BOSTON, Jan. 7th, 1853.
DEAREST SUMNER: — I was very sorry indeed to criticize your
speech, but I could not do otherwise in loyalty to our friendship. I have felt
much grieved about it, the more so that it seemed to me Liberty had received a
blow from her staunch friend; all unawares — but still a heavy blow.
— Look at it! will not the declaration that no pressure whatever
shall force this country from her neutrality greatly encourage the despots to
go on in their devilish career? Could we not at least have held our peace, and
not assured them that we should never interfere, though they cut the throat of
every liberal in Europe?
Then again, about poor Kossuth. I did feel sad indeed to
have you speak (in your note) of his arrogance. My dear Sumner, is he not doing
exactly what you felt called upon to do in your first peace oration, propound
doctrines true in the abstract, good in principle, and surely realizable by and
by, though so unpopular as to be deemed absurd by many? What Kossuth claims in
the name of human brotherhood cannot, I concede, be now granted; we cannot
plunge the country into war for any cause as yet set forth; but as surely as
God lives and keeps up the progressive movement of humanity, so surely will the
time come when nation shall say to nation, “Strike not, abuse not our brother
nation! or we will help him strike you and defend himself.”
Do not take any fixed ground upon this subject; I mean an
unprogressive position, and say what we will and what we will not do; wait and
do what the crisis may require. We want peace; peace, and a century of it if
possible, but we must have progress; we must remove the impediment in the way
to it, and if despots oppose us we must remove them, peaceably if we can,
forcibly if we must. . . .
SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals
of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 386
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