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[center][i]Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek[/i][/center]
 
"Several times I have personally reached out to our Brethren still in the Cape, and several times I have been rejected. One common theme goes through these.

In spite of our extraordinary victories, they tell us, gentlemen, that we are weak; unable to defeat so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be more able? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and with a British guard quartered in every house? Shall we strengthen through surrender? Shall we derive the means of effectual resistance through kneeling at the feet of Victoria, hoping she shall bestow upon us our independence of the goodness of her heart?
 
We are weak only if we fail to make proper use of those means which God has given us. The hundreds of thousands of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such terrain as ours, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. The battle, gentlemen, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides,
 we have no election; If we were weak enough to desire it, it is now too late to turn back. The chains of our captivity are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Natal! The war is begun--and let it come!

Do not believe, brethren, that the present power of the British is fixed and immutable like that of a god, seated upon a throne on Olympus, capable of casting a lightning bolt and ending us with an angry glare, and by whose sufferance alone we have heretofore had our independence. They are hated, and feared and envied even by those who now seem devoted to them. One must assume that even their allies are subject to the same passions as any other men. At present, however, all these feelings are repressed and have no outlet. However, when half a million British troops have been brutishly chasing our nimble commandos across the veld for years to no avail, will the Irish stay quiet? When their spirit is broken, will the Sepoy continue to tolerate their rule? When their coffers are empty, will the Germans not act? 

Twenty years ago, before we were blessed with the mines, a thousand British dead were all it took for us to convince them subjugating us was not worth the exertion. Might God convince them similarly, as I swear to Him I will sign no surrender. If these hands still move, if I can still raise my arms, I will hold a rifle."

~Louis Botha, a speech sent by letter to the Volksraad.