Free and independent themselves, the people of Ohio can not look with indifference on the great contest in which you are engaged. The history of that fearful struggle which resulted in the achievement of their own independence is still fresh in their recollection. Always on the side of the oppressed, no cold or calculating policy can suppress or control their sympathies.
The cause of Hungary, which you so eloquently plead, and which it is your high and sacred mission to maintain, is the cause of freedom in every quarter of the world. The principles involved in that cause, form the basis of our own institutions, the source of our present prosperity and greatness, and the foundation of all our hopes and anticipations of the future.
It would be strange, indeed, if a cause so pure and holy, or a champion so gifted, should fail to command the highest regard and admiration of freemen.
In the name, then, and on behalf of the General Assembly of Ohio, I bid you welcome to our midst.
I welcome you, sir, to the capital of a great and flourishing commonwealth—to its halls of legislation, which, in your own fatherland, were the scenes of some of your proudest triumphs, and to the hearts of a free, generous, and sympathizing people.
KOSSUTH'S REPLY.
Mr. President—The General Assembly of Ohio, having magnanimously bestowed upon me the high honour of this national welcome, it is with profound veneration that I beg leave to express my fervent gratitude for it.
Were even no principles for the future connected with the honour which I now enjoy, still the past would be memorable as history, and not fail to have a beneficial influence, continuously to develop the Spirit of the Age. Almost every century has had one predominant idea, which imparted a common direction to the activity of nations. This predominant idea is the Spirit of the Age, invisible yet omnipresent; impregnable, all-pervading; scorned, abused, opposed, and yet omnipotent.
The spirit of our age is Democracy. All for the people and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people. That is Democracy, and that is the ruling tendency of the spirit of our age.
To this spirit is opposed the principle of Despotism, claiming sovereignty over mankind, and degrading nations from the position of a self-conscious, self-consistent aim, to the condition of tools subservient to the authority of ambition.