It seems that we have not the right, a free
people, to give to sorely oppressed Alsace-Lorraine (which never ceases
to give proofs of her fidelity to France) a proof in our turn, that we
remember the disaster which has separated us, that we lament this
disaster, and hope one day to repair, if not to avenge it. Our pride
is being systematically humiliated in every direction! The nature and
consequences of victory have indeed been cruelly modified, if one must
submit to the law of the conqueror after having been delivered from him
for twenty-five years. The glorious resistance of the past thus
becomes an ignominious surrender and makes us shed tears of shame, even
more bitter than those which we shed over our saddest memories.
Gentlemen of the Government of France, I would ask you to read the
German newspapers; go to Berlin, go wherever you like in Germany or in
Alsace-Lorraine, and you will find there hundreds and hundreds of
monuments which have been inaugurated by the Imperial German
Government. For these, the smallest event, ancient or modern, affords
sufficient pretext. [14]
In all things and in every direction we yield today to the authority of
a monarch who emphasises our defeat more severely than those who
actually conquered us. Our strict national duty towards him who did
not overcome us with his own sword, was to hold ourselves firmly
upright before him and to protect our brethren, victims of the war.
Alas! we have been obedient to Bismarck, and we shall be submissive to
William II.
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