Page 67 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1848 CAMPAIGN 65

nature: first of all, the courage that forced him to undertake a deed that some
saw as a mere folly, then his self-confidence, his powerful will ready to rise up
against all forces opposing it, be they human beings or events.
And first he stated his right, in the name of the people, to continue the war.
«Appointed by the people of Milan and their representatives as leaders of
men, whose final goal actually is Italian independence, I cannot comply with
the humiliating conventions ratified by the King of Sardinia with the
abhorred enemy, the ruler of my country».
It was a simple idea. It came from the revolutionary concept of the new war
that he was about to undertake. The Lombard people who had set themselves
free from the foreign rule by their own forces were now forced into a shameful
peace that they could not accept, since their representatives had not signed it.
He, Garibaldi, free from all obligations with the Sardinian army, commander
of one of those volunteer corps established by the Lombard government, whose
destiny had not been defined by the armistice, still considered himself a soldier
and mandatory of a government that the unfortunate events of the war had de
facto forced to disappear, but that had not been repudiated by the will of its
people. And therefore he, Garibaldi, still had a mission to accomplish, a com-
mandment to follow, orders to obey: fight, fight, up to the end of his strength.
He could not bend. Hope failed others, because of their different military or
political opinions, or due to their resignation, or their mindlessness or weak
character, or even due to their cowardice; hope would never fail him.
The new war, his war, would be the renewal of the glorious Five Days of
Milan. On those days, «a single impetus of brave fighting, a common thought,
brought us the holy vibrant independence that we tasted…. Now the people have
actively conceived their sovereign power, they have tasted it and now want to keep
it even at the cost of their lives; and my comrades and I, who received their trust
and their mandate, which we accepted as the most precious gift that God could
bestow upon us, we want to meet their expectations as they deserve…». This was
his creed, the creed of a redeemer, free from any ambition or selfishness or hidden
political purpose; a creed that transcended the revolutionary thought and trans-
formed it into the life of conscience and the light of action.
Which goal had he set for himself?
A simple armed protest against the Salasco armistice, a protest that, to say it
with Guerzoni, even left to itself would nevertheless remain the bold challenge
of a hero and the desperate rebellion of a patriot whose consequences would
have been borne only by the hero and his followers? Or did he hope that the