I have but to make a few remarks about two objections, which I am told I shall have to contend with. The first is, that it is a leading principle of the United States not to interfere with European nations. I may perhaps assume that you have been pleased to acquaint yourselves with what I have elsewhere said on that argument; viz. that the United States had never entertained or confessed such a principle, or at any rate had abandoned it, and had been forced to do so: which indicates it to have been only a temporary policy. I stated the mighty difference between neutrality and non-interference; so I will only briefly remark that a like difference exists between alliance and interference. Every independent power has the right to form alliances, but is not under duty to do so: it may remain neutral, if it please. Neither alliances nor neutrality are matters of principle, but simply of policy. They may hurt interest, but do not violate law; whereas with interference the contrary is the case. Interference with the sovereign right of nations to resist oppression, or to alter their institutions and government, is a violation of the law of nations and of God: therefore non-interference is a duty common to every power and every nation, and is placed under the safeguard of every power, of every nation. He who violates that law is like a pirate: every power on earth has the duty to chase him down as a curse to human nature. There is not a man in the United States but would avow that a pirate must be chased down; and no man more readily than the gentlemen of trade. A gentleman who came yesterday to honour me with the invitation of Cincinnati, that rising wonder of the West,—with eloquence which speaks volumes in one word, designated as piracy the interference of foreign violence with the domestic concerns of a nation. There is such a moving power in a word of truth! That word has relieved me of many long speeches. I no longer need to discuss the principle of your foreign policy: there can be no doubt about what is lawful, what is a duty, against piracy. Your naval forces are, and must be, instructed to put down piracy wherever they meet it, on whatever geographic lines, whether in European or in American waters. You sent your Commodore Decatur for that purpose to the Mediterranean, who told the Dey of Algiers, that "if he claims powder, he will have it with the balls;" and no man in the United States imagined this to oppose your received policy. Nobody then objected that it is the ruling principle of the United States not to meddle with European or African concerns; rather, if your government had neglected so to do, I am sure the gentlemen of trade would have been foremost to complain. Now, in the name of all which is pleasing to God and sacred to man, if all are ready thus to unite in the outcry against a rover, who, at the danger of his own life, boards some frail ship, murders some poor sailors, or takes a few bales of cotton—is there no hope to see a similar universal outcry against those great pirates who board, not some small cutters, but the beloved home of nations? who murder, not some few sailors, but whole peoples? who shed blood, not by drops, but by torrents? who rob, not some hundred weight of merchandize, but the freedom, independence, welfare, and the very existence of nations? Oh God and Father of human kind! spare—oh spare that degradation to thy children; that in their destinies some bales of cotton should more weigh than those great moralities. Alas! what a pitiful sight! A miserable pickpocket, a drunken highway robber, chased by the whole human race to the gallows: and those who pickpocket the life-sweat of nations, rob them of their welfare, of their liberty, and murder them by thousands—these high-handed criminals proudly raise their brow, trample upon mankind, and degrade its laws before their high reverential name, and term themselves "most sacred majesties." But may God be blessed, there is hope for human nature; for there is a powerful, free, mighty people here on the virgin soil of America, ready to protect the laws of man and of Heaven against the execrated pirates and their associates.
But again I am told, "The United States, as a power, are not indifferent; we sympathize deeply with those who are oppressed; we will respect the laws of nations; but we have no interest to make them respected by others towards others." Interest! and always interest! Oh, how cupidity has succeeded to misrepresent the word? Is there any interest which could outweigh the interest of justice and of right? Interest! But I answer by the very words of one of the most distinguished members of your profession, gentlemen, the present Honourable Secretary of State:—"The United States, as a nation, have precisely the same interest (yes, interest is his word) in international law as a private individual has in the laws of his country." He was a member of the bar who advanced that principle of eternal justice against the mere fact of policy; and now that he is in the position to carry out the principle which he has advanced, I confidently trust he will be as good as his word,[*] and that his honourable colleagues, the gentlemen of the bar, will remember their calling to maintain the permanent principles of justice against the encroachments of accidental policy.
[Footnote *: See the extracts from Mr. Webster's speech at the Washington
Banquet.]
But I may be answered—"If we (the United States) avow that we will not endure the interference of Russia in Hungary (for that is the practical meaning, I will not deny), and if Russia should not respect our declaration; then we might have to go to war." Well, I am not the man to decline the consequences of my principles. I will not steal into your sympathy by evasion. Yes, gentlemen, I confess, should Russia not respect such a declaration of your country, then you are forced to go to war, or else be degraded before mankind. But, gentlemen, you must not shrink back from the mere word war; you must consider what is the probability of its occurrence. I have already stated publicly my certain knowledge how vulnerable Russia is; how weak she is internally. But the best clue to you as to what will be her future conduct, if you act decisively, will be gained by examining the extreme caution and timidity with which, in the late events, she felt her way, before she interposed by force.
The last French Revolution broke out in February, 1848. The Czar hates republics,—name and thing; but he did not interfere against the France of Lamartine, any more than against the France of Louis Philippe in 1830. Why not? He dared not. But he resorted to his natural and his most dangerous weapon, secret diplomacy. He sent male and female intriguers to Paris, and succeeded in turning the revolution into a mock republic. But from the pulsations of the great French heart every tyrant had trembled. The German nation took its destiny into its own hands, and proposed to itself to become ONE, in Frankfort. The throne in Berlin quaked; the Austrian emperor fled from his palace, a few weeks after he had with his own hands waved the flag of freedom out of his window. In Vienna an Austrian Parliament met. A constitution was devised for Polish Gallicia, linked by blood, history, and nature, to the Poland domineered over by the Czar; while on its western frontier another Polish province, Posen, was wrapt in revolutionary flames. You can imagine how the Czar raged, how he wished to unite all mankind in one head, so that he might cut it off with a single blow; and still he nowhere interfered. Why not? Again I say, he was prudently afraid. However, the French republic became very innocent to him—almost an ally in some respects, really an ally in others, as in the case of unfortunate Rome. The gentlemen of Frankfort proved also to be very innocent. The hopes of Germany failed—the people were shot down in Vienna, Prague, Lemberg,—the Austrian mock Parliament was sent from Vienna to Kremsen, and from Kremsen home. Only Hungary stood firm, steady, victorious—the Czar had nothing more to fear from all revolutionary Europe—nothing from Germany—nothing from France. He had no fear from the United States, since he knew that your government then was not willing to meddle with European affairs: so he had free hands in Hungary. But one thing still he did not know, and that was—what will England and what will Turkey say, if he interferes?—and that consideration alone was sufficient to check him. So anxious was he to feel the pulse of England and of Turkey, that he sent first a small army—some ten thousand men—to help the Austrians in Transylvania; and sent them in such a manner as to have, in case of need, for excuse, that he was called to do so, not by Austria only, but by that part of the people also, which deceived by foul delusion, stood by Austria! Oh, it was an infernal plot! We beat down and drove out his 10,000 men, together with all the Austrians—but the Czar had won his game. He was hereby assured that he would have no foreign power to oppose him when he dared to violate the law of nations by an armed interference in Hungary. So he interfered with all his might.
It is a torture even to remember, how like a dream vanished all our hopes that there is yet justice on earth. When I saw my nation, as a handful of brave men, forsaken to fight alone that immense battle for humanity; when I saw Russian diplomacy stealing, like secret poison, into our ranks, introducing treason into them;—but let me not look back; it is all in vain; the past is past. Forward is my word, and forward I will go; for I know that there is yet a God in heaven, and there is a people like you on earth, and there is a power of decided will here also in this bleeding heart. It is my motto still, that "there is no difficulty to him who wills." But so much is a fact, so much is sure, that the Czar did not dare to interfere until he was assured that he would meet no foreign power to oppose him. Show him, free people of America—show him in a manly declaration, that he will meet your force if he dares once more to trample on the laws of nations—accompany this declaration with an augmentation of your Mediterranean fleets, and be sure he will not stir. You will have no war, and Austria falls almost without a battle, like a house without foundation, raised upon the sand; Hungary—my poor Hungary—will be free, and Europe's oppressed continent able to arrange its domestic concerns. Even without my appeal to your sympathy, you have the source in your own generous hearts. This meeting is a substantial proof of it. Receive my thanks.
I have done, gentlemen; I am worn out. I must reserve for another occasion what I would say further, were I able. I know that when I speak in this glorious country, there is the mighty engine of the press which enables me to address the whole people. Let me now say that the ground on which the hopes of my native land rest, is the principle of justice, right, and law. To the maintenance of these you have devoted your lives, gentlemen of the Bar. I leave them under your professional care, and trust they will find many advocates among you.
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XIII.—CLAIMS OF HUNGARY ON THE FEMALE SEX.
[Speech to the Ladies of New York.]