Lajos Kossuth

“ Hungary permanently crushed, all Europe is Cossack. And what does Hungary need for freedom? Not that other nations should fight our proper battle against our immediate oppressor. We have hearts loving freedom and ready to shed their blood for it; we have armies fully equal to Austria, we want only "FAIR PLAY." Let the United States feel itself to be as it is, a Power on earth, bound to aid in the police of the nations, and in the name of violated right let it say to the Russian intruder, "Keep back, hands off, let the brave Magyars fight their own battle, else we must take their part." ”

“ I have no other claims than those which the oppressed principle of freedom has to the aid of victorious liberty. If you consider these claims not sufficient for your active and effectual sympathy, then let me know at once that the hopes have failed, with which Europe has looked to your great, mighty, and glorious Republic—let me know it at once that I may hasten back and say to the oppressed nations, "Let us fight, forsaken and single-handed, the battle of Leonidas; let us trust to God, to our right, and to our good sword; for we have no other help on earth." ”

“ And besides Hungary, the people in Austria too, in Italy, in Prussia, in all Germany, is conscious of its strength. Every large city on the continent has been in the power of the people, and has had to be regained by bombardings and by martial law. Italy has redeemed its heroic character, at Milan, Venice, Brescia, and Rome—all of them immortal pages in Italian history, glorious sources of inspiration, heroism, and self-conscious strength. And now they know their aim, and are united in their aim, and burn to show to the world that the spirit of ancient Rome again rises in them. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Such a wish is impossible in the United States. Institutions react upon the character of nations. He who sows wind will reap storm. History is the revelation of Providence. The Almighty rules by eternal laws not only the material but also the moral world; and as every law is a principle, so every principle is a law. Men as well as nations are endowed with free-will to choose a principle, but, that once chosen, the consequences must be accepted.
With self-government is freedom, and with freedom is justice and patriotism. With centralization is ambition, and with ambition dwells despotism. ”

“ 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! ”

“ The success of freedom now depends entirely on what policy the United States of America will adopt.
Well! gentlemen. It may be that the United States have no reply to the hopes of the world. You will then see a mournful tear in the eye of humanity, and its breast heaving with sighs. We presume, you are so powerful that you can afford not to care about the treading down of the law of nations and the funeral of European freedom. You are so glorious at home, that you can afford to lose the glory (at so rare a crisis!) of saving liberty and justice on earth. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To contribute to such a future, I indeed should consider more practical support to the cause of freedom, to the cause of Ireland itself, than, out of passionate aversions either for past or present wrongs, to discourage, nay, almost force Great Britain to submit to the threatening attitude of despots or even to side with them against liberty. Out of such a submission there can never result any good to any one in the world, and certainly none to you—none to the nations of Europe—none to Ireland—but increased oppression to Europe and Ireland, and danger to you yourselves. ”

“ America cannot remain unaffected by the condition of Europe, with which you have a thousand-fold intercourse. A passing accident in Liverpool, a fire in Manchester, cannot fail to be felt in America—how could then the fire of despotic oppression, which threatens to consume all Europe's freedom, civilization, and property, fail to affect in its results America? How can it be indifferent to you whether Europe be free or enslaved?—whether there exists a "Law of Nations," or no such thing any more exists, being replaced by the caprice of an arrogant mortal who is called "Czar?" ”

“ 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. ”

“ If a nation seclude itself, it is an exile in the midst of humanity. No man, ladies and gentlemen, is independent of his fellow-man; no nation, however powerful, is independent of other nations. Put the richest, the strongest man for a single week wholly apart from family, city, country, and he will quickly learn his essential weakness. In a nation, the consequence of total isolation is not felt as soon, but it will at length be felt as surely. The hours of nations are counted by years; yet the secluded nation, self-exiled from mankind, dwindles away. ”

“ 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. ”

“ By conserving the state-rights of self-government to all of them they will unite in a common government for the common interest, as you have done. Union, and not unity, must be the guiding star of the future with every power composed of several distinct bodies, and though I am a republican more perhaps than thousands who are citizens of a republic, inasmuch as I have known all the curse of having had a king—still such a development of Great Britain's future, were it even connected with monarchy, I, a true republican, would hail with fervent joy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ What is aristocracy? It is exclusive liberty; it is privilege; and aristocracy is doomed, because it is contrary to the destiny of men. As aristocracy should vanish within each nation, so should no nation be an aristocrat among nations. Until that ceases, liberty will nowhere be lasting on earth. It is equally fatal to individuals as to nations, to believe themselves beyond the reach of vicissitudes. By this proud reliance, and the isolation resulting therefrom, more victims have fallen than by immediate adversities. You have grown prodigiously by your freedom of seventy-five years ”

“ But when we see this great principle of non-intervention violated—when we see a free and united people crushed and trampled upon by foreign despots, because they have dared to proclaim and establish equal rights and privileges as the basis of their own institutions, must we look tamely on and see the life-blood of freedom crushed out by the iron heel of barbaric despotism, and hear the death-groans of the brave and free without daring to express our feelings or to extend the hand of sympathy and comfort to the suffering sons of liberty? ”

“ The tyrants have no power to unmake history, and to silence the feelings of the nation. And amongst all the feelings powerful to stir up the activity of mankind, there is none more penetrating than unmerited degradation, which impels us to redeem our lost honour. What is it therefore that keeps those petty tyrants of Italy, who are jealous of one another, on their tottering thrones, divided as they are among themselves, whilst the revolutionizing spirit of liberty unites the people? It is only the protection of Austria, studding the peninsula with her bayonets and with her spies. ”

“ When have I spoken otherwise than in terms of gratitude, 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 gratitude that I feel. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”