Gentlemen,--Highly as I value the opportunity to meet the gentlemen of
the Bar, I should have felt very much embarrassed to have to answer the
address of that corporation before such a numerous and distinguished
assembly, had not you, sir, relieved my well-founded anxiety by justly
anticipating and appreciating my difficulties. Let me hope, that herein
you were the interpreter of this distinguished assembly's indulgence.
Gentlemen of the Bar, you have the noble task to be the first
interpreters of the law; to make it subservient to justice; to maintain
its eternal principles against encroachment; and to restore those
principles to life, whenever they become obliterated by misunderstanding
or by violence. My opinion is, that Law must keep pace in its
development with institutions and intelligence, and until these are
perfect, law is and must be with them in continual progress. Justice is
immortal, eternal, and immutable, like God himself; and the development
of law is only then a progress, when it is directed towards those
principles which, like Him, are eternal; and whenever prejudice or error
succeeds in establishing in customary law any doctrine contrary to
eternal justice, it is one of your noblest duties, gentlemen,--having no
written Code to fetter justice within the bonds of error and
prejudice,--it is one of your noblest duties to apply _Principles_,
--to show that an unjust custom is a corrupt practice, an
abuse; and by showing this, to originate that change, or rather
development in the unwritten, customary law, which is necessary to make
it protect justice, instead of opposing and violating it.
If this be your noble vocation in respect to the Private laws of your
country, let me entreat you, gentlemen, to extend it to that Public law
which, regulating the mutual duties of nations towards each other, rules
the destinies of humanity. You know that in that eternal code of "nature
and of nature's God," which your forefathers invoked when they raised
the colonies of England to the rank of a free nation, there are no
pettifogging subtleties, but only everlasting principles: everlasting,
like those by which the world is ruled. You know that when artificial
cunning of ambitious oppressors succeeds to pervert those principles,
and when passive indifference or thoughtlessness submits to it, as
weakness must submit: it is the noble destiny--let me say, duty--of
enlightened nations, alike powerful as free, to restore those eternal
principles to practical validity, so that justice, light, and truth may
sway, where injustice, oppression, and error have prevailed. Raise high
the torch of truth; cast its beams on the dark field of arbitrary
prejudice; become the champions of principles, and your people will be
the regenerators of International law.
It will. A tempestuous life has somewhat sharpened my eye, and had it
even not done so, still I would dare to say, I know how to read your
people's heart. It is conscious of your country's power; it is jealous
of its own dignity; it knows that it is able to restore the law of
nations to the principles of justice and right; and knowing its ability,
its will shall not be lacking. Let the cause of Hungary become the
opportunity for the restoration of true and just international law.
Mankind is come to the eleventh hour in its destinies. One hour of delay
more, and its fate may be sealed, and nothing left to the generous
inclinations of your people--so tender-hearted, so noble, and so
kind--but to mourn over murdered nations, its beloved brethren in
humanity.
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.
* * * * *