But if you leave her alone
at this stage when there is plenty of time to change her course,
and--what is more--urge her to tie the knot despite
incompatibility, what right have you afterward to make the
impudent suggestion to the wife that her husband is not a man to
whom she should cling for life? Is such a course a charitable way
of doing things?
If indeed the republican cause is enough to cause the destruction
of the nation then you, the advocates of monarchy, have placed the
country in a position from which she has no hope of ever coming
out independent. You are the men, who--to the best of your
ability--inculcated and pressed the adoption of the republican
cause. The proverb says, "If now, why not then?" How many days can
a person live that you, not satisfied with one great sin, are
again to commit another. It is not long since the Republic was
first established; yet you, the veterans of republicanism, are the
leaders today in advocating the overthrow of the Republic. Yes. It
is indeed strange that I, a man who once opposed the republican
cause, should now be opposing you. Nothing is stranger and nothing
is so fateful.
But our modern critics say we prefer a constitutional monarchy to
an autocratic republic. Now whether we are constitutional or not
is a question concerning the administration, while the question
whether we are republican or not is a question concerning the form
or status of the country.
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