Select Speeches of Kossuth Part 10

XX.--CONTRAST OF THE AMERICAN TO THE HUNGARIAN CRISIS.

[_Speech before the Senate at Annapolis, Jan. 13_.]

Kossuth, having arrived at Annapolis, capital of Maryland, was entertained in the Government House by Governor Lowe, and was next day introduced to the Senate, who welcomed him with a cordial address. He responded as follows:--

Mr. President: In the changes of my stormy life, many occasions, connected with a.s.sociations of historical interest, have impressed a deep emotion upon my mind: but perhaps never yet has the memory of the past made such a glowing impression upon me as here.

I bow reverentially, Senators of Maryland, in this glorious hall, the sanctuary of immortal deeds, hallowed by immortal names.

Before I thank the living, let me look to those dead whose spirits dwell within these walls [looking at the portraits that hung upon the walls], living an imperishable life in the glory, freedom, and happiness of your great United Republic, which is destined, as I confidently hope, to become the corner-stone of the future of Humanity.

Yes, there they are, the glorious architects of the independence of this Republic.

There is _Thomas Stone_; there, your Demosthenes, _Samuel Chase_; there, _Charles Carroll, of Carrollton_, who designedly added that epithet to the significance of his name, that n.o.body should be mistaken about who was the _Carroll_ who dared the n.o.ble deed, and was rewarded by being the last of his ill.u.s.trious companions, whom G.o.d called to the Heavenly Paradise, after he had long enjoyed the paradise of freedom on earth; and here, _William Paca_;--all of them signers of the Declaration of American Independence--that n.o.blest, happiest page in mankind's history.

How happy that man must have been [pointing to the portrait of Governor Paca] having to govern this sovereign State on that day when, within these very halls the act was ratified which, by the recognition of your very enemy, raised your country to an independent nation.

Ye spirits of the departed! cast a ray of consolation by the voice of your nation over that injured land, whose elected chief, a wandering exile for having dared to imitate you, lays the trembling hopes of an oppressed continent before the generous heart of your people--now not only an independent nation but also a mighty and glorious power.

Alas! what a difference in the success of two like deeds! Have we not done what ye did? Yes, we have. Was the cause for which we did it not alike sacred and just as yours? It was. Or have we not fought to sustain it with equal resolution as your brethren did? Bold though it be to claim a glory such as America has, I am bold to claim, and say--yes, we did. And yet what a difference in the result! And whence this difference? Only out of that single circ.u.mstance that, while you, in your struggle, meet with _a.s.sistance_, we in ours met not even with _"fair play:"_ since, when we fought, there was n.o.body on earth to maintain "the laws of nature's G.o.d."

During our struggle, America was silent and England did not stir; and while you were a.s.sisted by a French King, we were forsaken by a French Republic--itself now trodden down because it has forsaken us?

Well, we are not broken yet. There is hope for us, because there is a G.o.d in heaven and an America on earth. May be that our nameless woes were necessary, that the glorious destiny of America may be fulfilled; that after it had been an asylum for the oppressed, it should become, by regenerating Europe, the pillar of manhood's liberty.

Oh! it is not a mere capricious change of fate, that the exiled governor of the land whose name, four years ago, was scarcely known on your glorious sh.o.r.es, and which now (oh, let me have the blessings of this belief!) is dear to the generous heart of America. It is not a mere chance that Hungary's exiled chief thanks the Senators of Maryland for the high honour of public welcome in that very Hall where the first Continental Congress met; where your great Republic's glorious const.i.tution was framed; where the treaty of acknowledged independence was ratified, and where you, Senators, guard with steady hand the rights of your sovereign States which is now united to thirty others, not to make you less free, but to make you more mighty--to make you a power on earth.

I believe there is the hand of G.o.d in history. You a.s.signed a place in this hall of freedom to the memory of Chatham, for having been just to America, by opposing the stamp act, which awoke your nation to resistance.

Now, the people of England think as once Pitt the elder thought, and honours with deep reverence the memory of your Was.h.i.+ngton.

But suppose the England of Lord Chatham's time had thought as Chatham did: and his burning words had moved the English aristocracy to be just towards the colonies: those our men there [turning to the portraits] had not signed your country's independence. Was.h.i.+ngton were perhaps a name "unknown, unhonoured, and unsung," and this proud constellation of your glorious stars had perhaps not yet risen on mankind's sky--instead of being now about to become the sun of Freedom. It is thus Providence acts.

Let me hope, sir, that Hungary's unmerited fate was necessary, in order that your stars should become such a sun.

Sirs, I stand, perhaps, upon the very spot where your Was.h.i.+ngton stood, consummating the greatest act of his life. The walls which now listen to my humble words, listened to the words of his republican virtue, immortal by their very modesty. Let me, upon this sacred spot, express my confident belief that if he stood here now, he would tell you that his prophecy is fulfilled; that you are mighty enough "to defy any power on earth in a just cause," and he would tell you that there never was and never will be a cause more just than the cause of Hungary, being, as it is, the cause of oppressed humanity.

Sir, I thank the Senate of Maryland, in my country's name for the honour of your generous welcome. I entreat the Senate kindly to remember my prostrate fatherland. Sir, I bid you farewell, feeling heart and soul purified, and my resolution strengthened, by the very air of this ancient city of Providence.

XXI.--THANKS FOR HIS GREAT SUCCESS.

[_Speech at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on his Reception in the Capitol.

Jan. 14th_.]

On Jan. 14th Kossuth was received in Harrisburg, capital of Pennsylvania, in the Capitol. Governor Johnston in the name of the State, addressed to him a copious and energetic speech, in the course of which he said:--

We have declared the law, that man is capable of self government, and possesses the inherent and indestructible right of altering, amending, and changing his form of government at his pleasure, and in furtherance of his happiness. We have sworn hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. These truths we have made a part of the laws of nations. Despots combine and interfere by force and fraud, to prevent the erection of republican inst.i.tutions by a nation struggling successfully against its local usurping oppressor, for independence.

Fidelity to our principles and inst.i.tutions demands that we PREVENT such interference by solemnly proclaiming that the laws of nations and humanity SHALL BE PRESERVED inviolate and sacred. In the performance of this duty the faint-hearted may falter; the domestic despot and cold diplomatist may linger behind; the man of world-extended and fearful traffic may hesitate; but the warm and great heart of the American ma.s.ses will feel no moment of hesitation and doubt in defence of truth.

The great Author of nations will find the means to carry out His wise designs. How glorious our destiny, if to us is given the solemn charge of carrying into effect the beneficent purpose of Heaven in the establishment upon earth of universal liberty, universal education, universal happiness, and peace.

When Governor Johnston had concluded with a very cordial welcome, Kossuth replied as follows:--

Senators and representatives of Pennsylvania.--I came with confidence, I came with hope to the United States--with the confidence of a man who trusts to the certainty of principles, knowing that where freedom is sown, there generosity grows--with the hope of a man who knows that there is life in his cause, and that where there is life there must be a future yet. Still hope is only an instinctive throb with which Nature's motherly care comforts adversity. We often hope without knowing why, and like a lonely wanderer on a stormy night, direct our weary steps towards the first glimmering window light, uncertain whether we are about to knock at the door of a philanthropist or of a heartless egotist. But the hope and confidence with which I came to the United States was not such. There was a knowledge of fact in it. I did not know what _persons_ it might be my fate to meet, but I knew that meet I should with two living _principles_--with that of FREEDOM and that of NATIONAL HOSPITALITY.

Both are political principles here. Freedom is expansive like the light: it loves to spread itself: and hospitality here in this happy land, is raised out of the narrow circle of private virtue into political wisdom.

As you, gentlemen, are the representatives of your people, so the people of the United States at large are representative of European humanity--a congregation of nations a.s.sembled in the hospitable Hall of American liberty. Your people is linked to Europe, not only by the common tie of manhood--not only by the communicative spirit of liberty--not only by the commercial intercourse, but by the sacred ties of blood. The people of the United States is Europe transplanted to America. And it is not Hungary's woes alone--it is the cause of all Europe which I am come to plead. Where was ever a son, who in his own happy days could indifferently look at the sufferings of his mother, whose heart's blood is running in his very veins? And Europe is the mother of the United States.

I hope to G.o.d, that the people of this glorious land is and will ever be, fervently attached to this their free, great and happy home. I hope to G.o.d that whatever tongue they speak, they are and will ever be American, and nothing but American. And so they must be, if they will be free--if they desire for their adopted home greatness and perpetuity.

Should once the citizens of the United States cease to be Americans, and become again English, Irish, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, French--America would soon cease to be what it is now--freedom elevated to the proud position of a power on earth.

But while I hope that all the people of the United States will never become anything but Americans; and that even its youngest adopted sons, though fresh with sweet home recollections, will know here no South, no North, no East and no West--nothing but the whole country, the common nationality of freedom--in a word, America; still I also know that blood is blood--that the heart of the son must beat at the contemplation of his mother's sufferings. These were the motives of my confident hope.

And here in this place I have the happy right to say, G.o.d the Almighty is with me; my hopes are about to be realized. Sir, it is a gratifying view to see how the generous sympathy of individuals for the cause which I respectfully plead is rising into Public Opinion. But nowhere had I the happy lot to see this more clearly expressed than in this great commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the mighty "_keystone_ State" of the Union. The people of Harrisburg spoke first: no city before had so distinctly articulated the public sympathy into acknowledged principles.

It has framed the sympathy of generous instinct into a political shape.

I will for ever remember it with fervent grat.i.tude. Then came the Metropolis--a hope and a consolation by its very name to the oppressed--the sanctuary of American Independence, where the very bells speak prophecy--which is now sheltering more inhabitants than all Pennsylvania did, when, seventy-five years ago, the prophetic bell of Independence Hall announced to the world that free America was born; which now, with the voice of thunder, will, I hope, tell the world that the doubtful life of that child has unfolded itself into a mighty power on earth. Yes, after Harrisburg, the metropolis spoke, a flouris.h.i.+ng example of freedom's self-developing energy; and after the metropolis, now so mighty a centre of nations, and it ally of international law--next came Pittsburg, the immense manufacturing workshop, alike memorable for its moral power and its natural advantages, which made it a link with the great valley of the West, a cradle of a new world, which is linked in its turn to the old world by boundless agricultural interests. And after the people of Pennsylvania have thus spoken, here now I stand in the temple of this people's sovereignty, with joyful grat.i.tude acknowledging the inestimable benefits of this public reception, where--with the elected of Pennsylvania, entrusted with the Legislative and Executive power of the sovereign people, gather into one garland the public opinion, and with the authority of their high position, announce loudly to the world the principles, the resolution, and the will of the two millions of this great Commonwealth. Sir, the words your Excellency has honoured me with will have their weight throughout the world. The jeering smile of the despots, which accompanied my wandering, will be changed, at the report of these proceedings, to a frown which may yet cast fresh mourning over families, as it has cast over mine; nevertheless the afflicted will wait to be consoled by the dawn of public happiness. From the words which your Excellency spoke, the nations will feel double resolution to shake off the yoke of despotism.

[Footnote: Philadelphia (_brotherly love_) is evidently intended.

"Metropolis" strictly means mother city, not chief city.]

The proceedings of to-day will, moreover, have their weight in the development of public opinion in other States of your united Republic.

Governor! I plead no dead cause, Europe is no corpse: it has a future yet, because it wills. Sir, from the window of your room, which your hospitality has opened to me, I saw suspended a musket and a powder horn, and this motto--"Material Aid." And I believe that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania is seated in that chair whence the Declaration of American Independence was signed. The first is what Europe wants in order to have the success of the second. Permit me to take this for a happy augury; and allow me with the plain words of an earnest mind, to give you the a.s.surance of my country's warm, everlasting grat.i.tude, in which, upon the basis of our restored independence, a wide field will be opened to mutual benefit, by friendly commercial intercourse enn.o.bled by the consciousness of imparted benefit on your side, and by the pleasant duty of grat.i.tude on the side of Hungary, which so well deserves your generous sympathy.

XXII.--ON THE PRESENT WEAKNESS OF DESPOTISM.

[_Speech at the Harrisburg Banquet_.]

About three hundred persons sat down to dinner, a large portion of them members of the legislature. Governor Johnston presided, a.s.sisted by Ex-Senator Cameron. A toast complimentary to Governor Johnston having been drunk with great enthusiasm, the Governor briefly responded. After returning his thanks for the compliment, he alluded to the mission of Kossuth. The great Magyar came here not for _sympathy_ alone, but for _aid_ for the cause of republican freedom. He not only wanted that, but encouragement of our government in aid of the cause of down-trodden Hungary. No profession, but action was wanted; and he exhorted his hearers never to cease acting, until the government took the high ground necessary to secure to Hungary the simple justice she demanded. In conclusion he gave the third toast:

"Hungary--Betrayed but not subdued; her const.i.tution violated, her people in chains, her chief in exile. The star of freedom will yet s.h.i.+ne through the dark night of her adversity."

Kossuth, in response, opened by lamenting that the perpetual claims upon his time, and the pressure of sorrowful feelings on his heart, made it impossible for him to study how to address them suitably. He proceeded to say:

But to what purpose is eloquence here? Have you not antic.i.p.ated my wishes? Have you not sanctioned my principles? Are you not going on to action, as generous men do, who are conscious of their power and of their aim? Well, to what purpose, then, is eloquence here? I have only to thank--and that is more eloquently told by a warm grasp of the hand than by all the skilful arrangement of words.

I beg therefore your indulgence for laying before you some mere facts, which perhaps may contribute to strengthen your conviction that the people of the United States, in bestowing its sympathy upon my cause, does not support a dead cause, but one which has a life, and whose success is rationally sure.

Let me before all cast a glance at the enemy. And let those imposed upon by the att.i.tude of despotism in 1852, consider how much stronger it was in 1847-8. France was lolled by Louis Philippe's politics, of "peace at any price," into apathy. Men believed in the solidity of his government.

No heart-revolting cruelty stirred the public mind. No general indignation from offended national self-esteem prevailed. The stability of the public credit encouraged the circulation of capital, and by that circulation large ma.s.ses of industrious poor found, if not contentment, at least daily bread. The King was taken for a prudent man; and the private morality of his family cast a sort of halo around his house. The spirit of revolution was reduced to play the meagre game of secret a.s.sociations; not seconded by any movement of universal interest--the spirit of radical innovation was restrained into scientific polemic, read by few and understood by fewer. There was a faith in the patriotic authority of certain men, whose reputation was that of being liberal.

One part of the nation lived on from day to day without any stirring pa.s.sion, in entire pa.s.siveness; the other believed in gradual improvement and progress, because it had confidence in the watchful care of partizan leaders. The combat of Parliamentary eloquence was considered to be a storm in a gla.s.s of water, and the highest aspiration of parties was to oust the ministry and take their place. And yet the prohibition of a public banquet blew asunder the whole complex like mere chaff.

Germany was tranquil, because the honest pretensions of the ambition of her statesmen were satisfied by the open lists of parliamentary eloquence. The public life of the nation had gained a field for itself in Legislative debates--a benefit not enjoyed for centuries. The professors being transferred to the legislative floor, and the college to the parliament, the nation was gratified by improvements in the laws, and by the oratory of her renowned men, who never failed to flatter the national vanity. It believed itself to be really in full speed of greatness, and listened contented and quiet--like an intelligent audience to an interesting lecture--even in respect to the unity of great Germany. The custom-a.s.sociation (Zollverein) became an idol of satisfied national vanity, and of cheerful hopes; science and art were growing fast; speculative researches of political economy met an open field in social life; men conscious of higher aims wandered afar into new homes, despairing to find a field of action in their native land.

Material improvement was the ruling word, and the lofty spirit of freedom was blighted by the contact of small interests.

And yet a prohibited banquet at Paris shook the very foundation of this artificial tranquillity, and the princely thrones of Germany trembled before the rising spirit of freedom, though it was groping in darkness, because unconscious of its aim.

Italy--fair, unfortunate Italy--looking into the mirror of its ancient glory, heaved with gloomy grief; but the sky of the heaven was as clear and blue above, as it ever was since creation's dawn: and it sung like the bird in a cage placed upon a bough of the blooming orange tree. And then Pius IX, placing himself at the head of Italian regeneration, became popular as no man in Rome since Rienzi's time, In 1848 men heard with surprise, on the coast of the Adriatic, my name coupled in _vivas_ with the name of Pius IX. But the sarcasm of Madame De Stael--that in Italy men became women--was still believed true; so that too many of the Italians themselves despaired of conquering Austria without Charles Albert.