republican
freedom of Hungary has been confirmed, by considering how weak must the
case be of those who urge you to indifference, when they are forced to
resort to the argument that we have no chance of success.

I have often answered that objection, which in itself is a distrust in
God, in justice, in right, and in the blessings of humanity. Allow me
to-day in addition, only one remark. Two days ago the rumour was spread
that Louis Napoleon was killed. It was remarkable to see how those who
countenance despotism, grew livid by despair, and how those who doubt
about our success rose in spirits and in confidence. Some time ago a
similar false rumour caused almost a commercial crisis in the cotton
market of New Orleans. Now how can the security of that cause be
trusted, where the mere possible death of a single individual, and of
such an individual, can so crush every calculation upon the solidity of
the peace of oppression?

Allow me to draw your attention to a circumstance which one of your
countrymen, William Henry Trescott, of South Carolina, has recommended
to public attention, already in the year 1849, in his pamphlet, entitled
'A few Thoughts on the Foreign Policy of the United States.' The
position of the United States underwent an immense change, as soon as
your boundaries extended to the Pacific; extensive commercial relations
with Asia became a necessity. You feel it--the very movements now
commenced in respect to Japan bear witness to it. Let those movements be
completed, and whom will you meet? Russia. That is the old story.
Everybody who is willing to have some influence in the East must meet
Russia, whose sterling thought is to exclude all other powers from the
East.

England is to you the competitor in the commerce of the East; and
competitors may well have a fair field for them both; but Russia is not
a competitor there, she is an _enemy_. Look to the Mediterranean
Sea, and remember the everlasting thought of Russia to crush Turkey, and
to get hold of Constantinople. What is the key of this eternal fond
desire, inherited from Peter the Great? It is not the mere desire of
territorial aggrandizement; the real key is, that it is only by the
possession of Constantinople that Russia, a great territorial power
already, can become also a great maritime power. The Mediterranean is
what Russia wants, to be the mistress of Europe, Asia, of Africa, and of
the world. But the Sultan, sitting on the Bosphorus, conf