Governor,--Amongst all that I have been permitted to see in the United
State's, nothing has more attracted my attention than that part of your
democratic institutions which I see developed in the mutual and
reciprocal relations between the people and the constituted public
authorities.
In that respect there is an immense difference between Europe and
America, for the understanding of which we have to take into account the
difference of the basis of the political organization, and together with
it what the public and social life has developed in both hemispheres.
The great misfortune of Europe is, that the present civilization was
born in those cursed days when Republicanism set and Royalty rose. It
was a gloomy change. Nearly twenty centuries have passed, and torrents
of blood have watered the red-hot chains, and still the fetters are not
broken; nay--it is our lot to have borne its burning heat--it is our lot
to grasp with iron hand the wheels of its crushing car. Destiny--no;
Providence--is holding the balance of decision; the tongue is wavering
yet; one slight weight more into the one, or into the other scale, will
again decide the fate of ages, of centuries.
Upon this mischievous basis of royalty was raised the building of
authority; not of that authority which commands spontaneous reverence by
merit and the value of its services, but of that authority which
oppresses liberty. Hence the authority of a public officer in
unfortunate Europe consists in the power to rule and to command, and not
in the power to serve his country well--it makes men oppressive
downwards, while it makes them creeping before those who are above. Law
is not obeyed out of respect, but out of fear. A man in public office
takes himself to be better than his countrymen, and becomes arrogant and
ambitious; and because to hold a public office is seldom a claim to
confidence, but commonly a reason to lose confidence; it is not a mark
of civic virtue and of patriotic devotion, but a stain of civic apostacy
and of venality; it is not a claim to be honoured, but a reason to be
distrusted; so much so, that in Europe the sad word of the poet is
indeed a still more sad fact.--
"When vice prevails and impious man bears sway
The post of honour is a private station."
So was it even in my own dear fatherland. Before our unfortunate but
glorious revolution of 1848, the principle of royalty had so much
spoiled the nature and envenomed the character of public office, that
(of course except those who derived their authority by election--which
we for our municipal life conserved amongst all the corruption of
European royalty through centuries) no patriot accepted an office in the
government: to have accepted one was to have resigned patriotism.
It was one of the brightest principles of our murdered Revolution--that
public office was restored to the place of civic virtue, and opened to
patriotism, by being raised from the abject situation of a tool of
oppression, to the honourable position of serving the country well.
Alas! that bright day was soon overpowered by the gloomy clouds of
despotism, brought back to our sunny sky by the freezing gale of Russian
violence. And on the continent of Europe there is night again. There is
scarcely one country where the wishes and the will of the people are
reflected in the government. There is no government which can say:
"My voice is the echo of the people's voice--I say what my people feels;
I proclaim what my people wills; I am the embodiment of his principles,
and not the controller of his opinion: the people and myself--we are
one."
No, on the continent of Europe people and governments are two hostile
camps. What immense mischief, pregnant with oppression and with nameless
woe, is encompassed within the circle of this single fact!
How different the condition of America! It is not _men_ who rule,
but _the law;_ and law is obeyed, because the people is respecting
the general will by respecting the law. Public office is a place of
honour, because it is the field for patriotic devotion. Governments have
not the arrogant pretension to be the masters of the people; but have
the proud glory to be its faithful servants. A public officer ceases not
to be a citizen; he has doubly the character of a citizen, by sharing in
and by executing the people's will. And whence this striking difference?
It is because the civilization of America is founded upon the principle
of Democracy. It was born when Royalty declined, and Republicanism rose.
Hence the delightful view, not less instructive than interesting, that
here in America, instead of the clashing dissonance between the words
"government" and "people" we see them melting into one accord of
harmony.
Thus here the public opinion of the people never can fail to be a direct
rule for the government, and reciprocally the word of the government
has the weight of a fact by the people's support. When your government
speaks, it is the people which speaks.
Sir, I most humbly thank your Excellency, that you have been pleased to
afford to me the benefit of hearing and seeing that delightful as well
as happy harmony between the people and the government of the State of
Indiana, in the support of that noble and just cause which I plead, on
the issue of which, not the future of my country only depends, but
together with it, the future condition of all those parts of our globe
which are confined within the boundaries of Christian civilization,
which, be sure of it, gentlemen, in the ultimate issue, will have the
same fate.
Sir, it is not without reason, that at Indianapolis in particular,--and
to your Excellency, the truly faithful, the high-minded, and the
deservedly popular Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth, I speak that
word. It is not the first time that your Excellency, surrounded as now,
has spoken as the honoured organ of the public opinion of Indiana. It is
not yet two years since your Excellency did the same on the occasion of
a visit of the favourite son of Kentucky, Governor Crittenden. I well
remember the topic of your eloquence. It was the solicitude of Indiana
in regard to the glorious Union of these Republics. May God preserve it
for ever! But precisely because you, the favourite son of Indiana and
the honoured representatives of the sovereign people of Indiana--in one
accord of perfect harmony esteem the Gordian knot of the Union above
all, allow me to say once more, that if the United States permit the
principle of non-interference to be blotted out from the code of nations
on earth, foreign interference mingling with some domestic discord,
perhaps with that which two years ago called forth your patriotic
solicitude for the Union; yes, foreign interference mingling with some
of your domestic discords, will be the Alexander who will cut asunder
the Gordian knot of your Union, in this our present century.
Republics exist upon principles: they are secure only when they act upon
principles. He who does not accept a principle, asserted by another,
will not long enjoy the benefit of it himself; and nations always perish
by their own sin. Oh may those whom your united people entrusted with
the noble care to be guardians of your Union--be pleased to consider
that truth ere it be too late.
Sir, to the State of Indiana I am in many respects particularly obliged.
True, I have had invitations to visit many other States, but the
invitation from the State of Indiana was first received. Please to
accept my warmest thanks. I have seen in other States a harmony between
the people and the government, but nowhere has the Governor of a State
condescended to represent the people in a public welcome, nowhere
stepped out as the orator of the people's sympathy and its sentiment. I
most humbly thank you for this honour.
In Maryland, the Governor introduced me to the Legislature. In
Pennsylvania the chief Magistrate was the organ of a common welcome of
the Legislature and Citizens. In Massachusetts he took the lead as the
people's elect in recommending my principles to the Legislature--and in
Ohio the chief Magistrate, by accepting the Presidency of the
Association of the friends of Hungary, became generally the executive of
the people's practical sympathy, which so magnanimously responded to the
many political manifestations of its Representatives in the Legislature.
Let me hope, sir, that as you have been generously pleased to be the
interpreter of Indiana's welcome and sympathy, you will also not refuse
to become the Chief Executive Magistrate to the practical development of
the same.
I may cordially thank, in the name of my cause, the people of Indiana,
its Governor, and Representatives, for the high honour of the
Legislature's invitation, and of this public welcome.
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