Paris, [n. As for me, more a patriot than a soldier, I ardently wish for the maintenance of the peace, so necessary for the march of progress and the happiness of my country. It is for this that, disdaining certain attacks and strong in my feeling of duty, I tirelessly pursue the preparation for war, the sole guarantee of lasting peace. I summarize, messieurs: for a nation there are two kinds of peace: The peace we ask for and the peace we impose through a firm and dignified attitude.
The latter is the only that suits you and I thank you, educators of this proud youth, I thank you, valiant young men for assisting the government in assuring for France its benefits. Universal suffrage has just responded with a grandiose acclamation to the appeal of an odiously persecuted, cowardly slandered honest man. His sovereign voice has just paid off the long delayed debt of reprisals that he owed the politicians who were stirred up against one of the must illustrious figures of our army.
The general, deputy from the Nord, made his triumphal, entry into the Palais Bourbon escorted not only by the , votes he obtained in various elections, but the good wishes of all patriots. The latter bravely supported him without allowing themselves to be intimidated by the oligarchy that governs us.
But let us not be ungrateful, and let us recognize that his enemies did what needed to be done to ensure his success. It is now necessary that the example given by the voters of the Aisne, the Dordogne, and the Nord be faithfully followed from one end of the territory to the other. It is necessary that this patriotic agitation grow without let up until the country has once again taken ownership of itself.
This moment is near. Significant symptoms announce virile resolutions in the heart of the nation. Will the unrepresentative parliament finally understand that all that is left to it is to retire from the stage?
