So should liberty be. 'American liberty' has much the
sound as if you would say 'American privilege.' And there is the
rub. Look to history, and when your heart saddens at the fact that
liberty never yet was lasting in any corner of the world, and in any
age, you will find the key of it in the gloomy truth that all who were
yet free regarded liberty as their privilege, instead of regarding it
as a principle. The nature of every privilege is exclusiveness, that
of a principle is communicative. Liberty is a principle,--its
community is it security,--exclusiveness is its doom. What is
aristocracy? It is exclusive liberty; it is privilege; and aristocracy
is doomed, because it is contrary to the destiny and welfare of man.
Aristocracy should vanish, not _in_ the nations, but also from
_amongst_ the nations. So long as that is not done, liberty will
nowhere be lasting on earth . . . A privilege never can be lasting.
Liberty restricted to one nation never can be sure. You may say, 'We
are the prophets of God'; but you shall not say, 'God is only _our_
God.' The Jews have said so, and the pride of Jerusalem lies in the
dust."
Through all his speeches the thought of the universality of liberty,
and the doctrine that there is a community in man's destiny, can be
discerned. His later speeches, and especially his speeches made after
his tour through the South, indicate a loss of confidence in the
disposition of the country to give substantial aid to the cause of
Hungary, and thenceforward the loss of hope was apparent in his
conversation and speeches.
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