Proclamation.
Whereas her Majesty’s Special Commissioner, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, has thought fit, in spite of my solemn protest entered yesterday against his Excellency’s intention communicated to me by missive dated 9th of April, to carry out that intention, and has to-day proclaimed the authority of her Britannic Majesty’s government over the South African Republic; and
Whereas the government has decided to submit provisionally under protest for the purpose of, in the meantime, sending to Europe and America a deputation, in the persons of Messrs. S. J. P. Kruger and E. P. Jorissen, for the purposes of defending the right of the people and for endeavoring to arrive at a peaceful solution of the matter:
Now, therefore, I, Thomas Francois Burgers, State President of the South African Republic, hereby, on behalf and by advice of the executive, command all officials, burghers and inhabitants, to abstain from every word and every deed of violence by which the work of the deputation may be made fruitless, and I exhort all burghers and inhabitants to assist in maintaining the decision of the government and in the preservation of order and the prevention of bloodshed.
Thos. Burgers,
State President.
Government Office, Victoria, April 12, 1877.
Shortly after the proclamations were read, most of the officials assembled in the Volksraadszaal, where his Honor the President addressed them, in a state of great emotion, very nearly in the following words:
“Gentlemen, officials of the South African Republic: You are no strangers in the land. You also know what the government has resolved to do. We bow only to the superior power. We submit because we cannot successfully draw the sword against that superior power, because by doing so we would only plunge the country into deeper miseries and disasters. We have resolved to appeal to England herself; and if we get no redress there, then we will seek the friendly intervention of other powers that have acknowledged our independence. I have called you together to make one request to you: continue to occupy your offices in abeyance of the result of this appeal. No other oath of office will be demanded from you, and you can continue to serve under the oath once sworn to the Republic. I have pledged my word for you, and I know I can depend upon you that you will not disappoint me. Serve the new government with the same honesty and fidelity with which you have served our government, for by that you will serve the people. I am leaving my office under protest on behalf of myself, of the government, of the officials, of the Volksraad, and of the people. Grant me therefore this one favor, that you serve the people so long, and redeem the pledge that I have given for you. I thank you for the fidelity which you have shown me in your posts as officials. I leave my office with the certainty that I have not offended any one of you willfully, and if I have perhaps done so from weakness, I ask you to forgive me.”
Mr. Consul of Belgium: “You are the only representative of a foreign power present here to-day. You know what has happened here to-day, and you know also what has caused this event, and of course you will communicate every thing to your government. I thank your government, your king, your people and yourself, for the brotherly hand offered by Belgium to this youthful Republic. Be you my spokesman to your king and people, and tell them that, although the government be altered, yet the people remain. Meanwhile I request you, Mr. Consul, that you remain here at your post until the result of the protest shall be known. And now, gentlemen, for the moment I leave the scene. I wish you God’s richest blessing. Farewell. Be true to yourselves, to the people and to the government.”