Select Speeches of Kossuth - Kossuth
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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 bloody path to
tread. Despots have conspired against the world. Terror spreads over
Europe, and persecutes by way of anticipation. 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, God'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 God: "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 God.
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
pass 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
nobody to protect "the laws of nature and of nature's God."
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 anticipations, 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 institutions. 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 gratitude.
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 constitute 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 institutions 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 institutions,
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
institutions--institutions 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 constitution
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 institutions, constitutional 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
assure your lordships that the Hungarians demand nothing but the
recognition of ancient rights and the stability and integrity of their
ancient constitution. To your lordships it cannot be unknown that that
constitution 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 entitles 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 friendship 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 institutions 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 circumstances 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
circumstances. 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 God
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 Cass 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--asserter of the rights of
man--martyr of the principles of national independence--welcome to our
shores! 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 shores of
old Hellespont 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 Washington,
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 pass a
declaration to-morrow, in the name of the American people, maintaining
that sentiment.
A toast was then proposed:
"Turkey: Her noble hospitality extended to a fallen patriot, even at the
risk of war, proves her to be worthy of the respect and friendship of
liberal nations."
Kossuth replied as follows:--
Sir, I feel very thankful for having the opportunity to express in this
place my everlasting gratitude to the Sultan of Turkey and to his noble
people. I am not a man to flatter any one. Before God, nations, and
principles I bow--before none else. But I bow with warm and proud
gratitude, before the memory of the generous conduct I met in Turkey.
And I entreat your kind permission to state some facts, which perhaps
may contribute something to a better knowledge of that country, because
I am confident that, when it is once better known, more attention will
be bestowed on its future.
Firstly, as to myself. When I was in that country, and Russia and
Austria, in the full pride of their victory, were imposing their will
upon the Sultan, and claiming the surrender of me and my associates, it
is true that a grand divan was held at Constantinople, and not very
favourable opinions were pronounced by a certain party opposed to the
existing government in Turkey, whereby the Sublime Porte itself was led
to believe that there was no help for us poor exiles, but to abandon our
faith and become Mohammedans, in order that Turkey might be able to
protect us. I thereupon made a declaration, which I believe I was bound
in honesty to make. But I owe it to the honour of the Sultan to say
openly, that even before I had declared that I would rather die than
accept this condition--before that declaration was conveyed to
Constantinople, and before any one there could have got knowledge that I
had appealed to the public opinion of England in relation
thereto--before all this was known at Constantinople, when the decision
of that great divan was announced to the Sultan to be unfavourable to
the exiles, he out of the generosity of his own heart, without knowing
what we were willing to accept or not to accept, declared: "They are
upon the soil; they have trusted to my honour, to my justice--to my
religion--and they shall not be deceived. Rather will I accept war than
deliver them up." That is entirely his merit. But notwithstanding these
high obligations which I feel towards Turkey, I never will try to engage
public sympathy and attention towards a country--towards a power--upon
the basis of one fact. But there are many considerations in reference to
Turkey which merit the full attention of the United States of America.
When we make a comparison between the Turkish Government and that of
Austria and Russia in respect to religious liberty, the scale turns
entirely in favour of Turkey. There is not only toleration for all
religions, but the government does not mix with their religious affairs,
but leaves these entirely to their own control; whereas under Austria,
although self-government was secured by three victorious revolutions, by
treaties which ensured these revolutions, and by hundreds of laws; still
Austria has blotted out from Hungary the self-government of the
Protestant church, while Turkey accords and protects the self-government
of every religious denomination. Russia (as is well known) taking
religion as a political tool, persecutes the Roman Catholics, and indeed
the Greeks and Jews, in such a manner that the heart of man must revolt
against it. The Sultan, whenever a fanatic dares to encroach on the
religious freedom of any one at all in his wide dominions, is the
inexorable champion of that religious liberty which is permitted
everywhere under his rule.
Again, I must cite from the history of Hungary this fact; that when
one-half of Hungary was under Turkish dominion, and the other half under
Austrian, religious liberty was always encouraged in that part which was
under the Turkish rule; and there was not only a full development of
Protestantism, but Unitarianism also was protected; yet by Austria the
Unitarians were afterwards excluded from every civil right, because they
were Unitarians, although our revolution restored their natural rights.
Such was the condition in respect to religious liberty under the
Austrian and under the Turkish dominion.
Now, in respect to municipal self-government, Hungary and all those
different provinces which are now opposed to the Austrian empire,--if
indeed an empire which only rests upon the goodwill of a foreign master,
can be said to exist, or even to vegetate,--all those different
provinces are absorbed by Austria. There was not one which had not in
former times a constitutional life, not one which Austria did not
deprive of it by centralizing all power in her own court. Such is the
principle of Christian rule!
Take, on the other hand, the Turk. In Turkey I have not only seen the
municipal self-government of cities developed to a very considerable
degree, but I have seen administration of justice very much like the
institution of the jury. I have seen a public trial in a case where one
party was a Turk, and the other party a Christian; where the municipal
authorities of the Christian and of the Turkish population were called
together to be not only the witnesses of the trial, but mutually to
control and direct it with perfect publicity. But more yet: there exist
Wallachia and Moldavia, under Turkish dominion; and the Turkish nation,
which has conquered that province and is dominant, yet, out of respect
for national self-government, has prescribed to its own self not to have
the right of a house to dwell in, or a single foot of soil in that land.
In all the domestic concerns of the province--which for centuries has
had a charter, by which the self-government of Wallachia and Moldavia
was ensured--it is worthy to mention that the Turk has never broken his
oath. Whereas in the European continent there is scarcely a single
dynasty, whether king, prince, duke, or emperor, which has not broken
faith before God and man. Now, the existence of this Turkey, great as
the present power of Europe is, is indispensable to the security of
Europe. You know that in the Crimea, in the time of Catherine, Potemkin
wrote the words, "Here passes the way to Constantinople." The policy
indicated by him at that time is always the policy of St. Petersburg;
and it is of Constantinople that Napoleon rightly said, that the power
which has it in command, if it is willing, is able, to rule
three-quarters of the world. Now, it is the intention, it is the
consistent policy of the Russian cabinet, to lay hold of Constantinople;
and therefore to protect the independent existence of Turkey is
necessary to Europe: for if Turkey be crushed, Russia becomes not only
entirely predominant, as she already is, but becomes the single mistress
of Asia and of Europe. And to uphold this independence of Turkey,
gentlemen, nothing is wanted but some encouragement from such a place as
the United States. Since Turkey has lost the possession of Buda in
Hungary, its power is declining. But why? Because from that time
European diplomatists began to succeed in persuading Turkey that she had
no strength to stand by herself; and by and bye it became the rule in
Constantinople that every petty interior question needed European
diplomacy. Now I say, Turkey has vitality such as not many nations have.
It has a power that not many have. Turkey wants nothing but a
consciousness of its own powers and encouragement to stand upon its own
feet; and this encouragement, if it comes as counsel, as kind advice,
out of such a place as the United States, I am confident will not only
be thankfully heard, but also very joyfully followed. That is the only
thing which is wanted there.