Mississippi palladium. [volume] (Holly Springs, Miss.) 1851-1852, 1852-01-15

address you with fear, gentlemen, be-
cause you are aware that since my ar
rival here, had the great honor and
valuable benefit TO see my whole time
agreeably occupied by the reception of
the most noble manifestations of public
sympathy, SO much that ii became en-
tirely impossible for me to be thus pre-
pared to address you, gentlemen, in a
language which but very ilnperfectlv
speak, as the great Importance of this
occasion would have required. and my
high regards for yourselves had pointed
out as duty to me.
However, | hope you viii take this
very circumstance for a motive of ex-
cuse. You win generously consider
that whenever and wherever | public
Iy speak, it is always chiefly spoken to
the press; and, lessering your expec-
tations to the humility of my abilities,
and to the level of the principal difficult
ties of my situation, you will feel in
clined to some kind indulgence for me,
were it only out of brotherly generos-
ity for one of your professional col
leagues, as profess to be one. Yes,
gentlemen, it is proud recollection of
my life that | commenced my public
career in the humble capacity of a
journalist. And in that respect may
perhaps be somewhat entitled to your
brotherly Indulgence, as you, in the
happy condition which the Institutions
of your country insure to you, can
have not the slightest idea of the tor
lures ola Journalist, who has to write
with fettered hands, and who is more
than fettered by an Austrian arbitrary
preventive censorship.
You have no idea what torture it
is to sit down to your writing desk, the
breast full! of the necessity of the mo-
ment, the heart full of righteous feel
ings, the mind full of convictions and
of principles-and all this warmed by
the lively fire of patriots heart-and
to see before your eyes the scissors OF
the Censor ready to fall upon your
head, like the sword of Damocles, lop-
ping your ideas, manning your argu-
ments, numbering your thoughts; and
his pencil before your eyes, ready to
blot out, with single draught, the
work Of your laborious days and OF
your sleepless nights; and to know
that the people will judge you, not by
what you have felt, thought, and writ.
ten, bat by what the Censor wills; to
know that the ground upon which you
stand is not ground known to you
because limited by rules, but an un.
known slippery ground, the limits o.
which lie but within the arbitrary plea
sure of your Censor-doomed by pro
fession to bestupid, and acoward, and
fool ito know all this, and yet no.
to curse your destiny-not to deny tina
you know how to read and to write
but to go on, day by day, in the tortu
ring work of Sysiphus. Oh! it is the
greatest sacrifice which an intelligent
man can make to fatherland and hu.
mainly!
| And this is the present condition oI
the press, not in Hungary only, but in
all countries cursed by Austrian rule
Our past revolution gave freedom te
the press, not only to my fatherland
but by indirect influence also to Wen
ma, Prague, Lemberg; in word, te
! the whole empire OF Austria Tshi'
very circumstance must be sufficient tt
ensure your sympathy to my country:
cause; as, on the contrary, the very
circumstances of the Hapsburgian sdy
nasty, achieved bytreason and Russian
arms, was watch-word to oppress :h'
i press in Hungary, in Austria, in Italy
in Germany nay, throughout the Eu
ropean continent. The contemplation
that the freedom of the press on th,
European continent is inconsisten
with the preponderance of Russia, ane
/ the very existence Of the Austrian dy
nasty, this sworn enemy of freedom
and OF every liberal thought-you
generous support will sweep ava,
those tyrants and raise liberty wher,
now foul oppression proudly rules
! Gentlemen, a considerable time agt
there appeared in certain New YorI
papers a systematic compound of th
most foul calumnies, falsehoods ant
misrepresentation about the Hungari
an cause, going SO far as, with unex
ampled eifrontery, to state that w,
struggled for oppression, while it wa
the cursed Austrian dynasty which
stood forth for liberty. Now, there i
a degree OF effrontery, the temerity o
which becomes astonishing even to me
who. have seen the unexampled treach
| cry of the House of Russia, and be
came familiar with the old Roman max
i'm, g nH admirari," through my tenn
lpest-tossed life. Wemay be misrepre
septed, scorned, jeered, charged witt
faults; our martyrs, the blood o
whom cries for revenge, may be laugh
ed at as fools; and even heroes, com
nanding the veneration of history, ma,
be represented as Don Quixotes 0
tragicomedy;-all this l could, if no
bear, at least conceive. | have seel
+, strange specimens of alterations of th
I human mind; bat that, in the midst O
the most wonderful snfferings, not eve1
the honor of an unfortunate natiol
should be sacred to some men, VIII.
enjoy the benefit of free institution
and profess to be repnblicans-that i
too much it is sorrowful page ii
mankind's history.