The Project Gutenberg EBook of Select Speeches of Kossuth, by Kossuth

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Title: Select Speeches of Kossuth

Author: Kossuth

Release Date: January 12, 2004 [EBook #10691]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Keren Vergon, Rich Magahiz and PG Distributed Proofreaders

SELECT SPEECHES
OF
KOSSUTH.

Condensed and abridged,
_with Kossuth's express sanction_,

by
Francis W. Newman.

PREFACE TO KOSSUTH'S SPEECHES.

Nothing appears in history similar to the enthusiasm roused by Kossuth
in nations foreign to him, except perhaps the kindling for the First
Crusade by the voice of Peter the Hermit. Then bishops, princes, and
people alike understood the danger which overshadowed Europe from the
Mohammedan powers; and by soundly directed, though fanatical instinct,
all Christendom rushed eastward, till the chivalry of the Seljuk Turks
was crippled on the fields of Palestine. Now also the multitudes of
Europe, uncorrupted by ambition, envy, or filthy lucre, forebode the
deadly struggle impending over us all from the conspiracy of crowned
heads. Seeing the apathy of their own rulers, and knowing, perhaps by
dim report, the deeds of Kossuth, they look to him as the Great Prophet
and Leader, by whom Policy is at length to be moulded into Justice; and
are ready to catch his inspiration before he has uttered a word. Kossuth
undoubtedly is a mighty Orator; but no one is better aware than he, that
the cogency of his arguments is due to the atrocity of our common
enemies, and the enthusiasm which he kindles to the preparations of the
people's heart.

His orations are a tropical forest, full of strength and majesty,
tangled in luxuriance, a wilderness of self-repetition. Utterly
unsuited to form a book without immense abridgment, they contain
materials adapted equally for immediate political service and for
permanence as a work of wisdom and of genius. To prepare them for the
press is an arduous and responsible duty: the best excuse which I can
give for having assumed it, is, that it has been to me a labour of love.
My task I have felt to be that of a judiciou