“You put it in place,” said Mercury. “You laid the cornerstone. And the whole thing was your idea.”
“But you convinced your superiors of the wisdom of the idea, Mercury. This wouldn’t have happened without you. Imagine! The first government in the history of the world completely free from the meddling of angels and demons. Just human beings, free to govern themselves as they see fit. What a wonderful thing that is!”
Mercury nodded, trying to share the president’s enthusiasm. “You said the next president will live in the White House. Does that mean you’re not running again?”
Washington nodded. “I’m getting old,” he said. “I’ve guided this country as well as I know how, but now it’s time for someone else to take the reins. Hamilton, maybe. Or Adams.”
“With respect, sir,” Mercury said, “do you think that’s wise? You’re still a relatively young man. The situation with Britain is tense, and war is brewing in France. Meanwhile there’s the Indian problem, not to mention the rebellion in—”
“There’s always going to be some crisis, some conflict,” said Washington. “If I don’t leave at the end of my second term, I’ll be tempted to stay forever. And then where will this country be? We’d have thrown off the yoke of one King George only to be enslaved by another. No, Mercury, sometimes the wisest thing you can do is to quit while you’re ahead.”
“But what if the country isn’t ready?” asked Mercury. “What if the presidency falls into the hands of a power-hungry tyrant or a weakling who fails to protect it from its enemies? What if you’ve done all this work for nothing?”
“That was always a possibility,” said Washington. “But as I say, we’re all under the hand of Providence. Will the republic last, or will it crumble, rotted from the inside by petty partisanship or crushed by foreign enemies? I do not know. But the one sure way I know to stifle this new experiment in human governance is to insist that it be kept completely under control. The more tightly I grip the reins, the easier it will be for some future tyrant to exert his will. No, the solution is not for me to hold on as tightly as I can; it’s to trust the people of this country with their own destiny.”
“And you think the people can be trusted not to fall for some silver-tongued demagogue who promises them security in exchange for their freedom?”
Washington stood and walked to the window, where he could see shopkeepers and tradesmen passing on the street below.
“We’ll see, Mercury,” he said. “We’ll see.”
* * *
[1] For a more detailed account of the Apocalypse, please refer to my earlier reports, pithily entitled Mercury Falls, Mercury Rises and Mercury Rests, respectively.
[2] Kaylee tended to confuse Bob Marley and Che Guevara.
[3] Not a figure of speech. They literally planned to knock over the building. Tiamat had a weakness for puns.
[4] All in all, it was one of Travis Babcock’s worse ideas, and that was saying something.
[5] Literally, “out of his pants.” Surprisingly this is a perfectly acceptable surname in the Netherlands. Mercury liked the Dutch.
[6] Plane 4721c, known for its delicious cheeses.
[7] A Balderhaz Cube, as you may recall, is a device that emanates a “no miracle” zone within a given radius. There are believed to be about a dozen Cubes in existence, one of which was causing Ederatz the cherub a great deal of trouble at present.
Mercury Revolts: (Book Four of the Mercury Series) Page 27