[_Lexington, May 11th_.]
Kossuth having been invited to visit the first battle fields of the
Revolution, was accompanied by several members of the State Committee,
on May 11th, to West Cambridge, Lexington, and Concord. He had already
visited Bunker Hill on the 3d of May, but we have not in these pages
found room for his speech there. At West Cambridge he was addressed by
the Rev. Thomas Hill, and replied: at Lexington also he received two
addresses, and the following was his reply:--
Gentlemen,--It has been often my lot to stand upon classical ground,
where the whispering breeze is fraught with wonderful tales of devoted
virtue, bright glory, and heroic deeds. And I have sat upon ruins of
ancient greatness, blackened by the age of centuries; and I have seen
the living ruins of those ancient times, called men, roaming about the
sacred ground, unconscious that the dust which clung to their boots, was
the relic of departed demigods--and I rose with a deep sigh. Those
demigods were but men, and the degenerate shapes that roamed around me,
on the hallowed ground, were also not less than men. The decline and
fall of nations impresses the mark of degradation on nature itself. It
is sad to think upon--it lops the soaring wings of the mind, and chills
the fiery arms of energy. But, however dark be the impression of such
ruins of vanished greatness upon the mind of men who themselves have
experienced the fragility of human fate, thanks to God, there are bright
spots yet on earth, where the recollections of the past, brightened by
present prosperity, strengthen the faith in the future of mankind's
destiny. Such a spot is this.
Gentlemen, should the reverence which this spot commands allow a smile,
I might feel inclined to smile at the eager controversy whether it was
at Lexington or Concord that the fire of the British was first returned
by Americans. Let it be this way or that way,--it will neither increase
nor abate the merit of the martyrs who fell here. It is with their blood
that the preface of your nation's history is written. Their death was,
and always will be, the first bloody revelation of America's destiny;
and Lexington, the opening scene of a revolution, of which Governor
Boutwell was right to say, that it is destined to change the character
of human governments, and the condition of the human race.
Should the Republic of America ever lose the consciousness of this
destiny, that moment would be just so surely the beginning of America's
decline, as the 19th of April, 1775, was the beginning of the Republic
of America.
Prosperity is not always, gentlemen, a guarantee of the future, if it be
not accompanied with a constant resolution to obey the call of the
genius of the time. Nay, material prosperity is often the mark of real
decline, when it either results in, or is connected with, a moral
stagnation in the devoted attachment to principles. Rome was never
richer, never mightier, than under Trajan, and still it had already the
sting of death in its very heart.
To me, whenever I stand upon such sacred ground as this, the spirits of
the departed appear like the prophets of future events. The language
they speak to my heart is the revelation of Providence.
The struggle of America for independence was providential. It was a
necessity. Those circumstances which superficial consideration takes for
the motives of the glorious Revolution, were but accidental
opportunities for it. Had those circumstances not occurred, others would
have occurred, and might have presented perhaps a different opportunity;
but the Revolution would have come. It was a necessity, because the
colonies of America had attained that lawful age in the development of
all the elements of national existence, which claims the right to stand
by itself, and cannot any longer be led by a child's leading-strings, be
the hand which leads it a mother's or a step-mother's. Circumstances and
the connection of events were such, that this unavoidable emancipation
had to pass the violent concussion of severe trials. The immortal glory
of your forefathers was, that they did not shrink to accept the trial,
and were devoted and heroic to sacrifice themselves to their country's
destiny. And the monuments you erect to their memory, and the religious
reverence with which you cherish the memory, are indeed well deserved
tributes of gratitude.
But allow me to say, there is a tribute which those blessed spirits are
still more eager to claim from you as the happy inheritance of the
fruits they have raised for you; it is, the tribute of always remaining
_true to their principle_; devoted to the destiny of your country,
which destiny is to become the corner-stone of LIBERTY on earth. Empires
can be only maintained by the same virtue by which they have been
founded. Oh! let me hope that, while the recollections connected with
this hallowed ground, inspire the heart of a wandering exile with
consolation, with hope, and with perseverance (from the very fact that I
have stood here, brought with the anxious prayers and expectations of
the Old World's oppressed millions), you will see the finger of God
pointing out the appropriate opportunity to act your part in America's
destiny, by maintaining the laws of _Nature and of Nature's God_,
for which your heroes fought and your martyrs died; and to regenerate
the world.
"Proclaiming freedom in the name of God,"
till--to continue in the beautiful words of your Whittier--
----"Its blessings fall
Common as dew and sunshine over all."
[From Lexington Kossuth proceeded to Concord, and was there addressed by
the well-known author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. His reply was at greater
length, and on the same subject as at Lexington; yet a part of it may
here be printed.]