Citizens, recently Councilor Maddox left this world. She was many things, few of them pleasant but that was part of her charm. She never lied about who she was, or what she wished. In so many ways, I find her a strange paragon of virtue-the virtue of the honest, simple man. You may not be a king, or a mighty warrior, but whatever it is from a farmer, to a butcher, to a prostitute-you do what you must to put food on the table. It was for you that Maddox entered politics, and ultimately it killed her.
She joins a long line of Councilors to have died to serve the people. Albert Ubel was the first martyr to this cause, and Morgan Maddox shall not be the last. I've struggled long already as a politician, made horrible mistakes even in a short time. I'd hoped to accomplish a redistribution of wealth through mistaken proposals, and it was Maddox' cleverness, bedeviled and beliquored as it was that helped clear my mind.
That there are some in Sanctuary too rich goes without saying. That their money is made by the sweat or your back goes without saying. That this is the way the world works is simply not true. 150 years ago, we were all equals and equally free. Now some of us work year round to support the lavish lifestyle of fat merchants. Sanctuary can be a beacon of fresh new vitality here in this dark land. A chance to build a civilization unseen before in human history.
A truly free, truly democratic land. This is something Morgan wanted. This is something I want, and to this end I have supported recent proposals to tax the bank where rich men deposit and hoard their gold; proposals to give information our defense leagues and Council have too long hoarded jealously from the people they serve, proposals to open up our court rooms to more judicious oversight and honesty.
What is more, I intend fully to continue in this vein. I'd like to meet with community leaders in Lower Sanctuary interested in seeing the Tigereye mercenaries playing less of a role in keeping the peace. Lower Sanctuary has always been its own land, it was only in the last decades that it was subjugated without a vote by Upper Sanctuary and dominated by its laws. Certain Councilors want the Watch to oversee Lower, they want the Spellguard in Lower, even the best want the Tigereyes as its Overseers. I think the Tigereyes can be put to better use, and so do they. Let Lower Sanctuary police Lower Sanctuary while the Tigereyes worry about guarding us from the next drow invasion.
Additionally, the city seeks to open a mine. This mine will legally belong to Sanctuary, and therefore to its people. Certain Councilors will try to give ownership of the mine to their rich mercantile friends, or powerful factions that helped elect them. I will fight to make the mine belong to the people, its profits and the sweat of the men who will work it will belong to all of us. Nor should it stop there, this city is ours. It is not something owned by deeds or slips or grants or heredity. It is a communal trust with room to accomodate us all. Those squatting in buildings long unattended, or living without deeds in vacant uncared for buildings should no longer worry some new 'owner' will arive to claim it; and if the city has done nothing to improve your home neither shall it be taxed as property. This city has the communal obligation to house those who dwell here, who guard its walls, who work its jobs.
Decades ago, Albert Ubel began a revolution. It began peacefully, in the Council chambers; but like Morgan Maddox he understood that our freedom is forever in danger. Once by slavers, now by those who hold us in bondage of wage labor, or bonded to deeds of ownership. Again in the Council chambers this revolution to fight for your freedom begins. I only hope that it does not die young as did Morgan Maddox; even if as she herself often did, that fight must carry out in the street.
Councilor Mandarin U. Dreagle Friend of Morgan Maddocks, and her sole euologist.