Governor Kossuth:--It is with no ordinary feeling of gratification that
I have this opportunity of addressing you, in the name and on behalf of
the citizen soldiers of the city of New York. With an unbounded
admiration of your devotion to the great cause of constitutional
liberty, and of that indomitable firmness with which you have persevered
under all circumstances in sustaining it, they were most happy to
testify, upon your arrival in our city, their sense of your services in
that cause which they are organized to sustain, and now they are again
assembled to greet you with a heart-felt welcome, and to listen to the
voice of one whom they have learned to respect, to love, and to
venerate. The body of men now presented to you, about five thousand in
number, represents the First Division of New York State Militia. The
division enrols about fifty thousand men in this city and upon Staten
Island, and the law of our State only imposes upon the general body the
duty of appearing armed and equipped once in each year, at an annual
parade appointed for that purpose. But out of this large number the law
provides for the organization of those who are willing and desirous to
acquire that degree of military science, to fit them, upon any sudden
emergency of domestic insurrection or of foreign aggression, to sustain
the laws and support the institutions of our country. They uniform and
equip themselves at their own expense, and they serve without pay,
satisfied with the consciousness that they are discharging a duty to
their country, and qualifying themselves to sustain the honour of our
flag and the freedom won by our fathers. They represent fairly all
classes of our citizens. Our hard-working and ingenious mechanic--our
enterprising and energetic merchant--our intelligent professional
men--our grocers, butchers, bakers, and cartmen, are all to be found in
our ranks, exhibiting in public spirit, energy, and intelligence, a body
of men not to be surpassed, even in this country of active enterprise
and widely diffused intelligence. It is amongst such men, devoted to
such a service, that, you may feel well assured, the intelligence of the
noble struggle of the Hungarian people for their rights and liberties
was received with the deepest feeling, and the progress of your contest
watched with the most earnest solicitude. They exulted in your
victories as the triumph of freedom over oppression and despotism--they
saw in your almost superhuman energies and dauntless courage the hearts
of a people determined to be free. They rejoiced that a great nation,
with kindred principles and institutions, was established as an
independent republic amidst the despotisms of Europe. But, alas! all
their hopes and anticipations were blasted. Such an example amidst the
down-trodden subjects of the arbitrary governments of Europe, was viewed
with alarm by their despotic rulers, and the enslaved hordes of the
imperial Russian were hurled upon the free sons of Hungary. Even with
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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