Chapter 31
No, gentlemen, the stars in the sky have a higher aim than merely 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.
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 harmonize 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 history, destined to change the condition of the world, upon which it will rain an everflowing influence. And secondly, in contradiction to this universally adopted creed, 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 outward world.
These two things do not agree. If that be the destiny of America, which you all believe to be, then 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 the 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 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.
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 to 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 word you spoke, "Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."
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XLVI.--CONDITION OF EUROPE.
[_Last Speech in Boston_.]
On May 14th, Kossuth, in obedience to a distinct invitation, delivered, in Faneuil Hall, the following ample Speech or Lecture, on the present condition of Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen,--The gigantic struggle of the first French Revolution associated the name of FRANCE so much with the cause of freedom in Europe, that all the world got accustomed to see it take the lead in the struggle for European liberty; and to look to it as a power entrusted by Providence with the initiation of revolutions; as a power, without the impulse of which, no liberal movement had any hope on the European continent.
I, from my earliest days, never shared that opinion. I felt always more sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon character and Anglo-Saxon institutions, which raised England, notwithstanding its monarchy and its aristocracy, to a position prouder than Rome ever held in its most glorious days: and which, free from monarchical and aristocratical elements here in America, lie at the foundation of a political organization, upon which the first true democratic Republic was consolidated and developed into freedom, power, and prosperity, in such a short time, as to make it a living wonder to the contemporary age, and a book full of instruction to the coming generations.
However, that opinion about the French initiative prevailed in Europe, and it was a great misfortune; for you know that France has always as yet forsaken the movement which it raised in Europe, and the other nations acting not spontaneously, but only following the impulse which the French had imparted to them, faltered and stopped at once, as soon as the French failed them. With that opinion of the French supremacy, no revolution in Europe could have a definite, happy issue.
Freedom never yet was given to nations as a gift, but only as a reward, bravely earned by one's own exertions, own sacrifices, and own toil; and never will, never shall it be attained otherwise.
I speak therefore out of profound conviction, when I say that, though the heart of the philanthropist must feel pained at the new hard trials to which the French nation is, and will yet be exposed, by the momentary success of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's inglorious usurpation, still that very fact will prove advantageous to the ultimate success of liberty in Europe. Louis Napoleon's _coup d'état_, much against his will, has emancipated Europe from its reliance upon France. The combined initiative of nations has succeeded to the initiative of France; spontaneity and self-reliance have replaced the depending on foreign impulse and reliance upon foreign aid. France is reduced to the level amongst nations, obliged to join general combinations, instead of regulating them; and this I take for a very great advantage. Many have wondered at the momentary success of Louis Napoleon, and are inclined to take it for an evidence that the French nation is either not capable or not worthy to be free. But that is a great fallacy. The momentary success of Louis Napoleon is rather an evidence that France is _thoroughly democratic_. All the revolutions in France have resulted in the preponderance of that class which bears the denomination of _bourgeoisie_. Amongst all possible modifications of oppression, none is more detested by the people than oppression by an Assembly. The National Assembly of France was the most treacherous the world has ever yet known. Issued from universal suffrage, it went so far as to abolish universal suffrage, and every day of its existence was a new blow stricken at democracy for the profit of the bourgeoisie. Louis Napoleon has beaten asunder that Assembly, which the French democracy had so many reasons to hate and to despise, and the people applauded him as the people of England applauded Cromwell when he whipped out the Rump Parliament.
But by what means was Louis Napoleon permitted to do even what the people liked to see done? By no other means, but by flattering the principle of Democracy; he restored the universal suffrage; it is an execrable trick, to be sure--it is a shadow given for reality; but still it proves that the democratic spirit is so consolidated in France, that even despotic ambition must flatter it. Well, depend upon it, this democracy, which the victorious usurper feels himself constrained to flatter in the brightest moments of his triumph--this democracy will either make out of Louis Napoleon _a tool_, which in spite of itself serves the democracy, or it will crush him.
France is the country of sudden changes, and of unthought of accidents. I therefore will not presume to tell the events of its next week, but one alternative I dare to state: Louis Napoleon either falls or maintains himself. The fall of Louis Napoleon, even if brought about by the old monarchical parties, can have no other issue than a Republic--a Republic more faithful to the community of freedom in Europe than all the former Revolutions have been. Or if Louis Napoleon maintains himself, he can do so only either by relying upon the army, or by flattering the feelings and interests of the masses. If he relies upon the army, he must give to it glory and profit, or, in other words, he must give to it war. Well, a war of France, against whomsoever it be, or for whatever purposes, is the best possible chance for the success of a European Revolution. Or if Louis Napoleon relies upon the feelings of the masses--as indeed he appears willing to do--in that case, in spite of himself, he becomes a tool in the hands of democracy; and if, by becoming such, he forsakes the allegiance of his masters--the league of absolutistical powers--well, he will either be forced to attack them, or be attacked by them.
So much for France; now as to ITALY.
Italy! the sunny garden of Europe, whose blossoms are blighted by the icy north wind from St. Petersburg--Italy, that captured nightingale, placed under a fragrant bush of roses, beneath an ever blue sky! Italy was always the battlefield of the contending principles, since, hundreds of years ago, the German emperors, the kings of Spain, and the kings of France, fought their private feuds, their bloody battles on her much coveted soil; and by their destructive influence, kept down all progress, and fostered every jealousy. By the recollections of old, the spirit of liberty was nowhere so dangerous for European absolutism as in Italy. And this spirit of republican liberty, this warlike genius of ancient Rome, was never extinguished between the Alps and the Faro.
We are taught by the scribes of absolutism to speak of the Italians as if they were a nation of cowards, and we forget that the most renowned masters of the science of war, the greatest generals up to our day, were Italians,--Piccolomini, Montecucculi, Farnese, Eugene of Savoy, Spinola, and Bonaparte--a galaxy of names whose glory is dimmed only by the reflection that none of them fought for his own country. As often as the spirit of liberty awoke in Italy, the servile forces of Germany, of Spain, and of France poured into the country, and extinguished the glowing spark in the blood of the people, lest it should once more illumine the dark night of Europe. Frederic Barbarossa destroyed Milan to its foundations, when it attempted to resist his imperial encroachments by the league of independent cities; and led the plough over the smoking ruins. Charles the Fifth had to gather all his powers around him to subdue Florence, when it declared itself a democratic republic. Napoleon extinguished the last remnants of republican self-government by crushing the republics of Venice, Genoa, Lucca, Ragusa, and left only, to ridicule republicanism, the commonwealth of San Marino untouched. The Holy Alliance parted the spoils of Napoleon, riveted afresh the iron fetters which enslave Italy, and forged new spiritual fetters; prevented the extension of education, and destroyed the press, in order that the Italians should not remember their past.
Every page, glorious in their history for twenty-five centuries, is connected with the independence of Italy; every stain upon their honour is connected with foreign rule. And the burning minds of the Italians, though all spiritual food is denied to them, cannot be taught not to remember their past glory and their present degradation. Every stone speaks of the ancient glory; every Austrian policeman, every French soldier, of the present degradation. The tyrants have no power to unmake history, and to silence the feelings of the nation. And amongst all the feelings powerful to stir up the activity of mankind, there is none more penetrating than unmerited degradation, which impels us to redeem our lost honour. What is it therefore that keeps those petty tyrants of Italy, who are jealous of one another, on their tottering thrones, divided as they are among themselves, whilst the revolutionizing spirit of liberty unites the people? It is only the protection of Austria, studding the peninsula with her bayonets and with her spies. And Austria herself can dare this, only because she relies upon the assistance of Russia. She can send her armies to Italy, because Russia guards her eastern dominions. Let Russia stand off, and Austria is unable to keep Italy in bondage; and the Italians, united in the spirit of independence, will easily settle their account with their own weak princes. Keep off the icy blast which blows from the Russian snows, and the tree of freedom will grow up in the garden of Europe; though cut down by the despots, it will spring anew from the roots in the soil, which was always genial for the tree. Remember that no insurrection of Italians has been crushed by their own domestic tyrants without foreign aid; remember that one-third of the Austrian army which occupies Italy are Hungarians who have fought against and triumphed over the yellow-black flag of Austria--under the same tri-colour which, having the same colours for both countries, show emblematically that Hungary and Italy are but two wings of the same army, united against a common enemy. Remember that even now neither the Pope nor the little Princes of middle Italy can subsist without an Austrian and a French garrison; and remember that Italy is a half isle, open from three sides to the friendship of all who sympathize with civil and religious liberty on earth; but from the sea not open to Russia and Austria, because they are not maritime powers; and so long as England is conscious of the basis of its power, and so soon as America gets conscious of the condition upon which its future depends, Austria and Russia will never be allowed to become maritime powers.
And when you feel instinctively that the heart of the Roman must rage with fury when he looks back into the mirror of his past,--that the Venetian cannot help to weep tears of fire and of blood from the Rialto;--when you feel all this, then look back how the Romans have fought in 1849, with a heroism scarcely paralleled in the most glorious day of ancient Rome. And let me tell, in addition, upon the certainty of my own positive knowledge, that the world never yet has seen such complete and extensive revolutionary organization as that of Italy to-day--ready to burst out into an irresistible storm at the slightest opportunity, and powerful enough to make that opportunity, if either foreign interference is checked, or the interfering foreigners occupied at home. The revolution of 1848 has revealed and developed the warlike spirit of Italy. Except a few wealthy proprietors, already very uninfluential, the most singular unanimity exists, both as to aim and to means. There is no shade of difference of opinion, either to what is to be done or how to do it. All are unanimous in their devotion to the Union and Independence of Italy. With France or against France, by the sword, at all sacrifices, without compromise, they are bent on renewing the battle over and over again, with the confidence that, even without aid, they will triumph in the long run.
The difficulty in Italy is not how to make a revolution, but how to prevent its untimely outbreak; and still even in that respect there is such a complete discipline as the world never yet has seen. In Rome, Romagna, Lombardy, Venice, Sicily, and all the middle Italy, there exists an invisible government, whose influence is everywhere discernible. It has eyes and hands in all departments of public service, in all classes of society--it has its taxes voluntarily paid--its organized force, its police, its newspapers regularly printed and circulated, though the possession of a single copy would send the holder to the galleys. The officers of the existing government convey the missives of the invisible government, the diligences transport its agents. One line from one of these agents opens to you the galleries of art, on prohibited days--gives you the protection of uniformed officials.
That this is the condition of all Italy is shown on one side, in the fact that there the King of Naples holds fettered in dungeons 25,000 patriots, and Radetzky has sacrificed nearly 4,000 political martyrs on the scaffold; still the scaffold continues to be watered with blood, and still the dungeons receive new victims, evidently proving what spirit exists in the people of Italy.
And still Americans doubt that we are on the eve of a terrible revolution; and they ask, What use can I make of any material aid? when Italy is a barrel of powder, which the slightest spark may light.
In respect to foreign rule, GERMANY is more fortunate than Italy. From the times of the treaty of Verdun, when it separated from France and Italy, through the long period of more than a thousand years, no foreign power ever has succeeded to rule over Germany; such is the resistive power of the German people to guard its national existence. The tyrants who swayed over them were of their own blood. But to subdue German liberty, those tyrants were always anxious to introduce foreign institutions. First, they swept away the ancient Germanic right, the common law so dear to the English and American, an eternal barrier against the encroachments of despotism, and substituted for it the iron rule of the imperial Roman law. The rule of papal Rome over the minds of Germany crossed the mountains together with the Roman law, and a spiritual dependency was to be established all over the world. The wings of the German eagle were bound, that it should not soar up to the sun of truth. But when the oppression became too severe, the people of Germany rose against the power of Rome;--not the princes,--though they too were oppressed: but the son of the miner of Eisenach, the poor friar, Martin Luther, defied the Pope on his throne, and at his bidding the people of Germany proved, that it is strong enough to shake off oppression; that it is worthy, and that it knows how, to be free. And again, when the French, under their Emperor, whose genius comprehended everything except freedom, extended their moral sway over Germany, when the princes of Germany thronged around the foreign despot, begging kingly crowns from the son of the Corsican lawyer, with whom the Emperors were happy to form matrimonial alliances--with the man who had no other ancestors than his genius,--then it was again the people, which did not join in the degradation of its rulers, but jealous to maintain their national independence, turned the foreigner out though his name was Napoleon, and broke the yoke asunder, which weighed as heavily upon their princes as upon themselves. And still there are men in America who despair of the vitality of the Germans, of their indomitable power to resist oppression, of their love of freedom, and of their devotion to it, proved by a glorious history of two thousand years. The German race is a power, the vitality and influence of which you can trace through the _world's_ history for two thousand years; you can trace it through the history of science and heroism, of industry, and of bold enterprizing spirit. Your own country, your own national character, bear the mark of German vitality. Other nations, now and then, were great by some great men--the German people was always great by itself.
But the German princes cannot bear independence and liberty; they had rather themselves become slaves, the underlings of the Czar, than allow that their people should enjoy some liberty. An alliance was therefore formed, which they blasphemously called the Holy Alliance,--with the avowed purpose to keep the people down. The great powers guaranteed to the smaller princes--whose name is Legion, for they are many,--the power to fleece and torment their people, and promised every aid to them against the insurrection of those, who would find that for liberty's sake it is worth while to risk their lives and property. It was an alliance for the oppression of the nations, not for the maintenance of the princely prerogative. When the Grand-Duke of Baden, in a fit of liberality, granted his people the liberty of the press, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia abolished the law, though it had been carried unanimously by the Legislature of Baden and sanctioned by the prince.--The Holy Alliance had guaranteed to the princes the power to oppress, but not the power to benefit their people.
But though the great powers interfered often in the principalities and little kingdoms of Germany, indeed as often as the spirit of liberty awoke, yet they themselves avoided every occasion which would have forced them to request the aid of their allies, and especially of Russia. They knew too well, that to accept foreign aid against their own people, was nothing else than to lose independence, and was morally the same as to kneel down before the Czar and to take the oath of allegiance. A government which needs foreign aid against its own people, avows that it cannot stand without foreign aid. Take that foreign aid--interference!--away, and it falls.