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I 
 
 KOSSUTH OR AVASHINGTON? 
 
THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 OF 
 
 INTERYENTION, 
 
 TRIED BY THE 
 
 TEACHINaS OF WASHINGTON: 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY EVENINGS, THE 23d AND 24th OF 
 FEBRUARY, 1852. 
 
 BY 
 
 m^MBOARDMAN, D. D. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO GRIGG, ELLIOT AND CO. 
 
 1852. 
 
3 ^ '* 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 
 
 LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., 
 
 in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and 
 for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 i'IIII.adki.i'mia: 
 
 T. K. ANU 1'. li. L'ULLI.NS, I'lUNTEUS. 
 
^^ 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 In a discourse on the " True Mission of the United 
 States in respect to the Nations and Governments 
 OF Europe," delivered in this house, on the last 
 Thanksgiving Day, there occurred the following pas- 
 sage : — 
 
 " Various indications show that a concerted effort 
 is about to be made to break down the princij)le of 
 non-intervention, which has hitherto been funda- 
 mental to our foreign policy, and to involve us ac- 
 tively in the conflicts of Europe. Under these 
 circumstances, it becomes a grave question with every 
 citizen : ' Is this plan, or the other which has been 
 sketched, the true way to discharge our duty to the 
 old world ? Are we to send fleets and armies there 
 (for this is the English of it), or are we to take care 
 OF THIS Union ?' In so far as this may be a legitimate 
 topic for the pulpit, I could wish that my strength 
 and your patience were equal to a brief discussion of 
 it. I must, however, waive it with the citation of 
 one or two of those solemn and monitory sentences 
 which Washington devotes to the subject in his Fare- 
 well Address." 
 
6 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 The sermon from which this paragraph is quoted, 
 was preached nearly a fortnight before the arrival of 
 the Humboldt in December. The course of events 
 since that steamer handed the great Hungarian at 
 Staten Island, is famiUar to all who hear me. If it 
 had not been such as to verify in an alarming degree 
 the prediction then hazarded, that a vigorous effort 
 was about to be made to revolutionize our foreign 
 policy, the present service would have been dispensed 
 with. It is, indeed, with unfeigned reluctance, and 
 only under a stringent sense of duty, that I now, in 
 the altered circumstances of the country, revert to 
 the subject. That the discussion of it in this place 
 will encounter more or less prejudice, is a thing of 
 course. The common feehng will be, that it is a 
 subject which lies beyond the proper jurisdiction of 
 the pulpit, and the less clergymen have to say about 
 it officially, the better. I should so judge myself, if 
 it were not for two very grave considerations. The 
 first is, that the influence of " the clergy" has already, 
 in a signal manner, been put forth in favor of the 
 movement now in progress. Wherever the Hunga^ 
 rian chief lias gone, the ministers of religion have 
 l)een conspicuous in their attentions to him. Not 
 only youthful preachers, who might be carried away 
 by the ardor of their feeUngs, but men venerable alike 
 for their years, their learning, and their piety, have 
 vied with the civil authorities in doing him honor. 
 This is not, perhaps, surprising. M. KossuTii came to 
 us as the representative of an interesting people, whose 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 7 
 
 wrongs had excited a sentiment of indignation in the 
 breasts of all true American citizens. We must have 
 forfeited all title to our own liberties, and to the respect 
 of mankind, if we could have seen Russia pour her 
 barbarous hordes down the Carpathians, and re-impose 
 the Austrian yoke upon the Hungarians, just as they 
 were exulting in their well-earned deliverance, with- 
 out strong emotion. There was everything, too, in 
 the personal character and history of our guest, to 
 elicit sympathy. No idle spectator of his country's 
 woes, he had vindicated her rights with surpassing 
 eloquence in the senate, guided the helm in the tur- 
 moil of her revolution, commanded her armies, shared 
 in her disasters, and, hunted from her soil, secured a 
 shelter from the scaffold only in a Turkish prison. 
 Then, too, he stood before the nation as a Christian 
 who, before whatever audience, proclaimed, with a 
 frankness too rare in our own statesmen, his attach- 
 ment to the Bible ; as a Confessor, who had nobly re- 
 fused to sacrifice his faith to his personal safety; as a 
 Protestant, the inflexible friend of rehgious liberty, and 
 one of a gallant race which, after repeatedly rolling- 
 back from Europe the devastating torrent of Moham- 
 medanism, was now compelled to see its own ancient 
 and beloved church made the football of Jesuit intol- 
 erance and Austrian tyranny.* When with these 
 
 * " Scarcely had Russia restored the house of Hapsburg, by putting 
 its foot on the neck of Hungary, when the first act of that house was 
 to spill noble blood by the hands of the hangman, and its second was 
 to destroy the rights of the Protestant religion." [Kossuth's Speech in 
 
8 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 attributes you combine those rare oratorical powers 
 which ehcit equal admiration from the most refined 
 and the most uncultivated auditories, there can be no 
 room for surprise that Kossuth should have received 
 from the Protestant clergy the same cordial greeting 
 which has been extended to him by all other profes- 
 sions. 
 
 But he visits us, it must be remembered, on a spe- 
 cific errand. He comes, not as an emigrant, like 
 Uijhazy and others of his friends, to seek a tranquil 
 home here ; not simply as an exile, to escape from 
 danger ; not mainly as a fallen leader, to ol^tain need- 
 ful succors from the benevolent and the patriotic, for 
 his suffering countrjnuen. He comes (so he has 
 elected to come) on a political mission; as an ex- 
 pounder of international law; to get our government 
 to incorporate in its policy a certain principle he has 
 invented for the relief of oppressed nationalities, the 
 adoption of which would at once change our rela- 
 tions with all the States of Christendom, and alter 
 the whole tone and spirit of our confederation. It is 
 not in this aspect that the clergy have regarded him. 
 They have not, ordinarily, made this subject promi- 
 nent in their complimentary addresses to him. But 
 the moral effect has been to stamp their imprimatur 
 upon his favorite project. His answers to them show 
 that til is is tlie impression produced up(m his own 
 
 London.) There is reason enough why all the sympathies of the 
 Iioinish Iiicrarcliy in Kuropo and America shoiikl be on the side of 
 Au.'itria. 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 9 
 
 mind, and there are but too many proofs that the 
 people at large thuik with him. There can be little 
 doubt that the Protestant ministers of the States 
 he has traversed, are set down by the country as en- 
 dorsing the grand object of his visit, and that this 
 conviction has contributed essentially to the tolerance 
 it has met Avith among sober-minded people. Nor 
 will it discredit this behef, that the religious press 
 and the pulpit should have been vigorously employed 
 both in lauding the man and defending his peculiar 
 dogma. All this might be allowed to pass, if it were 
 a question merely of to-day. It is not very probable 
 that even the eloquence of Kossuth will bring about 
 an abandonment of that prudent and advantageous 
 policy which we have followed for three-quarters of a 
 century. But if he fails, other foreigners may here- 
 after tread in his steps. And whether they should or 
 not, politicians of native growth will take the \drus — 
 for everything here runs into party-politics — and this 
 question will reappear in our domestic elections. In 
 this view of the case, it would be extremely unfor- 
 tunate, if the public men of the country should be left 
 to suppose that the Protestant clergy, as a body, were 
 friendly to the new doctrine of intervention. The 
 consequences could not fail to l^e disastrous in a high 
 degree. As one of that honorable profession, there- 
 fore, I wish to unite with those of my brethren who, 
 as pastors or editors, have already proclaimed their 
 dissent from the new theory. Aware that the opin- 
 ions of a single individual like myself can be of very 
 
10 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 little moment in any direction, I still feel constrained 
 to put on record my earnest protest, both against this 
 theory, and against the manner it is attempted to 
 force it upon the country. I am very far from com- 
 plaining of what so many of my fathers and brethren 
 have done and are doing; but I must claim the same 
 liberty they have exercised, and resist the scheme 
 which they have \'irtually sanctioned. 
 
 The other ground on which the introduction of 
 this subject into the pulpit may be vindicated, is, that 
 the real question now before the American people, is 
 the question of Peace or Wae. The furor which 
 gathers around the eloquent Magyar, and makes his 
 convocations like a burning prairie, may hide the 
 truth from some eyes ; but no one who has his reason 
 in full play, can fail to see that War, with its ensan- 
 guined horrors, is following in his train. If this be 
 so, the right of the pulpit to take part in the discus- 
 sion is not to be gainsaid. Patriotism, piety, hu- 
 manity, forbid it to be silent. As individuals, we 
 have the same stake in this question with our fellow- 
 citizens; and as ambassadors of the Prince of Peace, 
 we should incur the guilt of a flagrant disloyalty, 
 could we see a course of measures in progress legiti- 
 mately tending to bring down this great calamity 
 upon the country, without remonstrating against 
 them. 
 
 If these views are assented to, there can be no dif- 
 ference of opinion as to the fitness of the theme to the 
 prc'sout occasion. Among the munificent gifts of Di- 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 11 
 
 vine Providence to this Western hemisphere, the 
 name of GEORGE WASHINGTON will be conspic- 
 uous to the latest posterity. We owe our present 
 position more, under God, to his instrumentality, 
 than to that of any other individual. His character 
 is part of our best earthly treasure : his teachings, 
 one of our richest legacies. By a faithful adherence 
 to his counsels, we have enjoyed an unexampled de- 
 gree of prosperity. And there is no more suitable 
 way in which we can manifest our reverence for his 
 memory, and our gratitude to heaven for bestowing 
 him upon us, than by repelling all attempts to per- 
 vert his principles and to seduce our government 
 from the wise policy he prescribed to it. Such at- 
 tempts are now making with a boldness, an energy, 
 and an apparent impression upon masses of the peo- 
 ple, which are ominous of evil. They meet us in a 
 form eminently adapted to excite our sympathies and 
 disarm our opposition. A European nation, rising 
 against its oppressors, virtually achieves its indepen- 
 dence : a third power, interposing with an over- 
 whelming military force, after shooting and gibbet- 
 ing thousands of its best citizens, replaces its chains, 
 and consigns it to a still more terrible bondage. The 
 gifted leader of this injured people appears amongst 
 us, and tells the tale of his country's wrongs with 
 a pathos which penetrates the most stoical bosoms. 
 The effect produced by his addresses might almost be 
 compared to that which followed the appeal of Maria 
 Theresa [A. D. 1741] when, a young and beautiful 
 
12 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 queen, clad in deep mourning, with the crown of St. 
 Stephen on her head, and girt with his sword, and 
 holding her infant son in her arms, she appeared be- 
 fore the Hungarian Diet, and, after reciting the 
 dangers which threatened her kingdom, threw her- 
 self upon her faithful Palatines for protection. The 
 Magyar chivalry were carried by storm. In an 
 instant every sword leaped from its scabbard, and 
 amidst the cry, "Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria 
 Theresa!" they swore to assert her rights, and to shed 
 the last drop of their blood in her defence. More 
 than one popular assembly in the United States has 
 been wrought up to a similar pitch of enthusiasm by 
 the solemn and touching oratory of Kossuth. And 
 so just is the cause of his country, and so rare the 
 ability with which he advocates it, that it seems a 
 very thankless office to resist his demands and warn 
 the peoj)le against his seductions. But duty loses 
 none of its sacredness by being unwelcome ; and we 
 must beware how we put even Hungary before our 
 own glorious Union, or exchange the visionary specu- 
 lations of a stranger for the tried wisdom of Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 What is it, then, that is asked of us ? You shall 
 hear in Kossuth's own words : — 
 
 " There is an international law founded upon prin- 
 ciples ; and one of those principles must be, that every 
 country lias the right to dispose of its destinies itself, 
 and that no foreign power can have the right to in- 
 terfere with its domestic concerns. This principle 
 
OF INTERVENTION. ] 3 
 
 has been recognized, and by Russia. But the princi- 
 ple or law must be carried out. Who shall carry it 
 out ? The executive power of the international law 
 should be exercised only by a free nation, for no 
 other nation can have the power. Therefore, I claim 
 this aid from the United States. The great principle 
 of international law is the right of every nation to 
 dispose of itself, and the United States should declare 
 their willingness to respect that law, and to make it 
 respected by others." {Speech in BrooMyn.) 
 
 " These are the great objects for which I seek the 
 support of the United States, to check and not permit 
 Russian interference in Hungary; because, so that 
 Hungary may have an opportunity to organize her 
 strength against Russian despotism and barbarity. 
 This is the reason that I ask the United States to be- 
 come the executive power to recognize the right of 
 every nation to dispose of itself This is the only 
 glory which is yet wanting to the list of your glorious 
 stars. The people of the United States having suc- 
 cessfully asserted their own independence and freedom, 
 have scarcely any other calling than to become the 
 assertors of freedom equally for other lands; and I 
 confidently hope, that being your condition, that you 
 will not deny me your generous support in carrying 
 out that great principle of non-interference, and also 
 of not allowing any interference in that new struggle 
 of Hungary for freedom and independence, which is 
 already felt in the air, and which is pointed out by the 
 
14 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 finger of God himself." [Address to the Militanj of 
 New Yorh}j 
 
 We are asl?:ed, then, to do two things. To declare 
 it as a principle of international law, that no nation 
 shall interfere in the domestic concerns of another na- 
 tion, and to constitute ourselves the executive au- 
 thority FOR ENFORCING THIS LAW all ovcr the globe. 
 We are to " make this law respected by other nations." 
 We are to "check and not 'permit Russian interference 
 in Hungary." We are to regard the interference of 
 one nation with the internal affairs of another as a 
 legitimate cause of war, and, if nothing short will an- 
 swer, we are to unsheath the sword to prevent it. 
 
 It cannot be laid to the charge of the American 
 government or people, that they have ever been indif- 
 ferent to the progress of liberty in other lands. We 
 have watched the great conflict with which Europe is 
 perpetually agitated, between prerogative and popular 
 rights, with intense solicitude. Wherever a nation 
 has revolted against its taskmasters, we have cheered 
 them by our sympathy, and instructed them by our 
 example. We have not ceased to protest against the 
 monstrous dogmas of absolutism, that the plenitude of 
 authority and right is vested in the crown, that society 
 derives all its franchises from the good-will' of the 
 sovereign, and that the people have nothing to do with 
 government but submit to its decrees, and gratefully 
 accept such favors as may be conceded to them. Our 
 abhorrence of these principles has been expressed, not 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 15 
 
 merely by our entire periodical press,* and in the pri- 
 mary assemblies of the people, but in our gravest state 
 papers, not excluding the annual "Messages" of the 
 Presidents, and in the solemn enactments of our federal 
 legislature. The despots of the world well know, and 
 the friends of freedom in all lands know, where we 
 stand. Our " line is gone out through all the earth, and 
 our words unto the end of the world." Never, until 
 we shall have sunk so low in virtue and patriotism as 
 to be fit only for a servile yoke ourselves, can we cease 
 to desire, and in all prudent and legitimate methods, 
 to promote the progress of rational liberty throughout 
 the earth. 
 
 It is precisely on this ground, that the Utopian doc- 
 trine of " intervention to prevent intervention," which 
 now solicits our sanction, is to be condemned. It is 
 because the recognition of it by the government of the 
 United States would be most disastrous to the cause 
 of liberty and enlightened progress both at home and 
 abroad. Because it would throw the influence of this 
 nation, hitherto the beneficent guardian of peace and 
 happiness among the nations, into the scale of merci- 
 less and insatiable war. 
 
 I have stigmatized the doctrine as " Utopian." This 
 is characterizing it by too mild a term. We are called 
 upon to interpolate in the law of nations, at the point 
 of the bayonet, if it can be done by no milder process, 
 the provision, that, whenever one nation forcibly inter- 
 
 * Some of the Romish journals excepted. 
 
16 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 feres in the domestic concerns of another, this shall 
 be deemed by other nations a justifiable cause of war, 
 and they shall accordingly take up arms against the 
 offending state. "Interpolated" it must be, and that 
 "at the point of the bayonet," if this dictum is to be 
 incorporated in the international code. It will be time 
 enough to talk of elevating it to this high dignity, 
 when a single leading cabinet can be found which has 
 not "intervened" in the affairs of other nations. To 
 speak of what the great continental powers have done 
 and are constantly doing in this line, would be super- 
 fluous. We are more concerned to know how England 
 stands affected towards the rule, since it is proposed, 
 or rather was proposed, when Kossuth was there, to 
 associate her with ourselves in carrying it into effect. 
 One of her own prominent journals shall supply us 
 with the requisite information : — 
 
 " The English ought to know something about in- 
 tervention, for they have had some experience of it, 
 and are paying dear for that experience. We inter- 
 fered in behalf of royalty and order in France. We 
 have interfered to deliver her and Europe from anar- 
 chists and military adventurers. We drove the French 
 out of Sicily, and restored it to the King of Naples. 
 Our fleets girded the shores of Italy, and by that and 
 other services we earned from the Pope the memora- 
 ble declaration that George III. was the best of his 
 suljjects. We helped to drive the French out of Portu- 
 gal and Spain. More recently, we have kept up a long 
 course of interference in the affairs of the Peninsula, 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 17 
 
 and have helped materially to set up two constitutional 
 queens. Russia, Austria, Prussia, and other smaller 
 states, have to thank us for immense subsidies, and for 
 other assistance, to which they are greatly indebted 
 for the respectable figure they severally make on the 
 map of Europe. We have interfered to give liberty 
 and independence to Greece, and bless her with a court 
 and a king. We have interfered to save Turkey from 
 being utterly swallowed up by Mehemet Ali and his 
 son, and have restored the Holy Land to the paternal 
 dominion of the Porte. We have interfered, first, to 
 give Belgium to the king of Holland, and then to take 
 it away and make it independent. Indeed, it is diffi- 
 cult to say where we have not interfered, what govern- 
 ment we have not thwarted or befriended, what people 
 we have not backed up against their ruler, or what 
 ruler we have not assisted against his subjects. But 
 it is scarcely necessary to particularize interferences, 
 seeing that nearly all our wars for the last sixty years 
 have been wars of interference, viz., for the purely 
 philanthropical object of establishing order and free- 
 dom in foreign countries, propagating constitutional 
 ideas, adjusting the balance of power, and reforming- 
 mankind after the model of England."* 
 
 This summary will enable us to judge how far Eng- 
 land is prepared to join with us in engrafting the pro- 
 posed novelty upon Puffendorf and Vattel. When- 
 
 * Quoted in the Neio York Observer, of January 15th ; a journal 
 ■which has discussed this question, on the anti-Kossuth side, in a series 
 of editorial articles written with much ability and candor. 
 
18 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 ever she is ready to repudiate the whole course of her 
 public policy, she will do it — and not till then. Mean- 
 while, she will continue to provide palaces for fugitive 
 kings; and leave popular heroes, who may reach her 
 shores in misfortune, to such comfort as they may 
 gather from the cheers of the ixople, abated by the 
 studied indifference of the crown, the aristocracy, the 
 established clergy, and the cabinet. 
 
 Candor requires the acknowledgment that, in some 
 of these cases of intervention, the British government 
 has had our cordial approval. Not to specify doubt- 
 ful examples, where is the American who did not 
 heartily commend the joint intervention of the three 
 allied powers in behalf of Greece? Had the new 
 statute then been in force, the battle of Navarino had 
 not been fought, and Greece must have fallen back 
 under the iron rule of the Moslem. Nor is this all. 
 If, in the face of this international compact, the allies 
 had interfered, we and other nations must have inter- 
 vened against them ! We must have sided with the 
 Turk against the Greek, with the Crescent against the 
 Cross, with the tyrant against his victims. 
 
 Or, to come to a still more recent example, one of 
 the first acts of the pseudo French republic of '48, 
 was to issue a " Manifesto to Europe," full of inflated 
 protestations about liberty, in which there occurred 
 this passage : " If the independent States of Italy 
 should ])e invaded ; if limits or obstacles should be 
 opposed to their internal changes; if there should be 
 any armed interference with their right of allying 
 
OF INTERVENTION". 19 
 
 themselves together for the purpose of consolidating 
 an Italian nation, the French republic would think 
 itself entitled to take up arms in defence of those law- 
 ful movements for the improvement and the nation- 
 ality of States." The next thing we hear, after this 
 sublime flourish, Italy is " invaded," " limits and ob- 
 stacles are opposed to her internal changes," an " armed 
 interference" represses the will of her people, and a 
 French army, storming the " Eternal City" amidst 
 carnage and blood, subverts the infant republic, and 
 reconstructs the throne of sacerdotal despotism. The 
 infamy of this procedure has no archetype except in 
 the blackest pages of European history. Sooner or 
 later, retributive justice will avenge it upon that per- 
 fidious nation, if, indeed, they are not already reaping 
 the fruit of it. Suppose, now, instead of the inter- 
 vention of this mock-republic against the Roman peo- 
 ple, England had interposed for them ; that a British 
 army had landed at Civita Yecchia, and protected the 
 triumvirate in carrying into effect the expressed wishes 
 of the nation for a change of government. What 
 course would the new enactment have imposed upon 
 the other nations, and ourselves as one of them ? 
 Why, that we should " intervene" to resist England. 
 That we should espouse the cause of the priestly fu- 
 gitive the Romans had, by common consent, deposed 
 from his secular sovereignty, and replace in the Vati- 
 can that double-headed tyranny which has been the 
 scourge of Christendom for the last twelve hundred 
 years! Such would be the practical working of the 
 
20 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 princii:>le we are seriously asked to recognize, and 
 even compel the rest of the world to recognize, as an 
 essential provision of international law. 
 
 Without amplifying this point, the conclusions to 
 which we are shut up are manifest. As a general 
 proposition, the abstract right of every nation to man- 
 age its own affairs, must l^e admitted. Occasions 
 may arise, however, to justify foreign intervention. 
 The mere fact of intervention determines nothing as 
 to its character ; it may or may not be an infringe- 
 ment of international rights. In some cases, it sup- 
 plies a just ground of war on the part of other nations. 
 In other cases, it is so far from being a casus belli, that 
 it imposes on other nations an obligation of gratitude 
 to the " intervening" nation, as being eminently con- 
 ducive to the interests of humanity and constitutional 
 liberty. The rights and obligations involved in the 
 matter are too diversified and intricate to be adjusted 
 by sweeping, categorical canons. Cases must be dis- 
 posed of as they arise, each on its own merits. Every 
 cabinet must meet the question of right and the ques- 
 tion of policy, on its own responsibility to God and the 
 civilized world. Governments, too, must act on those 
 common-sense principles which control individuals in 
 analogous circumstances. No prudent man ties up his 
 hands against all possil^le interference in the family 
 quarrels of his neighbors; still less, pledges himself to 
 figlit other people if they interfere. As a general rule, 
 iiitcrrcic-iicc would be wrong in morals, and practically 
 iiiiscliievous. But if a man learned that his neighbor 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 21 
 
 was trying to murder his wife or children, he would 
 be likely to interfere, and to get others to help him. 
 Cabinets, that have not wedded themselves to an ab- 
 straction, will reserve a similar discretion, neither pre- 
 judging questions of intervention, nor hampering their 
 freedom with self-imposed restrictions; since, "in truth, 
 it is not the interfering or keeping aloof, but iniquit- 
 ous intermeddlings, or treacherous inaction, which is 
 praised or blamed by the decision of an equitable 
 judge."=-= 
 
 The importance of these principles will be appa- 
 rent as we proceed. They may especially aid us in 
 comparing the new doctrine with the past policy of 
 our government. 
 
 When the Panama Mission was under discussion 
 in the House of Representatives, in 1826, a distin- 
 guished gentlemanf from this State, in the course 
 of an able speech adverse to the appointment of 
 an Envoy, said, in allusion to the President: "Know- 
 ing that the American people considered an adher- 
 ence to the Farewell Address of the man who was 
 first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
 his countrymen, to be the palladium of their safety, 
 he has, by a long and ingenious argument, attempted 
 to destroy its force." Without endorsing the censure 
 upon the President expressed in this observation, it 
 will recall to every mind what has happened in con- 
 nection with the present excitement. At the very 
 
 * Burke: On the Policy of the Allies. 
 f Mr. Buchanan. 
 
22 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 first banquet tendered him in this country, the Hun- 
 garian leader put forth all his powers in an ingenious 
 argument to explain away the principles of the Fare- 
 well Address. lie was too subtle an advocate and too 
 shrewd a politician not to know that he could no more 
 effect his object so long as Washington stood in his 
 way, than an engineer can carry his rails through a 
 granite barrier without tunnelling the rock. Whether 
 it became him, an exile, invited to our shores by the 
 generous hospitality of our Government, to set him- 
 self up, almost before the spray of the ocean was dry 
 upon his clothes, as the expositor of that immortal 
 instrument, and to undertake to instruct the Ameri- 
 can people in the true import of sentences which are 
 among their household words, and written upon their 
 heart of hearts — whether this was quite befitting to 
 a man in his circumstances, is a point on which it 
 might be thought there could be little difference of 
 opinion. It is certain this was not the errand on 
 which he was invited to this country. No adminis- 
 tration, no Congress, would have sent a national shi]3 
 to the Dardanelles to receive him, if it could have 
 1 )een anticipated that, from the moment of his landing 
 on our shores, he Avould employ his extraordinary 
 powers in subverting the influence of Washington, 
 and bringing al^out a radical change in our foreign 
 policy. AVc stood in need of no such 'intervention,' 
 and no such teaching. If we do not comprehend the 
 principles of AVashington, at the end of a half century 
 after his death, it is not probable we ever shall. Our 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 23 
 
 new preceptor seems to imagine that, like the Ethi- 
 opian treasurer who sat in his chariot and read the 
 prophet Isaiah, we need a second Philip to help us 
 "understand what we read;" and he has magnani- 
 mously volunteered his exegetical services. With 
 what success, must be judged by those who have sifted 
 and weighed the impassioned sophistries with which, 
 on so many occasions, he has labored to show that 
 General Washington not only was not against his 
 scheme, but was actually in favor of it ! Without ex- 
 amining his arguments in detail, let us once more 
 listen to Washington's own words. The Farewell Ad- 
 dress is too familiar, to make it necessary that I should 
 quote more than two or three sentences from it. 
 
 " The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to 
 foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial rela- 
 tions, to have as little ])olitical connection with them 
 as possible." " Europe has a set of primary interests, 
 which to us have none, or a very remote relation. 
 Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies, 
 the causes of which are essentially foreign to our con- 
 cerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to 
 implicate ourselves by artificial ties, in the ordinarj^ 
 vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combina- 
 tions and collisions of her friendships or enmities." 
 " Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? 
 Why quit our own, to stand upon foreign ground ? 
 Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any 
 part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in 
 the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
 
24 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 humor, or caprice ? It is our true policy to steer clear 
 of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign 
 world." 
 
 The same judicious and patriotic sentiments are 
 everywhere expressed in his Correspondence. 
 
 " My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, so far 
 as depended upon the Executive department, to com- 
 ply strictly vsdth all our engagements, foreign and 
 domestic; but to keep the United States free from 
 poUtical connections with every other country, to see 
 them independent of all, and under the influence of 
 none. In a word, I want an American character, that 
 the powers of Europe ma}^ be convinced we act for 
 ourselves, and not for others. This, in my judgment, 
 is the only way to be respected abroad, and happy at 
 home ; and not, by becoming the partisans of Great 
 Britain or France, create dissensions, disturb the pub- 
 lic tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps forever, the ce- 
 ment which binds the Union."* 
 
 " My policy has been, and will continue to be, while 
 I have the honor to remain in the administration, to 
 maintain friendly terms with, but l>e independent of, 
 all the nations of the earth ; to share in the broils of 
 none ; to fulfil our own engagements ; to supply the 
 wants and te carriers for them all ; l^eing thoroughly 
 convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so."f 
 
 " No policy, in my opinion, can be more clearly 
 demonstrated, than that we should do justice to all, 
 
 * Letter to Patrick Henry, Oct. 9, 1795. 
 t To Gouvcrncur Morris, Dec. 22, 1795, 
 
OF INTERVENTION". 25 
 
 and have no political connection with any of the Euro- 
 pean powers, beyond those which result from and serve 
 to regulate our commerce Avith them. Our own ex- 
 perience, if it has not already had this effect, will soon 
 convince us, that the idea of disinterested favors or 
 friendship from any nation whatever is too novel to 
 be calculated on, and there will always be found a 
 wide difference between the words and actions of any 
 of them."* 
 
 " It remains to be seen whether our country will 
 stand upon independent ground, or be directed in its 
 23olitical concerns hy any other nation. A little time 
 will show who are its true friends, or, what is synon- 
 ymous, who are true Americans ; those who are stimu- 
 lating a foreign nation to unfriendly acts, repugnant to 
 our rights and dignity, and advocating all its measures, 
 or those whose only aim has been to maintain a strict 
 neutrality, to keep the United States out of the vortex 
 of European politics, and to preserve them in peace."f 
 " On the politics of Europe, I shall express no opinion, 
 nor make any inquiry who is right or who is wrong. 
 I wish well to all nations and to all men. My politics 
 are plain and simple. I think every nation has a 
 right to establish that form of government under 
 which it conceives it may live most happy, provided 
 it infracts no right, or is not dangerous to others ; and 
 that no governments ought to interfere with the internal 
 
 * To William Heath, May 20, 1797. 
 t To Thomas Pinckney, May 28, 1797. 
 
26 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 concerns of another, except for the security of what 
 is due to themselves."* 
 
 If these sentiments are not intelligible to the 
 American people without an elaborate commentary, 
 we are certainly below the average mental capacity 
 of the human family. The simple truth is, Wash- 
 ington has expressed himself on this subject with 
 such explicitness, such earnestness, such deep solem- 
 nity, even, that it requires a very high degree of 
 assurance for any man to attempt to obscure or per- 
 vert the clear and emphatic import of his words. 
 
 The plea, that he enjoins "neutrality" merely as 
 between belligerent nations, but " does not even re- 
 commend non-interference,"f is the subterfuge of an 
 advocate, not the fair and manly construction of a 
 candid inquirer after truth. If he does not, in the 
 passages just quoted, recommend to his countrymen 
 non-interference in the concerns of other nations, 
 then that idea cannot be embodied in language. And 
 besides, the argument is from the greater to the less. 
 If he protests against interference where nations are 
 at war, much more does he protest against the adop- 
 tion of any rule by which we shall bind ourselves to 
 interfere wherever one nation has seen fit to meddle 
 with the affairs of another. In the former case, we 
 should ordinarily have but one war on our hands at 
 a time ; in the latter, we should rarely, if ever, be 
 out of war, and might easily have several wars to 
 
 * To General Lafayette, Dec. 25, 1798. 
 
 t Kossutli's Speech at the Corporation Banr^uet iu New York. 
 
OF INTERVENTION". 27 
 
 manage at once. For this notion of playing High 
 Sheriff among the nations, however flattering to our 
 vanity, -would be found rather troublesome in the ex- 
 ecution. There is no great extravagance in presum- 
 ing that they might sometimes prove refractory; and 
 if they should, what would remain for us but cannon 
 and bayonets ? — But for the gravity of the subject, 
 it would be positively ludicrous to hear the name of 
 Washington invoked as sanctioning a doctrine legiti- 
 mately leading to results like these. 
 
 Allowing, however, that the country has correctly 
 interpreted his counsels, they were only of " tempo- 
 rary application." His policy was very well for our 
 childhood, but it should be consigned to the Museums 
 now, with the old revolutionary guns and uniforms. 
 We are " too great a people" to isolate ourselves from 
 the rest of the world, like the Japanese. Our voice 
 should be heard, and our power felt, in adjusting the 
 quarrels and shaping the destinies of the nations. 
 
 Such are the syren strains with which both foreign 
 and domestic orators are essaying to emancipate us 
 from the servitude imposed on us by the Founders of 
 the Republic, and ratified by every administration 
 from President Washington's to President Fillmore's. 
 That the relations and duties of nations may change 
 with their growth, no one will deny. But it is for 
 the advocates of the new scheme to show that the 
 policy prescribed by our fathers is not as well suited 
 to our manhood as it was to our infancy. We are 
 "a great nation :" not quite so great as some politicians 
 
28 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 would have the people believe, but still, "a great 
 nation." And what has made us one? An inflexible 
 adherence, under God, to the principles we are now 
 asked to discard. We are what we are, because 
 "keeping out of the vortex of European politics,"* 
 "avoiding all entangling alliances,"f and "abstaining 
 from any intervention in the affairs of other govern- 
 ments, as contrary to our principles of national 
 policy,"^ we have minded our own business, taken 
 care of our own interests, and applied ourselves, with 
 an humble and grateful dependence on the Giver of 
 all good, to the development and culture of those re- 
 sources, physical, intellectual, and moral, which the 
 munificence of the Creator has bestowed upon us with 
 an unexampled prodigality. The auspicious results 
 of this policy are before the world. They are the 
 constant theme of our gratitude to God. They are 
 no less the theme of eloquent eulogy with the Hun- 
 garian chief and his American coadjutors, who in one 
 breath laud our present position to the skies, and in 
 the next exhort us to quit the broad thoroughfare 
 which has conducted us to it, for intricate and tangled 
 by-paths which no nation ever yet attempted without 
 being seriously damaged, if not ruined. If they ex- 
 pect us to heed their counsel, to sacrifice all our na- 
 tional traditions, and embark on the stormy sea of 
 European politics, let them show some solid reasons 
 for it. This inflated declamation about our grandeur 
 
 * Washington. f Jefferson. X Jackson. 
 
OF IXTERVEXTION". 29 
 
 and our prowess is nothing to the purpose, unless they 
 can set aside the maxims of Washington and his suc- 
 cessors respecting the principles which should control 
 our foreign policy. Let them prove, if they can, that 
 Europe has ceased to have her own "primary in- 
 terests," and her own "controversies," and that, "in 
 extending our commercial relations, therefore, we 
 should have as little ]political connection with her as 
 possible." Let them show that, in virtue of our rapid 
 advancement in the scale of nations, the time has 
 come when we should "quit our own to stand upon 
 foreign ground, and entangle our peace and prosperity 
 in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
 humor, or caprice." In a word, let them demonstrate 
 that it is not as much our wisdom and our duty now 
 as it was in '95 and '98, to "keep the United States 
 free from political connections with every other 
 country;" to "maintain friendly terms with, but be 
 independent of, all the nations of the earth; to share 
 in the broils of none; to fulfil our own engagements; 
 to supply the w^ants and be carriers for them all;" 
 and not, by becoming the partisans of particular na- 
 tions or cabinets, to "create dissensions, disturb the 
 public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps forever, the 
 cement which binds the Union." They have hitherto 
 found it much easier to evade the real question at 
 issue, than to show that these maxims were of mere 
 temporary efficacy. Why, since the alternative has 
 come to be, KOSSUTH or WASHINGTON, do they 
 not grapple with the sul>ject, and show that Washing- 
 
30 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 ton's writings are only a horn-book for a people in 
 leading-strings; and that, now we are out of the 
 nursery, we must emulate the wisdom of the Hebrews, 
 who, after Moses had led them safely across the sea, 
 were for discarding him, to set up some extemporane- 
 ous captain of their own choosing ? In the absence 
 of any such frank and courageous dealing with the 
 teachings of Washington, various considerations are 
 brought forward in support of the new policy. 
 
 We have been admonished by the able and accom- 
 plished inventor of the scheme, that self-preservation 
 requires our acceptance of it. The despots of Europe 
 will not be satisfied with suppressing the free nation- 
 alities contiguous to them. Having effected this end, 
 they will turn their attention to the United States. 
 "And if (so he has told us) you do not take the 
 positicm I humbly claim, you will have to fight a war 
 single-handed, within less than five years, against 
 Russia and all Europe.'"'' '• Remember — you will 
 have to fight, surrounded by enemies, weakened by 
 discord, standing forsaken, single-handed, alone, 
 against the whole world.''-]- 
 
 And so, in the same strain, " Professor Kiukel," at 
 Louisville : If you suffer Germany to fall, '' the united 
 fleets of Europe will prevent your trade, and block up 
 the ways of communication between our shores — no 
 emigrant will ])e allowed to come to you to strengthen 
 ^•our [)()\\('r ; and, if you will live, then 30U, a jDCople 
 
 * At Pittsburg. t At Cincinnuti. 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 31 
 
 of twenty-four millions, will have to fight against two 
 hundred millions of Europeans." 
 
 This is sufhciently startling, or would be, if either 
 Kossuth or Kinkel bore the credentials of a prophet- 
 It is not, however, without a parallel in our history. 
 Precisely the same argument was used by Citizen Ge- 
 net, the obnoxious Minister of the French Directory, in 
 his incendiary efforts to embroil us in a war with Eng- 
 land in '93. In a letter from Henry Lee to General 
 Washington, written in June of that year, he says, 
 in describing an interview with Genet : " He seemed 
 to acquiesce in my reasoning, but insinuated that, 
 in case the royal government was re-established in 
 France, the kings of Europe would combine to destroy 
 liberty here, and that our existence as a nation de- 
 pended on the success of the Republican system (in 
 France)." This proj)hecy shared the common fate 
 of uninspired vaticinations. It remains to be seen 
 whether a second edition of it will fare any better. 
 Let the morrow take thought for the things of itself 
 We must look after the duties of to-day. It will be 
 hard to convince a " calculating" people like our coun- 
 trymen, that it is one of these duties to go to war 
 with Russia, lest we may, at the end of a single lus- 
 trum, have to fight the whole w^orld. 
 
 But the consideration which is pressed with the 
 most vehemence, not only by our distinguished visi- 
 tor, but at popular meetings and on the floor of Con- 
 gress, is, that it does not become such a power as the 
 United States to be indifferent to the struggles of 
 
32 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 other nations laboring to achieve their independence. 
 The charge imphed in this language has already been 
 repelled. It is simply untrue. It proceeds upon the 
 assumption that there is only one method in which 
 we can display our sympathy in the progress of 
 liberty abroad, and that to decline the scheme of in- 
 tervention, is equivalent to doing nothing. 
 
 It is difficult to believe that this is urged with sin- 
 cerity; for there is not an intelligent boy amongst us, 
 who does not know that the influence of our institu- 
 tions is felt throughout tlie civilized world. Instead 
 of doing nothing for the cause of freedom, we have 
 done more during the present century than all other 
 earthly agencies combined. The question now to be 
 settled, is, whether we shall adhere to a policy which 
 has been attended with such resplendent advantages 
 to mankind, or launch forth upon a career of experi- 
 ment which must imperil our own capacities of useful- 
 ness and obstruct the emancipation of other nations. 
 
 To some minds, that conservation of our own insti- 
 tutions, which has given us so rare a power to do 
 good, seems quite too tame an object to engross the 
 ambition of a " great republic." We have reached a 
 point where we can safely bestow a moiety of the care 
 hitherto demanded by our own aftkirs, upon the con- 
 cerns of other nations. The exigencies of a mixed 
 population of twenty-three millions, spread over twen- 
 ty-one degrees of latitude, and fifty-four degrees of 
 longitude, with every variety of climate and produc 
 tion, a maritime and inland frontier of several thou- 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 33 
 
 sand miles in extent, a commerce which whitens every 
 sea, conflicting sectional jealousies, violent political 
 contests, a most delicate combination of Federal and 
 State relations, and accumulating masses of ignorance, 
 lawlessness, and semi-barbarism, can all be provided 
 for, and still leave us free to assume the protectorate 
 of human rights and the executive of international 
 law, for the rest of the world. Could national vanity 
 or national infatuation go further ? One hundred and 
 fifty years ago, a classic poet of England celebrated 
 lier mission in these characteristic lines : — 
 
 " 'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate, 
 And hold in balance each contending State ; 
 To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war, 
 And answer her afflicted neighbor's prayer." 
 
 This is the identical mission which is now chal- 
 lenged for us ; the only difference being that, instead 
 of having it propounded in graceful poetry, it is com- 
 mended to us in very thrilling prose. If we are readj^ 
 to take the post, there is no' fear but that England 
 will resign it to us; for, when these verses were writ- 
 ten, her public debt was sixteen millions of pounds 
 sterling, and now it is about eight hundred millions. 
 The greater part of this enormous sum has gone in 
 carrying out her self-assumed vocation of maintaining 
 the balance of power and redressing her neighbors 
 grievances. It may be well to ponder these figures, 
 before we offer to relieve her of her police-duties. 
 
 For, if we become the sponsors of the Kossuth 
 principle, " Intervention to prevent intervention," how 
 3 
 
34 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 is it possible to avoid war? He has himself conceded 
 the point. In his address to the New York Bar, he 
 spoke as follows : — 
 
 " Yes, gentlemen, I confess, should Russia not re- 
 spect such a declaration of your country, then you 
 are obliged, literally obliged, to go to war, or else be 
 prepared to be degraded before mankind from your 
 dignity. Yes, I confess that would be the case. But 
 you are powerful enough to defy any powder on earth 
 in a just cause, as your Washington said; so may God 
 help me, as it is true, that never was there yet a more 
 just cause. There was enough of war on the earth 
 for ambition, or egotistical interests even for womanly 
 whims, to give to humanity the glorious example of a 
 great people going even to war, not for egotistical in- 
 terest, but for justice of the law^ of nations, for the 
 law of nature and of nature's God, and it will be no 
 <2;reat mischief after all. Protect them, defend them 
 ever, if thou hast to go to war for it ! That will be 
 a holier war than ever . yet was, and the blessing of 
 God will be with thee. And yet, if the question of 
 war is to be considered, not from the view of right, 
 duty, and law, wdiicli still, in my opinion, is a decisive 
 (jne ; but, from the view of mere policy, then I believe 
 that you must not shrink back from the mere word 
 • war.' There is no harm in the mere empty word ; 
 three little letters, very innocent, that's all !" 
 
 It is not for others to reconcile with this passage, 
 the conviction he expressed in connection with it, that 
 the course he recommended would not lead to a Rus- 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 35 
 
 slan war. None but a novice in political affairs can, 
 for a moment, believe that we could attempt to en- 
 force his doctrine, without going to war. It is pre- 
 posterous to suppose that Russia or Austria, or any 
 European State, would submit to dictation from us. 
 And the advocates of the new dogma would manifest 
 more respect for the intelligence of the country, by a 
 candid admission of the truth on this point. Had 
 Kossuth seen fit to pursue a different course, simply 
 to plead the cause of his oppressed race, and solicit 
 help for them, he would have had the whole country 
 at his feet, and " material aid" would have flowed in 
 upon him, not, as now, in driblets, but in a generous 
 flood. But he sadly mistook his mission. Under a 
 most mischievous bias, confirmed if not communicated 
 by certain inflammatory speeches from Americans 
 abroad, he came here, as a second Peter the Hermit, 
 to preach up a crusade against all absolute govern- 
 ments, and against Russia in particular. He has tra- 
 versed the country to get up a public sentiment which 
 shall coerce the government into the adoption of his 
 plans. He is exerting his utmost abilities to brino- us 
 into a position utterly alien from all our traditions, 
 and which could not fail to supply the European pow- 
 ers with ample pretexts for intermeddling in our af- 
 fairs. In a word, if he could succeed in his object, the 
 actual result would be to convert us into a great mili- 
 tary nation, with whatever that might entail of ambi- 
 tion, vice, fiiction, wars, suffering, public debt, finan- 
 cial disasters, and the endless train of calamities and 
 
36 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 crimes inseparable from an aggressive policy. It is 
 too much to expect that we should bear all this in 
 silence. Neither the wrongs of Hungary, nor the du- 
 ties of hospitality, forbid our protesting in the most 
 emphatic terms against this ungrateful abuse of our 
 kindness. When we want advice as to the manage- 
 ment of our affairs, we will seek it ; and we must re- 
 serve the right of choosing our counsellors. The in- 
 dehcacy of this interference finds no mitigation either 
 in the indulgence with which it has been treated, or 
 in our past relations with Hungary. In the manner 
 of it there is nothing to commend, everything to cen- 
 sure. The conduct of our foreign affliirs belongs to 
 the government, not to the people in mass meetings. 
 If he had a diplomatic measure to propose, it was per- 
 fectly competent to him to submit it to the existing 
 administration, and they must have disposed of it on 
 their responsibihty to God and the country. But, 
 knowing that this would be fatal to his chimerical 
 project, and presuming on the fertile resources of his 
 oratory, he ignores the functions of the government, 
 and brings his suit before an unauthorized and irre- 
 sponsible tribunal. He has even gone so far on a re- 
 cent occasion as to use language like this : — 
 
 " My second reason for forming these associations, 
 is, that the cheers of the i^eople are not recorded in 
 Washington city ; but when I can show the records 
 of these associations ; when they have joined together 
 and act in unison ; when they consist of hundreds of 
 thousands, perhaps millions of people; when out of 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 37 
 
 the small drops of individual sympathy a vast ocean 
 has been formed, then, indeed, though their cheers 
 may not be weighed, their names and influence will 
 be."* 
 
 I will not trust myself to comment on this extra- 
 ordinary language, beyond a single observation. 
 What must be the capacity of a nation for free insti- 
 tutions, the ostensible head of which can permit him- 
 self to prostitute the sympathy and confidence of a 
 great people to the purpose of arraying that people 
 against their government, and that on a most delicate 
 and complex question originated by himself, and on 
 his application ahne demanding an answer ? This 
 question may do the Hungarians injustice, but it is 
 impossible to repress the unwelcome apprehensions 
 awakened by observing how ill their late governor 
 seems to understand the reciprocal relations of a free 
 government and its citizens. 
 
 It is, unhappily, true that numerous convocations 
 have voted their adhesion to the new doctrine, and, 
 in some instances, their desire to have our govern- 
 ment enforce it at all htizards. It is this circum- 
 stance which gives the movement its importance, and 
 justifies even the pulpit in resisting it. The Chris- 
 tian ministry is appointed to look after the interests 
 of morality and religion. Nothing is so disastrous to 
 these interests as war, and if we are ever called upon 
 to co-operate with our fellow-citizens in averting this 
 terrible calamity, we are warranted in doing it, when 
 
 * Speech at Salem, Ohio- 
 
38 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 a zealous apostle of war is stealing the hearts of the 
 nation, and working them up to a crusade, the folly 
 of which has no parallel since Western Europe poured 
 itself in a mighty avalanche upon Palestine for the 
 recovery of the holy sepulchre. And there is the 
 more reason why sober-minded men of all professions 
 should frown upon this agitation, because there is so 
 much material in the country which can by skilful 
 management be made subservient to it. 
 
 It has, for example, even been used as an argument 
 in favor of the scheme, that we have a very large body 
 of foreigners amongst us who must feel a deep inte- 
 rest in the spread of liberal principles abroad. This 
 reference is to the Germans, Poles, and others from 
 continental Euroj)e, many of whom have been driven 
 here by political convulsions. Among them, unfor- 
 tunately, there is a large sprinkling of the wildest 
 radicals — demagogues in politics and atheists in reli- 
 gion. 
 
 It is said that there are about one hundred German 
 newspapers in the United States, nearly all af which 
 belong to the socialist school, and advocate the worst 
 doctrines of the socialist creed. Some of these men, 
 almost before .they can speak our language, are plot- 
 ting the subversion of the very institutions which 
 have afforded them a refuge from oppression, possibly 
 a shelter from the galloAvs. One of their associations 
 in Richmond, a few months since, published a pro- 
 gramme comprising the heads of " Reform" the}' mean 
 to aim at. The following is a sample : — 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 39 
 
 "We demand the abolition of the presidency; the 
 abolition of the senate, so that the legislature shall 
 consist of only one branch ; the right of the people to 
 dismiss their representatives at their pleasure; all 
 lawsuits to be conducted without expense; the abo- 
 lition of all neutrality; intervention in favor of every 
 people struggling for liberty ; abolition of laws for the 
 observance of the Sabbath; abolition of prayers in 
 congress; abolition of oath upon the Bible; abolition 
 of land monopoly; taking possession of the railroads 
 by the state; abolition of the Christian system of 
 punishment, and introduction of the human ameliora- 
 tion system; abolition of capital punishment." 
 
 The association which put forth this platform " has 
 its ramifications with similar societies in all parts of 
 the Union, and they pledge themselves to work 
 unitedly to accomplish these objects." 
 
 It would be very unjust to the Hungarian leader 
 to connect his name with these nefarious proceedings. 
 In the speeches he delivered in England, he dis- 
 claimed all sympathy with socialism, politically or 
 religiously, and is entitled to the full benefit of those 
 disclaimers. But when we are urged to adopt his 
 favorite principle respecting intervention, as an act of 
 justice to the Europeans who live amongst us, it is 
 quite pertinent to bring forward the disorganizing 
 radicalism of these associations in bar of the argument. 
 They reveal the remarkable fact that we have, in the 
 very heart of our population, a disciplined band of 
 revolutionists. We have been accustomed to think 
 
40 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 that our system, whatever else might happen to it, 
 was beyond the reach of revolution; that its fundar 
 mental principles, which are as little affected by the 
 common agitations of party as the rocky bed of the 
 ocean by the fluctuations of the waves, could never 
 be called in question. But it seems, in the judgment 
 of these alien anarchists, nothing is settled. The 
 whole ship must be dismantled, her very hull broken 
 up, and everything, from keel to royal-mast, rebuilt. 
 This is what they modestly call " Reform," but what, 
 if it has its proper name, can only be styled Destruc- 
 tion. To reason with such men is, of course, not to 
 be thought of To entrust them with political power 
 would be suicidal. They affiliate irresistibly with 
 discontent and turbulence. Like the stormy-petrel, 
 the tempest is their proper element. They hate our 
 prudence in shunning foreign alliances. Everything 
 that looks towards an interference with the aff'airs of 
 Europe will have their staunch advocacy. They may 
 not like the Hungarian's character, but they will 
 relish his project, and would relish it still more if they 
 could infuse more radicalism into it. If we are not 
 dragged into the first war that occurs across the water, 
 it will not be their fault. Do we well to countenance 
 a scheme which would find in men of this stamp its 
 readiest supporters, and which they would be certain 
 to use to our detriment and that of other nations ? 
 
 Then, again, there is the vainglorious spirit which 
 has diffused its vicious leaven through our whole 
 national character, and which all politicians, foreign 
 
OF INTERYENTION. 41 
 
 and domestic, can play upon so skilfully. This is, by 
 eminence, the lever which Kossuth has wielded with 
 such signal effect, from his speech at Staten Island to 
 his last speech in Ohio — nay, which he began to ply 
 before he left England. It is the fuze he keeps always 
 lighted; and whether he has before him the Bar or 
 the populace, the women or the children, our grave 
 legislators or still graver divines, he thrusts in the 
 match, and is sure to find tinder. No people could 
 be more conscious of the grandeur of their position 
 than we are. True to our lineage, we never lapse 
 into the weakness of disparaging our resources and 
 achievements. What we have done is considerable, 
 but it is nothing to what we can do and mean to do. 
 Having subdued this continent, we are now, if we 
 may trust our popular orators, to set about the re- 
 generation of Europe. Europe, it is true, has felt our 
 influence, and is feeling it through ten thousand un- 
 obtrusive channels. But these processes are too slow 
 for this magnificent nineteenth century, and this still 
 more magnificent country. We are called to more 
 summary action. Twenty millions of American free- 
 men are surely equal to two hundred and thirty mil- 
 lions of Europeans, and are bound to see that their 
 sovereigns treat them well and help them on, as fast 
 as possible, towards republican institutions. This is 
 our mission. We have coasted along the shore long 
 enough; a richer harvest than that which tempted 
 Columbus invites us, and we must turn our prows to 
 the ocean. Henceforth our government becomes a 
 
42 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 grand Collegium de proixiganda libertate, and we go 
 on to our destiny as the renovators of the w^orld ! 
 
 Is it not humihating that, with multitudes of our 
 countr^Tnen, badinage hke this should be sober prose ? 
 Yet so it is : for it is precisely this material which 
 forms the warp and woof of the most effective speeches, 
 whenever our relations with the old world come under 
 discussion. And it is the prevalence of this spirit, so 
 capable of being wrought upon for evil, wdiich should 
 put the conservatism of the country upon an organ- 
 ized and resolute resistance to the visionary scheme 
 we are combating. 
 
 The manifest absurdity of this scheme, and its ruin- 
 ous tendency, in the naked form of " intervention to 
 prevent intervention," have led to the preparation of 
 a substitute. It is proposed simply to notify the 
 cabinets of the world, that we shall regard any inter- 
 ference by one nation in the domestic concerns of 
 another, as a breach of international law^ — ^leaving it 
 to be decided as cases arise, wdiether to follow this 
 declaration by protest, by an appeal to arms, or by 
 nothing at all. 
 
 This question I am not called upon to discuss. 
 But there are two observations which may be made 
 upon it. The first is, that nations cannot play at 
 mock-fighting. In the lexicography of diplomatists, 
 names are things. Protocols and protests do not 
 necessarily involve more stringent measures. But a 
 cabinet which is jealous of its dignity, will be chary 
 
OF INTERYENTION. 43 
 
 of its menaces. It is as dangerous for prime minis- 
 ters as it is for children to play with edge-tools. 
 
 The other observation is, that all demonstrations of 
 the kind referred to on the part of a great power, con- 
 vey to oppressed nations an assurance of something 
 more than naked sympathy. Their tendency is to en- 
 courage such nations to revolt. How far this may be 
 proper in any given case, is not now the question. 
 But common humanity, not to speak of justice, is 
 outraged, when a cabinet stimvdates a people to strike 
 for their freedom, and then denies them the succors 
 they had on fair moral grounds, if not by formal 
 stipulation, been warranted to expect. 
 
 It is not denied, however, that cases may arise in 
 which intervention in this form, and even with some- 
 thing more significant than parchment manifestoes, 
 would be both our right and our duty. If the United 
 States occupied the territory which constitutes the 
 domain of Turkey, or that of Prussia, the very case 
 which has occasioned the present crusade might have 
 proved one of this description. The question then 
 would have been, whether the law of self-protection 
 did not require us to repel, by whatever means, the 
 barbarous assault of Russia upon the liberties of 
 Hungary. Situated as we are, our abstract right to 
 interpose, should the same emergency occur a second 
 time, may be conceded. But will any sane man con- 
 tend that the possession of a right carries with it an 
 obligation to the constant exercise of that right ? Let 
 this principle be adopted in the administration of our 
 
 A 
 
44 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 foreign affairs ; that, wherever we have the right, we 
 are bound to interfere to prevent interference ; and it 
 needs no prophet to foretell that it would be to us 
 " the great Serbonian bog betwixt Damiata and Mount 
 Casius, where armies whole have sunk." Besides, an 
 abstract political right may be so exercised as to in- 
 volve a moral wrong. Before we can be justified in 
 arraigning another state for its misdeeds, a fair pre- 
 sumption must be made out, that the effort will do 
 more good than harm. " The power inadequate to 
 all other things, is often more than sufficient to do 
 mischief"* And the advocates of the scheme now 
 before the country, will have to tax their ingenuity to 
 show that any interference of ours between Hungary 
 and Russia, would not turn out to be simply " a power 
 to do mischief" There are individuals among them — 
 men not apt to be carried away by dreams and visions 
 — who believe that this measure would be highly bene- 
 ficial to Hungary. But even if this could be estal> 
 lished, it would remain to be proved, that the ultimate 
 consequences would not be most disastrous to our- 
 selves, and to the general amelioration of mankind. 
 It is too evident to admit of debate (the iteration of 
 the sentiment may be excused), that we owe the 
 elevated position we have attained among the nations, 
 in no small measure, to the policy we have pursued 
 with inflexible rigor, of standing aloof from their 
 quarrels, and having as little political connection with 
 tliem as possible. Is this a time to abandon a policy 
 
 * Burke. 
 
OF INTERVENTION". 45 
 
 which has, under God, consolidated our institutions, 
 developed our resources, spread over our vast territory 
 the symbols and appliances of peace and plenty, intel- 
 ligence and virtue, poured into our lap the riches of 
 every clime, secured us the respect of every people 
 and cabinet, and made our name, not merely a talis- 
 man of hope, but a tower of strength, to the oppressed 
 and the injured of all lands? When in answer to 
 this, hereditary vanity or foreign adulation cites these 
 very facts as a reason for repudiating the maxims of 
 our fathers, does not history counsel us against hsten- 
 ing to their seducing sophistries ? Do not the moss- 
 covered ruins of gorgeous cities and the mausoleums 
 of empires, scattered all along the track of time, warn 
 us with an eloquence surpassing all human oratory 
 against exchanging the steady, vigilant care of our 
 own interests, for an ambitious intermeddling in the 
 concerns of other nations? That those nations are 
 brought so much nearer to us than formerly, so far 
 from strengthening the adverse argument, is an addi- 
 tional reason why we should not cultivate too great 
 an intimacy with them. Just in proportion as the 
 Atlantic is narrowed to a " ferry," shall we be swept 
 towards that dangerous " vortex" of which Washington 
 admonished us. The currents which bear us in that 
 direction will steadily increase in volume and velocity. 
 Setting aside the augmenting influence of commerce 
 and travel, the annual transfer of three or four hun- 
 dred thousand Europeans to our soil, will foster the 
 disposition already too apparent here, to interfere in 
 
46 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 the politics of that continent. Appeals for interven- 
 tion are already multiplying. Before the ink was 
 fairly dry which recorded in the official journals the 
 reception of Kossuth by Congress, the honors paid him 
 were urged before the Senate as a " precedent" for our 
 " intervening" with another cabinet in a case of alleged 
 oppression, and petitions were presented for an act of 
 mediation with still a third sovereign, in behalf of 
 certain of his aggrieved subjects. Once fairly inaugu- 
 rated, this policy will mature as rapidly as Jonah's 
 gourd; though not, perhaps, to wither so soon. We 
 shall need, if not a new department at Washington, 
 at least a new bureau, to conduct our " Intervention 
 account" with foreign governments ; and those govern- 
 ments, not to be backward in reciprocating such 
 favors, will see that our Congressional debates are 
 enlivened by the frequent introduction of proposals to 
 assist us in managing our private affairs. Possibly 
 this system might average better results to the great 
 family of nations. The Austrians, and the Chinese, 
 and some others, might breathe more freely under a 
 sovereignty shared by our President; but it is not 
 quite so clear that we should be among the gainers. 
 And as this is a point of some little moment to us, it 
 may be well for our legislators to look into it before 
 they adopt the new code. 
 
 The tone of these remarks may not accord with the 
 exceeding gravity of the subject. For who can con- 
 template the condition of Europe, without shuddering 
 to think of the consequences which must follow, if, at 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 47 
 
 such a crisis, we go forth under the impulse of a gener- 
 ous but illusive knight-errantry, to implicate ourselves 
 in her conflicts ? There is a graphic passage in one 
 of Washington's letters,* so applicable to the present 
 juncture, that it might seem to have been written for 
 the occasion. 
 
 " With respect to the nations of Europe, their situa- 
 tion appears so awful, that nothing short of Omnipo- 
 tence can predict the issue; although every human 
 mind must feel for the miseries it endures. Our course 
 is plain ; they who run may read it. Theirs is so be- 
 wildered and dark, so entangled and embarrassed, and 
 so obviously under the influence of intrigue, that one 
 would suppose, if anything could open the eyes of our 
 misled citizens, that the deplorable situation of those 
 people could not fail to effect it." 
 
 What is their condition now but that of a boiling 
 caldron? There is no one sentiment in which men 
 of all ranks and professions, of all creeds and parties, 
 on both sides of the Atlantic, are more thoroughly 
 agreed, than that Europe is on the eve of a general 
 war. This is one of the favorite common-places of the 
 Magyar. He dilates upon it in every speech. He 
 depicts it prophetically as the grand contest which is 
 to decide the fate of the nations. He declares that the 
 struggle has already begun, in the late usurpation in 
 France ; and professes to be expecting letters by every 
 steamer, recalling him to take his proper post in con- 
 ducting it. And yet, in the same breath in which he 
 
 * To Oliver Wolcott, May 29, 1797. 
 
48 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 delineates the terrific scenes of this exterminating war, 
 he calls upon us, "raising our gigantic arm in a com- 
 manding attitude, to speak these words to the Russian 
 Bear, ^Keep back!' and to the Czar, * Hands off!'"* 
 Does the man think we are demented? Can he ima- 
 gine that the cheers which these inflammatory appeals 
 elicit from masses crazed by the sorcery of his elo- 
 quence, indicate the sober convictions of the people of 
 the United States ? Does his ff\miliarity with history 
 supply him with a solitary example of national folly 
 and insanity at all comparable to that which this na- 
 tion would present, should we accede to his counsel ? 
 Or can he cite a single other instance in which an ex- 
 patriated stranger, the guest of a great and prosperous 
 people, has presumed to offer himself to that people 
 as the expositor of their foreign policy, in place of 
 one who had earned, by every tie which wisdom, virtue, 
 patriotism, magnanimity, and a long life of disin- 
 terested and arduous service in the field and the cabi- 
 net could confer, a title to that most venerable name, 
 the " Father of his country ?" 
 
 And with what view, after all, are we asked to 
 commit our bark, freighted as it is with the best 
 hopes of humanity, to this treacherous sea, at the 
 moment when earth and heaven are blackening and 
 quaking with the approaching hurricane ? Why, since 
 the storm must come, and a whole continent is to reel 
 under its Titanic convulsions, and so many ancient 
 and massive structures are to be shattered to pieces, 
 
 * Speech in Baltimore. 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 49 
 
 why should we, of dehberation and choice, rush into 
 the turmoil and invite its fury ? The only repl}' to 
 these questions, is the following : " The freedom of the 
 nations is confided to your custody, and fidelity to 
 your trust demands of you this sacrifice." The answer 
 is worthy of the reasoning which suggests it ; most 
 unworthy of the sacred cause it is designed to subserve. 
 Not to note the subtle appeal it makes to our vanity, 
 it proceeds upon the pernicious fallacy, that mere 
 political liberty — the enfranchisement of the masses 
 and an equality of civil rights — comprises all the ele- 
 ments of national stability and happiness; and hence, 
 that republican institutions can be propagated by 
 diplomacy or the sword. A more Utopian heresy in 
 politics was never propounded. It has its ecclesiasti- 
 cal prototype in the scheme of those zealous princes 
 of the seventh and eighth centuries, who putthemselves 
 at the head of their regiments and dragooned whole 
 tribes of savages into the Church, Treading in the 
 steps of these warlike evangelists, there is a modern 
 school of political reformers, whose prime conception 
 of freedom, is, that it consists in democratic charters 
 and usages ; and that, wherever these can be estab- 
 lished, a nation is put on the high road to prosperity 
 and renown. As reasonable to argue that the true 
 way to insure order in our public schools, would be 
 to convert them into pure democracies by deposing 
 all the teachers and remitting their functions to the 
 ■posse comitaius. Nay, this is doing our boys injustice. 
 4 
 
50 TPIE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 For if there is a single school in which the pupils 
 would not display more capacity for self-government 
 than the French nation has done since the bloody 
 epoch of '93, the Board of Controllers should know 
 the reason. To go back but a very short time, four 
 years ago to a month (as the speaker can testify from 
 personal observation) " Liberty-trees" were planted 
 in Paris, and the other chief towns of the new-born 
 " Republic," amidst the pgeans of the populace and 
 with sacerdotal benisons. But they would not grow. 
 After the buds which were on them died, which they 
 did very soon, not one of them ever sprouted. And 
 within the last two months, for aught that appears to 
 the contrary, amidst the shouts of the same populace, 
 and with the benedictions of the same priests, they 
 have been chopped down and made into bonfires. It 
 was an idle experiment, on a par with the most ab- 
 surd of those which are recorded of amateur cultiva- 
 tors. You might as well plant the palmetto in Iceland, 
 or the Victoria Regia in the heart of Sahara, as '• Lib- 
 erty-trees" in a soil which has never been broken up 
 and mixed with the rich mould of Gospel-truth. The 
 tree of life was in the beginning placed side by side 
 with the tree of knowledge : and social reformers should 
 have learned before now, that what " God thus joined 
 together, man may not put asunder." In our soil, 
 they never have been "put asunder." From the 
 first settlement of the continent to the present hour, 
 we have gone upon the principle, that an ignorant 
 or a vicious people cannot be a free people. 
 
I 
 
 OF INTERVENTION. 51 
 
 Nor was it in this alone that the preparation of 
 the North American colonists, for libertj*, consisted. 
 They were no strangers either to the science of gov- 
 ernment or to the exercise of civil franchises. Their 
 protracted conflicts with the crown, and the peculiar 
 exigencies growing out of their separation into isolated 
 communities, each of which had to manage its own 
 affairs, had made them thoroughl}?^ conversant with 
 the principles of just administration. They came out 
 of the revolutionary war, therefore, trained to enjoy 
 and improve the independence their valor had won. 
 
 So also in England, the work of reform has been 
 gradual but progressive. From the memorable day 
 on which the barons wrested Magna Charta from the 
 perfidious John at Runnymede until now, the popular 
 element has been, on the whole, and with many tem- 
 porary reverses, gaining strength. Power is always 
 sensitive and tenacious ; and history presents no finer 
 study than the sublime contest which has been going 
 on in that country for several centuries, and of late 
 with increased energy, between prerogative and free- 
 dom — the crown and the aristocracy on the one hand, 
 and the people on the other. Nature supplies an apt 
 illustration of it, in the dash of the ocean against a 
 majestic cliff — assailing it from 3^ear to year with the 
 steady flux and reflux of the tide — now lashing it 
 with storms — and ever and anon gathering up its 
 mighty surges, and discharging them upon it with 
 a fury which makes it quiver to its topmost pinnacle. 
 
52 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 Particle by particle, crag by crag, the granite barrier 
 succumbs, and buries itself in the bosom of the waters. 
 And step by step — never without resistance — some- 
 times from conviction — often from policy — and still 
 oftener from fear — but still, step by step, power in 
 Great Britain has bowed to right; prerogative has put 
 off its purple, and come down reluctantly from its 
 throne, and diffused itself among the people. Earnest 
 patriots cannot brook this process. It is too tedious. 
 They would have everything at once. But Provi- 
 dence is wiser and kinder than they. For the result 
 has been, that in England the wheel of reform never 
 goes backward. Obliged to contest every inch of 
 ground, the people come to understand and to value 
 their rights ; and when they get them, they know 
 what to do with them. Their progress, though mod- 
 erate, is sure. If they are strangers to the ecstasy 
 their mercurial neighbors have sometimes felt in cele- 
 brating the apotheosis of Liberty, they are no less 
 strangers to their despondency and terror, on seeing 
 their adored idol trampled to death in a night by a 
 mob, or garoited by a military usurper. 
 
 It may not be necessary to fortify the position I am 
 maintaining, by further examples, but there are facts 
 of a very recent da/te Ijearing on this point, too in- 
 structive to be omitted. If these facts prove any- 
 thing, it is that the populations of the continent are 
 as yet without that training which woidd make our 
 t'reedom a blessing to them — that if we could, within 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 53 
 
 three months, reduplicate our institutions all over 
 Europe, in place of the existing monarchies, it would 
 require a standing army as large as our aggregate body 
 of militia to keejD them a-going for five years. The 
 year 1848, the most remarkable and pregnant year in 
 the chronicles of the other hemisphere for three centu- 
 ries, witnessed a general movement throughout Europe 
 towards the establishment of liberal institutions. In 
 France, the monarchy was thrown down by a single 
 popular outbreak, and a republic reared upon its 
 ruins. In Sicily, a constitution was promised, though 
 not actually framed, by the most savage tyrant who 
 disgraces a throne in Christendom. An insurrection 
 in Munich coerced a profligate king to abdicate his 
 crown. Another in Berlin extorted from the capri- 
 cious and incomprehensible king of Prussia most ex- 
 plicit stipulations touching the charter his subjects 
 demanded, and which he had violated his oath by 
 withholding. The minor German States adopted de- 
 cisive measures for reconstructing their long-lost unity 
 and nationality. The Austrians were driven out of 
 Milan, and a provisional government established in 
 Lombardy. Even Vienna was surrendered to the 
 people, and a constitution wrung from the reluctant 
 and autocratic emperor. While, in Italj^, the phenom- 
 enon was presented of a Pope, the professed friend 
 of popular rights and an avowed advocate of progress. 
 It was here, indeed, this grand movement commenced. 
 The way had been preparing under the pontificate of 
 
54 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 Gregory XVI. The only nation blessed with an in- 
 fallible ruler, was ruled so badly that their grievances 
 had become intolerable; and it was for Pius IX., on 
 his accession to the tiara, to choose between identify- 
 ing himself with the mass of his people, and mitigat- 
 ing tlieir burdens, or putting himself at the head of 
 the Jesuit party, with the certainty of encountering 
 a revolution. He decided for the former — not exclu- 
 sively, we must believe, from motives of policy, but 
 in obedience to the instincts of a heart not a stranger 
 to humane and benevolent sentiments. He saw, for 
 who in Italy could help seeing, that the people were 
 ground down under insufferable oppressions ; and he 
 resolved to ameliorate their condition. Addressing 
 himself with energy to the Augean task of removing 
 abuses, he set about reducing the taxes, abolishing 
 arbitrary imprisonments, regulating the administra- 
 tion of the finances, and promoting popular education. 
 He granted amnesties to political offenders ; an- 
 nounced his determination to found a representative 
 government ; and invited a congress of influential 
 laymen from the different States of the Church to 
 assist him in arranging the details of a constitution. 
 The Italians were in an ecstasy. The despots of 
 Europe in a frenzy. The people everywhere clamor- 
 ous in tlieir applause of the new Pontiff, and no-where 
 more so than among ourselves. Enormous mass meet- 
 ings were held in our cities, at which laudatory ad- 
 dresses to Plo Nono were adopted, and Protestants and 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 55 
 
 Romanists vied with each other in celebrating the 
 magnanimity of the "greatest Reformer of the age." 
 And what has been the issue of all these auspi- 
 cious demonstrations? What the meridian of the 
 day which dawned so brightly upon Europe, and gave 
 promise of a universal regeneration from the German 
 Ocean to the Mediterranean — from the Straits of Dover 
 to the Dardanelles ? In the language of the North Bri- 
 tish Review, with "scarcely an exception, everything 
 has fallen back into its old condition. In nearly 
 every state the old demon of despotism has returned, 
 bringing with it w^orse devils than itself. Hungary 
 and Hesse are crushed; Bavaria has been degraded 
 into the brutal tool of a more brutal tyrant; the 
 Prussian people are sullen, desponding, and disarmed, 
 and the Prussian government sunk into a terrible 
 abyss of degradation ; Austria has a new emperor, 
 more insolently despotic than any of his predecessors 
 for many a long year; and throughout Germany con- 
 stitutional liberty has been effectually trampled out. 
 In Italy, Venice and Lombardy have been recon- 
 quered, and are now experiencing the vw victis; Tus- 
 cany is worse because more Austrian than before, 
 and alarmed at the peril she has incurred ; the small 
 duchies are as bad as ever — they could not be worse ; 
 the Pope, terrified out of his benevolence and his pa- 
 triotism, having fled from the Vatican in disgrace, has 
 been restored by foreign arms, and the old ecclesiastical 
 abominations are reinstated in their old supremacy ; 
 
56 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 while Naples and Sicily are again prostrate at the 
 feet of the most imbecile and brutal of the incurable 
 race of Bourbons. Two short years have passed 
 away since Europe presented to the lover of liberty 
 and human progress the most smiling aspect it had 
 ever worn : and in this brief space of time, an inex- 
 orable destiny has gathered together all the far-reach- 
 ing anticipations, all the noble prospects, all the rapid 
 conquests, all the rich achievements of that memorable 
 era, and covered them over with these two narrow 
 words— Zfic jaxiet /" 
 
 Why are these melancholy events cited ? Not, cer- 
 tainly, to upbraid the patriots of the old world ; nor to 
 abate the indignation against their oppressors, which 
 must inflame every generous bosom. But they are 
 adduced to refute for the ten thousandth time, the ab- 
 surd theories so prevalent in Europe, and so often pro- 
 pounded even here, respecting the necessary conditions 
 of national freedom. If there are no journals now, 
 which carry the heading attached to that of Camille 
 Desmoulins : " There is no victim more agreeable to 
 the gods than an immolated king," and no orators to 
 maintain, that "the rights of the people can be written 
 only in the blood of kings," it must not be supposed 
 that this creed has become obsolete. It has its devo- 
 tees, its shrines, its 'propafjanda, and its purposes ; and 
 will have, so long as there are tyrants among j)rinces, 
 or anarchists among their subjects. And fjir more 
 numerous, more respectable, and more influential than 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 67 
 
 this band of regicides, is that heterogeneous body of 
 patriots, comprising all faiths and languages, who in- 
 sist that any nation can provide for itself which has 
 the reins put into its own hands. These are the par- 
 ties to be instructed, if that were possible, by the retro- 
 spect we have just taken, and by the facts drawn from 
 our annals and those of England. Without pretend- 
 ing to specify the various causes which occasioned the 
 disastrous results of the late European struggle, is not 
 the incompetency of the revolutionists to turn the 
 crisis to any hopeful account, too palpable to admit of 
 a question ? Is it not apparent, from the Avliole course 
 of events between the banishment of Louis Philippe 
 and the restoration of Pius IX., that the masses are 
 not yet fitted for complete emancipation ? In Robes- 
 pierre's last speech before that Convention whose ap- 
 petites he had so whetted with blood that they were 
 now thirsting for his own, a speech of which Sir 
 Walter Scott says, "it was as menacing as the first 
 distant rustle of the hurricane, and dark and lurid as 
 the eclipse which announces its approach," he ob- 
 served : " Do not let us deceive ourselves : to found an 
 immense republic upon the basis of reason and equality, 
 to unite in a strong band all the parties of this im- 
 mense empire, is not an enterprise which vanity can 
 consummate : it is the master-piece of virtue and hu- 
 man reason. Every faction grows from the bosom of 
 a great revolution — how suppress them, if you do not 
 submit all their passions to justice? You have not 
 
68 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 any other guarantee of liberty than the vigorous ob- 
 servance of the principles of the universal morality 
 which you have proclaimed. What signifies to us the 
 conquest of kings, if we are vanquished by the vices 
 which bring forth tyranny !"'^ Unhappily for himself 
 and for France, he woke up to the grandeur and dif- 
 ficulty of the task his associates and himself had un- 
 dertaken, only after the axe was suspended for his 
 liead, which had struck down so many of his victims. 
 Too late did he discover, that a liberal constitution 
 could not be kept alive in an atmosphere feculent with 
 vice and drugged with atheism. But it is something 
 to be able to cite just and weighty sentiments like 
 these, from the lips of the great high-priest of Jacob- 
 inism. If the patriots who imagine that a country 
 can be made free simply by driving the wheel of revo- 
 lution through it, will not hear Robespierre speaking 
 as from the scaffold, " neither would they be persuaded 
 though one rose from the dead." 
 
 But the argument supplied by our history and in- 
 stitutions, is far more comprehensive. The great thing 
 we have done for the world, has been, under Provi- 
 dence, to establish and maintain a Jicst, ivise, and tcell- 
 ordered government — in all essential particulars, a 
 "model" of what a government should be. This 
 was what Europe needed : not elaborate disquisitions 
 on the rights of man ; still less, a tumultuous crusade to 
 replace her despotisms with republican charters; but 
 
 * Lamartine's Girondists. 
 
OF LNTERYENTION-. 59 
 
 the stead}^, successful working, on a sufficiently ex- 
 tended scale, of a polity comprising the fundamental 
 principles of true civil liberty — a sj^stem embracing 
 the alleged incompatible elements of independence 
 and stability ; the supremacy of law and popular free- 
 dom ; the unfettered exertion of personal aspirations 
 in any and all departments of society, with the main- 
 tenance of order and the protection of private and 
 public rights. In meeting this demand, we have ren- 
 dered the old world an invaluable service, even in 
 the way of elucidating abstract principles. France, 
 Germany, Italy, all may learn here, if they will, why 
 we have succeeded, and they have not; and how hope- 
 less it is for them to expect to reach our ends, if they 
 scoff at our means. This Republic is a standing ref- 
 utation of their crude theories about human rights 
 and social progress, the spawn of the miserable igno- 
 rance and impiety which reign among them. It pours 
 contempt on the wretched quackery which, in a thou- 
 sand forms, essays to cure their maladies without the 
 aid of the Bi^j.e, or any recognition of the God of the 
 Bible. It is ^ demonstration which no sagacity can 
 subvert and no artifice elude, that " religion is the only 
 basis on which the broad development of freedom can 
 rest f'^ that the only adequate buttresses of free insti- 
 tutions are intelligence and virtue ; and that, to make a 
 people virtuous and intelligent, you must give them, 
 not treatises on Communism and Pantheism, not infi- 
 
 * Kossuth to the New York Clergy. 
 
60 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 del commentaries on the Scriptures, not monkish le- 
 gends and cathedral pantomimes, but the Gospel of 
 Christ. This has made us what we are; and this 
 alone can make them what they ought to be. There 
 are minds all over Europe beginning to perceive this, 
 and to understand that the first step towards assimi- 
 lating their institutions to ours, must be to secure for 
 themselves an open Bible and a pure faith. Should 
 a merciful Providence concede to them these priceless 
 gifts, the political regeneration of Europe, with all 
 other needful blessings, would soon follow in their 
 train. 
 
 In opposition, then, to all the schemes devised or 
 to be devised for embroiling us in the disputes of 
 the other continent, we maintain that the best thing 
 we can do for the world, the only method in which 
 we can fulfil the beneficent mission confided to us, is, 
 to preserve this Union inviolate. We hold it, let it 
 be remembered, not for our own interest or honor 
 merely, but as Trustees for mankind. It is ours to 
 administer, but not to dispose of; ours to enjoy and to 
 transmit, but not ours to destroy. Wb have no more 
 right to destroy it, than w^e should have, if such a 
 thing were possible, to blot the sun out of the firma- 
 ment. For the entire race have a stake in this 
 government. " Wherever you go, you find the United 
 States held up as an example by the advocates of 
 freedom. The mariner no more looks to his compass 
 or takes his departure by the sun, than does the lover 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 6 J 
 
 of liberty abroad shape his course by reference to the 
 Constitution of the United States."* 
 
 The recent course of events, in either hemisphere 
 has increased both the importance and the difficulty 
 of the task thus devolved on us. Fresh causes of 
 alienation, now happily repressed for a season, have 
 sprung up among ourselves; and the disasters which 
 have attended the popular movements abroad, are en- 
 larging our domestic burdens and threatening to com- 
 plicate our foreign relations. If, in the infancy of this 
 country, Europe could regard us with comparative 
 indifference, all indifference has vanished before our 
 early and vigorous manhood. The name of the 
 " United States" is mixed up with the intricate web 
 of European Diplomacy ; it gleams out in their state- 
 papers; it is a watchword in every popular insurrec- 
 tion. Cabinets no longer ignore the question : " What 
 course will the Government at Washington adopt ?" 
 The friends of liberty in every kingdom appeal to us 
 to aid them in their projects, and these appeals are 
 certain to be pressed by a large and powerful portion 
 of our own population. It will be well if, in these cri- 
 tical circumstances, the present generation are content 
 to tread in the steps of WASHINGTON; if, instead 
 of plunging into the wars of Europe, we display our 
 sympathy for liberty there by measures which will in 
 the end do far more to promote it. Let us foster the 
 growth of liberal principles among those nations, by 
 
 * Mr. Webster. 
 
62 THE NEW DOCTRINE 
 
 all such diplomatic arrangements as we can adopt 
 without compromising our settled policy of non-inter- 
 vention. Let our countrymen prosecute the benevo- 
 lent work of supplying them with the word of God ; 
 for they will never have rational and permanent 
 liberty until they get the Bible. Let us educate and 
 Christianize the masses they send to us, who not only 
 act upon us for good or evil, but re-act with energy upon 
 the countries they have left. And let us take care 
 OF OUR Union ; for this, in respect to constitutional 
 liberty, is the last hope of Europe and of the world. 
 A legion of adverse evils is arrayed against it. Igno- 
 rance, immorality, ambition, fanaticism, faction, law- 
 lessness, sectional animosities, to which, wdth the con- 
 dition of the other continent before us, may well 
 be added, atheism, and the insidious, grasping spirit 
 of the Papal Hierarchy — all are hostile to the Union, 
 and must be met and vanquished if we would pre- 
 serve it. With God's help, they can be vanquished. 
 We have intelligence, talent, piety, and patriotism 
 enough left to do this or anything else which may 
 require to be done for the sake of our beloved country. 
 Let all who really love the country, and desire to see 
 the Union transmitted in its glorious integrity to our 
 children, discharge their duty. Let the people be edu- 
 cated ; the Bible lodged in every house ; the Gospel 
 everywhere preached; the Sabbath and its ordinances 
 honored ; wise and upright men selected as our rulers; 
 the laws Aiith fully executed; God's universal provi- 
 
OF INTERVENTION. 63 
 
 deuce acknowledged, and his protection continually 
 invoked throughout our borders — and we may confi- 
 dently expect the perpetuity of our institutions. We 
 may look forward without presumption to a future as 
 brilliant as our past career has been illustrious. We 
 shall consummate with honor the sublime mission con- 
 fided to us for mankind, and achieve a yet more 
 signal fulfilment of the prophecy, "All nations 
 
 SHALL CALL YOU BLESSED !" 
 
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