Fraternity-Testvériség, 1943 (21. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1943-02-01 / 2. szám
4 TESTVÉRISÉG OHIO REMEMBERS KOSSUTH By: Rev. Stephen Sziarto, Columbus, O. On Monday, January 4th, 1943, the Columbus, Ohio, newspapers carried the story of an India statesman’s visit to the Capitol of Ohio. The following day he was to visit the leaders of our grand State and in the afternoon to address the joint session of the Senate and the House. Imagine my sudden deep interest! The second such visit since 1852! Excitedly I called the Lieutenant Governor’s office and humbly requested a “reservation”, which was readily granted. On the afternoon of the fifth, I could hardly wait for time to pass — for time to bring me a momentous occasion! I arrived at the State Capitol an hour ahead of schedule and decided to bide my time in the Senate Chamber. There a resolution was passed calling for a joint session of the 95th General Assembly. Afterwards the Senators, through their private corridor, joined the Representatives in the House. In the meantime, I contacted the Sergeant-at-Arms for my reservation and lo! and behold! my reserved seat was on the “floor” among the Senators and the Representatives, so close to the rostrum that each word could be heard naturally and distinctly. Shortly after the occupation of places, applauding was heard in the rear of the House Chamber and by the time the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House with its distinguished guest reached the dais, the greeting crescendo attained its height. After informal yet cordial greetings and warm handclasps, our Lieutenant Governor, Paul M. Herbert, introduced Sir A. Ramaswami Mudalier with the following memorable words: “We are honored with the presence of a distinguished visitor from a great people far across the seas. This is the second time in the history of the Ohio Legislature that a representative of peoples beyond the seas has spoken to a joint session of the Ohio General Assembly. On February 7th, 1852, the great Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, spoke to a joint session of the Assembly. He then brought to that session a message of the striving of people for freedom and liberty. Today, almost a hundred years having passed, the Honorable Sir Ramaswami of India appears before the joint session of the 95th General Assembly. “He is the representative of India in the British war cabinet and a member of the Pacific war council. He comes from a people likewise who seek freedom and liberty. He may be said to be a tie between our great liberty-loving people, who have achieved freedom, with the people of India who are seeking freedom and self-government. He is engaged in a responsible mission that may mean much for the peoples of the world. We extend to him a warm and most cordial welcome to Ohio. We consider it a high honor to have him as our guest and it is a distinct privilege to present to you — the joint session of the 95th General Assembly — the Honorable Sir Ramaswami.” While listening to the Honorable Sir Ramaswami speak well and beautifully from the bottom of his heart, I, of Magyar descent and an ardent admirer of the First Governor of Hungary, could not refrain from thinking back 90 years and eleven months: to the time when Lt.-Gov. Medill apologized for the burning of the State Capitol and in turn Louis Kossuth apologized for his head-cold, and, in view of the fact that he had to speak outside on a hurriedly erected platform, begged permission to be allowed to speak with his hat on. With the all-night hammering still ringing in his cold-dulled ears, I could hear Governor Kossuth saying: “....The spirit of our age is democracy; all for the people, and all by the people; nothing about the people without the people. This is democracy, and that is the ruling tendency of the spirit of our age.” (*) Imagine that statement coming almost 12 years before Lincoln’s now famous Gettysburg Address (**) wherein the war-weary President said: “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” These reveries filled me with pride. But by far, I was most proud of the fact that a statesman of today, the Lt.-Gov. Paul M. Herbert, president of the Ohio Senate, in the year 1943, was gracious enough to remember OUR greatest liberty-loving leader. The Hon. Paul M. Herbert suddenly enlivened the seemingly dormant Kossuth history; he brought it to life, and once more the perfect, yet foreign-accented, English and fiery oratory re-echoed in legislative halls, among the law-makers of our State. My cup runneth over! because Ohio remembers a bright star of the glorious past and indirectly pays tribute to those of us who hold (*) From the Feb. 7th, 1852, Columbus, Ohio, speech of Louis Kossuth; from his own handwriting as preserved in the archives of the State of Ohio. (He*) Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., Nov. 19th, 1863.
