Giuseppe Garibaldi

All custom-house barriers between Sicily and the Neapolitan continent are abolished.

All political prisoners are to be liberated immediately.

It was no bad emblem of the whole sea and land might of the Bourbon—worse than useless against foreign aggression, wholly and exclusively directed to crush internal commotion.

Finally, respecting other people's houses: we are resolved to be masters in our own house, whether the powerful of the earth like it or not.

I repeat it, concord is the first want of Italy, so we will welcome as brothers those who once disagreed with us, but now sincerely wish to bring their stone to raise up the monument of our country.

Victor Emanuel, the model of all sovereigns, will impress upon his descendants the duty that they owe to the prosperity of a people which has elected him for their chief with enthusiastic devotion.

It is with true respect and love that I present myself to this noble and imposing centre of the Italian population, which many centuries of despotism have not been able to humiliate or to induce to bow their knees at the sight of tyranny.

The very name of the dictator inspired electric enthusiasm.

The truth is, that men who desire power, wealth, and undeserved honors, have too long accused their less ambitious or vicious fellow-beings of needing their government.

Italy, trampling on the fragments of her chains, points to the north—the path of honor, toward the last lurking-place of tyrants.

Truce, then, to discord—the chronic misfortune of our land.

If you do not disdain Garibaldi for your companion in arms, he only desires to fight by your side the enemies of the country.

But, take it altogether, the people have not been sanguinary, and, considering the immense provocation which they have received, order has been wonderfully preserved, and little blood shed.

I wanted, together with my friends, to raise a chorus on our own account, for it was irritating enough to witness a number of people sitting and fanning themselves, as though they came to be amused, instead of pouring out their very souls…

People are beside themselves, and scenes are witnessed which, perhaps, have never been witnessed in any other country under the sun.

Carriages dash by me full of red jackets, or of men and women brandishing swords and pikes, whilst the rain is pouring down in torrents, and the thunder is pealing, as if it were a salute of heaven for the liberator of the Two Sicilies.

What a contrast was then presented between the cold, bloody cruelty of the Bourbons and the noble moderation of this long oppressed people!

It is impossible for any generous mind to contemplate the position of Francis II. without compassion.

The peasants took up arms spontaneously to the cry of 'Long live Victor Emanuel.' The cross of Savoy floated everywhere on the tri-color flag.

All the nobility, the landowners, the chief inhabitants, the educated citizens, even the priests, were on the side of the insurgents.

Europe and your subjects will take your sublime sacrifice into account, and you, sire, will be able to raise your brow in confidence up to God, who will reward the magnanimous act of your majesty.

Follow the noble example of our royal kinswoman of Parma, who, on the breaking out of civil war, released her subjects from their allegiance, and left them to be arbiters of their own destinies.

Sire, while it is yet time, save our house from the curses of all Italy!

What he said I report, and time must unravel his story; but the world will know how to appreciate the influence of a priesthood under whose eye such enormities have been committed.

I expected death, and desired and prayed for it as a relief, but it never came.