my bleeding
country will be realized. It was an unconscious instinct,--a ray
shooting above the horizon from the yet unseen sun. You, sir, have shown
me the sun itself in full majesty. You have transformed my instinct into
conviction. Here then, upon the threshold of the West, I bow with awe
and joy, as the fireworshipper of old Persia to the source of life and
light.

It is indeed joyful, sir, as you said, to see politicians, sectarians,
philanthropists of all classes uniting in spontaneous sympathy for a
cause pleaded by a stranger. I recognize in it the bounty of Providence.
I see the truth revealed, that as magnetism pervades the universe, so
there is a sentiment, which, independent of party affections and
bubbling passion, pervades the breast of mankind; and that is, the love
of Freedom, Justice, and Right. The chord of Freedom passes through all
hearts, and whoever touches it, elicits harmony. The harmony is in the
chord, not in him who touches it. There is no skill in the breeze which
sweeps over the Aeolian harp, yet a sweet harmony bursts forth from its
vibrations. The harmony of sympathy which I meet is the most decisive
proof, gentlemen, that the cause which I plead is indeed the cause of
liberty, the love of which gushes up spontaneously in human bosoms.

Gentlemen, the cause of Hungary, even were it _not_ the cause of
Europe and of all earthly freedom, deserves your sympathy and active
protection. Like other free nations, we were brave. The Austrian dynasty
was perjured and treacherous; and our bravest bled on the scaffold.
Tyrannies are cruel: only the people knows how to be generous in
victory.--Let me rather say, the People _was_ generous: for the
future I hope it will be _just_. I hope this, not because there is
any deep truth in the Irish poet, who sang

"Revenge on a tyrant is sweetest of all:"

Not for that reason. But I hope that the oppressed nations will not
again stop half way, and sacrifice their future to untimely generosity;
for they have all paid too cruelly for the lesson, that _with tyrants
there is no faith_. So there must be no dealing with them.

Yet, Gentlemen, it is not for Hungary's worth, nor for Hungary's
sufferings that I claim protection for her; but because as in _her_
the law of nations has been strikingly trampled down, so in _her_
this law must be vindicated. Else, the league of despots will be able to
enforce it as a precedent against all free nations; no law will
hen