It seems to me to be preferable to that of the honorable Senator from Illinois, and gentlemen say that they do prefer it upon the ground that this would be the joint act of both houses of Congress. I am quite sure that if adopted here it would be concurred in by the House of Representatives, and would thus become a national act of welcome. I confess that I am desirous that, as the Congress of the United States caused Kossuth to be brought here under their authority, his reception should be a national act; and that Congress should not be divided in its expression or its action on this the crowning occasion of the whole. This form also seems to me to commend itself to the adoption of the Senate, because it stops short of committing Congress or the government to any action beyond that of simply giving welcome. What I desire is not the utterance of words. What I want to see what I want to have Congress do, is to extend the welcome which the world expects us to give to the illustrious exile.

Objections have been made, to which I will advert very briefly. It has been said or intimated that we are not well aware of what we are doing that we are not well acquainted with the character of Kossuth-that we do not know certainly that he is entitled to these attentions from the American people. Sir, in the course of human events, we see the nations of Europe struggling to throw off their despotic systems of government, and to establish governments upon the principle of republicanism or of constitutional monarchy. Whenever such efforts are made, we see it invariably happen that the existing despotisms of Europe combine to repress those struggles-combine to subdue the people. The consequence is, that despotism is a common cause, and it results also that the cause of constitutional liberty has also become one common cause -the cause of mankind against despotism. Now whatever people leads the way at any time in any crisis in this contest for civil liberty, becomes the representative of the nations of the earth. We once occupied that proud and interesting position, and we engaged the sympathies of civilized men throughout the world. No one can deny, that recently Hungary assumed that same position; and the records of our own legislature show that we, in common with the friends of civil liberty in Europe, held Hungary to be the representative of the nations of the earth in

this great cause. We had a messenger on the verge of the battlefield ready to acknowledge her independence.

cause.

Mr. President, it happens, in the Providence of God, that whenever a nation thus assumes to open this controversy for liberty, in behalf of the nations of the earth, some one man more than another becomes identified with the struggle by his virtues, by his valor, by his wisdom, or by his sufferings, until he eclipses others who may be associated with him, and comes to be regarded by the country itself, in whose behalf he labors and struggles, and by mankind, as the representative of that nation, and of that The deliverance of Switzerland brings up at once the name of William Tell. The struggle of Scotland calls up the name of Wallace; and all over the world no man ever hears the American Revolution spoken of, but it calls up the majestic form of Washington! So it happens that the name of Hungary calls up at once the great, the towering fame of the author, the hero, and the sufferer of the Hungarian Revolution. Now, then, shall we say that we do not know that Kossuth is worthy to be regarded as the friend and advocate of liberty in his own country? Shall we say that he does not merit the homage paid to him as the leader of the Hungarian Revolution? Hungary herself has set the seal upon his merits, and concluded that question, and it would be as unreasonable and absurd to listen to those who should depreciate the principles or the character of Washington, as it is to stand doubting or hesitating whether, in honoring Kossuth, we are really doing honor to his cause, and the cause of his unfortunate country.

But it is asked, Why should the American people engage in paying this homage to Kossuth, when, granting all his merits, he has nevertheless done nothing for America? True, he never did anything for America. We have reached that time when no man living out of America can confer upon us a benefit. We are beyond the reach of beneficence other than at the hand of the Great Creator and Preserver of nations; but do we honor only those, do we reward only those who confer benefits upon us? Certainly We honor those who serve the common cause of civil liberty throughout the world. That cause is our own cause. We therefore honor those who advance and promote it. But, although Kossuth has done nothing for this country, Europe has. It has sent us a Lafayette, a Kosciusko, a De Kalb, and a Steuben, and

not.

thus has created a debt against us, which, while we cannot pay to the illustrious dead, we can discharge toward fit and lawful representatives, in the persons of the illustrious living.

I shall notice a single other objection, and then I shall leave this resolution to its fate. It is an apprehension that, by the adoption of this, or a similar motion, the Congress of the United States will commit itself to some act of intervention in the affairs of Europe by which the government of the United States may be embarrassed in its foreign relations. Mr. President, I am a lover of peace. I shall never freely give my consent to any measure which I shall think will tend to involve this nation in the calami

ties of foreign war. I believe that our mission is a mission of republicanism. But I believe that we shall best execute it by maintaining peace at home and with all mankind; and if I saw in this measure a step in advance toward the bloody field of contention in the affairs of Europe, I, too, would hesitate long before adopting it. But I see no advance toward any such danger in doing a simple act of national justice and magnanimity. I believe that no man will deny the principle, that a nation may do for the cause of liberty in other nations whatever the laws of nations do not forbid. I plant myself upon that principle. What the laws of nations do not forbid, any nation may do for the cause of civil liberty in any other nation, in any other country. Now, the laws of nations do not forbid hospitality. The laws of nations do not forbid us to sympathize with the exile-to sympathize with the overthrown champion of freedom. The laws of nature demand that hospitality, and from the very inmost sources of our nature springs up that sympathy. What is that great epic poem which has filled the second place in the admiration, I had almost said in the affections, of mankind for two thousand years, but the history of an exile flying from the walls of his burning city and devoted state? Sir, the laws of nature require-the laws of nations command hospitality to those who fly from oppression and despair. And this is all that we have done, and all that we propose to do. We have invited Kossuth-we have procured his release from captivity—we have brought him here—and we propose to say to him, standing upon our shores with his eye directed to us, and while we know that the eyes of the civilized world are fixed upon him and us, "Louis Kossuth, in the name of the American people, we bid you a cordial welcome."

WELCOME TO LOUIS KOSSUTH.

DECEMBER, 12, 1851.

I WILL suppose now that the opposition made to this resolution is effective. I will suppose that the measure is defeated. Let us look to the consequences beyond. What are they? Kossuth, admitted here to be the representative of the down-trodden constitutional liberties of his own country, and the representative of the up-rising liberties of Europe, shakes from his feet the dust that has gathered upon them on American shores, and returns to the Eastern continent--returns upon a point of honor with the United States of America, and therefore, in a practical view, returns, as he will say, and those devoted to his cause will say, repulsed, driven back. Where then, sir, shall he find welcome and repose? In his own beautiful native land, at the base or on the slopes of the Carpathian hills? No! the Austrian despot reigns absolutely there. Shall he find it in Germany, east or west, north or south? No, sir; the despot of Austria and the despot of Prussia reign absolutely there. Shall he find it under the sunny skies of Italy? No, sir; for the Austrian monarch has crushed Italy to the earth. Shall he find it in Siberia, or in the frozen regions of the North? No, sir; for the Russian Czar, who drove him from his native land and forced him into exile in Turkey, will be ready to seize the fugitive. The scaffold awaits him there. Where shall he go? Shall he seek protection again from the sceptred Turk? The Turk would say, You have eaten my salt as a voluntary captive, and I sheltered you until you left me under the seductions of the republic of the United States. If you come now, the laws of my country and of my God will not oblige or allow me to hazard the peace of my own people again to extend protection over you. Where, then, shall he go? Where else on

the face of broad Europe can he find refuge but in the land of your forefathers, in Britain? There, God be thanked, there would be a welcome and a home for him. Are you prepared to give to the world evidence that you cannot receive the representative of liberty and republicanism, whom England can honor, shelter, and protect?

But, Mr. President, will this transaction end there? I fancy that I see the exile wending his lonely way, with downcast looks, along the streets and thoroughfares of the great metropolis of Britain and the world, forsaken and abandoned, but not forgotten. Will it end in that? No, sir. Beyond us, above us, there is a tribunal, higher and greater than the Congress of the United States. It is a tribunal whose existence and jurisdiction and authority we have acknowledged, and to whose judgment-seat we have already called the Turk, the Austrian, and the Russian, to account for their action in regard to Hungary and to Kossuth. It is the tribunal of the public opinion of the world-the public opinion of mankind. Sir, that tribunal is unerring in its judgments. It is constituted of the great, the wise, and the good of all nations not only of the great, and wise, and good who are now living, but of the great, the wise, and the good of all ages. Before that tribunal, states, great and small, are equal. Ay, before that tribunal the proudest empire is equaled by its humblest citizen or subject. Yes, the Indian and the serf are equal there to the American Republic and to the Russian Empire. I know no living man entitled by the consent of Christendom to preside in that august tribunal. But there is a venerable form that seems to rise up before me, and all the congregated nations and people deferentially make way as he advances and takes the judgmentseat. It is the shade of Franklin. And there I see the parties opposed. On the one side stands Hungary, downcast and sorrowful, but she is surrounded by the people of many lands, who wait her redemption and their own. On the other side I see the United States of America, sustained-most singular conjunction !-by the youthful and impatient Bonaparte, the sickly successor of the Romans, and the Czar of all the Russias. I hear the impeachment read. It is, that the United States have dishonored and insulted the unfortunate representative of unfortunate Hungary; that they found him a captive in Asia Minor, under the protection of the Turk, but subjected to the surveillance of the Russian