ut his strong
will, shown in his perseverance in the presence of starvation, won the
respect and love of the daughter of a wealthy patrician. They had been
married but a short time when the Austrians confiscated the property of
his father-in-law because of suspicions circulated concerning his secret
connection with the "Americani." That patriotic secret society was
called the "Carbonari" by the Austrians, and Manin became the leading
spirit in the Venetian branch. His will seemed resistless. He refused
the Presidency in 1832, when revolution shook the tyrannies of all
Europe and Venice fell back under Austrian control. But in 1848 he was
almost unanimously elected President of the "American Republic of
Venice"; and in his second proclamation before the great siege began he
issued a call for the election, using, as Consul-General Sparks records,
the following language (as translated): "and until the election is held
and the officers installed the following sections of the Constitution of
the United States of America shall be the law of the City." He was
determined to secure an "American republic" in Italy. He lived to see it
in Venice. Statues of Daniel Manin are seen now in all the great cities
of Italy; and when the statue was dedicated at Venice and a city park
square named after him, he was called the father of the new kingdom of
Italy. General Garibaldi said that when Manin made a draft of the
Constitution he proposed for United Italy, he quoted the American
Declaration of Independence. The general also said that Manin insisted
the Government of Italy should be like the American Republic, and that
it was difficult to convince Manin that a king--so called--could be as
limited as a President. Even Mazzini, the extremist, and both Cavour and
Gavazzi finally came to accept Manin's demands for freedom and equality
as they were set forth in the Constitution of the American Republic.
Manin did not live to see the final union, nor to see his son a general
in the Italian army, but his vigorous will gave a momentum to freedom in
Italy which is still pressing the people on to his noblest ideals. "What
man has done man can do," and what Manin did can be done again in other
achievements.

The normal reader never was anxious that the North Pole should be
located, and he does not care now whether it has been discovered.
Mathematicians and geographers may find delight in the solution of some
abstract problem, but the busy citizen w