Select Speeches of Kossuth - Kossuth
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In contemplating these facts, who can doubt that we are now a match for
Austria. Then we had no army--now we have 120,000 brave Magyars, who
fought for freedom and motherland, enlisted in the ranks of Austria,
forming their weakness and our strength. Then hostile nations were
opposed to us, now they are friendly, and are with us. Then no
combination existed between the oppressed nations--now the combination
exists. Then our oppressor took his own time to strike--when he was best
and we were worst prepared:--now we will take our time and strike the
blow when it is best for us and worst for him. In a word, then every
chance was against us, and we almost in a condition that the stoutest
hearts faltered; and we only took up the gauntlet because our very soul
revolted against the boundless treachery;--now every chance is for us,
and it is the native which throws the gauntlet into the tyrant's face.
Our very misfortune ensures our success--because then we had some
something to lose, now we have nothing. We can only gain--for I defy
the sophistry of despotism to invent anything of public or private
oppression which is not already inflicted upon us.
But I was upon the question of success.--When I moot that
question--upon what reposes the success of Hungary, it always occurs to
my mind that the last Administration of the United States sent a
gentleman over to Europe during the Hungarian struggle, _not_ with
orders to recognize the independence of Hungary, but just to look to
what chance of success we had. Now, suppose that the United States,
taking into consideration the right of every nation to dispose of
itself, and true to that policy which it has always followed to take
established facts as they are, and not to investigate what chances there
might or might not be for the future, but always recognize every new
Government everywhere--suppose that it had sent that gentleman with
such an instruction to Hungary: what would have been the consequence? If
the government of Hungary which existed then and indeed existed very
actively, for it had created armies, had beaten Austria, and driven her
last soldier from Hungarian territory,--If that government had been
recognized by the United States, of course commercial intercourse with
the United States, in every respect, would have been lawful, according
to your existing international laws. The Emperor of Austria, the Czar of
Russia, because they are recognized powers, have full liberty to buy
your cannons, gunpowder, muskets--everything. That would have been the
case with Hungary. That legitimate commerce with the people of the
United States with Hungary, of course would have been protected by the
navy of the United States in the Mediterranean. Now, men we had
enough--but arms we had none. That would have given us arms, and having
beaten Austria already, we would have beaten Russia, and I, instead of
having now the honour of addressing you here, would perhaps have
dictated a peace in Moscow. But the gentleman was sent to _investigate
the chances_ of success. Upon his investigation Hungary perished.
Let me entreat you, friends of Hungary, do not much hesitate about
success. While Rome deliberated, Saguntum fell. I fear that by too long
investigating what chances we have, the chances of success will be
compromised, which by speedy help could have been ensured.
Well, I am answered--"there is no doubt about it.--Hungary is a match
for Austria. You have beaten Austria, it is true; but Russia--there is
the rub." Precisely, because there is the rub, I come to the United
States, relying upon the fundamental principles of your great Republic,
to claim the protection and maintenance of the law of nations against
the armed interference of Russia.
That is precisely what I claim. That accorded, no intervention of Russia
can take place; the word of America will be respected, not out of
consideration for your dignity, but because the Czar and the cabinet of
Russia, atrocious and unprincipled as they are, are no fools, and will
not risk their existence. Therefore your word will be respected.
You have an act of Congress, passed in 1818, by which the people of the
United States are forbidden by law to take any hostile steps against a
power with which the United States are at amity. Well, suppose Congress
pronounces such a resolution--that in respect to any power which
violates the laws of nations we recall this neutrality law and give full
liberty to follow its own will. (Applause.) Now, in declaring this,
Congress has prevented a war, because it has been pointed out to the
people in what way that pronunciation of the law of nations is to be
supported, and the enterprizing spirit of the people of the United
States is too well known as its sympathy for the cause of Hungary is
too decidedly expressed, not to impart a conviction to the Czar of
Russia that though the United States do not wish to go to war, so the
law of nations will be enforced, _peaceably if possible_ (turning
to Governor Wood) _forcibly if necessary_.
But as I again and again meet the doubt whether your protest even with
such sanction will be respected, I farther answer--let me entreat you to
try. It costs nothing. You are not bound to go farther than you
will;--try. _Perhaps_ it will be respected, and if it be, humanity
is rescued, and freedom on earth reigns where despotism now rules. It is
worth a trial.
Besides, I beg to remind you of my second and third requests, either of
which might bring a practical solution of this doubt. At present,
whoever will may sell arms to Austria, but you forbid your own citizens
to sell arms to Hungary; and this, though the rule of Austria has no
legitimate basis, but rests on unjust force; while you have avowed the
cause of Hungary to be just. Such a state of your law is not neutrality,
and is not righteous towards _us_ nor is it fair towards your
_own people_. If Venice were to-day to shake off the yoke of
Austria, Austria will forthwith forbid all of you to buy and sell with
Venice. Well: I say that is not fair towards your own citizens, any more
than to the Venetians. True; you have not the right to open any market
by force, towards a nation which is unwilling to deal with you, but you
have a clear right to deal with one which desires it, in spite of any
belligerent who chooses to forbid you. How could the fact of Hungary or
Venice rising up against their oppressor justify Austria in damaging the
lawful commerce of America with those nations? On this turns my second
principle, which I consider of high importance for the coming struggle;
that the United States would declare their resolve to uphold their
commercial intercourse with every nation which is ready to accept it.
Thirdly, I claimed that you would recognize the Hungarian Declaration of
Independence as having been legitimate. My enemies have misrepresented
this, as if I desired to be recognized as _de facto_ the Governor
of Hungary. This is mere absurdity. That is not the question--_am_
I governor or not governor? The question is--_was_ the Declaration
of Independence of Hungary, in the judgment of the people of the United
States, a legitimate one, to which my nation had a right--or was it not?
I believe America cannot answer no, because your very existence rests on
a similar act. And if that declaration is made, what will be the
consequence of it? What will be the practical result? Why, that very
moment when I or whoever else, upon the basis of this declaration,
recognized to be legitimate by your republic, shall take a stake upon
Hungarian independence, and issue a proclamation declaring that a
national government exists, that very moment the existence of the
government will be recognized, and the gentleman who will be sent to
Europe will not be sent to investigate what chances we have of success,
but into what diplomatic relation we shall come. And what will be the
consequence? A legitimate commercial intercourse of America. Then I can
fit out men of war--steamers and everything--and your laws will not
prevent me. The government of Hungary will then be a friendly power, and
therefore according to your laws everything might be done for the
benefit of my country--and who knows what a benefit it might secure to
yourselves?
As regards my use of any pecuniary aids, I declare that I will respect
the laws of every nation where I have the honour even temporarily to be.
I will employ that aid, which the friends of Hungary may place at my
disposal, for the benefit of my country, to be sure, but only in such a
way as is not forbidden by, or contrary to, your laws. Now, to make an
armed expedition against a friendly power--that is forbidden. But if
Hungary rises upon the basis of a recognized, legitimate independence,
then what is necessary for it to prepare for coming into that position
is lawful. I have taken the advice of the highest authorities in that
respect. I was not so bold as to become the interpreter of your laws,
but I have asked, Is that lawful, or is it not? from the highest
authorities in law matters of the United States.
Now to return to Hungary. In what condition is it! In the beginning of
my talking I mentioned the invasion of Tartarian hordes. Then the wild
beasts spread over the land, and caused the few remnants of the people
to take refuge in some castles, and fortresses, and fortified places and
in the most remote and sterile ground. The wild beasts fed on human
blood. Now again the wild beasts are spreading terribly; and why?
Because to have a single pistol, to have a sword, or a musket, is a
crime which is punished by several years' imprisonment. Such is now the
condition of Hungary! Therefore, you may now see that the country is
disarmed, and of what importance is it for that success, about which I
hear now and then doubts, to have arms prepared in a convenient lawful
manner.
[After this, Kossuth spoke in some detail concerning the pecuniary
contributions; and closed with complaints of his painfully over-worked
chest, which had much impeded his speech.]
* * * * *
XXIX.--OHIO AND FRANCE CONTRASTED AS REPUBLICS.
[_Reception at Cincinnati_.]
Kossuth having been received by a vast assemblage of the people of
Cincinnati was addressed in their name by the Honourable Caleb Smith,
from whose speech the following are extracts:--
Your progress through a portion of the whole States which originally
constituted the American confederacy, has called forth such
manifestations of public feeling as leave no doubt that the liberty
enjoyed by the people of those States, has created in their hearts a
generous sympathy for the advocates of civil liberty who have
endeavoured to establish free institutions in Europe.
The brilliant success which attended the first efforts of the Hungarian
Patriots, excited the hope that the tricoloured flag unfurled on the
shores of the Danube, would, like the stars and stripes of our own
Republic, become the emblem and the hope of freedom.
The intervention of Russia, in violation of the law of nations, in
defiance of justice and right, and in disregard of the public sentiment
of the civilized world, for a time, at last, disappointed this hope; and
the exultation it excited was followed by a mournful sadness, when
Russian arms and domestic treason combined, caused the Hungarian flag to
trail in the dust.
Hungary failed to establish her independence, but failed only, when
success was impossible. The efforts she has made have not been wholly
lost. The seed which she has sown in agony and blood, will yet sprout
and bring forth fruit. The memory of her devoted sons who have fallen in
the cause of liberty, will be perpetuated upon the living tablets of the
hearts of freedom's votaries throughout the world. The spirits of the
martyrs shall whisper hope and consolation to the hearts of her
surviving children; and from out the dungeons of her captive patriots
shall go forth the spirit of liberty to cheer and animate their
countrymen.
You are engaged in a high and holy mission. The redemption of your
fatherland from oppression is worthy of your efforts, and may God
prosper them; and may you find in this free land such sympathy and aid
as will strengthen your heart for the stern trials which await you in
your own country.
Kossuth replied:--
Sir,--Before I answer you, let me look over this animated ocean, that I
may impress upon my memory the look of those who have transformed the
wilderness of a primitive forest into an immense city, of which there
exists a prediction that, by the year of our Lord 2000, it will be the
greatest city in the world.
"The West! the West! the region of the Father of Rivers," there thou
canst see the cradle of a new-born humanity. So I was told by the
learned expounders of descriptive geography, who believe that they know
the world, because they have seen it on maps.
The West a cradle! Why? A cradle is the sleeping place of a child
wrapped in swaddling clothes and crying for the mother's milk.
People of Cincinnati, are you that child which, awakening in an
unwatched moment, liberated his tender hands from the swaddling band,
swept away by his left arm the primitive forest planted by the Lord at
creation's dawn, and raised by his right hand this mighty metropolis.
Why, if that be your childhood's pastime, I am awed by the presentiment
of your manhood's task; for it is written, that it is forbidden to men
to approach too near to omnipotence. And that people here which created
this rich city, and changed the native woods of the red man into a
flourishing seat of Christian civilization and civilized
Christianity--into a living workshop of science and art, of industry and
widely spread commerce; and performed this change, not like the drop,
which, by falling incessantly through centuries, digs a gulf where a
mountain stood, but performed it suddenly within the turn of the hand,
like a magician; that people achieved a prouder work than the giants of
old, who dared to pile Ossa upon Pelion; but excuse me, the comparison
is bad.
Those giants of old heaped mountain upon mountain, with the impious
design to storm the heavens. You have transformed the wilderness of the
West into the dwelling-place of an enlightened, industrious, intelligent
Christian community, that it may flourish a living monument of the
wonderful bounty of Divine Providence--a temple of freedom, which
glorifies God, and bids oppressed humanity to hope.
And yet, when I look at you, citizens of Cincinnati, I see no race of
giants, astonishing by uncommon frame: I see men as I am wont to see all
my life, and I have lived almost long enough to have seen Cincinnati a
small hamlet, composed of some modest log-houses, separated by dense
woods, where savage beast and savage Indian lurked about the lonely
settlers, who, as the legend of Jacob Wetzel and his faithful log tells,
had to wrestle for life when they left their poor abode.
What is the key of this rapid wonderful change? The glorious cities of
old were founded by heroes whom posterity called demi-gods, and whose
name survived their work by thousands of years. Who is your hero? Who
stood god-father at the birth of the Queen of the West?
I looked to history and found not his name. But instead of one mortal
man's renowned name, I find in the records of your city's history an
immortal being's name, and that is, _the people_. The word sparkles
with the lustre of a life invigorating flame, and that flame is LIBERTY.
Freedom, regulated by wise institutions, based upon the great principle
of national independence and self-government; this is the magical rod by
which the great enchanter, "_the people_," has achieved this
wonderful work.
Sir, there is a mighty change going on in human development. Formerly
great things were done by great men, whose names stand in history like
milestones, marking the march of mankind on the highway of progress. It
was mankind which marched, and still it passed unnoticed and unknown. Of
him history has made no record, but of the milestones only, and has
called them great men. The lofty frame of individual greatness
overshadowed the people, who were ready to follow but not prepared to go
without being led. Humanity and its progress was absorbed by
individualities; because the people which stood low in the valley got
giddy by looking up to the mountain's top, where its leaders stood. It
was the age of childhood for nations. Children cling to the leading
strings as to a necessity, and feel it a benefit to be led.
But the leaders of nations changed soon into kings. Ambition claimed as
a right what merit had gained as a free offering. Arrogance succeeded to
greatness; and out of the child-like attachment for benefits received,
the duty of blind obedience was framed by the iron hand of violence, and
by the craft of impious hypocrisy, degrading everything held for holy by
men--religion itself--into a tool of oppression on earth. It was the era
of uncontroverted despotism, which, with sacrilegious arrogance, claimed
the title of divine rank; and mankind advanced slowly in progress,
because it was not conscious of its own aim. Oppression was taken for a
gloomy fatality.
The scene has changed. Nations have become conscious of their rights and
destiny, and will tolerate no masters, nor will suffer oppression any
longer. The spirit of freedom moves through the air; and remember, that
you are morally somewhat responsible for it, inasmuch as it is your
glorious struggle for independence which was the first upheaving of
mankind's heart roused to self-conscious life. Even by that first effort
she gloriously achieved the national independence of America. Though
gifted with all the blessings of nature's virginal vitality, you would
never have succeeded to achieve this wonderful growth which we see, if
you had employed your conquered national independence merely to take a
new master for the old one.
And mark well, gentlemen! a nation may have a master even if it has no
king--a nation may be called a republic, and yet be not
free--_Wherever centralization exists, there the nation has either
sold or lent, either alienated or delegated its sovereignty_; and
wherever this is done, the nation has a master--and he who has a master
is of course not his own master. Power may be centralized in many--the
centralization by and by will be concentrated in few, as in ancient
Venice, or in one, as in France at the time of the "_Uncle_," some
forty years ago, and again in France, now that the "_Nephew_" has
his bloody reign for a day.
Yes, gentlemen, if that generation of devoted patriots who achieved the
Independence of the United States, had merely changed the old master for
a new one with the name of an Emperor or a King, or of an omnipotent
President, your country were now just something like Brazil or Mexico,
or the Republic of South America, all of them independent, as you know,
and all except Brazil even Republics, and all rich with nature's
blessings, and offering a new home to those who fly from the oppression
of the Old World--and yet all of them old before they were young, and
decrepit before they were strong. Had the founders of your country's
Independence followed this direction which led the rest of America
astray, Cincinnati would be a hamlet yet as it was in Jacob Wetzel's
time; and Ohio, instead of being a first-rate star in the constellation
of your Republic, would be an appendage of neighbouring Eastern
States--a not yet explored desert, marked in the map of America only by
lines of northern latitude and western longitude.
The people, a real sovereign; your institutions securing real freedom,
because founded on the principles of self-government; union to secure
national independence and the position of a power on earth; and all
together, having no master but God; omnipotence not vested in any man,
in any assembly,--and an open field to every honest exertion--because
civil, political, and religious liberty is the common benefit to all,
not limited but by itself (that is, by the unseen, but not unfelt,
influence of self-given law); that is the key of the living wonder which
spreads before my eyes.
Let me recall to your memory a curious fact. It is just a hundred years
ago, that the first trading house upon the Great Miami was built by
daring English adventurers, at a place later known as Laramie's Store,
then the territory of the Twigtwee Indians. The trade house was
destroyed by Frenchmen, who possessed then a whole world on the
continent of America. Well, twenty-four years later, France aided your
America in its struggle for independence; and oh! feel not offended in
your proud power of to-day, when I say that independence would not then
have been achieved without the aid of France.
Since that time, France has been twice a Republic, and changed its
constitutions thirteen times; and, though thirty-six millions strong, it
has lost every foot of land on the continent of America, and at home it
lies prostrated beneath the feet of the most inglorious usurper that
ever dared to raise ambition's bloody seat upon the ruins of liberty.
And your Republic? It has grown a giant of power. And Ohio? out of the
ruins of a trading-house into a mighty commonwealth of two millions of
free and happy men, who shout out with a voice like the thunderstorm, to
the despots of the Old World, "ye shall stop in your ambitious way
before the power of freedom, ready to protect the common laws of all
humanity."
What a glorious triumph of your institutions over the principles of
CENTRALIZED government!
Oh! may all the generations yet unborn, and all the millions who will
yet gather in this New World of the West, which soon will preponderate
in the scale of the Union, where all the west weighed nothing fifty
years ago--may they all ever and ever remember the high instruction
which the Almighty has revealed in this parallel of different results.
Sir, you say that Ohio can show no battle field connected with
recollections of your own glorious revolution. Let me answer, that the
whole West is a monument, and Cincinnati the fair cornice of it. If your
eastern sister States have instructed the world how nations become
independent and free, the West shows to the world what a nation once
independent and really free can become.
Allow me to declare, that by standing before the world as such an
instructive example, you exercise the most effective revolutionary
propaganda; for if the mis-result of French revolutions discourage the
nations from shaking off the 'oppressors' yoke, your victory,--and still
more, your unparalleled prosperity,--has encouraged oppressed nations to
dare what you dared.
Egotists and hypocrites may say that you are not responsible for it; you
have bid nobody to follow you:--and it may be true that you are not
responsible before a tribunal. Still, you are sufficiently free not to
feel offended by a true word; therefore I say you are responsible before
your own conscience, for, your example having started a new doctrine,
the teacher of a new doctrine is morally bound not to forsake his
doctrine when assailed in the person of his disciples.
* * * * *
XXX.--WAR A PROVIDENTIAL NECESSITY AGAINST OPPRESSION.
[_To the Clergy of Cincinnati_.]
The clergy of Cincinnati addressed Kossuth by the mouth of the Rev. Mr.
Fisher. Among other topics, this gentleman said:--
We wish to _you_ first, and through you, to the world, to express
our respect for those heroic clergymen who dared to offer public prayers
to Almighty God for the success of your arms. We have not forgotten the
manner in which Austria attempted to dragoon their tongues into silence,
and their souls into abject submission. Nor can we believe that a
country with such pastors--that a country whose religious interests are
confided to men ready to pray against the Despot, will be suffered by
our heavenly Father to remain trodden down, and to have her name blotted
out of the history of nations. If in the great battle of freedom, the
heart of the minister of religion at the Altar, beats in sympathy with
the heart of the minister at the Council Board, and the soldier in the
battle-field, there is then a union of the moral, intellectual, and
physical forces of a nation, which we have been taught to believe would
generally and ultimately be victorious.
We frankly confess to you that our hope that Hungary is not to share the
fate of unhappy Poland, is grounded first on the large element of a
Protestant ministry she embraces, and secondly on the advance which the
nations are making in a true understanding of the principles of
republican freedom. We believe the cause of Hungary to be just. Against
the usurpations of Kings and perjured Princes--against the interference
of foreign powers to assist in treading on the sparks of liberty
anywhere on the earth, and especially in such a land as yours, we claim
the privilege at the fit time of entering our protest and expressing
toward such acts our deepest abhorrence. And while we desire most
earnestly the advent of universal peace, and rejoice that the power of
moral principles is increasing in the world, and anticipate the day when
the nations shall learn war no more, yet we are fully convinced, both
from the Holy Scriptures and the history of the past, that under the
overruling providence of God wars occasioned by the oppression, the
ambition, and the covetousness of men, are often the means of breaking
up the stagnant waters of superstition and irreligion, and securing to
the truth a position from which it may most successfully send abroad its
light, and mould the heart of a nation to religion and peace.
_Despotism is_ in our view _a perpetual war of a few upon the
many_; and we must unlearn some of the earliest lessons that our
mothers taught us and our fathers illustrated in their lives, before we
can cease to sympathize with the assertors of their rights against the
force or the fraud of their fellow-men. And since the sad issue of
revolution after revolution in infidel France, there are not a few of
us, who have indulged the hope (especially since your visit to our
shores), that in central Europe, in your native land, among an
undebauched and a Bible-reading people, a government might arise that
would accord freedom of conscience to all, and shine as a light of
virtuous republicanism upon the darkness around.