Preface

In making this collection of Kossuth's speeches in New England, I have thought it advisable to combine with it a descriptive account of his visit, with full details of the incidents of his reception in the various cities and towns. These are taken almost wholly from the local newspapers, and from the daily reports in the Boston and New York journals. I have used freely, the reports of Mr. Coggshall, in the Tribune; and still more freely those of Mr. List, in the Commonwealth. To the latter, in fact, I am indebted for most of the descriptive part, and for nearly all the copies I have used of Kossuth's speeches. In general, the reports of the visits are taken with as little alteration as possible, and a good deal has been admitted that my own taste would have led me to reject. But, as the record of a most interesting event in the history of Massachusetts, it seemed to me that the book ought to contain, as nearly as possible, the impression that Kossuth's visit made upon eye-witnesses, trained to observe and to communicate their observations, and the account of it that was read from day to day by the people, whose guest he was.

The addresses made to Kossuth form an important part of the book. In almost every case, they have been revised, at my request, by the speakers themselves. On the whole, they well sustain the reputation of Massachusetts for eloquence; and it may be doubted whether any other state which Kossuth visited can offer an equally respectable array of addresses to him.

For revised copies of these addresses, and for reports of Kossuth's reception in various parts of the state, I am indebted to the editors of the Springfield Republican, the Worcester Spy, the Plymouth Rock, and the Lynn Bay State. Also, to the Hon. A. N. Skinner, Mayor of New Haven; to Hon. Henry Wilson, President of the Senate; to Hon. N. P. Banks, Jr., Speaker of the House; to Hon. Anson Burlingame; to Hon. S. C. Phillips, Hon. W. B. Calhoun, Hon. C. W. Upham, Hon. Foster Hooper; to Richard Frothingham, Jr., Esq., Mayor of Charlestown; and to Messrs. Erastus Hopkins, Wm. B. Greene, George Allen, Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Charles M. Ellis. To Mr. A. J. Marsh, of Holden, I am indebted for a phonographic report of the Kossuth meeting, in the City Hall, at Worcester, from which I have copied the speeches of Messrs. Kellogg and Burlingame, of which no report has heretofore been given. There has been considerable controversy about the speech of Mr. Burlingame, which I have therefore given in full, from Mr. Marsh's report, the accuracy of which I can testify to, from my own distinct recollection of the speech.

By the liberality of the publisher, the profits of the sale of this book will be given to Kossuth. It remains only to add, that the official documents in the Appendix have been obtained from authentic sources, and that the uncommon interest of Kossuth's last speech or lecture in New York has induced me to give it insertion at the end of the volume.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., July 10, 1852.