The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-01-15
KossUTEs SPEECH AT THE DEMOCRATIC BAN
QUIET, JANUARY g. 1859

4
QUIET, JANUARY 8, 1852
During the delivery of the address which con-
sumed three-fourths of an hour, M. Kossuth
was frequently interrupted by applause, long
continued, and when he concluded there were
loud huzzas, waving of hats and handkerchiefs
and again and again there were deaiening
cheers and wild enthusiasm.
The boasts were then severally drunk with
enthusiasm.
NJ. Kossuth rose, and was greeted with ab-
] plause. IL was some minutes before order was
! restored, when he spoke as iollows. :
GENTLEMEN: | feel sincerely grati6ed with
the honor OF being invited 10 be present on tbs
solemn occasion, dedicated to the memory of a
glorious as well as highly responsible fact in
your history.
There is high political wisdom in the custom
early to revive the memory of civic virtue and
national glory in the mind of the living genera
ton, because nothing is more efficient to keep
alive the spirit of patriotism-this powerful
genius which, like the angels of Scripture,
guards with flaming sword the paradise Of ma
tional liberty and independence. Happy the
land where the history Of tho past is the histo-
ry Of the people, and not mere fattery to
Kings and doubly happy the land where the
rewards of the past are frightened by present
glory-present happiness--and where the no
Bile deeds of the dead, instead of being mourn
| full monument of vanished greatness, which
but saddens the heart though it ennobles the
mind, are lasting source Of national welfare
to the age and to posterity.
But where, as in this your happy land, ma
tional history is constituted to be the elemental
| ry basis of education-where the very school
boy is better acquainted with the history of his
country than in monarchies scarcely the pro-
fessors are-in such country it would be in
deed but ridiculous parading of vanity for a
stranger to dwell upon facts which every child
is better acquainted with than he can be- AL.
low me, therefore, gentlemen, rather briefly To
| expound what is the practical philosophy Of
| that great victory which you are assembled b
celebrate. What is the moral of the strain, a.
it presents itself to the scrutator's mind?
Just as man has to pass through several
| periods Of age each of them marked with il
own peculiarities before he comes to a settles
position in life, even 80 nation. A nation ha
first " be born, then to grow; then it has +
prove its passive vitality by undergoing tria
Of iife afterwards it has to prove its active fore
in gaining ascendency in its own immedat
horizon at last it must take its competent sea
amongst the nations of the world as a powe
on earth Every one of these periods of nation
al life must be gone through; there is no he'll
against it; it is necessary process of life
And every one of these life-periods has its owl
natural condition, which must be accepted, a
necessity even if we should not be PLEASED
with it, As there is no jumping in nature
equally there is no stop to it. A man must b.
a child before he becomes a youth and h
! must have been youth before he becomes Q
man. But, then, If it be ridiculous to desire
from the child to act as a youth, or from the
youth to be man, it is indeed impossible fol
the youth to be still a child or to the man no,
to become a man. He must because he is
and if, being man, he does not act as it be.
comes man to act, then he loses tho position
of a man. 1t is quite the same with nations
Gentlemen, having passed the ordeal of an
earnest life with the view before my eyes Ia
have yet to steer through stormy gales, it is
rational that while grasp with steady hand
the helm of my tempest-tossed barque, look
with calm attention to the compass Of history
to guide me by its philosophy through the
foaming waves. And there is no history more
usd uStisc titnu 1Oufb, OcCuuSc you nufS Cou
centrated within the narrow scope of few
years that natural process Of national life
which elsewhere was achieved but through
centuries And while other nations, starting
from false point of false principle, wavered
in their progress, like the magnetic needle
surrounded by iron bars, you, starting from a
true point, conscious of your aim, advanced in
a straight direction to that aim and there yon
ara orrsvo1 in ohn TINA uyha ntbar
tons failed TO arrive in centuries consuming the
strength Of manhood in maturing their way,
and growing old before they got to the settled
position of the man.
II would be mistake, and mistake not
undangerous, to believe that your nation is
still in its youth, because IL has lived but seven
ty-fve years The natural conditiono nations is
not measured by years, but by those periods Of
the process Of life which had the honor to
mention already And there is no nation ON
earth in whose history those periods were so
distinctly marked IA in yours. First, you had
Gus struggle for Independence; eternal glory
10 those who conducted it. You were bap-
tized with blood, as 1t seems TO be the destiny
of nations; but it was the genius of freedom
which stood godfather at your baptism, and
gave to YOU lasting character, by giving you
the Christian name Of RspubficO Then you
had TO grow. And indeed you have grown
with the luxuriant rapidity of the virgin nature
of the American soil Washington knew the
nature Of this soil, fertilzed by the blood Of
your martyrs and warmed by the sun Of your
liberty He knew it when he told your fathers
that you wanted but twenty years OF peaceful
growth to defy whatever power in just cause
You have grown through those twenty years,
and wisely avoided 10 cndanger your growth
by undertaking a toll not becoming to your
growing age and there you stood about another
twenty years. looking resolutely but unpretend-
ingly around, il there be anybody 10 question
that you were really nation ON earth. The
question was put in 1912 and decided by that
glorious victory the anniversary OF which you
celebrate to-day. That victory has q deeper
meaning in your history than only that OF
repulsed invasion. 1t marks period in your
national life-the period of acknowledged un-
shakable security Of your national existence:
II is the contamination Of your Declaration OF
Independence. You have proved by It that the
United States possess an incontestable vitality,
having the power TO conserve that independent
national situation which your fathers have
established by the Declaration Of Independence.
In reality, il was the victory Of New Orleans
by which you took your seat amongst the IN
dependent nations Of the world, never TO 10
contested through all postsrity. A nation Is
really independent only when It proves by fact
70 make good the word Of the post
.Come the three corners Of the world in arms.
And ws will shock them. ("