Letter to a Public Meeting at the Academy of Music in New York, January 10, 1871.

Senate Chamber, January 10, 1871.

DEAR SIR,—Though not in person at your great meeting to commemorate what you happily call the completion of Italian unity, I shall be there in heart and soul. A lover of Italy and anxious for her independence as a nation, I have for years longed to see this day. Italy without Rome was like the body without its head. Rome is the natural head of Italy, and is now at last joined with the body to which it belongs, never again to be separated.

How many hearts have throbbed with alternate despair and hope, watching the too tardy fulfilment of the patriot aspiration for that United Italy which shall possess once more the Capitoline Hill and the ancient Forum, the Colosseum and its immense memories of grandeur, together with the later dome of Michel Angelo, in itself the emblem of all-embracing unity! This was the aspiration of Cavour. I remember the great man well, at the very beginning of the war for Independence, in a small apartment which was bed-room and office, while he conversed on the future of the historic Peninsula, and with tranquil voice declared that all must be free to the Adriatic, with Rome as the national capital. I need not say that I listened with delight and sympathy. He died before all was free to the Adriatic, and while Rome was yet ruled by the Papal autocrat. At last his desires are accomplished. Naturally the liberation of Venice was followed by the liberation of Rome, and both, when free, helped complete the national unity. No longer “merely a geographical expression,” according to the insulting phrase of Metternich, Italy is now a nation whose lofty capstone is Rome.

Besides the triumph of the nation, I see in this event two other things of surpassing value in the history of Liberty. First, the union of Church and State is overthrown in its greatest example. The Pope remains the pastor of a mighty flock, but without temporal power. Here is a precedent, which, beginning at Rome, must be followed everywhere, until Church and State are no longer conjoined, and all are at liberty to worship God according to conscience, without compulsion from Man. The other consequence is hardly less important. The Pope was an absolute sovereign for life. In the overthrow of his temporal power Absolutism receives a blow, and the people everywhere obtain new assurance for the future. Here is occasion for joy and hope. There is no Italian who may not now repeat the words of Alfieri without dooming himself to exile:—

The poet who loved Liberty so well was right, when he refused to recognize as his country that place “where one alone sufficed against all.” But this was the condition of Rome under the Papal power.

Therefore, not only in sympathy with Italy, but in devotion to human rights, do I rejoice in this day.

Full of good wishes for Italy, happy in what she has already accomplished, and hopeful for the future, I remain, dear Sir, very faithfully yours,

Charles Sumner.

To the Committee.