your companions in exile and in prison, and present them to this
division; men, who, like our fathers, pledged their sacred honours "to
sustain the independence of their country." [Here there was an outburst
of cheering, and Colonel Berczenszy and the other Hungarians, companions
in arms of Kossuth, all rose, and were again greeted with another burst
of enthusiastic cheering.] We receive them as friends and brothers, and
as martyrs in the same holy cause of constitutional liberty in which our
fathers fought and bled, and suffered, and triumphed; and in which, we
trust and believe, you will also live to triumph and rejoice, in the
bosom of your own, your native land.

Loud applause followed the conclusion of this address.

Kossuth then rose and said--

General and gentlemen,--I accept with the highest gratitude, the honour
to meet the first division of the New York State Militia, who having, in
their capacity of citizen soldiers, honoured me on my arrival by their
participation in the generous welcome which I met with, have also, by
the military honour bestowed on me, so much contributed to impart to
this great demonstration that public character which cannot fail to
prove highly beneficial to the cause which I hold up before the free
people of this mighty republic, and which I dare confidently to state is
the great question of freedom and independence to the European
continent. I entreat you, gentlemen, not to expect any elaborate speech
from me, because really I am unprepared to make one. You are citizen
soldiers, a glorious title, to which I have the ambition of aspiring;
so, I hope you will kindly excuse me, if I endeavour to speak to you
_as_ soldiers. Do you know, gentlemen, what is the finest speech I
ever heard or read? It is the address of Garibaldi to his Roman soldiers