Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Victor Hugo: June 18, I860

Grand are the liberators of mankind! Let them hear the grateful applanse of the nations, whatever their fortune! Yesterday we gave our tears; to-day our hosannas are heard. Providence deals in these compensations. John Brown failed in America, but Garibaldi has triumphed in Europe. Mankind, shuddering at the infamous gallows of Charlestown, takes courage once more at the flashing sword of Catalafimi.1
_______________

1 Victor Hugo's “Actes et Paroles pendant l'Exil” (1859-60). In the édition Definitive of his complete works, which was still going through the press at his death, in 1885, the author added this note to the passages cited above: "Victor Hugo avait, à propos de John Brown, prédit la guerre civile à l’Amérique, et, a propos de Garibaldi, prédit 1'unité à l’ltalie. Ces dcux prédictions se réalisèrent.” He had a right to claim this.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 631

No comments: