Everywhere have the untrammelled masses of this people, as you passed,
lifted up their hands and voices, and supplicated the Almighty to give
to you blessing, and to your country redemption. Let this be some
recompense for the privations you have encountered, while, like Aeneas,
you have been wandering an exile from your native, captured, prostrate
Troy.
I should not do my whole duty without saying, in behalf of the thousands
assembled here, that we have an unshaken confidence in Hungary's chosen
leader. We are not so blind that we cannot observe how no envenomed
shaft was fixed to the bow-string against him, in England and America,
while he was yet a helpless and powerless refugee, within Turkish
hospitality. But when the people were gathering around him in free
countries, shoulder to shoulder--when even the hearts of statesmen began
to open to him, and hope dawned in the Hungarian sky once more, then it
was these arrows of detraction darkened the air, shot from the Court of
the French Usurper, or from the pensioners of autocratic bounty. Your
patient labours and forbearance in your country's cause, while thus
assailed, have won for you, sir, our sincere respect, and another wreath
at the hand of the Muse of History.
Kossuth replied:
Gentlemen,--During my brief sojourn in your hospitable city, I have
heard so much local pettiness and so much hypocritical tactics of men
imported from Austria to advocate the cause of Russo-Austrian despotism
in Republican America, and chiefly in your city here, that indeed I
began to long for the pure air where the merry sunshine, as well as the
melancholy drop of rain, the roaring of the thunder storm, equally as
the sigh of the breeze, tell to the oppressors and their tools, and not
only to the oppressed, that there is a God in heaven who rules the
universe by eternal laws; the Almighty Father of humanity, omnipotent in
wisdom, bountiful in His omnipotence, just in His judgment, and eternal
in His love; the Lord who gave strength to the boy David against
Goliath, who often makes out of humble individuals efficient instruments
to push forward the condition of mankind towards that destiny which His
merciful will has assigned to it--His will, against which neither the
proud ambition of despots, nor the skill of their obsequious tools can
prevail--in Him I put my trust and go cheerfully on in my duties. I am
in the right way to benefit the cause, noble and just and great, to
which I devoted my life; for if there were no success in what I am
engaged, the despots would neither fear, nor hate, nor persecute me.
Their persecution imparts more hope to my breast than all your kindness;
and I give you my word that if I have the consciousness of having well
merited in my past the hatred and the fear of tyrants and their
instruments, so may God bless me as I will do all a mortal man can do to
merit that hatred and that fear still more.
Why? Am I not standing on the banks of the Mississippi, cheered,
welcomed, and supported, as warmly and as heartily as when I stepped
first upon your glorious shores? Opposition, hostility, venomous
calumny, have exhausted all means to check the sympathy of the people.
And has that sympathy subsided? has it abated? is it checked? No, it
rolls on swelling as I advance--here I have again an imposing evidence
before my eyes, here in St. Louis, my namesake city, where so much, and
that so perseveringly, was done to prevent this evidence.
Yes, it rolls, and will roll on, swelling till it will finally submerge
all endeavours to mislead the instincts of freemen, to fetter the
energies of the nation, to stifle its spirit, and to check the growing
aspirations of the people's upright heart.
When the struggle is about principles, indifference is suicide. Nay,
indifference is impossible: for indifference about the fate of that
principle upon which your national existence and all your future
rests--is passive submission to the opposite principle--it is almost
equivalent to an alliance with the despots. _He who is not for freedom
is against freedom_. There is no third choice.
The people's instinct feels the danger of losing an irreparable
opportunity, and hence the fact, never yet met in history, that a
homeless exile becomes an object of such sympathy, rolling on like a
sea, in spite of all the passionate rage of my enemies, and all the
Christian tolerance of the Reverend Father Jesuits, which they in such
an evident manner show to me. It is time to advertise them by a few
remarks that I am aware of their hostility, and ready to meet it openly.
I make this advertisement by design here, because it is not my custom to
attack from behind or in the dark. Mine is not the famous doctrine,
_that the end sanctifies the means_. I like to meet the enemy face
to face--a fair field and fair arms.
And in one thing more I will not imitate my reverend opponents. I will
never indulge in any personalities, never act otherwise than becoming to
a gentleman. If they choose to pursue a different course, let them do
so, and let them earn the fruits of it.
My humble person I entirely submit to the good pleasure of their
passion. If they tell you, gentlemen, that I am no great man, they speak
the truth. Being on good terms with my conscience, I do not much care to
be on bad terms with Czars and Emperors, their obedient servants, and
the reverend father Jesuits. Nay, if I were on good terms with them, I
scarcely could remain on good terms with my conscience. So much for
myself--now a few words as to the question between us.
I am claiming moral and material aid against that Czar of Russia who is
the most bloody persecutor of Roman Catholics. The present Pope himself,
before the revolution, when he was yet more of a High Priest than of an
Italian Despot, and cared more about spiritual than temporal business,
openly and bitterly complained in the councils of the Cardinals against
that bloody persecution which the Roman Catholics have suffered from the
Czar of Russia. Now, considering that I plead for republican principles,
to which the Reverend Father Jesuits should be _here_ warmly
attached, if they are willing to have the reputation of good citizens,
and not to be traitors to your Republic, which affords to them not only
the protection of its laws, but also the full enjoyment of all the
privileges of your republican freedom;--it is indeed a strange, striking
fact, to see these reverend fathers here in a Republic so warmly
advocating the cause of despotism, and so passionately persecuting the
cause I humbly plead, which at the same time is the cause of political
freedom and religious liberty for numerous millions of Roman Catholics
throughout Europe.
As I am somewhat acquainted with the terrible history of that Order, I
thought to find the explanation of this striking fact, in the historical
ambition of that Order to rule the world--this, their everlasting
standard idea, to which they in all times sacrificed everything, and
misused even the holiest of all religion, as an instrument to that
ambition. But here in St. Louis I got hold of a definite circumstance
which makes the matter quite clear.
I hold in my hand the printed Catalogue of the Society of Jesuits in the
province of Missouri, as they term your state. Herein I see that
amongst the thirty-five members officiating in the college of the Father
Jesuits, in St. Louis, there are not less than _eight_ Reverend
Father Jesuits imported from Austria. Now you see why I am so persecuted
here. This plain fact tells the story of a big book.
But amongst all that the reverend gentlemen oppose to me there are only
two considerations to which the honour of my cause and of my nation
forces me to answer in a few remarks. They charge against me that my
cause is hostile to the Roman Catholic religion, and to get the Irish
citizens to side with them for the support of Russo-Austrian despotism
they charge me that I am no friend of Ireland.
I. As to the Catholic religion--I indeed am a Protestant, not only by
birth, but also by conviction; and warmly penetrated by this conviction,
I would delight to see the same shared by the whole world. But before
all, I am mortally opposed to intolerance and to sectarism. I consider
religion to be a matter of conscience which every man has to arrange
between God and himself. And therefore I respect the religious
conviction of every man. I claim religious liberty for myself and my
nation, and must of course respect in others the right I claim for
myself. There is nothing in the world capable to rouse a greater
indignation in my breast than religious oppression. But particularly I
respect the Catholic religion, as the religion of some seven millions of
my countrymen, to whom I am bound in love, in friendship, in home
recollections, in gratitude, and in brotherhood, with the most sacred
ties. And I am proud to say, that as in general it is a pre-eminent
glory of my country, to be attached to the principle of full religious
liberty without any restriction, for all to all, so it is the particular
glory of my Roman Catholic countrymen not to be second to any in the
world, on the one side in attachment to their own religion, and on the
other side in toleration for other religions.
The Austrian dynasty having been continually encroaching upon the
chartered right of Protestantism, who were those who struggled in the
first rank for our rights? Our Roman Catholic countrymen! It was a
glorious sight, almost unparalleled in history, but was also fully
appreciated by the Hungarian Protestants. All of us, man by man, would
rather sacrifice life, and blood, and goods, than to allow that a hair's
breadth should be crushed from the religious liberty of our Roman
Catholic countrymen.
Now, what position took the Roman Catholics of Hungary in our past
struggle? There was not only no difference between them and the
Protestants in their devotion for our country's freedom and
independence, but they, according to the importance of their number,
took in the struggle a very pre-eminent part. The Roman Catholic Bishops
of Hungary protested against the perjurious treachery of the dynasty;
many of them suffer even now for their devotion to justice, liberty, and
right; and who is the Jesuit who dares to affirm that he is more devoted
to the Catholic religion than the Bishops of Hungary? Our battalions
were filled with Roman Catholic volunteers; Catholic priests led their
faithful flocks to the battle field; our National Convention was
composed in majority of Catholics--all the Catholic population, without
any exception, consented to and cheered enthusiastically my being
elected Governor of Hungary, though I am a Protestant. I had and I have
their friendship, their devotion, their support; and when I formed the
first Ministry of Independent Hungary, not only a full half of the new
Ministry I entrusted to Roman Catholics, but especially I nominated a
Roman Catholic Bishop to be Minister of public instruction, and all the
Protestants of my country hailed the nomination with applause. Such is
the cause of Hungary. Who dares now to charge me that that cause is
hostile to the Roman Catholic religion?
But I am allied with Mazzini, with the Romans, and with the Italians;
thus goes on the charge: and these cursed Italians are enemies to the
Pope. Not to the Pope as High Priest of the Roman Catholic Church, but
as despotic sovereign of Rome and his corrupted temporal government--the
worst of human inventions. How long has it been a principle of the Roman
Catholic religion, that the Romans should not be Republicans? and that
the high priest of the Roman church should be a despotic sovereign over
the Roman nation? and in that capacity be a devoted ally and obedient
servant to the Czar of Russia, the sworn enemy and bloody persecutor of
Roman Catholicism? Why, when in 1849, the French Republic sent an army
against the Roman Republic to restore the Pope, not to his spiritual
authority, because that was by nobody contradicted, but to his temporal
despotism, the whole danger could have been averted by the Romans by
becoming, _en masse_, Protestants. The idea was pronounced in Rome
and not a single Roman accepted it. They preferred to struggle without
hope of victory--they preferred to bleed and to die rather than to
abandon their faith.
Now, who can dare to insult that people--who can dare to insult the
Roman Catholics of Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Germany, Poland, France--who
can dare to insult the thousands of thousands of Roman citizens of the
United States--Senators, Governors, Judges--men of all public and
private positions--who can dare to insult them, as hostile to their own
religion, because they unite to support that cause which I plead? And
because they side with republican freedom, with civil and religious
liberty, against Russo-Austrian despotism?
Who can dare to affirm that he represents the Catholic religion, if
three millions of Catholic Romans do not represent it? The Reverend
Father Jesuits perhaps!
I take the liberty to say in a few words: They are that society which
Clement XIV, the high priest of the Roman Catholic Church, abolished as
dangerous to the Roman Catholic religion; they are those whom every
Roman Catholic King excluded from his territories as dangerous to
religion and social order; they are those, the ascendancy of whom has
always been a period of disaster and confusion to the Roman Catholic
church; they are those who now make an alliance or rather a compact of
submission with the Czar of Russia, like that which evil-doers,
according to the superstition of past ages, made with the evil spirit.
And here, in free republican America, they plead the cause of Russian
despotism; the cause of that Czar, who is the relentless persecutor of
Catholicism; who forced the United Greek Catholics, in the Polish
Provinces, by every imaginable cruelty, to abjure their connection with
Rome, and carried out, at a far greater expense of human life than
Ferdinand and Isabella or Louis XIV, the most stupendous proselytism
which violence has yet achieved. More than a hundred thousand human
beings had died of misery, or under the lash, as the Minsk nuns were
proved to have been killed, before he terrified these unhappy millions
into a submission against which their consciences revolted. Yet with
this man, red with Catholic blood, and damned with the million curses of
their co-religionists, the Rev. Father Jesuits are in alliance; and why?
Because it is a characteristic of that Order, to be ambitious to rule
the world. To achieve this, they have now made the Pope the obedient
satrap of the Czar. Into the enormity of this, enlightened Catholics see
clearly. Roman Catholics of Hungary, of Poland, of Italy, Germany, and
France have understood this. Is it possible that those of this republic
should less understand it? Why, in Italy and Rome itself, a majority of
the Catholic clergy are hostile to the temporal authority of the Pope,
and sympathize with Mazzini so generally, that of _seventeen_
conspirators recently arrested for conspiring in favour of the Republic
against Austria, _sixteen_ were _priests_ belonging to the
humbler orders of the clergy.
Gentlemen, I am sorry to have to argue such a question in the United
States. If it be indeed true, that amongst the Roman Catholics here an
opposition is got up against our cause, let them remember that in
opposing me, they oppose the independence and freedom of millions of
Hungarian Catholics,--of Catholic Italy,--of the Catholic half of
Germany, and of Catholic France; they are supporting the Czar, the most
bloody enemy of their religion. Yet I am glad to be able to say, that
not all the Roman Catholics here are opposed to me. I have warm friends
and kind protectors among them. The gallant General Shields,--Mr. Downs,
the Senator from Louisiana,--the warm-hearted Governor of
Maryland,--Judge Le Grand at Baltimore, and many other of my kindest
friends, are Roman Catholics. From New York onward, multitudes of Roman
Catholics have shared the general sympathy. And why not? surely freedom
is a treasure to every religious denomination whatsoever.[*]
[Footnote *: Some sentences have been added from the Pittsburg speech,
at the end of which the same subject was treated.]
So much for the charge that the cause which I plead--the cause of
millions of Roman Catholics--is hostile to the Roman Catholic religion.
Should I be forced to enter upon this topic once more, I will take the
heart-revolting history of those who have thus calumniated our cause,
into my hands, and recall to the memory of public opinion the terrible
pages of blood, ambition, countless crimes, and intolerance; but I hope
there will be no occasion for it.
II. Now as to Ireland. Where is a man on earth, with uncorrupted soul
and with liberal instincts in his heart, who would not sympathize with
poor, unfortunate Ireland? Where is a man, loving freedom and right, in
whom the wrongs of Green Erin would not stir the heart? Who could
forbear warmly to feel for the fatherland of the Grattans, of
O'Connells, and of Wolfe Tones? I indeed am such, that wherever is
oppression and a people, there is my love.
But why do I not plead Erin's wrongs? I am asked. My answer is: am I not
pleading the principle of Liberty? and is the cause of freedom not the
cause of Ireland?
I see all the despots of the European continent united in a crusade
against liberty; there are two powers still neutral, the position of
which may well decide for or against despotism; these two powers are
Great Britain and America. If the Almighty blessed my endeavours--if I
could succeed to contribute something, that America, and by its
influence over the public opinion of the people of England, Great
Britain itself, should side with Liberty, from whatever consideration--
from whatever interest, against despotism--then indeed I boldly declare
before God and men, that I have achieved a greater benefit and done a
better service to the future of Ireland, than all who go about loudly
crying about Erin's wrongs, and not doing anything for the triumph of
that cause which is about to be decided, and is the cause of all
nations, who are oppressed, and of all who are, or will be free.
Whereas, if, by uniting in the chorus of empty words, I should
contribute to alarm not only the government, but also the people of
England, and to force that government to side with despotism in the
decisive struggle against liberty, (to which that government, being as
it is, aristocratical, feels but too much inclined,) then indeed I am
sure I should do such a wrong to the future of Ireland, as the sacrifice
of my life and torrents of blood, and the sufferings of generations,
could not expiate.
Be sure therefore, gentlemen, that every man who pleads for liberty,
pleads for Ireland; be sure, that every blow stricken for liberty is
stricken also for Ireland; that not always the most noisy are the best
friends; and prudent activity is often better service than any show of
eloquent words.
And so let me hope, that while it is sure that he who is for freedom is
for Ireland, it also will be found that Irish blood can never be against
liberty.
And as to you all, gentlemen, let me hope that, however the advocates of
despotism may try to mislead public opinion in free America, the
uncorrupted noble instinct of the people will prove to the world that it
is not in vain, that the down-trodden spirit of liberty raises the sign
of distress towards you, and that the wronged and the oppressed can
confidently appeal for help, for justice and for redress, to the free
and powerful Republic of America.
I thank you, gentlemen, for the patience with which you have listened
during this torrent of rain. It shows that your sympathy is warm and
sincere--one which cannot be cooled down or washed away.
* * * * *