Page 80 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

78 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Garibaldi’s and Campiello’s friends, the Roman Government took the deci-
sion to engage the legion, although they kept it far away from Rome.
However, Garibaldi requested and was granted that, instead of going to
Porto San Giorgio, they could remain in Macerata; here, as in all his other
requests to the Roman Government, he always knew how to control his pride
and the rightful resentment of his men, enduring everything, even his demo-
tion to the simple rank of Lieutenant Colonel, so long as he could participate
in those great events whose occurrence he felt was drawing close.
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On January 21 , while his legion was still in Macerata, the elections for
the Constituent took place and the popular enthusiasm elected Garibaldi as
one of its members, despite his not fulfilling the citizenship requirement. At
the end of the month, then, after the legion had moved to Rieti by order of
the Government, Garibaldi set off to Rome again, to exert his political man-
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date in the Constituent Assembly, called to convene on February 5 . There
he proposed, plainly and with quivering words, to proclaim the Republic: «It
seems to me that any delay, even a minute delay, is a crime, since today one
third of the Italian nation is enslaved. Millions of our Italian brothers grieve
and complain. And we here waste our time discussing about systems. I firm-
ly believe that after dismissing the other government system, the one that is
more convenient for Rome is the Republic». And the Republic was decided,
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finally, during that memorable night of February 8 , when, in the sumptu-
ous halls of the Papal Chancellery, Garibaldi certainly remembered the
splendours of the ancient Roman Republic at the time of the Gracchi and the
Scipios but also the vision of the overwhelming battle at San Antonio, where,
three years before, on that same day he and his comrades – some of which
were still fighting on his orders in the first Italian legion - had shown to
the world that, despite everything, the Italians were always the rightful
heirs of Rome.
In the meantime the legionnaires had completed their training and pre-
pared their equipment in Rieti and every day their ranks grew with new
recruits, so that at mid-March they totalled about one thousand men. On
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April 11 , Garibaldi, who had taken back their lead a few days earlier,
received the order of the War Committee to move to Anagni between
Frosinone and Velletri, and face any possible attack on the territory of the
Republic by Neapolitan troops; it was however avoided that the legion
could come too close to the Capital (some mistrust had not yet disappeared)