The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-06-30
KAasuth's Appeal.

illusions to the sorrows sufferings and hopes
Of those so near and dear TO him, are full of a
pathetic mournfulness, that must touch the sens
Utilities of all who feel the throb of sympathy
The sadness, subdued. but ever casting its
shadow over all that emanates from the gifted
exile, struggles into expression more in that
speech, than any other that KossUTH has de-
livered. in it you see more of the man, in
the gentler and softer aspects ofhis nature. The
son and brother speaks, rather than the orator
and the politician and the heart of humanity
must pusate audibly at this cry of strong but
stricken soul, struggling not alone under the
burden ofpublic, but also under the heavy pres
sure ofprivate cares
There is no exaggeration of sentiment or of
expression in the pathetic preface to his lecture,
in which he rectes the condition and the pros
poets of his family The very simplicity with
which he narrates the facts of the stern domes tic
tragedy in which he and his have been involved
Through his devotion to duty, prove the intensi-
|ty of the feeling which needs no aid of rhetoricl
TO enforce itself,
Striking the electric chain
WherttciM zoe are darkly bound.
Those who have so often hung entranced on|
his fervid eloquence, and whitening denunca.
ton of European despots, may marvel that sol
much sternness and 30 much softness could bel
found blent in one vivid soul. For the softness|
|and tenderness of woman signs through those
|utterances in which he speaks of his molher--aI
word in itself a spell to all noble manly ma
lures But as CARLYLE has we'll said, only
those who can hate strongly can also love-
In either case the strong natureI
Iplunges into the depths, while the weak one tim
idly wades among the shadows. And he gives|
DANTE as a type Of this pitilessly pursuing hs|
foes into the depths of hef and purgatory, while
with flute voice of il finite wall" telling theI
sad story of his friends daughter Francesca
And there may be parallel drawn in many
particulars between the Florentne and the Hum
garian exiles Both were doomed to eat the|
bitter bread of charity--both were driven from
their own hearhs and homes by civil brawls-
both sternly refused to abandon or betray their
wandered YEARLY from place to place With
eyes reverted to the home they had left. Both
knew how much more bitterness can be added
to the cup of sorrow, when the domestic affec-
tons which should cheer and console in advers-
! ity, are themselves converted into additional
sources of new and painful anxiety. Yet hap.
pier far in his fate than the Florentine-even if
not equal in genius to ''that voice of ten silent
centuries'-is the Hungarian. He has found,
what DANTE sought in vain in his own day and
generation-sympathy and help; and above all
he has hope. To DANTE there was finally but
one stern hope left-to die-and the most dire
doom he could devise for the sinners tortured
in his hell, was
"Not to have even the hope Of DEATH
So the parallel fails in this respect, and tn.
future of KossUTH and even his present, ma,
make high nature amends for much of sor
row, struggle and suffering.
But let us listen-not while the statesman.
but the son and brother, the protector of de
.enceless and prosecuted womanhood, pleads its
cause before the American people:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: During six months
| appeared many times before the tribunal of
public opinion in America. This eveningA ap
pear before you in the capacity of working|
man. My aged mother, tried by more sufferingsI
than any living being on earth and my three
SISTERS one of them a widow with two fatherless!
orphans together a homeless family of four-|
teen unfortunate souls. have been driven by theI
frn, bo;. o.
- of murdered right, that land of the oppressed,
but also of undesponding braves, and the land
: of approaching revenge. When Russian vio-
: Hence, aided by domestic treason, succeeded to|
accomplish what Austrian perjury could notI
'achieve, and | with bleeding heart went into
exile, my mother and all my sisters were i'm |
prisoned by Austria; but it having been my
constant maxim not TO allow to whatever mem
Der of my family any influence in public affairs,
Except that intrusted to the charitable superin
tending of my youngest sister the hospitals of
. the wounded heroes, as also to my wife the
Bcares of providing for the furniture of these
hospitals, not even the fouest intrigues could
contrive any pretext for the continuation of herI
= Imprisonment And thus, when diplomacy sue
ceeded to fetter my patriotic activity by the in
formation to far Asia, after some months of I'M
just imprisonment my mother and sisters and
their family have been released; and thought
surrounded by thousand spies, tortured by con
tinual interference with their private life, and|
harassed by insulting police measures, they hadI
at least the consolation to breathe the native air
to their tears falling upon native soil, and to|
rejoice at the majestic spirit of our people. which,
no adversities could bend and no tyranny could
break.
But at last by the humanity of the Sultan
backed by American generosity, seconded by|
England, once more was restored to personal
Freedom, and by freedom to activity. Having
succeeded to escape the different and traps
which unexpectedly met, considered it my du !
| ty publicly to declare that the war between Aus
tran tyranny and the freedom of Hungary is
not ended yet, and swore eternal resistance to
the oppressors of my country, and declared that,
faithful to the oath sworn solemnly to my peo-
pie, will devote my life to the liberation of my
fatherland Scarcely reached the tdngs of this
my after resolution the bloody court of Vienna,