wars occasioned by the oppression, the
ambition, and the covetousness of men, are often the means of breaking
up the stagnant waters of superstition and irreligion, and securing to
the truth a position from which it may most successfully send abroad its
light, and mould the heart of a nation to religion and peace.
_Despotism is_ in our view _a perpetual war of a few upon the
many_; and we must unlearn some of the earliest lessons that our
mothers taught us and our fathers illustrated in their lives, before we
can cease to sympathize with the assertors of their rights against the
force or the fraud of their fellow-men. And since the sad issue of
revolution after revolution in infidel France, there are not a few of
us, who have indulged the hope (especially since your visit to our
shores), that in central Europe, in your native land, among an
undebauched and a Bible-reading people, a government might arise that
would accord freedom of conscience to all, and shine as a light of
virtuous republicanism upon the darkness around.

In meeting you thus we design no mere display, no ineffective parade of
words. We wish to give whatever weight of influence we may bear in this
community, to the cause of freedom in your native land, to assist in
securing to you and your nation, such aid as a nation situated as we are
can _wisely_ give, so as best to subserve the interests of liberty
and humanity in all the world. We regard the moral influence of this
country as of the first importance; and the peaceful working of
republican institutions as a daily protest against despotism. And for
ourselves we pledge to you and your country, that we will, in public and
private, bear your cause upon our hearts, and invoke in your behalf, the
intervention of an arm that no earthly power can resist.

Kossuth replied at length. The following is an extract from his
speech:--

You have been pleased to refer to war as, under certain circumstances,
an instrumentality of Divine Providence--and indeed so it is. Great
things depend upon the exact definition of a word. There is, I suppose,
nobody on earth who takes war for a moral or happy condition. Every man
must wish peace; but peace must not be confounded with oppression. It
is our duty, I believe, to follow the historical advice of the
Scriptures, which very often have pointed out war as an instrumentality
against oppression and injustice.

You have very truly said that despotism is a continued war of