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XL.—­THE BROTHERHOOD OF NATIONS.

[Newark.]

The Rev. Dr. Eddy introduced Kossuth to the citizens of Newark, and made an address to him in their name.  After this, Kossuth replied: 

Gentlemen,—­It was a minister of the Gospel who addressed me in your name:  Let me speak to you as a Christian who considers it to be my heartfelt duty to act, not only in my private but also in my public capacity, in conformity with the principles of Christianity, as I understand it.

I have seen the people of the United States almost in every climate of your immense territory.  I have marked the natural influence of geography upon its character.  I have seen the same principles, the same institutions assuming in their application the modifying influences of local circumstances; I have found the past casting its shadows on the present, in one place darker, in the other less; I have seen man everywhere to be man, partaking of all aspirations, which are the bliss as well as the fragility of nature in man,—­but in one place the bliss prevailing more and in the other the fragility.  I saw now and then small interests of the passing hour, less or more encroaching upon the sacred dominion of universal principles; but so much is true, that wherever I found a people, I found a great and generous heart, ready to take that ground which by your very national position is pointed out to you as a mission.  Your position is to be a great nation; therefore your necessity is to act like a great nation; or, if you do not, you will not be great.

To be numerous, is not to be great.  The Chinese are eight times more numerous than you, and still China is not great, for she has isolated herself from the world.  Nor does the condition of a nation depend on what she likes to call herself.  China calls herself “Celestial,” and takes you and Europe for barbarians.  Not what we call ourselves, but how we act, proves what we are.  Great is that nation which acts greatly.  And give me leave to say, what an American minister of the Gospel has said to me:  “Nations, by the great God of the Universe, are individualized, as well as men.  He has given each a mission to fulfil, and He expects every one to bear its part in solving the great problem of man’s capacity for self-government, which is the problem of human destiny; and if any nation fails in this, He will treat it as an unprofitable servant, a barren fig-tree, whose own end is to be rooted up and burnt.”

Jonah sat under the shadow of his gourd rejoicing, in isolated, selfish indifference, caring nothing for the millions of the Ninevites at his feet.  What was the consequence?  God prepared a worm to smite the gourd, that it withered.  God has privileged you, the people of the United States, to repose, not under a gourd, but beneath the shadow of a luxuriant vine and the outspreading branches of a delicious fig-tree.  Give him praise and thanks!