Select Speeches of Kossuth Part 21

In the name of the sovereign people of Mississippi, and by the special request of those of our citizens whom you see before you and around you, I now bid you welcome to our own Capital, and pray that a bounteous Providence may vouchsafe to you and the sacred cause of which you are the advocate, its most auspicious countenance and protection.

Kossuth replied:

Your Excellency has been pleased to bestow a word of approbation upon the manner in which I have spoken and acted since I am here in the United States, especially as to frankness: which frankness, on another side, has occasioned much hostility toward me. Allow me, on the present occasion, to exercise that same frankness. If I were less frank, I should perhaps tell you I had a fond desire to see Mississippi, and thank the citizens for sympathy to my country. But I claim not a merit which I do not possess. I did not come to meet the people. My only motive was one of grat.i.tude toward YOU, sir.

One anxiety has weighed upon my breast ever since I have been in the United States, and that is, lest I lose the opportunity to say to you, with a warm grasp of the hand, and in a few but heartfelt words, how thankful I feel for the important part you have been pleased to take in my liberation from captivity. I hope to G.o.d, you will never have reason to regret what you have done for me. Allow me to state that there was something Providential in the fact, and in the time of intercession in my behalf.

The Sultan is a generous man; I can bear testimony to that. When Russia and Austria, proudly relying upon their armies and the flush of victory, arrogantly demanded that we should be surrendered to the hangman of my fatherland; and when the majority of the Divan (the great Council of Turkey) taking a shortsighted view of the case, and influenced by the impending danger, had already consented to the arrogant demand, and when, in consequence thereof, the abandonment of our religion was proposed as the only means to save our lives, then the Sultan, informed of the matter, and following the n.o.ble impulse of his generous heart, declared that he would prefer to perish rather than dishonour his name--he would therefore accept the dangers of war rather than disregard the great duty of humanity--thus if he be doomed to perish, he would at least perish in an honourable way. By that n.o.ble resolution our lives were saved. But European diplomacy stepped in, to convert the accorded hospitality into a prison;[*] the Sultan being left alone, not supported, not encouraged by any one soever, but a.s.sailed by complications, ill advised by fear, and threatened by many, yielded at last, but yielded with the intention to restore us to our natural rights, as soon as he could be sure that he stood not forsaken and alone in acknowledging the right of humanity. For a long while, no encouragement came, and we lingered in our prison, forsaken and without hope. You, sir, moved a resolution in the Senate of the United States.

In consequence thereof, the great Republic of the West, by its generous offer, cast a ray of consolation into my prison, and gave encouragement to the Sublime Porte. The English and the French governments, unwilling to appear less liberal, both approved the course of the United States.

England made even a similar offer as America, and the Sultan, glad to see that he was no longer alone in a.s.serting what is right, agreed to the offer, notwithstanding all the machinations of my enemies, and I and my countrymen became free.

[Footnote *: I am permitted to explain, that Kossuth had in view not the action of one power only, but the total result of all the powers. While the Sultan knew what the arms of Russia were meant for, and could not learn whether the fleet of England was meant for anything but _a mere show_ (for Sir Stratford Canning "had no orders" to _use_ it), the practical advice of diplomacy was, not, to do what was just, but, to make the least disgraceful and least dangerous compromise.]

Now suppose, sir, you had not introduced that resolution then, and the star-spangled flag had not been cast in protection around me--suppose that the _coup d'etat_ of Louis Napoleon had found me in prison still--that _coup d'etat_ which caused a change of the ministry in England,--what would have been the consequence? England would probably have remained indifferent, and France would have certainly opposed the proposition of the United States--or rather, supported the cause of Austria; and the Sultan abandoned by the const.i.tutional powers of Europe, would have been forced to make Kutaya what the arrogant despots desired--a physical, or at least, a moral grave for me--and instead of the new hope and fresh resolution which my liberation inspired into nations groaning under the weight of a common oppression, there would be now a gloom of despondency spread over all who united with me in spirit, in resolution, and in sentiments.

Therefore, in whatsoever I may yet be _useful through my regained activity, it is due to you, sir_. Without the intercession of the United States, there would have been no field of activity left me.

Allow me now to speak on another matter connected with this. Among the calumnies perpetually thrown out at me, is one which I cannot pa.s.s in silence, because it charges me with ingrat.i.tude to the United States, saying that I misuse the generosity of your country, which granted me protection and an asylum, _upon my accepting the condition not to meddle any more with politics_, but to abandon the cause to which I have devoted my life--to retire from public life, and to lay down my head to rest.

Now, before G.o.d and man, this representation is entirely false. No such condition was added to the generous offer of the United States; and I declare, that however much I regard such an offer, had this condition been attached, I would in no case, have accepted it. Life is of no value to me, except inasmuch as I can do some service to my country's cause.

Therefore, under the condition of forsaking my country, I would not accept happiness--not liberty--not life. This I have said before.

It is due from me to the honour of the Turkish Government to declare, that the Sublime Porte not only attached no condition at all to my liberation, but explicitly and officially intimated to me, that having once decided to set us free, it was unwilling to do things by halves;--we had therefore full and unrestricted liberty, on leaving Turkey, to go and to stay where we pleased--to take such a course as we chose, and that to that purpose, an American and an English vessel would be ready at the Dardanelles, and it would depend on our choice, on board of which we embarked. Indeed I have an official communication on the part of the English Government in my hands, by which I was informed, that the only reason why the appointed English vessel came not to the Dardanelles was, that I and my a.s.sociates had declared that we preferred to embark on board the American ship.

But again: in respect to that embarkation, I must state that, in the resolution of the Congress, one word being contained which might have been subject to different interpretation, I considered it my duty to declare frankly to the legation of the United States at Constantinople, that I neither was, nor would be, willing to a.s.sume the character of an _emigrant_; but would only be considered an _exile_, driven away by foreign violence from my native land, but not without the hope to get home again to free and independent Hungary; therefore, that I not only would not pledge my word to go directly to the United States, or to remove thither permanently, but, upon regaining my liberty, intended to devote it to win back for my country its sovereign independence, which we had achieved and proclaimed, and which was wrested from us by the most sacrilegious violation of the laws of nations. I got an answer fully satisfactory on the part of your legation, a.s.suring me that the United States would never consent to give me a new prison, instead of liberty; and that there was, and could be, no intention on the part of the United States to restrain my freedom or my activity, beyond the limits of your common laws, which are equally obligatory and equally protective to every one, so long as he chooses to stay in the United States. Upon this. I accepted thankfully the generous offer of the United States. I wrote a letter of thanks to His Excellency the President, and ordered my diplomatic agent in England to write a similar one to the Honourable Secretary of State, expressing, that I considered the struggle for our national independence not yet finished, and that I would devote my regained liberty to the cause of my fatherland.

_Nearly three months after these declarations_, the Mississippi steam-ship arrived, and I embarked, having again, previously and on board, constantly declared, that it was my fervent wish to visit the United States, but not without previously visiting England, on board the same frigate, if the favour should be granted to me; else on board another ship from a Mediterranean port, if needs must be. This is the true history of the case.

I hope you will excuse me for having answered for once a misrepresentation which charges me with bad faith and ingrat.i.tude, such as neither have I merited, nor can I bear * * *

x.x.xVIII.--p.r.o.nOUNCEMENT OF THE SOUTH.

[_Mobile, Alabama, April 3d_.]

Ladies and gentlemen,--I did not expect to have either the honour of a public welcome, or the opportunity of addressing such a distinguished a.s.sembly at Mobile--not as if I had entertained the slightest doubt about the generous sentiments of this enlightened community, but because I am called by pressing duties to hasten back to the east of the United States. Indeed only the accident of not finding a vessel ready to leave when I arrived here, has enabled me to see the fair flower of your generosity added to the garland of sympathy which the people of your mighty Republic has given me, and which will shine from the banner of resistance to all-encroaching despotism, that banner which the expectations of millions call me to raise.

But however unexpected my arrival, the congenial kindness of your warm hearts left me not unnoticed and uncheered; and besides the joyful consolation which I feel on this occasion, there is also important benefit in the generous reception you honour me with.

Firstly, because one of the United States Senators of Alabama, Mr.

Clemens, was pleased to p.r.o.nounce himself not only opposed to my principles, but hostile to my own humble self. I thank G.o.d for having well deserved the hatred of Czars and Emperors; and so may G.o.d bless me, as I will all my life try to deserve it still more; but I cannot equally say, that I have deserved the inclemency of Mr. Clemens, though it be not the least pa.s.sionate of all. Well, ladies and gentlemen, after the spontaneous sympathy which I here so unexpectedly meet, I may be permitted to believe that it is not the State of Alabama, but Mr.

Clemens only whom I have to count amongst my persecutors and my enemies.

Secondly, I must mention, that it is my good fortune not often to meet arguments opposed to my arguments, but only personal attacks. Well, that is the best acknowledgment which could have been paid to the justice of my cause. For even if I were all that my enemies would like to make me appear, would thereby the cause I plead and the principles I advocate be less just, less righteous, and less true? Now amongst those personal attacks there is one which says, that I am so impertinent as to dare appeal from the government to the people: and that _I try to sow dissension between the people and the government_. I declare in the most solemn manner, this imputation to be entirely unfounded and calumniatory. Who ever heard me say one single word of complaint or dissatisfaction against your national government? When have I spoken otherwise than in terms of grat.i.tude, high esteem, and profound veneration about the Congress and Government of the United States? and how could I have spoken otherwise; being, as I am, indebted to Congress and Government, for my liberation, for the most generous protection, and for the highest honours a man was ever yet honoured with? And besides, I have full reason to say that _it is entirely false to insinuate that in political respects I had been disappointed with my visit to Washington City_,--no, it is not respect alone, but the intensest grat.i.tude that I feel. The principles and sentiments of the Chief Magistrate of your great republic, expressed to the Congress in his official messages; the principles of your government so n.o.bly interpreted by the Hon. Secretary of State, at the congressional banquet, confirming expressly the contents of his immortal letter to Mons. Hulsemann; the further private declarations, in regard to the practical applications of those governmental principles; all and everything could but impress my mind with the most consoling satisfaction and the warmest grat.i.tude;--as may be seen in the letter of thanks which on the eve of my departure I sent to His Excellency the President and to both Houses of Congress.

That being my condition, who can charge me with sowing dissension between the people and the government, when I, accepting such opportunities, as you also have been pleased kindly to offer to me, plead the cause of my down-trodden country (for which both people and government of the United States have manifested the liveliest sympathy;) and advocate principles, entirely harmonizing with the official declarations of your government? And what is it I say to the people in my public addresses? I say, "the exigency of circ.u.mstances has raised the question of foreign policy to the highest standard of importance,--the question is introduced to the Congress, it must therefore be brought to a decision, it cannot be pa.s.sed in silence any more. Your representatives in Congress take it for their n.o.blest glory to follow the sovereign will of the people; but to be able to follow it, they must know it; yet they cannot know it without the people manifesting its opinion in a const.i.tutional way; since they have not been elected upon the question of foreign policy, that question being then not yet discussed. I therefore humbly entreat the sovereign people of the United States to consider the matter, and to p.r.o.nounce its opinion, in such a way as it is consistent with law, and with their const.i.tutional duties and rights." May I not be tranquillized in my conscience, that in speaking thus I commit no disloyal act, and do in no way offend against the high veneration due from me to your const.i.tuted authorities?

If it be so, then the generous manifestation of your sympathy I am honoured with in Mobile, is again a highly valuable benefit to my cause, because it has such a character of spontaneity, that, here at least, no misrepresentation can charge me with having even endeavoured to elicit that high-minded manifestation from the metropolis of the State of Alabama.

So doubly returning my thanks for it, I beg leave to state what it is I humbly entreat.

Firstly, when the struggle which is to decide on the freedom of Europe has once broken out, Hungary has resources to carry it on: but she wants initial aid, because her finances are all grasped by our oppressors. You would not refuse to me, a houseless exile, _alms_ and commiseration if I begged for myself. Surely then you cannot refuse it for my bleeding fatherland, when I beg of you, as individuals, trifling sums, such as each can well spare, and the gift of which does not entangle your country in any political obligation.

Whatever may be my personal fate, millions would thank and coming generations bless it as a source of happiness to them, as once the nineteen million francs, 24,000 muskets, and thirty-eight vessels of war which France gave to the cause of your own independence, have been a source of happiness to you. I rely in that respect upon the republican virtue which your immortal Washington has bequeathed to you in his memorable address to M. Adet, the first French republican minister sent to Washington. "_My anxious recollections and my best wishes are irresistibly attracted whensoever in any country I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banner of freedom_."

So spoke Washington; and so much for _private_ material aid; to which nothing is required but a little sympathy for an unfortunate people, which even Mr. Clemens may feel, whatever his personal aversion for the man who is pleading not his own, but his brave people's cause.

As to the _political_ part of my mission, I humbly claim that the United States may p.r.o.nounce what is or should be the law of nations--such as they can recognize consistently with the basis upon which their own existence is established, and consistently with their own republican principles.

And what is the principle of such a law of nations, which you as republicans can recognize? Your greatest man, your first President, Washington himself, has declared in these words: "_Every nation has a right to establish that form of government under which it conceives it may live most happy, and no government ought to interfere with the internal concerns of another._"

And according to this everlasting principle, proclaimed by your first President, your last President has again proclaimed in his last message to the Congress, that "_the United States are forbidden to remain indifferent to a case, in which the strong arm of a foreign power is invoiced to repress the spirit of freedom in any country."

It is this declaration that I humbly claim to be sanctioned by the sovereign will of the people of the United States, in support of that principle which Washington already has proclaimed. And in that respect, I frankly confess I should feel highly astonished, if the Southern States proved not amongst the first, and amongst the most unanimous to join in such a declaration. Because, of all the great principles guaranteed by your const.i.tution, there is none to which the southern states attach a greater importance,--there is none which they more cherish,--than the principle of self-government; the principle that their own affairs are to be managed by themselves, without any interference from whatever quarter, neither from another state, though they are all estates of the same galaxy, nor from the central government, though it is an emanation of all the states, and represents the south as well as the north, and the east and the west; nor from any foreign power, though it be the mightiest on earth.

Well, gentlemen, this great principle of self-government, is precisely the ground upon which I stand. It is for the defence of this principle that my nation rose against a world in arms; to maintain this principle in the code of "nature and of nature's G.o.d," the people of Hungary spilt their blood on the battlefield and on the scaffold. It is this principle which was trodden down in Hungary by the centralization of Austria and the interference of Russia. It is the principle which, if Hungary is not restored to her sovereign independence, is blotted out for ever from the great statute book of the nations, from the common law of mankind.

Like a pestilential disease, the violation of the principle of self-government will spread over all the earth until it is destroyed everywhere, in order that despots may sleep in security, for they know that this principle is the strongest stronghold of freedom, and therefore it is hated by all despots and all ambitious men, and by all those who have sold their souls to despotism and ambition.

Gentlemen, you know well that the principle of self-government has two great enemies--CENTRALIZATION and FOREIGN INTERFERENCE. Hungary is a bleeding victim to both.

You have probably perceived, gentlemen, that the great misfortune of Europe is the spirit of centralization encroaching upon all munic.i.p.al inst.i.tutions and destroying self-government, not only by open despotism, but also under the disguise of liberty. Fascinated by this dangerous tendency, even republican France went on to sweep away all the traces of self-government, and this is the reason why all her revolutions could not a.s.sert liberty for her people, and why she lies now prostrate under the feet of a usurper, without glory, without merit, without virtue.

Blind to their interests, the nations abandoned their real liberty, the munic.i.p.al inst.i.tutions, for a nominal responsibility of ministers and for parliamentary omnipotence. Instead of clinging to the principle of self-government--the true breakwater against the encroachments of kings, of ministers, of parliaments--they abandoned the principle which enforces the real responsibility of ministers and raises the parliament to the glorious position of the people's faithful servant; they exchanged the real liberty of self-government for the fascinating phantom of parliamentary omnipotence, making the elected of the people the masters of the people, which, if it is really to be free, cannot have any master but G.o.d. The old Anglo-Saxon munic.i.p.al freedom has even in England been weakened by this tendency; parliament has not only fought against the prerogative of the crown, but has conquered the munic.i.p.al freedom of the country and of the borough. Green Erin sighs painfully under this pressure, and English statesmen begin to be alarmed. Hungary, my own dear fatherland, was the only country in Europe which, amidst all adversaries, amidst all attacks of foreign encroachment and all inducements of false new doctrines, remained faithful to the great principle of self-government, at which the perjurious dynasty of Austria has never ceased to aim deadly blows. To get rid of these incessant attacks we availed ourselves of the condition of Europe in 1848, and got our old national self-government guarantied in a legal way, with the sanction of our then king, by subst.i.tuting _individual_ for collective responsibility of ministers; having experienced that a board of ministers, though responsible by law and composed of our own countrymen, was naturally and necessarily in practice irresponsible. When the tyrants of Austria, whom our forefathers had elected in an ill-fated hour to be our const.i.tutional kings, saw that their designs of centralization were obstructed, they forsook their honour, they broke their oath, they tore asunder the compact by which they had become kings; the diadem had lost its brightness for them if it was not to be despotic.

They stirred up robbers and rebels against us: and when this failed, then with all the forces of the empire attacked Hungary unexpectedly, not thinking to meet with a serious opposition, because we had no army, no arms, no ammunition, no money, no friends. They therefore declared our const.i.tution and our self-government, which we have preserved through the adversities of ten centuries, at once and for ever abolished.

But my heart could not bear this sacrilege. I and my political friends, we called our people to arms to defend the palladium of our national existence, the privilege of self-government, and that political, civil, and religious liberty, and those democratic inst.i.tutions, which, upon the glorious basis of self-government, we had succeeded to a.s.sert for all the people of Hungary. And the people n.o.bly answered my call. We struck down the centralizing tyrant to the dust; we drove him and his double-faced eagle out from our country; our answer to his impious treachery was the declaration of our independence and his forfeiture of the crown.

Were we right to do so, or not?

We were; and _we had accomplished already our lawful enterprise victoriously_; we had taken our competent seat amongst the independent nations on earth. But the other independent powers, and alas! even the United States, lingered to acknowledge our dearly but gloriously bought independence; and beaten Austria had time to take her refuge under the shelter of the other principle, hostile to self-government, of the sacrilegious principle of FOREIGN ARMED INTERFERENCE.

The Czar of Russia declared that the example of Hungary is dangerous to the interests of absolutism! He interfered, and aided by treason, he succeeded to crush freedom and self-government in Hungary, and to establish a centralized absolutism there, where, through all the ages of the past, the rule of despotism never had been established, and the United States let him silently accomplish this violation of the common law of nations.

Gentlemen, the law of nations, upon which you have raised the lofty hall of your independence, does not exist any more. The despots are united and leagued against national self-government. They declare it inconsistent with their divine (rather Satanic) rights; and upon this basis all the nations of the European Continent are held in fetters; the government of France is become a vanguard to Russia, St. Petersburg is transferred to Paris, and England is forced to arm and to prepare for self-defence at home.

These are the immediate consequences of the downfall of the principle of self-government in Hungary, by the violence of foreign interference. But if this great principle is not restored to its full weight by the restoration of Hungary's sovereign independence, then you will see yet other consequences in your own country. _Your_ freedom and prosperity is hated as dangerous to the despots of Europe. If you do not believe me, believe at least what the organs of your enemies openly avow themselves. Pozzo di Borgo, the great Russian diplomatist, and Hulsemann, the little Austrian diplomatist, repeatedly in 1817 and 1823, published that despotism is in danger, unless yourselves become a king-ridden people. If you study the history of the Hungarian struggle, you can also see the way by which the despots will carry their design.

The secret power of foreign diplomacy will foster amongst you the principle of centralization; and, as is always the case, many who are absorbed in some special aims of your party politics will be caught by this snare; and when you, gentlemen of the south, oppose with energy this tendency, dangerous to your dear principle of self-government, the despots of Europe will first foment and embitter the quarrel and kindle the fire of domestic dissensions, and finally they will declare that your example is dangerous to order. Then foreign armed interference steps in for centralization here, as for monarchy in the rest of America.

Indeed, gentlemen, if there is any place on earth where this prospect should be considered with attention, with peculiar care, it is here in the southern states of this great union, because their very existence is based on the great principle of self-government.

But some say there is no danger for the United States, in whatever condition be the rest of the world. I am astonished to hear that objection in a country, which, by a thousand ties, is connected with and interested in the condition of the foreign world.

It is your own government which prophetically foretold in 1827, that _the absolutism of Europe will not be appeased until every vestige of human freedom has been obliterated even here_.