[_To the Clergy of Cincinnati_.]
The clergy of Cincinnati addressed Kossuth by the mouth of the Rev. Mr.
Fisher. Among other topics, this gentleman said:--
We wish to _you_ first, and through you, to the world, to express
our respect for those heroic clergymen who dared to offer public prayers
to Almighty God for the success of your arms. We have not forgotten the
manner in which Austria attempted to dragoon their tongues into silence,
and their souls into abject submission. Nor can we believe that a
country with such pastors--that a country whose religious interests are
confided to men ready to pray against the Despot, will be suffered by
our heavenly Father to remain trodden down, and to have her name blotted
out of the history of nations. If in the great battle of freedom, the
heart of the minister of religion at the Altar, beats in sympathy with
the heart of the minister at the Council Board, and the soldier in the
battle-field, there is then a union of the moral, intellectual, and
physical forces of a nation, which we have been taught to believe would
generally and ultimately be victorious.
We frankly confess to you that our hope that Hungary is not to share the
fate of unhappy Poland, is grounded first on the large element of a
Protestant ministry she embraces, and secondly on the advance which the
nations are making in a true understanding of the principles of
republican freedom. We believe the cause of Hungary to be just. Against
the usurpations of Kings and perjured Princes--against the interference
of foreign powers to assist in treading on the sparks of liberty
anywhere on the earth, and especially in such a land as yours, we claim
the privilege at the fit time of entering our protest and expressing
toward such acts our deepest abhorrence. And while we desire most
earnestly the advent of universal peace, and rejoice that the power of
moral principles is increasing in the world, and anticipate the day when
the nations shall learn war no more, yet we are fully convinced, both
from the Holy Scriptures and the history of the past, that under the
overruling providence of God wars occasioned by the oppression, the
ambition, and the covetousness of men, are often the means of breaking
up the stagnant waters of superstition and irreligion, and securing to
the truth a position from which it may most successfully send abroad its
light, and mould the heart of a nation to religion and peace.
_Despotism is_ in our view _a perpetual war of a few upon the
many_; and we must unlearn some of the earliest lessons that our
mothers taught us and our fathers illustrated in their lives, before we
can cease to sympathize with the assertors of their rights against the
force or the fraud of their fellow-men. And since the sad issue of
revolution after revolution in infidel France, there are not a few of
us, who have indulged the hope (especially since your visit to our
shores), that in central Europe, in your native land, among an
undebauched and a Bible-reading people, a government might arise that
would accord freedom of conscience to all, and shine as a light of
virtuous republicanism upon the darkness around.
In meeting you thus we design no mere display, no ineffective parade of
words. We wish to give whatever weight of influence we may bear in this
community, to the cause of freedom in your native land, to assist in
securing to you and your nation, such aid as a nation situated as we are
can _wisely_ give, so as best to subserve the interests of liberty
and humanity in all the world. We regard the moral influence of this
country as of the first importance; and the peaceful working of
republican institutions as a daily protest against despotism. And for
ourselves we pledge to you and your country, that we will, in public and
private, bear your cause upon our hearts, and invoke in your behalf, the
intervention of an arm that no earthly power can resist.
Kossuth replied at length. The following is an extract from his
speech:--
You have been pleased to refer to war as, under certain circumstances,
an instrumentality of Divine Providence--and indeed so it is. Great
things depend upon the exact definition of a word. There is, I suppose,
nobody on earth who takes war for a moral or happy condition. Every man
must wish peace; but peace must not be confounded with oppression. It
is our duty, I believe, to follow the historical advice of the
Scriptures, which very often have pointed out war as an instrumentality
against oppression and injustice.
You have very truly said that despotism is a continued war of the few
against the many, of ambition against mankind. Now if that be
true--(and true it is--for war is nothing else than an appeal to
force)--then how can any persons claim of oppressed nations not to
resort to war? Who makes war? those who defend themselves? or those who
attack others? Now if it be true that despotism is a continued attack
upon mankind, then war comes from that quarter, and I have no where in
the world heard that an unjust attack should not be opposed by a just
defence. It is absurd to entreat nations not to disturb a peace which
does not exist. What would have become of Christianity in Europe (and in
further consequence, also in America), if in those times, when
Mohammedanism was yet a conquering power, Hungary out of love of peace
had not opposed Mohammedanism in defence of Christianity? What would
have become of Protestantism when assailed by Charles V, by Philip II,
and others? Did Luther or others forbid the use of arms against arms, to
protect for men the right of private judgment in matters of salvation.
I have seen war. I know what an immense machine it is. What an immense
misfortune and with what sufferings it is connected. Believe me, there
is no nation which loves war, but many that fear war less than they hate
oppression, which prevents both their happiness on earth and the
development of private judgment for salvation in eternity.
You have been pleased to assure me that you take the cause of Hungary
for a just cause. I most respectfully thank you for it. I consider your
judgment of immense value in that respect. Why? Because you are too
deeply penetrated by the sacred mission to which you have devoted your
lives, ever to approve anything which you would not consider consistent
and in harmony with your position as ministers of the gospel; and
therefore when you give me the verdict of justice for the cause of
Hungary, I take your approbation as a sanction from the principles of
the Christian religion.
Let me therefore entreat you, gentlemen, to bestow your action, your
prayers, and that which in the gospel is connected with
prayers--watchfulness, upon my country's cause. It is not without
design that I mention this word watchfulness; for it would be not
appropriate for me to speak any word which might excite mere passion. I
rely upon principles in their plainness, and make no appeal to blind
excitement; but I venture to throw out the hint, that in certain
quarters even the word _religion_ is employed as a tool against
that cause which you pronounce to be just; and therefore I may be
permitted to claim from ministers of Christ--from Protestant
clergymen--from American Protestant clergymen, that they will not only
pray for that cause, but also be watchful against that abuse of religion
for the oppression of a just cause.
You have farther stated that as American clergymen, you entertain the
conviction that a free Gospel can only be permanently enjoyed under a
free civil government. Now what is free Gospel? The trumpet of the
Gospel is of course sounded from the moral influence of the truths,
which are deposited by Divine Providence in the holy Scriptures. No
influence can be more powerful than that of the truth which God himself
has revealed, and nevertheless you say, that for permanent enjoyment of
this moral influence, the field of free civil government is necessary.
So it is. Now, let me make the application of these very truths in
respect to the moral institutions of your country. I entirely trust that
all other institutions which we know now will by and bye disappear
before the moral influence of _your_ institutions, as is proved by
the wonderful development of this country--but under one condition, that
the nations be restored to national independence: since, so long as
absolutist power rules the world, there is no place, no field _for_
the moral influence of your institutions. Precisely as the moral
influence of the Gospel cannot spread without a free civil government,
so the influence of your institutions can spread only upon the basis of
national independence, as a common benefit to every nation.
You will, I hope, generously excuse me for having answered your generous
sentiments in such a plain manner. My indisposition has given me no time
to prepare for the honour of meeting you in such a way as I would have
wished. You have given joy, consolation, and hope to my heart, and
encouragement to go on in that way which you honour with your welcome
and your sympathy; and I shall thank this your generosity in the most
effective manner, by following your advice and by further using those
exertions which have met your approbation.
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