302 JUDGE HOAR ON KOSSUTH. humanity; for which indeed in my heart, though it is somewhat old, there is yet warmth. After many other toasts, President Wilson called on Judge Hoar to speak. The reply of the Judge had several striking sentences. He closed by saying to Kossuth: "It is because you, Sir, have learned the truth that Peace is the first interest of no people,—that there are other things more sacred than human life,—that without Justice and Freedom life is only a mockery, and peace a delusion and a burden, -it is because, when tyranny had terminated every duty of a subject, you too * have dared to become the MOST NOTORIOUS REBEL of our time, therefore does Massachusetts welcome you to the home of Hancock and of Adams, and the majestic spirit of Washington sheds its benediction upon the scene." XLIV.-RUSSIA THE ANTAGONIST OF THE U. S. 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 * The Judge alludes to Hancock and Adams, who were excepted by "notorious rebels," from General Gage's proclamation of name as amnesty. SENTENCE FROM CANNING. 303 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, 304 SERIOUS PAST MISTAKE 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 rest, 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 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 that the insinuation was false. The French Republic, say is IN AMERICAN POLICY. 305 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 night-mare 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 ap 306 AMERICA WILL NOT BE ALLOWED proaching, 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 glorions 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 |