Select Speeches of Kossuth - Kossuth
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Spirit of the departed! smile down from heaven upon this appreciation of
my country's cause; watch over those principles which thou hast taken
for the guiding star of thy noble life, and the time will yet come when
not only thine own country, but liberated Europe also, will be a living
monument to thy immortal name.
[Many other toasts, and highly energetic speeches followed, which our
limits force us to exclude.]
* * * * *
XXXII.--KOSSUTH'S CREDENTIALS.
[_Farewell to Ohio, Feb. 25th_.]
Sir,--I am about to bid an affectionate farewell to Cincinnati, and
through Cincinnati to the commonwealth of Ohio--that bright morning star
of consolation and of hope risen from the West over the gloomy horizon
of Hungary's and of Europe's dark night!
Ohio! how that name thrills through the very heart of my heart, with
inexpressible pleasure, like the first trumpet sound of resurrection in
the ears of the chosen just!
Ohio! how I will cherish that very name, the dearest of my soul, after
the name of my beloved own dear fatherland.
How I long for words of flame to express all the warmth of my heartfelt
gratitude! And still how poor I feel in words, precisely because my
heart is so full; so full, that I can scarcely speak--because every
pulsation of my blood is fervent prayer to God for Ohio's glory and
happiness.
Let me dispense with empty words--let what Ohio _did_, _does_, and _will
do_, for the cause of European freedom, be its own monument!
I have met many a fair flower of sympathy in this great united Republic,
but all Ohio has been to me a blooming garden of sympathy. From the
first step on Ohio's soil to the last,--along all my way up to Cleveland
down to Columbus, and across to Cincinnati, and also beyond the line of
my joyful way,--in every city, in every town, in every village, in every
lonely farm, I have met the same generosity, the same sympathy.
The people, penetrated by one universal inspiration of lofty principles,
told me everywhere that Hungary must yet be free; that the people of
Ohio will not permit the laws of nations, of justice, and of humanity,
to be trampled down by the sacrilegious combination of despotism; that
the people of Ohio takes the league of despots against liberty and
against the principle of national self-government, for an insult offered
to the great republic of the West; that it takes it for an insult which
Ohio will not bear, but will put all the weight of its power into the
political scale. Would that all the United States with equal resolution
might spurn that insult to humanity.
That is the language which Ohio spoke to me through hundreds of
thousands of freemen--that is the language which Ohio spoke to me
through her senators and representatives in their high legislative
capacity--that is the language which Ohio spoke to me through her chief,
whom it has elevated to govern the commonwealth and to execute the
people's sovereign will.
The executive power, the legislature, the people, all united in that
harmony of generous protection to the just cause which I humbly plead;
but that is not all yet. Sympathy and political protection I have met
also everywhere; and have met it as well in the public opinion of the
people as in the executive and legislative departments of several
States, though it is a due tribute of acknowledgment to say, that
nowhere to that extent and in equal universality as in Ohio, but that
is yet not all.
The sympathy of Ohio was rich in fair fruits of substantial aid--from
the hall of the State legislature down to the humble abode of
noble-minded working men--and associations of the friends of Hungary,
spread through that powerful commonwealth, promise a permanent, noble
protection to the cause I plead.
Even the present occasion of bidding farewell to Ohio is of such a
nature as to entitle me, by its very organization to the hope that you
consider your noble task of aiding the cause of Hungary not yet done;
but that you have determined to go on in a practical direction, till
the future, developed by your active protection, proves to be richer yet
in fruit than the present is.
Considering the almost universal pronouncement of public opinion in this
great and prosperous commonwealth--considering the practical character
of the people of the West, the natural efficiency of this organization,
and _who_ are those who with generous zeal have devoted themselves
to carry it out on a large extent,--I may be well excused for
entertaining some expectations of no common success--of a success which
also in other parts of this great Union, may prove decisive in its
effects. No greater misfortune could be met with than disappointment in
such expectations, which we have been by the strongest possible motives
encouraged to conceive. To be disappointed in hopes we have justly
relied on, would be beyond all imagination terrible in its consequences.
I shudder at the very idea of the boundless woes it could not fail to be
attended with, not for myself--I attach not much value to my own
life,--but for thousands, nay for millions of men.
I know, gentlemen, that _here_ the question is entirely matter of
time. But in regard to time, I am permitted to say so much.
The outbreak of the unavoidable, decisive struggle between the two
opposite principles of freedom and despotism is hurried on in Europe by
two great impulses. The first is the insupportability of oppression
connected with the powerfully developed organization of the oppressed,
which by its very progress imposes the necessity of no delay. Be pleased
earnestly to reflect upon what I rather suggest than explain. And be
pleased also to read between the lines. I, of course, speak not of
anything relating to your country. I state simply European fact, of
which every thinking man, the Czars and their satellites themselves, are
fully aware, though the how and the where they cannot grasp.
The second impulse, hurrying events to a decision, is that very combined
scheme of activity which the despots of Europe too evidently display.
They know full well that they are on the brink of an inevitable
retribution; that their crimes have pushed them to the point, where
either their power will cease for ever to exist, or they must risk all
for all. In former times they relied at the hour of danger upon the
generous credulity of nations. By seemingly submitting, when the people
arose irresistible, they conjured the fury of the storm They saved
themselves by promises, and when the danger was over, they restored
their abused power by breaking their oath and by deceiving their
nations. By this atrocious impiety you have seen several victorious
revolutions in Europe deprived of their fruits and sinking to nothing
by having made compromise with royal perjury. I am too honest,
gentlemen, not to confess openly, that I myself shared this error of the
Old World--I myself plead guilty of that fatal European credulity. The
tyrants who by falsehood have gained their end, are aware that they have
no security; that the nations have lost faith in their oaths, and will
never be cheated again.
Hence, gentlemen, a very essential novelty in the present condition of
Europe. Formerly every revolution was followed by some slight progress
in the development of constitutionalism. A little more liberty to the
press, some sort of a trial by jury, a nominal responsibility of
ministers, or a mockery of popular representation in the
Legislature--something of that sort always resulted, momentarily, out of
former revolutions; and then the consciousness of being deceived by vile
mockery led to new revolutions.
But when in 1848 and 1849, our victories in Hungary had shaken to the
very foundation the artificial building of oppression, so that there was
no more hope left to tyranny, but to shelter itself under the wings of
Russia, the Czar told them--well, I accept the part of becoming your
master, ye kings, and I will help you, but _you must be obedient_
You, yourselves have encouraged revolutions, by making concessions to
them. I like not this everlasting resurrection of revolutions; it
disturbs my sleep. I am not sure not to find it at my own home some fine
morning. I therefore will help you, my servants, but under the
condition, that it is not only the bold Hungarians who must be crushed,
it is _revolution_ which must be crushed, its very spirit, in its
very vitality, everywhere; and to come to this aim, you must abandon all
shame as to sworn promises; withdraw every concession made to the spirit
of revolution; not the slightest freedom, no privilege, no political
right, no constitutional aspirations must be permitted; all and
everything must be levelled by the equality of passive obedience and
absolute servitude.
"Look to my Russia; I make no concessions, I rule with an iron rod, and
I am obeyed. All you must do the same and not govern, but domineer by
universal oppression. That is my sovereign will--obey."
Thus spoke the Czar. It is no opinion which I relate. It is a fact, a
historical fact, which the Czar openly proclaimed on several occasions,
particularly in that characteristic declaration, to which the
high-minded General Cass alluded in his remarkable speech on
"_non-intervention_" in the Senate of the United States, on the
10th day of February. The Czar Nicholas, complaining, that
"_insurrection has spread in every nation with an audacity which has
gained new force in proportion to the concessions of the
Governments_" declares that he considers it his divine mission to
crush the _Spirit of Liberty_ on earth, which he arrogantly terms
the spirit of insurrection and of anarchy.
By this you have the definition of what is meant by the words of "war
for what principle shall rule." _The issue must be felt, not only in
Europe, but here also and everywhere_; the issue will not leave a
chance for a new struggle, either to kings or to nations, for a long
time perhaps, and probably for centuries.
In that condition you can see the key of the remarkable fact, that when
I left my Asiatic prison under the protection of the star-spangled
flag--nations of different climates, different languages, different
institutions, different inclinations, united in the pronunciation of
sympathy, expectation, encouragement, and hope around my poor humble
self,--Italians, French, Portuguese, the people of England, Belgians,
Germans, Swiss and Swedes. It was the instinct of common danger, it was
the instinct of necessary union. It was no mere tribute of recognition
paid to the important weight of Hungary in the scale of this intense
universal struggle. It was still more a call of distress, entrusted by
the voice of mankind to my care, to bring it over to free America, as to
the natural and most powerful representative of that "Spirit of Liberty"
against which the leagued tyrants are waging a war of extermination with
inexorable resolution. Yes, it was a call of distress entrusted to my
care, to remind America that there is a tie in the destinies of nations;
and that those are digging a bottomless abyss who forsake the Spirit of
Liberty, when within the boundaries of common civilization half the
world utters in agony the call of universal distress.
That is the mission with which I come to your shores; and believe me,
gentlemen, that is the key of that wonderful sympathy with which the
people of this republic answers my humble appeal. There is blood from
our blood in these noble American hearts; there is the great heart of
mankind which pulsates in the American breast; there is the chord of
liberty which vibrates to my sighs.
Let ambitious fools, let the pigmies who live on the scanty food of
personal envy, when the very earth quakes beneath their feet, let even
the honest prudence of ordinary household times, measuring eternity with
that thimble with which they are wont to measure the bubbles of small
party interest, and, taking the dreadful roaring of the ocean for a
storm in a water glass, let those who believe the weather to be calm
because they have drawn a nightcap over their ears, and, burying their
heads into pillows of domestic comfort, do not hear Satan sweeping in a
hurricane over the earth; let envy, ambition, blindness, and the
pettifogging wisdom of small times, artistically investigate the
question of my official capacity, or the nature of my public authority;
let them scrupulously discuss the immense problem whether I still
possess, or possess no longer, the title of my once-Governorship; let
them ask for credentials, discuss the limits of my commission, as
representative of Hungary. I pity all such frog and mouse fighting.
I claim no official capacity--no public authority--no representation;
boast of no commission, of no written and sealed credentials. I am
nothing but what my generous friend, the Senator of Michigan, has justly
styled me, "a private and banished man." But in that capacity I have a
nobler credential for my mission than all the clerks of the world can
write, the credential that I am a "man,"--the credential that I am "a
patriot"--the credential that I love with all sacrificing devotion my
oppressed fatherland and liberty; the credential that I hate tyrants,
and have sworn everlasting hostility to them; the credential that I feel
the strength to do good service to the cause of freedom; good service as
perhaps few men can do, because I have the iron will, in this my breast,
to serve faithfully, devotedly, indefatigably, that noble cause.
I have the credential that I trust to God in heaven, to justice on
earth; that I offend no laws, but cling to the protection of laws. I
have the credential of my people's undeniable confidence and its
unshaken faith, to my devotion, to my manliness, to my honesty, and to
my patriotism; which faith I will honestly answer without ambition,
without interest, as faithfully as ever, but more skilfully, because
schooled by adversities. And I have the credential of the justice of the
cause I plead, and of the wonderful sympathy, which, not my person, but
that cause, has met and meets in two hemispheres.
These are my credentials, and nothing else. To whom this is enough, he
will help me, so far as the law permits and is his good pleasure. To
whom these credentials are not sufficient, let him look for a better
accredited man.
I have too lively a sentiment of my own modest dignity, ever to
condescend to polemics about my own personal merits or abilities. I
believe my life has been public enough to appertain to the impartial
judgment of history, but it may have perhaps interested you to hear,
how, in a small and inconsiderable circle of the Hungarian emigration,
the idea was started that I must be opposed, because I have declared
against all compromise with the House of Austria, or with royalty, and
because by declaring that my direction will be in every case only
republican, I make every arrangement, without revolution, impossible.
That I should be thus attacked at this crisis, does look like an
endeavour to check a benefit to my country, but I cannot forbear humbly
to beseech you, do not therefore think less favourably of my nation and
of the Hungarian emigration, for which I am sorry that I can do very
little, because I devote myself and all the success I may meet with to a
higher aim--to my country's freedom and independence. Believe me,
gentlemen, that my country and its exiled martyr sons are highly worthy
of your generous sympathy, though some few of the number do not always
act as they should.
They are but few who do so, and it would be unjust to measure all of us
by the faults of some few. Upon the whole, I am proud to say that the
Hungarian emigration was scrupulous to merit generous sympathy, and to
preserve the honour of the Hungarian name. Remember that though you are
Republicans, still here, in the very metropolis of Ohio, a man was found
to lecture for Russo-Austrian despotism, and to lecture with the
astonishing boldness of an immense ignorance.
But that good man I can dismiss with silence, the more because it is
with high appreciation and warm gratitude that I saw an honourable
gentleman, animated with the most generous sentiments of justice and
right, take immediately upon himself the task of refutation. I may
perhaps be permitted to remark, that that learned and honourable
gentleman, besides having nobly advocated the cause of freedom, justice,
and truth, has also well merited of his co-religionaries, who belong
together with himself, _to the Roman Catholic Church_.
Gentlemen, I have but one word yet, and it is a sad one--the word of
farewell. Cincinnati, Ohio, farewell! May the richest blessings of the
Almighty rest upon thee! In every heart, and in the hearts of my people,
thy name will for ever live, a glorious object for our everlasting love
and gratitude.
* * * * *
XXXIII.--HARMONY OF THE EXECUTIVE AND OF THE PEOPLE IN AMERICA.
[_Speech at Indianapolis_.]
Kossuth was received at the State House of Indianapolis by Governor
Wright, who, in the course of his address said:
Although I participate with my fellow-citizens in the pleasure
occasioned by your presence among us, yet it is not as an
_individual_ that I greet you with the words of welcome and
hospitality. No, sir,--it is in the name of the people of the State,
whom I represent, and whose warrant I feel that I have; and I bid you
welcome to-day, and assure you not only of my own but of their sympathy
and encouragement in the great cause you so ably represent.
He closed with the words:
If it shall be your fortune to lead your countrymen again in the contest
for liberty, be assured that the people of the United States, at least,
will not be indifferent, nor, if need be, inactive spectators of a
conflict that may involve, not only the independence of Hungary, but the
freedom of the world.
Again I bid you a most cordial welcome to the State of Indiana.
Kossuth replied:--
Governor,--Amongst all that I have been permitted to see in the United
State's, nothing has more attracted my attention than that part of your
democratic institutions which I see developed in the mutual and
reciprocal relations between the people and the constituted public
authorities.
In that respect there is an immense difference between Europe and
America, for the understanding of which we have to take into account the
difference of the basis of the political organization, and together with
it what the public and social life has developed in both hemispheres.
The great misfortune of Europe is, that the present civilization was
born in those cursed days when Republicanism set and Royalty rose. It
was a gloomy change. Nearly twenty centuries have passed, and torrents
of blood have watered the red-hot chains, and still the fetters are not
broken; nay--it is our lot to have borne its burning heat--it is our lot
to grasp with iron hand the wheels of its crushing car. Destiny--no;
Providence--is holding the balance of decision; the tongue is wavering
yet; one slight weight more into the one, or into the other scale, will
again decide the fate of ages, of centuries.
Upon this mischievous basis of royalty was raised the building of
authority; not of that authority which commands spontaneous reverence by
merit and the value of its services, but of that authority which
oppresses liberty. Hence the authority of a public officer in
unfortunate Europe consists in the power to rule and to command, and not
in the power to serve his country well--it makes men oppressive
downwards, while it makes them creeping before those who are above. Law
is not obeyed out of respect, but out of fear. A man in public office
takes himself to be better than his countrymen, and becomes arrogant and
ambitious; and because to hold a public office is seldom a claim to
confidence, but commonly a reason to lose confidence; it is not a mark
of civic virtue and of patriotic devotion, but a stain of civic apostacy
and of venality; it is not a claim to be honoured, but a reason to be
distrusted; so much so, that in Europe the sad word of the poet is
indeed a still more sad fact.--
"When vice prevails and impious man bears sway
The post of honour is a private station."
So was it even in my own dear fatherland. Before our unfortunate but
glorious revolution of 1848, the principle of royalty had so much
spoiled the nature and envenomed the character of public office, that
(of course except those who derived their authority by election--which
we for our municipal life conserved amongst all the corruption of
European royalty through centuries) no patriot accepted an office in the
government: to have accepted one was to have resigned patriotism.
It was one of the brightest principles of our murdered Revolution--that
public office was restored to the place of civic virtue, and opened to
patriotism, by being raised from the abject situation of a tool of
oppression, to the honourable position of serving the country well.
Alas! that bright day was soon overpowered by the gloomy clouds of
despotism, brought back to our sunny sky by the freezing gale of Russian
violence. And on the continent of Europe there is night again. There is
scarcely one country where the wishes and the will of the people are
reflected in the government. There is no government which can say:
"My voice is the echo of the people's voice--I say what my people feels;
I proclaim what my people wills; I am the embodiment of his principles,
and not the controller of his opinion: the people and myself--we are
one."
No, on the continent of Europe people and governments are two hostile
camps. What immense mischief, pregnant with oppression and with nameless
woe, is encompassed within the circle of this single fact!
How different the condition of America! It is not _men_ who rule,
but _the law;_ and law is obeyed, because the people is respecting
the general will by respecting the law. Public office is a place of
honour, because it is the field for patriotic devotion. Governments have
not the arrogant pretension to be the masters of the people; but have
the proud glory to be its faithful servants. A public officer ceases not
to be a citizen; he has doubly the character of a citizen, by sharing in
and by executing the people's will. And whence this striking difference?
It is because the civilization of America is founded upon the principle
of Democracy. It was born when Royalty declined, and Republicanism rose.
Hence the delightful view, not less instructive than interesting, that
here in America, instead of the clashing dissonance between the words
"government" and "people" we see them melting into one accord of
harmony.
Thus here the public opinion of the people never can fail to be a direct
rule for the government, and reciprocally the word of the government
has the weight of a fact by the people's support. When your government
speaks, it is the people which speaks.
Sir, I most humbly thank your Excellency, that you have been pleased to
afford to me the benefit of hearing and seeing that delightful as well
as happy harmony between the people and the government of the State of
Indiana, in the support of that noble and just cause which I plead, on
the issue of which, not the future of my country only depends, but
together with it, the future condition of all those parts of our globe
which are confined within the boundaries of Christian civilization,
which, be sure of it, gentlemen, in the ultimate issue, will have the
same fate.
Sir, it is not without reason, that at Indianapolis in particular,--and
to your Excellency, the truly faithful, the high-minded, and the
deservedly popular Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth, I speak that
word. It is not the first time that your Excellency, surrounded as now,
has spoken as the honoured organ of the public opinion of Indiana. It is
not yet two years since your Excellency did the same on the occasion of
a visit of the favourite son of Kentucky, Governor Crittenden. I well
remember the topic of your eloquence. It was the solicitude of Indiana
in regard to the glorious Union of these Republics. May God preserve it
for ever! But precisely because you, the favourite son of Indiana and
the honoured representatives of the sovereign people of Indiana--in one
accord of perfect harmony esteem the Gordian knot of the Union above
all, allow me to say once more, that if the United States permit the
principle of non-interference to be blotted out from the code of nations
on earth, foreign interference mingling with some domestic discord,
perhaps with that which two years ago called forth your patriotic
solicitude for the Union; yes, foreign interference mingling with some
of your domestic discords, will be the Alexander who will cut asunder
the Gordian knot of your Union, in this our present century.
Republics exist upon principles: they are secure only when they act upon
principles. He who does not accept a principle, asserted by another,
will not long enjoy the benefit of it himself; and nations always perish
by their own sin. Oh may those whom your united people entrusted with
the noble care to be guardians of your Union--be pleased to consider
that truth ere it be too late.