[_Albany, May 20th_.]
On May 20th, Kossuth was received in Albany, the chief city of New York
State, by Governor Hunt, in the name of the citizens. In reply to his
address, Kossuth then addressed the audience substantially as follows:--
Gentlemen,--More than five months have passed since my landing in New
York. The novelty has long since subsided, and emotion has died away.
The spell is broken which distance and misfortune cast around my name.
The freshness of my very ideas is worn out. Incessant toils spread a
languor upon me, unpleasant to look upon. The skill of intrigues,
aspersing me with calumny; wilful misrepresentations, pouring cold water
upon generous sympathy; Louis Napoleon's momentary success, shaking the
faith of cold politicians in the near impendency of a European struggle
for liberty; and in addition to all this, the Presidential election,
absorbing public attention, and lowering every high aspiration into the
narrow scope of party spirit, busy for party triumph; all these
circumstances, and many besides too numerous to record, joined to make
it _probable_ that the last days of my wanderings on American soil
would be entirely different from those in which the hundred thousands of
the "Empire City,"[*] thundered up to the high heaven the cheers of
their hurrahs, till they sounded like a defiance of a free people to the
proud despots of the world. And yet, notwithstanding all these
disadvantageous concurrencies, NO change has taken place in the public
spirit of America. I may have lost in your kind estimation of my humble
self, but my cause has not lost. It is standing higher than ever it
stood, and the future in your country's policy is ensured to it.
[Footnote *: New York.]
Gentlemen, present bounty will never weaken in my mind the thankful
appreciation of former benefits. The generous manifestation of sympathy
I met on my arrival, will always remain recorded with unfading gratitude
in my heart; but no just man can feel offended when I say, that it is
the manner of the "_farewell_" which decides upon the value of the
"_welcome_." The result of my endeavours in America will not be
measured by how I was received when I came, but by how I am treated when
I leave. You know, "All's well that ends well," and to be well, things
must end well. And being about to close my task in America, I cannot
help to say, that the generous reception you have honoured me with, is
doubly gratifying to my countrymen, who have watched with intense
interest my progress in America--and doubly dear to my heart, because it
is an evidence that the "_farewell_" given to the wandering
exile's, course, confirms the expectations which the _"welcome"_
had roused.
The warm reception Albany has given me is like the point upon the letter
_"i"_--it decides its meaning. The metropolis of the Empire State
gave abundantly the first flowers to the garland of America's sympathy
for the condition of the Old World. Many a flower was added to it from
many a place. Wherever there is a people there was a new garden of
sympathy: and wherever be the obligations I owe--and gladly own--to many
a quarter of the United States, it is but a tribute due to justice
publicly to avow, that _Ohio_, with the bold resolution of its
youthful strength, and _Massachusetts_, with its consistent
traditional energy, stood pre-eminent in the decided comprehension of
America's destiny--and now the Capitol of the Empire State winds up the
garland of America. _New York_ achieves what New York has begun,
and thus, in leaving America, I have an answer to bring to Europe's
oppressed millions; and the answer is satisfactory, because I know what
position America will take in the approaching crisis of the world.
There are moments in the national life of a people, when to adopt a
certain course becomes a natural necessity: and in such moments the
people always gets instinctively conscious of the necessity, and answers
it by adopting a direction spontaneously. That direction is decisive. It
must be followed: and it is followed. Pre-eminent patriots, joining in
the people's instinct, may become either the interpreters or the
executors of it; but they can neither impart their own direction to the
people, nor alter that which public opinion has fixed. There are no
other means to become a great man and a great patriot but by becoming
the impersonification of the public sentiment, conscious of a surpassing
public necessity. Those who would endeavour to measure great things by
a small individual scale, would always fall short in their calculations,
and be left behind.
There have been already several such moments in your country's brief but
glorious history. I will only mention your glorious Revolution of 1775.
Who made that Revolution? The People; the unarmed heroes; the Public
Opinion. If the question had been left to the decision of some few,
though the best and the wisest of all, _they never would have advised
a struggle_; but would have arranged matters diplomatically. You
remember what anxious endeavours were made to prove that it was not the
Americans who fired the first shot, and how exculpations were sent to
England with protestations of allegiance. All those little steps were
vain. The people felt that it was time to become an independent nation;
and feeling the necessity of the moment, it took a direction by itself,
and made the Revolution by itself.
Now-a-days it is of an equally pregnant necessity to the United States,
to take the position of a power on earth. Nobody can hereafter make the
people believe that it is possible for America to remain unaffected by
the condition of the Old World,--to advise that the United States shall
still abstain from mixing up their concerns with those of Europe. The
question to be decided is not whether America shall mix its concerns
with those of the Old World; because that is done. But the question is,
whether the United States shall take a seat in the great Amphictyonic
Council of the nations or not? And whether it shall be permitted to some
crowned mortals to substitute the whims of their ambition in the place
of international law;--to set up and to upset the balance of power as
they please; and to regulate the common concerns of the world? And shall
the United States accept whatever the Czar may be pleased to decide
about those common concerns? And shall the United States silently look
on, however the Czar may grow upon the ruins of common international
law, to an all-overwhelming preponderance?
That is the question. And that being the question, the people has
answered it, and has pronounced about it in a manner too positive and
too evident to be mistaken. It is already more than a year ago, that a
distinguished American diplomatist publicly advertised his
fellow-statesmen, "that it is the popular voice which will henceforth
decide, without appeal, the great coming questions in your foreign
policy, before the Executive or Congress can consider them." Some have
reproached me for unprecedented arrogance in trying to change the
hereditary policy of the United States. But it is not so. I did but
engage public attention to consider the exigencies of time and
circumstances. The _finger of the clock_ only shows the hour, but
makes not the time. And so did I. And allow me to say, that the coming
of such a time was already anticipated by many of your own
fellow-citizens, long before my humble name, or even the name of my
country, was known in America. Please to read the works of your own
distinguished countryman WAYLAND, who for more than thirty years was
engaged at one of your high schools in the noble task of instilling
sound political principles and enlightened patriotism into the heart and
mind of your rising generation. You will find that already in 1825,
after having spoken of the effects which this country might produce upon
the politics of Europe simply by her example, he thus proceeds:--
"It is not impossible, however, that this country may be called to exert
an influence still more direct on the destinies of men. Should the
rulers of Europe make war upon the principles of our Constitution,
because its existence '_may operate as an example_,' or should a
universal appeal be made to arms on the question of civil and religious
liberty, it is manifest that we must take no secondary part in the
controversy. The contest will involve the civilized world, and the blow
will be struck which must decide the fate of men for centuries to come.
Then will the hour have arrived, when, uniting with herself the friends
of Freedom throughout the world, this country must breast herself to the
shock of congregated nations. Then will she need the wealth of her
merchants, the powers of her warriors, and the sagacity of her
statesmen. Then on the altar of our God, let each one devote himself to
the cause of the human race, and in the name of the Lord of Hosts go
forth unto the battle! If need be, let our choicest blood flow freely,
for life itself is valueless when such interests are at stake. Then,
when a world in arms is assembling to the conflict, may this country be
found fighting in the vanguard for the liberties of man! God himself has
summoned her to the contest, and she may not shrink back. For this hour
may He by His grace prepare her!"
Thus wrote a learned American Patriot as early as 1825; and he stands
high even to-day in the estimation of his fellow-citizens; and no man
ever charged him with being presumptuously arrogant for having shown
such a perspective of coming necessities to America. His profound
sagacity, pondering the logical issue of America's position, has
penetrated into the hidden mystery of future events; and he has seen his
country summoned, by God himself, to fight in the vanguard for mankind's
civil and religious liberty.
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