THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
ADOPTED—THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY DISSOLVED.
The Constituent Roman Assembly, in their session of yesterday, definitively voted, with unanimity, and viva voce, the Constitution of the Republic.
Having fulfilled, by this act, the essential part of its high mission, the Assembly decreed, on motion of the Deputy Agostini, that the law be engraved on two marble tables and placed on the capital, as an eternal monument of the unanimous will of the people, legitimately represented by their Deputies. Woe to him who shall touch those tables of the new civil and political compact which the Roman People form with themselves before God, in the view of all civilized nations! This compact has been sealed with the blood of martyrs, with the blood of all those who, following the voice of their hearts, hastened to Rome, as to the ancient Mother, to defend the honor and the liberty of Italy, and to lay the first stone of her future and inevitable independence.
Whatever may be the present results of measures which foreign supremacy is preparing, the Assembly, the People, the National Guard and the Roman Army have the consciousness of having fulfilled their duty.
(From the same paper.)
Before dissolving the solemn session, the Assembly decreed a funeral in the Basilica of St. Peter, to all the heroes who have offered their lives for the country and for the Republic, under the walls of Rome. As to the wounded, as no less worthy of honor, and in need of care, the Assembly voted a Hospital, and appropriated for the purpose one of the national palaces.
Finally, that nothing might be wanting to the harmony which always prevails among the people, the Constituent Assembly and the citizens in whom, in the last moments, they had entrusted the salvation of the country, the Assembly declared, by a solemn decree, well deserving of the country, the Triumvirs, Armellini, Mazzini, and Saffi.
(From the same paper.)
We have said it, and we repeat it, and we will repeat it always: The Republic arose in Rome by universal suffrage; rose on the ruins of the throne of the Popes, which the cry of all Europe, the maledictions of all civilized nations, and the spirit of the Gospel, had crumbled into dust. To-day, when on that throne, stigmatized by civilization, flows the blood of so many victims, who will dare to raise it again? A mountain of corpses shuts up, to the Pontiff, the way to that throne; and to ascend it again, the white stole of the priest must be dyed with human blood! Can the Pope, like the tyrants, sit upon a seat of bayonets? But it is not in the power of France, it is not in the power of Europe conspiring, to restore the Pope to the minds of citizens, after the enormous events which have occurred. The sceptre of the Popes is morally broken for ever.