commanded by Guyon in the Battle of Branyiszko, and very soon the
Hungarian armies acted on the offensive at all points. In the course of
a few weeks they achieved, chiefly under Gorgei's leadership, great and
complete victories over the enemy near Szolnok, Hatvan, Bicske, Waitzen,
Isaszegh, Nagy Sarlo, and Komarom. Windischgraetz lost both the campaign
and his office as commander-in-chief.

Toward the close of the spring of 1849, after besieged Komorn had been
relieved by the Hungarians, and Bem had driven from Transylvania not
only the Austrians, but the Russians who had come to their assistance,
the country was almost freed from her enemies, and only two cities, Buda
and Temesvar, remained in the hands of the Austrians. The glorious
efforts made by the nation were attended at last by splendid successes,
and the civilized world spoke with sympathy and respect of the Hungarian
people, who had signally shown their ability to defend their liberties,
constitution, and national existence.

It should have been the mission of diplomacy, at this conjuncture, to
turn to advantage the recent military successes by negotiating an
honorable peace with the humbled dynasty, as had been done before in the
history of the country, after similar military achievements by the
ancient national leaders, Bocskay and Bethlen. Gorgei, at the head of
the army, was disposed to conclude peace. But the Hungarian Parliament
sitting in Debreczin, led by Kossuth and under the influence of the
recent victories, was determined to pursue a different course. The royal
house at Hapsburg, whose dynasty had ruled over Hungary for three
centuries, was declared to have forfeited its right to the throne by
instigating and bringing upon the country the calamities of a great war.
This act had a bad effect, especially on the army, tending also to
heighten the personal antagonism between Kossuth and Gorgei. But its
worst consequence was that it gave Russia a pretext for armed
intervention. The Emperor Francis Joseph entered into an alliance with
the Czar of Russia, the purpose of which was to reconquer seceded
Hungary and ultimately to crush her liberty.

One more brilliant victory was achieved by the Hungarian arms before the
fatal blow was aimed at the country. The fortress of Buda was taken
after a gallant assault, in the course of which the Austrian commandant
bombarded the defenceless city of Pest on the opposite bank of the
Danube, and thus the capital, too, was restored to the country. Yet
after this last glorious feat of war, good fortune deserted the national
banners. The grand heroic epoch was hastening to its tragic end. Two
hundred thousand Russians crossed the borders of Hungary, and were there
reenforced by sixty thousand to seventy thousand Austrians, whom the
Viennese Government had succeeded in collecting for a last great effort.

It was easy to foresee that the exhausted Hungarian army could not long
resist the superior numbers opposed to them. For months they continued
the gallant fight, and in one of these fierce engagements Petofi, the
beloved poet of the nation, lost his life; but in the month of August
the Russians had already succeeded in surrounding Gorgei's army. Gorgei,
who was now invested with the supreme power, perceiving that all further
effusion of blood was useless, surrendered, in the sight of the Russian
army, the sword he had so gloriously worn in many a battle, near
Vilagos, on August 13, 1849. The remaining Hungarian armies followed his
example, and either capitulated or disbanded. The brave army of the
_honveds_ was no more, and the gallant struggle for liberty was put an
end to by the Russian forces. Kossuth and many other Hungarians sought
refuge in Turkey.

Above Komorn, the largest fortress in the country, alone the Hungarian
colors were still floating. General Klapka, its commandant, bravely
defended it, and continued to hold it for six weeks after the sad
catastrophe of Vilagos. The brave defender, seeing at last that further
resistance served no purpose, as the Hungarian army had ceased to exist,
and the whole country had passed into the hands of the Austrians,
capitulated upon the most honorable terms. This was the concluding act
of the heroic struggle of the Hungarian people, the brave attitude of
the garrison and their commander adding another bright page to the
honorable record of the military achievements of 1848 and 1849.

As soon as the Imperialists had obtained possession of Komorn, their
commander-in-chief, Baron Haynau, began to persecute the patriots, and
to commit the most cruel atrocities against them. Those who had taken
part in the national war were brought before a court-martial and
summarily executed. The bloody work of the executioner began on October
6th. Count Louis Batthyanyi was shot at Pest, and thirteen gallant
generals, belonging to Gorgei's army, met their deaths at Arad.
Wholesale massacres were committed throughout the country, until at last
the conscience of Europe rose up against these cruel butcheries, and the
court itself removed the sanguinary Baron from the scene of his inhuman
exploits. The best men in the country were thrown into prison, and
thousands of families had to mourn for dear ones who had fallen victims
to the implacable vindictiveness of the Austrian Government. Once more
the gloom of oppression settled upon the unhappy country.

Many of the patriots had accompanied Kossuth to Turkey or found a refuge
in other foreign countries, and for ten years a great number of
distinguished Hungarians were compelled to taste the bitterness of
exile. Kossuth himself went subsequently to England, and visited also
the United States. In the latter country he was enthusiastically
received by the great and free American people, who took delight in his
lofty eloquence. During the Crimean War, and the War of 1859 in Italy,
Kossuth and the Hungarian exiles were zealously laboring to free their
country, by foreign aid, from the thraldom of oppression. At last,
however, the Hungarian nation succeeded in reconquering, without any aid
from abroad, by her own exertions, her national and political rights,
and made her peace with the ruling dynasty. But the Hungarian exiles had
their full share in the work of reconciliation, for it was owing to
their exertions that the nations of Europe remembered that, in spite of
Vilagos, Hungary still existed, and that again, at home, the people of
Hungary were not permitted to lose their faith in a better and brighter
future.

Kossuth, the Nestor of the struggle for liberty, lives at present [1886]
in retirement in Turin, [Footnote: Kossuth died at Turin, Italy, March
20, 1894.--ED.] and, although separated from his people by diverging
political theories, his countrymen will forever cherish in him the great
genius who gave liberty to millions of the oppressed peasantry, and who
inscribed indelibly on the pages of the national legislation the
immortal principles of liberty and equality of rights.




(1848) DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, John S. Hittell


Before the time of the great gold discovery of 1848, the metal had been
found in California, but the mines from which it was taken were poor and
yielded small returns for years of working. The discovery in 1848
influenced the whole world, giving new life to trade and industry
everywhere. The first published report of gold in California appeared in
Hakluyt's account of Sir Francis Drake's visit to the coast in 1579. The
observations of Drake's men are supposed by some to have been made at a
point not far from San Francisco. The Hakluyt statement, however, is
disbelieved by many historians. The Spaniards and Mexicans who later
visited the coast are known to have found gold at many places, and
especially near the Colorado River, but they discovered no mines worth
working. Reports of great mineral wealth in California were repeated up
to the time of the American conquest, but they commanded little
confidence among mining experts.

Although gold was found in what is now San Diego County in 1828,
Alexander Forbes, the historian of California, wrote in 1835 that no
minerals of particular importance had been discovered in Upper
California, nor any ores of metals. About 1838 a gold placer was
discovered in the ca+-on of San Francisquito, forty-five miles northwest
of Los Angeles, and this was the first California mine that produced any
considerable amount of metal. It was worked for ten years and then
abandoned for richer diggings in the Sacramento Valley. The average
yield for the ten years was probably about six thousand dollars. After
the return of the Wilkes exploring expedition of 1842, James D. Dana,
its mineralogist, mentioned places in California at which he had
observed or inferred the existence of gold. But his report led to no
gold-hunting, and had only a scientific interest.

The great discovery of 1848, and its world-wide effects, are described
in the following account by Hittell, which forms a part of Hubert H.
Bancroft's voluminous _History of the Pacific States_.

As Edmund Hammond Hargraves is the hero of the Australian, so is James
W. Marshall of the Californian, gold discovery. Before giving the
account of his discovery, however, I will quote the following passage
from a letter written on May 4, 1846, by Thomas O. Larkin, then United
States consul at Monterey, California, to James Buchanan, Secretary of
State:

"There is said to be black lead in the country of San Fernando, near San
Pedro [now Los Angeles County]. By washing the sand in a plate, any
person can obtain from one dollar to five dollars per day of gold that
brings seventeen dollars per ounce in Boston; the gold has been gathered
for two or three years, though but few have the patience to look for it.
On the southeast end of the island of Catalina there is a silver mine
from which silver has been extracted. There is no doubt but that gold,
silver, quick-silver, copper, lead, sulphur, and coal mines are to be
found all over California, and it is equally doubtful whether, under
their present owners, they will ever be worked."

James W. Marshall, in a letter dated January 28, 1856, and addressed to
Charles E. Pickett, gave the following account of the gold discovery:
"Toward the end of August, 1847, Captain Sutter and I formed a
copartnership to build and run a sawmill upon a site selected by myself
(since known as Coloma). We employed P.L. Weimer and family to remove
from the Fort (Sutter's Fort) to the mill-site, to cook and labor for
us. Nearly the first work done was the building of a double log cabin,
about half a mile from the mill-site. We commenced the mill about
Christmas. Some of the mill-hands wanted a cabin near the mill. This was
built, and I went to the Fort to superintend the construction of the
mill-irons, leaving orders to cut a narrow ditch where the race was to
be made. Upon my return, in January, 1848, I found the ditch cut as
directed, and those who were working on the same were doing so at a
great disadvantage, expending their labor upon the head of the race
instead of the foot.

"I immediately changed the course of things, and upon the 19th of the
same month of January discovered the gold near the lower end of the
race, about two hundred yards below the mill. William Scott was the
second man to see the metal. He was at work at a carpenter's bench near
the mill. I showed the gold to him. Alexander Stephens, James Brown,
Henry Bigler, and William Johnston were likewise working in front of the
mill, framing the upper story. They were called up next, and, of course,
saw the precious metal. P.L. Weimer and Charles Bennett were at the old
double log cabin (where Hastings and Company afterward kept a store).

"In the mean time we put in some wheat and peas, nearly five acres,
across the river. In February the Captain (Captain Sutter) came to the
mountains for the first time. Then we consummated a treaty with the
Indians, which had been previously negotiated. The tenor of this was
that we were to pay them two hundred dollars yearly in goods, at Yerba
Buena prices, for the joint possession and occupation of the land with
them; they agreeing not to kill our stock, viz., horses, cattle, hogs,
or sheep, nor burn the grass within the limits fixed by the treaty. At
the same time Captain Sutter, myself, and Isaac Humphrey entered into a
copartnership to dig gold. A short time afterward, P.L. Weimer moved
away from the mill, and was away two or three months, when he returned.
With all the events that subsequently occurred, you and the public are
well informed."

This is the most precise and is generally considered to be the most
correct account of the gold discovery. Other versions of the story have
been published, however, and the following, from an article published in
the Coloma _Argus_, in the latter part of the year 1855, is one of them.
The statement was evidently derived from Weimer, who lives at Coloma:

"That James W. Marshall picked up the first piece of gold is beyond
doubt. Peter L. Weimer, who resides in this place, states positively
that Marshall picked up the gold in his presence; they both saw it and
each spoke at the same time, 'What's that yellow stuff?' Marshall, being
a step in advance, picked it up. This first piece of gold is now in the
possession of Mrs. Weimer, and weighs six pennyweights eleven grains.
The piece was given to her by Marshall himself. The dam was finished
early in January, the frame for the mill also erected, and the flume and
bulkhead completed. It was at this time that Marshall and Weimer adopted
the plan of raising the gate during the night to wash out sand from the
mill-race, closing it during the day, when work would be continued with
shovels, etc.

"Early in February--the exact day is not remembered--in the morning,
after shutting off the water, Marshall and Weimer walked down the race
together to see what the water had accomplished during the night. Having
gone about twenty yards below the mill, they both saw the piece of gold
before mentioned, and Marshall picked it up. After an examination, the
gold was taken to the cabin of Weimer, and Mrs. Weimer instructed to
boil it in saleratus-water; but she, being engaged in making soap,
pitched the piece into the soap-kettle, where it was boiled all day and
all night. The following morning the strange piece of stuff was fished
out of the soap, all the brighter for the boiling.

"Discussion now commenced, and all expressed the opinion that perhaps
the yellow substance might be gold. Little was said on the subject; but
everyone each morning searched in the race for more, and every day found
several small scales. The Indians also picked up many small thin pieces,
and carried them always to Mrs. Weimer. About three weeks after the
first piece was obtained, Marshall took the fine gold, amounting to
between two and three ounces, and went to San Francisco to have the
strange metal tested. On his return he informed Weimer that the stuff
was gold.

"All hands now began to search for the 'root of all evil.' Shortly
after, Captain Sutter came to Coloma, and he and Marshall assembled the
Indians and bought of them a large tract of country about Coloma, in
exchange for a lot of beads and a few cotton handkerchiefs. They, under
color of this Indian title, required one-third of all the gold dug on
their domain, and collected at this rate until the fall of 1848, when a
mining party from Oregon declined paying 'tithes' as they called it.

"During February, 1848, Marshall and Weimer went down the river to
Mormon Island, and there found scales of gold on the rocks. Some weeks
later they sent Mr. Henderson, Sydney Willis and Mr. Fifield, Mormons,
down there to dig, telling them that that place was better than Coloma.
These were the first miners at Mormon Island."

Marshall was a man of an active, enthusiastic mind, and he at once
attached great importance to his discovery. His ideas, however, were
vague; he knew nothing about gold-mining; he did not know how to take
advantage of what he had found. Only an experienced gold-miner could
understand the importance of the discovery and make it of practical
value to all the world. That gold-miner, fortunately, was near at hand;
his name was Isaac Humphrey. He was residing in the town of San
Francisco, in the month of February, when a Mr. Bennett, one of the
party employed at Marshall's mill, went down to that place with some of
the dust to have it tested; for it was still a matter of doubt whether
this yellow metal really was gold. Bennett told his errand to a friend
whom he met in San Francisco, and this friend introduced him to
Humphrey, who had been a gold-miner in Georgia, and was therefore
competent to pass an opinion.

Humphrey looked at the dust, pronounced it gold at the first glance, and
expressed a belief that the diggings must be rich. He made inquiries
about the place where the gold was found, and subsequent inquiries about
the trustworthiness of Mr. Bennett, and on March 7th he was at the mill.
He tried to induce several of his friends in San Francisco to go with
him; they all thought his expedition a foolish one, and he had to go
alone. He found that there was some talk about the gold, and persons
would occasionally go about looking for pieces of it; but no one was
engaged in mining, and the work of the mill was going on as usual. On
the 8th he went out prospecting with a pan, and satisfied himself that
the country in that vicinity was rich in gold. He then made a rocker and
commenced the business of washing gold, and thus began the business of
mining in California.

Others saw how he did it, followed his example, found that the work was
profitable, and abandoned all other occupations. The news of their
success spread; people flocked to the place, learned how to use the
rocker, discovered new diggings, and in the course of a few months the
country had been overturned by a social and industrial revolution.

Mr. Humphrey had not been at work more than three or four days before a
Frenchman, called Baptiste, who had been a gold-miner in Mexico for many
years, came to the mill, and he agreed with Humphrey that California was
very rich in gold. He, too, went to work, and, being an excellent
prospector, he was of great service in teaching the newcomers the
principles of prospecting and mining for gold--principles not abstruse,
yet not likely to suggest themselves at first thought to men entirely
ignorant of the business. Baptiste had been employed by Captain Sutter
to saw lumber with a whipsaw, and had been at work for two years at a
place, since called Weber, about ten miles eastward from Coloma. When he
saw the diggings at the latter place, he at once said there were rich
mines where he had been sawing, and he expressed surprise that it had
never occurred to him before, so experienced in gold-mining as he was;
but he afterward said it had been so ordered by Providence, that the
gold might not be discovered until California should be in the hands of
the Americans.

About the middle of March, P.B. Reading, an American, now a prominent
and wealthy citizen of the State, then the owner of a large ranch on the
western bank of the Sacramento River, near where it issues from the
mountains, came to Coloma, and after looking about at the diggings, said
that if similarity in the appearance of the country could be taken as a
guide there must be gold in the hills near his ranch; and he went off,
declaring his intention to go back and make an examination of them. John
Bidwell, another American, now a wealthy and influential citizen, then
residing on his ranch on the bank of Feather River, came to Coloma about
a week later, and he said there must be gold near his ranch, and he went
off with expressions similar to those used by Reading. In a few weeks
news came that Reading had found diggings near Clear Creek, at the head
of the Sacramento Valley, and was at work there with his Indians; and
not long after, it was reported that Bidwell was at work with his
Indians on a rich bar of Feather River, since called "Bidwell's Bar."

Although Bennett had arrived at San Francisco in February with some of
the dust, the editors of the town--for two papers were published in the
place at the time--did not hear of the discovery till some weeks later.
The first published notice of the gold appeared in the _Californian_
(published in San Francisco) on March 15th, as follows: "In the newly
made raceway of the sawmill recently erected by Captain Sutter, on the
American Fork, gold has been found in considerable quantities. One
person brought thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gathered there in
a short time. California, no doubt, is rich in mineral wealth; great
chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in almost
every part of the country."

Three days later the _California Star_, the rival paper, gave the
following account of the discovery: "We were informed a few days since
that a very valuable silver-mine was situated in the vicinity of this
place, and, again, that its locality was known. Mines of quicksilver are
being found all over the country. Gold has been discovered in the
northern Sacramento districts, about forty miles above Sutter's Fort.
Rich mines of copper are said to exist north of these bays."

Although these articles were written two months after the discovery, it
is evident that the editors had heard only vague rumors, and attached
little importance to them. The _Star_ of March 25th says: "So great is
the quantity of gold taken from the new mine recently found at New
Helvetia that it has become an article of traffic in that vicinity."

None of the gold had been seen in San Francisco; but at Sutter's Fort
men had begun to buy and sell with it.

The next number of the _Star_, bearing date April 1, 1848, contained an
article several columns long, written by Doctor V.J. Fourgeaud, on the
resources of California. He devoted about a column to the minerals, and
in the course of his remarks said: "It would be utterly impossible at
present to make a correct estimate of the mineral wealth of California.
Popular attention has been but lately directed to it. But the
discoveries that have already been made will warrant us in the assertion
that California is one of the richest mineral countries in the world.
Gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, copper, lead, sulphur, saltpetre, and
other mines of great value have already been found. We saw a few days
ago a beautiful specimen of gold from the mine newly discovered on the
American Fork. From all accounts the mine is immensely rich, and already
we learn the gold from it collected at random and without any trouble
has become an article of trade at the upper settlements. This precious
metal abounds in this country. We have heard of several other newly
discovered mines of gold, but as these reports are not yet authenticated
we shall pass over them. However, it is well known that there is a
placer of gold a few miles from Los Angeles, and another on the San
Joaquin."

It was not until more than three months after Marshall's discovery that
the San Francisco papers stated that gold-mining had become a regular
and profitable business in the new placers. The _Californian_ of April
26th said: "From a gentleman just from the gold region we learn that
many new discoveries of gold have very recently been made, and it is
fully ascertained that a large extent of country abounds with that
precious mineral. Seven men, with picks and spades, gathered one
thousand six hundred dollars worth in fifteen days. Many persons are
settling on the lands with the view of holding preemptions, but as yet
every person takes the right to gather all he can without any regard to
claims. The largest piece yet found is worth six dollars."

The news spread, men came from all the settled parts of the territory,
and as they came they went to work mining, and gradually they moved
farther and farther from Coloma, and before the rainy reason had
commenced (in December) miners were washing rich auriferous dirt all
along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, from the Feather to the
Tuolumne River, a distance of one hundred fifty miles; and also over a
space of about fifteen miles square, near the place now known as the
town of Shasta, in the Coast Mountains, at the head of the Sacramento
Valley. The whole country had been turned topsy-turvy; towns had been
deserted, or left only to the women and children; fields had been left
unreaped; herds of cattle went without anyone to care for them. But
gold-mining, which had become the great interest of the country, was not
neglected. The people learned rapidly and worked hard.

In the latter part of 1848 adventurers began to arrive from Oregon, the
Sandwich Islands, and Mexico. The winter found the miners with very
little preparation, but most of them were accustomed to a rough manner
of life in the Western wilds, and they considered their large profits an
abundant compensation for their privations and hardships. The weather
was so mild in December and January that they could work almost as well
as in the summer, and the rain gave them facilities for washing such as
they could not have in the dry season.

In September, 1848, the first rumors of the gold discovery began to
reach New York; in October they attracted attention; in November people
looked with interest for new reports; in December the news gained
general credence and a great excitement arose. Preparations were made
for a migration to California by somebody in nearly every town in the
United States. The great body of the emigrants went either across the
plains with ox or mule teams or round Cape Horn in sailing-vessels. A
few took passage in the steamer by way of Panama.

Not fewer than one hundred thousand men, representing in their nativity
every State in the Union, went to California that year. Of these, twenty
thousand crossed the continent by way of the South Pass; and nearly all
of them started from the Missouri River between Independence and St.
Joseph, in the month of May. They formed an army; in daytime their
trains filled up the roads for miles, and at night their camp-fires
glittered in every direction about the places blessed with grass and
water. The excitement continued from 1850 to 1853; emigrants continued
to come by land and sea, from Europe and America, and in the last named
year from China also. In 1854 the migration fell off, and since that
time until the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad California
received the chief accessions to her white population by the Panama
steamers.

The whole world felt a beneficent influence from the great gold yield of
the Sacramento Basin. Labor rose in value, and industry was stimulated
from St. Louis to Constantinople. The news, however, was not welcome to
all classes. Many of the capitalists feared that gold would soon be so
abundant as to be worthless, and European statesmen feared the power to
be gained by the arrogant and turbulent democracy of the New World.

The author of a book entitled _Notes on the Gold District_, published in
London in 1853, thus speaks of the fears excited in Europe on the first
great influx of gold from the Californian mines: "Among the many
extraordinary incidents connected with the Californian discoveries was
the alarm communicated to many classes and which was not confined to
individuals but invaded governments. The first announcement spread
alarm; but as the cargoes of gold rose from one hundred thousand dollars
to one million dollars, bankers and financiers began seriously to
prepare for an expected crisis. In England and the United States the
panic was confined to a few; but on the Continent of Europe every
government, rich or poor, thought it needful to make provision against
the threatened evils. An immediate alteration in prices was looked for;
money was to become so abundant that all ordinary commodities were to
rise, but more especially the proportion between gold and silver was to
be disturbed, some thinking that the latter might become the dearer
metal. The Governments of France, Holland, and Russia, in particular,
turned their attention to the monetary question, and in 1850 the
Government of Holland availed themselves of a law, which had not before
been put in operation, to take immediate steps for selling off the gold
in the Bank of Amsterdam, at what they supposed to be the highest
prices, and to stock themselves with silver.

"Palladium, which is likewise a superior white metal, was held more
firmly, and expectations were entertained that it would become available
for plating. The stock, however, was small. The silver operation was
carried on concurrent with a supply of bullion to Russia for a loan, a
demand for silver in Austria, and for shipment to India, and it did
really produce an effect on the silver market, which many mistook for
the influence of Californian gold. The particular way in which the
Netherlands operations were carried on was especially calculated to
produce the greatest disturbance of prices. The ten-florin pieces were
sent to Paris, coined there into Napoleons, and silver five-franc pieces
drawn out in their place.

"At Paris the premium on gold in a few months fell from nearly 2 per
cent. to a discount, and at Hamburg a like fall took place. In London,
the great silver market, silver rose, between the autumn and the new
year, from five shillings per ounce to five shillings one and
five-eighths pence per ounce, and Mexican dollars from four shillings
ten and one-half pence to four shillings eleven and five-eighths pence
per ounce; nor did prices recover until toward the end of the year 1851,
when the fall was as sudden as the rise."

In the spring of 1849 Reading crossed the Coast Range with a party of
his Indians, and discovered rich diggings in the valley of the Trinity.
In the summer of the same year Colonel Fremont discovered the mines on
his ranch, in the valley of the Mariposa.




(1849) RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, Jessie White Mario


When "Young Italy," the association of republican agitators led by
Giuseppe Mazzini, began its activities (about 1834), hatred of the
Austrian government, which ruled in several of the Italian States, was
kept alive through this determined organization. Aspirations for liberty
and self-government were requickened. The endeavors of the reforming
Pope, Pius IX (1846), to harmonize his policy with the aims of this
party, in order to promote a confederation of the Italian States under
papal supremacy, at first seemed to promise the dawn of a new era. Soon
after the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 in France, revolt against
the Austrian power began in various parts of Italy. The Austrian troops
were driven out of Lombardy; Venice compelled the Austrian forces in her
territory to surrender, and became a free republic; in a short time
Italy appeared to have delivered herself from the rule of Austria; but
almost immediately the foreign power began to regain its ascendency, and
this, through the events here related, was fully recovered.

After the flight of Pius IX from Rome (November, 1848), Mazzini and his
followers pursued their own course. A constituent assembly was summoned,
and on February 5, 1849, it declared the temporal power of the Pope
abolished. The Italian soldier who now becomes the chief figure of this
movement has enjoyed a popular renown unsurpassed by that of any of his
countrymen. Giuseppe Garibaldi, a sailor's son, was born in Nice, July
4, 1807. In youth he went to sea. In 1834 he took part with Mazzini in
the Young Italy demonstrations, and for aiding in an attempt to seize
Genoa he was condemned to death. Escaping to South America, he won
distinction as a guerilla leader and a privateer in the service of the
Rio Grande rebels against Brazil. After further military adventures in
South America, he returned to Italy, and in 1847 offered his services to
Pope Pius IX, but they were not accepted. In 1848 he received
indifferent treatment at the hands of Charles Albert of Sardinia, who
was besieging the Austrians in Mantua. After the failure of Charles
Albert, Garibaldi collected his own followers and acted against the
Austrians with such effect as to bring him into prominence in the ranks
of Italian patriots. The following account of the siege and defence of
Rome, which admiringly presents him to view, is from the author's
supplement to Garibaldi's _Autobiography_, and is a valuable
contribution to the history of the events in which he was so
conspicuous.

Of the many sublime pages traced in the blood of Italian patriots, the
sublimest in our eyes is that of the defence of Rome. No writer of
genius has yet been inspired to narrate the heroic deeds enacted, the
pain, privation, anguish, borne joyfully to save "that city of the
Italian soul" from desecration by the foreigner. Mazzini's beloved
disciple, Mameli, the soldier-poet, died with the flower of the student
youth; the survivors, exiled, dispersed, heartbroken, or intent only on
preparing for the next campaign, have left us but fugitive records,
partial episodes, or dull military chronicles. Margaret Fuller Ossoli,
competent by love and genius to be the historian and who had collected
the materials day by day, lived the life of the combatants hour by hour,
was wrecked with "Ossoli, Angelo" and her manuscript, in sight of her
native shore.

From details that reached him Garibaldi always maintained that there was
a priest among the wreckers who secured and destroyed the treasure!
Guerrazzi's _Siege of Rome_ is inferior to all his other writings. The
entry of the Italian army into Rome by the breach in Porta Pia has cast
the grand defence of 1849 into the background of rash attempts and
futile failures. In these brief pages we give merely the outline of the
drama in which Garibaldi was one of the leading actors. The men who
desired a republic did not exist as a party in Rome previous to the
flight of the Pope. But there existed a strong national anti-Austrian
party, who, as they had worshipped Pio Nono (Pius IX) when he "blessed
Italy" and the banners that the Romans bore upward to the "Holy War,"
now execrated him inasmuch as he had withdrawn his sanction to that war
and had blessed the Croats and the Austrians who were butchering the
Italians in the north. Convinced of the impossibility of favoring the
independence and unity of Italy, and remaining at the same time the
supreme head of the Universal Church, Pio Nono fled for protection to
the King of Naples; there he declined to accept from the King of
Piedmont his repeated offers of protection or mediation, and appealed to
Austria alone to restore him pope-king absolute in Rome. Very soon
afterward the Archduke of Tuscany revoked the Constituent Assembly which
he had granted, and followed the saintly example of the Holy Father, so
that Tuscany and Rome were alike left sheep without a shepherd.

In the Roman States an appeal was made to universal suffrage, and the
people sent up deputies, known chiefly for their honesty and bravery, to
decide on the form of government, to assist Piedmont in her second war
against Austria. When the Constituent Assembly met to decide on the form
of government, Mamiani warned them that only two rulers were possible in
Rome--the Pope or Cola di Rienzi; the Papacy or the Republic.

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."

Austria crossed the Po and occupied Ferrara, marching thence on Bologna;
the Neapolitan troops from the south marched upward to the Roman
frontier; even Spain sent her contingent to Fiumicino. But only when it
was known that the French Republic had voted an expedition, with the
specious object of guaranteeing the independence of the supreme Pontiff,
did the Romans and their rulers realize that the existence of Rome and
her newborn liberties was seriously menaced. Garibaldi wrote from Rieti,
in April, an enthusiastic letter worth recording here:

"BROTHER MAZZINI: I feel that I must write you one line with my own
hand. May Providence sustain you in your brilliant but arduous career
[Mazzini had just been elected, with Armellini and Saffi, Triumvir of
Rome], and may you be enabled to carry out all the noble designs in your
mind for the welfare of our country. Remember that Rieti is full of your
brethren in the faith, and that immutably yours is

"JOSEPH GARIBALDI."

At the same time he sent a plan, proposing to march along the Via
Emilia, to collect arms and volunteers, proclaim the levy in mass, and
with a division stationed in the Bolognese territory, operate in the
duchies, unite Tuscan, Ligurian, and Piedmontese forces, and once more
assail the Austrians. But the news of Piedmont defeated, Genoa bombarded
and vanquished, convinced him that it would be difficult to re-arouse
the disheartened population of Northern Italy. Hence he next proposed to
cross the Neapolitan frontier, fling himself upon the royal troops, and
seize the Abruzzi. A sensible project this, to take the offensive
against the Pope's defenders. But before the Triumvirate could come to a
definite decision, it was known that the French troops, by a disgraceful
stratagem, had landed and taken possession of Civita Vecchia, General
Oudinot entwining the French flag with the Roman tricolor and assuring
the Romans that they only came to secure perfect freedom for the people
to effect a reconciliation with Pius IX.

But the people had no desire for such reconciliation; the Assembly
decreed that Rome should have no garrison but the National Roman Guard:
that if the Republic were invaded by force, the invaders by force should
be repelled. A commission of barricades established, the people flocked
to erect and remained to man them. The National Guard summoned by
Mazzini all answered, "Present," and served enthusiastically throughout
the siege; all the troops dispersed in the Provinces were summoned to
the capital, and Garibaldi and his volunteers marched into the city amid
the acclamations of the populace, too thankful to welcome them to demur
at the strange appearance they presented.

Now that Garibaldi's military and naval genius is fully recognized, and
the extraordinary fascination he exercised over officers and men, the
enthusiasm with which he filled whole populations whom others failed to
stir, are undisputed, many historians and critics have expressed their
astonishment that he was not made at once commander-in-chief of the
Roman forces, and have blamed the Triumvirate for having failed to
recognize in the hero of Montevideo the good genius of Rome. Such
critics must be simply ignorant of the actual condition of Rome and her
Government. There existed, in the first place, the regular Roman army,
which would have served under none save regular generals; then there was
the Lombard battalion under Manara, whose members, after fifteen months
of regular campaigning, were thoroughly drilled and disciplined, who
insisted on retaining the cross of Savoy on their belts, and, until
their prowess made them the idols of the Romans, were nicknamed the
"corps of aristocrats."

Little did they imagine, when they kept aloof from the legion, that
before three months were over their young hero chief would resign his
command of them to assume the delicate post of head of Garibaldi's
staff. Carlo Pisacane--educated in the military college of the
Nunziatella, who had served as captain in the foreign legion in Algiers,
destined later to become the pioneer of Garibaldi and his "Thousand" and
to lose his life in the attempt--while recognizing Garibaldi's prowess
and talents as a guerilla chief, in his military history of 1849,
severely criticises his tactics, and blames his sending up "a handful of
boys against masses of the enemy" and censures, unhesitatingly, "his
indiscipline at Velletri." One of the Deputies of the Roman Constituent
wrote to the Triumvirate begging them to "Send Garibaldi with his motley
crew to a terrible spot, called For del Diavolo, between Civita Vecchia
and Rome; on no account to allow them to enter the city, as they are
quite too disorderly."

Now, they had committed no "disorders" save that of carrying off the
mules and horses of the convents; but when we think of the wild, free,
peril-scorning life led in the backwoods of America, of how they
recognized no law save their commander's orders, how little used he had
been to receive command from any, it will be easily understood how this
wild, tanned, quaintly dressed band filled the inhabitants of the towns
through which they passed with terror and dismay. Garibaldi's violent
tirades against priests and priestcraft; the liberation of a gang of
miscreants arrested by order of the Roman Government, had not
prepossessed men of order and of discipline in his favor; and although
personal contact dispelled all unfavorable prepossessions, one sees how
impossible it was for Mazzini to place him in the position which he
would himself have assigned to him.

Garibaldi altered in nothing his South American modes of warfare. He and
his staff, in red shirts and ponchos, with hats of every form and color,
no distinctions of rank or military accoutrements, rode on their
American saddles, which when unrolled served each as a small tent. When
their troops halted and the soldiers piled their arms, the General and
all his staff attended each to the wants of his own horse, then to
securing provisions for their men. When these were not at hand, the
officers, springing on their barebacked horses, lasso on wrists, dashed
full speed along the Campagna, till oxen, sheep, pigs, kids, or poultry
in sufficient quantities were secured and paid for; then, dividing their
spoil among the companies, officers and men fell to killing, quartering,