Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume One).djvu/220



HEN Louis Kossuth landed in New York, December 5, 1851, he was not an unknown personage. He and his native land had been made known to the people of the United States by the Revolution of 1848 and the contest of 1849 for the independence of Hungary. Until those events occurred, Hungary was only a marked spot on the map of Europe, and the name of Kossuth, as a leader in industrial and social progress, had not been written or spoken on this side of the Atlantic; but in the year 1851 there was no other person of a foreign race and language of whose name and career as much was known.

There was no exaggeration in Mr. Emerson’s words of address to Kossuth: “You have got your story told in every palace, and log hut, and prairie camp throughout this continent.”

From the first Kossuth recognized a special interest in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. This interest was due in part to the history of the State, from which he drew many lessons of instruction and much confidence that personal liberty and the independence and sovereignty of states would become universal possessions. Beyond these considerations the invitation to him from Massachusetts was made January 8, 1852,—among the first of the States of the Union.

In my annual address to the Legislature, delivered the 15th of January, I said: “Your action will be regarded as an expression of the sympathy of Massachusetts for the distin-