[When Kossuth had landed at Staten Island, thus for the first time
setting his foot on American soil, he was met by a deputation, which
made an address to him. He replied as follows (Dec. 5th, 1851)]:--
Ladies and gentlemen: The twelve hours that I have had the happiness to
stand on your shores, give me augury that, during my stay in the United
States, I shall have a pleasant duty to perform, in answering the
generous spirit of your people. I hope, however, that you will consider
that I am in the first moments of a hard task,--to address your
intelligent people in a tongue foreign to me. You will not expect from
me an elaborate speech, but will be contented with a few warmly-felt
words. Citizens, accept my fervent thanks for your generous welcome, and
my blessing upon your sanction of my hopes. You have most truly stated
what they are, when you announce the destiny of your glorious country,
and tell me that from it the spirit of liberty will go forth and achieve
the freedom of the world.
Yes, citizens, these are the hopes which have induced me, in a most
eventful period, to cross the Atlantic. I confidently hope, that as you
have anticipated my wishes by the expression of your generous
sentiments, so you will agree with me, that the spirit of liberty has to
go forth, not only spiritually, but materially, from your glorious
country. That spirit is a power for deeds, but is yet no _deed_ in
itself. Despotism and oppression never yet were beaten except by heroic
resistance. That is a sad necessity,--but it is a necessity
nevertheless. I have so learned it out of the great book of history. I
hope the people of the United States will remember, that in the hour of
_their_ nation's struggle, it received from Europe _more_ than
kind wishes. It received material aid from others in times past, and it
will, doubtless, now impart its mighty agency to achieve the liberty of
other lands.
Citizens, I thank you for having addressed me, not in the language of
party, but in the language of liberty, which is that of the United
States. I come hither, in the name of Hungary, to entreat, not from any
_party_ among you, but from your _whole nation_, a generous
protection for my country. And for that very reason, neither will I
intermeddle with any of your party questions. In England I often avowed
this principle; inasmuch as the very mission on which I come, is to ask
that the right of every nation to arrange its domestic concerns may be
respected. Notwithstanding this, I am sorry to see, that, before my
arrival, I have been charged with intermeddling with your presidential
election, because in one of my addresses in England I mentioned the name
of your fellow-citizen, Mr. Walker, as one of the candidates for the
Presidency. I confess with warm gratitude, that Mr. Walker uttered such
sentiments in England, as, if happily they are also those of the United
States, will enable me to declare, that Hungary and Europe are free.
Therefore I feel deeply indebted to him. But in no respect did I mix
myself up with your elections. I consider no man honest who does not
observe towards other nations the principles which he desires to be
observed towards his own: and therefore I will not interfere in your
domestic questions.
Allow me, citizens, to advert to one expression of your kind address,
personal to myself. You named me "Kossuth, Governor of Hungary."
My nomination to be Governor was not to gratify ambition. Never,
perhaps, did I feel sadder, than at the moment when that title was
conferred upon me; for I compared my feeble faculties and its high
responsibilities. It is therefore not from ambition that I thank you for
the title, but because the title rests upon our Declaration of
Independence; and by acknowledging it as mine, you recognize the
rightfulness and validity of that Declaration. And, gentlemen I frankly
declare that your whole people are bound in honour and duty to recognize
it. At this moment there is no other legitimate existing law in Hungary.
It was not the proclamation of a man or of a party. It was the solemn
declaration of the whole nation in _Congress_ assembled. It was
sanctioned by _every village_, and by _every municipality_. No
counter-proclamation has gone forth from Hungary. It has been overturned
solely by the invasion of an ambitious _foreign_ power, the Czar of
Russia; who can no more legitimately make or unmake a governor of
Hungary, than General Santa Anna, if in your late war he had forced his
way to Washington, could have unmade President Taylor. None of you will
admit that violence can destroy righteousness: it can but establish
unlawful, unrightful _fact_. If so,--if your own people, and not
foreign invaders, are the source of rightful law to _you_,--you
must in consistency recognize _our_ Independence as legitimate, and
its declaration as our still rightful law.
As to the praises which you were so kind as to bestow upon me, it is no
affectation in me when I declare that I am not conscious of having any
other merit than that of being a plain, straightforward man, a faithful
friend of freedom, a good patriot. And these qualities, gentlemen, are
so natural to _every_ honest man, that it is scarcely worth while
to speak of them; for I cannot conceive how a man with understanding and
with a sound heart, can be anything else than a good patriot and a lover
of freedom.
Yet my humble capacity has not preserved me from calumnies. Scarcely had
I arrived here, when I learned that I had been charged in the United
States with being an _irreligious man_. So long as despots exist,
and have the means to pay, they will find men to calumniate those who
are opposed to tyranny. But, suppose I were the most dishonest creature
in the world; in the name of all that is sacred, _what would that
matter in respect to the cause of Hungary?_ Would that cause become
less just, less righteous, less worthy of your sympathy, because I, for
instance, am a bad man? No! I believe you. It is not a question in
regard to any individual here. It is a question with regard to a just
cause, the cause of a country worthy to take its place in the great
family of the free nations of the world. Until I learn that you refuse
to recognize nations, whenever their governors fall short of religious
perfection, I need not care much about attacks on my mere personality.
But one thing I can scarcely comprehend,--that the PRESS--that mighty
vehicle of justice and champion of human rights--could have found an
organ, and that, in the United States, which (to say nothing of personal
calumnies) should degrade itself to assert that it was not the people of
Hungary, it was not myself and my coadjutors, that contended for
liberty; but it was the Emperor of Austria who was the champion of
liberty. Do not give it groans, gentlemen, but rather thank it; for
there can be no better service to any cause, than for its opponents to
manifest that they have nothing to say but what is ridiculous. That
_must_ have been a sacred and just cause, whose detractors need to
assert that the Emperor of Austria is the champion of freedom throughout
his own dominions and throughout the European continent.
I thank you that you have given me full proof that all these calumnies
have affected neither your judgment nor your heart. As this will be the
place whence I shall start back for Europe, I shall once more have the
happiness of addressing you publicly and bidding you an affectionate
adieu:--hoping then to be able to thank you for _acts_, as I now
thank you for _sentiments_.
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