It is said that, in deference to repeated remonstrances made by this
government, the French authorities have promised to exercise more vigilance
on the frontier in preventing the use hitherto made of their territory as a
base of operations for the Carlists forces. The headquarters of the Prince
have been for some time established in the French Pyrenees. It is supposed
that he has about ten thousand men under arms in Spain, and if more
equipments are obtained, as is probable from the proceeds of subscriptions
made in Paris and London, the strength of the insurgents may be considerably
increased.
I am. &c.,
[Appendix.—Translation.]
Address of the Executive Power of the Spanish Republic
to the Nation.
the executive power to the
nation.
Spaniards: The government elected by the vote
of the Cortes, whose choice has received the assent of the nation, would
deem itself unworthy of its high charge and unfit for the responsibility
it assumes if it disguised the truth, however hitter the truth may he,
with palliatives only fit to deceive communities worn with debility or
sunk in hopeless impotence.
And this truth, this fact, is that the partisans of absolutism, who took
arms, as their proclamations averred, to overthrow a foreign king, have
still persisted in their stubborn rebellion even after the nation, by
the proclamation of the republic, has entered upon the full exercise of
its own rights and has thereby asserted its sovereignty, to which all
parties are bound to yield.
In vain is the fullest liberty accorded to ideas of every stamp; in vain
is the ballot-box open to the free vote of every citizen; in vain does
the approaching electoral verdict of the people secure the government of
the nation to a majority of its citizens. The royalists, well knowing
that the younger generations, nurtured and brought up in the ideas of
the age, will never voluntarily accept their rule through the channels
of freedom and of law, now seek to subjugate them forcibly by fire and
steel.
To do this they are destroying the means of communication, cutting the
telegraphs, laying waste the fields, imposing forced tribute upon the
villages, burning the town archives, committing highway robbery,
immolating helpless and defenseless creatures, shooting those who
surrender after heroically resisting their bands, and amidst the smoke
of their burnings they respond to the birth of a republic of
reconciliation and peace with the awful spectacle of a restoration of
the eras of war and vengeance.
The time has come for the Spanish nation to realize with ripe judgment
the vast extent of the evil, and to apply, with its traditional heroism,
a prompt and powerful remedy. The holy war of liberty should respond to
the barbarous war of tyranny. The government, though weighed down by the
gravity of passing events, will not cease in its efforts to ward off the
dangers that menace public order, to restore discipline in the army, and
to arm the volunteers of the republic. The soldiers of Catalonia are
already in the field attacking the enemies of freedom. The brave and
well-disciplined army of the north has sealed with its blood, on heroic
fields of battle, its loyalty to the republic. The troops in Valencia
know no repose. The roving bands in Andalusia are disheartened and are
surrendering under the formidable attacks that meet them on every side.
And wherever the rebellion has sought to effect a rising in the
remaining provinces, it has been combated and annihilated by the people
and the troops in happy unison.
Fully appreciating this gallant conduct, the government is untiring in
its efforts to unite all possible means and forces. The resources voted
by the Cortes for the nationa armament are being made effective as
rapidly as the laws will allow. The advantage
[Page 964]
inuring to the army by the recent reforms are
being realized with all the zeal and dispatch permitted by the poverty
of the treasury. The free corps now being formed will be put in the
field as rapidly as circumstances will permit. The military and civil
authorities of the province most severely ravaged, fully realize the
gravity of the situation, and are resolved to meet open warfare with
open warfare, without truce and without quarter.
But republican governments need the co-operation of all their citizens,
without exception, if the social structure is to be in reality
self-governing. Each citizen should be brought to know that in defending
the republic lie defends his own moral dignity and his own inalienable
rights. The liberal parties should remember that their highly-prized
liberty—that liberty for which they have made so many sacrifices—is
indissolubly united to the forms of republicanism. Let no means of
warfare be spared, even as none were spared in our civil war. Let the
citizen militia be put on a war footing; let the free corps be armed;
let our citizens arm to maintain public order and protect their hearths
and homes, in order that our soldiers may be free to fall with force and
vigor upon the rebellion bands. Thus alone can we show our title to the
liberty held in store for the nations who redeem and save themselves by
their own strength. Thus only, and by most heroic efforts, can we save
the republic, and, with the republic, our liberties and our country.
Madrid, March 25,
1873.
- ESTANISLAUS FIGUERAS,
President of the Government of the
Republic. - EMILIO CASTELAR,
Minister of State. - NICOLAS SALMERON,
Minister of Grace and Justice. - JUAN ACOSTA,
Minister of War. - FRANCISCO PI y
MARGALL,
Minister of
Interior. - JUAN TUTAN,
Minister of the Treasury. - JACOBO OREYRO,
Minister of Marine. - EDUARDO CHAO,
Minister of Public Works. - JOSÉ CRISTOBAL SORNI,
Minister of the Colonies.
