ice usually universal in its application. As it is
manifested in individuals and communities, it too often embodies a
degree of selfishness, from which neither states nor individuals are
exempt.

In like manner the words "freedom" and "liberty," in their application,
have been limited to classes and castes, and to individual communities
and states. The earliest and best expression of the universality of
the idea of liberty belongs to America, but in America even its
practical realization is a recent event. Previous to the nineteenth
century, America was the only land in which it was possible to found a
state freed from the domination of the church, or to establish a church
free from the domination of the state; and in one half of the American
continent this degree of freedom does not exist even now, when we
approach the twentieth century.

Of the great orators of the world, it was Louis Kossuth who first gave
to the word "liberty" the largest possible signification. Burke
approached the idea, but he seemed not to comprehend its universality.
In his oration on Conciliation with America he said: "In Virginia and
the Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. When this is the
case in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most
proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an
enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege. Not seeing, then, that
freedom as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and
general as the air, may be united with much abject misery, with all the
exterior of servitude, liberty looks among them like something that is
more noble and liberal."

Although Burke speaks of countries where freedom was a common blessing,
it is apparent that the expression was a figure of speech rather than a
statement of existing facts. Kossuth came to the Western World, not as
the exponent merely of the sufferings and wrongs endured by the people
of Hungary, but he announced and advocated boldly the most advanced
theories of individual and national freedom, and of the mutuality of
the obligations resting upon states.

Of the many speeches made by Kossuth in the United States, precedence
may be given to his speech in Faneuil Hall, April 29, 1852. In that
speech he announced in all its fulness his comprehensive idea of
liberty: "Cradle of American Liberty! it is a great name; but there
is something in it which saddens my heart. You should not say
_American