light of Heaven beaming in man's
mind, if it be wise not to make any use of it? To what purpose all that
assiduous care about public instruction, and about the propagation of
knowledge and intelligence, if the writings of Washington are the Koran
of America; forbidding the right of private judgment, which the great
majority of your nation claim as a natural right, even in respect to the
Holy Bible, that book of Divine origin? Look to the east where the
Koran rules, obstructing with its absolutism the development of human
intellect: what do you behold there? You behold mighty nations, a noble
race of men, interesting in many respects, teeming with germs of
vitality, and still falling fast into decay, because doomed to
stagnation of their intelligence by that blind faith in their Koran's
absolute perfection, which we see recommended as a model to the people
of this Republic, whose very existence rests on progress.

Indeed, gentlemen, I dare to say that I yield to nobody in the world, in
reverence and respect to the immortal memory of Washington. His life and
his principles were the guiding star of my life; to that star I looked
up for inspiration and advice, during the vicissitudes of my stormy
life. Hence I drew that devotion to my country and to the cause of
national freedom, which you, gentlemen, and millions of your
fellow-citizens and your national government, are so kind as to honour
by unexampled distinction, though you meet it not brightened by success,
but meet it in the gloomy night of my existence, in that helpless
condition of a homeless wanderer, in which I must patiently bear the
title of an "_imported rebel_" and of a "_beggar_" in the very
land of Washington, for having dared to do what Washington did; for
having dared to do it with less skill and with less success, but, Heaven
knows, not with less honesty and devotion than he did.

Well, it is useless to remark that Washington would probably have ended
with equal failure, had his country not met that foreign aid for which
they honourably _begged_. It is useless to remark that he would
undoubtedly have failed, if after the glorious battle of Yorktown he had
met a fresh enemy of more than two hundred thousand men, such as we met,
and had been forsaken in that new struggle by all the world. It is
useless to remark that success should not be the only test of virtue on
earth, and fortune should not change the devotion of a patriot into an
outrage and a crim