Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume One).djvu/229

Rh April 29, 1852. In that speech he announced in all its fulness his comprehensive idea of liberty: “Cradle of American Liberty! it is a great name; but there is something in it which saddens my heart. You should not say American liberty. You should say Liberty in America. Liberty should not be either American or European,—it should be just liberty. God is God. He is neither America’s God nor Europe’s God; he is God. So should liberty be. ‘American liberty’ has much the sound as if you would say ‘American privilege.’ And there is the rub. Look to history, and when your heart saddens at the fact that liberty never yet was lasting in any corner of the world, and in any age, you will find the key of it in the gloomy truth that all who were yet free regarded liberty as their privilege, instead of regarding it as a principle. The nature of every privilege is exclusiveness, that of a principle is communicative. Liberty is a principle,—its community is its security,—exclusiveness is its doom. What is aristocracy? It is exclusive liberty; it is privilege; and aristocracy is doomed, because it is contrary to the destiny and welfare of man. Aristocracy should vanish, not in the nations, but also from amongst the nations. So long as that is not done, liberty will nowhere be lasting on earth. … A privilege never can be lasting. Liberty restricted to one nation never can be sure. You may say, ‘We are the prophets of God’; but you shall not say, ‘God is only our God.’ The Jews have said so, and the pride of Jerusalem lies in the dust.”

Through all his speeches the thought of the universality of liberty, and the doctrine that there is a community in man’s destiny, can be discerned. His later speeches, and especially his speeches made after his tour through the South, indicate a loss of confidence in the disposition of the country to give substantial aid to the cause of Hungary, and thenceforward the loss of hope was apparent in his conversation and speeches. Indeed, before he left the country, his thoughts were directed