The Republic
March 1858
International News
Orsini Convicted in Napoleon Assassination Attempt.
Paris, France -- Felice Orsini, an Italian national and radical liberal revolutionary who attempted to assassinate The French Emperor Napoleon III and his queen with explosive devices, was tried and convicted in a French court and sentenced to death by guillotine. The attack killed eight and wounded 142. Napoleon and his queen escaped harm.
Orsini had been a member of the Giovane Italia, a revolutionary society founded by Giuseppe Mazzini. He had been arrested in 1844 along with his father, implicated in revolutionary plots and condemned to imprisonment for life. He was later freed by decree from Pope Pius IX. He fought in the First War of Italian Independence in 1848 and distinguished himself during engagements at Treviso and Vicenza.
Orsini was elected member of the Roman Constituent Assembly in 1849, and served in that capacity until the fall of the revolutionary republic. Afterwards he joined the Mazzinian party. Because of his activities, he was arrested in Hungary in 1854 and imprisoned at Mantua. He escaped a few months later using a tiny saw to cut through two grids of bars, climbed out the window 100 feet above ground and slid down using a rope he had made of bedsheets. His account of these events was published in
'The Memoirs and Adventures of Felice Orsini' in 1856.
Orsini became convinced that Napoleon III was the chief obstacle to Italian independence and the principal cause of the anti-liberal reaction throughout Europe. He believed that after the emperor's death, France would rise in revolt and the Italians could exploit the situation to revolt themselves. Revelations during the trial that Orsini had received support from patrons in England and that the explosive devices used in the attack had been constructed there have caused a public uproar against England.
Divine Visitation? French Girl Claims to See Virgin Mary.
Lourdes, France -- On 11 February 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, 14, was out gathering firewood with her sister Marie and a friend near the grotto of Massabielle (Tuta de Massavielha) when she had a vision. As she recounted later, while the other girls crossed the little stream in front of the grotto and walked on, Bernadette stayed behind, looking for a place to cross where she wouldn't get her stockings wet. She finally sat down in the grotto to take her shoes off in order to cross the water and was lowering her first stocking when she heard the sound of rushing wind, but nothing moved. A wild rose in a natural niche in the grotto, however, did move. From the niche, or rather the dark alcove behind it, "came a dazzling light, and a white figure." Her sister and her friend stated that they had seen nothing.
On 14 February, after Sunday Mass, Bernadette, with her sister Marie and some other girls, returned to the grotto. Bernadette knelt down immediately, saying she saw aquero again and falling into a trance. When one of the girls threw holy water at the niche and another threw a rock from above that shattered on the ground, the apparition disappeared. Bernadette fell into a state of shock and the girl who had thrown the rock thought she had killed her. On her next visit, 18 February, she said that "the vision" asked her to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight.
Initially, her parents, especially her mother, were embarrassed and tried to forbid her to go. The local police commissioner called her into his office and threatened to arrest her, as did the district attorney, but since there was no evidence of fraud there was little they could do. It is reported that the girl herself has remained stubbornly calm and consistent during her interrogations, never changing her story or her attitude, and never claiming knowledge beyond what she said the vision told her. The townspeople who believed she was telling the truth assumed she saw the Virgin Mary. Bernadette has never claimed it to be Mary, consistently using the word aquero. She described the lady as wearing a white veil, a blue girdle and with a yellow rose on each foot*— compatible with "a description of any statue of the Virgin in a village church".
Bernadette's story has caused a sensation with the townspeople, who are divided in their opinions on whether or not Bernadette is telling the truth. Some believe her to have a mental illness and have demanded she be put in an asylum. Large numbers of people have begun to follow her on her daily journey, some out of curiosity and others who firmly believe that they are witnessing a miracle.
On 24 February, she reported that aquero had said Penitenço*... Penitenço*... Penitenço ("penance"). That day Bernadette kissed the muddy ground of the grotto. The next day she went further, and during her trance, chewed and ate grass she plucked from the ground. She then rubbed mud over her face and swallowed some mud, to the disgust of the many onlookers and the embarrassment of those who believed in her visions. She explained that the vision had told her "to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat the herb that grew there," as an act of penance. To everyone's surprise, the next day the grotto was no longer muddy but clear water flowed.
Bernadette was born on 7 January 1844, and baptized at the local parish church, St. Pierre's, on 9 January, her parents' wedding anniversary. The family lives in extreme poverty. Neighbours have reported that the family lives in unusual harmony, apparently relying on their love and support for one another and their religious devotion. Bernadette was a sickly child, contracting cholera as a toddler and suffers from severe asthma.
National News and Politics
Senate Approves Pro-Slavery Constitution for Kansas.
Washington, DC -- On 2 February, President Buchanan publically reiterated his support for the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution for Kansas and despite objections from Senator Stephen Douglas, who has broken with fellow Democrats in their support of it, the Senate accepted the document with a vote of 32-25. Freestaters opposed to extending slavery into Kansas soundly rejected the Lecompton Constitution during a second ratification vote held on 4 January. Pro-slavery factions easily carried the first ratification vote on 21 December of last year when freestaters abstained. There are worries that this could reignite violence between pro-slavery and freestater factions in the territory.
Fighting Crime With Electricity
Boston -- Edwin Holmes has begun to manufacture and sell electrical burglar alarms. The device was patented in 1853 by the Reverend Augustus Russell Pope of Somerville Massachusetts. Holmes acquired Pope's patent rights last year for $1500. The burglar alarm contains sensors which are connected to a control unit via a low-voltage hardwire or narrowband RF signal which is used to interact with a response device. It is similar to the fire alarm box, an outdoor device used for notifying a fire department of a fire, invented by Moses G. Farmer, an engineer, and Dr. William Channing, a Harvard-educated Bostonian in 1851.
Ironing Board Patented
New York -- Co-inventors William Vondenburg and James Harvey of New York City have patented what they call an "Ironing Board," a portable and foldable table with a heat resistant top used in the aid of removing wrinkles from clothing with an iron and starch.