to them.  I like not this everlasting resurrection of revolutions; it disturbs my sleep.  I am not sure not to find it at my own home some fine morning.  I therefore will help you, my servants, but under the condition, that it is not only the bold Hungarians who must be crushed, it is revolution which must be crushed, its very spirit, in its very vitality, everywhere; and to come to this aim, you must abandon all shame as to sworn promises; withdraw every concession made to the spirit of revolution; not the slightest freedom, no privilege, no political right, no constitutional aspirations must be permitted; all and everything must be levelled by the equality of passive obedience and absolute servitude.

“Look to my Russia; I make no concessions, I rule with an iron rod, and I am obeyed.  All you must do the same and not govern, but domineer by universal oppression.  That is my sovereign will—­obey.”

Thus spoke the Czar.  It is no opinion which I relate.  It is a fact, a historical fact, which the Czar openly proclaimed on several occasions, particularly in that characteristic declaration, to which the high-minded General Cass alluded in his remarkable speech on “non-intervention” in the Senate of the United States, on the 10th day of February.  The Czar Nicholas, complaining, that “insurrection has spread in every nation with an audacity which has gained new force in proportion to the concessions of the Governments” declares that he considers it his divine mission to crush the Spirit of Liberty on earth, which he arrogantly terms the spirit of insurrection and of anarchy.

By this you have the definition of what is meant by the words of “war for what principle shall rule.” The issue must be felt, not only in Europe, but here also and everywhere; the issue will not leave a chance for a new struggle, either to kings or to nations, for a long time perhaps, and probably for centuries.

In that condition you can see the key of the remarkable fact, that when I left my Asiatic prison under the protection of the star-spangled flag—­nations of different climates, different languages, different institutions, different inclinations, united in the pronunciation of sympathy, expectation, encouragement, and hope around my poor humble self,—­Italians, French, Portuguese, the people of England, Belgians, Germans, Swiss and Swedes.  It was the instinct of common danger, it was the instinct of necessary union.  It was no mere tribute of recognition paid to the important weight of Hungary in the scale of this intense universal struggle.  It was still more a call of distress, entrusted by the voice of mankind to my care, to bring it over to free America, as to the natural and most powerful representative of that “Spirit of Liberty” against which the leagued tyrants are waging a war of extermination with inexorable resolution.  Yes, it was a call of distress entrusted to my care, to remind America that there is a tie in the destinies of nations; and that those are digging a bottomless abyss who forsake the Spirit of Liberty, when within the boundaries of common civilization half the world utters in agony the call of universal distress.