"A patriot" · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

"A patriot"

Author

Morais, Sabato

Location(s)

United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

United States -- Pennsylvania

Format

17 pages on 10 sheets

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?

Language(s)

English

Source

Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Sabato Morais Collection, Box 12, Folder 11

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3fb4x62t/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3fb4x62t

Provenance

Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx12FF11.xml

content

"A patriot"
A lecture delivered before the
Young men's Hebrew Association of Phila.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Among all the lessons of the late itenerant evangelist,--as reflected in the daily papers, one may be set to his credit as sensible and much to the purpose. He said in our city, while on a conversion tour, that no lecture should occupy more than forty minutes. But the ambitious gospel-gossip spoiled the text by its comment. He added that the audience must leave the meeting-house hungry, hungry, of course, for my more preaching. Now, I quite agree with him in the premises, but I differ widely in the conclusion. I say: a lecture should not exceed forty minutes in its delivery, let lest it nauseate a squeamish people, impairing their appetite for more relishing food. Guided by that idea, I will economise time, and you shall not, I promise, be prevented from enjoying with zest, what has been laid in store for your real entertainment this evening. For, I acknowledge at once, that notwithstanding my earnest wish to find what might combine amusement with instruction, every effort of mine in that direction, proved a complete failure. But since I have been asked to stand before so large and

intelligent an audie assembly, I beg in turn that I may be allowed the company of a person I have long and dearly loved. I would much like to introduce him to your acquaintance. Ah! I see, your curiosity has been excited. "Who can that be?" "Some old Rabbi, to be sure" answer my knowing hearers yonder, to one ano--ther. No: he was not a Rabbi, in the acceptation of the word. He was not even a Hebrew. But according to my ideal of a being in whose veins runs the blood of the great believer from Ur of the Chaldeans, and according to the model I have formed of one commissioned to teach Truth, my fondly cherished friend bore the highest type of a Hebrew, the deepest impress of a Rabbi. Aye: a Melchizedek was he, ministering at the altar of the Most High God. Born at a gloomy period of his country's history, when to be suspect of liberal thoughts,--of such thoughts, as you, Americans, have been privileged for a century fearlessly to utter--, was to be shut out of the world, and be left to pine away within four impenetrable walls, my friend dared not alone to think, but to act manfully, unflinchingly. He saw his native land bound in chains, whose every link had

been twice clinched. Austria had forged the shackles, the Bourbons on one side, and the Popes on the other struck the heaviest blows to fasten them terribly tight. He saw his land drag those enslaving ch fetters, and still he made to revel in Carnivals, that the noise of riotous feasting, might drown the sound of weeping. But a youth had heard that cry of misery. And drawn within the weep of a temple dedicated to God, even his own pure heart, vowed to sacrifice the joys of home, the endear--ments of a widowed mother, the chaste love of woman, the bright prospects which his surpassing genius opened, he vowed to bless suffering, and welcome poverty, that the work of redemption he had determined to undertake might never slack. How faithfully he labored, Italy reunited from the foot of the Alps to the Adriatic Sea, proclaims to an astonished world. For, if the right hand of Cavour shook off the dust of ages, under which the classic peninsula had lain burned, and brought her forth arrayed in holiday garments, if Gari--baldi girded her loins with a newly sharpened sword,

Joseph Mazzini kept her alive, when all thought her dead, dead beyond resurrection. He kept her alive by infusing into her inl veins his own precious blood, he kept her warm with the blazing fire of his heavenly soul, and [?] like an angel of promise, he whispered words of comfort and of hope.
Ladies and Gentlemen. Joseph Mazzini is the dear friend I have brought with me, and whom I desire to introduce to your acquaintance. Could some allusions, necessarily slight and desultory to his character and services, inspire my audience, partly at least, with the sentiments which the mere mention of his name awakens in my breast, I would feel as if that chief of the greatest and the best among Italian patriots, stood now by me, and with a saintly smile evinced gratification. For, he labored to be eternized in the memory of the freedom-loving; he labored for all mankind, in whom he recognized brethren, members of a vast family, created to attest the glory of the One Universal Father.
Those among my hearers, conversant with the political events which followed one another on the continent of Europe since 1830, and notably since the mighty

upheaval of the never to be forgotten 1848, may have learnt to look upon Mazzini as on a restless conspirator; as a visionary unscrupulous of the means to which he resorted, in order to set up a utopean Republic. There never was a judgment more faulty than this bred and fostered by the corrupt emissaries of corruptive govern--ment. That many a noble youth kindled with enthu--siasm by the teachings of the Apostle of truth, bent to re--ceive the death-shot as light-heartedly as a fond child runs to his mother's arms, I do not deny. That what he spoke and wrote set Italy on a political volcano, which threatened streaming forth lava, which threatened to consume royalty, I will not gainsay. But Mazzini never descended from the high pedestal on which Nature had placed him. Never did he point to the dagger, even to rid his country of the brutal Hynaus, the women's floggers, and the children's butchers. Revolution--a word which you whose badge is independence thoroughly un--derstand, revolution he preached and not assassination. From Genoa, the city which sent her Columbus to search

out for you a country, those stirring words issued forth. In Genoa--his native place--Mazzini struck the first spark of the refulgent light, which will ultimately illumine the political horizon of the whole world: The light of righteousness..
The bold young man who ventured to call upon a people to become emancipated from the rules of the Vatican, and its soul-crushing superstitions, to throw off the yoke of absolutism, which burdened them with overwhelming ignorance; a young man so dangerous to the thrones propped up by a blind belief in the infallibility of Papacy, and by a cowardly submission to foreign usur--pation, could not long walk at large in the Italy of forty years ago. He was cast into a felon's cell. At the end of six months, the kind? home government considering his offence to have emanated perhaps from juvenile thoughtlessness, consented with usual clemency to escort the giddy-headed patriot beyond the boundaries of the land of his birth, and bid him ev never to set his foot upon that soil again.
In Marseilles France began the apostolate of Mazzim. A flood of iniquities flowing form the Church of Rome, had under-mined

people's belief in a wakeful God, and in the final triumph of truth. A new generation had arisen in Italy and elsewhere, who confounded the sacred name of religion with Papal bulls. From the height of his genius, Mazzini saw that multitude entangled in the mazes of Atheism. He called to them, and showing the banner he had unfurled, cried "Lay hold thereon, ye heirs of immortality; beneath this standard alone you shall be led to safety." "God and the people" was the motto the great patriot had chosen. A re-echo, my respected hearers, a re-echo of the loving words of your Washington when at the close of an irreproachable and glorious public career; he commended the interests of the Re--public to the Omnipotent and to the virtues not ex--clusively of a Cabinet or a Hall of Legislators, but to the virtues of those who form the sinewy strength of the country, to the virtues of the people of the United States, whom he had redeemed by his sword and by his wisdom. "God and the people" was the motto inscribed on the banner which the unsullied hands of Mazzini had unfolded,

and it became the watchword of a society which, under the name of "Young Italy" spread throughout the European continent.
From a hidden chamber at Marseilles, letters and jour--nals and pamphlets proceeded and travelled fast. The mighty engines, were they, of a revolution which is pro--gressing, but which is yet far from its completion. For, let it be known, Ladies and Gentlemen, that the illus--trious exile aimed at the social amelioration of his country and of the whole human race, through a political reform. While French theorists dreamed of a Democracy resting upon a community of property, the Italian apostle labored for a Republic founded on the principles of duty to one another and of accountability to God. He labored to dignify handicraft, to raise up the masses to the height of their manhood, to lower aristocracies from their presuming attitude; he labored to train man for self-government. These sentiments, however, did not quite agree with the notions of a Ruler, whose shrewd policy was directed to secure for his sons and daughters fat berths by matrimonial alliances with foreign potentates. "Louis Phillipe, King of the Trench," for, France herself,

forsooth, acknowledge no master,--though she did not disdain afterwards being lorded over by an adventurer, who set up his empire upon the corpses of the noblest and bravest of her children--. Louis Phillipe the veracious king, who offered suffering Italy his sympathy as willingly as he gave dismembered Poland the yearly promised assist--ance, let his hounds hung for Mazzinis hidden cham--ber, and forced him to flee away. In the mountains of Switzerland, the patriot meditated and planned the liberation of his country. From a solitary spot, he, like a prophet of old, launched denunciations against ty--rants, and sent hopeful tidings to the despairing, and godly teachings to the world. But the remonstrances of Prince Mettermech,--the Austrian factotum--made the Helvetic confederacy weak kned kneed. With a sense of humiliation I relate it to you, O representatives of national freedom! She who had often outraged Liberty by permitting her soldiers to support the tottering power of the Roman Pontiffs, of those who robbed mothers of their infants, and sent their sons to the gibbet; Switzerland

added to her share by imperatively demanding of Mazzini to leave for other parts.
But there is an island beyond the ocean, where the threats of petty despots meet with the same contempt, as their cunning flatteries excite the derision of her inhabitants. It is your mother-country O Americans! At her breast you imbibed the knowledge of those enlightened laws which have rendered you an great enlightened and generous people. Great Britain offered an asylum of which none dared deprive the honored exile. And when in 1844 Sir James Graham debased his character and the name he bore by becoming the secret spy of the mis-ruler of Naples, a burst of indignation went forth from every high-minded Englishman. The post office at the Metropolis had been defiled. Mazzini's private correspondence had been opened and read, and an iniquitous, a hated govern--ment had been apprized of its contents. Through that disclosure a band of youthful patriots, burning with love for their country, on reaching Calabrea met the jailors ready with the manacles, and the executioners prepared to slaughter. But the Italian patriot lay his grievances at the bar of a public tribunal,

in a work which revealed all the bleeding wounds of his unhappy country. The people's verdict was an unmeasured condemnation of the ignoble act of one who prided himself on his noble extraction. The people whose hearts always throb with sympathetic emotions, the people were instinctively drawn to the victim of wrong, and they learnt to respect the cause of which he was the leading spirit. A tr Thomas Duncombe--a true nobleman--made Parliament stand abashed. The great commoner Richard Cobden raised his manly voice. The literary star Douglass Jerrold, figured among that constellation of the wise-hearted who deter--mined to resuscitate Italy. And The National Loan to which Mazzinis fervor patriotism set on foot, secured by his fervor the subscriptions of Englishmen, & was became the first breathing into a new life of the country mouldering in the grave of oblivion. Louis Napoleon saw the dawning of its resurrection and trembled. The Nemesis, avenging the Liberty, to which he had often sworn fidelity, but which he often fully betrayed, was rising with her all furies,

Rome had declared itself a Republic, and under the triumvirate of Mazzini, Saffi and Armellini, but mainly through the statesmanship of the first-named great patriot, fought bravely for an existence well which the then President of the French Republic threw throttled and strangled almost at its birth. But the day of rebrut retribution soon arrived. Orsini's plot and his infernal machine shook the nephew who had mounted the throne upon the collossal shoulders of his heroic [?] uncle. He was morally compelled to descend to the plains of Mag Magenta and Solferino and to aid in the emancipation of Italy. His sudden halt at Villafranca, to prevent the entire liberation of the peninsula from the Alps to the Adriatic, as he had solemnly promised, did not check Garibaldi's on--ward march. And that which was had been left purposely unfinished by the Emperor of France, was accom--plished by the help of gigantic Prussia. She forged the thunder-bolts that struck the gates of Papal Rome, and opened the way for the people of the Quirinal. She lay hel prl prostate at Sedan, the first born child of the Church, the defender of the Vatican.

She bet butted the Pope's bulls with the bullets of her Bismark.
Upon the day that Italy, assisted by Teutonic valor, took her seat among the family of nations, Mazzini could have have exchanged exile for a prime-ministry, poverty for luxurious ease. But his mission was not yet fulfilled. The eye of his genius had rested on a Republican Italy; and for the rel realization of that golden vision he had hopefully waited forty years, now with a pen in hand, which seemed dipped in inspi--ration, anon with the unsheathed sword of patriotism. Unwearied in his apostolate, the refugee often left his humble setting room at the west end of London, where it was my fortune to press his hand--and travelled in disguise throughout the continent. Discovered while planning the downfall of royalty, imprisoned and condemned to the block, Providence stood by him the just man and held him fast. His priest passed through surging tempestuous waters seas, but he was not submerged, the fiery ordeal he underwent, did not singe a hair of his head.

The Lord of hosts led him on to security. And if the Ruler of human events, would permit the righteous man who had sewn righteousness truth to view some of the fruits of his planting only from the top of a Pisgah. If the great Master, whose teachings preeminently effected the unity of his country, lived in exile, because he could not swear allegiance to mortal kings, the Monarch of the Universe, whom alone he acknowledged, destined him to die under the sky of his beloved Italy. A Jewish family fondly attached to the illustrious patriot, lent him their name and [?] their home at Pisa, when an acute disease imperatively demanded the genial air of that city. In the arms of Hebrews, whose child-like affection had solaced the heart sorely tried in the land of the stranger, Joseph Mazzin expired. And now a grateful people, who would not suffer even what is perishable to consume in the grave, have placed his petrified+ body in the Capitol at Rome, that all may look on a priest of the Most High, on a Mel--chizedek crowned with the laurels of martyrdom.

+ Prepared by a scientific process, according to the direction of the celebrated professor Paul Gorini.

+ Sleep martyred patriot, sleep Italia long shall keep Most sweet remembrance of thy gentle worth Thy virtue full of power Shall blossom like a flower And shed a living fragrance oe'r the earth.

Members of the Young men's Hebrew Association! Pardon the somberness of the subject and the detention. But before your minds are carried upon the wings of pleasure to lighter regions, will you not allow one who loves you as co-heirs of glorious truths, and who loves your Republic as the cradle of liberty to say that each of you also, has, like Mazzini, a grand mission to perform? Thanks to Providence who gave for your inheritance a law which exalts, and a constitution which dignifies your manhood, you need not suffer martyrdom to fulfil

+ These lines are not altogether original, but adapted from a poem on the death of the lamented Abraham Lincoln.

that mission. But you must watch, unremittingly watch that your heritage be not laid waste. You must watch that the name of Hebrew, and of free men of which you justly boast be not dishonored. The dangers of ease and absolute liberty are not less fatal than those to which we are exposed by straitness of circumstances and persecution proscription. It is well therefore that institutions as of this character exist in our midst.x Their refining influence must be reflected in the high-toned deportment of my coreligionists, in their commercial as well as in their domestic relations They must palpably show that real progress is inseparable from self-government, and while challenging the applause of the thinking and of the wise, American Israel will have coope--rated in promoting the great and to which the nations of the earth must finally reach, namely a Union of States of all peoples, by created by the fraternal assistance of all for the welfare of all.

Identifier

p3fb4x62t

identifier

SMBx12FF11