The Eighth Tribe, 1976 (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1976-01-01 / 1. szám
January, 1976 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page 7 audiences, including legislative assemblies, during his tour. About two hundred and fifty poems, dozens of books, hundreds of pamphlets, and thousands of editorials were written in English about him during this period. His pro-Hungarian mission failed, but bis impact on American society and his contribution to American social and political history were more extensive than is commonly realized. THE IMMIGRANTS IN THE 1850s 1850-51 A Hungarian Club was founded in Boston by George L. Stearns, an admirer of Louis Kossuth and a sympathizer with the Hungarian War of Independence. Many Hungarian immigrants visited his house, among them Edward Zerdahelyi, the famous Hungarian concert pianist. 1851 Mátyás Nyújtó arrived in New York as an immigrant and in a short time opened the first Hungarian restaurant and saloon, To the Three Hungarians. August 13. Captain John Prágay, whose book dealing with the Hungarian War of Independence was the first on the subject to be translated into English, committed suicide to escape execution in Cuba. He participated with eight other Hungarians in the ill-fated revolutionary expedition of Narisco Lopez. While traveling in Hungary, the American clergyman and philanthropist Charles Loring Brace was arrested by Austrian authorities on the charge of conspiring against the state with exiled Hungarians. He was eventually released from custody upon the protest of the United States government. Returning to America, he wrote a book about his experiences and aroused considerable popular sentiment against Austria. 1852 One hundred thirteen Hungarians residing in New York City drafted and signed a statement expressing their loyalty to Kossuth and defending him against Austrian charges of malfeasance which had appeared in the American press. Approximately two to three hundred Hungarians may have lived in the city during this decade. Kossuth’s two sisters, Susanne and Emilia, arrived in New York. Both died in America, Susanne in 1854 and Emilia in 1860. A Hungarian Revolutionary conspiracy was discovered by the Austrian secret police in Transylvania, Hungary. Its members were executed, but the three secret agents of Kossuth — Mátyás Dózsafy, József Makk, and Fülöp Figyelmessy — escaped and came to the United States. The short-lived Hungarian Sick and Benefit Society was founded by Philip Freund and Charles Kornis in New York for the purpose of aiding Hungarian immigrants. 1853 Martin Koszta, a Hungarian immigrant and resident in the United States, was visiting Turkey, where he was kidnapped and detained on an Austrian warship in the harbor of Smyrna as an Austrian subject of Hungarian nationality. Upon instructions of the American government, Com. D. N. Ingraham, captain of the U.S. sloop of war St. Louis, delivered on July 2 an ultimatum to Captain von Schwarz, commander of the Austrian brig of war Hussar, and succeeded in obtaining the release of the kidnapped Hungarian American. In pressing for this release, Secretary of State William Marcy argued that Koszta, though not a naturalized citizen, had been granted resident status and was therefore entitled to the protection of the United States. The legal principle articulated by Marcy in the response of the American government to this international incident set a precedent. Subsequently, President Pierce stated that “the United States would adhere to the same principle in the future.” The incident known as the Koszta Affair was widely and fully reported in the American press and is still taught in courses dealing with American diplomatic history and with the American construction of international law. August 23. Lázár Mészáros, Minister of War and Commander in Chief of the Hungarian Army in 1848-49, arrived in New York. He bought a farm of 23 acres at Scotch Plain, New Jersey, and became the first Hungarian farmer in that state. The first Hungarian newspaper, Számiizöttek Lapja (Journal of Hungarian Exiles) was published in New York by Charles Kornis. It served cultural and propaganda purposes for the followers of Kossuth. Six issues were printed. 1854 Bernát Bettelheim, Hungarian missionary and medical doctor living on the Japanese island of Ryukyu, served as an interpreter for Commodore Perry and left for America in one of his “black ships.” In 1926, a statue of Bettelheim was erected on Ryukyu. (To Be Continued)
