The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-12-17
The Government and The People,.
K0ssuths

American people. 1t is a remarkable document,
full Of that shrewd cunning which moulds enthu-
siasm into form and purpose, and Of that method
In madness" which rules 50 readily the impulsive
sympathies of the masses. It is full Of new and
startling declarations. 1t demands Chat 10 the
exact word) war in behalf Of the Magyar's cause,
and il accepts with scornful and undisguised dis
dain any less extensive boon. Mere courtesies i,
jeers at Safe asylum it ridicules Public fav.r il
refuses 1t asks MEANS men, arms, war for Hun.
gary, and nothing less.
Not its least remarkable feature, is the peremp.
tory and defiant declaration, made in view of this
demand for warlike aid, that "schatever be thu
declaration Of your Government, know that !
have the honor to be in a country where tie
sovereign IS not the Govsrnmsnt but tbs People,
[great cheering,l and where every man in office
mast be the representative Of the direction which
the public spirit Of the people takes" This
promises to be, in the hands of Mr.. Kossuth, an
exact reproduction Of the celebrated Genet affair Of
1893. Genet, it will be remembered was the
French Minister to this country at that time
demanded Of Gen. Washington that we should
involve ourselves in the struggles Of France
defed the power Of our Government by threaten
ing an appeal against it to the people-and
because Washington adhered to the policy Of non
intervention, called that policy narrow and selfish,
and heaped upon the head OF the Father Of our
Country, every possible epithet of opprobrium.
Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Henry
Knox, and Edmund Rsndolph--then members Of
the Cabnet-united with the President in the
most decisive rebuke of the French Minister and
the most energetic steps to Illustrate any contem-
plated violation Of position of on-intervention
and neutrality. No member of the Cabinet was
more active decided than Thomas Jefferson.
The country, despite of some violent popular
demonstrations, came up with its clear, calm,
sober common sense, to the support of the Pres-
dent. Mr. Genet declared, ait is not thus that
the American people wish we should be treated"
but the attempt to separate the people from their
Government, to make an outburst of popular
enthusiasm, bear down the order and stability Of
laws and treaties, failed utterly.
Genet was an accredited min lister from a de
facto Republic; Kossuth is private citizen from
a land in which, at this moment, there is neither
revolution nor the sign of revolution. He lands
upon our shores, hears the infamed defamation
of few holiday orators, and the euogist of a
limited monarchy in England is one of the mos,
infa nc al. IT.
the French Revolutionary utras-" freedom for
the world"-is his theme, and he would have it
our immediate mission. He appeals from the
Government-from Congress and the Executive
to the people What is to follow This is al.
ready written in the history of Genet's mission
and the fate of his appeal.
The Hungarian seems to be ignorant of the
fact that with US the people and the Government
are one-thst the one cannot be in advance of
or behind the other-that we are too intellpentlv
free to make every outburst of our own enthu.
siasm, every hurra Of an excited demonstration,
the warrant for vast schemes and great wars.
He seems to be ignorant of the fact that, as
with us the People are the Government, the
more solemnly should they respect laws and trea.
ties, which are their own the more strictly
should they insist upon calm action and wise
forbearance. The Hungarian cannot appeal from
the Government to the people in our republican
and /; there is no hostility, no antipathy between
he two, because they are one. In a free Re.
ublc mobs alone war upon the Government.
nd in SO doing they war upon law and order,
nd seek to inaugurate upon their ruins the pas. |
ion of the hour. Neither mob law nor reyolu. |
onary law can obtain here the first would be
'ithout apology, and the latter without reason. |
md M. kossuth must desire to establish the one
: the other !; because, at the same time that he
lreatens an appeal from the Government to the
eople, he speaks in the most glowing terms of the
resent Administration.
Aud who is he who comes among free people
D preach to them sed,ion against themselves
nd against their better interests! He is an
ussrious exile, of rare talents, great abilities,
nd consummats tact; man of dangerous pow
rs. But yesterday our Government lifted him
ut OF hopeless captivity, and restored him 10
Teedom. To-day his foot is not steady upop orr
hores, before he threatens to appeal from the
government to the people, and against the doc.
inc Of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and
lonroe. Positive and psremptory, he demands tina,
70 shall Immediately fly to arms in behalf of Hun.
ary' plunge into the stormy issue of fearful
'ntest with European powers; and if we grant
OF this, he tells us plainly that he scorps our
capabilities, and even threatens to turn his back
ontemptuously upon our land Does tho sun
nine more brightly upon Hungary than upon our
md Are.we TO vindicate the nationality of
hungary in arms! and if so, why not of every
alton of the earth Why not Poland Whv
OF lreland' Why not Iialys WHY not Ger.
,any' Why should our first labors be for Kos.
nth and the Magyar race! That is the Magyar
hefs first great idea, behind which all the world
es in shadow, and which, if wa embrace not. his
'orn and contempt are to be Missed out upon the
alton which has so signally befriended him. Hs
as an asylum here, safe as fortress, against
'rong and persecution, but Hungary is more beau.
full 10 him-is it more beautiful to us,
Why should he threaten and dictate as soon as
lands upon our shores. Why should he draw
ianciful and dangerous 1--WE apprehend the reader |
history will say JacobinicaD distinction he. |
"een free people and its free Government, Why
,ould he declaim that that Government is at war |
nth the sentiment of the people, For himself or |
n Hungary' Every act of that Government, has |