182

BENEVOLENCE OF OHIO.

wounds of Hungary, that, regenerated by the faithful spirit of America, she may rise once more independent and free, a breakwater to the flood of Russian ambition, which oppresses Europe and threatens the world.

Citizens of Columbus-the namesake of your city, when he discovered America, little thought that by his discovery he would liberate the Old World. And those exiles of the Old World, who sixty-four years ago, first settled within the limits of Ohio, at Marietta, little thought that the first generation which would leap into their steps, would make despots tremble and oppressed nations rise. And yet, thus it will be. The mighty outburst of popular feeling which it is my wonderful lot to witness, is a revelation of that future too clear not to be understood. The Eagle of America flaps its wings; the Stars of America illumine Europe's night; and the Starspangled banner, taking under its protection the Hungarian flag, fluttering loftily and proudly, tells the tyrants of the world that the right of freedom must sway, and not the whim of despots but the Law of Nations must rule.

Gentlemen, I may not speak longer. [Cries of go on !] Yes, gentlemen, but I am ill, and worn out. Give me your lungs, and then I will

go on.

Citizens, your young and thriving city is conspicuous by its character of benevolence. There is scarcely a natural human affliction for which your young city has not an asylum of benevolence. To-day you have risen in that benevolence from alleviating private affliction to consoling oppressed nations. Be blessed for it. I came to the shores of your country pleading the restoration of the laws of nations to its due sway, and as I went on pleading, I met flowers of sympathy. Since I am in Ohio I meet fruits; and as I go on thankfully gathering the fruits, new flowers arise, still promising more and more beautiful fruits. That is the character of Ohio-and you are the capital of Ohio.

If I am not mistaken, the birth of your city was the year of the trial of war, by which your nation proved to the world that there is no power on earth that can dare any more to touch your lofty building of Independence. The glory of your eastern sister States is, to have conquered that inde

RECEPTION BY THE LEGISLATURE.

183

pendence for you. Let it be your glory to have cast your mighty weight into the scale, that the law of nations, guarded and protected by you, may afford to every oppressed nation that"fair play" which America had when it struggled for independence.

Gentlemen, I am tired out. You must generously excuse me, when I conclude by humbly recommending my poor country's future to your generosity.

XXVII.-DEMOCRACY THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.

[Reception by the two Houses of Legislature at Ohio.]

KOSSUTH, attended by the Joint Committee, was then introduced, and addressed by the President of the Senate, Hon. Wm. Medill, as follows:

Governor Kossuth: On learning that you were about to visit the Western portion of our country, the General Assembly of this State adopted the following preamble and resolutions :

Whereas, Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, has endeared himself to the people of Ohio by his great military and greater civic services rendered to the cause of Liberty; by the transcendant power and eloquence with which he has vindicated the right of every nation to determine for itself its own form of government, by the perils he has encountered and the suffering he has endured to achieve the freedom of his native country: therefore, in the name, and on behalf of the people,

Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the war in which Hungary was lately seemingly overcome, was a struggle in behalf of the great principles which underlie the structure of our government, vindicated by the bloody battles of eight years, and that we cannot be indifferent to their fate, whatever be the arena in which the struggle for their vitality goes on.

Resolved, That an attack in any form upon them is implicitly an attack upon us, an armed intervention against them, is in effect an insult to us; that any narrowing of the

184

RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE.

sway of these principles is a most dangerous weakening of our own influence and power; and that all such combinations of kings against people should be regarded by us now as they were in 1776, and so far as circumstances will admit, the parallel should and will be so treated.

Resolved, That we are proud to recognize in Louis Kossuth, constitutional Governor of Hungary, the heroic personification of these great principles, and that as such, and in token and pledge of our profound sympathy with him, and the high cause he so nobly represents, we tender to him, in behalf of two millions of freemen, a hearty welcome to the capital of the State of Ohio.

Resolved, That we declare the Russian past intervention in the affairs of Hungary, a violation of the laws of nations, which, if repeated, would not be regarded indifferently by the people of the State of Ohio.

Resolved, That a joint committee of three on the part of the Senate, and five on the part of the House of Representatives, be appointed to tender Governor Kossuth, in the name and on behalf of the people of Ohio, a public reception by their General Assembly, now in the session of the capital of the State.

This preamble, and these resolutions, set forth the views and sentiments of the people of Ohio in a far more forcible, authoritative, and enduring form, than can possibly be done by any declaration or expression of mine. In no part of the United States has your course been more warmly approved, or your great talents, persevering energy, and devoted patriotism, more universally admired. This, sir, is sufficiently evinced in the cordial and heartfelt welcome that has everywhere awaited you, since your entrance into the State.

Free and independent themselves, the people of Ohio cannot look with indifference on the great contest in which you are engaged. The history of that fearful struggle which resulted in the achievement of their own independence is still fresh in their recollection. Always on the side of the oppressed, no cold or calculating policy can suppress or control their sympathies.

The cause of Hungary, which you so eloquently plead,

SPIRIT OF THE AGE.

185

and which it is your high and sacred mission to maintain, is the cause of freedom in every quarter of the world. The principles involved in that cause, form the basis of our own institutions, the source of our present prosperity and greatness, and the foundation of all our hopes and anticipations of the future.

It would be strange, indeed, if a cause so pure and holy, or a champion so gifted, should fail to command the highest regard and admiration of freemen.

In the name, then, and on behalf of the General Assembly of Ohio, I bid you welcome to our midst.

I welcome you, sir, to the capital of a great and flourishing commonwealth-to its halls of legislation, which, in your own fatherland, were the scenes of some of your proudest triumphs, and to the hearts of a free, generous, and sympathizing people.

KOSSUTH'S REPLY.

MR. PRESIDENT-The General Assembly of Ohio, having magnanimously bestowed upon me the high honour of this national welcome, it is with profound veneration that I beg leave to express my fervent gratitude for it.

Were even no principles for the future connected with the honour which I now enjoy, still the past would be memorable in history, and not fail to have a beneficial influence, consciously to develop the Spirit of the Age. Almost every century has had one predominant idea, which imparted a common direction to the activity of nations. This predominant idea is the Spirit of the Age, invisible yet omnipresent; impregnable, all-pervading; scorned, abused, opposed, and yet omnipotent.

The spirit of our age is Democracy. All for the people and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people. That is Democracy, and that is the ruling tendency of the spirit of our age.

To this spirit is opposed the principle of Despotism, claiming sovereignty over mankind, and degrading nations from the position of a self-conscious-self-consistent aim, to the condition of tools subservient to the authority of ambition.

One of these principles will and must prevail. So far as one civilization prevails, the destiny of mankind is linked

186

OF OLD, SUCCESS;

to a common source of principles, and within the boundaries of a common civilization community of destinies exists. Hence the warm interest which the condition of distant nations awakes now-a-days in a manner not yet recorded in history, because humanity never was yet aware of that common tie as it now is. With this consciousness thus developed, two opposite principles cannot rule within the same boundaries-Democracy and Despotism.

In the conflict of these two hostile principles, until now it was not Right, not Justice, but only Success which met approbation and applause. Unsuccessful patriotism was stigmatized with the name of crime. Revolution not crowned by success was styled Anarchy and Revolt, and the vanquished patriot being dragged to the gallows by victorious despotism, men did not consider why he died on the gallows; but the fact itself, that there he died, imparted a stain to his name.

And though impartial history, now and then, casts the halo of a martyr over an unsuccessful patriot's grave, yet even that was not always sure. Tyrants have often perverted history, by adulation or by fear. But whatever that late verdict might have been; for him who dared to struggle against despotism, at the time when he struggled in vain, there was no honour on earth.-Victorious tyranny marked the front of virtue with the brand of a criminal.

Even when an existing "authority was mere violence worse than that of a pirate, to have opposed it unsuccessfully was sufficient to ensure the disapproval of all who held any authority. The People indeed never failed to console the outcast by its sympathy, but Authority felt no such sympathy, and rather regarded this very sympathy as a dangerous symptom of anarchy.

When the idea of justice is thus perverted—when virtue is thus deprived of its fair renown, and honour is thus attacked -when success like that of Louis Napoleon's is gained through connivance all this becomes an immeasurable obstacle to the freedom of nations, which never yet was achieved but by a struggle,-a struggle, which success raised to the honour of a glorious revolution, but failure lowered to the reputation of a criminal outbreak.