t supporters of the freedom for which
they fought. Thanking you for the sympathy you have expressed for them,
I promise you, gentlemen, that they will prove themselves worthy of it.
I will point out to them the most dangerous places, and I know they will
acquit themselves honourably and bravely. As to myself, I have here a
sword on my side given to me by an American citizen. This being a gift
from a citizen of the United States, I take it as a token of
encouragement to go on in that way by which, with the blessing of
Almighty God, I shall yet be enabled again to see my fatherland
independent and free. I swear here before you, that this American sword
in my hand shall be always faithful in the cause of freedom--that it
shall be ever foremost in the battle--and that it shall never be
polluted by ambition or cowardice.

* * * * *

X.--CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL FOR DEMOCRACY AND PEACE.

[_Reply to the Address of the Democrats of Tammany Hall, New York,
Dec. 17th_.]

Mr. Sickles, who made the address, closed by stating that he contributed
to the cause of Hungary "a golden dollar, fresh from the free mines of
the Pacific;" adding that he trusted millions would follow, and that the
"Almighty Dollar," if still the proverb of a money-making people, would
become a symbol of its noblest instincts and truest ambition.

Kossuth, in reply, after warm thanks, declined the personal praises
bestowed on him, and sketched the series of events by which the Austrian
tyranny had converted him from insignificance into a man of importance.
He then proceeded to comment on France[*] as follows:--I hope that the
great French nation will soon succeed to establish a true republic. But
I have come to the conviction, that for freedom there is no duration in
CENTRALIZATION, which is a legacy of ambitious men. To be conquerors,
power must be centralized; but to be a free nation, self-government must
reign in families, villages, cities, counties, states. As power now is
lodged in France, the government has in its hand an army of half a
million of men, under that iron discipline which is needed in a standing
army. It has under its control a budget of more than a thousand million
francs. It can dispose of every public office in France; it has a civil
army of more than 500,000 men: the mayor of the least village derives
his appointment from the government. All the police, all the _gens
d'armes_, are in its hands. Now, gentlem