Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume One).djvu/224

Rh Of the many who spoke in the presence of Kossuth there was no one whose words were more acceptable than were those of the venerable Josiah Quincy. He was then eighty years of age. At the banquet in Faneuil Hall he made a ten minutes’ speech that glowed with the fire of youth. Its spirit can be exhibited in a quotation of two short sentences: “Age chills the feelings, and renders the heart cold; but I have still feeling enough left to say to the hero of the Old World, Welcome to the liberty of the New! I can say to the hero of Hungarian liberty, Welcome to the peace and happiness of our western home.” At the commencement of his speech Kossuth said: “Before all, let me express a word of veneration and thanks to that venerable gentleman” (pointing to Mr. Quincy). “Sir, I believe when you spoke of age cooling the hearts of men, you spoke the truth in respect to ordinary men, but you did yourself injustice. The common excitement and warm blood of youth pass away; but the heart of the wise man, the older it grows the warmer it feels.” It is difficult to imagine a more graceful impromptu recognition of words of praise.

Kossuth’s speech at Bunker Hill, more than his other speeches in New England, bears marks of its Oriental origin. Pointing to the monument he said: “My voice shrinks from the task to mingle with the awful pathos of that majestic orator. Silent like the grave, and yet melodious like the song of immortality upon the lips of cherubim, … and thus it speaks: ‘The day I commemorate is the rod with which the hand of the Lord has opened the well of liberty. Its waters will flow; every new drop of martyr blood will increase the tide. Despots may dam its flood, but never stop it. The higher its dam the higher the tide; it will overflow or break through. Bow, and adore, and hope. In the course of his remarks he mentioned Gridley, Pollard, Knowlton and Warren, but he appears not to have heard of Putnam and Prescott.

At Lexington he said he was inclined to smile at the con-