Maj Thovold gives Empire Day Speech
On Empire Day 187, with the Imperial Council in recess, Maj Thovold placed Navy garrisons around the homeworlds of the major opposition Idara, then appeared on a galaxy-wide broadcast to address the Empire. Her stirring speech, which lasted a bare fifteen minutes, dwelt on the dangers of fractionalism and the benefits of unity, and she finished:
"If we continue along our current path, our great Empire will splinter into eight or more little Empires. We will become hounds squabbling over our meat; jackals, fighting over a pitiful corpse.
"My fellow citizens, I do not believe that this is the destiny we want. I do not believe -- will not believe -- that you have put me here to preside over the dissolution of this Empire which our ancestors struggled and fought to create. Just as we are one people, all sharing the common blood of Terra -- so I say that we are one culture, one race, one Empire. And I swear to you, I will not allow this Empire to splinter. I will not allow the forces of greed and vanity to tear us apart. I will do everything within my power to preserve this Union. With your help, I shall establish a new peace, a Pax Terranica that will last far beyond our time.
"When Joradankov and the Founders created this Empire, they gave us a Throne and a Crown, as symbols of our essential unity. And to protect us from despotism, they chose to leave that Throne vacant, that Crown unlifted. Today I come before you, in this time of crisis, to ask your permission to lift that Crown, to take that Throne. I ask your permission to establish, once and for all, one rule that will unite the sons and daughters of Terra. Humbled in the sight of the Heavens and before the souls of our ancestors, I ask that you make your will known, to the Council and to your other officials. Shall we continue on our current path of destruction, or shall we lift the torch of liberty, and take the path that will lead to a new peace?"
Public response was tremendous, and Thovold's display of military power was most convincing. The opposition could do nothing but refuse to vote. By a vote of 161 to 2 (with 38 abstentions), the Council sent Thovold a formal request that she take the Throne as the Terran Empire's first Empress.