Page:Voices of Revolt - Volume 1.djvu/84

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SPEECHES OF

our territory—no doubt they will be found talking of the necessity of proceeding to the offensive against the tyrants beyond all the seas and mountains. If our fortresses should be recovered, they will propose that we mob the churches and wage war aganist Heaven. They will forget the Austrians in order to antagonize the faithful. Or, if we need allies on whose fidelity we can depend—in such cases, they will shout vehemently against all the governments of all the world and demand that we brand the Great Mogul a criminal. If the people are eager to celebrate victory at the Capitol, they will intone hymns of gloom and remind us of our adversities in the past. They sow disaffection among us. And when we proceed to clothe the people's sovereignty in the concrete form of a powerful and respected government, they discover that the principles of this government are a violation of the sovereignty of the people. They wish to disorganize us, they wish to paralyze the acts of the republican government.

It is in this way that these gentlemen serve the Revolution! They have found an excellent means of supporting the efforts of the Republican government: to disorganize us, degrade us, indeed make war upon those who support us. If you are seeking means for provisioning the army, or if you are engaged in forcing from the hands of avarice and fear the foodstuffs necessary for our warriors—they will shed patriotic tears over the general woe and pre-