George Sewall Boutwell

“ The spirit of liberty takes itself wings,— you are happy to be the first-born son of that spirit; but we accept our condition just to be one of its martyrs; and I look with hope, I look with confidence, into the future, because that spirit which prepared for the poor exile the present day will be recorded in the records of history, and will mark the destiny of coming centuries. ”

“ Look to history, and when your heart saddens at the fact that liberty never yet was lasting in any corner of the world, and in any age, you will find the key of it in the gloomy truth that all who were yet free regarded liberty as their privilege, instead of regarding it as a principle. ”

“ Of the many speeches made by Kossuth in the United States, precedence may be given to his speech in Faneuil Hall, April 29, 1852. In that speech he announced in all its fulness his comprehensive idea of liberty: “Cradle of American Liberty! it is a great name; but there is something in it which saddens my heart. You should not say American liberty. You should say Liberty in America. Liberty should not be either American or European,—it should be just liberty. God is God. He is neither America’s God nor Europe’s God; he is God. So should liberty be. ”

“ Fifty years of your eventful life are past; but take courage, sir, in the belief that, in the providence of God, the moment is near when the light of freedom shall penetrate the darkness of European despotism. ”

“ Kossuth’s first speech in New England was made at New Haven, Thursday, April 22. From what he there said some inferences may be drawn as to his religious opinions and the basis on which, to him, the principles of freedom seemed to rest:
“I know that there is one God in Heaven, the Father of all humanity, and Heaven is therefore one. I know that there is one sun in the sky, which gives light to all the world. As there is unity in God, and unity in the light, so is there unity in the principles of freedom.” ”

“ Kossuth did not err in his opinion as to the policy of Russia in European affairs; but that policy never extended to America, even in thought. Of that policy Kossuth said: “It is already long ago that Czar Alexander of Russia declared that henceforth governments should have no particular policy, but only a common one, the policy of safety to all governments; as if governments were the aim for which the nations exist, and not nations the aim for which governments exist.” ”

“ He aroused the American mind to a higher sense of the power and dignity of the American nation, and he set forth the influence that England and the United States might exert in the affairs of the world whenever they should co-operate in an international public policy. He maintained the cause of universal liberty. At West Cambridge Kossuth said: “Liberty was not granted to your forefathers as a selfish boon; your destiny is not completed till, by the aid and influence of America, the oppressed nations are regenerated and made free.” ”

“ Not seeing, then, that freedom as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and general as the air, may be united with much abject misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks among them like something that is more noble and liberal. ”

“ There is not one American State in which the condition of the people in matters of education, in personal and public morals, in industrial intelligence, in wealth and in the means of further improvement, has not been advanced, essentially, in the last fifty years. If all the apprehensions touching the evils and dangers of self-government in Ireland were well founded, there is an assurance in our experience that the people themselves would discover and apply an adequate remedy.
Kossuth was an orator; and every orator is of necessity something of a prophet. ”

“ The earliest and best expression of the universality of the idea of liberty belongs to America, but in America even its practical realization is a recent event. Previous to the nineteenth century, America was the only land in which it was possible to found a state freed from the domination of the church, or to establish a church freed from the domination of the state; and in one half of the American continent this degree of freedom does not exist even now, when we approach the twentieth century. ”

“ The man of freedom, you are also the man of fate. You do not elect, but you are elected by God and your genius to your task. We do not, therefore, affect to thank you.”
In his reply Kossuth appealed to Emerson to give to him and to his cause the aid of his philosophical analysis, and to impress the conviction upon the public mind that the Revolution, of which Concord was the preface, was full of a higher destiny,—of a destiny as broad as the world, as broad as humanity itself. ”

“ Kossuth’s speech at Bunker Hill, more than his other speeches in New England, bears marks of its Oriental origin. Pointing to the monument he said: “My voice shrinks from the task to mingle with the awful pathos of that majestic orator. Silent like the grave, and yet melodious like the song of immortality upon the lips of cherubim, ... and thus it speaks: ‘The day I commemorate is the rod with which the hand of the Lord has opened the well of liberty. Its waters will flow; every new drop of martyr blood will increase the tide. Despots may dam its flood, but never stop it. ”

“ In political economy it is not good for the people that a prohibitory system be adopted. Protection may sometimes be of service to a nation, but prohibition never.” Thus did he qualify the claim of authors and students, who assert that political economy deserves rank among the sciences, whether exact or speculative, and thus did he recognize the protective theory as adapted to the condition of states while in the transition period in the development of the higher industries. ”

“ You may say ‘we are the prophets of God,’ but you shall not say, ‘God is only our God.’ The Jews have said so and the pride of Jerusalem lies in the dust! Our Saviour taught all humanity to say ‘Our Father in Heaven,’ and his Jerusalem is ‘lasting to the end of days’. ”

“ Although forty years have passed without the fulfillment of Kossuth’s prophetic declaration of a public policy, its realization is not only possible, but probable. To the American mind, with our experience and traditions, such a solution of the Irish question seems easy, practicable, safe. We have States larger than Ireland, States smaller than Ireland, in which the doctrine of self-government finds a practical application. Not free from evils, not free from maladministration ”

“ The armistice and the peace with Austria were inaugurated by Napoleon; and when, at the last moment, Emperor Francis Joseph raised difficulties upon some points in the treaty, Prince Napoleon, who was a party to the conference, threatened him with a revolution in Italy and in Hungary. Thus was it made apparent that the independence of Hungary was no part of the purpose of Napoleon. As to Kossuth, his only solace was in the reflection that he had stayed the tendency to revolution on the soil of Hungary, and thus his countrymen had been saved from new calamities. ”

“ In that speech he anticipated Matthew Arnold in the remark, “One thing I may own, that it is, indeed, true, everything good has yet been in the minority; still mankind went on, and is going on to that destiny the Almighty designed, when all good will not be confined to the minority, but will prevail amongst all mankind.” His speech at Concord was not of his best, and there are indications that his estimate of Emerson’s supremacy as a philosopher and thinker subjected him to a degree of restraint which he could not overcome. ”

“ The common excitement and warm blood of youth pass away; but the heart of the wise man, the older it grows the warmer it feels.” It is difficult to imagine a more graceful impromptu recognition of words of praise. ”

“ General Klapka organized a legion in Italy of four thousand Hungarians. The overthrow of the Tory Party in England, which Kossuth had predicted and promised, was achieved, and thus the neutrality of Great Britain was secured.
Kossuth’s speeches in England were delivered under the influence of the highest incentives by which an orator and patriot could be moved. With the utmost confidence in his ability to perform what he had promised, he had pledged his honor for the neutrality of England. As he then believed, the fate of Hungary was staked upon the fulfilment of that pledge. ”

“ Kossuth’s personal wants and the necessities of his family and friends were met by the sale of Hungarian bonds and by voluntary contributions; but no substantial aid was given to Hungary in its contest with Austria and Russia.
In his many speeches Kossuth set forth his views upon national and international topics with freedom, and often with great wisdom. Said he on one occasion: “I take political economy for a science not exactly like mathematics. It is quite a practical thing, depending upon circumstances; but in certain proceedings a negative principle exists. ”

“ His residence in Italy for a third of a century was due to his admiration for the history of the Italian peoples, and his belief in the capacity of the Italian races for the business of government. “The spirit of republican liberty, the warlike genius of ancient Rome, were never extinguished between the Alps and the Faro.” He declared that every stain upon the honor of Italy was connected with foreign rule, and that the petty tyrants of Italy had been kept on their tottering thrones through the intervention of Austria, Germany and France. ”

“ Then shall your own Hungary welcome you to her fields and mountains, to her homes and heart; and we will welcome Hungary to the family of republican, constitutional, sovereign states.
“In the name of the people, I tender to you the hospitalities of a commonwealth founded by Exiles and Pilgrims.”
To this welcome to the capitol of Massachusetts, Kossuth replied as follows:
“I feel deeply sensible of the immense benefit which a happy and prosperous people has conferred upon an unfortunate people. ”

“ Moreover, a manifestation of the sentiment of patriotism in one people is accompanied usually with a degree of hostility to some other community or nation, and in its excesses it often fosters a disregard for the just rights of others. ”

“ I class Kossuth among the small number of great men, whether he be classed among orators, philosophers, students of history and government, or as an advocate of the largest range of individual freedom that is consistent with the good order of society. ”

“ These forty years are recorded in history as a standing protest against those impious treaties. The robbed have all the time loudly protested, by words, deeds, sufferings, and sacrifice of their lives, against the compact of the robbers. ”

“ The assemblages of citizens were as large in proportion to the population of the State as were ever gathered upon any other occasion.
Kossuth visited fifteen of the principal cities and towns of the State and in each of them he delivered one address or more. His theme was always the same, but his variety of argument and illustration seemed inexhaustible. At Cambridge he urged the students to so use their powers as to “promote their country’s welfare and the rights of humanity.”
The Legislature adopted a series of resolutions of sympathy and in condemnation of Austria and Russia. ”

“ Of the great orations of this class, the most signficant are the orations of Demosthenes in behalf of the imperiled liberties of Greece, and the orations of Cicero in defence of his character and of his conduct in the public service, and in denunciation of the crimes by which the Republic of Rome was transformed into the Empire of the Cæsars. In modern times attention may be directed to the speech of James Otis on the Writs of Assistance, to Burke’s speech on Conciliation with America, to Fisher Ames’ speech on the Jay Treaty, and to Webster’s speech on Nullification. ”