Swiss Federal Diet

“ You have to make the Compact, which is the federal Constitution of Switzerland to be respected — to re-establish order and tranquillity - and the security of the country — to put down revolt — to preserve Switzerland from anarchy — and to bring back to obedience to the laws, and to the federal authorities the populations led away by those who turn their credulity to account. ”

“ The Diet has no desire to oppress any member of the Confederacy, or to annihilate the cantonal independence, or violently to destroy the existing Federal Pact, or to create a unitary Republic, or, in general, to endanger your liberties, privileges, and religion. On the contrary, it will in all fidelity seek to afford to all the cantons alike, that protection and security to which they are entitled, and have a right to expect from confederates. ”

“ The Swiss Confederation, our common country has called us to arms. You have responded to the summons with a promptness worthy of men of courage; ready to shed their blood in the accomplishment of the most holy of duties, the safety of the country. You are now going to march against the separated alliance, called the Sonderbund. ”

“ It depends upon you to avert such a disastrous catastrophe. And we hope, that you will be guided by such counsels, as are in accordance with the duties you owe to the Confederation, as are necessary to the peace and order of the whole country, and to your own cantons. Let us be one common brotherhood, united in one common bond of alliance. ”

“ A private political alliance forming a Confederation is destructive of the common alliance — it is a germ of destruction and death that must be extirpated — concluded as it is to resist by force of arms the decisions of the Diet, which are all founded on the provisions of the Compact. The separate alliance is an act of rebellion by a factious minority against decrees passed by the competent authority. ”

“ Confederates! You apprehend dangers to threaten the rights and liberties, as well as the faith and Church which have come down to you from a long line of ancestry. Hut we give you hereby the most solemn assurances, that there exists not on our part the remotest intention of exposing those your precious privileges to the least danger or jeopardy. How, indeed, were it possible to suppose, that the Federal Executive could be moved to the commission of any wrong against confederates ”

“ To the fanaticism of your adversaries you will oppose that well considered firmness, that calm energy, that self-possessed valour, that serenity of enthusiasm, which the sentiment of a good cause and the enlightened conscience of duty impart. ”

“ But whilst obeying the inexorable laws of war, you will know how to unite magnanimity to the necessities of combat; you will never forget that your opponents are for the most part misled men, confederates and brothers whom you have to cause to return to their duties. ”