Select Speeches of Kossuth Part 22

And is it upon the ruins of Hungary that the absolutist powers are now about to realize this prophecy?

You are aware of the fact that every former revolution in Europe was accompanied by some const.i.tutional concessions, promised by the kings to appease the storm, but treacherously nullified when the storm pa.s.sed.

Out of this false play constantly new revolutions arose. It is therefore that Russian interference in Hungary was preceded by a proclamation of the Czar,--wherein he declares "that insurrection having spread in every nation with an audacity which has gained new force in proportion to the concessions of the governments," every concession must be withdrawn; not the slightest freedom, no political rights, and no const.i.tutional aspirations must be left, but everything levelled by the equality of pa.s.sive obedience and absolute servitude; he therefore takes the lead of the allied despots, to crush the spirit of liberty on earth.

It is this impious work, which was begun by the interference in Hungary, and goes on spreading in a frightful degree; it is this impious work which my people, combined with the other oppressed nations, is resolved to oppose. It is therefore no partial struggle which we are about to fight; it is a struggle of principles, the issues of which, according as we triumph or fall, must be felt everywhere, but nowhere more than here in the United States, because no nation on earth has more to lose by the all-overwhelming preponderance of the absolutist principle than the United States. If we are triumphant, the progress and development of the United States will go on peacefully, till your Republicanism becomes the ruling principle on earth (G.o.d grant it may soon become); but if we fail, the absolutist powers, triumphant over Europe, will and must fall with all their weight upon you, precisely because else you would grow to such a might as would decide the destinies of the world. And since the absolutistical powers, with Russia at their head, desire themselves to rule the world, it is natural for her to consider you as their most dangerous enemy, which they must try to crush, or else be crushed sooner or later themselves. The _Pozzo di Borgos_ tell you so: the _Hulsemanns_ tell you so: and it were indeed strange if the people of the United States, too proudly relying upon their power and their good luck, should indifferently regard the gathering of danger over their head, and hereby invite it to come home to them, forcing them to the immense sacrifices of war, whereas we now afford to them an opportunity to prevent that danger, without any entanglement, and without claiming from you any moral and material aid, except such as is not only consistent with, but necessary to your interests.

Allow me to make yet some remarks about the commercial interests as connected with the cause I plead. Nothing astonishes me more than to see those whose only guiding star is commerce, considering its interests only from the narrow view of a small momentary profit, and disregarding the threatening combination of next coming events.

Permit me to quote in this respect one part of the public letter which Mr. Calhoun, the son of the late great leader of the South, the inheritor of his fame, of his principles, and of his interests, has recently published. I quote it because I hope n.o.body will charge him with partiality in respect to Hungary.

Mr. Calhoun says:

"There is a universal consideration that should influence the government of the United States. The palpable and practical agricultural, manufacturing, commercial and navigating interests, the pecuniary interests of this country, will be promoted by the independence of Hungary more than by any other event that could occur in Europe. If Hungary becomes independent it will be her interest to adopt a liberal system of commercial policy. There are fifteen millions of people inhabiting what is or what was Hungary, and the country between her and the Adriatic. These people have not now, and never had, any commerce with the United States. Hungarian trade and commerce has been stifled by the 'fiscal barriers' of Austria that encircle her. She has used but few of American products. Your annual s.h.i.+pments of cotton and cotton manufactures to Trieste and all other Austrian ports, including the amount sent to Hungary, as well as Austria, has never exceeded nine hundred thousand dollars per annum. All other merchandize and produce sent by you to Austria and Hungary do not exceed one hundred thousand dollars a year. Hungary obtains all her foreign imports through Austrian ports. The import and transit duties levied by Austria are exceedingly onerous, and nearly prohibitory as to Hungary of your cotton and cotton goods." Hungary independent, and a market is at once opened for your cotton, rice, tobacco, and manufactures of immense value. That market is now closed to you, and has always been, by Austrian restrictions. And can it be doubted that besides supplying the fifteen millions of _industrious and intelligent_ people of Hungary (_and they are, as a people, perhaps, the most intelligent of any in Europe_), the adjacent and neighbouring countries, will not also be tempted to encourage trade with you? Hungary needs your cotton. She is rich in resources--mineral, agricultural, manufacturing, and of every kind. She is rich in products for which you can exchange your cotton, rice, &c.

Will it, I ask, injuriously affect you if the English should compete with you and send their manufactures of cotton thither? Not, I presume, as long as the raw material is purchased from America; but in fact, your market will be extended through her. "If therefore those of our statesmen (says Mr. Calhoun), who can only be influenced by the almighty dollar, will cypher up the value of this trade--this new market for our products, worth perhaps twenty millions of dollars yearly--they may find an excuse for incurring even the tremendous and awful risk of a war with Austria, but which there is less danger of than there is with Governor Brigham Young, in Utah. They may find a substantial interest involved that is worth taking care of. Governor Kossuth may be a.s.sured it is of more consequence than sympathy. It is a wonderfully sensitive nerve in this country: it controls most of the others.--Sympathy, in this case, can take care of itself. It does not require any nursing. The interests involved should be attended to. It seems to me that this position as to our commerce with Hungary cannot be attacked in front, in rear, or on either flank. It is by far more forcible and powerful than the _ex post facto_ argument in favour of the Mexican war, that it got us California and its gold. So far as the general welfare of the country is concerned, free trade with independent Hungary, and its certain ultimate results, would be more invaluable than all the cargoes of gold that may be brought from the Pacific coast, if ten times the present amount."

That is the opinion of a distinguished American citizen, identified chiefly with the interests of the South.

As to me, I beg permission to sketch in a few lines the reverse of the picture. If we fail in our enterprize to check the encroaching progress of absolutism, if the despots of Europe succeed to accomplish their plot, the chief part of which for Russia is to get hold of Constantinople, and thus to become the controlling power of the Mediterranean sea, what will be the immediate result of it in respect to your commerce?

No man of sound judgment can entertain the least doubt that the first step of Russia will and must be, to exclude America from the markets of Europe by the renewal of what is called the continental system. Not a single bushel of wheat or corn, not a single pound of tobacco, not a single bale of cotton, will you be permitted to sell on the continent of Europe. The leagued despots must exclude you, because you are republicans, and commerce is the conveyer of principles; they must exclude you, because by ruining your commerce they ruin your prosperity, and by ruining this they ruin your development, which is dangerous to them. Russia besides must exclude you, because you are the most dangerous rival to her in the European markets where you have already beaten her. And it will be the more the interest of Russia to exclude you, because by taking Constantinople, she will also become the master of Asiatic and African regions, where also cotton is raised.

Well, you say, perhaps, though you be excluded from the European continent, England still remains to your cotton commerce.--Who could guarantee that the English aristocracy will not join in the absolutist combination, if the people of the United States, by a timely manifestation of its sentiments, does not encourage the public opinion of England itself? But suppose England does remain a market to your cotton, you must not forget that if English manufacture is excluded from all the coasts of Europe and of the Mediterranean, she will not buy so much cotton from you as now, because she will lose so large a market for cotton goods.

Well, you say neither England nor you will submit to such a ruin of your prosperity. Of course not; but then you will have a war, connected with immense sacrifices; whereas now, you can prevent all that ruin, all those sacrifices, and all that war. Is it not more prudent to prevent a fire, than to quench it when your own house is already in flames?

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me draw to a close. I most heartily thank you for the honours of this unlooked-for reception, and for your generous sympathy. I feel happy that the interests, political as well as commercial, of the United States, are in intimate connexion with the success of the struggle of Hungary for independence and republican principles; and I bid you a sincere and cordial farewell, recalling to your memory, and humbly recommending to your sympathy that toast, which the more clement Senator of Alabama, Colonel King, as President of the United States Senate, gave me at the Congressional Banquet, on the 7th of January, in these words:--

"Hungary having proved herself worthy to be free, by the virtue and valour of her sons, the law of nations and the dictates of justice alike demand that she shall have fair play in her struggle for independence."

It was the honourable Senator of Alabama who gave me this toast, expressing his conviction that to this toast every American will cordially respond. His colleague has not responded to it, but Mobile has responded to it, and I take, with cordial grat.i.tude, my leave of Mobile.

x.x.xIX.--KOSSUTH'S DEFENCE AGAINST CERTAIN MEAN IMPUTATIONS.

[_Jersey City_.]

Kossuth was here welcomed with an address by the Hon. D. S. Gregory, whose guest he became. Great efforts had been made to prejudice the public against him; notwithstanding which he was received with enthusiasm. In the evening, in his speech at the Presbyterian Church, he alluded to the attacks of his opponents as follows:

Mr. Mayor, and Ladies and Gentlemen,--There have been some who, to the great satisfaction of despots, and their civil and religious confederates, have moved Heaven and h.e.l.l to lower my sacred mission to the level of a stage-play; and to ridicule the enthusiastic outburst of popular sentiments, by defaming its object and its aim.

That was a sorrowful sight indeed. To meet opposition we must be prepared. There is no truth yet but has been opposed: the car which leads truth to triumph must pa.s.s over martyrs; that is the doom of humanity. Mankind, though advanced in intellectual skill, is pretty much the same in heart as it was thousands of years ago--if not worse; for wealth and prosperity do not always improve the heart. It is sorrowful to see that not even such a cause as that which I plead, can escape from being dragged down insultingly into the mud. With the ancient Greeks, the head of an unfortunate was held sacred even to the G.o.ds. Now-a-days, with some,--but let us be thankful! only with some few degenerate persons,--even calamity like ours is but an occasion for a bad joke.

Jesus Christ felt thirsty on the cross, and received vinegar and wormwood to quench the thirst of his agony. Oh ye spirits of my country's departed martyrs, sadden not your melancholy look at mean insult. The soil which you watered by your blood will yet be free, and that is enough! Ye will hear glad tidings about it when I join your ranks.

But now, as for myself. When I was in private life, I despised to become rich, and sacrificed thousands to the public, and often saw my own family embarra.s.sed by domestic cares. I refused indemnifications, and lived poor. When raised to the highest place in my country, and provided with an allowance four times as great as your President's, I still lived in my old modest way. I had millions at my disposal, yet I went into exile penniless. Who now are _ye_, or what like proof have _ye_ given of not adoring the "Almighty Dollar," who dare to insult my honour and call me a st.u.r.dy beggar, and ask in what brewery I will invest the money I get from Americans? And why? because I ask a poor alms to prepare the approaching struggle of my country; because I cannot and may not tell the public (which is to tell my country's enemy), how I dispose of the sums which I receive. And Americans, pretending to be republicans, pretending to sympathize with liberty, and wield that light artillery of Freedom,--the Press,--try to put on me mean stigmas, in order to make it impossible for me to aid the contest of Hungary for its own and mankind's liberty.

Indeed, it is too sad. The consul of ancient Rome, Spurius Postumius, was once caught in a snare by the Samnites, and was ordered to pa.s.s under the yoke with all his legions. When he hesitated to submit, a captain cried to him: "Stoop, and lead us to disgrace for our country's sake." And so he did. The word of the captain was true: our country may claim of us, to submit even to degradations for its benefit. But I am sorry that it is in America I had to learn, there are in a patriot's life trials still bitterer than even that of exile.

Well: I can bear all this, if it be but fruitful of good for my beloved fatherland. But I look up to Almighty G.o.d, and ask in humility, whether unscrupulous and mean suspicion shall succeed in stopping the flow of that public and private aid to me, from republican America and from American republicans, without which I cannot organize and combine our forces.

Mr. Mayor and citizens of Jersey, I indeed apprehend you will have much disappointed those who endeavoured by ridicule to drive our cause out of fas.h.i.+on. You have shown them to-day that the cause of liberty can never be out of fas.h.i.+on with Americans. I thank you most cordially for it; the more because I know that long before yesterday sympathy with the cause of liberty has been in fas.h.i.+on with you. I am here on the borders of a state noted for its fidelity and sacrifices in the struggle for your country's freedom and independence: to which the State of New Jersey has, in proportion to its population, sacrificed a larger amount of patriotic blood and of property, than any other of your sister states.

I myself have read the acknowledgment of this in Was.h.i.+ngton's own yet unedited hand-writings. And I know also that your state has the historical reputation of having been a glorious battle-field in the struggle for the freedom you enjoy.

There may be some in this a.s.sembly with whom the sufferings connected with one's home being a battle-field, may be a family tradition yet. But is there a country in the world where such traditions are more largely recorded than my own native land is? Is there a country, on the soil of which more battles have been fought--and battles not only for ourselves, but for all the Christian, all the civilized world? Oh, home of my fathers! thou art the Golgotha of Europe.

I defy all the demoniac skill of tyranny to find out more tortures,--moral, political, and material,--than those which now weigh down my fatherland. It will not bear them, it cannot bear them, but will make a revolution, though all the world forsake us. But I ask, is there not private generosity enough in America, to give me those funds, through which my injured country would have to meet fewer enemies, and win its rights with far less bloodshed; or shall the venom of calumny cause you to refuse that, which, without impairing your private fortunes or risking your public interests, would mightily conduce to our success?

Allow me to quote a beautiful but true word which ex-Governor Vroom spoke in Trenton last night. He said: "Let us help the man; his principles are those engrafted into our Declaration of Independence. We cannot remain free, should all Europe become enslaved by absolutism. The sun of freedom is but one, on mankind's sky, and when darkness spreads it will spread over all alike." The instinct of the people of Hungary understood, that to yield at all to unjust violence, was to yield everything; and to my appeals they replied, Cursed be he who yields!

Though unprepared, they fought; our unnamed heroes fought and conquered,--until Russia and treachery came. And though now I am an exile, again they will follow me; I need only to get back to them and bring them something sharper than our nails to fight with for fatherland and humanity; then in the high face of heaven we will fight out the battle of freedom once more. This is my cause, and this my plea. It is there in your hearts, written in burning words by G.o.d himself, who made you generous by bestowing on you freedom.

XL.--THE BROTHERHOOD OF NATIONS.

[_Newark_.]

The Rev. Dr. Eddy introduced Kossuth to the citizens of Newark, and made an address to him in their name. After this, Kossuth replied:

Gentlemen,--It was a minister of the Gospel who addressed me in your name: Let me speak to you as a Christian who considers it to be my heartfelt duty to act, not only in my private but also in my public capacity, in conformity with the principles of Christianity, as I understand it.

I have seen the people of the United States almost in every climate of your immense territory. I have marked the natural influence of geography upon its character. I have seen the same principles, the same inst.i.tutions a.s.suming in their application the modifying influences of local circ.u.mstances; I have found the past casting its shadows on the present, in one place darker, in the other less; I have seen man everywhere to be man, partaking of all aspirations, which are the bliss as well as the fragility of nature in man,--but in one place the bliss prevailing more and in the other the fragility. I saw now and then small interests of the pa.s.sing hour, less or more encroaching upon the sacred dominion of universal principles; but so much is true, that wherever I found a people, I found a great and generous heart, ready to take that ground which by your very national position is pointed out to you as a mission. Your position is to be a great nation; therefore your necessity is to act like a great nation; or, if you do not, you will not be great.

To be numerous, is not to be great. The Chinese are eight times more numerous than you, and still China is not great, for she has isolated herself from the world. Nor does the condition of a nation depend on what she likes to call herself. China calls herself "Celestial," and takes you and Europe for barbarians. Not what we call ourselves, but how we act, proves what we are. Great is that nation which acts greatly.

And give me leave to say, what an American minister of the Gospel has said to me: "_Nations_, by the great G.o.d of the Universe, are individualized, as well as men. He has given each a mission to fulfil, and He expects every one to bear its part in solving the great problem of man's capacity for self-government, which is the problem of human destiny; and if any nation fails in this, He will treat it as an unprofitable servant, a barren fig-tree, whose own end is to be rooted up and burnt."

Jonah sat under the shadow of his gourd rejoicing, in isolated, selfish indifference, caring nothing for the millions of the Ninevites at his feet. What was the consequence? G.o.d prepared a worm to smite the gourd, that it withered. G.o.d has privileged you, the people of the United States, to repose, not under a gourd, but beneath the shadow of a luxuriant vine and the outspreading branches of a delicious fig-tree.

Give him praise and thanks! But are you, Jonah-like, on this account to wrap yourselves up in the mantle of insensibility, caring nothing for the nations smarting under oppression? stretching forth no hand for their deliverance, not even so much as to protest against a conspiracy of evil doers, and give an alms to aid deliverance from them? Are you to hide your national talent in a napkin, or lend it at usury? Read the Saviour's maxim:

"_Do unto others as ye would that others do unto you!_" This is the Saviour's golden rule, applicable to nations as well as to individuals.

Suppose when the United States were struggling for their independence, the Spanish Government had interfered to prevent its achievement --sending an armament to bombard your cities and murder your inhabitants. What would your forefathers have thought--how felt?

Precisely as Hungary thought and felt when the Russian bear put down his overslaughtering paw upon her. They would have invoked high heaven to avenge the interference--and had there been a people on the face of the earth to protest against it, that people would have shown out, like an eminent star in the hemisphere of nations--and to this day you would call it blessed. What you would have others do unto you, do so likewise unto them.

And though you met no foreign interference, yet you met far more than a protest in your favour; you met substantial aid: thirty-eight vessels of war, nineteen millions of money, 24,000 muskets, 4,000 soldiers, and the whole political weight of France engaged in your cause. I ask not so much, by far not so much, for oppressed Europe from you.

It is a gospel maxim "_Be not partaker of other men's sins._" It is alike applicable to individuals and nations. If you of the United States see the great law of humanity outraged by another nation, and see it _silently_, raising no warning voice against it, you virtually become a party to the offence; as you do not reprove it, you embolden the offender to add iniquity unto iniquity.

Let not one nation be partaker of another nation's sins. When you see the great law of humanity, the law upon which your national existence rests, the law enacted in the Declaration of your Independence, outraged and profaned, will you sit quietly by? If so (excuse me for saying) part of the guilt is upon you, and while individuals receive their reward in the eternal world, nations are sure to receive it here. There is connection of cause and effect in a nation's destiny.

A nation should not be a mere _lake_, a gla.s.sy expanse, only reflecting foreign, light around--but a _river_, carrying its rich treasures from the fountain to distant regions of the earth.

A nation should not be a mere _light-house_, a stationary beacon, erected upon the coast to warn voyagers of their danger--but a moving _life-boat_, carrying treasures of freedom to the doors of thousands and millions in their lands.

I confess, gentlemen, that I shared those expectations, which the nations of Europe have conceived from America. Was I too sanguine in my wishes to hope, that in these expectations I shall not fail? So much I dare say, that I conceived these expectations not without encouragement on your own part.

With this let me draw to a close. One word often tells more than a volume of skilful eloquence. When crossing the Alleghany mountains, in a new country, scarcely yet settled, bearing at every step the mark of a new creation, I happened to see a new house in ruins. I felt astonished to see a ruin in America. There must have been misfortune in that house--the hand of G.o.d may have stricken him, thought I, and inquired from one of the neighbours, "What has become of the man?" "Nothing particular," answered he: "he went to the West--he was too comfortable here. American pioneers like to be uncomfortable." It was but one word, yet worth a volume. It made me more correctly understand the character of your people and the mystery of your inner prodigious growth, than a big volume of treatises upon the spirit of America might have done. The instinct of indomitable energy, all the boundless power hidden in the word "_go ahead_," lay open before my eyes. I felt by a glance what immense things might be accomplished by that energy, to the honour and lasting welfare of all humanity, if only its direction be not misled--and I pray to G.o.d that he may preserve your people from being absorbed in materialism. The proud results of egotism vanish in the following generation like the fancy of a dream; but the smallest real benefit bestowed upon mankind is lasting like eternity. People of America! thy energy is wonderful; but for thy own sake, for thy future's sake, for all humanity's sake, beware! Oh! beware from measuring good and evil by the arguments of materialists.

I have seen too many sad and bitter hours in my stormy life, not to remember every word of true consolation which happened to brighten my way.

It was nearly four months ago, and still I remember it, as if it had happened but yesterday, that the delegation, which came in December last to New York, to tender me a cordial welcome from and to invite me to Newark, called _me a brother, a brother in the just and righteous appreciation of human rights and human destiny; brother in all the sacred and hallowed sentiments of the human heart_. These were your words, and yesterday the people of Newark proved to me that they are your sentiments; sentiments not like the sudden excitement of pa.s.sion, which cools, but sentiments of brotherhood and friends.h.i.+p, lasting, faithful, and true.