[_Salem, May 6_.]
Ladies and gentlemen,--When four years ago, the tidings of our struggle
made the scarcely before known name of Hungary familiar to you, sympathy
for a nobly defended noble cause moved your hearts to rejoice at our
victories, to feel anxiety about our dangers. Yet, so long as our
struggle was but a domestic contest, a resistance against oppression by
a perjurious king, you had no reason to think that the sympathy you felt
for us, being a generous manifestation of the affections of free men,
was at the same time an instinctive presentiment of a policy, which you
in your national capacity will be called upon by circumstances, not only
to consider, but, as I firmly believe, also to adopt.
You were far from anticipating that the issue of our struggle would
become an opportunity for your country to take that position which
Divine Providence has evidently assigned to you; I mean the position of
a power, not restricted in its influence to the Western Hemisphere, but
reaching across the earth. You had not thought that it is the struggle
of Hungary which will call on you to fulfil the prophecy of Canning; who
comprehended, that it is the destiny of the New World to redress the
balance of power in the Old.
The universal importance of our contest has been but late revealed. It
has been revealed by the interference of Russia, by our fall, and by its
more threatening results.
Now, it has become evident to all thinking men, that the balance of
power cannot be redressed unless Hungary is restored to national
independence. Consequently if it be your own necessity to weigh in the
scale of the powers on earth, if it be your destiny to redress the
balance of power, the cause of Hungary is the field where this destiny
will have to be fulfilled.
And it is indeed your destiny. Russian diplomacy could never boast of a
greater and more fatal victory than it had a right to boast, should it
succeed to persuade the United States not to care about her--Russia
accomplishing her aim to become the ruling power in Europe; the ruling
power in Asia; the ruling power of the Mediterranean sea. That would be
indeed a great triumph to Russian diplomacy, greater than her triumph
over Hungary; a triumph dreadful to all humanity, but to nobody more
dreadful than to your own future.
All sophistry is in vain, gentlemen; there can be no mistake about it.
Russian absolutism and Anglo-Saxon constitutionalism are not rival but
antagonist powers. They cannot long continue to subsist together.
Antagonists cannot hold equal position; every additional strength of the
one is a comparative weakening of the other. One or the other must
yield. One or the other must perish or become dependent on the other's
will.
You may perhaps believe that that triumph of diplomacy is impossible in
America. But I am sorry to say, that it has a dangerous ally, in the
propensity to believe, that the field of American policy is limited
geographically; that there is a field for American, and there is a field
for European policy, and that these fields are distinct, and that it is
your interest to keep them distinct.
There was a time in our struggle, when, if a man had come from America,
bringing us in official capacity the tidings of your brotherly greeting,
of your approbation and your sympathy, he would have been regarded like
a harbinger of heaven. The Hungarian nation, tired out by the hard task
of dearly but gloriously bought victories, was longing for a little
test, when the numerous hordes of Russia fell upon us in the hour of
momentary exhaustion. Indignation supplied the wanted rest, and we rose
to meet the intruding foe; but it was natural that the nation looked
around with anxiety, whether there be no power on earth raising its
protesting voice against that impious act of trampling down the law of
nations, the common property of all humanity? no power on earth to cheer
us by a word of approbation of our legitimate defence? Alas! no such
word was heard. We stood forsaken and alone! It was upon that ground of
forsakenness that treason spread its poison into our ranks. They told my
nation, "Your case is hopeless. Kossuth has assured you that if you
drive out the Austrians from your territory, and declare your
independence, it perhaps will be recognized by the French Republic,
probably by England, and certainly by America; but look! none has
recognized you; not even the United States, though with them it was from
the time of Washington always a constant principle to recognize every
government. You are not recognized. You are forsaken by the whole world.
Kossuth has assured you, that it is impossible the constitutional powers
of the world should permit without a word of protest Russia to interfere
with the domestic concerns of Hungary; and look! Russia has interfered,
the laws of nations are broken, the political balance of power is upset.
Russia has assumed the position of a despotic arbiter of the condition
of the world, and still nobody has raised a single word of protest in
favour of Hungary's just and holy cause." Such was the insinuation,
which Russian diplomacy, with its wonted subterraneous skill, instilled
drop by drop into my brave people's manly heart; and alas! I could not
say that the insinuation was false. _The French Republic_, instead
of protesting against the interference of Russia, _followed its
example and interfered itself at Rome_. _Great Britain_, instead
of protesting, _checked Turkey in her resolution to oppose that new
aggrandizement of Russia_; and _the United States of America_
remained silent, instead of protesting against the violation of those
"laws of nature and of nature's God," in the maintenance of which nobody
can be more interested than the great Republic of America.
In short, it was by our feeling forsaken, that the skill of our enemies
spread despondency through our ranks; and this despondency, not the arms
of Russia, caused us to fall. Self-confidence lost is more than half a
defeat. Had America sent a diplomatic agent to Hungary, greeting us
amongst the independent powers on earth, recognizing our independence,
and declaring Russian interference to be contrary to the laws of
nations, that despondency, that loss of self-confidence, had never
gained ground among us; without this, treason would have been
impossible, and without treason all the disposable power of Russia would
never have succeeded to overcome our arms;--never! I should rather have
brought the well-deserved punishment home to her, should have shaken her
at home. Poland--heroic, unfortunate Poland would now be free, Turkey
delivered from the nightmare now pressing her chest, and I, according to
all probability, should have seen Moscow in triumph, instead of seeing
Salem in exile!
Well, there is a just God in heaven, and there will yet be justice on
earth;--the day of retribution will come!
Such being the sad tale of my fatherland, which, by a timely token of
your brotherly sympathy might have been saved, and which now has lost
everything except its honour, its trust in God, its hope of
resurrection, its confidence in my patriotic exertions, and its steady
resolution to strike once more the inexorable blow of retribution at
tyrants and tyranny;--if the cause I plead were a particular cause, I
would place it upon the ground of well-deserved sympathy, and would try
to kindle into a flame of excitement the generous affections of your
hearts: and I should succeed.
But since a great crisis, which is universally felt to be approaching,
enables me to claim for my cause a universality not restricted by the
geographical limits of a country or even of Europe itself, or by the
moral limits of nationalities, but possessing an interest common to all
the Christian world; it is calm, considerate conviction, and _not_
the passing excitement of generous sentiments, which I seek. I hope
therefore to meet the approbation of this intelligent assembly, when
instead of pleasing you by an attempt at eloquence, for which, in my
sick condition, I indeed have not sufficient freshness of mind--I enter
into some dry but not unimportant considerations, which the citizens of
Salem, claiming the glory of high commercial reputation, will kindly
appreciate.
Gentlemen, I have often heard the remark, that if the United States do
not care for the policy of the world, they will continue to grow
internally, and will soon become the mightiest realm on earth, a
Republic of a hundred millions of energetic freemen, strong enough to
defy all the rest of the world, and to control the destinies of mankind.
And surely this is your glorious lot; but _only under the
condition_, that no hostile combination, before you have in peace and
in tranquillity grown so strong, arrests by craft and violence your
giant-course; and this again is possible, only under the condition that
Europe become free, and the league of despots become not sufficiently
powerful to check the peaceful development of your strength. But Russia,
too, the embodiment of the principle of despotism, is working hard for
the development of _her_ power. Whilst you grow internally, her
able diplomacy has spread its nets all over the continent of Europe.
There is scarcely a Prince there but feels honoured to be an underling
of the great Czar; the despots are all leagued against the freedom of
the nations: and should the principle of absolutism consolidate its
power, and lastingly keep down the nations, then it must, even by the
instinct of self-preservation, try to check the further development of
your Republic. In vain they would have spilt the blood of millions, in
vain they would have doomed themselves to eternal curses, if they
allowed the United States to become the ruling power on earth. They
crushed poor Hungary, because her example was considered dangerous. How
could they permit you to become so mighty, as to be not only dangerous
by your example, but by your power a certain ruin to despotism? They
will, they must, do everything to check your glorious progress. Be
sure, as soon as they have crushed the spirit of freedom in Europe, as
soon as they command all the forces of the Continent, they will marshal
them against you. Of course they will not lead their fleets and armies
at once across the Ocean. They will first damage your prosperity by
crippling your commerce. They will exclude America from the markets of
Europe, not only because they fear the republican propagandism of your
commerce, but also because Russia requires those markets for her own
products.
[He proceeded to argue, that Russian policy, like that of the Magyars in
their time of barbarism, is essentially encroaching and warlike; that to
be _feared_, is often more important to Russia than to enjoy a
particular market; that the Russian system of commerce is, and must be,
prohibitory to republican traffic; that England alone in Europe has
large commerce with America, and that the despots, if victorious on the
continent, would make it their great object to damage, cripple, and ruin
both these kindred constitutional nations. He continued:]
The despots are scheming to muzzle the English lion. You see already how
they are preparing for this blow--that Russia may become mistress of
Constantinople, by Constantinople mistress of the Mediterranean, and by
the Mediterranean of three-quarters of the globe. Egypt, Macedonia,
Asia-Minor, the country and early home of the cotton plant, are then the
immediate provinces of Russia, a realm with twenty million serfs,
subject to its policy and depending on its arbitrary will.
Here is a circumstance highly interesting to the United States.
Constantinople is the key to Russia. To be preponderant, she knows it is
necessary for her to be a maritime power. The Black Sea is only a lake,
like Lake Leman; the Baltic is frozen five months in a year. These are
all the seas she possesses. Constantinople is the key to the palace of
the Czars. Russia is already omnipotent on the Continent; once master of
the Mediterranean, it is not difficult to see that the power which
already controls three-quarters of the world, will soon have the fourth
quarter.
Whilst the victory of the nations of Europe would open to you the
markets, till now closed to your products, the consolidation of
despotism destroys your commerce unavoidably. If your wheat, your
tobacco, your cotton, were excluded from Europe but for one year, there
is no farm, no plantation, no banking-house, which would not feel the
terrible shock of such a convulsion.
And hand-in-hand with the commercial restrictions you will then see an
establishment of monarchies from Cape Horn to the Rio Grande del Norte.
Cuba becomes a battery against the mouth of the Mississippi; the
Sandwich Islands a barrier to your commerce on the Pacific; Russian
diplomacy will foster your domestic dissensions and rouse the South
against the North, and the North against the South, the sea-coast
against the inland States, and the inland States against the sea-coast,
the Pacific interests against the Atlantic interests; and when discord
paralyzes your forces, then comes at last the foreign interference,
preceded by the declaration, that the European powers having, with your
silent consent, inscribed into the code of international law, the
principle that every foreign power has the right to interfere in the
domestic affairs of any nation when these become a dangerous example,
and your example and your republican principles being dangerous to the
absolutist powers, and your domestic dissensions dangerous to the order
and tranquillity of Europe, and therefore they consider it their "duty
to interfere in America." And Europe being oppressed, you will have,
single-handed, to encounter the combined forces of the world! I say no
more about this subject. America will remember then the poor exile, if
it does not in time enter upon that course of policy, which the
intelligence of Massachusetts, together with the young instinct of Ohio,
are the foremost to understand and to advance.
A man of your own State, a President of the United States, John Quincy
Adams, with enlarged sagacity, accepted the Panama Mission, to consider
the action of the Holy Alliance upon the interests of the South American
Republics.
Now, I beg you to reflect, gentlemen, how South America is different
from Europe, as respects your own country. Look at the thousand ties
that bind you to Europe. In Washington, a Senator from California, a
generous friend of mine, told me he was _thirty_ days by steamer
from the Seat of Government. Well, you speak of distance--just give me
a good steamer and good sailors, and you will in _twenty_ days see
the flag of freedom raised in Hungary.
I remember that when one of your glorious Stars (Florida, I think it
was) was about to be introduced, the question of discussion and
objection became, that the distance was great. It was argued that the
limits of the government would be extended so far, that its duties could
not be properly attended to. The President answered, that the distance
was not too great, if the seat of government could be reached in thirty
days. So far you have extended your territory; and I am almost inclined
to ask my poor Hungary to be accepted as a Star in your glorious galaxy.
She might become a star in this immortal constellation, since she is not
so far as thirty days off from you.
What little English I know, I learned from your Shakespeare, and I
learned from him that "there are more things in heaven and earth than
are dreamed of in our philosophy." Who knows what the future may bring
forth? I trust in God that all nations will become free, and that they
will be united for the internal interests of humanity, and in that
galaxy of freedom I know what place the United States will have.
One word more. When John Quincy Adams assumed for the United States the
place of a power on earth, he was objected to, because it was thought
possible that that step might give offence to the Holy Alliance. His
answer was in these memorable words: "The United States must take
counsel of their rights and duties, and not from their fears."
The Anglo-Saxon race represents constitutional governments. If it be
united for these, we shall have what we want, Fair Play; and, relying
"upon our God, the justness of our cause, iron wills, honest hearts and
good swords," my people will strike once more for freedom, independence,
and for Fatherland.
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