Garibaldi, who had organized his legion at Rieti, was elected member of
the Constituent Assembly, and on February 7th put in his appearance and
in language more soldierlike than parliamentary urged the immediate
proclamation of the republic. But the debate was carried on with all due
respect for the "rights of the minority."
Finally, on February 9th, of the one hundred fifty-four Deputies
present, all but five voted for the downfall of the temporal power of
the Pope, all but eleven for the proclamation of the republic. These,
with the exception of General Garibaldi and General Ferrari, were all
Romans. G. Filopanti, who undertook to explain the state of affairs to
the Roman people, won shouts of applause by his concluding words, "We
are no longer mere Romans, but Italians."
This sentence sums up the sentiments of all: of Garibaldi, who, after
recording his vote, returned to his troops at Rieti and drew up an
admirable plan for attacking the Austrians bent on subjugating the Roman
Provinces and for carrying revolution into the Kingdom of Naples; of
Mazzini, who, so far from having imposed on the Romans a republic by the
force of his tyrannical will, was--during its proclamation--in Tuscany,
striving to induce Guerrazzi and his fellow-triumvirs to unite with Rome
and organize a strong army for the renewal of the Lombard War.
True, the Romans, mindful of all they owed to the great apostle of
Italian unity and independence, proclaimed him Roman citizen on February
12th, and on the 25th of the same month the Roman people, with nine
thousand votes, elected him member of the Constituent Assembly; but it
was not until March 5th that he entered Rome, when, in one of his most
splendid speeches, rising above parties and politics, he called upon the
"Rome of the People" to send up combatants against Austria, the only
enemy that then menaced Italy.
Suiting the action to the word, he induced the Assembly to nominate a
commission for the thorough organization of the army; and ten thousand
men had quitted Rome and were marching up to the frontier to place
themselves at the orders of Piedmont, when, alas! their march was
arrested by the news of the total defeat at Novara, of the abdication of
Charles Albert and the reinauguration of Austrian rule in Lombardy.
Genoa, whose generous inhabitants arose in protest against the
disastrous but inevitable treaty of peace, was bombarded and reduced to
submission by La Marmora; and now, while to Rome and to Venice flocked
all the volunteers who preferred death to submission, the new Holy
Alliance of Continental Europe took for its watchword: "The restoration
of the Pope; the extinction of the two Republics of Venice and of Rome."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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