A generous hospitality will not make terms or conditions with a guest; and such hospitality I trust Congress will tender to Louis Kossuth.
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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Do not, under the too plausible sophism of upholding non-intervention, provoke American intervention on distant European soil.
Trust in God, in the inspiration of your cause, and in the Great Future, pregnant with freedom for all mankind.
Could I now approach our mighty guest, I would say to him, with the respectful frankness of a friend: "Be content with the outgushing sympathy which you now inspire everywhere throughout this wide-spread land, and may it strengthen your…
God forbid that we should ever close our ears to the cry of distress, or cease to swell with indignation at the steps of tyranny!
Such a system would have in it no element of just self-defence, and would open vials of perplexities and ills which I trust our country will never be called to affront.
But no text of this voluminous code, no commentary, no gloss, can be found, which forbids us to welcome any exile of Freedom.
In our domestic affairs all acts are brought to the Constitution, as to a touchstone; so in our foreign affairs all acts are brought to the touchstone of the Law of Nations,--that supreme law, the world's collected will, which overarches…
The occasion is fit; the hero is near; let us speak our welcome.
There is a time for all things; and the time has come for us to make a precedent in harmony with his unprecedented career.
Such a character, thus grandly historic,--a living Wallace, a living Tell, I had almost said a living Washington,--deserves our homage.
Without equivocation, amidst the supporters of monarchy, in the shadow of a lofty throne, he proclaimed himself a republican, and proclaimed the republic as his cherished aspiration for Hungary.
A multitudinous people, outnumbering far the armies of those earlier times, was subdued by his wisdom and eloquence; and this exile, proceeding from place to place, traversing the country, at last, in the very heart of the Kingdom, threw…
I know not how others are impressed; but I call to mind no incident in history, no event of peace or war,--certainly none of war,--more strongly calculated, better adapted, to touch and exalt the imagination and the heart than his recent…
In himself he is more than a whole cabinet, more than a whole army.
I see in him, more than in any other living man, the power which may be exerted by a single, earnest, honest soul in a noble cause.
He deserves it by the precious truth he now so eloquently proclaims, of the Fraternity of Nations.
I would join in this welcome, not merely because it is essential to complete and crown the work of the last Congress, but because our guest deserves it.
The hearts of the people are already open to receive him; Congress cannot turn its back upon him.
I am prepared to vote for it without amendment or condition of any kind, and on reasons which seem to me at once obvious and conclusive.
Therefore it becomes us to consider well what we do, and to understand the grounds of our conduct.
PRESIDENT,--Words are sometimes things; and I cannot disguise from myself that the resolution in honor of Louis Kossuth now pending before the Senate, when finally passed, will be an act of no small significance in the history of our…
The best place this day on earth for reasoned and thoughtful, yet stimulant public speech.
Their native love of Liberty and hatred of Oppression will here find opportunity for action.
The influence we now wield is a sacred trust, to be exercised firmly and discreetly, in conformity with the Laws of Nations, and with an anxious eye to the peace of the world, but always so as most to promote Human Rights.
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