The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-02-14

H-W While plaudits long and loud are greet
ing KossuTH in the Northwest and material and
financial aid literally afforded him, the Southern
people are calmly considering the aims and ends
Of his propositions and purposes.
We extract from the Mobile Tribune the fol
lowing reflections on this subject, which present
some strong views very forcibly.
KossUTHIsM.- Kossuth fever at the last
accounts was raging in Pittsburg and Cincinnati
In the former place resolutions were adopted by
an immense meeting in favor of the policy
which that eloquent man announced in New
York.
But while excitement precedes and follows
Immediately his footsteps, it is very plainly
dying away in the eastern and middle States. II
is not rational and, therefore, this result. What
is called the claw Of nations" is nothing more
than the law of policy. All nations have vio-
lated it when II was their interest to do so and
we presume it will continue thus forever until
that period-athe good time that is coming
when moral influences will be so strong as to
operate without reference to individual respons-
Utility. England, which is now in Europe the
cornerstone of Kossuthism, has had no national
conscience. All along the pathway of her his
tory are strewn the wrecks of law and right
Even in our own country-so young and so
equtable-there have been violations frequent
ly of the great principle which Kossuth now
proposes, and which Mr.. Sumner and Mr.. Gid
dngs and all that tribe of men, who belong to
purer era, are laboriIg to make the country
the champion of.
The whole machinery of this sort Of law is
defective. An individual, when his rights are
invaded, has court to resort to. If The most
immediate one decide adversely to him, he can
appeal to one more distant If that fail him be
has another one, and there his suit must end,
unless he resort to the law of nature.
There is none of this instrumentality in what
is called the law Of nations and that law at BEST
amounts to nothing more than what is termed
Lynch law-for it makes nations their own
judges Of what is right, and the only appellate
court il possesses is the bayonet or cannon.
If such a system were adopted, as much injus-
tice would be done as is now done under the
no-law system.
We see, then, no relief for the wrongs com.
planned OF, except patience and self-reliance
Distressed nations must wait, If they cainot
tempt aid from strangers, or work out their own
redemption.
The centre of justice is the individual and
as you widen the circle from that centre, the
attraction which preserves justice and order
diminishes. Even in our own country, Just as
far as you 60 from the individual man, moral
gravitation ceases. A man will do in our mu.
nicipal councils, what he would be ashamed To
do rs an individual. The moral responsibility
diminishes in our Legislature, and is least of all
in our Congress. o
All this Is the result Of a natural law, which
is made up mainly Of a two-fold motive, first
the diyisibity Of the responsibility, and, second
ly, the remoteness Of this responsibility from Il,
source. To make an effective law for nations
you have got 10 alter this character Of the man.
and that Is not TO be done by beginning you
work carnations