The southern press., 1851-12-16
Kossuth's speech at the Corporation Dinner
In New York.
THURspAY, Dec. IL, 1851.

y =.
SIR In returning you my most humble thanks
for the honor you did me by your toast, and by
the benefit Of coupling my humble name with
that cause which Is the sacred aim OF my life,
confess to be so overwhelmed with emotion by
all it was my prodigious lot to experience since
! am on your glorious shores. that unable TO
find words to express my feelings, and knowing
that all the honor meet with has the higher
meaning OF principles, at once bag leave 70 fall
back to my duties, which are the lasting topics
Of nv reflections, my sorraws, and my hopes. ]
take the present occasion For highly important
opportunity. | take it for such ms will probably
decide about the success or failure OF my visit.
ing the United States. Unjust therefore hunbly
embrace your indulgence for pretty lon Plain,
and in no case eloquent development OF my
humble views, to the beneftof that cause which
the citizens of New York, and You particularly,
gentlemen. homo with your e nerous sympathy
When consider the sympathy of the people
of the United States for the cause Of Hungary,
SO generally diffused as to be almost univers i,
and so resolutely pronounced as men pronounce
those feelings, which are intended to be followed
by noble and great deeds, would feel inclined
to take your enerous aid for the restoration of
my native land to its sovereign independence,
already as granted in principle, and for me no
thing left to do but to enter into u negotiation
about the arrangement Of the details, were my
confident hopes not checked by that idea OF non-
interference in foreign, chiefly European, at
fairs, which, according to the numerous testimo
mails of your most distinguished politicians, we
are told to be ore of the ruling and lasting prin-
cipIes of the policy Of the United States.
highly respect the source of this conviction,
gentlemen. This source is your religious attach
ment to the doctrines of those great men, who
highly proved to all posterity their wisdom. by
bequeathing to you the immortal work OF that
Constitution which, aided by the unparalleled
benefits of Nature. has raised you, in the short
period of seventy FIVE years, from the precarious
position of an infant people TO the prodigious
strength of giant alton. The beneficial re-
suits of the wisdom OF the founders of your great
republic You see in happy reality. What
would be the consequences of the departure
from that wisdom, you are not sure of 1t is,
therefore natural that you feel an instructive fear
to touch, even with improving hands, the dear
legacy of those great men.
And as to your glorious Constitution, all hu
mainly can only wish, in the common interest Of
mankind, that you aud your posLerty may yet
long conserve this religious attachment TO its
fundamental principles, which by no means ex
clude development and progress and that every
citizen of your great Union, thankfully nc
knowledging the immense benefits of this Con
siituton, may even in the moments of the most
passionate irritation, never forget to love that
c. institution more than the momentary passion
of his heart, or the egotistica interest of the
passing hour May every citizen of your glo.
rious country forever remember that q partial
discomfort Of a corner in a large, sure aud com
Portable house, may be well amended without
breaking the founda ion Of it; and t.iat among
all possible means of getting rid of that corners
partial discomfort the worst would be to burn
down the house with our own hands.
But while thus acknoa ledge the wisdom Of
your attachment TO the Fundamental doctrines
of the founders of your united republic, beg
leave with equal frankness, to state that, in, my
opinion, there can be scarcely anything more
dangerous to the progressive development Of
whatever nation, than 10 take for basis that
which il nene--to take for principle that which
is bot the convenience of the passing situation
Ito take for substantial that which is but acct
dental, or take for q constitutional doctrine that
which was but the momentary exigency Of ad
ministrative policy. Such a course Of action
would be like 10 that, when a healthy man
would refuse TO take substantial food, because
when he was once lsboring under weakness Of
stomach, his physician ordered him severe diet
TO keep. The consequence would be consump-
tion-death.
Let me suppose, gentlemen, that yonser doc
trine Of non interference was really bequeathed
TO you by your Washington-and that il was
not, will prove to you afterward and let me
even suppose that your Washington impaired
such meaning 20 yonder supposed doctrine
which were equivalent to the words Of Cain
cam / my brothers keeper (which supposi
ton would be Of course a sacrilege But up
pose all this And believe that, even unde,
such suggestions, may be entitled 10 nsk--is
the dress which well suited the child, still con
yenient 10 the full grown man--nay 10 giant,
which Won are Would it not be ridiculous to
lay the giant In the chid's cradle, and to sing
him TO sleep by a lullaby 2
In those times of the foundation Of the United
States, you were an infant people, and the large
dress of your then comparatively not large ter
ritory, hung loose on your puerie limbs. li
those times, you had, Of course, no wiser thing
TO do, but to grow--to grow and to grow
But now you are so far grown that there is no
foreign power on earth fro which you ave
ANYTHING 20 fear for your own existence--for
your own security. This being your present
condition, you have entered into the second STA
dunn of political existence, the destination Of
which Is not only to exist for yourself exclu
sively, but 10 exist az member of the great
human family Of nations, having the right to all
claims, which are due from that family towards
every one Of its full grown members, but also
engaged to every duty which that great family
has the right TO claim from every one of its full
grown members
A nation may be in the situation, either by a
comparative weakness or by choice and policy,
as Japan and Gina. or by both these motives.
as Paraguay under DIR. Francia, TO live life se-
cluded from the world, Indifferent to the doc
trines Of mankind, in which it cannot. or will
not, have any share but then IL must be pre-
pared to become also excluded from the benefits
Of progress, civilization. and national intercourse.
Such nation may we'll say, ] don't care aoout
the fate of whatever othar nation in the world.
But am sure no citizen Of the United States
had has, or ever will have, the wish 10 see this
country degraded to The rotting vegetation Of a
Paraguay, or the mummy existence Of Japan and
China The feeling of self dignity, and the ex.
pausive quality Of that eoerprising spirit, which
are cougenial to frccmen, would revolt against
the very idea vt such degrading national cap