It is Eastern blood which runs in my veins.  If I have somewhat of Eastern fatalism, it is the fatalism of a Christian who trusts with unwavering faith in the boundless goodness of a Divine Providence.  But among all these different feelings and thoughts that come upon me in the hour of my farewell, one thing is almost indispensable to me, and that is, the assurance that the sympathy I have met with here will not pass away like the cheers which a warbling girl receives on the stage—­that it will be preserved as a principle, and that when the emotion subsides, the calmness of reflection will but strengthen it.  This consolation I wanted, and this consolation I have, because, ladies, I place it in your hands.  I bestow on your motherly and sisterly cares, the hopes of Europe’s oppressed nations,—­the hopes of civil, political, social, and religious liberty.  Oh let me entreat you, with the brief and stammering words of a warm heart, overwhelmed with emotions and with sorrowful cares—­let me entreat you, ladies, to be watchful of the sympathy of your people, like the mother over the cradle of her beloved child.  It is worthy of your watchful care, because, it is the cradle of regenerated humanity.

Especially in regard to my poor fatherland, I have particular claims on the fairer and better half of humanity, which you are.  The first of these claims is, that there is not perhaps on the face of the earth a nation, which in its institutions has shown more chivalric regard for ladies than the Hungarian.  It is a praiseworthy trait of the Oriental character.  You know that it was the Moorish race in Spain, who were the founders of the chivalric era in Europe, so full of personal virtue, so full of noble deeds, so devoted to the service of ladies, to heroism, and to the protection of the oppressed.  You are told that the ladies of the East are degraded to less almost than a human condition, being secluded from all social life, and pent up within the harem’s walls.  And so it is.  But you must not judge the East by the measure of European civilization.  They have their own civilization, quite different from ours in views, inclinations, affections, and thoughts.  We in Hungary have gained from the West the advantages of civilization for our women, but we have preserved for them the regard and reverence of our Oriental character.  Nay, more than that, we carried these views into our institutions and into our laws.  With us, the widow remains the head of the family, as the father was.  As long as she lives, she is the mistress of the property of her deceased husband.  The chivalrous spirit of the nation supposes she will provide, with motherly care, for the wants of her children; and she remains in possession so long as she bears her deceased husband’s name.  Under the old constitution of Hungary (which we reformed upon a democratic basis—­it having been aristocratic) the widow of a lord had the right to send her representative to the parliament, and in the county elections of public functionaries widows had a right to vote alike with the men.  Perhaps this chivalric character of my nation, so full of regard toward the fair sex, may somewhat commend my mission to the ladies of America.