"CITIZENS,
Our mission is over; we will hand over your City Hall to your newly elected representatives.
Helped by your patience and support, we have correctly finished the difficult work taken up in your name. Thank you; solidarity is a vain word no longer: the Republic is assured.
If our counsel can influence your decisions, let your most zealous servants express what they await from today's vote.
CITIZENS,
Do not forget that the men who will serve you best are those you choose among yourselves, living your life, suffering from the same difficulties.
Be as aware of the ambitious as of the parvenus; both will think only of their own interest and will always think themselves indispensable.
Watch out also for those who like to talk and are incapable of action; they will sacrifice everything to an oratorical effect or a smart phrase. — Avoid as well those whom fortune has favored too much, for he who possesses a fortune is rarely ready to view the worker as a brother. .
Finally, seek men who are sincere, men of the People, resolute, active, who go straight and whose honesty is recognized. — Favor those who are not looking for your vote; genuine merit is modest, and it is up to the voters to choose their men, not to them to present themselves.
We are sure that if you heed these observations you will finally inaugurate genuine popular representation, you will find representatives who will never think themselves your masters."
-- The National Guard Central Committee, City Hall, March 25 1871
they are so averse to personal interest
End of this chapter.
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