Your honored name is Emerson; and Emerson was the name of the man who, a minister of the gospel, turned out with his people on the 19th of April of eternal memory, when the alarm-bell first was rung. The words of an Emerson administered counsel and the comfort of religion to the distressed then, and the words of an Emerson now speak the comfort of philosophy to the cause of oppressed liberty. I take hold of that augury, sir. Religion and philosophy, you blessed twins, upon you I rely with my hopes to America. Religion, the philosophy of the heart, will make the Americans generous; and philosophy, the religion of the mind, will make the Americans wise; and all that I claim is a generous wisdom and a wise generosity.

Gentlemen, it would be evidently a mistake to believe that the Revolution of America was the accidental result of circumstances which England could have prevented. No, gentlemen, England could not have retained possession of this country, except only by transforming herself into a republic, or, at least, into a democratic monarchy. That would have been the only means to prevent the separation. Those acts of the British Parliament, which virtually repealed the charter of Massachusetts, those acts were, indeed, oppressive, arbitrary, and tyrannical. They would have, in every other portion of the world, justified a revolution; but here, in your country, those arbitrary acts of the government have been but an opportunity to assert with arms that national independence which, also, without that opportunity would have been asserted,—perhaps in a different way,- but would have been asserted, certainly, because it was a necessity, not only a necessity with your own country, gentlemen, but a logical necessity in the progress of mankind's history. The arbitrary acts of the British government were a crime; but not to have understood that necessity, and not to have yielded to it by amicable arrangement without sacrifices, that was a fault.

In my opinion, there is not a single fact in history which would have been so distinctly marked to be providential, with reference to all humanity, as the colonization, revolution, and republicanism of the now United States of America. This immense continent being discovered and brought within the scope of European civilization, peopled with elements of that civilization, could not remain a mere appendix to Europe. That is evident. But this America, being connected as it is with Europe by a thousand social, moral, and material ties,—by the ties of blood, religion, language, science, civilization, and commerce,- to me it is equally evident that to believe that this so connected America can rest isolated in politics from Europe, that would be just such a fault as that was that England did not believe in time the necessity of America's independence.

Yes, gentlemen, this is so much true,― that I would pledge life, honor, and everything dear to man's heart and honorable to man's memory that either America must take its becoming part in the political regeneration of Europe or she herself must yield to the per

nicious influence of European politics. There was never yet a more fatal mistake than it would be to believe that, by not caring about the political condition of Europe, America may remain unaffected by the condition of Europe. I could, perhaps, understand such an opinion if you would or could be entirely and in every respect isolated from Europe; but, as you are not isolated, as you cannot be, as you cannot even have the will to be isolated, because that very will would be a paradox, a logical absurdity, impossible to be carried out, being contrary to the eternal laws of God, which he for nobody's sake will change, therefore to believe that you can go on to be connected with Europe in a thousand respects and still remain unaffected by its social and political condition would be, indeed, a fatal aberration. You stretch your gigantic hands a thousand-fold every day over the waves. Your relations with Europe are not only commercial, as with Asia: they are also social, moral, spiritual, intellectual. You take Europe every day by the hand: how, then, could you believe that, if that hand of Europe, which you grasp every day, remains dirty, you can escape from seeing your own hands soiled? The more clean your hands are, the more will the filth of old Europe stick to them. There is no possible means to escape from being soiled, than to help us Europeans to wash the hands of our Old World. You have heard of the ostrich that, when persecuted by an enemy, it is wont to hide its head, leaving its body exposed. It believes that, by not regarding it, it will not be seen by the enemy. That curious aberration is worthy of reflection. It is typical. Yes, gentlemen, either America will regenerate the condition of the Old World or it will be degenerated by the condition of the Old World.

Sir, I implore you [Mr. Emerson] give me the aid of your philosophical analysis, to impress the conviction upon the public mind of your nation that the Revolution, to which Concord was the preface, is full of a higher destiny,—of a destiny broad as the world, broad as humanity itself. Let me entreat you to apply the analytic powers of your penetrating intellect to disclose the character of the American Revolution, as you disclose the character of self-reliance, of spiritual laws, of intellect, of nature, or of politics. Lend the authority of your judgment to the truth that the destiny of the American Revolution is not yet fulfilled; that the task is not yet completed; that to stop half-way is worse than would have been not to stir. Repeat those words of deep meaning which once you wrote about the monsters that look backward, and about the walking with reverted eye, while the voice of the Almighty says, "Up and onward forevermore," and while the instinct of your people, which never fails to be right, answered the call of destiny by taking for its motto the word "Ahead." Indeed, gentlemen, the monuments you raised to the heroic martyrs who fertilized with their heart's blood the soil of liberty,— these monuments are a fair tribute of well-deserved gratitude, gratifying to

the spirits who are hovering around us, and honorable to you. Woe to the people which neglected to honor its great and good men! but believe me, gentlemen, those blest spirits would look down with saddened brows to this free and happy land if ever they were doomed to see that the happy inheritors of their martyrdom had the pretension to believe that the destiny to which that sacred martyr blood was sacrificed is accomplished, and its price fully paid, in the already achieved results, because the living generation dwells comfortably and makes two dollars out of one.

No, gentlemen, the stars on the sky have a higher aim than that to illumine the night-path of some lonely wanderer. The course your nation is called to run is not yet half performed. Mind the fable of Atalanta,— it was a golden apple thrown into her way which made her fall short in her race.

If that

Two things I have met here, in these free and mighty United States, which I am at a loss how to make concord. The two things I cannot concord are: first, that all your historians, all your statesmen, all your distinguished orators, who wrote or spoke, characterize it as an era in mankind's destiny designed to change the condition of the world, upon which it will rain an ever-flowing influence. And, secondly, in contradiction to this universally adopted consideration, I have met in many quarters a propensity to believe that it is conservative wisdom-not to take any active part in the regulation of the condition of the outward world. These two things do not concord. be the destiny of America which you all believe to be, then, indeed, that destiny can never be fulfilled by acting the part of passive spectators and by this very passivity granting a charter to ambitious czars to dispose of the condition of the world. I have met distinguished men trusting so much to the operative power of your institutions and of your example that they really believe they will make their way throughout the world merely by their moral influence. But there is one thing those gentlemen have disregarded in their philanthropic reliance, and that is that the ray of sun never yet made its way, by itself, through well-closed shutters and doors. They must be drawn open, that the blessed rays of the sun may get in. I have never yet heard of a despot who had yielded to the moral influence of liberty. The ground of Concord itself is an evidence of it. The doors and shutters of oppression must be opened by bayonets, that the blessed rays of your institutions may penetrate into the dark dwelling-house of oppressed humanity. . . .

I am an exile of the Old World, fraught with the hopes and expectations of oppressed millions. I may be excused for looking anxiously into the mysteries of your national existence if I could not find out there a flower of consolation to my poor native land, well deserving a better fate. But let me forsake that elevated position, and step down lower to the standing-place of your own national interests, of your own American policy. Even thus, I hope nobody

will contradict me, that in the life of a nation there are different periods equally necessary, of equally vital importance, if that nation desires to live. And it is but necessary to open their eyes, and to look to the condition of your glorious land, to become aware that now there is such a necessity for your future to be a power on earth, as it was necessary in 1775 to make a revolution, and to become independent and free. And I must say it, even at the risk of offending your national pride, that you are not yet a power on earth; and you will be no power on earth so long as you permit other powers to dispose of the laws of nations, and of the common interests of all humanity. And by not becoming a power on earth, when it is a necessity to do so, you lose, you must lose the glorious position you hold, because, as you well may see, the other powers of the earth dispose of the world's condition in a direction antagonistical to your interests, in a direction in which your principles lose ground on earth instead of gaining ground, as you should.

There are men who believe the position of a power on earth will come to you by itself; but oh, do not trust to this fallacy! A position never comes by itself: it must be taken, and taken it never will be by passivity. The martyrs who have hallowed by their blood the ground of Concord trusted themselves, and occupied the place Divine Providence assigned them. Sir, the words are yours which I quote. You have told your people that they are now men, and must accept, in the highest mind, the same destiny,- that they are not minors and invalids in a protected corner, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, advancing on chaos and on the dark. I pray God to give your people the sentiment of the truth you have taught. Your people, fond of its prosperity, loves peace. Well, who would not love peace? But allow me again, sir, to repeat, with all possible emphasis, the great words you spoke: "Nothing can bring you peace but a triumph of principles."

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The people of America's instinct is with my prayers. It is with me once more your words, sir: What your heart thinks great is great." The soul's emphasis is always right. To this I will trust; and, reminding you of the fact that in the soil of Concord the ashes of your martyrs are mingled in concord with the ashes of your enemies, and out of both liberty has grown, I say let this be an augury. Let the future be regulated, not by long past disinclinations, but by present necessities; not by anticipations of olden times, but by sympathies congenial to the present times; and let the word "Concord " be an augury to that fraternity amongst nations which will make the world free, and your nation the first and the greatest among the free.

KOSSUTH'S SPEECH AT PLYMOUTH, MAY 12, 1852.

I am not here, gentlemen, to retell the Pilgrim Fathers' tale. I have to learn about it from your particulars, which historians neglect, but the people's heart by pious tradition likes to conserve. Neither am I here to tell how happy you are. That you feel. Pointed by that sentiment which instinctively rises in the heart of happy good men at the view of foreign misfortune, you invited me to this sacred spot, desiring to pour in my sad heart the consoling inspiration flowing from this place, and to strengthen me in the trust to God. I thank you for it. It does good to my heart. The very air which I here respire, though to me sad, because fresh with the sorrows of Europe and with the woes of my native land, that very air is a balm to the bleeding wounds of my soul. It relieves like as the tears relieve the oppressed heart. But this spot is a book of history. A book not written by man, but by the Almighty himself,- a leaf out of the records of destiny sent to earth and illumined by the light of heavenly intellect, that men and nations, reading in that book of life the bountiful intentions of the Almighty God, may learn the duties they are expected to fulfil, and cannot neglect to fulfil without offending those intentions with which the Almighty Ruler of human destinies has worked the wonders of which Plymouth Rock is the cradle-place. I feel like Moses, when he stood on Mount Nebo, in the mountains of Abarem, looking over the billows. I see afar the Canaan of mankind's liberty. I would the people of your great republic would look to Plymouth Rock as to a new Sinai, where the Almighty legislator revealed what he expects your nation to do and not do unto her neighbors, by revealing to her free America's destiny.

Who would have thought, gentlemen, that the modest vessel which two hundred and thirty-two years ago landed the handful of Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock was fraught with the palladium of liberty and with the elements of a power destined to regenerate the world? Oppression drove them from their ancient European home to the wilderness of an unknown world. The "Mayflower" developed into a wonderful tree of liberty. Where the wilderness stood, there now a mighty Christian nation stands, unequalled in general intelligence and in general prosperity, a glorious evidence of mankind's capacity to self-government; and ye, happy sons of those Pilgrim Fathers, it became your glorious destiny to send back an enchanted twig from your tree of freedom to the Old World, thus requiting the oppression which drove away your forefathers from it. Is the time come for it? Yes, it is. That which is a benefit to the world is a condition of your own security. . . .

What is it I claim from you, people of America,— ye powerful swarm from the beehive Europe, ye sons of the Pilgrims,- those