Fraternity-Testvériség, 1941 (19. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1941-11-01 / 11. szám
TESTVÉRISÉG 5 The Bulla Aurea, like the English Magna Carta, was to be the text of the country’s constitution. It is merely the rehearsal and confirmation of liberties which the nation had long enjoyed. The public and private law drawn up by Werbőczy in the sixteenth century is merely the compilation of prevailing customs which by long observance had obtained the force of law. The present methods of constitutional government in Hungary are of no recent origin, but their source is to be sought in habits and instincts which have endured for a thousand years. English, French and German authorities have .for a long time admitted that the only worthy rival of the English constitution in Europe is the constitution of Hungary. The constitutions of Aragon and Poland are often mentioned as more liberal than the English or Hungarian, but their superiority, if there be such, belongs to the middle ages. After the marriage of Ferdinánd and Isabella Aragon was merged in the Kingdom of Spain and retained but a shadow of her ancient liberties. Recent history has seen Poland razed from the list of European nations and with it her liberties. These liberties she owed to a large degree to her Hungarian rulers, Louis the Great (Ludwik) of Hungary (1370-82) and Stephen Báthory, under whose reign (1578-86) Poland became the great power in Eastern Europe. The perpetuation of great ideals, though these ideals be ingrained in the hearts of a people, demands conditions which are conducive to their permanence. Geographical unity makes certain countries almost predestined to be each the seat of one independent nation. England, Hungary, the United States are especially well situated physically for making a compact national unity in which such ideals may flourish. The fact that the Magyars are not Aryans has been one of the chief causes of failure to assimilate other races, but in some ways it has been a source of strength; it has prevented them from looking for support and sympathy, like the Germans and Slavs, to their kindred in neighboring countries, and thus by making themselves independent they have increased their cohesion and intensified their patriotism. Foreign institutions did not form the national character, but it was modified through them. There is a uniquenes about the intepretation of these ideals through Magyar Life. Its religion, especially its Calvinism, definitely bears upon it the stamp of the Magyar character and becomes at once the definitely unique expression of ideals bathed in and magnified by the inherent, ingrained, often tried and often proved spiritual and ethical values of Magyar life. For many centuries the Magyars sought to inculcate these ideals in Central Europe by a practical demonstration of them in their internal life. No other country in Europe has shown such magnanimity of spirit toward the stranger within its gates as has Hungary where all peoples are permitted the use of their own language and customs, their own traditions and national practices. With the advent of Protestantism Hungary became the first nation on the continent of Europe to proclaim religious freedom. No cause ever inspired greater sacrifice in the Magyar people than the preservation and guarantee of these rights and privilages proclaimed by the Hungarian constitution and its subsequent amendments. The diet of Torda proclaimed religious liberty in 1545, the princes of Transylvania proclaimed freedom and equality for Protestants in the treaty of Vienna in 1624, and of Pozsony in 1626. The great war for liberty under Francis Rákóczy II was fought for eight years to preserve and perpetuate these ideals for posterity. The revolution of 1848-49 under Kossuth demanded the restitution of the constitution and respect for the inalienable rights guaranteed by it. The response of the world to these demands was spontaneous where human rights pertained. The great democracies echoed and reechoed the voice of the Magyars expressed by Kossuth when, with the aid of Russia, Austria suppressed the revolution and forced Kossuth and many of his followers to flee no more eloquent recognition of and sympathy for those ideals was manifest by any nation than that of the United States of America. We sent the battleship Mississippi to Turkey to rescue these Magyar patriots and opened our doors ninety years ago to receive them to our breast. We crowned this recognition by having Kossuth address a joint session of Congress where the rafters of the great hall resounded to the cheers of an appreciative nation for the ideals expressed in the Magyar constitution for the preservation of which brave men and true layed down their lives for nearly a thousand years. It is these ideals living ever in the hearts of the Magyar people which make them kin to those peoples whose motto and goal is the perpetuation of the right to man of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. T
