The republic., 1851-12-18

ues Of my situation, you viii feel inclined TO sumo
kidd indulgence for me- were It only out Of broth
erly generosity for vi your professional col
| leagues, as profess 10 be one.
Yes, gentlemen. il is proud recollection Of my
| life that | commenced my public career in the
4 humble capacity of journalist. And in that re-
| spect may perhaps be somewhat entitled to your
hrolherly indulgence, as you, in the happy condi-
! ton which the institutions of your country insure
20 you, have not even an idea Of the tortures
of journalist who has 10 write with fetcred
| hands, and who is more than fettered by Aus
trian arbitrary preventive censorship. You have
no idea what a torture il is TO sit down TO your
writing desk the breast full Of the necessity OF
the moment, the heart full of righteous feelings,
the mind full OF convictions and OF principles
and all this warmed by the lively fire of patriots
heart-and 10 see before your eyes the scissors OF
the censor ready TO fall upon your head, like the
sword OF Dumocles, looping your ideas, manning
your arguments, numbering your thoughts; and
his pencil before your eyes, ready 10 blot out, with
n single draught, the work of your laborious days
and Of your seepless nights; and to know that the
people wifi judge you, not by what you have felt,
thought, and written, but by what the censor
wills; TO know that the ground upon which you
stand is not ground known TO you, because linn
tied by rules, but an unknown slippery ground,
the limits OF which lie bus within the arbitrary
pleasure of your censor-doomcd by profession to
be stupid, and n coward, and u fool; to know all
this, and yet not 10 curse your destny-not to de-
ny that you know how 10 read and TO write, but to
go on, day by day, in the torturing work OF Syst
phua. Oh, II is the greatest sacrifice which an in
|
manity!
And this is the present condition of the Press.
not in Hungary only, but In all countries cursed by
Austrian rule Our past revolution gave freedom
to the Press, not only 10 my fatherland but by in
direct influence also to Vienna, Prague, Lemberg
in a word, 10 the whole empire of Austria. This
very circumstance must he sufficient 10 insure
| your sympathy to my country's cause; as, on the
contrary, the very circumstance that the victory
| Of the Hapsburgian dynasty, achieved by treason
and Russian arms, was watchword to oppress the
ind Hal IN Fnln
/ ny--nay, throughout the European continent. The
contemplation that the freedom of the Press on the
! European continent is inconsistent with the pre-
! ponderance Of Russia, and the very existence OF
| the Austrian dynasty, this sworn enemy of free
| dom and of every liberal thought-ths very cir
cumstance must be sufficient to insure your gen
erous support to sweep away those tyrants, and to
| raise liberty where now foul oppression proudly
| rules.
| Gentlemen, considerable time ago there ap
! peared in certain New York papers systematic
! compound OF the most foul calumnes. iasehood,
and misrepresentation about the Hungarian cause,
| going SO far as. with unexampled effrontery, to
state that struggled for oppression, while 1t was
the cursed Austrian dynasty which stood forth for
liberty Now there is degree of eftrontery, the
temerity of which becomes astonishing even to
me, who, having seen the unexampled treachery
OF the House of Russia, became familiar with the
old Roman maxim, ''nI adrnirari,'' through my
tempest tossed life. We may be misrepreser erfted
5corned, jeered, charged with faults; our martyrs
the blood OF whom cries for revenge, may be laugh
ed Mt as fools; and even heroes, commanding the
veneraton OF history, may be represented rs Don
Quixotes of tragi comedy; all this could, II not
bear, at least conceive. have strange speci
mems of the alterations of the human mind; but
that, In the midst of the most mournful sutferings
not the honor of an unfortunate nation should
be sacred TO some men, who enjoy the beneht OF
free institutions and preieas to be republicans
that is too much; it is sorrowiul page In man
kinds history.
You cannot, of course, expect to see me on this
occasion entering into special refutation of this
astonishing compound of calumnies. will re
serve ii for my pen as can have free day
for it. ii will be very easy work, because all ar.i
hcial compounds OF misrepresentation must fall
into dust before the dispassionate, plain statement
OF facts, the greatest part OF which, thankfully
have to acknowledge, are already not unknown to
you.
Permit me rather to make some humble remark
upon the question of g nationalties'' which play
such important, and, dare say, such mis-
! chicvous, part in the destinies of Europe. say
| nischievous, because word ever much
m5repres ented or mistaken as the word '' nation
ality;" so that it would be indeed great benefit
| to humanity could succeed to contribute some
thing to the ratification of this idea, the misrepre
| senaton of which became the most mischievous
! instrument in the hands of absolutism against the
| spirit of liberty.
| Let me ask you, gentlemen, are you, the people
| OF the United States, a nation or not? Have you
| National Government or not?
! Have you? You answer yes; and yet you, the
people OF the United States not all Of one blood,
and speak not one language. Millions of you speak
English, others French, others German, others lta
liam, others Spanish, others Danish, and even sew
eral Indian dialects; and yet you are nationl
And your Government, even the government of
| your single States, nay, the municipal govern
ments of your different cities, not legisating
and governing and administering in all and every
language spoken in your Union, in the respective
States, and IN the respective cities themselves and
yet you haue National Government
Now, suppose that one part of the people of the
United States, struck by a curse like that with
which the builders of Babel once struck
should at once rise and say, ''the Union in which
we live is an oppression TO Our laws our nsti-
tutons, our State and city governments, our very
freedom is an oppression to US. What is Union to
us? what rights? what laws2 what freedom? what
history! what geography? what commonly of inte-
rests? They are all nothing. Language-hat is all.
Let us divide the Union divide the States; divide the
very cities. Let us divide the whole territory, by
and according to languages, and then let the peo.
pie OF every language live distinct, and form each
separate State Because every nation has ri o ht
to national fe and TO us the language is the ma
| tion-nothing else; and your Union, your rights
| your laws and your freedom itself, though com
mon 10 us, is an oppression to US, because lam
| guage Is the only basic upon which States must be
| founded. Everything else is tyranny
| What would you say OF such reasoning? What
| would become OF your great Union! What of your
Constitutionthis glorious legacy of your greatest
man-those immortal stars on Inankind's moral
canopy? What would become of your country it.
self, whence the spirit of freedom spreads its
mighty wings, and rising hope clears up the future
mighty complex of your Republic, should it ever
be attacked in ts consistency by the furious hands
OF the fanaticism OF language? Where now she
wanders and walks among the rising temples of
human happiness, che soon would tread upon the
ruins oi liberty, mourning over the fragility Of
human hopes.
Happy art thou, free nation of America, that
thou hast founded thy house upon the only solid
basis of nations liberty Liberty! principle
steady like the world, eternal like the truth, and
universal for every climate, for every time, like
Providence. Thou hast no tyrants among thee to
throw the apple Of Eros in thy Union Thou hast
no tyrants among thee to raise the fury of hatred
in thy national family-hatred of nations, that
curse of humanity, that venomous instrument of
dcspotsm.
Whata glorious sight ii is to see the oppressed OF
30 different countries-difierent in language, his
tory, and habits-Fanderng to thy shores, and be-
coming members Of thy great nation, regenerated
by the principle Of common liberty
Would could do the same; but can't, because
love my native land, inexpressibly, boundless,
ieryenuy. love il more than life, more than hap.
piness; love il more in its gloomy sufFerngs than
would in its proudest, happiest days.
What makes q nation? Ia it the language only?