Senators, Representatives of Ohio, I thank you for it in the name of all who may yet suffer for having done the duty of a patriot.  You may yet see many a man, who, out of your approbation, will draw encouragement to noble deeds; for there are many on earth ready to meet misfortune for a noble aim, but not so many ready to meet humiliation and indignity.  Besides, in honouring me, you have approved what my nation has done.  You have honoured all Hungary by it, and I pledge my word to you that we will yet do what you have approved.  The approbation of our conscience we have—­the sympathy of your generous people has met us—­and it is no idle thing, that sympathy of the people of Ohio—­it weighs as the sovereign will of two millions of freemen.  You have added to it the sanction of your authority.  Your people’s sympathy you have framed into a law, sacred and sure in its consequences, on which humanity may rely.

But, sir, high though be the value of this noble approbation, it becomes an invaluable benefit to humanity by these resolutions by which the General Assembly of Ohio, acknowledging the justice of those principles which it is my mission to plead in my injured country’s name, declares that the mighty and flourishing commonwealth of Ohio is resolved to resist the eternal laws of nations to their due sway, too long contemned by arbitrary power.

It was indeed a sorrowful sight to see how nations bled, and how freedom withered in the iron grasp of despotisms, leagued for universal oppression of humanity.  It was a sorrowful sight to see that there was no power on earth ready to maintain those eternal laws, without which there is no security for any nation on earth.  It was a sorrowful sight to see all nations isolating themselves in defence, while despots leagued in offence.

The view has changed.  A bright lustre is spreading over the dark sky of humanity.  The glorious galaxy of the United States rises upon oppressed nations, and the bloody star of despotism fading at your very declaration, will soon vanish from the sky like a meteor.

Legislators of Ohio, it may be flattering to ambitious vanity to act the part of an execrated conqueror, but it is a glory unparalleled in history to protect rights and freedom on earth.  The time draws near, when, by virtue of such a declaration as yours, shared by your sister States, Europe’s liberated nations will unite in a mighty choir of Hallelujahs, thanking God that his paternal cares have raised the United States to the glorious position of a first-born son of freedom on earth.

Washington prophesied, that within twenty years the Republic of the United States would be strong enough to defy any power on earth in a just cause.  The State of Ohio was not yet born when the wisest of men and purest of patriots uttered that prophecy; and God the Almighty has made the prophecy true, by annexing, in a prodigiously short period, more stars to the proud constellation of your Republic, and increasing the lustre of every star more powerfully, than Washington could have anticipated in the brightest moments of his patriotic hopes.