Avram's speech

As the Detinan Civil War was entering its final phase, King Avram of Detina issued a speech to his council of ministers, which was printed and distributed throughout the realm. Below are quotes from this speech.

"The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year is General Hesmucet's attempted march of three hundred miles directly through the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of our relative strength that our Marshal should feel able to confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to detach a well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition."

"On careful consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Kingdom, precisely what we will not and cannot give. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He can not voluntarily reaccept the unity of Detina; we can not voluntarily yield it. It is an issue which can only be tried by war and decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten; if the northern people fail him, he is beaten."

"What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause, is not necessarily true of those who follow. Although he cannot accept the united Kingdom of Detina, they can. Some of them, we know, already desire peace and reunion. They can, at any moment, have peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the royal authority. A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, were offered to all, except certain designated classes, and it was at the same time made known that the excepted classes were still within contemplation of special clemency. During the year many availed themselves of the general provision. During the same time also special pardons have been granted to individuals of the excepted classes, and no voluntary application has been denied."

"In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the royal authority on the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the Kingdom, I retract nothing heretofore said as to serfdom. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the Kingdom, whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it."

Literary comment

Most of the given passages of King Avram's speech are taken verbatim from President Abraham Lincoln's State of the Union Address, issued on December 6, 1864 as the American Civil War was entering its final phase. Only the proper names, titles, geographic directions, and other story-specific details have been changed.