Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1958-08-01 / 8. szám
FRATERNITY 3 among us to proclaim and enforce with the earnestness of a martyr’s conviction and an exiled patriot’s zeal. The prayers of millions are with him; the hopes of hundreds of millions rest upon him.” Kossuth personified the cause of freedom and none less than Ralph Waldo Emerson, the greatest thinker of the new world, formulated his mission in these unforgettable words: “This new crusade which you preach to willing and unwilling ears in America is a seed of armed men. And, as the shores of Europe and America approach every month, and their politics will one day mingle, when the crisis arrives, it will find us all instructed beforehand in the rights and wrongs of Hungary, and parties already to her freedom” When the nation’s great guest arrived in the city of Cleveland, the great town of the Western Reserve, on the 2nd of February, 1852, among the enthusiastic and cheering crowd one voice shouted out: “God bless you, Kossuth; you are a political Christ!” Kossuth, with a true Christian spirit, promptly and proudly answered: “Say not that! He is the Holy One; but for freedom 1 am willing now in humble imitation of Him to bear the cross and die on it for freedom.” At his official reception in the city of Cleveland, Judge Starkweather introduced him to the people of the city at Mclo- deon’s porch. “Here is the man whom we believe to be ordained by Providence to be the great Apostle of Liberty on earth, and whose name gives fear to tyrants, and hope and consolation to the oppressed.” No one ever described America’s mission to the world in truer words than Kossuth himself over 100 years ago when he said: “Yours is a mighty Republic, destined to become the executive power of the law of nations, upon which rests the independence of the world from all overwhelming despotism.” The first exclamation Kossuth made on the soil of America was: “Hungary is not lost.” His conviction has been embroidered on many flags and when he now appears again before our eyes as the “Champion of Liberty”, as the “Apostle of Freedom”, in historic times like ours, let his conviction echo in the hearts of all freedom-loving people with the finale of the Kossuth Cantata: “Hungary is not lost! Freedom cannot die!” The world is not lost! Liberty will conquer! 1
