truth and Justice committed upon Alvald — and by exposing yourself thereby to mortal peril should the royalists have discovered you — have fulfilled this sacred duty: to the shame of tyrants and their vile servants, and to the glory of the Republic which shall requite them with their lives.

In the old régime there lingered the corrupted notion that denunciation was cowardice, and that the so-called man of honour must defend rights with his own strength alone. Such was the perfidy of monarchy, whereby Virtue, Truth, and Justice were measured by the sword, the purse, or the influence of whoever invoked them. Yet this false morality did not hinder nobles and their lackeys from sending thousands of patriots to torture and to the scaffold, through anonymous accusations — accusations forbidden by the Constitution of the Republic. The pseudo-morality of royalism rests solely upon brute force; no higher morality than that of beasts.

By contrast, Republican morality teaches that denunciation — and public denunciation, borne by the honest Citizen with his own name and Honour — is the highest distinction, whereby Man is transformed into Citizen, and Citizen into Republican. Denouncer is in the Republic an honourable title.

The common man may toil honestly upon his field while his neighbour insults his family, beats his dog, and drowns kittens in the river. The good man may attempt to restrain such cruelty, but the outcome will depend on whose musket is better. Only the Citizen will appeal to that power to which Natural Law, in the interest of all Humanity, has granted the monopoly of force — not for private gain, but for the service of Good: the sovereign People embodied in the institutions of the Republic.

Thus have you acted, Citizen Kunze. You did not, sword in hand, rush upon the first criminal of your list — a futile sacrifice of yourself in unequal struggle. Nor did you submit in silence to the law of the stronger, the shameful vice of the weak. You performed your civic duty: you documented the crimes, and you entrusted them to the lawful authority of the Republic — which, with its Balloons in the sky and its Bayonets sharpened upon the earth, is well able to enforce Justice on every inch of its territory.

Therefore the Committee of Public Command has unanimously decreed:

• That Citizen Reiner Kunze, a lawyer from Alwaldstadt, be appointed Commander of Alvald;
• That his name be inscribed in the Crypt of the Pavilion of Immortality, alongside the active Citizens of the era of Republican secrecy.

Furthermore, the Committee decrees that the received Catalogue of Injustice be published in full in the Flag of the Republic, the official gazette of the National Assembly, under the title Catalogue of Royalist Injustice, faithfully recorded by Patriot Citizen Reiner Kunze, as a summons to the righteous vengeance of the Republic.

We remind you also of the obligation of all Municipality Commanders — for which the Regional Commander is answerable — to plant, in the presence of all Citizens and with due solemnity, a Tree of Liberty in every municipality of the Republic.

The Committee of Public Command wishes you success in the patriotic mission to which you are appointed, and awaits your first report detailing the condition of the island. On this occasion the Committee also congratulates you upon the Complementary Days, and calls upon you and your Region to celebrate them in a manner worthy of excellent Republicans.

Honour the Constitution, Citizens!

Hermann Henscher
Chairman of the Committee of Public Command
Republic of Guntreland