The Rangers Are Coming (12 page)

“I am also opening a store.  It will have food and furniture, and clothing, and blankets for sale, and so much more.  I will sell everything to you for not one penny more than I paid for it.  Since I will have a lot of stores, I’ll be able to buy for less, so you will pay less.  At your home, you can still tend your gardens and make your food cost less.  In the end, your monthly pay will go, partly to purchase property of your own, and partly to buy the things you need day by day.  But for the wise people here, and I’m sure there are a lot, every month you will have a little money left over, to save so that one day you will be able to pay cash money for something you would like to have.”

“So let me ask you, will you live as you do now, or will you accept my offer to become an employee of The Foundation, where you will be free, educated, property owners who can look forward to a better tomorrow?”

The crowd rose as one and cheered their support.  They crowded around Arcadia to touch her, to embrace her, to show her their love.  Jefferson sat in a chair nearby with his arms crossed and a smile on his face.

Later that night, when everyone had finally gone home, and Arcadia and Jefferson were finally alone, Jefferson said, “You really got the people stirred up today.  Freedom is a powerful incentive, but you went the extra steps to provide sense to their joy.  I just hope you don’t lose all your money on a doubtful enterprise.”

“Look, Thomas, I’m not just trying something out to see if it sticks to the wall.  This plan has been studied by some very smart people in my time and we have the benefit of instruments that will do millions of calculations per second.  We ran the numbers on the slave economy.  When you amortize the cost of what you pay for the slave over their useful life, provide housing, medical treatment, food and the costs of chasing, recovering and disposing of runaways, and a dozen other factors, we found out that its actually costing you 10 dollars a month in 1770 to own a single slave.  Your place here is a good average example for the rest of the South.”                                                                            

“You pay The Foundation 8 dollars a month for your new employees, the same wage as the soldiers.  You save 2 dollars a month on what it’s costing you now.  We charge them $2.50 per month payments to buy their homes plus a hidden dollar for education, for a total of $3.50.  We estimate they will spend that much money every month in the store for food and staples, which the Foundation keeps.  That ought to leave them a whole dollar a month to save or spend.  I’m going to save a lot of money by buying in bulk and that will produce enough money to pay for people to run the stores.  We think the rest will go for state and federal taxes, so it will be a wash.  In twenty years, there will not be a single slave in America, all of them will have a proper education, and the result of that will be no Civil War.  The total cost for us to buy 600,000 slaves, and operate the stores will be about $20 million.  We think that’s a cheap price to pay for buying a better future.”

Jefferson shook his head in wonder, “Tell me, Arcadia, are all people in 2025 as smart as you, or are you the lucky exception?”

“Only the Lord knows the answer to that question.”

                                                                               
12

Fort Independence, Virginia

              Two months passed while Arcadia and Jefferson were setting up their new worker system at Monticello.  Arcadia decided it was time for a review of their progress and a planning session of how to proceed.  The Colonial Leaders and the senior staff gathered in the big conference room.

              “I know you’ve all been busy,” said Arcadia, after the opening prayer, “Each of you Colonial leaders is bursting to tell what you’ve accomplished, and we’re eager to hear it.  With your permission, I would like to begin with a report from Mr. Jefferson on our project at Monticello.”

              Jefferson stood up, “I admit I had serious doubts about Arcadia’s plan to emancipate all my slaves and then to hire them as employees to continue to work at Monticello.  I was sure that once they got their emancipation documents, they would all be gone overnight.  As it turned out, only six of some 200 former slaves actually left.  The rest of them hired on at Arcadia’s new company called, ‘The Foundation’ and she assigned them basically to return to their old jobs on the plantation.  Arcadia also bought all the homes I previously used to house the slaves.  She made up a Deed of Trust for each home, including the adjoining land around them, and had each head of the family and their wives sign the document with their mark.  She withholds a portion of their pay to make the payment on the property.  Most of the notes are for a period of ten years.”

              “Then she opened a new store, called an Emporium, in a barn close to the main home.  She stocked it with food, clothing, furniture, household items, and a whole range of other products.  The employees come to the Emporium and buy the supplies they need to feed their families and buy other things.  It’s strictly a cash transaction.”

              “Next, she opened a school for the younger children, hired a teacher, and started educating the children to read, write, and do numbers.  The school has 40 students.”

              “Arcadia paid me in gold for the purchase of the slaves and for the real estate, so I suddenly had a lot of cash on my hands.  She proved to me that it was costing me 10 dollars a month to keep my slaves, but I only pay her 8 dollars a month, so I’m saving 2 dollars a month per person.  It only took one month to prove she was right.”

              “Now here is the most important point.  My former slaves are working harder than they ever worked before.  We’re getting a great many things done.  The now free people are happy, thrifty, careful in their work, and life at Monticello is a dream.  Arcadia demonstrated what it means to be an employee for The Foundation.  In the first month, she sacked five people for loafing, stealing, fighting, and sent them packing.  The people are learning that freedom has its responsibilities and it’s a privilege to work for The Foundation.”

              “In my opinion, this model will work throughout the slave-holding south, and will allow us to abolish slavery in less than a generation.  It was an amazing demonstration of an idea that would never have occurred to us.”

              The group applauded loudly.

              “Thank you, Thomas,” said Arcadia.  “Now let’s hear from Mr. Franklin on the progress he’s made in bringing a true industrial revolution to America.”

              “Thank you, Arcadia,” said Franklin coming to the podium.  “The first thing I saw was a new way to produce, high quality, cheap steel.  It will allow us to build steel bridges, steel buildings and many, many new things.  The second thing I saw where detailed plans for building a steam-powered locomotive…a train.  We are using those plans right now to produce the steel components we need to build such a machine.  Once we have a working model, we will be able to build the steam engines, construct cars for them to pull, produce steel rails, and construct a railroad system.  With enough labor, plus the financial backing of our hosts, I estimate that we can complete a rail link between Boston and Philadelphia in less than ten years.”

              “However, what I saw next is, by far, the most important modern development in the world.  We have all come to take for granted the lights that burn in our rooms and the other buildings.  The source of the energy to make this magic occur is electricity, the same electricity that we see every time there’s a storm with lighting.  Lighting is pure electricity.  I’ve been shown the method for harnessing this wonder and providing power of our own.  Let me demonstrate my first example, which I built myself.”

              A soldier brought in a big wooden board and placed it on the table.  There was a steel box on the board with a hand crank, and wires that came out of the box and connected to a two-inch thick spike of copper.  It was mounted on a little track with springs on each end.  In the center of the track was a group of metal rods dangling down from strings.

              “Now watch this,” said Franklin.  He turned the crank of his box slowly, and the copper spike began to move, tapping a rod, and making a little chime.  When the spike reached the spring, it bounced and started back.  Franklin turned the crank faster and the copper spike went faster, hitting the chimes and bouncing back and forth between the springs.  The room rang with the sound of chimes ringing.

              “Inside this box, is an apparatus called a generator.  It’s a collection of copper coils and opposing magnets.  When I turn the crank, I produce controlled lightning…electricity.  The same electricity is lighting all these lights and cooling our rooms.  The power does not have to come from a person.  For Fort Independence, it’s coming by capturing the water from a waterfall outside the Fort and running it through machines called dynamos, which turn the generator and make all this power.  Our ability to produce electricity is virtually unlimited.  We can power everything.  I know how to do it, and I’m going to train some others to do it too.”

              After the applause died out, Arcadia said, “This technology will put the new United States ahead of the rest of the world by a hundred years.  It’s the key to a great economic expansion.  You keep the secret of the power source, but produce an endless list of products that can be sold all over the world.”

              “Now,” continued Arcadia, “it’s time to hear from our political experts and their progress in producing a functioning government.”

              John Adams and James Madison came forward.  “We didn’t really have a big job, since our hosts were kind enough to provide us with a copy of what is known as the Articles of Confederation that will be ratified by all the colonies about ten years from now.  The Articles envision a permanent confederation, but grants to the Congress—the only federal institution—little power to finance itself or to ensure that its resolutions are enforced.  There is no president and no national court.  The Federal government has no power to levy taxes, make trade agreements with foreign countries, or maintain an Army or Navy.
Ultimately, the Articles are too weak to hold a fast-growing nation together, they do settle the western issue, as the states voluntarily turn over their lands to national control.”

              “In 1776, the Second Continental Congress will draft a new Constitution.  We think it’s important for the United States to have one, although most countries do not.  The result is a new Constitution that established the law of the land for the next 250 years.  The original document is less than 4,500 words long, however, it’s been amended thirty times over the years.  The first ten amendments, apparently written by me, are called the Bill of Rights, which enumerates the rights of every citizen.”

              “The document has worked very well for all the years until 2025.  It’s a document that will be copied by dozens of new countries in the future.  Both Mr. Adams and I agree that it’s the best we could do.  Arcadia has suggested that our new constitution incorporate the Bill of Rights into the document. Most of the other amendments added over the years have been dropped. Our revised Constitution applies term limits to Congress, and requires the Federal Government to operate on an annual balanced budget.  She says that most of the problems in the past 50 years of her time were caused by the absence of these elements.”

              “Adams stepped forward and said, “Our plan is to introduce the new Constitution for ratification by the states, the name of the former colonies, at the Constitutional Convention in 1776,  instead of the Articles of Confederation.  We believe it will be approved because our interim Federal government will be so successful in defeating the British and expanding the United States to include all of North America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.  In other words, we’ll have a great deal of support and credibility with the people.”

              When the applause ran out again, Arcadia returned to the podium.  “I know that all of you Colonial leaders are wondering how we’re going to accomplish this rather bold expansion, beginning with the defeat of the British, the most powerful country in the world at this time.  The answer to those questions will be provided by the person all of you regard to be the best man of all, the true Father of our Country, George Washington.

              Washington hugged Arcadia as he came to the podium.  “My friends, I’ve spent the last two months learning modern battle tactics as applied to the new weaponry that is being provided to us.  I can absolutely promise that our defeat of the British Empire throughout North America and the Caribbean can be accomplished in under a year.  Moreover, we will not require the aid of the French or the Spanish to accomplish this.  In fact, we will drive both of those countries out of North America after we’ve finished with the British, and establish the United States as a new great power in the world.”

              “You simply cannot believe the weapons and capabilities we possess.  I’ve seen and worked with almost all of it, and the simple fact is that just one of our new American soldiers will possess the firepower of an entire regiment in any other army.  When we are finished educating and training the men we are about to recruit, they will be the best fighting force in the world.”

              “What’s more, this army will not disappear when the war is over.  We will maintain a permanent, all-volunteer, career military from now on.  They will be well paid, dedicated, deeply religious, and incorruptible.  They will be commanded by a civilian, the President of the United States.”

              “I have been absent for so long, George,” said Jefferson, that I suffer from ignorance.  Can you tell me how and when you are going to assemble this collection of mighty warriors?

              “You haven’t missed anything, Thomas,” smiled Washington, “I haven’t explained this part of our operation at all.  Let me tell you what we are currently thinking.”