The THIRD object of my wishes, gentlemen, is the recognition of the
independence of Hungary when the critical moment arrives. Your own
declaration of independence proclaims the right of every nation to
assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to
which "the laws of nature and nature's God" entitle them. The political
existence of your glorious republic is founded upon this principle, upon
this right. Our nation stands upon the same ground: there is a striking
resemblance between your cause and that of my country. On the 4th July,
1776, John Adams spoke thus in your Congress, "Sink or swim, live or
die, survive or perish, I am for this declaration. In the beginning we
did not go so far as separation from the Crown, but 'there is a divinity
which shapes our ends.'" These noble words were present to my mind on
the 14th April, 1849, when I moved the forfeiture of the Crown by the
Hapsburgs in the National Assembly of Hungary. Our condition was the
same; and if there be any difference, I venture to say it is in favour
of us. Your country, before this declaration, was not a
_self-consisting independent_ State. Hungary was. Through the
lapse of a thousand years, through every vicissitude of this long
period, while nations vanished and empires fell, _the self-consisting
independence of Hungary was never disputed_, but was recognized by
all powers of the earth, sanctioned by treaties made with the Hapsburg
dynasty, at the era when this dynasty, by the freewill of my nation,
which acted as one of two contracting parties, was invested with the
kingly crown of Hungary. Even more, this independence of the kingdom was
acknowledged to make a part of the international law of Europe, and was
guaranteed not only by foreign European governments, such as Great
Britain, but also by several of those once constitutional states which
belonged formerly to the German, and after its dissolution, to the
Austrian empire.