The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-01-15

| that which might seem TO be personal in your
| toast, is only an acknowledgment OF histori-
| cal fact very instructively connected with a
| principle valuable and dear to every republican
heart in the United States of America
Sir you were pleased TO mention in your
toast that ! am unconquered by misfortune,
and unseduced by ambition. Now, it is u
providential fact that misfortune has the priv
| ilege to ennoble mans mind, and to strengthen
mans character. There is u sort of natural
instinct of human dignity in the heart Of man,
| which steels his very nerves not to bend be-
meath the heavy blows of great adversities.
The palm tree grows best beneath ponderous
weight Even so the character Of man. There
is no merit in it, 1t is a law Of psychology.
The petty pangs Of small daily cares have
| often bent the character of men, but great mis-
fortune seldom. There is less danger in this
than in great luck.
And as to ambition, indeed never was able
to understand how anybody can more love am
bition than liberty But am glad to state a
historical fact as a principal demonstration OF
that influence which institutions exercise upon
the character Of nations
The Hungarians are very fond of the prin.
ciple of municipal self-government, and we
have natural horror against the principle OF
| contradiction That fond attachment to mu
| nicipal selfgovernment without which there is
| no provincial freedom possible is a fundamental
feature Of our national character We brought
it with us from far Asia thousand years ago
and we conserved it throughout the vicissitudes
of ten centuries. No nation has, perhaps, SC
much struggled and suffered from the civilized
Christian world as We We do not complain
of this lot 1t may be heavy, but it Is not in
| glorious Where the cradle of our Saviour
stood, and where his divine doctrine was
founded, there now another faith rules; and
whole Europe's armed pilgrimage could not
avert this fate from that sacred spot, nor stop
the rushing waves of lslamism absorbing the
| Christian empire Of Constantine We stopped
those rushing waves The breast OF my nation
| proved brcakwater TO them. We guarded
4 Christendom. that Luthers and Calvns might
reform it, 1t was a dangerous time, and the
dangers of the time often placed the confidence
of all my nation into one mans hand and that
80 TX - yy,r''e- ;ssa he hgr9s e ~.
ID, ,i,c..s . ~ ~ small.
instance in our history where man, honored
nv his peoples confidence, had deceived his
people by becoming ambitious. The man out
of whom Russian diplomacy succeeded to make
the murderer of his nations conference.-the
with distrust But he gained some victories
when victories were the moments chief neces-
sty At the head of an army, circumstances
placed him in the capacity to ruin his country.
But he never had the peoples confidence. So
even he is no contradiction TO the historical
truth, that no Hungarian whom his nation
honored with it's confidence was ever seduced
by ambition to become dangerous to his coun-
try's liberty.
That is a remarkable fact, and yet it is not
accidental it is the logical consequence of the
influence of institutions upon the national char
acter Our nation, through all its history, was
educated in the school Of municipal selfgovern-
ment and in such country ambition, having
no field, has also no place in mans character.
The truth of this doctrine becomes yet more
illustrated by quite contrary historical fact
in France Whatever have been the changes
of Government in that great cOuntry-and
many they have been, to be sure-we have seen
q convention n directorate, cOnsuls, and one
consul and an Emperor and the restoration,
and the citizen King, and the Republic.
Through all these different experiments, cen
tralizaton was the fundamental tone of the in
situations of France-pOwer always centralized,
omnipOtence always vested somewhere. And
remarkably, indeed, France has never yet rails
ed one single man TO the seat Of power who has
not sacrificed his cOuntrys freedom to his per-
sOnal ambition
1t is sorrowlul, indeed but it is natural 1t |
is in tho garden of Capitalization where the
venomous plant Of ambition thriyes. | dare
confidently affirm that in your great country
there exists not "A single man through whose
brainsha ever passed the thought that he would
wish to raise the seat of his ambition upon the
ruins of your countrys liberty, if he could.
Such wish is impossible in the United States.
Institutions react upon the character of ma
tons. He who sows wind will reap storm.
| History is the revelation of Providence. The
Almighty rules, by eternal laws, not only the
material but the moral world and every law
is principle and every principle is law.
| Men rs we'll AZ nations are endowed with free
will to choose Il principle; but that once cho-
sen. the consequences must be ablded.
With selfgOvernment is freedom, and with
freedom is Justice and patriotism. With cen
tralizatiOn IL ambition, and with ambition
dwels despotism. Happy your great country,
sir, for being so warmly addicted to that great
principle of selt-government. Upon this found
alton your fathers raised a home to freedom
more glorious than the world has ever seen.
| Upon this foundation you have developed it to
| u living WOnucr Oh inc NOTlu fldppy your
great country, sir that it was selected by the
blessing of the Lord to prove the glorious prac-
| ticability of federative Union of many S0ve-
reign States, all conserving their State rights
and their selEgoycrnment, and yet united in
one--every star beaming with its own lustre,
but all together one constellation on mankind's
canopy.
Upon this foundation your free country has
| -, in, a ye,l,
brief perod-attracting power in that your
fundamental principle You have conquered
| by it more in seventy five years than Rome by
arms in centuries. Your principles will con-
quer the world, By the glorious example of
your freedom, welfare, and security, mankind
| is about to become conscious of its aim The
lesson you give to humanity will not be lost.
The respect for State rights in the Federal
Government of America, and in its several
States, will become an instructive example for
universal liberation, forbearance, and justice to
the future States and Republics of Europe.
Upon this basis will be got rid of the mis-
chevous question of language nationalitics,
raised by cunning despotism in Europe to muir
der liberty with Smaller States will find Sc
curity in the principle of federatiye union,
while they will conserve their national freedom
by the principle of sovereign selfgovernmcnt
and while larger States abdcating the princi-
Pile of Capitalization, will cease to be blood
field to sanguinary usurpation, and II tool to the
ambition of wicked men, municipal institutions
will insure the development Of local particular
elements; freedom, formerly an abstract polit
cal theory, will become the household benefit
to municipalities and, out Of the welfare and
contentment of all parts will flow happiness
peace, and security, for the whole.
subside the fluctuations of Gcrmanys fate. II
will become the heart of Europe, not by melt
ing North Germany into Southern frame, ol
the South into Northern not by absorbing