[_Mobile, Alabama, April 3d_.]
Ladies and gentlemen,--I did not expect to have either the honour of a
public welcome, or the opportunity of addressing such a distinguished
assembly at Mobile--not as if I had entertained the slightest doubt
about the generous sentiments of this enlightened community, but because
I am called by pressing duties to hasten back to the east of the United
States. Indeed only the accident of not finding a vessel ready to leave
when I arrived here, has enabled me to see the fair flower of your
generosity added to the garland of sympathy which the people of your
mighty Republic has given me, and which will shine from the banner of
resistance to all-encroaching despotism, that banner which the
expectations of millions call me to raise.
But however unexpected my arrival, the congenial kindness of your warm
hearts left me not unnoticed and uncheered; and besides the joyful
consolation which I feel on this occasion, there is also important
benefit in the generous reception you honour me with.
Firstly, because one of the United States Senators of Alabama, Mr.
Clemens, was pleased to pronounce himself not only opposed to my
principles, but hostile to my own humble self. I thank God for having
well deserved the hatred of Czars and Emperors; and so may God bless me,
as I will all my life try to deserve it still more; but I cannot equally
say, that I have deserved the inclemency of Mr. Clemens, though it be
not the least passionate of all. Well, ladies and gentlemen, after the
spontaneous sympathy which I here so unexpectedly meet, I may be
permitted to believe that it is not the State of Alabama, but Mr.
Clemens only whom I have to count amongst my persecutors and my enemies.
Secondly, I must mention, that it is my good fortune not often to meet
arguments opposed to my arguments, but only personal attacks. Well, that
is the best acknowledgment which could have been paid to the justice of
my cause. For even if I were all that my enemies would like to make me
appear, would thereby the cause I plead and the principles I advocate be
less just, less righteous, and less true? Now amongst those personal
attacks there is one which says, that I am so impertinent as to dare
appeal from the government to the people: and that _I try to sow
dissension between the people and the government_. I declare in the
most solemn manner, this imputation to be entirely unfounded and
calumniatory. Who ever heard me say one single word of complaint or
dissatisfaction against your national government? When have I spoken
otherwise than in terms of gratitude, high esteem, and profound
veneration about the Congress and Government of the United States? and
how could I have spoken otherwise; being, as I am, indebted to Congress
and Government, for my liberation, for the most generous protection, and
for the highest honours a man was ever yet honoured with? And besides,
I have full reason to say that _it is entirely false to insinuate that
in political respects I had been disappointed with my visit to
Washington City_,--no, it is not respect alone, but the intensest
gratitude that I feel. The principles and sentiments of the Chief
Magistrate of your great republic, expressed to the Congress in his
official messages; the principles of your government so nobly
interpreted by the Hon. Secretary of State, at the congressional
banquet, confirming expressly the contents of his immortal letter to
Mons. Hulsemann; the further private declarations, in regard to the
practical applications of those governmental principles; all and
everything could but impress my mind with the most consoling
satisfaction and the warmest gratitude;--as may be seen in the letter of
thanks which on the eve of my departure I sent to His Excellency the
President and to both Houses of Congress.
That being my condition, who can charge me with sowing dissension
between the people and the government, when I, accepting such
opportunities, as you also have been pleased kindly to offer to me,
plead the cause of my down-trodden country (for which both people and
government of the United States have manifested the liveliest sympathy;)
and advocate principles, entirely harmonizing with the official
declarations of your government? And what is it I say to the people in
my public addresses? I say, "the exigency of circumstances has raised
the question of foreign policy to the highest standard of
importance,--the question is introduced to the Congress, it must
therefore be brought to a decision, it cannot be passed in silence any
more. Your representatives in Congress take it for their noblest glory
to follow the sovereign will of the people; but to be able to follow it,
they must know it; yet they cannot know it without the people
manifesting its opinion in a constitutional way; since they have not
been elected upon the question of foreign policy, that question being
then not yet discussed. I therefore humbly entreat the sovereign people
of the United States to consider the matter, and to pronounce its
opinion, in such a way as it is consistent with law, and with their
constitutional duties and rights." May I not be tranquillized in my
conscience, that in speaking thus I commit no disloyal act, and do in no
way offend against the high veneration due from me to your constituted
authorities?
If it be so, then the generous manifestation of your sympathy I am
honoured with in Mobile, is again a highly valuable benefit to my cause,
because it has such a character of spontaneity, that, here at least, no
misrepresentation can charge me with having even endeavoured to elicit
that high-minded manifestation from the metropolis of the State of
Alabama.
So doubly returning my thanks for it, I beg leave to state what it is I
humbly entreat.
Firstly, when the struggle which is to decide on the freedom of Europe
has once broken out, Hungary has resources to carry it on: but she wants
initial aid, because her finances are all grasped by our oppressors. You
would not refuse to me, a houseless exile, _alms_ and commiseration
if I begged for myself. Surely then you cannot refuse it for my bleeding
fatherland, when I beg of you, as individuals, trifling sums, such as
each can well spare, and the gift of which does not entangle your
country in any political obligation.
Whatever may be my personal fate, millions would thank and coming
generations bless it as a source of happiness to them, as once the
nineteen million francs, 24,000 muskets, and thirty-eight vessels of war
which France gave to the cause of your own independence, have been a
source of happiness to you. I rely in that respect upon the republican
virtue which your immortal Washington has bequeathed to you in his
memorable address to M. Adet, the first French republican minister sent
to Washington. "_My anxious recollections and my best wishes are
irresistibly attracted whensoever in any country I see an oppressed
nation unfurl the banner of freedom_."
So spoke Washington; and so much for _private_ material aid; to
which nothing is required but a little sympathy for an unfortunate
people, which even Mr. Clemens may feel, whatever his personal aversion
for the man who is pleading not his own, but his brave people's cause.
As to the _political_ part of my mission, I humbly claim that the
United States may pronounce what is or should be the law of
nations--such as they can recognize consistently with the basis upon
which their own existence is established, and consistently with their
own republican principles.
And what is the principle of such a law of nations, which you as
republicans can recognize? Your greatest man, your first President,
Washington himself, has declared in these words: "_Every nation has a
right to establish that form of government under which it conceives it
may live most happy, and no government ought to interfere with the
internal concerns of another._"
And according to this everlasting principle, proclaimed by your first
President, your last President has again proclaimed in his last message
to the Congress, that "_the United States are forbidden to remain
indifferent to a case, in which the strong arm of a foreign power is
invoiced to repress the spirit of freedom in any country."
It is this declaration that I humbly claim to be sanctioned by the
sovereign will of the people of the United States, in support of that
principle which Washington already has proclaimed. And in that respect,
I frankly confess I should feel highly astonished, if the Southern
States proved not amongst the first, and amongst the most unanimous to
join in such a declaration. Because, of all the great principles
guaranteed by your constitution, there is none to which the southern
states attach a greater importance,--there is none which they more
cherish,--than the principle of self-government; the principle that
their own affairs are to be managed by themselves, without any
interference from whatever quarter, neither from another state, though
they are all estates of the same galaxy, nor from the central
government, though it is an emanation of all the states, and represents
the south as well as the north, and the east and the west; nor from any
foreign power, though it be the mightiest on earth.
Well, gentlemen, this great principle of self-government, is precisely
the ground upon which I stand. It is for the defence of this principle
that my nation rose against a world in arms; to maintain this principle
in the code of "nature and of nature's God," the people of Hungary spilt
their blood on the battlefield and on the scaffold. It is this principle
which was trodden down in Hungary by the centralization of Austria and
the interference of Russia. It is the principle which, if Hungary is not
restored to her sovereign independence, is blotted out for ever from the
great statute book of the nations, from the common law of mankind.
Like a pestilential disease, the violation of the principle of
self-government will spread over all the earth until it is destroyed
everywhere, in order that despots may sleep in security, for they know
that this principle is the strongest stronghold of freedom, and
therefore it is hated by all despots and all ambitious men, and by all
those who have sold their souls to despotism and ambition.
Gentlemen, you know well that the principle of self-government has two
great enemies--CENTRALIZATION and FOREIGN INTERFERENCE. Hungary is a
bleeding victim to both.
You have probably perceived, gentlemen, that the great misfortune of
Europe is the spirit of centralization encroaching upon all municipal
institutions and destroying self-government, not only by open despotism,
but also under the disguise of liberty. Fascinated by this dangerous
tendency, even republican France went on to sweep away all the traces of
self-government, and this is the reason why all her revolutions could
not assert liberty for her people, and why she lies now prostrate under
the feet of a usurper, without glory, without merit, without virtue.
Blind to their interests, the nations abandoned their real liberty, the
municipal institutions, for a nominal responsibility of ministers and
for parliamentary omnipotence. Instead of clinging to the principle of
self-government--the true breakwater against the encroachments of kings,
of ministers, of parliaments--they abandoned the principle which
enforces the real responsibility of ministers and raises the parliament
to the glorious position of the people's faithful servant; they
exchanged the real liberty of self-government for the fascinating
phantom of parliamentary omnipotence, making the elected of the people
the masters of the people, which, if it is really to be free, cannot
have any master but God. The old Anglo-Saxon municipal freedom has even
in England been weakened by this tendency; parliament has not only
fought against the prerogative of the crown, but has conquered the
municipal freedom of the country and of the borough. Green Erin sighs
painfully under this pressure, and English statesmen begin to be
alarmed. Hungary, my own dear fatherland, was the only country in Europe
which, amidst all adversaries, amidst all attacks of foreign
encroachment and all inducements of false new doctrines, remained
faithful to the great principle of self-government, at which the
perjurious dynasty of Austria has never ceased to aim deadly blows. To
get rid of these incessant attacks we availed ourselves of the condition
of Europe in 1848, and got our old national self-government guarantied
in a legal way, with the sanction of our then king, by substituting
_individual_ for collective responsibility of ministers; having
experienced that a board of ministers, though responsible by law and
composed of our own countrymen, was naturally and necessarily in
practice irresponsible. When the tyrants of Austria, whom our
forefathers had elected in an ill-fated hour to be our constitutional
kings, saw that their designs of centralization were obstructed, they
forsook their honour, they broke their oath, they tore asunder the
compact by which they had become kings; the diadem had lost its
brightness for them if it was not to be despotic.
They stirred up robbers and rebels against us: and when this failed,
then with all the forces of the empire attacked Hungary unexpectedly,
not thinking to meet with a serious opposition, because we had no army,
no arms, no ammunition, no money, no friends. They therefore declared
our constitution and our self-government, which we have preserved
through the adversities of ten centuries, at once and for ever
abolished.
But my heart could not bear this sacrilege. I and my political friends,
we called our people to arms to defend the palladium of our national
existence, the privilege of self-government, and that political, civil,
and religious liberty, and those democratic institutions, which, upon
the glorious basis of self-government, we had succeeded to assert for
all the people of Hungary. And the people nobly answered my call. We
struck down the centralizing tyrant to the dust; we drove him and his
double-faced eagle out from our country; our answer to his impious
treachery was the declaration of our independence and his forfeiture of
the crown.
Were we right to do so, or not?
We were; and _we had accomplished already our lawful enterprise
victoriously_; we had taken our competent seat amongst the
independent nations on earth. But the other independent powers, and
alas! even the United States, lingered to acknowledge our dearly but
gloriously bought independence; and beaten Austria had time to take her
refuge under the shelter of the other principle, hostile to
self-government, of the sacrilegious principle of FOREIGN ARMED
INTERFERENCE.
The Czar of Russia declared that the example of Hungary is dangerous to
the interests of absolutism! He interfered, and aided by treason, he
succeeded to crush freedom and self-government in Hungary, and to
establish a centralized absolutism there, where, through all the ages of
the past, the rule of despotism never had been established, and the
United States let him silently accomplish this violation of the common
law of nations.
Gentlemen, the law of nations, upon which you have raised the lofty hall
of your independence, does not exist any more. The despots are united
and leagued against national self-government. They declare it
inconsistent with their divine (rather Satanic) rights; and upon this
basis all the nations of the European Continent are held in fetters; the
government of France is become a vanguard to Russia, St. Petersburg is
transferred to Paris, and England is forced to arm and to prepare for
self-defence at home.
These are the immediate consequences of the downfall of the principle of
self-government in Hungary, by the violence of foreign interference. But
if this great principle is not restored to its full weight by the
restoration of Hungary's sovereign independence, then you will see yet
other consequences in your own country. _Your_ freedom and
prosperity is hated as dangerous to the despots of Europe. If you do not
believe me, believe at least what the organs of your enemies openly avow
themselves. Pozzo di Borgo, the great Russian diplomatist, and
Hulsemann, the little Austrian diplomatist, repeatedly in 1817 and 1823,
published that despotism is in danger, unless yourselves become a
king-ridden people. If you study the history of the Hungarian struggle,
you can also see the way by which the despots will carry their design.
The secret power of foreign diplomacy will foster amongst you the
principle of centralization; and, as is always the case, many who are
absorbed in some special aims of your party politics will be caught by
this snare; and when you, gentlemen of the south, oppose with energy
this tendency, dangerous to your dear principle of self-government, the
despots of Europe will first foment and embitter the quarrel and kindle
the fire of domestic dissensions, and finally they will declare that
your example is dangerous to order. Then foreign armed interference
steps in for centralization here, as for monarchy in the rest of
America.
Indeed, gentlemen, if there is any place on earth where this prospect
should be considered with attention, with peculiar care, it is here in
the southern states of this great union, because their very existence is
based on the great principle of self-government.
But some say there is no danger for the United States, in whatever
condition be the rest of the world. I am astonished to hear that
objection in a country, which, by a thousand ties, is connected with and
interested in the condition of the foreign world.
It is your own government which prophetically foretold in 1827, that
_the absolutism of Europe will not be appeased until every vestige of
human freedom has been obliterated even here_.
And is it upon the ruins of Hungary that the absolutist powers are now
about to realize this prophecy?
You are aware of the fact that every former revolution in Europe was
accompanied by some constitutional concessions, promised by the kings to
appease the storm, but treacherously nullified when the storm passed.
Out of this false play constantly new revolutions arose. It is therefore
that Russian interference in Hungary was preceded by a proclamation of
the Czar,--wherein he declares "that insurrection having spread in every
nation with an audacity which has gained new force in proportion to the
concessions of the governments," every concession must be withdrawn; not
the slightest freedom, no political rights, and no constitutional
aspirations must be left, but everything levelled by the equality of
passive obedience and absolute servitude; he therefore takes the lead of
the allied despots, to crush the spirit of liberty on earth.
It is this impious work, which was begun by the interference in Hungary,
and goes on spreading in a frightful degree; it is this impious work
which my people, combined with the other oppressed nations, is resolved
to oppose. It is therefore no partial struggle which we are about to
fight; it is a struggle of principles, the issues of which, according as
we triumph or fall, must be felt everywhere, but nowhere more than here
in the United States, because no nation on earth has more to lose by the
all-overwhelming preponderance of the absolutist principle than the
United States. If we are triumphant, the progress and development of the
United States will go on peacefully, till your Republicanism becomes the
ruling principle on earth (God grant it may soon become); but if we
fail, the absolutist powers, triumphant over Europe, will and must fall
with all their weight upon you, precisely because else you would grow to
such a might as would decide the destinies of the world. And since the
absolutistical powers, with Russia at their head, desire themselves to
rule the world, it is natural for her to consider you as their most
dangerous enemy, which they must try to crush, or else be crushed sooner
or later themselves. The _Pozzo di Borgos_ tell you so: the
_Hulsemanns_ tell you so: and it were indeed strange if the people
of the United States, too proudly relying upon their power and their
good luck, should indifferently regard the gathering of danger over
their head, and hereby invite it to come home to them, forcing them to
the immense sacrifices of war, whereas we now afford to them an
opportunity to prevent that danger, without any entanglement, and
without claiming from you any moral and material aid, except such as is
not only consistent with, but necessary to your interests.
Allow me to make yet some remarks about the commercial interests as
connected with the cause I plead. Nothing astonishes me more than to see
those whose only guiding star is commerce, considering its interests
only from the narrow view of a small momentary profit, and disregarding
the threatening combination of next coming events.
Permit me to quote in this respect one part of the public letter which
Mr. Calhoun, the son of the late great leader of the South, the
inheritor of his fame, of his principles, and of his interests, has
recently published. I quote it because I hope nobody will charge him
with partiality in respect to Hungary.
Mr. Calhoun says:
"There is a universal consideration that should influence the government
of the United States. The palpable and practical agricultural,
manufacturing, commercial and navigating interests, the pecuniary
interests of this country, will be promoted by the independence of
Hungary more than by any other event that could occur in Europe. If
Hungary becomes independent it will be her interest to adopt a liberal
system of commercial policy. There are fifteen millions of people
inhabiting what is or what was Hungary, and the country between her and
the Adriatic. These people have not now, and never had, any commerce
with the United States. Hungarian trade and commerce has been stifled by
the 'fiscal barriers' of Austria that encircle her. She has used but few
of American products. Your annual shipments of cotton and cotton
manufactures to Trieste and all other Austrian ports, including the
amount sent to Hungary, as well as Austria, has never exceeded nine
hundred thousand dollars per annum. All other merchandize and produce
sent by you to Austria and Hungary do not exceed one hundred thousand
dollars a year. Hungary obtains all her foreign imports through Austrian
ports. The import and transit duties levied by Austria are exceedingly
onerous, and nearly prohibitory as to Hungary of your cotton and cotton
goods." Hungary independent, and a market is at once opened for your
cotton, rice, tobacco, and manufactures of immense value. That market
is now closed to you, and has always been, by Austrian restrictions. And
can it be doubted that besides supplying the fifteen millions of
_industrious and intelligent_ people of Hungary (_and they are,
as a people, perhaps, the most intelligent of any in Europe_), the
adjacent and neighbouring countries, will not also be tempted to
encourage trade with you? Hungary needs your cotton. She is rich in
resources--mineral, agricultural, manufacturing, and of every kind. She
is rich in products for which you can exchange your cotton, rice, &c.
Will it, I ask, injuriously affect you if the English should compete
with you and send their manufactures of cotton thither? Not, I presume,
as long as the raw material is purchased from America; but in fact, your
market will be extended through her. "If therefore those of our
statesmen (says Mr. Calhoun), who can only be influenced by the almighty
dollar, will cypher up the value of this trade--this new market for our
products, worth perhaps twenty millions of dollars yearly--they may find
an excuse for incurring even the tremendous and awful risk of a war with
Austria, but which there is less danger of than there is with Governor
Brigham Young, in Utah. They may find a substantial interest involved
that is worth taking care of. Governor Kossuth may be assured it is of
more consequence than sympathy. It is a wonderfully sensitive nerve in
this country: it controls most of the others.--Sympathy, in this case,
can take care of itself. It does not require any nursing. The interests
involved should be attended to. It seems to me that this position as to
our commerce with Hungary cannot be attacked in front, in rear, or on
either flank. It is by far more forcible and powerful than the _ex
post facto_ argument in favour of the Mexican war, that it got us
California and its gold. So far as the general welfare of the country is
concerned, free trade with independent Hungary, and its certain ultimate
results, would be more invaluable than all the cargoes of gold that may
be brought from the Pacific coast, if ten times the present amount."
That is the opinion of a distinguished American citizen, identified
chiefly with the interests of the South.
As to me, I beg permission to sketch in a few lines the reverse of the
picture. If we fail in our enterprize to check the encroaching progress
of absolutism, if the despots of Europe succeed to accomplish their
plot, the chief part of which for Russia is to get hold of
Constantinople, and thus to become the controlling power of the
Mediterranean sea, what will be the immediate result of it in respect to
your commerce?
No man of sound judgment can entertain the least doubt that the first
step of Russia will and must be, to exclude America from the markets of
Europe by the renewal of what is called the continental system. Not a
single bushel of wheat or corn, not a single pound of tobacco, not a
single bale of cotton, will you be permitted to sell on the continent of
Europe. The leagued despots must exclude you, because you are
republicans, and commerce is the conveyer of principles; they must
exclude you, because by ruining your commerce they ruin your prosperity,
and by ruining this they ruin your development, which is dangerous to
them. Russia besides must exclude you, because you are the most
dangerous rival to her in the European markets where you have already
beaten her. And it will be the more the interest of Russia to exclude
you, because by taking Constantinople, she will also become the master
of Asiatic and African regions, where also cotton is raised.
Well, you say, perhaps, though you be excluded from the European
continent, England still remains to your cotton commerce.--Who could
guarantee that the English aristocracy will not join in the absolutist
combination, if the people of the United States, by a timely
manifestation of its sentiments, does not encourage the public opinion
of England itself? But suppose England does remain a market to your
cotton, you must not forget that if English manufacture is excluded from
all the coasts of Europe and of the Mediterranean, she will not buy so
much cotton from you as now, because she will lose so large a market for
cotton goods.
Well, you say neither England nor you will submit to such a ruin of your
prosperity. Of course not; but then you will have a war, connected with
immense sacrifices; whereas now, you can prevent all that ruin, all
those sacrifices, and all that war. Is it not more prudent to prevent a
fire, than to quench it when your own house is already in flames?
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me draw to a close. I most heartily thank you
for the honours of this unlooked-for reception, and for your generous
sympathy. I feel happy that the interests, political as well as
commercial, of the United States, are in intimate connexion with the
success of the struggle of Hungary for independence and republican
principles; and I bid you a sincere and cordial farewell, recalling to
your memory, and humbly recommending to your sympathy that toast, which
the more clement Senator of Alabama, Colonel King, as President of the
United States Senate, gave me at the Congressional Banquet, on the 7th
of January, in these words:--
"Hungary having proved herself worthy to be free, by the virtue and
valour of her sons, the law of nations and the dictates of justice alike
demand that she shall have fair play in her struggle for independence."
It was the honourable Senator of Alabama who gave me this toast,
expressing his conviction that to this toast every American will
cordially respond. His colleague has not responded to it, but Mobile has
responded to it, and I take, with cordial gratitude, my leave of Mobile.
* * * * *