Magyar News, 2001. szeptember-2002. augusztus (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2002-03-01 / 7. szám

I

Kossuth talks to the people in Cegléd

that the oppressed nations of Europe become the masters of their future, free to regulate their own domestic concerns. And to this, nothing is wanted but to have that "fair play" to all, for all, which you, Sir, in your toast, were pleased to pronounce as a right of my nation, alike sanctioned by the law of nations as by the dictates of eternal justice. Without this "fair play" there is no hope for Europe - no hope of seeing your principles spread. Yours is a happy country, gentlemen. You had more than fair play. You had active operative aid from Europe in your struggle for independence, which, once achieved, you so wisely used as to become a prodigy of freedom, and welfare and a book of life to nations.

But we in Europe -- we, unhappily, have no such fair play. With us, against every palpitation of liberty all despots are united in a common league; and you may be sure that despots will never yield to the moral influence of your great example. They hate the very existence of this example. It is the sorrow of their thoughts, and the incubus of their dreams. To stop its moral influence abroad, and to check its spreading development at home, is what they wish, instead of yielding to its influence.

We will have no fair play. The Cossack already rules, by Louis Napoleon's usurpation, to the very borders of the Atlantic ocean. One of your great statesmen — now, to my deep sorrow, bound to the sick bed of far advanced age - (alas! that I am deprived of the advice which his wisdom could have imparted to me) - your great statesman told the world thirty years ago that Paris was transferred to St. Petersburgh. What would he now say when St. Petersburgh is transferred to Paris, and Europe is but an appendage to Russia? Alas! Europe can no more secure to Europe fair play. Albion only remains;

Monument in the Kerepesi Cemetary by Alajos Stróbl

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but even Albion casts a sorrowful glance over the waves. Still we will stand our place, "sink or swim, live or die. "You know the word; it is your own. We will follow it; it will be a bloody path to tread. Despots have conspired against the world. Terror spreads over Europe, and, anticipating persecution, rules. From Paris to Pesth there is a gloomy silence, like the silence of Nature before the terrors of a hurricane. It is a sensible silence, only disturbed by the thousand-fold rattling of the muskets by which Napoleon murders that people that gave him a home when he was an exile, and by the groans of new martyrs in Sicily, Milan, Vienna and Pesth. The very sympathy which I met in England, and was expected to meet here, throws my sisters into the dungeons of Austria. Well, God's will be done! The heart may break, but duty will be done. We will stand in our place, though to us in Europe there be no "fair play". But so much I hope, that no just man on earth can charge me with unbecoming arrogance, when here, on this soil of freedom, I kneel down and raise my prayer to God: "Almighty Father of Humanity, will thy merciful arm not raise a power on earth to protect the law of nations, when there are so many to violate it?" It is a prayer, and nothing else. What would remain to the oppressed if they were not permitted to pray? The rest is in the hand of God.

Gentlemen, I know where I stand. No honor, no encouraging generosity, will make me ever forget where I stand, and what is due from me to you. Here my duty is silently to await what you, in your wisdom, will be pleased to pronounce about that which public opinion knows to be my prayer and my aim; and be it your will to pronounce, or be it your will not to take notice of it, I will understand your will, and bow before it with sincere reverence,

and will go back over the ocean, hopeless perhaps, but my heart full of admiration, love, and gratitude to your generous people, to your glorious land.

But one single word even here may I be permitted to say — only such a word as may secure me from being misunderstood. I came to the noble-minded people of the United States to claim its generous operative sympathy for the impending struggle of oppressed freedom on the European continent; and I freely interpreted the hopes and wishes which those oppressed nations entertain; but, as to your great Republic, as a State, as a Power on earth, I stand before the statesmen, senators, and legislators of that Republic only to ascertain from their wisdom and experience what is their judgment upon a question of national law and international right. I hoped, and now hope, that they will, by the foreboding events on the other great continent, feel induced to pronounce in time their vote about that law and those rights. And I hoped, and hope, that, pronouncing their vote, it will be in favor of broad principles of international justice, consonant with their republican institutions and their democratic life. That is all. I know, and Europe knows the immense weight of such a pronunciation from such a place. But never had I the impious wish to try to entangle this great republic into difficulties inconsistent with its own welfare, its own security, its own interest. I rather repeatedly, earnestly declared that a war on this account by your country is utterly impossible, and a mere phantom. I always declared that the United States, remaining masters of their actions under every circumstance, will act as they judge consistent with their supreme duties to themselves. But I said, and say, that such a declaring of just principles would insure to the nations of Europe "fair play" in their struggle for