The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1986 (13. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1986-03-01 / 3-4. szám
This address was delivered by Louis Kossuth on November 12, 1951, in Birmingham, England. Kossuth arrived in America on December 2, 1951. THE MAGYAR PEOPLE Fully recognizing greatness in others, Kossuth takes pride in being a Magyar. His thoughts and his sentiments are but a feeble pulsation of the heart that beats in his people's breast. After the vicissitudes of a thousand years, his people is stricken down, and is grievously wounded, yet still has a future because it deserves to have one. Our country has seen many a storm, and still the Magyar lives and Buda stands. There wss a time when half of Hungary was under Turkish dominion, and the other half under the iron rule of Bastas and Canat8S, the model after which the Haynaus of today, or I should rather say their masters, were formed. There are nations, sir, the situation of which, though very painful upon the whole, promises still some duration to the power, because at least some classes there are, the interests of whom are not hurt. In Hungary, sir, except some hundred foreign functionaries, there is not 8 single man, still less a single class, whose interests were not mortally hurt. Wounded is the nation's heart, conscience, religion, honor, nationality, freedom, memory - wounded in all that is held sacred and dear. Besides, wounded is the material interest of every class. The landlord, the agriculturist, the citizen and the soldier, the artist and the scholar, the workman, the merchant, the professional ist - all cut down like to that poor Wallachian who lived upon some plum trees, which he now cuts down to free himself from the heavy duties laid upon him. Elsewhere, whole classes may be found who dread every change. I n Hungary, there is not a single class which the wise and the honest Austrian government, by his paternal cares, h8s not driven to the point to be forced to desire a most complete change, however desirable it may be. T8ke a man who, confident in the protection of law, rests quietly in his house, and the night watch, instead of taking care that his tranquility be not disturbed, gives himself the incendiary torch to some fellow lodgers of his house, and persuades them, by falsehood and promises, to burn his house and murder him, and he, starting from his quiet rest, rushes from his room to put out the fire, and to preserve his life, and he cries out to the very night watch to help him in his legitimate defense, and this very night watch brings an armed guard with him, and instead of defending the injured man, calls him a traitor and a conspirator for daring to oppose the honest incendiary, the faithful murderer - yea, more, he joins the Page 4 incendiary and rushes on the injured man with his armed guards, and the poor injured man calls together his brethren and his sons, beats down the incendiary, the murderer, the night watch, and his guard. Is there any honest, and just man in the world who could charge that man with having committed an assault on the legitimate authority of the night watch, Sir? I have given you in this popular sketch the history of the past Hungarian war. Allow me to prostrate myself in spirit before the memory of my suffering people. Allow me to bear witness before you that the people of the Magyars can take with noble self-esteem a place in the great family of nations. Allow me, even in view of your greatness, to proclaim that I feel proud to be a Magyar. I feel proud at my country's strength. They stirred up by foul delusions to the fury of civil war our Croat, Wallach, Serb and Slovak brethren against us. It did not suffice. The House of Austria poured all his forces upon us, still it would not do. We beat them down. The proud dynasty was to stoop at the feet of the Czar. He thrust his legions upon us, and still we would nave been a match for him. One thing there wss which we, the plain children of straight uprightness, could not match - that is the intrigue of Russian diplomacy, which knew how to induce treason into our ranks. This caused us to fall, combined with Russian arms. But still we were styled to be only a party fanatized by me. No, it is not I who inspired the Hungarian people, it was the Hungarian people who inspired me. Whatever I thought and still think, whatever I felt and still feel, it is but a feeble palsation of the heart which in the bresst of my people beats. The glory of battles is ascribed to the leaders in history, theirs are the laurels of immortality. And yet, on meeting the danger, they know that, alive or dead, their names will, upon the lips of the people, live forever. How different, how purer is the light spread on the image of the thousands of the people's sons who, knowing that where they fall, they will lie unknown, their names unhonored and unsung, but who, nevertheless animated by the love of freedom and fatherland, went on calmly, singing national 8nthems, against the batteries whose cross-fire vomited death and destruction on them, without firing a shot - they who fell, falling with the shout, "Hurrah for Hungary!" The moment of death is a dreary one. Even the features of Cato partook of the impression of its dreariness. A shadow passed over the brow of Socrates on drinking the hemlock cup. With us, those who beheld the nameless victims of the love of country, lying on the death-field Continued on page 7
