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XXI.—THANKS FOR HIS GREAT SUCCESS.
[Speech at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on his Reception in the Capitol. Jan. 14th.]
On Jan. 14th Kossuth was received in Harrisburg, capital of
Pennsylvania, in the Capitol. Governor Johnston in the name of the
State, addressed to him a copious and energetic speech, in the course of
which he said:—
We have declared the law, that man is capable of self government, and possesses the inherent and indestructible right of altering, amending, and changing his form of government at his pleasure, and in furtherance of his happiness. We have sworn hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. These truths we have made a part of the laws of nations. Despots combine and interfere by force and fraud, to prevent the erection of republican institutions by a nation struggling successfully against its local usurping oppressor, for independence. Fidelity to our principles and institutions demands that we PREVENT such interference by solemnly proclaiming that the laws of nations and humanity SHALL BE PRESERVED inviolate and sacred. In the performance of this duty the faint-hearted may falter; the domestic despot and cold diplomatist may linger behind; the man of world-extended and fearful traffic may hesitate; but the warm and great heart of the American masses will feel no moment of hesitation and doubt in defence of truth. The great Author of nations will find the means to carry out His wise designs. How glorious our destiny, if to us is given the solemn charge of carrying into effect the beneficent purpose of Heaven in the establishment upon earth of universal liberty, universal education, universal happiness, and peace.
When Governor Johnston had concluded with a very cordial welcome,
Kossuth replied as follows:—
Senators and representatives of Pennsylvania.—I came with confidence, I came with hope to the United States—with the confidence of a man who trusts to the certainty of principles, knowing that where freedom is sown, there generosity grows—with the hope of a man who knows that there is life in his cause, and that where there is life there must be a future yet. Still hope is only an instinctive throb with which Nature's motherly care comforts adversity. We often hope without knowing why, and like a lonely wanderer on a stormy night, direct our weary steps towards the first glimmering window light, uncertain whether we are about to knock at the door of a philanthropist or of a heartless egotist. But the hope and confidence with which I came to the United States was not such. There was a knowledge of fact in it. I did not know what persons it might be my fate to meet, but I knew that meet I should with two living principles—with that of FREEDOM and that of NATIONAL HOSPITALITY.
Both are political principles here. Freedom is expansive like the light: it loves to spread itself: and hospitality here in this happy land, is raised out of the narrow circle of private virtue into political wisdom. As you, gentlemen, are the representatives of your people, so the people of the United States at large are representative of European humanity—a congregation of nations assembled in the hospitable Hall of American liberty. Your people is linked to Europe, not only by the common tie of manhood—not only by the communicative spirit of liberty—not only by the commercial intercourse, but by the sacred ties of blood. The people of the United States is Europe transplanted to America. And it is not Hungary's woes alone—it is the cause of all Europe which I am come to plead. Where was ever a son, who in his own happy days could indifferently look at the sufferings of his mother, whose heart's blood is running in his very veins? And Europe is the mother of the United States.
I hope to God, that the people of this glorious land is and will ever be, fervently attached to this their free, great and happy home. I hope to God that whatever tongue they speak, they are and will ever be American, and nothing but American. And so they must be, if they will be free—if they desire for their adopted home greatness and perpetuity. Should once the citizens of the United States cease to be Americans, and become again English, Irish, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, French—America would soon cease to be what it is now—freedom elevated to the proud position of a power on earth.
But while I hope that all the people of the United States will never become anything but Americans; and that even its youngest adopted sons, though fresh with sweet home recollections, will know here no South, no North, no East and no West—nothing but the whole country, the common nationality of freedom—in a word, America; still I also know that blood is blood—that the heart of the son must beat at the contemplation of his mother's sufferings. These were the motives of my confident hope. And here in this place I have the happy right to say, God the Almighty is with me; my hopes are about to be realized. Sir, it is a gratifying view to see how the generous sympathy of individuals for the cause which I respectfully plead is rising into Public Opinion. But nowhere had I the happy lot to see this more clearly expressed than in this great commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the mighty "keystone State" of the Union. The people of Harrisburg spoke first: no city before had so distinctly articulated the public sympathy into acknowledged principles. It has framed the sympathy of generous instinct into a political shape. I will for ever remember it with fervent gratitude. Then came the Metropolis—a hope and a consolation by its very name to the oppressed—the sanctuary of American Independence, where the very bells speak prophecy—which is now sheltering more inhabitants than all Pennsylvania did, when, seventy-five years ago, the prophetic bell of Independence Hall announced to the world that free America was born; which now, with the voice of thunder, will, I hope, tell the world that the doubtful life of that child has unfolded itself into a mighty power on earth. Yes, after Harrisburg, the metropolis spoke, a flourishing example of freedom's self-developing energy; and after the metropolis, now so mighty a centre of nations, and it ally of international law—next came Pittsburg, the immense manufacturing workshop, alike memorable for its moral power and its natural advantages, which made it a link with the great valley of the West, a cradle of a new world, which is linked in its turn to the old world by boundless agricultural interests. And after the people of Pennsylvania have thus spoken, here now I stand in the temple of this people's sovereignty, with joyful gratitude acknowledging the inestimable benefits of this public reception, where—with the elected of Pennsylvania, entrusted with the Legislative and Executive power of the sovereign people, gather into one garland the public opinion, and with the authority of their high position, announce loudly to the world the principles, the resolution, and the will of the two millions of this great Commonwealth. Sir, the words your Excellency has honoured me with will have their weight throughout the world. The jeering smile of the despots, which accompanied my wandering, will be changed, at the report of these proceedings, to a frown which may yet cast fresh mourning over families, as it has cast over mine; nevertheless the afflicted will wait to be consoled by the dawn of public happiness. From the words which your Excellency spoke, the nations will feel double resolution to shake off the yoke of despotism.