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 liberty._ You should say _Liberty in America._ Liberty
should not be either American or European,--it should be just
_liberty_. God is God. He is neither America's God nor Europe's God;
he is God.
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