♦Addresses to the people.♦
It was believed by some of the noblest-minded Spaniards, that deeply as their countrymen resented the treachery with which the royal family had been entrapped, and the insult offered to the nation in attempting to impose upon it a foreign dynasty by force, no national opposition would have been attempted, if the slaughter at Madrid and the executions by which it was followed had not excited in the people a feeling of fiery indignation, and a desire of vengeance strong as the sense of the most intolerable private injury could have provoked. The basest creatures of the intrusive government lamented Murat’s conduct in sacrificing so many victims by his military tribunal as impolitic, while they served and supported a system which began in treachery and could only be upheld by force. It was their belief that every thing must yield to force of arms, and they were incapable of estimating the moral force which was called forth in resistance. The Juntas every where appealed to public opinion, and the press every where where the French were not present, teemed with addresses to the people, in all which the massacre of Madrid was represented as a crime for which vengeance must be exacted. The Junta of Seville published one to the people of the metropolis, blessing them for the noble example they had given, and telling them that that example would be remembered in the annals of their country for their eternal honour. “Seville,” said they, “has seen with horror that the author of your misfortunes and of ours has sent forth a proclamation in which all the facts are distorted, and he pretends that you gave the provocation when it was he who provoked you. The government had the weakness to sanction that proclamation, and give orders for circulating it, and saw with perfect unconcern many of you put to death for a pretended violation of laws which had no existence. That proclamation said that the French blood cried for vengeance. And the Spanish blood, ... does not it cry out for vengeance? ... that Spanish blood shed by an army which was not ashamed to attack a disarmed and defenceless people, living under their own laws and their own King, and against whom cruelties were committed which make human nature shudder? All Spain exclaims that the Spanish blood in Madrid cries out for vengeance! Comfort yourselves! We are your brethren, we will fight like you till we perish in defence of our King and our country. Assist us with your good will, and with your prayers to that Almighty God whom we adore, and who cannot forsake us, because he never forsakes justice. And when the favourable hour arrives, exert yourselves then and throw off the ignominious yoke, which with such cruelty and such perfidiousness has been forced upon you.”
The Junta of Oviedo, in like manner, called upon the people to revenge their brethren who had been massacred; to remember their forefathers; to defend their wives and sisters and daughters; and to transmit their inheritance of independence to their children. They reminded them how Pelayo, with the mountaineers of Asturias, laid the foundation of the Spanish monarchy, and began that war against the Moors which his posterity continued for 700 years, till they had rooted out the last of the invaders. They reminded them of the Cid Campeador, Ruy Diaz de Bivar; how, when the Emperor claimed authority over Spain, and a council, where the King of Castille himself presided, discussed his pretensions, that hero refused to deliberate on such a demand, saying that the independence of Spain was established above all title; that no true Spaniard would suffer it to be brought in question; that it was to be upheld with their lives; and that he declared himself the enemy of any man who should advise the King to derogate in one point from the honour of their free country! They reminded them of the baseness, the perfidy, and the cruelty which they had already experienced from that proud and treacherous tyrant, who arrogates (said they) to himself the title of Arbiter of Destinies, because he has succeeded in oppressing the French nation, without recollecting that he himself is mortal, and that he only holds the power delegated to him for our chastisement. Had he not, under the faith of treaties, drawn away their soldiers to the Baltic? had he not, in the character of a friend and ally, marched his troops into the very capital, and made himself master of the frontier fortresses, then robbed them of their King and the whole of their royal family, and usurped their government? What if they perished in resisting these barbarians? “It is better (said they) to die in defence of your religion and independence, and upon your own native soil, than be led bound to slaughter, and waste your blood for the aggrandizement of his ambition. The French conscription comprises you. If you do not serve your country, you will be forced away to perish in the North. We lose nothing; for, even should we fall, we shall have freed ourselves, by a glorious death, from the intolerable burden of a foreign yoke. What worse atrocities would the worst savages have perpetrated, than those which the ruffians of this tyrant have committed? They have profaned our temples, they have massacred our brethren, they have assailed our wives; more than 2000 of the people of Madrid, of that city where they had been so hospitably received, they have murdered in cold blood, for no other cause than for having defended their families and themselves. To arms! to arms!... Will you bend your necks to the yoke? Will you allow yourselves to be insulted by injuries the most perfidious, the most wicked, the most disgraceful, committed in the face of the whole world? Will you submit to the humiliating slavery which is prepared for you? To arms! to arms! ... not like the monster who oppresses you, for the indulgence of an insatiable ambition; not, like him, to violate the law of nations and the rights of humanity, ... not to render yourselves odious to mankind; ... but to assist your countrymen, to rescue your King from captivity; to restore to your government liberty, energy, and vigour; to preserve your own lives, and those of your children; to maintain the uncontrolled right of enjoying and disposing of your property; and to assert the independence of Spain.... The time is come; the nation has resumed the sovereign authority, which, under such circumstances, devolves upon it. Let us be worthy of ourselves! Let us perpetuate the renown of our fathers! A whole people is more powerful than disciplined armies. Spain will inevitably conquer in a cause the most just that ever raised the deadly weapons of war; she fights, not for the concerns of a day, but for the security and happiness of ages; ... not for an insulated privilege, but for all the rights of human nature; ... not for temporal blessings, but for eternal happiness; ... not for the benefit of one nation, but for all mankind, and even for France itself. Humanity does not always shudder at the sound of war, ... the slow and interminable evils of slavery are a thousand times more to be abhorred; ... there is a kind of peace more fatal than the field of battle, drenched with blood, and strewn with the bodies of the slain. Such is the peace in which the metropolis of Spain is held by the enemy. The most respectable citizen there is exposed to the insolence of the basest French ruffian; at every step he has to endure at least the insult of being eyed with the disdain of the conqueror towards the conquered. The inhabitants of Madrid, strangers, as it were, and by sufferance in their own houses, cannot enjoy one moment’s tranquillity. The public festivals, established by immemorial custom, the attendance on religious ordinances, are considered as pretexts for insurrection, and threatened with being interrupted by discharges of cannon. The slightest noise makes the citizen tremble in the bosom of his family. From time to time the enemy run to arms, in order to keep up the terror impressed by the massacres of the 2d and 3d of May. Madrid is a prison, where the jailors take pleasure in terrifying the prisoners for the purpose of keeping them quiet by perpetual fear. But the Spaniards have not yet lost their country!... Those fields which, for so many years, have seen no steel except that of the ploughshare, are about to become the new cradle of their freedom! Life or death in such a cause, and in such times, are indifferent. You who return will be received by your country as her deliverers! and you whom Heaven has destined to secure, with your blood, the independence of our native land, ... the honour of our women, ... the purity of our holy faith, ... you will not dread the anguish of the last moments. Remember what tears of grateful love will be shed over your graves, ... what fervent prayers will be sent up for you to the Almighty Father of Mercies. Let all Spain become a camp; let her population become an armed host; let our youths fly to the defence of the state, for the son should fall before the father appears in the ranks of battle. And you, tender mothers, affectionate wives, fair maidens, do not retain within your embraces the objects of your love, until, from victory returned, they deserve your affection. They withdraw from you not to fight for a tyrant, but for their God; for a monarch worthy the veneration of his people; for yourselves, and for your companions. Instead of regretting their departure, sing ye, like Spartan women, the song of jubilee!... The noble matrons, the delicate maidens, even the austere religious recluse nuns, they too must take a part in this holy cause; let them send up their prayers to Heaven for the success of our undertaking, and minister, in their domestic economy, to the necessities of their warlike sons and brethren.”
The popular faith as well as the patriotism of the Spaniards was roused. They were told to implore the aid of the Immaculate Conception; of Santiago, so often the patron and companion in victory of their ancestors; of our Lady of Battles, whose image is worshipped in the most ancient temple of Covadonga, and who had there so signally assisted Pelayo in the first great overthrow of the Moorish invaders. The fire flamed higher for this holy oil of superstition; but it was kindled and fed by noble pride, and brave shame and indignation; by the remembrance of what their forefathers had been, and the thought of what their children were to be. While the leaders thus availed themselves of popular faith, they called upon the clergy for those sacrifices which the circumstances of the country rendered necessary: “Venerable orders of religion,” said they, “withhold not the supplies which are required for the common cause! If your virtue did not impel you to offer this assistance, your interest would extort it; for your political existence, ... the possession of your property, ... your individual security, ... all depend upon the issue of this war. But Spain this day receives from her favourite sons proofs of their affection and gratitude, for the riches she has bestowed, and the splendour she has conferred, for her pious generosity, and her ardent zeal, in sustaining the religion and the customs of their fathers.” And to the honour of the clergy, no men exerted themselves more strenuously in the common cause; a conduct the more praiseworthy, after the submission of their Primate, and the infamous part which the Inquisition had taken.
♦Proclamation of the Junta of Seville.♦
While the other Juntas acted independently each in their province, and prepared rather for local and immediate danger than for any regular system of general defence, the Junta of Seville assumed a higher authority, and took upon itself, as if by delegation, the duty of providing for the country in this extreme necessity. “The King,” they said in their proclamation to the people of Spain, “to whom we all swore allegiance with emotions of joy unprecedented in history, has been decoyed from us. The fundamental laws of our monarchy are trampled under foot; our property, our customs, our wives ... all which the nation holds most dear, are threatened. Our holy religion, our only hope, is doomed to perdition, or will be reduced to mere external appearances, without support and without protection. And a foreign power has done this, ... not by dint of arms, but by deceit and treachery, by converting the very persons who call themselves the heads of our government, into instruments of these atrocious acts; persons who, either from the baseness of their sentiments, from fear, or perhaps from other motives, which time or justice will unfold, hesitate not to sacrifice their country. It therefore became necessary to break the shackles, which prevented the Spaniards from displaying that generous ardour that in all ages has covered them with glory; that noble courage, with which they have always defended their honour, their laws, their monarchs, and their religion. The people of Seville assembled accordingly on the 27th of May; and, through the medium of all their magistrates, of all their constituted authorities, and of the most respectable individuals of every rank, this Supreme Council of Government was formed, invested with all necessary powers, and charged to defend the country, the religion, the laws, and the King. We accept the heroic trust; we swear to discharge it, and we reckon on the strength and energy of the whole nation. We have again proclaimed Ferdinand VII. ... again sworn allegiance to him, ... sworn to die in his defence; this was the signal of happiness and union, and will prove such to all Spain.
“A Council of Government had scarce been formed, when it violated the most sacred laws of the realm. A president was appointed without any authority whatever, and who, had he had any lawful title, hastened to forfeit it. In addition to his being a foreigner, which was a legal objection, he acted for the destruction of the very monarchy from which he received his appointment, and of the laws, which alone could sanction it. Under these circumstances we could not restrain our loyalty, much less could we violate the sacred engagements, which we had before contracted as Spaniards, as subjects, as Christians, as freemen, independent of all foreign authority and power. Nor could the interference of the first tribunal of the nation, the Council of Castille, check or control our exertions. The weakness of that Council became obvious from the wavering and contradictory proceedings which it adopted in the most momentous situation wherein the nation ever hath been placed, when the Council ought to have displayed that heroic firmness, with which numberless motives and its own honour called upon it to act. The order tamely to submit to, and circulate and obey the act of abdication in favour of a foreign prince, was the consummation of its weakness, perhaps of its infamy. That abdication was evidently void and illegal from want of authority in him who made it; the monarchy was not his, nor was Spain composed of animals subject to the absolute control of their owners; ... his accession to the throne was founded on his royal descent, and on the fundamental laws of the realm. It is void on account of the state of violence in which it was made; ... it is void, because the published act of abdication of King Ferdinand VII. and of his uncle and brother, was made in the same state of compulsion, as is expressly declared in the very act itself; ... it is void, because many royal personages, possessed of the right of inheritance to the crown, have not relinquished that right, but preserve it entire.
“The French ruler summoned the Spanish nation: he chose such deputies as best suited his purpose, and in a despotic manner appointed them to deliberate in a foreign country on the most sacred interests of the nation, while he publicly declared that a private and respectful letter, written to him by Ferdinand VII. at the time when he was Prince of Asturias, was a criminal performance, injurious to the rights of sovereignty. It is, indeed, a heinous offence, it is rebellion, when an independent nation submits to the control of a foreign prince, and discusses in his presence, and under his decision, its most sacred rights and public welfare.
“He has resorted to many other means to deceive us. He has distributed libels to corrupt the public opinion, in which, under the strongest professions of respect for the laws, and for religion, he insults both, leaving no means untried, however infamous they may be, to bend our necks under an iron yoke, and make us his slaves. He assures the public, that the supreme pontiff and vicar of Jesus Christ approves and sanctions his proceedings; while it is notorious, that, in sight of all Europe, he has despoiled him of his dominions, and forced him to dismiss his Cardinals, in order to prevent him from directing and governing the whole church, in the manner sanctioned by our Saviour Jesus Christ.
“Spaniards, every consideration calls on us to unite and frustrate views so atrocious. No revolution exists in Spain; our sole object is to defend what we hold most sacred, against him, who, under the cloak of alliance, intended to wrest it from us, and who would despoil us, without fighting, of our laws, our monarchs, and our religion. Let us, therefore, sacrifice every thing to a cause so just; and, if we are to lose our all, let us lose it fighting, and like generous men. Join, therefore, all: let us commit to the wisest among us in all the provinces the important trust of preserving the public opinion, and refuting those insolent libels which are replete with the most atrocious falsehoods. Let every one exert himself in his way; and let the church of Spain incessantly implore the assistance of the God of Hosts, whose protection is secured to us by the evident justice of our cause. Europe will applaud our efforts, and hasten to our assistance. Italy, Germany, and the whole north, suffering under the despotism of the French nation, will eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity held out to them by Spain, to shake off the yoke and recover their liberty, their laws, their monarchs, and all they have been robbed of by that nation. France herself will hasten to erase the stain of infamy which must cover the instruments of deeds so treacherous and heinous. She will not shed her blood in so vile a cause. She has already suffered too much under the idle pretext of a peace and happiness which never came, and which can never be attained but under the empire of reason, peace, religion, and laws, and in a state where the rights of other nations are respected and observed.