I pray God to give to your people the sentiment of the truth you have taught.
Your people, fond of its prosperity, loves peace. Well, who would not love peace; but allow me again, sir, to repeat with all possible emphasis, the great word you spoke, "Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."
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XLVI.—CONDITION OF EUROPE.
[Last Speech in Boston.]
On May 14th, Kossuth, in obedience to a distinct invitation, delivered, in Faneuil Hall, the following ample Speech or Lecture, on the present condition of Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen,—The gigantic struggle of the first French Revolution associated the name of FRANCE so much with the cause of freedom in Europe, that all the world got accustomed to see it take the lead in the struggle for European liberty; and to look to it as a power entrusted by Providence with the initiation of revolutions; as a power, without the impulse of which, no liberal movement had any hope on the European continent.
I, from my earliest days, never shared that opinion. I felt always more sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon character and Anglo-Saxon institutions, which raised England, notwithstanding its monarchy and its aristocracy, to a position prouder than Rome ever held in its most glorious days: and which, free from monarchical and aristocratical elements here in America, lie at the foundation of a political organization, upon which the first true democratic Republic was consolidated and developed into freedom, power, and prosperity, in such a short time, as to make it a living wonder to the contemporary age, and a book full of instruction to the coming generations.
However, that opinion about the French initiative prevailed in Europe, and it was a great misfortune; for you know that France has always as yet forsaken the movement which it raised in Europe, and the other nations acting not spontaneously, but only following the impulse which the French had imparted to them, faltered and stopped at once, as soon as the French failed them. With that opinion of the French supremacy, no revolution in Europe could have a definite, happy issue.
Freedom never yet was given to nations as a gift, but only as a reward, bravely earned by one's own exertions, own sacrifices, and own toil; and never will, never shall it be attained otherwise.