Tonight, the end of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and a day after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it seems appropriate that today’s #stampoftheday honors a Lajos Kossuth, a Hungarian who was one of the world’s best known freedom fighters in the mid 1800s. A Hungarian who was born on September 19, 1802, Kossuth was pictured on 4- and 8-cent stamps, issued on September 19, 1959, that part of a series of stamps issued in the late 50s and early 60s honoring notable “champions of liberty.”
Born into a noble (but not rich) Hungarian family, Kossuth developed into a fiery nationalist. Educated as both a journalist and lawyer, he used his several newspapers and journals to disseminate his then-radical ideas-independence from the Hapsburg Monarchy, industrial development and freedom for the peasant class. In 1847, he was elected to the legislature. The following year, news of the revolution in Paris inspired him to demand a parliamentary government for Hungary and a constitutional government for the rest of Austria. That October, he was made Prime Minister of Hungary and president of the Committee of National Defense.
By April 1849, the Hungarians had several military victories and Kossuth issued the Hungarian Declaration of Independence and was he became the new country’s regent-president. His writings and oratory were so powerful that he was hailed as a key leader of the revolutions sweeping across Europe. Friedrich Engels, for example, wrote: “For the first time in the revolutionary movements of 1848, for the first time since 1793, a nation surrounded by superior counterrevolutionary forces dares to counter the cowardly counterrevolutionary fury by revolutionary passion…For the first time after a long period we meet with a truly revolutionary figure, a man who in the name of his people dares to accept the challenge of desperate struggle, who for his nation is Danton and Carnot in one person—Lajos Kossuth.”
However, new Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, allied with Russia whose army squashed the new Hungarian government in 1849, forcing Kossuth into exile. After traveling throughout Europe lobbying support for Hungarian independence, he turned towards a sympathetic audience: the young, democratic nation of the United States of America. On Friday December 5, 1851 he arrived in New York City where he was hailed as a hero. Reporting on his welcoming parade the New-York Tribune noted: “Almost every store, and many private dwellings along Broadway, were more or less decorated. The Bowery Hotel, No. 395, had a large banner with the following inscription: ‘Freedom is the unchartered prerogative of Human Nature.'” The American Museum on Broadway “was literally covered with paintings and flags. One, a portrait of Kossuth, in the folds of Hungarian and American flags, with the words at the bottom: ‘Kossuth, the Washington of Hungary.'”
The celebrations continued, according to another paper which reported a few weeks later that, “immediately previous to the Christmas of 1851 New York city underwent a period of Kossuth mania, and it affected the holiday presents. Every New Year’s gift associated itself in some designation with Kossuth and Hungary. Restaurants abounded with Hungarian goulash…and there were Kossuth cravats…Kossuth pipes, Kossuth umbrellas, Kossuth belts and buckles, Kossuth purses, Kossuth jackets, and Kossuth braid and tassels for wearing apparel.”
And Horace Greeley, one of America’s leading journalists claimed “among the orators, patriots, statesmen, exiles, he has, living or dead, no superior.” His powerful oratory also impressed and the famous contemporary American orator Daniel Webster wo wrote a book about Kossuth’s life.
Kossuth continued to work for Hungary’s freedom while in America. He became the second foreign citizen to address the joint houses of Congress (Lafayette was the first). He also believed that by appealing directly to European immigrants in the American heartland that he could rally them behind the cause of a free and democratic Hungary. United States officials feared that Kossuth’s efforts to elicit support for a failed revolution were fraught with mischief. Kossuth, for example, entertained a proposal to raise 1,500 mercenaries, who would overthrow Haiti with officers from the US Army and Navy. And he committed a major tactical mistake when he openly recommended to German Americans they should vote for Franklin Pierce for President in 1852.
In part because of such mistakes, he returned to London in July 1852. Although he continued to work for Hungarian independence, his autocratic style and uncompromising outlook reduced his influence among the expatriate community. His former prime minister, for example, published a bitter criticism of his acts and character, accusing him of arrogance, cowardice and duplicity. And Queen Victoria contended Americans “see a second Washington, when the fact is that he is an ambitious and rapacious humbug.”
Kossuth moved to Italy where in the late 1860s, he saw others guide Hungary towards a reconciliation with the Austrian monarchy, a move he bitterly denounced. And in the late 1870s, the new Hungarian government struck back, passing a law revoking citizenship for Hungarians, such as Kossuth, who had been out of the country for more than 10 years. Kossuth died in Turin, Italy, on March 20, 1894. His body was returned to Budapest in a large national funeral. He also has been widely honored in the United States. Kossuth County, Iowa, for example, is named in Kossuth’s honor. A statue of Kossuth stands in New York City on Riverside Drive near the Columbia University campus and a bust of Kossuth sits in the United States Capitol with the inscription: “Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848-1849.”
As I pondered the legacy of this complex figure and what it might suggest for today, I took a look at some of his notable quotes. Kossuth warned against “power that is supported by force alone;” cautioned that “wherever a shadow is cast upon the sunny rays of the sun of liberty, there is always danger of free principles everywhere in the world;” and asserted “liberty is a principle; its community is its security; exclusiveness is its doom.” And, perhaps most relevantly, he contended: “the cause of freedom is identified with the destinies of humanity, and in whatever part of the world it gains ground by and by, it will be a common gain to all those who desire it.”
Those were powerful words in the 19th century. And they still resonate in the 21st century, particularly at this very fraught moment in time.
Be well, stay safe, fight for justice, liberty and freedom, and work for peace.