Select Speeches of Kossuth - Kossuth
Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36
Sir, permit me to decline those praises which you have been pleased to
bestow on me personally. I know of no _merit_--I know only the word
_duty_, and you are acquainted with the beautiful lines of the
Irish poet--
"Far dearer the grave or the prison,
Illumed by a patriot's name,
Than the glories of all who have risen,
On liberty's ruins, to fame."
I was glad to hear that you are familiar with the history of our
struggles, and of our achievements, and of our aims. This dispenses me
from speaking much,--and that is a great benefit to me, because indeed I
have spoken very much.
Sir, entering the young state of Ohio--though my mind is constantly
filled with homeward thoughts and homeward sorrows, still my sorrows
relax while I look around me in astonishment, and rub my eyes to
ascertain that it is not the magic of a dream, which makes your bold,
mighty, and flourishing commonwealth rich with all the marks of
civilization and of life, here, where almost yesterday was nothing but a
vast wilderness, silent and dumb like the elements of the world on
creation's eve. And here I stand in Columbus, which, though ten years
younger than I am, is still the capital of that mighty commonwealth,
which--again in its turn,--ten years before I was born, nursed but three
thousand daring men, scattered over the vast wilderness, fighting for
their lives with scalping Indians; but now numbers two millions of happy
freemen, who, generous because free, are conscious of their power, and
weigh mightily in the scale of mankind's destiny.
How wonderful that an exile from a distant European nation of Asiatic
origin, which, amidst the raging waves of centuries that swept away
empires, stood for a thousand years like a rock, and protected
Christendom and civilization against barbarism--how wonderful that the
exiled governor of that nation was destined to come to this land, where
a mighty nation has grown up, as it were, over night, out of the very
earth, and found this nation protecting the rights of humanity, when
offended in his person,--found that youthful nation ready to stretch its
powerful arm across the Atlantic to protect all Hungary against
oppression,--found her pouring the balm of her sympathy into the
bleeding wounds of Hungary, that, regenerated by the faithful spirit of
America, she may rise once more independent and free, a breakwater to
the flood of Russian ambition, which oppresses Europe and threatens the
world.
Citizens of Columbus--the namesake of your city, when he discovered
America, little thought that by his discovery he would liberate the Old
World.--And those exiles of the Old World, who sixty-four years ago,
first settled within the limits of Ohio, at Marietta, little thought
that the first generation which would leap into their steps, would make
despots tremble and oppressed nations rise. And yet, thus it will be.
The mighty outburst of popular feeling which it is my wonderful lot to
witness, is a revelation of that future too clear not to be understood.
The Eagle of America flaps its wings; the Stars of America illumine
Europe's night; and the Star-spangled banner, taking under its
protection the Hungarian flag, fluttering loftily and proudly, tells the
tyrants of the world that the right of freedom must sway, and not the
whim of despots but the Law of Nations must rule.
Gentlemen, I may not speak longer. [Cries of _go on!_] Yes,
gentlemen, but I am ill, and worn out. Give me your lungs, and then I
will go on.
Citizens, your young and thriving city is conspicuous by its character
of benevolence. There is scarcely a natural human affliction for which
your young city has not an asylum of benevolence. To-day you have risen
in that benevolence from alleviating private affliction to consoling
oppressed nations. Be blessed for it. I came to the shores of your
country pleading the restoration of the law of nations to its due sway,
and as I went on pleading, I met flowers of sympathy. Since I am in
Ohio I meet fruits; and as I go on thankfully gathering the fruits, new
flowers arise, still promising more and more beautiful fruits. That is
the character of Ohio--and you are the capital of Ohio.
If I am not mistaken, the birth of your city was the year of the trial
of war, by which your nation proved to the world that there is no power
on earth that can dare any more to touch your lofty building of
Independence. The glory of your eastern sister States is, to have
conquered that independence for you. Let it be your glory to have cast
your mighty weight into the scale, that the law of nations, guarded and
protected by you, may afford to every oppressed nation that "fair play"
which America had when it struggled for independence.
Gentlemen, I am tired out. You must generously excuse me, when I
conclude by humbly recommending my poor country's future to your
generosity.
* * * * *
XXVII.--DEMOCRACY THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.
[_Reception by the two Houses of Legislature of Ohio_.]
Kossuth, attended by the Joint Committee, was then introduced, and
addressed by the President of the Senate, Hon. Wm. Medill, as follows:
Governor Kossuth: On learning that you were about to visit the Western
portion of our country, the General Assembly of this State adopted the
following preamble and resolutions:--
Whereas, Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, has endeared himself to the
people of Ohio by his great military and greater civic services rendered
to the cause of Liberty; by the transcendent power and eloquence with
which he has vindicated the right of every nation to determine for
itself its own form of government, by the perils he has encountered and
the suffering he has endured to achieve the freedom of his native
country: therefore, in the name, and on behalf of the people,
_Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio_, That
the war in which Hungary was lately seemingly overcome, was a struggle
in behalf of the great principles which underlie the structure of our
government, vindicated by the bloody battles of eight years, and that we
cannot be indifferent to their fate, whatever be the arena in which the
struggle for their vitality goes on.
_Resolved_, That an attack in any form upon them is implicitly an
attack upon us, an armed intervention against them, is in effect an
insult to us; that any narrowing of the sway of these principles is a
most dangerous weakening of our own influence and power; and that all
such combinations of kings against people should be regarded by us now
as they were in 1776, and so far as circumstances will admit, the
parallel should and will be so treated.
_Resolved_, That we are proud to recognize in Louis Kossuth
constitutional Governor of Hungary, the heroic personification of these
great principles, and that as such, and in token and pledge of our
profound sympathy with him, and the high cause he so nobly represents,
we tender to him, in behalf of two millions of freemen, a hearty welcome
to the capital of the State of Ohio.
_Resolved_, That we declare the Russian past intervention in the
affairs of Hungary, a violation of the laws of nations which, if
repeated, would not be regarded indifferently by the people of the State
of Ohio.
_Resolved_, That a joint committee of three on the part of the
Senate, and five on the part of the House of Representatives, be
appointed to tender Governor Kossuth, in the name and on behalf of the
people of Ohio, a public reception by their General Assembly, now in the
session of the capital of the State.
This preamble, and these resolutions, set forth the views and sentiments
of the people of Ohio in a far more forcible, authoritative, and
enduring form, than can possibly be done by any declaration or
expression of mine. In no part of the United States has your course been
more warmly approved or your great talents, persevering energy, and
devoted patriotism, more universally admired. This, sir, is sufficiently
evinced in the cordial and heartfelt welcome that has everywhere awaited
you, since your entrance into the State.
Free and independent themselves, the people of Ohio can not look with
indifference on the great contest in which you are engaged. The history
of that fearful struggle which resulted in the achievement of their own
independence is still fresh in their recollection. Always on the side of
the oppressed, no cold or calculating policy can suppress or control
their sympathies.
The cause of Hungary, which you so eloquently plead, and which it is
your high and sacred mission to maintain, is the cause of freedom in
every quarter of the world. The principles involved in that cause, form
the basis of our own institutions, the source of our present prosperity
and greatness, and the foundation of all our hopes and anticipations of
the future.
It would be strange, indeed, if a cause so pure and holy, or a champion
so gifted, should fail to command the highest regard and admiration of
freemen.
In the name, then, and on behalf of the General Assembly of Ohio, I bid
you welcome to our midst.
I welcome you, sir, to the capital of a great and flourishing
commonwealth--to its halls of legislation, which, in your own
fatherland, were the scenes of some of your proudest triumphs, and to
the hearts of a free, generous, and sympathizing people.
KOSSUTH'S REPLY.
Mr. President--The General Assembly of Ohio, having magnanimously
bestowed upon me the high honour of this national welcome, it is with
profound veneration that I beg leave to express my fervent gratitude for
it.
Were even no principles for the future connected with the honour which I
now enjoy, still the past would be memorable as history, and not fail to
have a beneficial influence, continuously to develop the Spirit of the
Age. Almost every century has had one predominant idea, which imparted a
common direction to the activity of nations. This predominant idea is
the Spirit of the Age, invisible yet omnipresent; impregnable,
all-pervading; scorned, abused, opposed, and yet omnipotent.
The spirit of our age is Democracy. All _for_ the people and all
_by_ the people. Nothing _about_ the people _without_ the
people. That is Democracy, and that is the ruling tendency of the spirit
of our age.
To this spirit is opposed the principle of Despotism, claiming
sovereignty over mankind, and degrading nations from the position of a
self-conscious, self-consistent aim, to the condition of tools
subservient to the authority of ambition.
One of these principles will and must prevail. So far as one
civilization prevails, the destiny of mankind is linked to a common
source of principles, and within the boundaries of a common
civilization community of destinies exists. Hence the warm interest which
the condition of distant nations awakes now-a-days in a manner not yet
recorded in history because humanity never was yet aware of that common
tie as it now is. With this consciousness thus developed, two opposite
principles cannot rule within the same boundaries--Democracy and
Despotism.
In the conflict of these two hostile principles, until now it was not
Right, not Justice, but only Success which met approbation and applause.
Unsuccessful patriotism was stigmatized with the name of crime.
Revolution not crowned by success was styled Anarchy and Revolt, and
the vanquished patriot being dragged to the gallows by victorious
despotism, men did not consider _why_ he died on the gallows; but
the fact itself, that _there_ he died, imparted a stain to his
name.
And though impartial history, now and then, casts the halo of a martyr
over an unsuccessful patriot's grave, yet even this was not always sure.
Tyrants have often perverted history by adulation or by fear. But
whatever that late verdict might have been; for him who dared to
struggle against despotism at the time when he struggled in vain, there
was no honour on earth.--Victorious tyranny marked the front of virtue
with the brand of a criminal.
Even when an existing "authority" was mere violence worse than that of a
pirate, to have opposed it unsuccessfully was sufficient to ensure the
disapproval of all who held any authority. The People indeed never
failed to console the outcast by its sympathy, but Authority felt no
such sympathy, and rather regarded this very sympathy as a dangerous
symptom of anarchy.
When the idea of justice is thus perverted--when virtue is thus deprived
of its fair renown, and honour is thus attacked--when success like that
of Louis Napoleon's is gained through connivance--all this becomes an
immeasurable obstacle to the freedom of nations, which never yet was
achieved but by a struggle,--a struggle, which success raised to the
honour of a glorious revolution, but failure lowered to the reputation
of a criminal outbreak.
Mr. President, I feel proud at the accident, that in my person public
honours have been restored to that on which alone they ought to be
bestowed--righteousness and a just cause; whereas, until now, honours
were lavished only upon success. I consider this as a highly important
_fact_, which cannot fail to encourage the resolution of devoted
patriots, who, though not afraid of death, may be excused for recoiling
before humiliation.
Senators, Representatives of Ohio, I thank you for it in the name of all
who may yet suffer for having done the duty of a patriot. You may yet
see many a man, who, out of your approbation, will draw encouragement to
noble deeds; for there are many on earth ready to meet misfortune for a
noble aim, but not so many ready to meet humiliation and indignity.
Besides, in honouring me, you have approved what my nation has done. You
have honoured all Hungary by it, and I pledge my word to you that we
will yet do what you have approved. The approbation of our conscience we
have--the sympathy of your generous people has met us--and it is no
idle thing, that sympathy of the people of Ohio--it weighs as the
sovereign will of two millions of freemen. You have added to it the
sanction of your authority. Your people's sympathy you have framed into
a law, sacred and sure in its consequences, on which humanity may rely.
But, sir, high though be the value of this noble approbation, it becomes
an invaluable benefit to humanity by these resolutions by which the
General Assembly of Ohio, acknowledging the justice of those principles
which it is my mission to plead in my injured country's name, declares
that the mighty and flourishing commonwealth of Ohio is resolved to
resist the eternal laws of nations to their due sway, too long contemned
by arbitrary power.
It was indeed a sorrowful sight to see how nations bled, and how freedom
withered in the iron grasp of despotisms, leagued for universal
oppression of humanity. It was a sorrowful sight to see that there was
no power on earth ready to maintain those eternal laws, without which
there is no security for any nation on earth. It was a sorrowful sight
to see all nations isolating themselves in defence, while despots
leagued in offence.
The view has changed. A bright lustre is spreading over the dark sky of
humanity. The glorious galaxy of the United States rises upon oppressed
nations, and the bloody star of despotism fading at your very
declaration, will soon vanish from the sky like a meteor.
Legislators of Ohio, it may be flattering to ambitious vanity to act the
part of an execrated conqueror, but it is a glory unparalleled in
history to protect rights and freedom on earth. The time draws near,
when, by virtue of such a declaration as yours, shared by your sister
States, Europe's liberated nations will unite in a mighty choir of
Hallelujahs, thanking God that his paternal cares have raised the United
States to the glorious position of a first-born son of freedom on
earth.
Washington prophesied, that within twenty years the Republic of the
United States would be strong enough to defy any power on earth _in a
just cause_. The State of Ohio was not yet born when the wisest of
men and purest of patriots uttered that prophecy; and God the Almighty
has made the prophecy true, by annexing, in a prodigiously short period,
more stars to the proud constellation of your Republic, and increasing
the lustre of every star more powerfully, than Washington could have
anticipated in the brightest moments of his patriotic hopes.
Rejoice, O my nation, in thy very woes! Wipe off all thy tears, and
smile amidst thy tortures, like the Dutch hero, De Wytt. There is a
Providence which rules. Thou wast, O my nation, often the martyr, who by
thy blood didst redeem the Christian nations on earth. Even thy present
nameless woes are providential. They were necessary, that the
star-spangled banner of America should rise over a new Sinai--the
Mountain of Law for all nations. Thy sufferings were necessary, that the
people of the United States, powerful by their freedom and free by the
principle of national independence, that common right of all humanity,
should stand up, a new Moses upon the new Sinai, and shout out with the
thundering voice of its twenty-five millions--"Hear, ye despots of the
world, henceforward this shall be law, in the name of the Lord your God
and our God.
Ye shall not kill nations.
Ye shall not steal their freedom.
And ye shall not covet what is your neighbour's."
Ohio has given its vote by the resolutions I had the honour to hear. It
is the vote of two millions, and it will have its constitutional weight
in the councils of Washington City, where the delegates of the people's
sovereignty find their glory in doing the people's will.
Sir, it will be a day of consolation and joy in Hungary, when my
bleeding nation reads these resolutions, which I will send to her. They
will flash over the gloomy land; and my nation, unbroken in courage,
steady in resolution, and firm in confidence, will draw still more
courage, more resolution from them, because it is well aware that the
legislature of Ohio would never pledge a word to which the people of
Ohio will not be true in case of need.
Sir, I regret that my illness has disabled me to express my fervent
thanks in a manner more becoming to this Assembly's dignity. I beg to be
excused for it; and humbly beg you to believe, that my nation for ever,
and I for all my life, will cherish the memory of this benefit.
* * * * *
XXVIII.--THE MISERIES AND THE STRENGTH OF HUNGARY.
[_Columbus, Feb. 7th, to the Association of Friends of Hungary_.]
On Feb. 7th was held the first regular meeting of the Ohio Association
of the Friends of Hungary, in the City Hall of Columbus. Governor Wood
addressed the Association, as its President; and in the course of his
speech said:--
This is a cause in which the people of the United States feel much
interest. Much has been said on the doctrine of intervention and
non-intervention. There was a time when if I ventured to speak a word on
any question in this State it was received with authority. The opinions
I now express have been formed with the same deliberation as those I
expressed with authority in another capacity. There has seemed to be a
combined effort on the part of despots in Europe to put down free
institutions. It is the duty of freemen to oppose this effort--to resist
the principle that every civic community has not a right to regulate its
own affairs. Whenever one nation interferes with the internal concerns
of another, it is a direct insult to all other nations.
There is a combined effort in Continental Europe to overthrow all free
and liberal institutions. This accomplished, what next?--The efforts of
tyrants will be directed to our institutions. It will be their aim to
break us down. Must not we prevent this event--_peaceably if we
can--forcibly if we must?_ No power will prevail with tyrants and
usurpers but the power of gunpowder or steel.
Kossuth in reply, turning to Governor Wood, said: Before addressing the
assembly, I humbly entreat your excellency to permit me to express, out
of the very heart of my heart, my gratitude and fervent thanks for those
lofty, generous principles which you have been pleased now to pronounce.
I know those principles would have immense value even if they were only
an individual opinion; but when they are expressed by him who is the
elect of the people of Ohio, they doubly, manifoldly increase in weight.
The restoration of Hungary to its national independence is my aim, to
which I the more cheerfully devote my life, because I know that my
nation, once master of its own destiny, can make no other choice, in the
regulation of its institutions and of its government, than that of a
Republic founded upon democracy and the great principle of municipal
self-government, without which, as opposed to centralization, there is
no practical freedom possible.
Other nations enjoying a comparatively tolerable condition under their
existing governments--though aware of their imperfections, may shrink
from a revolution of which they cannot anticipate the issue, while they
know that in every case it is attended with great sacrifices and great
sufferings for the generation which undertakes the hazard of the change.
But that is not the condition of Hungary. My poor native land is in such
a condition that all the horrors of a revolution, when without the hopes
of happiness to be gained by it, are preferable to what it lives to
endure now. The very life on a bloody battle-field, where every
whistling musket-ball may bring death--affords more security, more ease,
and is less alarming than that life which the people of Hungary has to
suffer now. We have seen many a sorrowful day in our past, We have been
by our geographical position, destined as the breakwater against every
great misfortune, which in former centuries rushed over Europe from the
East. It is not only the Turks, when they were yet a dangerous,
conquering race, which my nation had to stay, by wading to the very lips
in its own heroic blood. No. The still more terrible invasion of Batu
Khan's (the Mongol) raging millions, poured down over Europe from the
Steppes of Tartary,--who came not to conquer but to destroy, and
therefore spared not nature, not men, not the child in its mother's
womb. It was Hungary which had to stay its flood from devouring the rest
of Europe. Nevertheless, all which Hungary has ever suffered is far
less than it has to suffer now from the tyrant of Austria, himself in
his turn nothing but the slave of ambitious Russia.
Oh! it is a fair, beautiful land, my beloved country, rich in nature's
blessings as perhaps no land is rich on earth. When the spring has
strewn its blossoms over it, it looks as the garden of Eden may have
looked, and when the summer ripens nature's ocean of crops over its
hills and plains, it looks like a table dressed for mankind by the Lord
himself; and still it was here in Columbus that I read the news that a
terrible dearth, that famine is spreading over the rich and fertile
land. How should it not? Where life-draining oppression weighs so
heavily, that the landowner offers the use of all his lands to the
government, merely to get free from the taxation--where the vintager
cuts down his vineyards and the gardener his orchard, and the farmer
burns his tobacco seed to be rid of the duties, and their
vexations--there of course must dearth prevail, and famine raise its
hideous head. Yet the tyrant adds calumny to oppression, by attributing
the dearth to a want of industry, after having created it by oppression.
There exists no personal security of property. Nor is the verdict "not
guilty," when pronounced by an Austrian court, sufficient to ensure
security against prison, nay, against death by the executioner--through
a new trial ordered to find a man guilty at any price. Poor Louis
Bathyanyi was thus treated. Even now persecution is going on--hundreds
are arrested secretly and sent to prison and their property confiscated,
though they were already acquitted by the very Haynaus. _Even to whisper
that a man or woman was arrested in the night is considered a crime_,
and punished by prison, or if the whisperer be a young man, by sending him
to the army, there to taste, when he dares to frown, the corporal's
stick. _No man knows what is forbidden, what not_, because there
exists no law but the arbitrary will of martial courts--no protecting
institution--no public life--free speech forbidden--the press
fettered--complaint a crime,--When we consider all this, indeed it is
not possible not to arrive at the conviction, that, come what may, a new
war of revolution in Hungary is not a matter of choice, but a matter of
unavoidable necessity, because all that may come is not by far so
terrible as that which is!
But I am often asked,--"What hope has Hungary should she rise again?"
Pardon me, gentlemen, for saying, that I cannot forbear to be surprized
as often as I hear this question. Why! The Emperor of Austria, fresh
with his bloody victories over Italy, Vienna, Lemberg, Prague, attacked
us in the fulness of his power, when we had no expectation, and were
least in the world prepared to meet it. We were assaulted on several
sides; our fortresses were in the hands of traitors, we had as yet no
army at all. We were secluded from all the world--forsaken by all the
world--without money--without arms--without ammunition--without
friends--having nothing for us but the justice of our cause and the
people burning with patriotism--men who went to the battlefield almost
without knowing how to cock their guns; but still, within less than six
months, we beat all the force of Austria,--we crushed it to the dust,
and in despair, the proud tyrant fled to the feet of the Czar, begging
his assistance for his sacrilegious purpose, and paying him by the
sacrifice of honour, independence, and all his future!