part of the world to which they shall be able to procure the means of transportation.

"It is confidently hoped that the Sublime Porte has not made, and will not make, any new stipulation, with any power, for their further detention; and you are directed to address yourself urgently, though respectfully, to the Sublime Porte on this question.

"You will cause it to be strongly represented that while this Government has no desire or intention to interfere, in any manner, with questions of public policy, or international or municipal relations of other governments, not affecting the rights of its own citizens, and while it has entire confidence in the justice and magnanimity and dignity of the Sublime Porte, yet on a matter of such universal interest, it hopes that suggestions proceeding from no other motives than those of friendship and respect for the Porte, a desire for the continuance and perpetuity of its independence and dignified position among the nations of the earth, and a sentiment of commiseration for the Hungarian exiles, may be received by the Porte in the same friendly spirit in which they are offered, and that the growing good feeling and increasing intercourse between the two Governments may be still further fostered and extended, by a happy concurrence of opinion and reciprocity of confidence upon this as upon all other subjects. Compliance with the wishes of the Government and people of the United States in this respect will be regarded as a friendly recognition of their intercession, and as a proof of national good will and regard.

"The course which the Sublime Porte pursued in refusing to allow the Hungarian exiles to be seized upon its soil by the forces of a foreign state or to arrest and deliver them up itself to their pursuers was hailed with universal approbation, it might be said with gratitude, everywhere throughout the United States, and this sentiment was not the less strong because the demand upon the Sublime Porte was made by Governments confident in their great military power, with armies in the field of vast strength, flushed with recent victory, and whose purposes were not to be thwarted or their pursuit stayed by any obstacle less than the interposition of an empire prepared to maintain the inviolability of its territories and its absolute sovereignty over its own soil. "This Government, jealous of its own territorial rights, regarded with great respect and hearty approbation the firm and lofty position assumed by His Imperial Majesty at that time, and so proudly maintained under circumstances well calculated to inspire doubt, and against demands urged with such gravity and supported by so formidable an array. His Imperial Majesty felt that he should be no longer an inde pendent prince if he consented to be anything less than the sovereign of his own dominious.

"While thus regarding the political position and conduct of the Sublime Porte in reference to other powers, His Majesty's generosity in providing for the wants of the fugitives, thus unexpectedly and in so great

numbers throwing themselves upon his protection, is considered equally worthy of admiration.

"For their attempt at independence they have most dearly paid, and now, broken in fortune and in heart, without home or country, a band of exiles, whose only future is a tearful remembrance of the past, whose only request is to spend the remainder of their days in obscure industry, they await the permission of His Imperial Majesty to remove themselves, and all that may remain to them, across the ocean to the uncultivated regions of America, and leave forever a continent which to them has become more gloomy than the wilderness, more lone and dreary than the desert.

"The people of the United States expect from the generosity of the Turkish monarch that this permission will be given. They wait to receive these exiles on their shores, where, without giving just cause of uneasiness to any Government, they may enjoy whatever of consolation can be afforded by sympathy for their sufferings and that assistance in their necessities which this people have never been late in offering to any, and which they are not now for the first time called upon to render. Accustomed themselves to high ideas of national independence, the people of the United States would regret to see the Government of the vast empire of Turkey constrained, by the force of circumstances, to exercise the duty of keeping prisoners for other powers.

"You will further say to the Sublime Porte that if, as this Government hopes and believes, Mr. Kossuth and his companions are allowed to depart from the dominions of His Imperial Majesty at the expiration of the year commencing in May, 1850, they will find conveyance to the United States in some of its national ships now in the Mediterranean Sea which can be spared for that purpose, and you will, on receiving assurances that these persons will be permitted to embark, ascertain precisely their numbers, and immediately give notice to the commander of the United States squadron on that station, who will receive orders from the proper authorities to be present with such of the ships as may be necessary or can leave the station to furnish conveyance for Kossuth and his companions to the United States."

Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Marsh, Feb. 28, 1851. MSS. Inst., Turkey.

"On the 3d of March last both houses of Congress passed a resolution requesting the President to authorize the employment of a public vessel to convey to this country Louis Kossuth and his associates in captivity.

"The instruction above referred to was complied with, and, the Turkish Government having released Governor Kossuth and his compan ions from prison, on the 10th of September last they embarked on board of the United States steam frigate Mississippi, which was selected to carry into effect the resolution of Congress. Governor Kossuth left the

Mississippi at Gibraltar for the purpose of making a visit to England, and may shortly be expected in New York. By communications to the Department of State he has expressed his grateful acknowledgments for the interposition of this Government in behalf of himself and his associates. This country has been justly regarded as a safe asylum for those whom political events have exiled from their own homes in Europe, and it is recommended to Congress to consider in what manner Governor Kossuth and his companions, brought hither by its authority, shall be received and treated."

President Fillmore's Second Annual Message, 1851. (Mr. Webster, Secretary of
State).

As to Kossuth's erratic performances on the Mississippi steam frigate, when on his way from Smyrna to the United States, see House Ex. Doc. No. 78, 32d Cong., 1st sess. It appears that he was by no means a tractable guest, and that at every port at which the Mississippi stopped he became the object of revolutionary demonstrations, said to have been excited by himself. This was particularly the case at Marseilles, where Kossuth left the steamer, for the purpose, as he alleged, of going direct to England, to rejoin the steamer afterward when at Gibraltar. At Marseilles be was the center of great commotion, which, in the excitement under which he was laboring, he fomented, and permission was refused him to pass through France. He, therefore, after what was almost, according to the report of Mr. Hodge, consul at Marseilles, a mob valedictory at Marseilles, returned to the Mississippi.

"It was on the last day of the year that a formal presentation of M. Kossuth to the President by Mr. Webster took place. On that occasion the reply of Mr. Fillmore to M. Kossuth's address, while it was extremely courteous and sympathetic, was yet perfectly explicit in declaring that the Government could lend no sanction to measures whose design was to foster and aid a revolutionary movement against a friendly power. That declaration was made under circumstances which I will presently describe, and which were well calculated to render M. Kossuth uncomfortable, and, so far as he was open to such an emotion, to add self-reproach to his great disappointment.

"Accordingly, M. Kossuth was in no amiable mood during his visit to Washington. He was reserved and moody, and received the attentions that were lavished upon him with a distrait and dissatisfied air, and with a scant return of courtesy. It so happened that I chanced to make my New Year's call on Mr. and Mrs. Webster at the moment that M. Kossuth and his party entered. He stood apart from the few guests that were then present, and his whole bearing threw a chill and restraint over the circle. I remarked to Mrs. Webster that her illustrious guest seemed to be in an unsocial mood, and she replied that when she had attempted to open conversation with him by remarking upon the brightness of the day, he replied that he took no interest in the weatherthat his mind was absorbed in painful thoughts about his country-and the conversation, naturally enough, proceeded no further.

"I think it was on the following day that the President gave a dinner to M. Kossuth, to which General Scott and the Cabinet and a few other public men, and to which also I and my wife were invited. As we were about to proceed to the reception-room we encountered Mr. and Mrs.

Webster, and at the suggestion of the latter Mrs. Webster took my arm and he gave his own to my wife. As we were about to move in this order, a servant announced that M. Kossuth was immediately behind us, whereupon Mr. Webster turned to welcome him, announcing to his wife at the same moment-against her remonstrances, for she felt that he had been rude to her-that we must change the order of our going,' and that she must take M. Kossuth's arm. During and after dinner the bearing of the guest, in behalf of whom the banquet had been given, was stately and constrained. It was evident that he felt sore and angry. He stood apart after dinner, in a manner which repelled attempts to enter into conversation with him. His whole appearance, alike by his picturesque costume and his attitude and expression, suggested a moody Hamlet, whom neither man nor woman pleased. After a vain attempt to engage him in conversation on Hungarian topics, I asked Mr. Fillmore what had happened to his illustrious guest to have thrown him into such an evidently ungenial state of feeling. He said it was in consequence of what had occurred at his presentation. Mr. Fillmore told me that there had been an explicit understanding with M. Kossuth, through his secretary, that there was to be no allusion in his speech, upon being presented, to the subject of aid or intervention on the part of the Government of the United States, in behalf of the party in Hungary that aimed to secure its independence of Austria, and that he had prepared his reply on the assumption that such would be the character of the address. His surprise was therefore great when M. Kossuth in his address invoked that aid, and expressed the hope that it would be given. The President was compelled, on the spur of the moment, to omit what he had prepared to say, and to declare to him, with perfect courtesy, but with equal explicitness, that nothing like sanction, much less material aid, for the cause of the independence of Hungary could be given by the Government of the United States. The reply was admirable, and could not have been improved had Mr. Fillmore anticipated the tenor of Kossuth's address and prepared his answer. It was courteous, yet extremely dignified and decided. In deed, it may be regarded as fortunate that an occasion so conspicuous occurred for proclaiming at home and to foreign states that the policy of the Government was then, as it had always been, that of absolute non-intervention in the affairs of European nations.

"Mr. Webster, who presented M. Kossuth to the President, wrote on the same day to a friend that Mr. Fillmore received him with great propriety, and his address was all right-sympathy, personal respect, and kindness, but no departure from our established policy.' I inferred from Mr. Fillmore's animated description of the scene that he regarded it as an unfair attempt to entrap him into some expression or some omission which might seem to countenance M. Kossuth's cherished hope of inducing the Government to give both its moral and material aid to renew the struggle for Hungarian independence. It is not strange that he should have passionately desired such a result; but it was a singular delusion to suppose it possible that our Government would enter upon the quixotic career of making the United States the armed champion of European nationalities struggling for liberty and independence.

"At the Congressional dinner given to M. Kossuth his reception was most enthusiastic. In common with all the audience, I was completely entranced by his singularly captivating eloquence. I was assigned a seat next to Mr. Seward, and his demonstrations of applause by hands and feet and voice were excessive. The 'Hungarian Whirlwind' cer

tainly carried away everything on that occasion, and mingled all parties into one confused mass of admirers prostrate at Kossuth's feet. The speech seemed to me wanting in no element of a consummate masterpiece of eloquence. The orator's picturesque appearance, his archaic English style, his vibrant and thrilling voice, and his skillfully selected and arranged topics, all concurred in the production of an effect upon his audience such as I have never seen surpassed. As addressed to American statesmen, it exhibited, what was very rare among foreigners, a perfect understanding of our Government, as the union of separate states with their autonomy in a given sphere, under a general constitution. His eulogium of this arrangement, and his description of its adaptation and its probable adoption by various nationalities in Europe, was very skillful. The union of Germany in one empire may be regarded by some as the first step toward that confederated German republic which be foretold.

"It was doubtful up to the last moment before Mr. Webster's appearance whether he would come and make a speech on that occasion."

"The speech which Mr. Webster made, as we now read it, seems very appropriate to the occasion and to his own position; but his manner was constrained, and after the high pitch of enthusiasm to which the audience had been wrought up, it fell rather heavily upon them, and did not give that measure of encomium of M. Kossuth which their feelings at the moment craved. But Mr. Webster spoke to an audience, many of whom were bitter political foes or alienated friends, and his recent experience in connection with M. Kossuth, while it had not diminished his admiration of his brilliant ability, had convinced him that, though matchless as an orator, he was no statesman. Moreover, his position as Secretary of State made it incumbent upon him to speak with great caution. If there was an intention on the part of Mr. Seward to entrap Mr. Webster into any compromising declarations by which his influence or his prospects might be injured, it was not successful. The speech might not be vehemently admired; it could not justly be condemned."

Dr. C. M. Butler's reminiscences of Mr. Webster.

"The progress of things is unquestionably onward. It is onward with respect to Hungary; it is onward everywhere. Public opinion, in my estimation at least, is making great progress. It will penetrate all resources; it will come more or less to animate all minds; and, in respect to that country for which our sympathies to-night have been so strongly invoked, I cannot but say that I think the people of Hungary are an enlightened, industrious, sober, well-inclined community, and I wish only to add that I do not now enter into any discussion of the form of government that may be proper for Hungary. Of course, all of you, like myself, would be glad to see her, when she becomes independent, embrace that system of government which is most acceptable to ourselves. We shall rejoice to see our American model upon the Lower Danube and on the mountains of Hungary. But this is not the first step. It is not that which will be our first prayer for Hungary. That first prayer shall be that Hungary may become independent of all foreign powers; that her destinies may be intrusted to her own hands and to her own discretion. I do not profess to understand the social relations and connections of races and of twenty other things that may affect the public institutions of Hungary. All I say is that Hungary can regulate these matters for herself infinitely better than they can be