d
to oppose. It is therefore no partial struggle which we are about to
fight; it is a struggle of principles, the issues of which, according as
we triumph or fall, must be felt everywhere, but nowhere more than here
in the United States, because no nation on earth has more to lose by the
all-overwhelming preponderance of the absolutist principle than the
United States. If we are triumphant, the progress and development of the
United States will go on peacefully, till your Republicanism becomes the
ruling principle on earth (God grant it may soon become); but if we
fail, the absolutist powers, triumphant over Europe, will and must fall
with all their weight upon you, precisely because else you would grow to
such a might as would decide the destinies of the world. And since the
absolutistical powers, with Russia at their head, desire themselves to
rule the world, it is natural for her to consider you as their most
dangerous enemy, which they must try to crush, or else be crushed sooner
or later themselves. The _Pozzo di Borgos_ tell you so: the
_Hulsemanns_ tell you so: and it were indeed strange if the people
of the United States, too proudly relying upon their power and their
good luck, should indifferently regard the gathering of danger over
their head, and hereby invite it to come home to them, forcing them to
the immense sacrifices of war, whereas we now afford to them an
opportunity to prevent that danger, without any entanglement, and
without claiming from you any moral and material aid, except such as is
not only consistent with, but necessary to your interests.

Allow me to make yet some remarks about the commercial interests as
connected with the cause I plead. Nothing astonishes me more than to see
those whose only guiding star is commerce, considering its interests
only from the narrow view of a small momentary profit, and disregarding
the threatening combination of next coming events.

Permit me to quote in this respect one part of the public letter which
Mr. Calhoun, the son of the late great leader of the South, the
inheritor of his fame, of his principles, and of his interests, has
recently published. I quote it because I hope nobody will charge him
with partiality in respect to Hungary.

Mr. Calhoun says:

"There is a universal consideration that should influence the government
of the United States. The palpable and practical agricultural,
manufacturing, commercial and navigating interests, the pecuni