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49 - Worlds Famous Orations - Continental Europe by William Jennings Bryan · Worlds Famous Orations - Continental Europe

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  Speaker 1: Section number forty nine of the World's Famous Orations, Volume seven,
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  Speaker 1: Continental Europe. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Bill Jones. The
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  Speaker 1: World's Famous Orations, Volume seven, Continental Europe by William Jennings Bryan,
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  Speaker 1: Section number forty nine. Kossuth on his Welcome to New
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  Speaker 1: York eighteen fifty one, born in eighteen o two, died
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety four. Member of the Hungarian Diet from
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two to eighteen thirty six. Imprisoned by Austria
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  Speaker 1: from eighteen thirty seven to eighteen forty Minister of Finance
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen forty eight. Governor of Hungary on the declaration
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  Speaker 1: of independence in eighteen forty nine. Resigned in the same
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  Speaker 1: time and went into exile, visiting the United States in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one. Let me, before I go to work,
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  Speaker 1: have some hours of rest upon this soil of freedom,
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  Speaker 1: your happy home, freedom and home. What heavenly music in
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  Speaker 1: those two words, Alas I have no home, and the
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  Speaker 1: freedom of my people is downtrodden, Young giant of free America.
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  Speaker 1: Do not tell me that thy shores are an asylum
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  Speaker 1: to the oppressed and a home to the homeless exile.
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  Speaker 1: An asylum it is, but all the blessings of your
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  Speaker 1: glorious country, can they drown into oblivion? The longing of
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  Speaker 1: the heart and the fond desires for our native land,
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  Speaker 1: My beloved native land, Thy very sufferings make THEE but
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  Speaker 1: dearer to my heart. Thy bleeding image dwells with me
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  Speaker 1: when I wake, as it rests with me in the
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  Speaker 1: short moments of my restless sleep. It has accompanied me
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  Speaker 1: over the waves. It will accompany me when I go
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  Speaker 1: back to fight over again the battle of thy freedom
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  Speaker 1: once more. I have no idea but THEE. I have
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  Speaker 1: no feeling but THEE. Even here, with this prodigious view
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  Speaker 1: of greatness, freedom, and happiness which spreads before my astonished eyes,
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  Speaker 1: my thoughts are wandering toward home. And when I look
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  Speaker 1: over these thousands of thousands before me, the happy inheritance
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  Speaker 1: of yonder freedom for which your fathers fought and bled.
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  Speaker 1: And when I turn to you, citizens, to bow before
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  Speaker 1: the majesty of the United States, and to thank the
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  Speaker 1: people of New York for their generous share in my liberation,
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  Speaker 1: and for the unparalleled honor of this reception. I see,
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  Speaker 1: out of the very midst of this great assemblage rise
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  Speaker 1: the bleeding image of Hungary, looking to you, you with anxiety.
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  Speaker 1: Whether there be in the luster of your eyes a
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  Speaker 1: ray of hope for her, whether there be in the
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  Speaker 1: thunder of your huzahs a trumpet call of resurrection. If
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  Speaker 1: there were no such ray of hope in your eyes,
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  Speaker 1: and no such trumpet call in your cheers, then woe
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  Speaker 1: to Europe's oppressed nations. They will stand alone in the
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  Speaker 1: hour of need less fortunate than you were. They will
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  Speaker 1: meet no brother's hand to help them in the approaching
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  Speaker 1: giant struggle against the league despots of the world. And
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  Speaker 1: woe also to me. I will feel no joy even here,
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  Speaker 1: and the days of my stay here will turn out
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  Speaker 1: to be lost to my fatherland, lost at the very
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  Speaker 1: time when every moment is teeming in the decision of
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  Speaker 1: Europe's destiny. Gentlemen, I have to thank the people, Congress,
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  Speaker 1: and Government of the United States for my liberation from captainivity.
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  Speaker 1: Human tongue has no words to express the bliss which
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  Speaker 1: I felt when I the downtrodden Hungary's wandering chief, saw
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  Speaker 1: the glorious flag of the stripes and stars fluttering over
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  Speaker 1: my head when I first bowed before it with deep respect,
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  Speaker 1: when I saw around me the gallant officers and the
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  Speaker 1: crew of the Mississippi Frigate, the most of them the
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  Speaker 1: worthiest representatives of true American principles, American greatness, American generosity.
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  Speaker 1: And to think that it was not a mere chance
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  Speaker 1: which cast the star spangled banner around me, but that
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  Speaker 1: it was your protecting will. To know that the United
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  Speaker 1: States of America, conscious of their glorious calling as well
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  Speaker 1: as of their power, declared by this unparalleled act, to
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  Speaker 1: be resolved to become the protectors of human rights. To
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  Speaker 1: see a powerful vessel of America come out to far Asia,
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  Speaker 1: to break the chains by which the mightiest despots of
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  Speaker 1: Europe fettered the activity of an exiled Magyar whose very
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  Speaker 1: name disturbed the proud security of their sleep. To feel
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  Speaker 1: restored by such a protection and in such a way,
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  Speaker 1: to freedom, and by freedom to activity. You may be
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  Speaker 1: well aware of what I have felt and still feel
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  Speaker 1: at the remembrance of this proud moment of my life.
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  Speaker 1: Others spoke, you acted, and I was free. You acted,
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  Speaker 1: And at this act of yours tyrants trembled humanity shouted
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  Speaker 1: out with joy. The downtrodden people of Magyars, the downtrodden
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  Speaker 1: but not broken, raised their heads with resolution and with hope,
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  Speaker 1: and the brilliancy of your stars was greeted by Europe's
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  Speaker 1: oppressed nations as the morning star of rising liberty. Now, gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: you must be aware how boundless the gratitude must be
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  Speaker 1: which I feel for you, humble as I am God,
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  Speaker 1: the Almighty has selected me to represent the cause of
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  Speaker 1: humanity before you. My warrant to this capacity is written
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  Speaker 1: in the sympathy and confidence of all who are oppressed,
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  Speaker 1: and of all who, as your elder brother, the people
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  Speaker 1: of Britain, sympathize with the oppressed. My warrant to this
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  Speaker 1: capacity is written in the hopes and expectations you have
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  Speaker 1: entitled the world to entertain by liberating me out of
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  Speaker 1: my prison and by restoring me to activity. But it
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  Speaker 1: has pleased the Almighty to make out of my humble
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  Speaker 1: self yet another opportunity for a thing which may prove
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  Speaker 1: a happy turning point in the destinies of the world.
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  Speaker 1: I bring you a brotherly greeting from the people of
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  Speaker 1: Great Britain. I speak not in official character, imparted by diplomacy,
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  Speaker 1: whose secrecy is the curse of the world. But I
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  Speaker 1: am the harbinger of the public spirit of the people,
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  Speaker 1: which has the right to impart a direction to its government,
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  Speaker 1: and which I witnessed pronouncing itself in the most decided
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  Speaker 1: manner openly, that the people of England, united to you
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  Speaker 1: with enlightened brotherly love, as it is united in blood,
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  Speaker 1: conscious of your strength, as it is conscious of its own,
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  Speaker 1: has forever abandoned every sentiment of irritation and rivalry, and
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  Speaker 1: desires the brotherly alliance of the United States to secure
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  Speaker 1: every nation the sovereign right to dispose of itself, and
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  Speaker 1: to protect the sovereign right of nations against the encroaching
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  Speaker 1: arrogance of despots, and leaked to you against the league
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  Speaker 1: of Despots, to stand together with you, Godfather, to the
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  Speaker 1: approaching baptism of European liberty. I came not to your
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  Speaker 1: glorious shores to enjoy a happy rest. I came not
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  Speaker 1: with the intention to gather triumphs of personal distinction, but
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  Speaker 1: because a humble petitioner in my country's name, as its
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  Speaker 1: freely chosen constitutional chief humbly to entreat your generous aid.
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  Speaker 1: And then it is to this aim that I will
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  Speaker 1: devote every moment of my time with the more assiduity,
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  Speaker 1: with the more restlessness, as every moment may bring a
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  Speaker 1: report of events which may call me to hasten to
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  Speaker 1: my place on the battlefield where the great and I
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  Speaker 1: hope the last battle will be fought between liberty and despotism,
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  Speaker 1: a moment marked by the finger of God to be
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  Speaker 1: so near that every hour of delay of your generous
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  Speaker 1: aid may prove fatally disastrous to oppressed humanity. And thus,
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  Speaker 1: having stated my position to be that of a humble
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  Speaker 1: petitioner in the name of my oppressed country, let me
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  Speaker 1: respectfully ask, do you not regret to have bestowed upon
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  Speaker 1: me the high honor of this glorious unparalleled in history.
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  Speaker 1: I say unparalleled in history, though I know that your
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  Speaker 1: fathers have welcomed Lafayette in a similar way. But Lafayette
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  Speaker 1: had mighty claims to your country's gratitude. He had fought
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  Speaker 1: in your ranks for your freedom and independence. And what
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  Speaker 1: was still more, in the hour of your need, he
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  Speaker 1: was the link of your friendly connection with France. A connection,
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  Speaker 1: the results of which were two French fleets of more
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  Speaker 1: than thirty eight men of war and three thousand gallant
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  Speaker 1: men who fought side by side with you against Cornwallis
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  Speaker 1: before Yorktown, the precious gift of twenty four thousands muskets
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  Speaker 1: alone of nineteen millions of dollars, and even the preliminary
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  Speaker 1: treaties of your glorious peace negotiated at Paris by your
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  Speaker 1: immortal Franklin. I hope the people of the United States,
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  Speaker 1: now itself in the happy condition to aid those who
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  Speaker 1: are in need of aid, as itself once was in need,
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  Speaker 1: will kindly remember these facts, and you citizens of New York,
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  Speaker 1: you will yourselves become the Lafayettes of Hungary. Lafayette had
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  Speaker 1: great claims to your love and sympathy, but I have none.
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  Speaker 1: I came a humble petitioner, with no other claims than
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  Speaker 1: those which the oppressed have to the sympathy of free
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  Speaker 1: men who have the power to help with the claim
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  Speaker 1: which the unfortunate has to the happy and the downtrodden,
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  Speaker 1: to the protection of eternal justice and of human rights.
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  Speaker 1: In a word, I have no other claims than those
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  Speaker 1: which the oppressed principle of freedom has to the aid
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  Speaker 1: of victorious liberty. End of Section number forty nine, read
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  Speaker 1: by Bill Jones, dearborn Michigan, five September twenty twenty two.