These,
with the exception of General Garibaldi and General Ferrari, were all
Romans. G. Filopanti, who undertook to explain the state of affairs to
the Roman people, won shouts of applause by his concluding words, "We
are no longer mere Romans, but Italians."
This sentence sums up the sentiments of all: of Garibaldi, who, after
recording his vote, returned to his troops at Rieti and drew up an
admirable plan for attacking the Austrians bent on subjugating the Roman
Provinces and for carrying revolution into the Kingdom of Naples; of
Mazzini, who, so far from having imposed on the Romans a republic by the
force of his tyrannical will, was--during its proclamation--in Tuscany,
striving to induce Guerrazzi and his fellow-triumvirs to unite with Rome
and organize a strong army for the renewal of the Lombard War.
True, the Romans, mindful of all they owed to the great apostle of
Italian unity and independence, proclaimed him Roman citizen on February
12th, and on the 25th of the same month the Roman people, with nine
thousand votes, elected him member of the Constituent Assembly; but it
was not until March 5th that he entered Rome, when, in one of his most
splendid speeches, rising above parties and politics, he called upon the
"Rome of the People" to send up combatants against Austria, the only
enemy that then menaced Italy.
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