Századok – 1910
Kisebb közlemények. - Pivány Jenő: Damburghy követ úr 497
501 kisebb közlemények. Missouri senátora, ügyesen pártolt. A képviselőházban pedig Buel W. Sándor, Michigan államból, a kormányt nemcsak azért támadta meg, mert Magyarország függetlenségét idejekorán nem ismerte el, hanem azért is, mert nem fogadta a magyar kormány követét. így tehát a kalandor Damburghynak még a congressusban is akadt pártfogója, sőt Buel a bemutató-levelet, a hírlapokban megjelent szöveg szerint, fel is olvasta. E bemutató-levél, néhány magyaros szólásmód kivételével, elég szép angolsággal van megírva. Nem tudom, ki fogalmazta ; valószínűleg Batthyány. Kizártnak tartom, hogy Kossuth munkája volna, mert Kossuth akkor még nem ismerte az angol nyelvben való hatalmát, sőt csaknem egy évvel később a Brussából az Egyesült-Államok népéhez intézett szózatát is még magyarúl szerkesztette meg. (E szózatot Ujházy Lászlóhoz küldte, a ki részére Tochman őrnagy, Washingtonban, fordította le angolra.) Az érdekes történelmi okmány, a mely Magyarországon még ismeretlen, így szól : To the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the United States of America. Sir : The United States were the first in the battle of the people against their oppressors ; they pointed out the way to other people how to emancipate themselves, and showed them what a people could do, even in their infancy, to shake off the unjust yoke of the oppressor. The United States having become free, will, in a few years, be reckoned among the most powerful States of the world, and even now they exercise a very great influence upon the destinies of the States of ancient Europe. The natural right of men, and of people, to be, and to be free, and to be independent, and to maintain the dignity of men, being the fundamental principle of the existence of this republic, I doubt not that, as every citizen cannot but appreciate the great importance of the question which has been at issue between Hungary and the dynasty of Habsburg-Lorraine, so also the government can have no other policy abroad than to take for granted the principle laid down. The Hungarian nation only desires to maintain its natural rights. She was driven into a resistance of the aggression of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine which, at last casting off the mask of pretended good will, by which, till then, it had deceived the world, openly avowed its intention of blotting out the political existence of the Hungarian nation. The House of Habsburg then determined to execute in open day what it had been plotting for ages in obscurity, namely to burn up our country with flames. The act declaring the independence of Hungary, which I have herewith the honour of sending you, contains a faithful enumerationof all the treachery and crime by which the House of Austria has endeavored to exalt its throne, by the destruction of the political existence of Hungary. Be pleased to peruse it, and you will perceive that the Hungarian nation, like the American people in the past age, has been driven to make use of the right of selfdefence, to save itself from the political death with which it was menaced. The Hungarian nation in this act declares that, in defending her own national rights, she does not seek to interfere with the rights of other
