Select Speeches of Kossuth Part 8

Before the heroic struggle of Greece had yet engaged your country's sympathy for the fate of freedom, in Europe then so far distant and now so near, Chateaubriand happened to be in Athens, and he heard from a _minaret_ raised upon the Propylaeum's ruins a Turkish priest in the Arabic language announcing the lapse of hours to the Christians of Minerva's town. What immense history there was in the small fact of a Turkish Imaum crying out, "Pray, pray! the hour is running fast, and the judgment draws near."

Sir, there is equally a history of future ages written in the honour bestowed by you on my humble self. The first Governor of Independent Hungary, driven from his native land by Russian violence; an exile on Turkish soil, protected by a Mahommedan Sultan from the blood-thirst of Christian tyrants; cast back a prisoner to far Asia by diplomacy; was at length rescued from his Asiatic prison, when America crossed the Atlantic, charged with the hopes of Europe's oppressed nations. He pleads, as a poor exile, before the people of this great Republic, his country's wrongs and its intimate connection with the fate of the European continent, and, in the boldness of a just cause, claims that the principles of the Christian religion be raised to a law of nations.

To see that not only is the boldness of the poor exile forgiven, but that he is consoled by the sympathy of millions, encouraged by individuals, a.s.sociations, meetings, cities, and States; supported by effective aid and greeted by Congress and by Government as the nation's guest; honoured, out of generosity, with that honour which only one man before him received (a man who had deserved them from your grat.i.tude,) with honours such as no potentate ever can receive, and this banquet here, and the toast which I have to thank you for: oh! indeed, sir, there is a history of future ages in all these facts! They will go down to posterity as the proper consequences of great principles.

Sir, though I have a n.o.ble pride in my principles, and the inspiration of a just cause, still I have also the consciousness of my personal insignificance. Never will I forget what is due from me to the _Sovereign Source_ of my public capacity. This I owe to my nation's dignity; and therefore, respectfully thanking this highly distinguished a.s.sembly in my country's name, I have the boldness to say that Hungary well deserves your sympathy; that Hungary has a claim to protection, because it has a claim to justice. But as to myself, I am well aware that in all these honours I have no personal share. Nay, I know that even that which might seem to be personal in your toast, is only an acknowledgment of a historical fact, very instructively connected with a principle valuable and dear to every republican heart in the United States of America. As to ambition, I indeed never was able to understand how anybody can love ambition more than liberty. But I am glad to state a historical fact, as a princ.i.p.al demonstration of that influence which inst.i.tutions exercise upon the character of nations.

We Hungarians are very fond of the principle of munic.i.p.al self-government, and we have a natural horror against centralization.

That fond attachment to munic.i.p.al self-government, without which there is no provincial freedom possible, is a fundamental feature of our national character. We brought it with us from far Asia a thousand years ago, and we preserved it throughout the vicissitudes of ten centuries. No nation has perhaps so much struggled and suffered for the civilized Christian world as we. We do not complain of this lot. It may be heavy, but it is not inglorious. Where the cradle of our Saviour stood, and where His divine doctrine was founded, there now another faith rules: the whole of Europe's armed pilgrimage could not avert this fate from that sacred spot, nor stop the rus.h.i.+ng waves of Islamism from absorbing the Christian empire of Constantine. _We_ stopped those rus.h.i.+ng waves. The breast of my nation proved a breakwater to them. We guarded Christendom, that Luthers and Calvins might reform it. It was a dangerous time, and its dangers often placed the confidence of all my nation into one man's hand. But there was not a single instance in our history where a man honoured by his people's confidence deceived them for his own ambition. The man out of whom Russian diplomacy succeeded in making a murderer of his nation's hopes, gained some victories when victories were the chief necessity of the moment, and at the head of an army, circ.u.mstances gave him the ability to ruin his country; but he never had the people's confidence. So even he is no contradiction to the historical truth, that no Hungarian whom his nation honoured with its confidence was ever seduced by ambition to become dangerous to his country's liberty. That is a remarkable fact, and yet it is not accidental; it springs from the proper influence of inst.i.tutions upon the national character. Our nation, through all its history, was educated in the school of local self-government; and in such a country, grasping ambition having no field, has no place in man's character.

The truth of this doctrine becomes yet more ill.u.s.trated by a quite contrary historical fact in France. Whatever have been the changes of government in that great country--and many they have been, to be sure--we have seen a Convention, a Directorate, Consuls, and one Consul, and an Emperor, and the Restoration, and the Citizen King, and the Republic; Through all these different experiments centralization was the keynote of the inst.i.tutions of France--power always centralized; omnipotence always vested somewhere. And, remarkable indeed, France has never yet raised one single man to the seat of power, who has not sacrificed his country's freedom to his personal ambition!

It is sorrowful indeed, but it is natural. It is in the garden of centralization that the venomous plant of ambition thrives. I dare confidently affirm, that in your great country there exists not a single man through whose brains has ever pa.s.sed the thought, that he would wish to raise the seat of his ambition upon the ruins of your country's liberty, if he could. Such a wish is impossible in the United States.

Inst.i.tutions react upon the character of nations. He who sows wind will reap storm. History is the revelation of Providence. The Almighty rules by eternal laws not only the material but also the moral world; and as every law is a principle, so every principle is a law. Men as well as nations are endowed with free-will to choose a principle, but, that once chosen, the consequences must be accepted.

With self-government is freedom, and with freedom is justice and patriotism. With centralization is ambition, and with ambition dwells despotism. Happy your great country, sir, for being so warmly attached to that great principle of self-government. Upon this foundation your fathers raised a home to freedom more glorious than the world has ever seen. Upon this foundation you have developed it to a living wonder of the world. Happy your great country, sir! that it was selected by the blessing of the Lord to prove the glorious practicability of a federative union of many sovereign States, all preserving their State-rights and their self-government, and yet united in one--every star beaming with its own l.u.s.tre, but altogether one constellation on mankind's canopy.

Upon this foundation your free country has grown to prodigious power in a surprizingly brief period, a power which attracts by its fundamental principle. You have conquered by it more in seventy-five years than Rome by arms in centuries. Your principles will conquer the world. By the glorious example of your freedom, welfare, and security, mankind is about to become conscious of its aim. The lesson you give to humanity will not be lost. The respect for State-rights in the Federal Government of America, and in its several States, will become an instructive example for universal toleration, forbearance, and justice to the future States, and Republics of Europe. Upon this basis those mischievous questions of language-nationalities will be got rid of, which cunning despotism has raised in Europe to murder liberty. Smaller States will find security in the principle of federative union, while they will preserve their national freedom by the principle of sovereign self-government; and while larger States, abdicating the principle of centralization will cease to be a blood-field to unscrupulous usurpation and a tool to the ambition of wicked men, munic.i.p.al inst.i.tutions will ensure the development of local elements; freedom, formerly an abstract political theory, will be brought to every munic.i.p.al hearth; and out of the welfare and contentment of all parts will flow happiness, peace, and security for the whole.

That is my confident hope. Then will the fluctuations of Germany's fate at once subside. It will become the heart of Europe, not by melting North Germany into a Southern frame, or the South into a Northern; not by absorbing historical peculiarities into a centralized omnipotence; not by mixing all in one State, but by federating several sovereign States into a Union like yours.

Upon a similar basis will take place the national regeneration of Sclavonic States, and not upon the sacrilegious idea of Panslavism, which means the omnipotence of the Czar. Upon a similar basis shall we see fair Italy independent and free. Not unity, but _union_ will and must become the watchword of national members, hitherto torn rudely asunder by provincial rivalries, out of which a crowd of despots and common servitude arose. In truth it will be a n.o.ble joy to your great Republic to feel that the moral influence of your glorious example has worked this happy development in mankind's destiny; nor have I the slightest doubt of the efficacy of that example.

But there is one thing indispensable to it, without which there is no hope for this happy issue. It is, that the oppressed nations of Europe become the masters of their future, free to regulate their own domestic concerns. And to this nothing is wanted but to have that "fair play" to all, _for_ all, which you, sir, in your toast, were pleased to p.r.o.nounce as a right of my nation, alike sanctioned by the law of nations as by the dictates of eternal justice. Without this "fair play"

there is no hope for Europe--no hope of seeing your principles spread.

Yours is a happy country, gentlemen. You had more than fair play. You had active and effectual aid from Europe in your struggle for independence, which, once achieved, you used so wisely as to become a prodigy of freedom and welfare, and a lesson of life to nations.

But we in Europe--we, unhappily, have no such fair play. With us, against every pulsation of liberty all despots are united in a common league; and you may be sure that despots will never yield to the moral influence of your great example. They hate the very existence of this example. It is the sorrow of their thoughts, and the incubus of their dreams. To stop its moral influence abroad, and to check its spread at home, is what they wish, instead of yielding to its influence.

We shall have no fair play. The Cossack already rules, by Louis Napoleon's usurpation, to the very borders of the Atlantic Ocean. One of your great statesmen--now, to my deep sorrow, bound to the sick bed of far advanced age[*]--(alas! that I am deprived of the advice which his wisdom could have imparted to me)--your great statesman told the world thirty years ago that Paris was transferred to St. Petersburg. What would he now say, when St. Petersburg is transferred to Paris, and Europe is but an appendage to Russia?

[Footnote *: Henry Clay, since deceased.]

Alas! Europe can no longer secure to Europe fair play. England only remains; but even England casts a sorrowful glance over the waves.

Still, we will stand our ground, "sink or swim, live or die." You know the word; it is your own. We will follow it; it will be a b.l.o.o.d.y path to tread. Despots have conspired against the world. Terror spreads over Europe, and persecutes by way of antic.i.p.ation. From Paris to Pesth there is a gloomy silence, like the silence of nature before the terrors of a hurricane. It is a sensible silence, disturbed only by the thousandfold rattling of muskets by which Napoleon prepares to crush the people who gave him a home when he was an exile, and by the groans of new martyrs in Sicily, Milan, Vienna, and Pesth. The very sympathy which I met in England, and was expected to meet here, throws my sisters into the dungeons of Austria. Well, G.o.d's will be done! The heart may break, but duty will be done. We will stand our place, though to us in Europe there be no "fair play." But so much I hope, that no just man on earth can charge me with unbecoming arrogance, when here, on this soil of freedom, I kneel down and raise my prayer to G.o.d: "Almighty Father of Humanity, will thy merciful arm not raise up a power on earth to protect the law of nations when there are so many to violate it?" It is a prayer and nothing else. What would remain to the oppressed if they were not even permitted to pray? The rest is in the hand of G.o.d.

Sir, I most fervently thank you for the acknowledgment that my country has proved worthy to be free. Yes, gentlemen, I feel proud at my nation's character, heroism, love of freedom and vitality; and I bow with reverential awe before the decree of Providence which has placed my country into a position such that, without its restoration to independence, there is no possibility for freedom and independence of nations on the European continent. Even what now in France is coming to pa.s.s proves the truth of this. Every disappointed hope with which Europe looked towards France is a degree more added to the importance of Hungary to the world. Upon our plains were fought the decisive battles for Christendom; _there_ will be fought the decisive battle for the independence, of nations, for State rights, for international law, and for democratic liberty. We will live free, or die like men; but should my people be doomed to die, it will be the first whose death will not be recorded as suicide, but as a martyrdom for the world, and future ages will mourn over the sad fate of the Magyar race, doomed to perish, not because we deserved it, but because in the nineteenth century there was n.o.body to protect "the laws of nature and of nature's G.o.d."

But I look to the future with confidence and with hope. Manifold adversities could not fail to impress some mark of sorrow upon my heart, which is at least a guard against sanguine illusions. But I have a steady faith in principles. Once in my life indeed I was deplorably deceived in my antic.i.p.ations, from supposing principle to exist in quarters where it did not. I did not count on generosity or chivalrous goodness from the governments of England and France, but I gave them credit for selfish and instinctive prudence. I supposed them to value Parliamentary Government, and to have foresight enough to know the alarming dangers to which they would be exposed, if they allowed the armed interference of Russia to overturn historical, limited, representative inst.i.tutions. But France and England both proved to be blind, and deceived me. It was a horrible mistake; and has issued in a horrible result. The present condition of Europe, which ought to have been foreseen by those governments, exculpates me for having erred through expecting them to see their own interests. Well, there is a providence in every fact. Without this mistake the principles of American republicanism would for a long time yet not have found a fertile soil on that continent, where it was considered wisdom to belong to the French school. Now matters stand thus: that either the continent of Europe has no future at all, or this future is American republicanism. And who can believe that two hundred millions of that continent, which is the mother of such a civilization, are not to have any future at all? Such a doubt would be almost blasphemy against Providence. But there is a Providence indeed--a just, a bountiful Providence, and in it I trust, with all the piety of my religion. I dare to say my very self was an instrument of it. Even my being here, when four months ago I was yet a prisoner of the league of European despots in far Asia, and the sympathy which your glorious people honours me with, and the high benefit of the welcome of your Congress, and the honour to be your guest, to be the guest of your great Republic--I, a poor exile--is there not a very intelligible manifestation of Providence in it?--the more, when I remember that the name of your guest is by the furious rage of the Austrian tyrant, nailed to the gallows.

I confidently trust that the nations of Europe have a future. I am aware that this future is vehemently resisted by the bayonets of absolutism; but I know that though bayonets may give a defence, they afford no seat to a prince. I trust in the future of my native land, because I know that it is worthy to have one, and that it is necessary to the destinies of humanity. I trust to the principles of republicanism; and, whatever may be my personal fate, so much I know, that my country will preserve to you and your glorious land an everlasting grat.i.tude.

A toast in honour of Mr. Webster, the Secretary of State, having then been proposed, that gentleman responded in an ample speech, of which the following is an extract:--

Gentlemen, I do not propose at this hour of the night, to entertain you by any general disquisition upon the value of human freedom, upon the inalienable rights of man, or upon any general topics of that kind; but I wish to say a few words upon the precise question, as I understand it, that exists before the civilized world, between Hungary and the Austrian Government, and I may arrange the thoughts to which I desire to give utterance under two or three general heads.

And in the first place I say, that wherever there is in the Christian and civilized world a nationality of character--wherever there exists a nation of sufficient knowledge and wealth and population to const.i.tute a Government, then a National Government is a necessary and proper result of nationality of character. We may talk of it as we please, but there is nothing that satisfies the human being in an enlightened age, unless he is governed by his own countrymen and the inst.i.tutions of his own Government. No matter how easy be the yoke of a foreign Power, no matter how lightly it sits upon the shoulders, if it is not imposed by the voice of his own nation and of his own country, he will not, he cannot, and he _means_ not to be happy under its burden.

There is not a civilized and intelligent man on earth that enjoys entire satisfaction in his condition, if he does not live under the government of his own nation--his own country, whose volitions and sentiments and sympathies are like his own. Hence he cannot say "This is not my country; it is the country of another Power; it is a country belonging to somebody else." Therefore, I say that whenever there is a nation of sufficient intelligence and numbers and wealth to maintain a government, distinguished in its character and its history and its inst.i.tutions, that nation cannot be happy but under a government of its own choice.

Then, sir, the next question is, whether Hungary, as she exists in our ideas, as we see her, and as we know her, is distinct in her nationality, is competent in her population, is also competent in her knowledge and devotion to correct sentiment, is competent in her national capacity for liberty and independence, to obtain a government that shall be Hungarian out and out? Upon that subject, gentlemen, I have no manner of doubt. Let us look a little at the position in which this matter stands. What is Hungary?

Hungary is about the size of Great Britain, and comprehends nearly half of the territory of Austria.

[According to one authority its population is 14 millions and a half.]

It is stated by another authority that the population of Hungary is _nearly_ 14,000,000; that of England (in 1841) nearly 15,000,000; that of Prussia about 16,000,000.

Thus it is evident that, in point of power, so far as power depends upon population, Hungary possesses as much power as England _proper_, or even as the kingdom of Prussia. Well, then, there is population enough--there are people enough. Who, then, are they? They are distinct from the nations that surround them. They are distinct from the Austrians on the west, and the Turks on the east; and I will say in the next place that they are an _enlightened_ nation. They have their history; they have their traditions; they are attached to their own inst.i.tutions--inst.i.tutions which have existed for more than a thousand years.

Gentlemen, it is remarkable that, on the western coasts of Europe, political light exists. There is a sun in the political firmament, and that sun sheds his light on those who are able to enjoy it. But in eastern Europe, generally speaking, and on the confines between eastern Europe and Asia, there is no political sun in the heavens. It is all an arctic zone of political life. The luminary, that enlightens the world in general, seldom rises there above the horizon. The light which they possess is at best crepuscular, a kind of twilight, and they are under the necessity of groping about to catch, as they may, any stray gleams of the light of day. Gentlemen, the country of which your guest to-night is a native is a remarkable exception. She has shown through her whole history, for many hundreds of years, an attachment to the principles of civil liberty, and of law and order, and obedience to the const.i.tution which the will of the great majority have established. That is the fact; and it ought to be known wherever the question of the practicability of Hungarian liberty and independence are discussed. It ought to be known that Hungary stands out from it above her neighbours in all that respects free inst.i.tutions, const.i.tutional government, and a hereditary love of liberty.

Gentlemen, my sentiments in regard to this effort made by Hungary are here sufficiently well expressed. In a memorial addressed to Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston, said to have been written by Lord Fitzwilliam, and signed by him and several other Peers and members of Parliament, the following language is used, the object of the memorial being to ask the mediation of England in favour of Hungary.

"While so many of the nations of Europe have engaged in revolutionary movements, and have embarked in schemes of doubtful policy and still more doubtful success, it is gratifying to the undersigned to be able to a.s.sure your lords.h.i.+ps that the Hungarians demand nothing but the recognition of ancient rights and the stability and integrity of their ancient const.i.tution. To your lords.h.i.+ps it cannot be unknown that that const.i.tution bears a striking family-resemblance to that of our own country."

Gentlemen, I have said that a National Government, where there is a distinct nationality, is essential to human happiness. I have said that in my opinion, Hungary is thus capable of human happiness. I have said that she possesses that distinct nationality, that power of population, and that of wealth, which ent.i.tles her to have a Government of her own; and I have now to add what I am sure will not sound well upon the Upper Danube; and that is, that, in my humble judgment, the imposition of a foreign yoke upon a people capable of self-government, while it oppresses and depresses that people, adds nothing to the strength of those who impose that yoke. In my opinion, Austria would be a better and a stronger Government to-morrow if she confined the limits of her power to hereditary and German dominions. Especially if she saw in Hungary a strong, sensible, independent neighbouring nation; because I think that the cost of keeping Hungary quiet is not repaid by any benefit derived from Hungarian levies or tributes. And then again, good neighbourhood, and the goodwill and generous sympathies of mankind, and the generosity of character that ought to pervade the minds of Governments as well as those of individuals, is vastly more promoted by living in a state of friends.h.i.+p and amity with those who differ from us in modes of government, than by any attempt to consolidate power in the hands of one over all the rest.

Gentlemen, the progress of things is unquestionably onward. It is onward with respect to Hungary. It is onward everywhere. Public opinion, in my estimation at least, is making great progress. It will penetrate all resources; it will come more or less to animate all minds; and in respect to that country, for which our sympathies to-night have been so strongly invoked, I cannot but say that I think the people of Hungary are an enlightened, industrious, sober, well-inclined community; and I wish only to add, that I do not now enter into any discussion of the form of government which may be proper for Hungary. Of course, all of you, like myself, would be glad to see her, when she becomes independent, embrace that system of government which is most acceptable to ourselves. We shall rejoice to see our American model upon the Lower Danube, and on the mountains of Hungary. But that is not the first step.

It is not that which will be our first prayer for Hungary. The first prayer shall be, that Hungary may become independent of all foreign power, that her destinies may be entrusted to her own hands, and to her own discretion. I do not profess to understand the social relations and connections of races, and of twenty other things that may affect the public inst.i.tutions of Hungary. All I say is, that Hungary can regulate these matters for herself infinitely better than they can be regulated for her by Austria, and therefore I limit my aspirations for Hungary, for the present, to that single and simple point HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE:--

"Hungarian independence; Hungarian control of her own destinies; and Hungary as a distinct nationality among the nations of Europe."

The toast was received with enthusiastic applause.

The President then announced the next toast--

"The rights of states are only valuable when subject to the free control of those to whom they appertain, and utterly worthless if to be determined by the sword of foreign interference."

Mr. Douglas of Illinois, one of the Candidates for the Presidency, in responding, spoke at length, and denounced the injustice and folly of England. In the close he said:--

He regarded the intervention of Russia in the affairs of Hungary as a palpable violation of the laws of nations, that would authorize the United States to interfere. If Russia, or Austria, or any other power, should interfere again, then he would determine whether or not we should act, his action depending upon the circ.u.mstances as they should then be presented. In the mean time, however, he would proclaim the principle of the laws of nations: he would instruct our ministers abroad to protest the moment there was the first symptom of the violation of these laws.

He would show to Europe that we had as much right to sympathize in a system of government similar to our own, as they had in similar circ.u.mstances. In his opinion, Hungary was better adapted for a liberal movement than any other nation in Europe.

In conclusion, Mr. Douglas begged leave to offer the following sentiment:--

"Hungary: When she shall make her next struggle for liberty, may the friends of freedom throughout the world proclaim to the ears of all European despots, Hands off, a clear field and a fair fight, and G.o.d will protect the right."

The toast was received with the greatest applause.

Colonel Florence submitted the following sentiment:--

"The American Minister to France, whose intervention defeated the quintuple treaty."

General Ca.s.s replied in a very energetic speech, in which he stated that he was approaching the age of three score years and ten. Turning to Kossuth, he said:--

Leader of your country's revolution--a.s.serter of the rights of man--martyr of the principles of national independence--welcome to our sh.o.r.es! Sir, the ocean, more merciful than the wrath of tyrants, has brought you to a country of freedom and of safety. That was a proud day for you, but it was a prouder day for us, when you left the sh.o.r.es of old h.e.l.lespont and put your foot upon an American deck. Protected by American cannon, with the stars of our country floating over you, you could defy the world in arms! And, sir, here in the land of Was.h.i.+ngton, it is not a barren welcome that I desire to give you; but much further than that I am willing to go. I am willing to lay down the great principles of national rights, and adhere to them. The sun of heaven never shone on such a government as this. And shall we sit blindfolded, with our arms crossed, and say to tyranny, "Prevail in every other region of the world?" [Cries of "No, no!"] I thank you for the response.

Every independent nation under Heaven has a right to establish just such a government as it pleases. And if the oppressed of any nation wish to throw off their shackles, they have the right, without the interference of any other; and, with the first and greatest of our Presidents--the father of his country--I trust we are prepared to say, that "we sympathize with every oppressed nation which unfurls the banner of freedom." And I am willing, as a member of Congress, to pa.s.s a declaration to-morrow, in the name of the American people, maintaining that sentiment.