"Gentlemen: I much regret that my very poor health does not allow me to take part in the demonstration which you have appointed for next Saturday. The length of my convalescence, and the uncertainty of the time of my recovery, still render it impossible for me to fix a day when I may be able to yield to the wishes of your affectionate and flattering invitation. I hope you will allow me to repeat, more warmly than at first, the desire which I have often expressed to you, that you will entirely abandon the proposed demonstration.
"Such a public exhibition is not necessary to secure for me the sympathy of my countrymen, of the American people, and of all true republicans, for the misfortunes which I have suffered, and for the cause which has occasioned them.
"Although a public manifestation of that affection would be most grateful to me, exiled from my native land, separated from my children, and weeping over the fall of the liberty of my country by foreign intervention; yet believe me, I would rather avoid it, content that it is allowed me, tranquilly and humbly, to become a citizen of this great Republic of free men, to sail under its flag, to engage in commerce in order to earn my livelihood, and to wait for a moment more favorable for the redemption of my country from oppressors, both domestic and foreign.
"In regard to the cause to which I have consecrated myself, I esteem nothing more than the approbation of this great people; and I believe it will be sufficient for them to know, how I have honestly and faithfully served the cause of liberty, in which they themselves have given a great and noble example to the world.
"G. Garibaldi."
The committee published their reply to this letter, and closed it with these words:
"We lament the modesty of Gen. Garibaldi, which, more than his imperfect convalescence, has prevented the success of our urgent requests."
A small volume has been published by Alexander Dumas, a French novel-writer, of which different opinions have been expressed. It was asserted, last summer, by the "Philadelphia Press," that it was pirated from the first edition of this book, in the French language, and had been translated into English and sold to an American bookseller for five hundred dollars. There are many passages in it which might appear to countenance such an assertion; but there are numerous passages, and even entire chapters, which are wholly unlike anything in the latter; and a large part of the volume contains views, sentiments and expressions quite the opposite of Garibaldi's. Indeed, of the 337 small duodecimo pages in the English translation, only 203 are claimed by M. Dumas to be Garibaldi's, other writers being credited for the remaining 134. The 203 pages contain passages which magnify Garibaldi's deeds or spirit much more than he was ever known to do, (for he is always as modest as brave,) with some of his most forcible expressions and passages greatly weakened by useless amplifications. The English translation is in a very loose and inferior style; and various cases occur in both Dumas and his translators, in which ignorant blunders are made in interpreting the standard before them, whatever it may have been. The motto of chapter 6th Dumas gives in his French, "Le Dieu des Bons Gens:" and his English translator: "The God of Good People." And this is afterward repeated, showing a surprising and laughable mistake in the import of the motto of the Italian Republicans, "Dio e Popolo"—God and the People.
The personal appearance of Garibaldi, his mien, address, and manners, are so remarkably accordant with his character, that clear impressions of them seem necessary to a distinct apprehension of the spirit with which he lays his plans, and commences and accomplishes his great deeds. A stranger may obtain such impressions, in a considerable degree, by contemplating the fine steel engraving which forms the frontispiece of this volume, and reading some of the descriptions written by different observers on various occasions. That portrait is accurately copied from a daguerrotype, for which he obligingly sat, at the request of the author, soon after his arrival in New York in 1850; and has been pronounced by many of his friends the best likeness they have ever seen. It certainly is exactly like the daguerrotype, not only in the features, but in the expression of the face.
Any one who would form a correct opinion of the state of preparation in which the people of Italy stood waiting for the time of their emancipation, must recur to the labors of the patriotic leaders who had been constantly laboring to enlighten and inspirit them during the last forty years. Their efforts had been principally through secret societies, formed and conducted somewhat on the plan of freemasonry. The Carbonari (literally, colliers—the makers of charcoal in the mountains, where the patriots often found refuge) were dissolved, after their archives had been seized. The society of Giovane Italia (Young Italy) was then formed, and directed by Mazzini and his friends, from foreign countries, safe from the reach of the enemy. One striking case of their sagacious and successful operations is described in that most interesting and instructive work on Italy, "The Roman Exile," by G. Gajani, formerly an eminent Roman jurist, an officer under Garibaldi in 1849, and now a respected citizen of New York. Thousands of other instances might be mentioned, to prove the powerful influence of those efforts.