The people, penetrated by one universal inspiration of lofty principles,
told me everywhere that Hungary must yet be free; that the people of
Ohio will not permit the laws of nations, of justice, and of humanity,
to be trampled down by the sacrilegious combination of despotism; that
the people of Ohio takes the league of despots against liberty and
against the principle of national self-government, for an insult offered
to the great republic of the West; that it takes it for an insult which
Ohio will not bear, but will put all the weight of its power into the
political scale. Would that all the United States with equal resolution
might spurn that insult to humanity.
That is the language which Ohio spoke to me through hundreds of
thousands of freemen--that is the language which Ohio spoke to me
through her senators and representatives in their high legislative
capacity--that is the language which Ohio spoke to me through her chief,
whom it has elevated to govern the commonwealth and to execute the
people's sovereign will.
The executive power, the legislature, the people, all united in that
harmony of generous protection to the just cause which I humbly plead;
but that is not all yet. Sympathy and political protection I have met
also everywhere; and have met it as well in the public opinion of the
people as in the executive and legislative departments of several
States, though it is a due tribute of acknowledgment to say, that
nowhere to that extent and in equal universality as in Ohio, but that
is yet not all.
The sympathy of Ohio was rich in fair fruits of substantial aid--from
the hall of the State legislature down to the humble abode of
noble-minded working men--and associations of the friends of Hungary,
spread through that powerful commonwealth, promise a permanent, noble
protection to the cause I plead.
Even the present occasion of bidding farewell to Ohio is of such a
nature as to entitle me, by its very organization to the hope that you
consider your noble task of aiding the cause of Hungary not yet done;
but that you have determined to go on in a practical direction, till
the future, developed by your active protection, proves to be richer yet
in fruit than the present is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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