Fraternity-Testvériség, 1952 (30. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1952-03-01 / 3. szám

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lö__________________ TESTVÉRISÉG

threshold of an era of unprecedented national renaissance. Urging the speedy enactment of the reform laws, Kossuth, in his March 4, 1848, address, envisaged the democratic transformation of the whole Monarchy into a modern democratic state, when he said:

“I expressed my conviction that our country was not sure of the reforms it desired at home; that we could not oe sure of the constitutional tendencies of those reforms, and of their results so long as the sytem of the monarchy, that has the same prince that we have, remains in direct opposition to constitutionalism, and so long as that privy council, which conducts the general administration of the monarchy, and which has an illegal and powerful influence on the internal affairs of the country, remain anticonstitutional in its elements, its composition and its tendency. I expressed my conviction that whenever our interests conflict with the allied interests of the monarchy, the differences so created can be removed without danger to our liberty and welfare only on the basis of a common constituency. I cast a sorrowful look on the origin and development of the bureaucratic system of Vienna. I remind you that it reared the fabric of its marvelous power on the ruins of the liberty of our neighbours; and recounting the consequences of this fatal mechanism, and pursuing the Book of Life, I prophesy it in the feeling of my truthful and faithful loyalty to the royal house: that man will be the second founder of the House of Hapsburg, who will reform the system of government on a constitutional basis, and reestablish the throne of his house on the liberty of his people.” 2)

The great Ralph Waldo Emerson must have thought of the lofty sentiments still ringing in Kossuth’s address, when greeting him at Concord on May 11, 1852, called Kossuth “an angel of freedom”. To the peoples of the old continent Kossuth’s words came as a new gospel. The re-establishment of the throne of the Habs- burgs on the liberty of their people offered a new lease on their lives. To some of them, at least.

Hardly had the ink dried on the newly sanctioned laws of the Magyars, and the long hand of the Vienna Kamarilla reached out to rob the nation of the fruits of the newly won liberties. The frontiers of Hungary burst into flame. Massacre of men, women and children became the order of the day on the Serbian borderland. Jellasich, the Bán (governor) of the Croatians, led an Austrian equipped army of

18,000 men into Hungary championing the cause of his Habsburg masters and the cause of “Holy Russia”. 3) At the time when the newly organized “Honvéd” armies of the Magyars were locked in a life and death struggle, the Czehs issued a call for the convening of an All-Slav Congress to be held in Prague. The conveners of the congress declared in a proclamation:

“We solemnly declare that we are resolved to remain loyal to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, which reigns over us by virtue of hereditary rights and constitutional principles. We are resolved to maintain the integrity

and independence of the Empire by every means in our power. We repel all the accusations of separatism, Pan-Slavism, and pro-Russian tendencies which may

be brought against us by evil disposed calumniators.” Notwithstanding these protestations, the dominant note in the Congress’ proceedings was the promotion of Pan-Slav interests, and “its significance is that it was the first overt declaration of the aspiration of the Russian Slavs”. 4)

The spring of 1849 saw the utter rout of the mighty Austrian army and its expulsion from Magyar soil. The emperor was compelled to beg help from the Tsar of all Russians, in response of which a Russian army of 150,000 men was dispatched into Hungary. Commanding General Arthur Görgey ordered his army, on August 11, 1949, to lay down its arms before Russian General Rüdiger. The war for Magyar independence was over.

(5) Discussing the “miracle” of Greece, the splendid come-back staged by the Greek people from the deadly grip of Red Communism, Dorothy Thompson thrusts forward a blunt question: “Why — one asks oneself — did Czeho- slovakia, an advanced and well organized state, never lift a gun against either of its conquerors (i. e., Hitler and Mussolini)?” Without giving a direct answer to her own question, she goes on to say:

“The answer is not to be discerned in the intellect, but in the soul. The Greeks responded to, accepted and created Christianity out of the words of a Galilean because they understood the soul. No man before Christ had come nearer to His spirit than a Greek: Sokrates.” E)

Before discussing the question of Czeh valor, which will come in due course of time, another matter of more immediate nature demands our

2) Endre Sebestyén, Kossuth, a Magyar Apostle of

World Democracy, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1950, Expert Printing Co., Pittsburgh 7, p. 44.

3) “A union of all Slavic races was the day-dream of the Croats. To take over the power from the Magyars, and give to the Slavs forever a predominance in the National Councils was the glorious reward for a brief struggle. Ignorant and jealous, and in every respect inferior to the Magyars, the Slavs were exposed to the delusive powers of such appeals.” P. C. Headley, The Life of Louis Kossuth, Auburn, Derby and Miller, 1852, p. 80.

“Louis Gray, a young man of literary attainments, openly patronized by the cabinet at St. Petersburg, which furnished him with a printing press, took the lead in the movement which obtained the name of Illyrism. The project was to unite Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Dalmatia in a great Slavonic kingdom by the dismemberment of Hungary and Turkey, and their watchword was: The National Independence of Croatia. May we not trace here the intrigues of Russia in a country where her influence, through the Greek Church, was predominant, against the two nations which could offer any impediment to the fulfillment of Napoleon’s prophecy: ‘En cinquante ans I’ Europe sera ou Cosaque, ou republican.’ ” E. O. S. Hungary and Its Revolutions, London, Henry G. Bohn, Covent Garden, 1854, p. 237.

4) Percy Ashley, Europe from Waterloo to Sera- jevo. New York. Alfred Knopf. 1926, pp. 94, 96.

5) Post Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pa., May 3, 1949.