[_Last Speech in Boston_.]
On May 14th, Kossuth, in obedience to a distinct invitation, delivered,
in Faneuil Hall, the following ample Speech or Lecture, on the present
condition of Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen,--The gigantic struggle of the first French
Revolution associated the name of FRANCE so much with the cause of
freedom in Europe, that all the world got accustomed to see it take the
lead in the struggle for European liberty; and to look to it as a power
entrusted by Providence with the initiation of revolutions; as a power,
without the impulse of which, no liberal movement had any hope on the
European continent.
I, from my earliest days, never shared that opinion. I felt always more
sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon character and Anglo-Saxon institutions,
which raised England, notwithstanding its monarchy and its aristocracy,
to a position prouder than Rome ever held in its most glorious days: and
which, free from monarchical and aristocratical elements here in
America, lie at the foundation of a political organization, upon which
the first true democratic Republic was consolidated and developed into
freedom, power, and prosperity, in such a short time, as to make it a
living wonder to the contemporary age, and a book full of instruction to
the coming generations.
However, that opinion about the French initiative prevailed in Europe,
and it was a great misfortune; for you know that France has always as
yet forsaken the movement which it raised in Europe, and the other
nations acting not spontaneously, but only following the impulse which
the French had imparted to them, faltered and stopped at once, as soon
as the French failed them. With that opinion of the French supremacy, no
revolution in Europe could have a definite, happy issue.
Freedom never yet was given to nations as a gift, but only as a reward,
bravely earned by one's own exertions, own sacrifices, and own toil; and
never will, never shall it be attained otherwise.
I speak therefore out of profound conviction, when I say that, though
the heart of the philanthropist must feel pained at the new hard trials
to which the French nation is, and will yet be exposed, by the momentary
success of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's inglorious usurpation, still that
very fact will prove advantageous to the ultimate success of liberty in
Europe. Louis Napoleon's _coup d'état_, much against his will, has
emancipated Europe from its reliance upon France. The combined
initiative of nations has succeeded to the initiative of France;
spontaneity and self-reliance have replaced the depending on foreign
impulse and reliance upon foreign aid. France is reduced to the level
amongst nations, obliged to join general combinations, instead of
regulating them; and this I take for a very great advantage. Many have
wondered at the momentary success of Louis Napoleon, and are inclined to
take it for an evidence that the French nation is either not capable or
not worthy to be free. But that is a great fallacy. The momentary
success of Louis Napoleon is rather an evidence that France is
_thoroughly democratic_. All the revolutions in France have
resulted in the preponderance of that class which bears the denomination
of _bourgeoisie_. Amongst all possible modifications of
oppression, none is more detested by the people than oppression by an
Assembly. The National Assembly of France was the most treacherous the
world has ever yet known. Issued from universal suffrage, it went so far
as to abolish universal suffrage, and every day of its existence was a
new blow stricken at democracy for the profit of the bourgeoisie. Louis
Napoleon has beaten asunder that Assembly, which the French democracy
had so many reasons to hate and to despise, and the people applauded him
as the people of England applauded Cromwell when he whipped out the Rump
Parliament.
But by what means was Louis Napoleon permitted to do even what the
people liked to see done? By no other means, but by flattering the
principle of Democracy; he restored the universal suffrage; it is an
execrable trick, to be sure--it is a shadow given for reality; but still
it proves that the democratic spirit is so consolidated in France, that
even despotic ambition must flatter it. Well, depend upon it, this
democracy, which the victorious usurper feels himself constrained to
flatter in the brightest moments of his triumph--this democracy will
either make out of Louis Napoleon _a tool_, which in spite of
itself serves the democracy, or it will crush him.
France is the country of sudden changes, and of unthought of accidents.
I therefore will not presume to tell the events of its next week, but
one alternative I dare to state: Louis Napoleon either falls or
maintains himself. The fall of Louis Napoleon, even if brought about by
the old monarchical parties, can have no other issue than a Republic--a
Republic more faithful to the community of freedom in Europe than all
the former Revolutions have been. Or if Louis Napoleon maintains
himself, he can do so only either by relying upon the army, or by
flattering the feelings and interests of the masses. If he relies upon
the army, he must give to it glory and profit, or, in other words, he
must give to it war. Well, a war of France, against whomsoever it be, or
for whatever purposes, is the best possible chance for the success of a
European Revolution. Or if Louis Napoleon relies upon the feelings of
the masses--as indeed he appears willing to do--in that case, in spite
of himself, he becomes a tool in the hands of democracy; and if, by
becoming such, he forsakes the allegiance of his masters--the league of
absolutistical powers--well, he will either be forced to attack them, or
be attacked by them.
So much for France; now as to ITALY.
Italy! the sunny garden of Europe, whose blossoms are blighted by the
icy north wind from St. Petersburg--Italy, that captured nightingale,
placed under a fragrant bush of roses, beneath an ever blue sky! Italy
was always the battlefield of the contending principles, since, hundreds
of years ago, the German emperors, the kings of Spain, and the kings of
France, fought their private feuds, their bloody battles on her much
coveted soil; and by their destructive influence, kept down all
progress, and fostered every jealousy. By the recollections of old, the
spirit of liberty was nowhere so dangerous for European absolutism as in
Italy. And this spirit of republican liberty, this warlike genius of
ancient Rome, was never extinguished between the Alps and the Faro.
We are taught by the scribes of absolutism to speak of the Italians as
if they were a nation of cowards, and we forget that the most renowned
masters of the science of war, the greatest generals up to our day, were
Italians,--Piccolomini, Montecucculi, Farnese, Eugene of Savoy, Spinola,
and Bonaparte--a galaxy of names whose glory is dimmed only by the
reflection that none of them fought for his own country. As often as the
spirit of liberty awoke in Italy, the servile forces of Germany, of
Spain, and of France poured into the country, and extinguished the
glowing spark in the blood of the people, lest it should once more
illumine the dark night of Europe. Frederic Barbarossa destroyed Milan
to its foundations, when it attempted to resist his imperial
encroachments by the league of independent cities; and led the plough
over the smoking ruins. Charles the Fifth had to gather all his powers
around him to subdue Florence, when it declared itself a democratic
republic. Napoleon extinguished the last remnants of republican
self-government by crushing the republics of Venice, Genoa, Lucca,
Ragusa, and left only, to ridicule republicanism, the commonwealth of
San Marino untouched. The Holy Alliance parted the spoils of Napoleon,
riveted afresh the iron fetters which enslave Italy, and forged new
spiritual fetters; prevented the extension of education, and destroyed
the press, in order that the Italians should not remember their past.
Every page, glorious in their history for twenty-five centuries, is
connected with the independence of Italy; every stain upon their honour
is connected with foreign rule. And the burning minds of the Italians,
though all spiritual food is denied to them, cannot be taught not to
remember their past glory and their present degradation. Every stone
speaks of the ancient glory; every Austrian policeman, every French
soldier, of the present degradation. The tyrants have no power to unmake
history, and to silence the feelings of the nation. And amongst all the
feelings powerful to stir up the activity of mankind, there is none more
penetrating than unmerited degradation, which impels us to redeem our
lost honour. What is it therefore that keeps those petty tyrants of
Italy, who are jealous of one another, on their tottering thrones,
divided as they are among themselves, whilst the revolutionizing spirit
of liberty unites the people? It is only the protection of Austria,
studding the peninsula with her bayonets and with her spies. And Austria
herself can dare this, only because she relies upon the assistance of
Russia. She can send her armies to Italy, because Russia guards her
eastern dominions. Let Russia stand off, and Austria is unable to keep
Italy in bondage; and the Italians, united in the spirit of
independence, will easily settle their account with their own weak
princes. Keep off the icy blast which blows from the Russian snows, and
the tree of freedom will grow up in the garden of Europe; though cut
down by the despots, it will spring anew from the roots in the soil,
which was always genial for the tree. Remember that no insurrection of
Italians has been crushed by their own domestic tyrants without foreign
aid; remember that one-third of the Austrian army which occupies Italy
are Hungarians who have fought against and triumphed over the
yellow-black flag of Austria--under the same tri-colour which, having
the same colours for both countries, show emblematically that Hungary
and Italy are but two wings of the same army, united against a common
enemy. Remember that even now neither the Pope nor the little Princes of
middle Italy can subsist without an Austrian and a French garrison; and
remember that Italy is a half isle, open from three sides to the
friendship of all who sympathize with civil and religious liberty on
earth; but from the sea not open to Russia and Austria, because they are
not maritime powers; and so long as England is conscious of the basis of
its power, and so soon as America gets conscious of the condition upon
which its future depends, Austria and Russia will never be allowed to
become maritime powers.
And when you feel instinctively that the heart of the Roman must rage
with fury when he looks back into the mirror of his past,--that the
Venetian cannot help to weep tears of fire and of blood from the
Rialto;--when you feel all this, then look back how the Romans have
fought in 1849, with a heroism scarcely paralleled in the most glorious
day of ancient Rome. And let me tell, in addition, upon the certainty of
my own positive knowledge, that the world never yet has seen such
complete and extensive revolutionary organization as that of Italy
to-day--ready to burst out into an irresistible storm at the slightest
opportunity, and powerful enough to make that opportunity, if either
foreign interference is checked, or the interfering foreigners occupied
at home. The revolution of 1848 has revealed and developed the warlike
spirit of Italy. Except a few wealthy proprietors, already very
uninfluential, the most singular unanimity exists, both as to aim and to
means. There is no shade of difference of opinion, either to what is to
be done or how to do it. All are unanimous in their devotion to the
Union and Independence of Italy. With France or against France, by the
sword, at all sacrifices, without compromise, they are bent on renewing
the battle over and over again, with the confidence that, even without
aid, they will triumph in the long run.
The difficulty in Italy is not how to make a revolution, but how to
prevent its untimely outbreak; and still even in that respect there is
such a complete discipline as the world never yet has seen. In Rome,
Romagna, Lombardy, Venice, Sicily, and all the middle Italy, there
exists an invisible government, whose influence is everywhere
discernible. It has eyes and hands in all departments of public service,
in all classes of society--it has its taxes voluntarily paid--its
organized force, its police, its newspapers regularly printed and
circulated, though the possession of a single copy would send the holder
to the galleys. The officers of the existing government convey the
missives of the invisible government, the diligences transport its
agents. One line from one of these agents opens to you the galleries of
art, on prohibited days--gives you the protection of uniformed
officials.
That this is the condition of all Italy is shown on one side, in the
fact that there the King of Naples holds fettered in dungeons 25,000
patriots, and Radetzky has sacrificed nearly 4,000 political martyrs on
the scaffold; still the scaffold continues to be watered with blood, and
still the dungeons receive new victims, evidently proving what spirit
exists in the people of Italy.
And still Americans doubt that we are on the eve of a terrible
revolution; and they ask, What use can I make of any material aid? when
Italy is a barrel of powder, which the slightest spark may light.
In respect to foreign rule, GERMANY is more fortunate than Italy. From
the times of the treaty of Verdun, when it separated from France and
Italy, through the long period of more than a thousand years, no foreign
power ever has succeeded to rule over Germany; such is the resistive
power of the German people to guard its national existence. The tyrants
who swayed over them were of their own blood. But to subdue German
liberty, those tyrants were always anxious to introduce foreign
institutions. First, they swept away the ancient Germanic right, the
common law so dear to the English and American, an eternal barrier
against the encroachments of despotism, and substituted for it the iron
rule of the imperial Roman law. The rule of papal Rome over the minds of
Germany crossed the mountains together with the Roman law, and a
spiritual dependency was to be established all over the world. The wings
of the German eagle were bound, that it should not soar up to the sun of
truth. But when the oppression became too severe, the people of Germany
rose against the power of Rome;--not the princes,--though they too were
oppressed: but the son of the miner of Eisenach, the poor friar, Martin
Luther, defied the Pope on his throne, and at his bidding the people of
Germany proved, that it is strong enough to shake off oppression; that
it is worthy, and that it knows how, to be free. And again, when the
French, under their Emperor, whose genius comprehended everything except
freedom, extended their moral sway over Germany, when the princes of
Germany thronged around the foreign despot, begging kingly crowns from
the son of the Corsican lawyer, with whom the Emperors were happy to
form matrimonial alliances--with the man who had no other ancestors than
his genius,--then it was again the people, which did not join in the
degradation of its rulers, but jealous to maintain their national
independence, turned the foreigner out though his name was Napoleon, and
broke the yoke asunder, which weighed as heavily upon their princes as
upon themselves. And still there are men in America who despair of the
vitality of the Germans, of their indomitable power to resist
oppression, of their love of freedom, and of their devotion to it,
proved by a glorious history of two thousand years. The German race is a
power, the vitality and influence of which you can trace through the
_world's_ history for two thousand years; you can trace it through
the history of science and heroism, of industry, and of bold
enterprizing spirit. Your own country, your own national character, bear
the mark of German vitality. Other nations, now and then, were great by
some great men--the German people was always great by itself.
But the German princes cannot bear independence and liberty; they had
rather themselves become slaves, the underlings of the Czar, than allow
that their people should enjoy some liberty. An alliance was therefore
formed, which they blasphemously called the Holy Alliance,--with the
avowed purpose to keep the people down. The great powers guaranteed to
the smaller princes--whose name is Legion, for they are many,--the power
to fleece and torment their people, and promised every aid to them
against the insurrection of those, who would find that for liberty's
sake it is worth while to risk their lives and property. It was an
alliance for the oppression of the nations, not for the maintenance of
the princely prerogative. When the Grand-Duke of Baden, in a fit of
liberality, granted his people the liberty of the press, the Emperor of
Austria and the King of Prussia abolished the law, though it had been
carried unanimously by the Legislature of Baden and sanctioned by the
prince.--The Holy Alliance had guaranteed to the princes the power to
oppress, but not the power to benefit their people.
But though the great powers interfered often in the principalities and
little kingdoms of Germany, indeed as often as the spirit of liberty
awoke, yet they themselves avoided every occasion which would have
forced them to request the aid of their allies, and especially of
Russia. They knew too well, that to accept foreign aid against their own
people, was nothing else than to lose independence, and was morally the
same as to kneel down before the Czar and to take the oath of
allegiance. A government which needs foreign aid against its own people,
avows that it cannot stand without foreign aid. Take that foreign
aid--interference!--away, and it falls.
The dynasties of Austria and Prussia were aware of this. They therefore
yielded, as often as their encroachments met a firm resistance from the
people. When my nation so resolutely resisted in 1823 the attempt to
abolish the constitution, Prince Metternich himself advised the Emperor
Francis to yield, and even humbly to apologize to the Diet of 1825. The
King of Prussia granted even a kind of constitution rather than claim
the assistance of the Czar. Herein you may find the explanation of the
fact that the continent of Europe is not yet republican. The spirit of
freedom, when roused by oppression, was lulled into sleep by
constitutional concessions. The Czar of Russia was well aware, that this
system of compromise prevents his intruding into the domestic concerns
of Europe, which would lead him to the sovereign mastership over all; he
therefore did everything to push the sovereigns to extremities. But this
did not succeed, until by a palace-revolution in Vienna a weak and cruel
youth was placed on the throne of Austria, and a passionate woman got
the reins of government in her hand, and an unprincipled, reckless
adventurer was ready to carry out every imperial whim, regardless of the
honour of his country and the interests of his master. Russia at last
got her aim. Rather than acknowledge the rights of Hungary, they bowed
before the Czar, and gave up the independence of the Austrian throne;
they became the underlings of a foreign power, rather than allow that
one of the peoples of the European Continent should be really free.
Since the fall of Hungary, Russia is the real sovereign of all Germany;
for the first time Germany has a foreign master! and you believe that
Germany will bear that in the nineteenth century which it never yet has
borne? Bear that in fulness of age which it never bore in childhood?
Soon after, and through the fall of Hungary, the pride of Prussia was
humiliated. Austrian garrisons occupied Hamburg; Schleswig-Holstein was
abandoned, Hessia was chastised, and all that is dear to Germans
purposely affronted. Their dreams of greatness, their longing for unity,
their aspirations of liberty, were trampled down into the dust, and
ridicule was thrown upon all elevation of mind, upon all manifestation
of patriotism. Hassenburg, convicted of forgery by the Prussian courts,
became Minister in Hessia; the once outlawed Schwarzenbeg, and Bach, a
renegade republican, Ministers of Austria. The peace of the graveyard,
which tyrants, under the name of order, are trying to enforce upon the
world, has for its guardians outlawed reprobates, forgers, and
renegades. Could you believe that with such elements the spirit of
liberty can be crushed? Tyrants know that to habituate nations to
oppression, the moral feeling of the people has to be killed. But could
you really believe that the moral feeling of such a people as the
German, stamped in the civilization of which it was one of the
generating elements, can be killed, or that it can bear for a long while
such an outrage? Do you think that the people which met the insolent
bulls of the Pope in Rome by the Reformation and the thirty years' war,
and the numberless armies of Napoleon by a general rising--that this
people will tamely submit to the Russian influence, more arrogant than
the Papal pretensions, more disastrous than the exactions of the French
Empire? They broke the power of Rome and of Paris; will they agree to be
governed by St. Petersburg? Those who are accustomed to see in history
only the Princes, will say Aye, but they forget that since the
Reformation it is no longer the Princes who make the history, but the
People; they see the tops of the trees are bent by the powerful northern
hurricane, and they forget that the stem of the tree is unmoved.
Gentlemen, the German princes bow before the Czar, but the German people
will never bow before him.
Let me sum up the philosophy of the present condition of Germany in
these few words: 1848 and 1849 have proved that the little tyrants of
Germany cannot stand by themselves, but only by their reliance upon
Austria and Prussia. These again cannot stand by themselves, but only by
their reliance upon Russia. Take this reliance away, by maintaining the
laws of nations against the principle of interference,--(for the joint
powers of America and England can maintain them)--and all the despotic
governments, reduced to stand by their own resources of power, must fall
before the never yet subdued spirit of the people of Germany, like
rotten fruit touched by a gale.
Let me now speak about the condition of my own dear native land. I hope
not to meet any contradiction when I say that no condition can and will
endure, which is so bad, so insupportable, that, by trying to change it,
a people can lose nothing, and may gain everything. No condition can and
will endure, the maintenance of which is contrary to every interest of
every class. A revolution on the contrary is unavoidable, when every
interest of every class wishes and requires it. I will first speak of
the lower, and still the most powerful of all, of the material interest.
There are some countries, where, however insupportable the condition of
the masses, still the government has an ally in the mighty and
influential class of bankers, who lend their money to support despotism,
and in those who have invested their fortunes in the shares of these
loans, negotiated by bankers, who speculate on and with the fortunes of
small capitalists. That class of men, partly tools of oppression,
partly the fools of the tools, exists not in Hungary. We have no such
bankers in Hungary, and but a very small inconsiderable number who have
invested their fortunes in such loan-shares. And even the few who had
been playing in the fatal loan-share game have withdrawn from it, at any
price, because they feared to lose all. From that quarter therefore the
House of Austria has no ally in Hungary.
As to our former aristocracy, a class influential by its connections,
and by its large landed property: you remember that, when we succeeded
to abolish the feudal charges, and converted millions of our countrymen,
of different religion and different language, out of leaseholders into
free landed proprietors, we guaranteed an indemnification to the
landowners for what they lost. From a farm of about thirty-five to fifty
acres of land, the farmer had to work one hundred and two days a year
for the landowner; to give him the ninth part of all his crops, half a
dollar in ready money, besides particular fees for shopkeeping, brewery,
mill, &c. We freed the people from all the encumbrances, and, thanks to
God! that benefit never more can be torn from the people's hands. The
aristocracy consented to it, because we had guaranteed full
indemnification. The very material existence of this class of former
landowners is depending on that indemnification, to defray their debts,
(which they formerly had the habit wantonly to contract,) and to provide
for the cultivation of their own large allodial property, which they
formerly cultivated by the hands of their leaseholders, but now have to
invest capital into.
Now this indemnification, amounting to one hundred millions of dollars,
the House of Austria never can realize. You know, with its centralized
government, which is always very expensive, with its standing army of
600,000 men, the only support of its precarious existence, with its army
of spies and secret police, with its system of corruption and robbery,
with its fourteen hundred millions of debt, with its eternal deficit in
its current expenditures, with its new loans to pay the interest of the
old, and an unavoidable bankruptcy impending,--this indemnification
Austria never can pay to the former aristocracy of Hungary. The only
means to get this indemnification is the restoration of Hungary to its
independence by a new revolution. Independent Hungary can pay it,
because it has no debts, will want no large standing armies, and will
have a cheap administration, because not centralized, but municipal, the
people governing itself in and through municipalities, the cheapest of
all governments.
Hungary has already pointed out the fund, out of which that
indemnification can and will be paid, without any imposition upon the
people, or any loss to the commonwealth. Hungary has large State lands,
belonging to and administered by the commonwealth. I have mathematically
proved that the landed property of the State, sold in small parcels to
those who have yet no land, connected with a banking operation founded
upon that property itself, to facilitate the payment of the price, is
more than sufficient for that indemnification; besides, a small land tax
(which the new owners of that immense property, divided into small
farms, will have to pay, as other landed proprietors), will yield more
revenue to the Commonwealth than all the proceeds of domestic
administration.
This my proposition, having been submitted to the National Assembly, was
accepted and approved, and has attached to the Revolution the numerous
class of farm-labourers who have not yet their own farms, but who
contemplated with the liveliest joy this benevolent provision, which
Austria can never execute; since, financially ruined as she is, she
cannot be contented either with the tax revenue or the banking
arrangement, to defray the indemnification; she sells the stock whenever
she can find a man to buy it.
But here is a remarkable fact, proving how little is the future of
Austria contemplated as sure even by its votaries. When any one is
willing to sell landed property in Hungary, foreign bankers, Austrian
capitalists buy it readily at an enormous price, because they know that
private transactions will be respected by our revolution; but _from
the Government_, nobody buys a single acre of land, because every man
knows that such a transaction must be considered void. Nay more, not
even as a gift is an estate accepted by any one from the present
government. Haynau himself was offered in reward a large landed property
by the government; he did not accept it, but preferred a comparatively
small sum of money, not amounting to one-tenth of the value of the
offered land, and he bought from a private individual a landed property,
for the money, because that, being a private transaction, is sure to
stand: whereas in the future of the Austrian government in Hungary not
even its Haynaus have confidence.
The manufacturing interests in Hungary anxiously wish, and must wish, a
revolution, because manufacturing industry is entirely ruined now by
Austria. All favour, encouragement, and aid, which the national
government imparted to industry, is not only withdrawn, but replaced by
the old system,--which is, neither to allow Hungary free trade, so as to
buy manufactured articles where they can be had in the best quality or
at the cheapest price, nor to permit manufacturing at home; but to
preserve Hungary in the position of a colonial market--a condition
always regarded as insupportable, and sufficient motive for a
revolution, as you yourselves from your own history know.
The commercial interest anxiously desire a revolution, because there
exists, in fact, no active commerce in Hungary, the Hungarian commerce
being degraded into a mere broker-ship of Vienna.
All those who have yet in their hands the Hungarian bank notes issued by
my government, must wish a revolution; because Austria, alike foolish as
criminal, has declared them to be without value--thus they cannot be
restored to value but by a revolution. The amount of those bank notes in
the hands of the people is yet about twenty millions of dollars. No
menaces, no cruelty can induce the people to give it up to the usurper;
they put it into bottles and bury it in the earth. They say: it is good
money when Kossuth comes home. But while no menaces of Austria can
induce the people to give up this treasure of our impending revolution,
a single line of mine, sent home, is obeyed, and the money is treasured
up where I have designated.
Do you now understand, gentlemen, by what motive I say that once at home
in command--if once our struggle is commenced, I do not want your
material aid, and neither wish nor would accept all your millions--but
that I want your material aid to get home, and to get home _in such a
way_ as will inspire confidence in my people, by seeing me bring home
the only thing which it has not--ARMS!
But I am asked, where will I land? That, of course, I will not
say--perhaps directly at Vienna, like a Montgolfier, in a balloon; but
one thing I may say, because that is no secret:--remember that all Italy
is a sea-coast, and that Italy has the same enemy as Hungary--that Italy
is the left wing of that army of which Hungary is the right wing, and
that in Italy 40,000 Hungarian soldiers exist, as also, in general, in
the Austrian army 140,000 Hungarians. More I can, and will not say on
the subject.
But I will say that all the amount of taxation the people of Hungary
formerly had to pay was but four and a half million dollars, and now it
has to pay sixty-five million dollars; that landowners offer their land
to the government, to get rid of the land tax, which is larger than all
the revenue; that we have raised 600,000 hundredweight of tobacco--now,
the monopoly of tobacco being introduced, the people no longer smokes
and has burnt its tobacco seed. We have raised 120 million gallons of
wine. Gentlemen, I come not to interfere with the domestic concerns of
America. I have no opinion about the Maine liquor-law. For myself I am
very fond of water, but still may say it is my opinion, it will be many
years before the Maine liquor-law will pass through all Europe. Well,
gentlemen, I was about to say, one half of the vineyards are cut
down;--hundreds of thousands live upon horticulture and fruit
cultivation; yet the trees are cut down to escape the heavy taxation
laid upon them. The stamp tax is introduced, the most insupportable to
freemen--village is divided from village, town from town, city from
city, by custom-lines--the poor peasant woman, bringing a dozen of eggs
to the market, has to pay the consumption-tax, before she is permitted
to enter; and when she brings medicine home for her sick child she has
again to pay before permitted to enter her home.
And besides this material oppression, and the daily and nightly
vexations connected with it,--the Protestants deprived of the
self-government of their church and school, for which they have thrice
taken up arms victoriously in three centuries,--the Roman Catholics
deprived of the security of their church property,--the people of every
race deprived of its nationality, because there exists no public life
wherein to exert it, no national existence, no constitution, no
municipalities, no native law, no native officials, no security of
person and of property, but arbitrary power, martial law, and the
hangman and the jail,--and on the other side Hungarian patriotism,
Hungarian honour, Hungarian heroism, Hungarian vitality, stamped in the
vicissitudes of one thousand years, and _the consciousness that we
have beaten Austria_, when we had no army, no money, no friends, and
the knowledge that now we have an army, and for home purposes have money
in the safe-guarded bank notes, and have America for a friend; and in
addition to all this, the confidence of my people in my exertions, and
the knowledge of these exertions; of which my people is quite as well
informed as yourselves, nay, more, because it sees and knows what I do
at home, whereas you see only what I do here--well, if with all this you
still doubt about the struggle in Europe being nigh, and still despair
of its chance of success, then God be merciful to my poor brains, I know
not what to think.
Some here take me for a visionary. Curious, indeed, if that man who, a
poor son of the people, took the lead in abolishing feudal injustices a
thousand years old, created a currency of millions in a moneyless
nation, and suddenly organized armies out of untrained masses of
civilians; directed a revolution so as to fix the attention of the whole
world upon Hungary, beat the old, well-provided power of Austria, and
crushed its future by his very fall, and forsaken, abandoned, in his
very exile is feared by Czars and Emperors, and trusted by foreign
nations as well as his own--if that man be a visionary, then for so much
pride I may be excused that I would like to look face to face into the
eyes of a practical man on earth.
Gentlemen, I had many things yet to say. The condition, change, and
prospects of Europe are not spoken of so easily, as you have seen, when
only the condition of my own country is touched. I don't know that I
shall succeed, but I will try to say something about TURKEY.
Turkey! which deserves your sympathy because it is the country of
municipal institutions, the country of religious toleration. Turkey,
when she extended her sway over Transylvania and half of Hungary, never
interfered with the way in which the inhabitants chose to govern
themselves; she even allowed those who lived within her dominions to
collect there the taxes voted by independent Hungary, with the aim to
make war against the Porte. Whilst in the other parts of Hungary,
Protestantism was oppressed by the Austrian policy, and the Protestants
several times compelled to take up arms for the defence of religious
liberty in Transylvania, under the sovereignty of the Porte the
Unitarians got political rights, and Protestantism grew up under the
protecting wings of the Ottoman power.
The respect for municipal institutions is so deeply rooted in the minds
of the Turks, that at the time when they became masters of the Danubian
provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, they voluntarily excluded
themselves from all political rights in the newly acquired provinces;
and up to the present day, they do not allow that a mosque should be
built, or that a Turk should dwell and own landed property across the
Danube. They do not interfere with the taxation or with the internal
administration of these provinces; and the last organic law of the
Empire, the Tanzimat, is nothing but the re-declaration of the rights of
municipalities, guaranteeing them against the centralizing encroachment
of the Pashas. Whilst Czar Nicholas is about to convert the Protestant
population of Livonia and Estland to the Greek church by force and by
alluring promises, the liberal Sultan Abdul Medjid grants full religious
liberty to all sects of Protestantism. But we are accustomed to look
upon Turkey as upon a third-rate power, only because in 1828 it was
defeated by Russia. Let us now see how the balance stood at that time,
and how it stands now.
In 1828 the Turkish population was full of hatred on account of the
extermination of the Janissaries. The Christian population were ready to
rise against the government, on account of the events of the Greek war.
Albania was in revolt, because it was opposed to the system of
conscriptions for regular military service. Anatolia was discontented on
the same ground. Mehemet Ali possessed Egypt, and paralyzed the action
of the government in Arabia and Syria. Servia had just laid down arms,
but had not yet concluded peace. The Danubian principalities, though
unfavourable to Russia, were not hearty in support of the Porte, and
remained apathetic under the occupation of Russia. The revenue did not
exceed 400,000,000 piastres (20,000,000 dollars), and was insufficient
for a second campaign. The new army was not yet organized, and amounted
only to 32,000 men, without tried generals. The fleet had been destroyed
at Navarino. The foreign diplomatists had left the empire, and the
capital was exposed to an attack of the enemy. In such a position no
European government could have risked a war.
Russia had just defeated Persia, and by this victory got access to the
Asiatic provinces of the Turkish empire; it had therefore to defend the
frontiers on both sides. Russia had not yet entered into Circassia, and
could therefore rally all her forces; she had not yet abolished the
Poland of 1815, and could leave it without garrisons; she had not yet
roused the hatred or the jealousies of Europe. She had engaged all the
natural allies of the Porte into a combination for rousing the
populations of her enemy, and by her diplomacy she gained the power of
bringing her fleet into the Mediterranean, for blockading the ports of
Turkey; and Navarino opened for her the Black Sea, where she had
thirteen men-of-war. Not disturbed by the Porte, by Circassia, by
Poland, by France, or by England, she had prepared two years for this
war, whilst her enemy, passing through a terrible crisis, was without
money, without an organized army, without a fleet, without other
resources than the feeble Mussulman population on the seat of war.
Twenty-four years have altered the balance.--Turkey has now the
enthusiastic support of her Mussulman population. The Christian
population, with the only exception of Bulgaria, partakes of this
enthusiasm. All the warlike tribes, from Albania to Kurdistan, are now
supporting the authority of the Sultan. Mehemet Ali is gone; Arabia and
Syria are again under the dominion of the Sultan. Servia has made peace,
and has become the support of Turkey, offering her, in case of a Russian
war, 80,000 men. The Principalities have become the enemies of Russia;
they had too long to suffer from her oppression. The public revenue has
doubled. Turkey has organized a regular army of 200,000 men, equal to
any other, and besides, the militia, She has distinguished
generals--Omer Pasha, Gruyon. Her fleet is equal to the Russian fleet in
the Black Sea, and her steam-fleet superior to the Russian. She has for
allies all the people from the Caucasus to the Carpathians. The
Circassians, the Tartars under Emir Mirza, the Cossacks of the Dobroja,
by whom the electric shock is transmitted to Poland and Hungary, form an
unbroken chain, by which the spark is carried into the heart of Europe,
where all the combustible elements wait for the moment of explosion.
Twenty-four years ago Turkey was believed to be in a decaying state; it
is now stronger than it has been for the last hundred years.
Russia, during this time, has been unable to overcome the resistance of
Circassia; and, cut off from her south-eastern provinces, she cannot
attack Turkey in the rear. The Caucasian lines furnished her, in 1828,
with 30,000 men; Poland with 100,000; the two countries require now an
army of observation and occupation of 200,000 men; the Danubian
principalities absorb again 50,000.
The Russian fleet remains as it was in 1828--thirteen men-of-war then,
thirteen now: and whilst, in 1828, she had scarcely an enemy in Europe,
she has now scarcely one friend, except the kings. All her enemies, whom
she has defeated one by one, have combined against her--Poland, Hungary,
the Danubian principalities, Turkey, Circassia.
Where is now the force of Russia! Does she not remind us of the golden
image of Nebuchadnezzar, standing on feet of clay?
And yet, gentlemen, this Russia can make doubtful the struggle in
Europe--not because powerful in arms, but because it stands ready to
support tyrants, when nations are tired out in a struggle, or before
they have time to make preparations for resistance: then only is Russia
a power to be feared. Well, gentlemen, shall not America stand up, and
with powerful voice forbid Russia to interfere when nations have shaken
off their domestic tyrants? Gentlemen, remember that Peter the Czar left
a last will and testament to the people, that Russia must take
Constantinople. Why? that Russia might be a great power: and that it may
be so Constantinople is necessary, because no nation can be a great
power which is not a maritime power. Now see how Turkey has grown in
twenty-four years. The more Russia delays, the stronger Turkey becomes,
and therefore is Russia in haste to fulfil the destiny of being a
maritime power.
You can now see why is my fear, that this week, or this month, or this
year, Russia will attack Turkey, and we shall not be entirely prepared:
but though you do not give us "material aid," still we must rise when
Turkey is attacked, because we must not lose its 400,000 soldiers. The
time draws nigh when you will see more the reason I have to hasten these
preparations, that they may be complete, whenever through the death of
Nicholas or Louis Napoleon or a thousand other things,--most probably a
war between Russia and Turkey,--we want to take time by the forelock.
But, gentlemen, let me close. I am often told, let only the time come
when the Republican banner is unfurled in the Old World, then we shall
see what America will do. Well, gentlemen, your aid may come too late to
be rendered beneficial. Remember 1848 and 1849. Had the nations of
Europe not your sympathy? Were your hearts less generous than now? It
was not in time--it came after, not before. Was your government not
inclined to recognize nations? It sent Mr. Mann to Hungary to
_inquire_--would that when he inquired he had been authorized to
_recognize_ our achieved independence!
Gentlemen, let me end. Before all, let me thank you for your generous
patience. This is my last meeting. Whatever may be my fate, so much I
can say, that the name of Boston and Massachusetts will remain a dear
word and a dear name, not only to me but to my people for all time. And
whatever my fate, I will, with the last breath of my life, raise the
prayer to God that he may bless you, and bless your city and bless your
country, and bless all your land, for all the coming time and to the end
of time; that your freedom and prosperity may still grow and increase
from day to day; and that one glory should be added to the glory which
you already have: the glory that America, Republican America, may unite
with her other principles the principle of Christian brotherly love
among the family of nations; and so may she become the corner stone of
Liberty on earth! That is my farewell word to you.
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