RECORD OF THE DECISION ON THE ELECTION OF A MORAL CENSOR

IN THE DISTRICT OF CENTRAL ALVALD, REGION OF ALVALD
Year Nineteen of the Republic of Guntreland, free, natural, and founded upon Virtue
Fifth Complementary Day

The Secretary of the Regional Command summoned Citizen Peter Agels, clockmaker of Alwaldstadt, to stand before the assembled Citizens gathered in the Hall of the Castle of Alvald Liberty — formerly the castle of the former Count of Bartolburg — and to give account of his life, that it might be determined whether he had lived in blameless virtue and whether, therefore, he should be appointed as one of the Moral Censors: elders charged with overseeing the conduct of all public functionaries, reporting their faults to the authorities above them, and supervising the lives of minor Citizens.

Citizen Peter Agels declared that he was born in the Forty-Second Year before the Republic, in Alvaldstadt; that he inherited from his father a watchmaker’s workshop and trade, to which he consecrated his whole life, doubling the patrimony he had received; that with equal conscientiousness he made and repaired watches for clients of all the former social orders, and that he had fashioned more than a hundred timepieces. He stated that he has dwelt his entire life in his native house at Alwaldstadt, that for thirty years he has been wed to Catharina, daughter of a teacher of music, and that together they have one daughter, Hannelore. He further testified that from the moment he heard of the foundation of the Republic he adhered to it; that though upon Alvald the secret Republican institutions never reached the perfection of those upon the Continent, nevertheless he secretly fabricated several clocks adapted to Republican reckoning of time for the service of the clandestine institutions which were attempted upon the island.

The Secretary of the Regional Command then asked whether any Citizen present would contest that Citizen Agels had lived a virtuous life, and therefore deserved to be appointed Moral Censor for life.

From the assembly arose cries concerning the daughter of Citizen Agels. The Secretary invited the Citizens to speak in order, one by one.

Citizen Philipp Finser of Alwaldstadt declared that Citizen Agels could not be deemed worthy to supervise the youth, when he had so raised his own daughter that she became betrothed to an insolent servant of tyranny and is now fled with this enemy of the People. His words were confirmed by voices and cries: “So it is!”

The Secretary asked again if any Citizen had further accusation against the life of Citizen Agels. None came forward.

Citizen Agels was then invited to answer the reproach. He replied that for the fault in the education of his daughter he had no excuse, and that he submitted himself entirely to the judgment of his fellow Citizens; all he could say in his defense was that in his household, since the Proclamation of the Republic, life had been conducted in full accord with Republican principles.

The Secretary then asked whether any would speak in favor of Citizen Agels. Citizen Reiner Kunze, Regional Commander of Alvald, took the floor and declared that the People cannot know with certainty whether Citizen Hannelore Agels fled with the royalists of her own will or was carried off against it; nor whether her betrothal to the tyrant’s agent was of her choosing or imposed by the pressures of the old regime. If she did indeed flee of her own accord, it was only, he said, to gain access to the fossils of dinosaurs from other continents, so that she might continue her researches and serve the Republic of Guntreland in the manner in which, as a naturalist of exceptional talent, she could best serve it.

As for Citizen Peter Agels himself, Commander Kunze affirmed that the People could with certainty attest that he had throughout his life offered to his fellow Citizens the example of virtues such as diligence and fidelity in work, thrift and enterprise. He read from his Catalogue of Injustice the account of the Eleventh of Felinoz, Year Seven, when the tyrant’s agent Frenz Heidler, entering the workshop of Citizen Agels, demanded to buy a certain old watch he had seen there. Citizen Agels refused, declaring it belonged to his client, Citizen Rurten, who was deeply attached to it as a gift of his parents. Heidler raised his offer, far beyond the cost of its repair and its material value; still Agels refused. Then Heidler struck Citizen Agels across the face with all his force and seized the watch, leaving the money upon the table. Since the old regime then reigned in lawless power, all that Agels could do was to deliver that money to Citizen Rurten.

At these words the hall resounded with acclamations for Commander Kunze, for Citizen Agels, and for Citizen Rurten; though there were also whistles against the Commander, and one Citizen accused him of “liquidating Republicans.” Commander Kunze replied that he had neither executed nor ordered any execution, but had enforced, without distinction, the Republican laws, as is the constitutional duty of all public organizations; that by the application of those laws, sixty persons had been destroyed, of whom forty-eight were royalists — including the criminal Heidler himself — and twelve members of the “Collectivist Club” who had despoiled the property of the Republic. Those who despoil the property of all Citizens, he declared, cannot be called Republicans.

The Secretary demanded that the debate concern only the life of the candidate for Moral Censor; that afterwards the Censor himself would have the right to criticize the Commander if he judged it necessary; and that any other conduct would lead to anarchy, which is but the other face of tyranny, and which would hasten its return. At this the whistling ceased, and only the acclamations for Agels continued.

The Secretary ordered minors and foreigners to leave the hall, as the right to vote belongs only to the adult members of the sovereign body.

The Secretary then put the question: Who judges that no valid reproach has been brought against the life of Citizen Peter Agels, and that he may therefore be appointed Moral Censor? The assembled People declared by acclamation that there was none.

The Secretary of the Regional Command then proclaimed that Citizen Peter Agels is elected Moral Censor.

Citizen Peter Agels solemnly swore that until the end of his life he will conscientiously, and with fidelity to the moral purity of the Republic, oversee the conduct of public officials and the lives of minor Citizens; that he will report every fault he perceives to the competent authority; and that he will submit to no influence save that of the moral law within him.

Thereupon the Secretary bound upon the arm of the newly elected Moral Censor, Citizen Peter Agels, a white ribbon, reminding him that he must bear always in public this emblem of his charge.