I will come to the last possible objection.  I may be told, “You are right in your principles, your cause is just, and you have our sympathy, but, after all, we cannot go to war for your country; we cannot furnish you armies and fleets; we cannot fight your battle for you.”  There is the rub!  Who can exactly tell what would have been the issue of your own struggle for independence (though your country was in a far happier geographical position than we, poor Hungarians), had France given such an answer to your forefathers in 1778 and 1781, instead of sending to your aid a fleet of thirty-eight men-of-war, and auxiliary troops, and 24,000 muskets, and a loan of nineteen millions?  And what was far more than all this, did it not show that France resolved with all its power to espouse the cause of your independence?  But, perhaps, I shall be told that France did this, not out of love of freedom, but out of hatred against England.  Well, let it be; but let me then ask, shall the curse of olden times—­hatred—­be more efficient in the destinies of mankind than love of freedom, principles of justice, and the laws of humanity?  And is America in the days of steam navigation more distant from Europe to-day, than France was from America seventy-three years ago?  However, I most solemnly declare that it is not my intention to rely literally upon this example.  It is not my wish to entangle the United States in war, or to engage your great people to send out armies and fleets to raise up and restore Hungary.  Not at all, gentlemen; I most solemnly declare that I have never entertained such expectations or such hopes; and here I come to the practical point.

The principle of evil in Europe is the enervating spirit of Russian absolutism.  Upon this rests the daring boldness of every petty tyrant to trample upon oppressed nations, and to crush liberty.  To this Moloch of ambition has my native land fallen a victim.  It is with this that Montalembert threatens the French republicans.  It was Russian intervention in Hungary which governed French intervention in Rome, and gave German tyrants hardihood to crush all the endeavours for freedom and unity in Germany.  The despots of the European continent are leagued against the freedom of the world.  That is A MATTER OF FACT.  The second matter of fact is that the European continent is on the eve of a new revolution.  It is not necessary to be initiated in the secret preparations of the European democracy to be aware of that approaching contingency.  It is pointed out by the French constitution itself, prescribing a new Presidential election for the next spring.  Now, suppose that the ambition of Louis Napoleon, encouraged by Russian secret aid, awaits this time (which I scarcely believe), and suppose that there should be a Republic in France; of course the first act of the new French President must be, at least, to recall the French troops from Rome.  Nobody can doubt that a revolution in Italy will follow.  Or if there is no peaceful solution in France, but a revolution, then every man knows that whenever the heart of France boils up, the pulsation is felt throughout Europe, and oppressed nations once more rise, and Russia again interferes.