Hungarian Heritage Review, 1987 (16. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1987-03-01 / 3. szám
feature of 3Montf{ —From a painting by John Thorma Alexander (Sándor) Petőfi fires up the young students and intellectuals of Budapest in support of Louis Kossuth’s demands for liberal reforms. POINTS”. It is also not unreasonable to assume that his speech was closely monitored by Austrian secret agents and others, and that a copy of it was hurriedly couriered to governmental authorities in Vienna. However, Kossuth and his supporters published thousands of copies of it for immediate distribution throughout Hungary and, particularly, in Vienna, where the people not only endorsed his demands, but also decided to seek such reforms for themselves. Consequently, on March 13, 1848, only about 10 days after Kossuth’s clarion call for corrective action, they staged violent demonstrations in the streets of Vienna, the results of which were the ouster of several powerful members of the State Council governing the royal realm on behalf of the mentally retarded, Habsburgian Emperor-King Ferdinand V (1835-1848). One of those dismissed in order to pacify the mob, in addition to the hardnosed Prince Metternich and the ruthless Minister of Police, was Count George Apponyi, the Chancellor of Hungarian Affairs. Evidently quite aware of the Viennese “theater-in-the-streets”, the Hungarian Diet, acting on the assumption that the time was right for squeezing some concessions from the thoroughly frightened Emperor-King and his nervous State Council, voted in favor of Kossuth’s proposals on March 14, 1848. Only one day later, on March 15, 1848, and as if orchestrated by a master manipulator of public opinion, the young students and intellectuals of Budapest held a stormy mass meeting in support of Kossuth’s demands and, fired-up by the poetic eloquence of Alexander (Sándor) Petőfi, marched enmasse from the National Museum to the grim prison in Buda and freed all political prisoners. Motivated by the militant support demonstrated by the young students and intellectuals of Budapest, the Diet wasted no more time in selecting Archduke Stephen to lead a large delegation to Vienna for the purpose of handdelivering its “Address to the Throne”. They did time it right, indeed. For, when the awesome, “no-nonsense”, Hungarian delegation arrived in Vienna and carried out their assignment, the rattled Austrian authorities accepted the Hungarian ultimatum without hesitation. All of the terms and conditions spelled out by Louis Kossuth were agreed to without any arguments. Hungary, thanks to him, the young students and intellectuals of Budapest, and even the people of Vienna, was on its way towards becoming a democratic Republic such as the one “fathered” by George Washington in America! The cunning Habsburgians, of course, were not about to permit any kind of a foreclosure on their dubious title to and stranglehold on Hungary. Even though they had agreed to give it up, just as soon as the joyful Hungarian delegation left Vienna for Hungary, the State Council implemented an already prepared plan to instigate uprisings among the various nationalistic minorities within the borders of Hungary. On March 20, 1848, Count Kollowrat, the Austrian Minister of the Interior, revoked all of the liberal reforms granted Hungary and, on March 22, 1848, he appointed the vicious anti- Hungarian, Baron Jellasich, as Ban of Croatia. Soon thereafter, the Croatians demanded their own independence from Hungary, but were sure to assert their loyalty to and alliance with Vienna. Then, Austrian secret agents were dispatched to infiltrate and to incite the Czechs, Serbs, Slovaks, and even the Romanians into armed rebellion against the “Magyar oppressors” and to commit acts of terrorism against the Hungarian people. Thus, the stage was set for the invasion of Hungary from within and from without, and for the outbreak of hostilities culminating in the start of the ill-fated Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-1849! MARCH 1987 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 15
