Ohio History Journal

KOSSUTH BEFORE OHIO LEGISLATURE

KOSSUTH BEFORE OHIO LEGISLATURE.

[Copy of an address delivered before the General Assembly of Ohio,

February 6, 1852, by Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian Patriot. His appear-

ance before the Assembly was by invitation, and after its delivery a

Committee was appointed to wait upon him and procure the manuscript

of the address. This was secured, with the autograph of Kossuth, and is

now preserved in the State Library. This publication is made from the

original manuscript.-E. O. R.]

MR. PRESIDENT: The General Assembly of Ohio, having

magnanimously bestowed upon me the high honor of this national

welcome, it is with profound veneration that I beg leave to

express my fervent gratitude for it.

Were, even with the honor which I now enjoy, no principles

connected, still the fact would be memorable in history, and

would not fail to have a beneficial influence consciously to develop

the spirit of the age, which however contradicted, however

opposed, still always proved to rule, and will prove to rule the

destinies of humanity.

Applying the touchstone of philosophical scrutiny to that

instruction which history affords, we cannot fail to remark that

almost every century had one predominant idea, which all absorb-

ingly prevailed, and impressed a common direction to the activity

of nations. This predominant idea is the spirit of the age; in-

visible yet omnipresent; impregnable yet 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 principles of despotism, claim-

ing 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 condition prevails, the destiny of mankind is linked to a com-

(114)

Kossuth Before Ohio Legislature

Kossuth Before Ohio Legislature. 115

mon source of principles; and within the boundaries of a com-

mon civilization, community of destiny 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 thus aware of that community as it is now. With

this consciousness thus develops. Two opposite principles can-

not rule within the same boundaries. Democracy or despotism.

- There is no transaction between Heaven and hell.

In the conflict of these two hostile principles, until now it

was not right, not justice, but only success, which met approba-

tion and applause.- Unsuccessful patriotism was stigmatised with

the name of crime; revolution not crowned with success was

styled anarchy and revolt; and the vanquished patriot being

dragged to the gallows by victorious despotism. It was not the

consideration, why a man died on the gallows, but the fact it-

self that there he died, which imparted a stain to his name.

And though impartial history now and then cast the halow

(halo) of a martyr over an unsuccessful patriot's grave; yet

even that was not always sure; tyrants often perversed history,

sullied by adulation or by fear;--but whatever that last verdict

might have been; for him who dared to struggle against des-

potism, when he struggled in vain, there was no honor on earth;

victorious tyranny marked the front of virtue with the brand of

a criminal.

To have opposed existing authority, though that authority

was that of a violence, worse than the authority of a pirate is,-

this opposition when unsuccessful was sufficient to exclude from

every place where authority is residing.- The people never failed

to console the outcast first, by its sympathy; but authority shared

not the people's sympathy; regarded rather this very sympathy

as a dangerous sign of the people's propensity to anarchy.

The idea of justice thus prevented; virtue thus deprived of

its fair renown, and honor but attached to success, though crim-

inal, like L. Napoleon's: all this became an obstacle of unmeas-

urable influence to the freedom of nations, never yet achieved

but by a struggle, which success raised to the honor of a glorious

revolution, but failure lowered to the reputation of a criminal

revolt.

116 Ohio Arch

116 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

MR. PRESIDENT: I feel proud that my humble self became

an opportunity for the restoration of public honors to where it

only should be bestowed; to righteousness, and to a just cause;

where as till now honors were (never) lavished but by success.

I consider this a highly important fact, which cannot fail to

encourage the resolution of devoted patriots, who though not

afraid of death, may be excused for recoiling before humiliation.

Senators and Representatives of Ohio: I thank you for it

in the name of all, who may yet suffer, for having done the

duties of a patriot. You may yet see, many a man who out of

the source of your approbation, will draw encouragement to noble

deeds. Because there are many on earth, ready to meet mis-

fortune for a noble aim; but not so many ready to meet even

humiliation and indignity.

Besides: in honoring me you have approved what my nation

has done.- You have honored my nation by it. And I pledge

my word to you, that it will yet do what you approved.*

The approbation of our conscience, my nation and myself, we

had; the sympathy of your generous people we met; and it is

no idle thing that sympathy of the people of Ohio; it weighs

heavily like the sovereign will of two millions of free men;

powerful like a giant in his stoutest youth;- You have added to

it, the sanction of your authority.- Your people's sympathy you

have framed it into a Law, sacred and sure in all consequences,

- upon which humanity may rely, because you have registered it.

There is also a triumph of the Republican principle in this

your fact. It is as if you had said: Ye despots, who call your-

self sovereigns, and proclaim your arbitrary whim to be the law

of humanity:- we in our legitimate authority, not derived from

sacrilegious violence like yours, but from the only legitimate

*The Senate had just introduced the following Joint Resolution:

"Resolved by the General Assembly, That the Governor of Ohio be

authorized, and is hereby instructed to deliver to Louis Kossuth, the Con-

stitutional Governor of Hungary, on loan, all the public arms and muni-

tions of war belonging to the state, which remain undisturbed, to be

returned in good order upon the achievement of Hungarian liberty."

This resolution, on April 12, passed the Senate by a vote of 16 to 8,

but was subsequently, April 15, 1852, indefinitely postponed in the House

by the decisive vote of 59 to 26.- E. O. R.

Kossuth Before Ohio Legislature

Kossuth Before Ohio Legislature. 117

source of all authority-the sovereign people's will; we declare

before God and the world, that not there is justice and right where

you protest it to be; we approve what ye blame, we honor what

ye calumniate; and defy your ambitious arrogance to dictate,

what shall be law and right for humanity.

But Sir: high though be the value of this noble appro-

bation, I am honored with it, it becomes an invaluable benefit to

all humanity by these resolutions by which the General Assembly

of Ohio, acknowledging the justice of those principles, which it

is my mission to plead in my downtrodden country's name-

declares the mighty and flourishing commonwealth of Ohio re-

solved to restore the eternal laws of nations to their due sway,

too long condemned by arbitrary violence.

It was indeed a sorrowful sight to see, how nations bled,

and how freedom withered, between the iron grasp of despots,

leagued for universal oppression of all humanity. It was a sor-

rowful sight to see, that there is no power on earth ready to

maintain those eternal laws without which there is no security

for whatever (any) nation on earth. It was a sorrowful sight,

to see all nations isolating themselves in defense while despots

were leagued in offense.

The view has changed: A bright lustre is spreading over

the dark sky of humanity. The glorious galaxy of the United

States rises with imposing brightness over the horizon of op-

pressed nations; and the bloody star of despotism, by your very

declarations fading in its flame, will soon vanish from the sky

like a meteor.

Legislators of Ohio: It may be flattering to ambitious vanity

to act the part of an execrated counquerer, but it is a glory un-

paralleled in history to protect right and freedom on earth.

The time draws near when by the virtue of such a declara-

tion like yours by your sister states, Europe's liberated nations

will unite in a mighty choir of Allelujah, thanking God, that His

paternal cares have raised the United States to the glorious posi-

tion of a first born son of freedom on earth.

Washington prophesied that within twenty years, the Repub-

lic of the United States will be strong enough to defy any power

on earth in a just cause.

118 Ohio Arch

118 Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

The State of Ohio was yet unborn when the wisest of men

and the purest of patriots told that prophecy.

And God the Almighty made the prophecy true, by annex-

ing in a predigiously short period more states to the proud con-

stellation of your Republic; and increasing the lustre of every

star more powerfully, than Washington could have anticipated

in the brightest moments of his patriotic hopes.

There is a destiny in this: And you are conscious of this

destiny. My sad heart, though depressed by sickness, is beating

with resolution and with hope. Rejoice, oh my nation in thy

very woes; wipe off thy tears, and smile amidst thy tortures, like

the Dutch hero, De Wytt; there is a providence which rules!

Thou wast, oh my nation often the martyr, who by thy blood

redeemed the Christian nations on earth: even thy present name-

less woes are providential; they were necessary that the Star

spangled banner of America should rise over a new Sinai, the

mountain of law for all nations; thy sufferings were necessary,

that the people of the United States, powerful by their freedom,

and free by the principle of national independence, that common

right of all humanity, stand up a new Moses, upon the new Sinai

and shout out with the thundering voice of its twenty-five mil-

lions: "Hear ye despots of the world: Henceforward this shall

be law in the sight of the Lord, your God and our God."

"Ye shall not kill nations

"Ye shall not steal their freedom

"And ye shall not covet what your neighbor's is."

Hungary is a Golgotha where my people is nailed to the

cross, that America may proclaim that law, to the benefit of all

humanity. But the cross is not the emblem of death, it is the

sign of resurrection and of bliss.

My nation will rise, it will not lie in its grave longer than

the holy number "three," called to resurrection by the eternal

principles of the law of nature and of nature's God, which you

thus proclaim, and will requite your magnanimity by becoming

the cornerstone of national independence on the European conti-

nent.