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Garibaldi Giuseppe
The Life of General Garibaldi

The Neapolitan navy, which had deserted, all together, to Garibaldi, he delivered to the Sardinian admiral. The Neapolitan navy is of very respectable size, taking a place in respect to materiel at least above the second rank in Europe. It does not fall much below that of the United States. The whole number of vessels amounts to ninety, carrying 786 guns, with a complement of upward of 7,000 sailors and officers of all sorts. Of the vessels, 27 are propelled by steam. Of these, one is of large size, carrying 60 guns; 11 are frigates, armed with 10 guns each; 8 corvettes, with 8 guns each, besides seven smaller vessels, each with four guns. Of the sixty or more sailing vessels, the largest is armed with 80 guns. There are five frigates, carrying an aggregate of 252 guns, or about 50 each. Among the rest are bomb and mortar boats in considerable number, and others armed with Paixhan guns. These latter have been found useful by the king, when he has felt inclined to indulge his propensity of knocking down the palaces and cities of his disobedient subjects.

GARIBALDI'S PROCLAMATION TO THE CITIZENS OF NAPLES

"To the beloved population of Naples, offspring of the people! 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 first necessity of Italy was harmony, in order to unite the great Italian family; to-day Providence has created harmony through the sublime unanimity of all our provinces for the reconstitution of the nation, and for unity, the same Providence has given to our country Victor Emanuel, whom we from this moment may call the true father of our Italian land.

"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. The Italian priests, who are conscious of their true mission, have, as a guaranty of the respect with which they will be treated, the ardor, the patriotism, and the truly Christian conduct of their numerous fellow ecclesiastics, who, from the highly to be praised monks of Lagracia to the noble-hearted priests of the Neapolitan continent, one and all, in the sight and at the head of our soldiers, defied the gravest dangers of battle. 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. 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.

"Giuseppe Garibaldi."

The following were some of the occurrences in Naples immediately after the entrance of Garibaldi.

The four battalions of chasseurs whom the king had left behind in his flight, quartered here and there about the town, disbanded. Many of the soldiers went home; those who wished to remain at Naples, secure from harm, did obeisance to the new powers, by wearing a small badge with the Savoy cross on their breasts. The fortress of St. Elmo followed the example of the fleet. It fired a thundering salvo in honor of Garibaldi, hoisted the Sardinian colors, and admitted the national guards within its walls. The other forts were garrisoned by this same burgher militia. Naples, in short, was now wholly in the hands of the patriots, and Garibaldi had already pushed forward one or two brigades, which gained possession of the royal palace of Caserta. The king had shut the gates of Capua. There and at Gaeta he was to abide till his enemies should come on. Meanwhile Garibaldi, master of the seas, sent his steamers to Paola, to Sapri, to all the small ports near which his overtasked legions lingered behind. Every morning were shouts of a joyous landing and a triumphant march of those several brigades. The whole force was soon brought together, and the respite allowed to the king at Gaeta was of no long duration.

The joy of the good Neapolitans at their cheaply-gotten emancipation, became daily more noisy and frantic. Every evening the Toledo was all alive with banners and torches, with thronged masses of possessed people, all shouting out with all the might of their southern throats, that favorite cry, "Una! Una! Una!" – conveying their desire that all Italy should be made one country. There was a grand gala night at San Carlo, when the proscenium, the pit, and the boxes became one vast stage. The whole performance consisted of Io Pæans to Garibaldi, who, calm and serene in his homely garb, had a pleasant word for all the friends who surrounded him in his box, and was, in fact, less insensible to that popular demonstration than he might have wished to avow.

One of the greatest objects of interest was the easily-won castle St. Elmo. The whole population of Naples, male and female, seemed bent on performing a pilgrimage to that shrine of their patriot martyrs.

One of Garibaldi's soldiers thus described it:

"Yesterday I went up myself with a party of friends. We first walked through St. Martin's marble church and monastery, where our Garibaldian red shirts, I dare say, boded little good to the white-cowled monks, who gazed at us as we passed, tall, stately, and motionless, so that we at first mistook them for statues; – good Carthusian monks, doing penance in a marble paradise, bound by vow to perpetual silence, and affecting an easy, unconcerned air, though in their heart of hearts, probably, trembling not a little for the visible and invisible treasures of which their sanctuary has been, time out of mind, the repository.

"From the marble cells of the monks to the iron dungeons of the victims of Castle St. Elmo the transition is but short, but the contrast is appalling. The stone steps wind down six floors, and at every floor room was made for about half a score of victims. Some of the miserable cells had windows; but, as the view from the hill over the loveliest panorama of land and sea would have been too great a solace to the lonely captive, the window was latticed over by thick wooden bars, not intended to prevent escape – for from that height only a bird could attempt it – but simply to rob the poor recluse of the distant view of his familiar scenes. In the lowest floor there is no window to the dungeons – only a little wicket in the door, opening outwardly, for the gaoler to communicate with the prisoner if he has a mind. That wicket would be opened one moment in the morning to let in a little bread and water; then the wicket would fall to, and for twenty-four hours all would be darkness inside.

"I do not like to witness horrors, much less to dwell upon them, else I could tell you of the loopholes we were shown, through which the sentries could shoot the prisoners in their cells and their beds. I could repeat the instances of wholesale executions of Swiss and Sicilian mutineers of which St. Elmo has been the theatre, and of which the world never knew anything. The caitiffs who were but yesterday in the king's pay are eager to promulgate abroad the infamy of his doings, and I have no doubt St. Elmo will soon become the subject of books or pamphlets, yielding but little in interest to the stories of La Bastille, of which it will soon share the fate.

"The good people of Naples are bent upon demolishing St. Elmo, and are only awaiting the dictator's bidding to lay hand to the work. A tough job they will find it, I am sure. As I was walking yesterday along the upper battlements the impatient citizens were already busy pulling back the huge brass guns, each of which was most offensively pointed at some of the most densely crowded quarters of the town, and turning their muzzles inward. What a fortress that was, and what a protection to the city! 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."

The condition of Naples on the 12th of September was thus described in a private letter of that date:

"There is much to be done here, and Garibaldi is doing it well. It is impossible to take up a journal, or move about in the midst of the vast crowds which throng the capital, without feeling that a master-spirit is here. Long before the city has shaken off its slumber, the dictator is up and driving about. Yesterday he went to visit Nisida, and surprised the British library, on his return, with a visit at half-past six o'clock A.M, wishing to purchase some books. During the day he was hard at work receiving visitors and legislating, and the following are some of the fruits of his labors:

"All political prisoners are to be liberated immediately. All custom-house barriers between Sicily and the Neapolitan continent are abolished. Twelve infant asylums, one for each quarter, are to be established in the capital at the public expense, and are to be municipal institutions. Secret ministerial funds are abolished. The trial by jury in criminal cases is to be established. The order of Jesuits, with all their dependencies, is abolished in the territory. Two Sicilies, and their property declared national. All contracts on property for the benefit of the order are annulled. Considering that religious fanaticism and aristocratic pride induced the late government to make distinctions even between the dead, the burial of the dead is henceforward absolutely forbidden within the walls of a city. The traffic in grain and flour with Ancona is prohibited.

"All these decrees have a history attached to them, which, if narrated, would tell of sufferings and persecutions almost incredible. They are admirable, and in themselves amount to a beneficial revolution; but the better and the more sweeping the changes that are introduced, the greater the necessity for some established government.

"His majesty, Francis II. has already formed his ministry, and placed at the head of it Gen. Cotruffiano; and among his colleagues are Caselli, Ulloa – not the general – and Canofari, all of the legal profession.

"MM. Maniscalchi, father and son, notorious for having been the most active agents of the late king's tyranny at Palermo, were arrested on the 7th, at Caserta, and taken under escort to Naples."

Another letter, written on the same day, gave the following additional particulars:

"Troops are continually coming in and marching to the frontier. The Piedmontese admiral, with another steam frigate and the ex-Neapolitan ships, is in the harbor.

"I hear the sound of cracked trumpets, and, looking out, see the first ranks of a Garibaldi division coming down the Santa Lucia. I am struck by the youthful appearance of some, certainly not more than twelve, or at the furthest fourteen years old – fair, pretty-looking boys, who might have had a satchel instead of a knapsack on their backs. There were, however, some glorious-looking fellows, and all, whether men or boys, seemed to be animated by a spirit little known to the Neapolitan troops. The latter were a sect to defend a vile political creed, and inflict chastisement on those who opposed it; but the former are banded together to assert the sacred rights of liberty. I saw it in their march; there was an elasticity about it which denoted what was passing within. I cannot say much for their uniforms; they were very dirty, out of order, and irregular, and I have no doubt but that so eminent a general officer as Ferdinand II. would have been much scandalized; but they were evidently working men, had an object in view, and were not going to fight for money. I have seen hundreds of them about the town to-day; they are billeted about in the hotels and lodging-houses, while the Piedmontese troops are in Castel-Ovo.

"The city is in immense confusion – crowded, picturesque, almost mad. Foreigners seem to outnumber the Neapolitans, and the red jacket every other colored cloth. Such a Babel is every public place that I imagine myself to be living some thousand years back – Englishmen just arrived, hob-nobbing with Italians, whose only common lingo is that of the fingers. Many of our countrymen came on Tuesday, and I watched some of them carrying on a most animated, though purely gesticulatory, conversation with Frenchmen yesterday morning."

After the peaceful and triumphal entry of Garibaldi into Naples, new rumors were put into circulation of a pretended disagreement between him and the King of Sardinia. These were most satisfactorily refuted by the measures which the victorious general adopted immediately afterward. On the 14th of July, he proclaimed the government of Victor Emanuel, placed all the ships of war and commerce, the arsenals and materials of marine, by decree, at the disposal of Sardinia, and put them into the hands of Admiral Persaro; the portfolio of the interior was confirmed to Liborio Romano, the only member of the late ministry who enjoyed the confidence of the people. The choice of Scialoia, who had already left Genoa to assume the ministry of finance, was very generally applauded. Two battalions of genuine Piedmontese Bersaglieri were landed from the Sardinian men-of-war, and took possession of the Darsena. Telegraphic orders were sent for two more Piedmontese regiments to garrison the Neapolitan forts. By taking the Neapolitan marine under its command, and occupying the strongholds, dockyards and arsenals about this place, the Sardinian government committed itself more openly to the annexation of these kingdoms than it ever dared to do in the case of Tuscany or Romagna last year. And all these measures were taken not only with the consent but by the express desire of Garibaldi, who certainly exhibited no apprehension that the king's government would interfere with his vast undertakings.

The extreme joy with which the news of Garibaldi's entrance into Naples was received by all classes and parties, from Messina to the Alps, can be best understood by those who know the detestation with which the oppression and vindictive cruelty of the late government were universally regarded. This feeling was greatly increased by the disappointment of the nation in all those hopes to which the death of Ferdinand had given birth, and the conviction that his successor was determined to tread in his father's steps rather than enter sincerely on any new course. When Francis II. ascended the throne, it was felt that a young monarch, above all, one educated as he had been, had every claim to public consideration, and very sincere hopes were for the time entertained, that he would cease to follow the beaten track of Bourbon perjury and despotism, and frankly identify himself with the wants and aspirations of his country. Possessing, through his mother, a considerable hold on the affections of his subjects, and succeeding a sovereign who was detested by his people, he had an excellent position, and by a judicious system of even moderate reforms, might have conciliated all parties and opposed a successful barrier to the tide of revolution that was soon to sweep over the landmarks of Italy.

The amnesty was followed by a "circular" which struck at its very root and replaced thousands under the surveillance of the police. Then came the infamous and illegal deportation to Capri of men who had never been put upon their trial, and upon whose liberation England had insisted, through her minister, in the strongest terms. A system was pursued that has been characterized as a perpetual violation of all law, and a practical denial of Christianity.

The general satisfaction felt by the people of Naples after Garibaldi's arrival amounted to enthusiasm. An Englishman, writing from that city on the 14th of July, thus described the aspect of the people:

"I do not know Naples now, so changed is its aspect. Faces that I have not seen for twelve years appear in every street and square. They have come from foreign exile; from confinement in some frontier town or village; from some voluntary lurking place, the retirement to which was their only security from persecution; from the prison and the bagnio; all have met together again, by hundreds and thousands, in the capital of what was once the two Sicilies. Revolution is said to turn the dregs uppermost; yet the appearance and manner of those who now appear on the scene contradict the common proverb. In their very attitude, there is an air of self-respect and independence to which I have long been a stranger. I do not see the assumption or the swagger of the overbearing, or the timidity of the man who leaves his friend, and walks on before, because a spy is coming, or whispers and looks over his shoulder for fear that such a person is listening. No; all this has passed away, and I meet erect, independent men. My life here has brought me, too, into frequent intercourse with them; and, accustomed as I have been to the trivialities and the nullities rendered at first necessary, and afterward habitual, by despotism, I have been astonished at the new tone of thought and conversation. The Neapolitans now reason and talk like men, and there is a degree of self-restraint about them which is in the highest degree creditable after the sufferings to which they have been so long exposed. It is clear that the intellect of the country has for years been out of it, or in seclusion, or in imprisonment. Nor is this to be wondered at, when ignorance was rewarded and learning discouraged by those twins of darkness, the sovereign and the clergy, and the only hopes of the Bourbons and the Vatican depend upon brutalizing the national mind. Ferdinand II. it was who interrupted a father describing the acquirements of his son by saying, 'Better he had a stone round his neck, and be thrown into the sea;' and it was a priest who held a high public office, who checked a person indulging in a similar style of speaking by saying that it would be well for the rising generation to be 'little asses and little saints.' These times are, however, passing away; heaven grant that the light of freedom and intelligence may not dazzle the as yet unaccustomed vision of the natives.

"We have likenesses of Victor Emanuel and of Garibaldi in every shop window, and multitudes crowd around them to admire; in short, there is at present a furia for the Re Galantuomo and the Hero of Sicily."

The prisons of the police were thus described by the same writer:

"I yesterday saw some of them. Several members of the commission appointed to close them – themselves once prisoners here – accompanied me. A grated door led down to an ante-chamber, which was lighted only through these bars. Stone walls, stone floor – stone everywhere, except the ground, which was covered over with burnt fragments of books, that had been taken in domiciliary visits and destroyed here. 'Here one breathes,' said a pardoned prisoner; 'but bring a light,' he said to a jailer, and we descended from this twilight room into another which received the reflection of the twilight through a hole in the door. It was small and of stone – nothing but stone – and on the right I observed a stone bed three feet high from the ground, with an elevation of stone called a pillow. A door is opened and leads into another room, where no twilight, no reflected twilight, nor a ray of light nor a breath of air can penetrate. 'I was imprisoned here,' said one of my conductors. I looked at him as if expecting to find that he was turned into a brute beast, for it was a den for a wild animal, not a chamber for a Christian man, in a country teeming with Christ's ministers, and where the holy Apostolic Catholic religion is the only one permitted to be professed. In some parts a man could not stand upright, so that there he lay in Stygian darkness, without any change of air, 'and on bare ground,' said my friend, 'unless he could afford to pay an extortionate price for a mattress, to a licensed spy and denouncer, who drove a good trade in human misery.' 'Let us leave this den,' I said, and so we groped back into the chamber where the reflection of twilight penetrated. 'Take care,' cried the jailer, as I stumbled over a mountain of old books and papers. On the opposite side was another criminale about eleven by five palms, where five or six persons were at times confined. The smell of the prison was insufferable. Now mark, who were the men confined in these places not fit for beasts? Not condemned criminals; no! but men arrested on suspicion and waiting for an order for their committal – men of rank and education accustomed to the comforts of a home."

The following passages from a letter written at Florence, are very appropriate in this place:

"The ministry appointed by the Dictator is a liberal but moderate one. Garibaldi is in earnest in his devotion to the King of Sardinia, and in his determination to unite Italy under his rule. It is to be hoped that he will, as soon as may be, commence the work of raising the Neapolitan people out of some of the absurd superstitions which have always kept them in ignorance, and made them the serfs of juggling priests. He has not yet countenanced, by his presence at the operation, the ridiculous juggle of the liquefaction of the blood of Saint Januarius, which is held in such high esteem by the Neapolitans, that all the conquerors of the city have heretofore been obliged to respect it. Saint Januarius, according to tradition, was exposed to be devoured by lions in the amphitheatre of Pozzuoli, when the animals, instead of devouring him, prostrated themselves before him, and immediately became tame. So many persons were converted to Christianity by this miracle, that the saint was ordered to be decapitated, which was done at Solfatara, in the year 305, and the body was buried at Pozzuoli, until the time of Constantine, when it was removed by St. Severus, the Bishop of Naples, and deposited in the church of St. Gennaro. When this removal was made, the woman who is said to have collected the blood at the time of the execution, took it in two small bottles to St. Severus, in whose hands it is said to have immediately melted. After undergoing several removals, the body of the saint was brought back to Naples in 1497, and deposited with great pomp in the cathedral, and the phials containing the blood secured in a tabernacle kept securely locked with two keys, one of which is kept by the archbishop and the other by the municipal authorities. Twice a year, and at other times, on extraordinary occasions, the phials are brought out, and the clots of dried blood, by some chemical process which has been secretly preserved among the priesthood and handed down for four centuries, made to liquefy and run in the phials. Can a people appreciate and derive much benefit from free institutions so long as they permit their senses to be cheated by such a palpable swindle as this?

"But if detestation for young Bomba and his government have been heightened by his flight, how much more grandly than ever Garibaldi looms up in the light of a brave, noble, disinterested, patriotic man. Three months from the day when he left Genoa with a handful of adventurers, denounced as a filibuster and a pirate by the lovers of legitimacy and tyranny, he enters Naples with but five of his staff, knowing that his deeds had made him a home in the hearts of the people there, who welcome him as their angel of deliverance. Naples lights up with joy – the free flag of Italy waves from her windows, her long oppressed citizens shout exultingly, and crown the hero with wreaths of laurel, and fill his ears with glad cries of 'Long live Garibaldi.' Well does he deserve them. Five marvellous stages mark the progress of the hero, Marsala, Palermo, Malazzo, Reggio, and Naples, all passed over in the short space of three months – and this has been all the time which Garibaldi required, supported as he was by the national sentiment, to overthrow a monarchy deemed immovable, which, not four years since, defied France and England, and which in the face of the naval preparations of the two greatest powers of the world, had determined to persevere in its resistance. Such triumphs, such ovations, would have turned the brain of a weaker or more ambitious man, and Garibaldi has given the lie to those adherents of tyranny who have charged him with personal ambition, by immediately, upon taking possession of the capital of the Two Sicilies, proclaiming the territory and himself under the reign and rule of Victor Emanuel. In future ages, when the deeds of the Cæsars and the Alexanders and the Napoleons shall be appreciated as they deserve, according to their merits, how high above them all will rise the memory of the two greatest of the world's heroes, of the two men whose personal ambition was merged and forgotten in the welfare of their country, of two men worthy to stand ever side by side and hand in hand – Washington and Garibaldi."