Református ujság - Fraternity-Testvériség, 1940 (18. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1940-04-01 / 4. szám
TESTVÉRISÉG 7 LET’S BE TRUE TO HISTORICAL FACTS Critical remarks concerning Prof. W. L. Willigan’s address about Col. Michael Kováts By EDMUND VASVARY The facts known about the American career of Col. Michael Kováts are so few and the difficulties of discovering new information are so great that whenever the known facts are presented to the public, special care should be taken about their correctness. Opinions may differ about events and personages, but it is never permissible to publish erroneous or false information about established facts. A few months ago Dr. Walter L. Willigan, Professor of American History at St. John’s University, Brooklyn, N. Y. delivered an address about the Hnngirian Colonel, who was second in command of the famous Pulaski Legion. He died in action at Charleston, S. C, May n, 1779. The address was published in several American-Hun- garian periodicals, among them the official publication of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, the “Református Újság”, in the Feb. 1940 issue. Since this short address contained several serious errors, I felt that they should be corrected. An article of mine appeared in the “Amerikai Magyar Népszava” for this purpose, but in spite of the fact that the errors in Prof. Willigan’s address were pointed out publicly, the same address, with the same errors appeared in the March 7, 1940 issue of the “Congressional Record” pp. 3914-15, official diary and record of the Congress of the United States, through the courtesy Representative James A. Shanley of Connecticut. Thus the address gained nationwide circulation, and considering the exalted nature of the publication and the position of the author, the address in the future probably will be looked upon as authentic and correct historical information. But, unfortunately, such is not the case. This is much to be regretted, and the purpose mistakes and errors of the address, hoping that of the present article is to point out the abvious mistakes and errors of the address, hoping that it will help to disseminate the true facts about this heroic son of Hungary, who was the first Hungarian to die for the independence and liberty of the United States. * * * FIRST. That Prof. Willigan considers June 12, 1724 the birthday of our hero, is not his fault, but of those who, without the slightest foundation fixed this date as Col. Kovats’s birthday. The pla- quettes and other works of Alexander Finta, eminent American-Hungarian sculptor and author have this date on them, although Judge Aladar Póka-Pivny, of the Royal Hungarian Patent Court, the foremost authority on Col. Kováts’s life denies the correctness very emphatically. In searching for this date, Judge Póka-Pivny scrutinized at least 32 original documents in Hungary, but was unable to determine the correct date. The nearest he could approach the solution of this problem is expressed in the opinion that Col. Kováts was probably born in August, 1724. SECOND. Col. Kováts did not go to Prussia to join the army of Frederick the Great, as Prof. Willigan states. Fie pursued a faithless servant who stole some of his horses, and wandering on Prussian territory, he was taken prisoner and forced into army as a private. He was watched constantly, and for years he was not allowed to leave the barracks without being followed by a non-comissioned officer. It took him six years to become a cornet. (Póka-Pivny’s research.) THIRD. Prof. Willigan says: “It was in 1776 that Michael de Kováts secured permission from Marie Therese to leave Budapest and come to America.” It is an anarchronism to speak about the capital of contemporary Hungary as “Budapest” since no city of that name existed at that time. The old capital consisted of three cities, which were united under the name “Budapest” only in 1872. FOURTH. According to Prof. Willigan, Kováts “immediately left for France via Italy and met Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane.” Sofar we know only that Kováts wrote one letter to Eenjamin Frank’in in Latin, from Bordeaux, France Jan. 13, 1777, offering his services for the cause of the United States. There is no documentary evidence discovered sofar that Kováts was in Paris and met Franklin or Deane The text of this four-page letter, with the facsimile of the last page was first published by me in the September, 1939 issue of the “Református Újság”, Washington, D. C., in an article entitled: “Fidelissimus ad Mortem”. The original is in the Franklin collection of the American Philosophical Society, Phildalphia, Pa. (LXX, 88.) It is the only Kováts document in that collection. The examination of the Deane papers tends to confirm the opinion that Kováts did not receive any financial help from the American representatives. Count Pulaski, however, received 480 livres or 20 louis d’ors. (The Deane papers. Collections of the New York Historical Society, 1886—1890. Vol. V, p. 430.) FIFTH. Prof. Willigan quotes a letter of Kovát’s and says that it was written to Washing
