of the army; and after an
appropriate acknowledgment of the toast, added:

In paving this very high honor to our illustrious guest--this noble
Hungarian--let me observe that that army which has been toasted to-night
spoke for his reception by the voice of their cannon; and the cannon
that spoke there spoke the voice of twenty-five millions of people. Sir,
that salute which the American cannon gave the Hungarian exile had a
deep meaning in it. It was not a salute to the mere man Louis Kossuth,
but it was a salute in favour of the great principle which he
represents--the principle which he advocates, the principle of
nationality and of human liberty. Sir, I was born in a land which has
suffered as an oppressed nation. I am now a citizen of a land which
would have suffered from the same power, had it not been for the
bravery, gallantry, and good fortune of the men of that time. Sir, as an
Irishman by birth, and an American by adoption, I would feel myself a
traitor to both countries if I did not sustain downtrodden nationalities
everywhere--in Hungary, in Poland, in Germany, in Italy--everywhere
where man is trodden down and oppressed. And, sir, I say again, that
that army which maintained itself in three wars against one of the
greatest and most powerful nations of the world, will, if the trying
time should come again, maintain that same flag (the stars and stripes)
and the same triumph, and the same victories in the cause of liberty.
[Great applause.]

The president of the evening then, after a cordial speech, proposed the
fifth toast:

"Hungary, represented in the person of our honoured Guest, having proved
herself worthy to be free by the virtues and valour of her sons, the law
of nations and the dictates of justice alike demand that she shall have
fair play in her struggle for independence."

This toast was received with immense applause, which lasted several
minutes.

Kossuth then rose and spoke as follows:

Sir: As once Cineas the Epirote stood among the Senators of Rome, who,
with a word of self-conscious majesty, arrested kings in their ambitious
march--thus, full of admiration and of reverence, I stand amongst you,
legislators of the new Capitol, that glorious hall of your people's
collective majesty. The Capitol of old yet stands, but the spirit has
departed from it, and is come over to yours, purified by the air of
liberty. The old stands a mournful monument of the fragility of human
things: yours as a