Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:53, 17 January 2014

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Lajos Kossuth" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Lajos Kossuth
Governor-President of Hungary
In office 14 April 1849 – 11 August 1849
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	Artúr Görgey (as acting civil and military authority)
President of the Committee of National Defence
In office 2 October 1848 – 1 May 1849
Preceded by	Lajos Batthyány (Prime Minister)
Succeeded by	Bertalan Szemere (Prime Minister)
Personal details
Born	(1802-09-19)19 September 1802 Monok, Kingdom of Hungary
Died	20 March 1894(1894-03-20) (aged 91) Turin, Kingdom of Italy
Resting place	Kerepesi Cemetery

Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (Hungarian: [ˈlɒjoʃ ˈkoʃuːt], archaically Template:Lang-en; Ľudovít Košút in Slovak; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe. Kossuth's bronze bust can be found in the United States Capitol with the inscription: "Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848–1849".

Family

Lajos Kossuth was born in Monok, Kingdom of Hungary, a small town in the county of Zemplén, as the oldest of four children in a Protestant noble family. His father – László Kossuth (1762–1839) – belonged to the lower nobility, had a small estate and was a lawyer by profession. László Kossuth had two brothers (Simon Kossuth and György Kossuth) and one sister (Jana). The ancestors of the Kossuth family had lived in the county of Turóc (now Template:Lang-sk, northwest Slovakia) in the north of Hungary since the 13th century. The Slovak ancestry of Kossuth never became the topic of political debate for him because the family was part of the Hungarus nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary. Kossuth considered himself an ethnic Hungarian (Magyar) and stated that there was no Slovak nation in the Kingdom of Hungary. He wrote about himself that "I was born Hungarian and brought up as a Hungarian." The mother of Lajos Kossuth, Karolina Weber, (1770–1853) was born to a Lutheran family of German descent living in Upper Hungary (today Slovakia). Her parents were András Wéber and Erzsébet Hidegkövy.

Early years

His mother raised the children as strict Lutherans. Kossuth studied at the Piarist college of Sátoraljaújhely and one year in the Calvinist college of Sárospatak and the University of Pest (now Budapest). Aged nineteen, he entered his father's legal practice. He was popular locally, and having been appointed steward to the countess Szapáry, a widow with large estates, he became her voting representative in the county assembly and settled in Pest. He was subsequently dismissed on the grounds of some misunderstanding in regards to estate funds.

Entry into national politics

Shortly after his dismissal by Countess Szapáry, Kossuth was appointed as deputy to Count Hunyady at the National Diet. The Diet met during 1825–1827 and 1832–1836 in Pressburg (Pozsony, present Bratislava), then capital of Hungary. Only the upper aristocracy could vote in the House of Magnates (similar to the House of Lords in Britain), however, and Kossuth took little part in the debates. At the time, a struggle to reassert a Hungarian national identity was beginning to emerge under able leaders – most notably Wesselényi and the Széchenyis. In part, this was also a struggle for economic and political reforms against the stagnant Austrian government. Kossuth's duties to Count Hunyady included reporting on Diet proceedings in writing, as the Austrian government, fearing popular dissent, had banned published reports. The high quality of Kossuth's letters led to their being circulated in manuscript among other liberal magnates. Readership demands led him to edit an organized parliamentary gazette (Országgyűlési tudósítások); spreading his name and influence further. Orders from the Official Censor halted circulation by lithograph printing. Distribution in manuscript by post was forbidden by the government, although circulation by hand continued.

In 1836 the Diet was dissolved. Kossuth continued to report (in letter form), covering the debates of the county assemblies. This new-found publicity gave the assemblies national political prominence. Previously they had had little idea of each other's proceedings. His skilful embellishment of the speeches from the liberals and reformers enhanced the impact of his newsletters. After the prohibition of his parliamentary gazette, Kossuth loudly demanded the legal declaration of freedom of the press and of speech in Hungary and in the entire Habsburg Empire. The government attempted in vain to suppress the letters, and, other means having failed, he was arrested in May 1837, with Wesselényi and several others, on a charge of high treason. After spending a year in prison at Buda awaiting trial, he was condemned to four more years' imprisonment. His strict confinement damaged his health, but he was allowed to read. He greatly increased his political knowledge, and also acquired, from the study of the Bible and Shakespeare, a thorough knowledge of English.

The arrests had caused great indignation. The Diet, which reconvened in 1839, demanded the release of the prisoners, and refused to pass any government measures. Metternich long remained obdurate, but the danger of war in 1840 obliged him to give way. Wesselényi had been broken by his imprisonment, but Kossuth, partly supported by the frequent visits of Teresa Meszleny, emerged from prison unbroken. Immediately after his release, Kossuth and Meszleny were married, and she remained a firm supporter of his politics. Although Meszleny was a Catholic, Roman Catholic priests refused to bless the marriage, as Kossuth, a Protestant, would not convert. This experience influenced Kossuth's firm defense of mixed marriages.

They had three children:

• Kossuth Ferenc Lajos Ákos (1841–1914), Minister for Trade between 1906–1910.
• Kossuth Vilma (1843–1862)
• Kossuth Lajos Tódor Károly (1844–1918).

Journalist and political leader

Kossuth had now become a national icon. He regained full health in January 1841 and was appointed editor of Pesti Hírlap, a new Liberal party newspaper. Notably, the government agreed to grant a licence. The paper achieved unprecedented success, soon reaching the then immense circulation of 7000 copies. A competing pro-government newspaper, Világ, started up, but it only served to increase Kossuth's visibility and add to the general political fervour.

Kossuth pleaded in the newspaper Pesti Hirlap for rapid Magyarization: "Let us hurry, let us hurry to Magyarize the Croats, the Romanians, and the Saxons, for otherwise we shall perish". In 1842 he argued that Hungarian had to be the exclusive language in public life. He also stated that in one country it is impossible to speak in a hundred different languages. There must be one language and in Hungary this must by Hungarian. Kossuth's assimilatory ambitions were disapproved by Zsigmond Kemény, though he supported a multinational state led by Magyars.

István Széchenyi criticized Kossuth for "pitting one nationality against another".He publicly warned Kossuth that his appeals to the passions of the people would lead the nation to revolution. Kossuth, undaunted, did not stop at the publicly reasoned reforms demanded by all Liberals: the abolition of entail, the abolition of feudal burdens and taxation of the nobles. He went on to broach the possibility of separating from Austria. By combining this nationalism with an insistence on the superiority of the Magyar culture to the culture of Slavonic inhabitants of Hungary, he sowed the seeds of both the collapse of Hungary in 1849 and his own political demise.

In 1844, Kossuth was dismissed from Pesti Hírlap after a dispute with the proprietor over salary. It is believed that the dispute was rooted in government intrigue. Kossuth was unable to obtain permission to start his own newspaper. In a personal interview, Metternich offered to take him into the government service. Kossuth refused and spent the next three years without a regular position. He continued to agitate on behalf of both political and commercial independence for Hungary. He adopted the economic principles of Friedrich List, and was the founder of a "Védegylet" society – whose members consumed only Hungarian produce. He also argued for the creation of a Hungarian port at Fiume (Rijeka).

In autumn 1847, Kossuth was able to take his final key step. Due to the support of Lajos Batthyány during a keenly fought campaign, he was elected to the new Diet as member for Pest. He proclaimed: "Now that I am a deputy, I will cease to be an agitator." He immediately became chief leader of the Opposition Party. Ferenc Deák was absent. Batthyány, István Széchenyi, Szemere and József Eötvös, his political rivals, felt that his personal ambition and egoism led him to assume the chief place, and to use his parliamentary position to establish himself as leader of the nation; but before his eloquence and energy all apprehensions were useless. His eloquence was of that nature, in its impassioned appeals to the strongest emotions, that it required for its full effect the highest themes and the most dramatic situations. In a time of rest, though he could never have been obscure, he would never have attained the highest power. It was therefore a necessity of his nature, perhaps unconsciously, always to drive things to a crisis.

Debate of reformers

Count Széchenyi judged the reform system of Kossuth in the pamphlet of Kelet Népe from 1841. According to Széchenyi: the economic, political and social reforms have to be installed slowly and very carefully so that Hungary avoid the violent interference of the Habsburg dynasty, which interference can lead to a tragic end.

Széchenyi was listening to the spread of the expansion of Kossuth’s ideas in the Hungarian society, which did not consider the good relation to the Habsburg dynasty. Kossuth ignored the role of aristocracy, and he intruded any kinds of social stratus.

In contrast, Kossuth believed that the society could not be forced into a passive role by any reasons trough the social changing. According to Kossuth the wider social movements can’t be continually excluded from the political life. Therefore, he supported democracy and he did not believe the allmighty of the elites and the government. In 1885, Kossuth named Széchenyi as a liberal elitist aristocrat, while he consedered him to be a democrat.

Széchenyi's economic policy based on the Anglo-Saxon free-market principles, while Kossuth supported the protective tariffs due to the weaker Hungarian industrial sector. Kossuth wanted to build a rapidly industrialized country in his vision, while Széchenyi wanted to preserve the traditionally strong agricultural sector as the main character of the economy.

Regent-President of Hungary

Success

The crisis came, and he used it to the full. On 3 March 1848, shortly after the news of the revolution in Paris had arrived, in a speech of surpassing power he demanded parliamentary government for Hungary and constitutional government for the rest of Austria. He appealed to the hope of the Habsburgs, "our beloved Archduke Franz Joseph" (then seventeen years old), to perpetuate the ancient glory of the dynasty by meeting half-way the aspirations of a free people. He at once became the leader of the European revolution; his speech was read aloud in the streets of Vienna to the mob by which Metternich was overthrown (13 March), and when a deputation from the Diet visited Vienna to receive the assent of Emperor Ferdinand to their petition it was Kossuth who received the chief ovation. Lajos Batthyány, who formed the first responsible government, appointed Kossuth the Minister of Finance.

He began developing the internal resources of the country: re-establishing a separate Hungarian coinage, and using every means to increase national self-consciousness. Characteristically, the new Hungarian bank notes had Kossuth's name as the most prominent inscription; making reference to "Kossuth Notes" a future byword. A new paper was started, to which was given the name of Kossuth Hirlapja, so that from the first it was Kossuth rather than the Palatine or prime minister Batthyány whose name was in the minds of the people associated with the new government. Much more was this the case when, in the summer, the dangers from the Croats, Serbs and the reaction at Vienna increased. In a speech on 11 July he asked that the nation should arm in self-defense, and demanded 200,000 men; amid a scene of wild enthusiasm this was granted by acclamation. However the danger had been exacerbated by Kossuth himself through appealing exclusively to the Magyar notables rather than including the other subject minorities of the Habsburg empire too. The Austrians, meanwhile, successfully used the other minorities as allies against the Magyar uprising.

While Croatian ban Josip Jelačić was marching on Pest, Kossuth went from town to town rousing the people to the defense of the country, and the popular force of the Honvéd was his creation. When Batthyány resigned he was appointed with Szemere to carry on the government provisionally, and at the end of September he was made President of the Committee of National Defense.

From this time he had increased amounts of power. The direction of the whole government was in his hands. Without military experience, he had to control and direct the movements of armies; he was unable to keep control over the generals or to establish that military co-operation so essential to success. Arthur Görgey in particular, whose great abilities Kossuth was the first to recognize, refused obedience; the two men were very different personalities. Twice Kossuth deposed him from the command; twice he had to restore him. It would have been well if Kossuth had had something more of Görgey's calculated ruthlessness, for, as has been truly said, the revolutionary power he had seized could only be held by revolutionary means; but he was by nature soft-hearted and always merciful; though often audacious, he lacked decision in dealing with men. It has been said that he showed a want of personal courage; this is not improbable, the excess of feeling which made him so great an orator could hardly be combined with the coolness in danger required of a soldier; but no one was able, as he was, to infuse courage into others.

Failure

During all the terrible winter which followed, his energy and spirit never failed him. It was he who overcame the reluctance of the army to march to the relief of Vienna; after the defeat at the Battle of Schwechat, at which he was present, he sent Józef Bem to carry on the war in Transylvania. At the end of the year, when the Austrians were approaching Pest, he asked for the mediation of Mr Stiles, the American envoy. Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, however, refused all terms, and the Diet and government fled to Debrecen, Kossuth taking with him the Crown of St Stephen, the sacred emblem of the Hungarian nation. In November 1848, Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favour of Franz Joseph. The new Emperor revoked all the concessions granted in March and outlawed Kossuth and the Hungarian government – set up lawfully on the basis of the April laws. In April 1849, when the Hungarians had won many successes, after sounding the army, he issued the celebrated Hungarian Declaration of Independence, in which he declared that "the house of Habsburg-Lorraine, perjured in the sight of God and man, had forfeited the Hungarian throne." It was a step characteristic of his love for extreme and dramatic action, but it added to the dissensions between him and those who wished only for autonomy under the old dynasty, and his enemies did not scruple to accuse him of aiming for Kingship. The dethronement also made any compromise with the Habsburgs practically impossible.

Minority Rights

Despite appealing exclusively to Hungarian nobility in his speeches, Kossuth played an important part in the shaping of the law of minority rights in 1849. It was the first law which recognized minority rights in Europe. It gave minorities the freedom to use their mothertongue at local administration, at tribunals, in schools, in community life and even within the national guard of non-Magyar councils. However he did not support any kind of regional administration within Hungary based on the nationality principle. Kossuth accepted some national demands of the Romanians and the Croats, but he showed no understanding for the requests of the Slovaks

For the time the future form of government was left undecided, and Kossuth was appointed regent-president (to satisfy both royalists and republicans). Kossuth played a key role in tying down the Hungarian army for weeks for the siege and recapture of Buda castle, finally successful on 4 May 1849. The hopes of ultimate success were, however, frustrated by the intervention of Russia; all appeals to the western powers were vain, and on 11 August Kossuth abdicated in favor of Görgey, on the ground that in the last extremity the general alone could save the nation. Görgey capitulated at Világos (now Şiria, Romania) to the Russians, who handed over the army to the Austrians. Görgey was spared – at the insistence of the Russians. Reprisals were taken on the rest of the Hungarian army. Kossuth steadfastly maintained until his death that Görgey alone was responsible for the humiliation.

During this period, Hungarian lawyer George Lichtenstein served as Kossuth's private secretary. After the revolution, Lichtenstein fled to Königsberg and eventually settled in Edinburgh, where he became noted as a musician and influence on musical culture of the city.

Escape and tour of Britain and America

A fugitive

Kossuth's time in power was at an end. A solitary fugitive, he crossed the Ottoman frontier. He was hospitably received by the Ottoman authorities, who, supported by the British, refused, notwithstanding the threats of the allied emperors, to surrender him and other fugitives to Austria. In January 1850 he was removed from Vidin, where he had been kept under house arrest, to Shumen, and thence to Kütahya in Asia Minor. Here he was joined by his children, who had been confined at Pressburg (present day Bratislava); his wife (a price had been set on her head) had joined him earlier, having escaped in disguise.

The U.S. Congress approved having Kossuth come to America and on September 1, 1851, he boarded the USS Mississippi at Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey with his family and fifty exiled followers. At Marseille, Kossuth sought permission to travel through France to England. Prince-President Louis Napoleon denied the request. Kossuth protested in a public manner and officials saw that as a blatant disregard for the neutral position of the United States. The Magyar asked to leave the Mississippi at Gibraltar.

Great Britain

On 23 October Kossuth landed at Southampton and spent three weeks in England, where he was generally feted. Addresses were presented to him at Southampton, Birmingham and other towns; he was officially entertained by the Lord Mayor of the City of London; at each place he spoke eloquently in English for the Hungarian cause; and he indirectly caused Queen Victoria to stretch the limits of her constitutional power over her Ministers to avoid embarrassment, and eventually helped cause the fall of the government in power.

Having learned English during an earlier political imprisonment with the aid of a volume of Shakespeare, his spoken English was 'wonderfully archaic' and theatrical. The Times, generally cool towards the revolutionaries of 1848 in general and Kossuth in particular, nevertheless reported that his speeches were 'clear' and that a three-hour talk was not unusual for him; and also, that if he was occasionally overcome by emotion when describing the defeat of Hungarian aspirations, 'it did not at all reduce his effectiveness'. At Southampton, he was greeted by a crowd of thousands outside the Lord Mayor's balcony, who presented him with a flag of the Hungarian Republic. The City of London Corporation accompanied him in procession through the City, and the way to the Guildhall was lined by thousands of cheering people. He went thereafter to Winchester, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham; at Birmingham the crowd that gathered to see him ride under the triumphal arches erected for his visit was described, even by his severest critics, as 75,000 individuals.

Back in London he addressed the Trades Unions at Copenhagen Fields in Islington. Some twelve thousand 'respectable artisans' formed a parade at Russell Square and marched out to meet him. At the Fields themselves, the crowd was enormous; the Times estimated it conservatively at 25,000, while the Morning Chronicle described it as 50,000, and the demonstrators themselves 100,000.

The Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, who had already proved himself a friend of the losing sides in several of the failed revolutions of 1848, was determined to receive him at his country house, Broadlands. The Cabinet had to vote to prevent it; Queen Victoria reputedly was so incensed by the possibility of her Foreign Secretary supporting an outspoken republican that she asked the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell for Palmerston's resignation, but Russell claimed that such a dismissal would be drastically unpopular at that time and over that issue. When Palmerston upped the ante by receiving at his house, instead of Kossuth, a delegation of Trade Unionists from Islington and Finsbury, and listened sympathetically as they read an address that praised Kossuth and declared the Emperors of Austria and Russia 'despots, tyrants and odious assassins', it was noted as a mark of indifference to Royal displeasure. This, together with Palmerston's support of Louis Napoleon, caused the Russell government to fall.

In addition, the indignation which he aroused against Russian policy had much to do with the strong anti-Russian feeling which made the Crimean War possible.

In 1856, Kossuth toured Scotland extensively, giving lectures in major cities and small towns alike.

United States

From Britain Kossuth went to the United States of America. Kossuth was the second foreigner after the Marquis de Lafayette to address the Joint Meeting of the United States Congress. On December 6, this revolutionary hero arrived in New York to a reception that only George Washington and Lafayette had received previously. President Fillmore entertained Kossuth at the White House on December 5 and January 7, 1852. The US Congress organized a banquet for Kossuth, which was supported by all political parties. Abraham Lincoln met with Kossuth in Springfield, in a celebration which he organized for the honor of Kossuth, where Lincoln lionized Kossuth. Lincoln called him "most worthy and distinguished representative of the cause of civil and religious liberty on the continent of Europe". Kossuth believed that by appealing directly to European immigrants in the American heartland 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. He would not denounce slavery or stand up for the Catholic Church and when Kossuth declared George Washington had never intended for the policy of non-interference to serve as constitutional dogma that caused further defection. This would have be worse if it was known he then entertained a proposal to raise 1,500 mercenaries who would overthrow Haiti with officers from the United States Army and Navy. Kossuth ruined all chances for backing when he openly recommended to German Americans they should chose Franklin R. Pierce for President.The gaff brought him back to London in July 1852. Early the next year he sent Francis Pulsky to meet with the incoming U.S President Franklin Pierce and obtain support for intervention in Europe. Pulsky was to also meet in secret with Lt. William Nelson USN and make plans for an expedition against Haiti and Santo Domingo. The plot ended with the failure of Milanese revolution and Kossuth made no further efforts to win backing from the United States.

Later years: Italy

Attempted leadership in exile

Gradually, his autocratic style and uncompromising outlook destroyed any real influence among the expatriate community. Other Hungarian exiles protested against his appearing to claim to be the only national hero of the revolution. Count Kázmér Batthyány attacked him in The Times, and Bertalan Szemere, who had been prime minister under him, published a bitter criticism of his acts and character, accusing him of arrogance, cowardice and duplicity.

He soon returned to England, where he lived for eight years in close connection with Giuseppe Mazzini, by whom, with some misgiving, he was persuaded to join the Revolutionary Committee. Quarrels of a kind only too common among exiles followed. Hungarians were especially offended by his continuing use of the title of Regent.

He watched with anxiety every opportunity of once more freeing his country from Austria. An attempt to organize a Hungarian legion during the Crimean War was stopped; but in 1859 he entered into negotiations with Napoleon III, left England for Italy and began the organization of a Hungarian legion, which was to make a descent on the coast of Dalmatia. The Peace of Villafranca made this impossible.

Embittered break with Hungarian patriots

The promise of the international conference never took root, and in the following years Kossuth, living abroad in Turin, Italy, had to watch Ferenc Deák guide Hungary toward reconciliation with the Austrian monarchy. He did so with a bitter heart, and on the day before the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (German: Ausgleich) he published an open letter condemning it and Deák. This so-called "Cassandra letter" rallied the opponents of the Compromise, but they could not prevent its adoption and subsequent continuation. Kossuth blamed Deák for giving up the nation's right of true independence, and asserted that the conditions he had accepted went against the interests of the state's very existence. In this letter his vision predicted that Hungary, having bound its fate to that of the Austrian German nation and the Habsburgs, would go down with them. He adumbrated a subsequent devastating European-scale war in the Continent, which will be fueled and induced by extremist nationalism, where Hungary will be on the side of a "dying empire". "I see in the Compromise the death of our nation," he wrote.

From then on, Kossuth remained in Italy. He refused to follow the other Hungarian patriots, who, under the lead of Deák, negotiated the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, and the ensuing amnesty. It is doubted whether Emperor Franz Joseph would have allowed the amnesty to extend to Kossuth.

European federalism

Publicly, Kossuth remained unreconciled to the house of Habsburg, and committed to a fully independent state. Though elected to the Diet of 1867, he never took his seat. He continued to remain a widely popular figure, but did not allow his name to be associated with dissent or any political cause. A law of 1879, which deprived of citizenship all Hungarians who had voluntarily been absent ten years, was a bitter blow to him. He displayed no interest in benefitting from a further amnesty in 1880. Kossuth wrote a one-volume autobiography, published in English in 1880 as Memoirs of My Exile. It mainly concerns his activities between 1859 and 1861 including his meetings with Napoleon III, his dealings with the Italian statesman Cavour and his correspondence with the Balkan royal courts about his plans for a Danubian federation or confederation

In 1890, a delegation of Hungarian pilgrims in Turin recorded a short patriotic speech delivered by the elderly Lajos Kossuth. The original recording on two wax cylinders for the Edison phonograph survives to this day, although barely audible due to excess playback and unsuccessful early restoration attempts. Recording Kossuth's voice was one of the earliest applications of phonograph, and his few sentences are the earliest known recorded Hungarian speech.

Death

He died in Turin on 20 March 1894; his body was taken to Budapest, where he was buried amid the mourning of the whole nation, Mór Jókai delivering the funeral oration. A bronze statue was erected, by public subscription, in the Kerepesi Cemetery. Many regard Kossuth as Hungary's purest patriot and greatest orator. Others saw him as, unwittingly, the author of Hungary's subjugation rather than its independence.

His complete works were published in Hungarian at Budapest in 1880–1895. The fullest account of the Revolution is given in Helfert, Geschichte Oesterreichs (Leipzig, 1869, &c.), representing the Austrian view, which may be compared with that of C Gracza, History of the Hungarian War of Independence, 1848–1849 (in Hungarian) (Budapest, 1894). See also E. O. S., Hungary and its Revolutions, with a Memoir of Louis Kossuth (Bohn, 1854); Horvath, 25 Jahre aus der Geschichte Ungarns, 1823–1848 (Leipzig, 1867) H Maurice, Revolutions of 1848–1849. Stiles, Austria in 1848–1849 (New York, 1852); Szemere, Politische Charakterskizzen: III. Kossuth (Hamburg, 1853); Louis Kossuth, Memoirs of my Exile (London, 1880); Ferenc Pulszky, Meine Zeit, mein Leben (Pressburg, 1880); A Somogyi, Ludwig Kossuth (Berlin, 1894).

Honors and memorials

Hungary

The main square of Budapest with the Hungarian Parliament Building is named after Kossuth, and the Kossuth Memorial is an important scene of national ceremonies. Most cities in Hungary have streets named after Kossuth, see: Public place names of Budapest. The first public statue commemorating Kossuth was erected in Miskolc in 1898. Kossuth Rádió, the main radio station of Hungary, is named after Lajos Kossuth.

Béla Bartók also wrote a symphonic poem named Kossuth, the funeral march which was transcribed for piano and published in Bartok's lifetime.

The memorials of Lajos Kossuth in the territories lost by Hungary after World War I, and again after World War II, were sooner or later demolished in neighboring countries. A few of them were re-erected following the fall of Communism by local councils or private associations. They play an important role as symbols of national identity of the Hungarian minority.

Slovakia

The most important memorial outside the present-day borders of Hungary is a statue in Rožňava, that was knocked down two times but restored after much controversy in 2004.

Romania

The only Kossuth statue that remained on its place after 1920 in Romania stands in Salonta. The demolished Kossuth Memorial of Târgu-Mureş was re-erected in 2001 in the little Székely village of Ciumani. The Kossuth Memorial in Arad, the work of Ede Margó from 1909, was removed by the order of the Brătianu government in 1925.

Rest of Europe

In Serbia there are two statues of Kossuth in Stara Moravica and Novi Itebej. Memorials in Ukraine are situated in Berehove and Tiachiv. The house where Kossuth lived in exile in Shumen, Bulgaria, has been turned into the Lajos Kossuth Memorial House, exhibiting documents and items related to Kossuth's work and the Hungarian Revolution. A street in the centre of the Bulgarian capital Sofia also bears his name.

There is a letter of support from Kossuth on display at the Wallace Monument, near Stirling, Scotland. The building of the monument, dedicated to Scottish patriot William Wallace coincided with Kossuth's visit to Scotland.

US

Kossuth County, Iowa, is named in Kossuth's honor. A statue of the freedom fighter stands in front of the county Court House in Algona, Iowa, the county seat). The small US towns of Kossuth, Ohio, and Kossuth, Mississippi, are named in honor of Kossuth.

A bust of Kossuth sits in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., which also boasts a Hungarian-American cultural center called Kossuth House (owned and operated by the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America). A statue of Kossuth stands in New York City near the Columbia University campus. Other statues of Kossuth are sprinkled throughout the US, including in University Circle in Cleveland, Ohio. There is a Kossuth Park at the intersection of East 121st Street and East Shaker Boulevard, just west of Shaker Square, in Cleveland. In the Bronx, New York, Brooklyn, New York, Utica, New York, Ronkonkoma, New York, Bohemia, New York, Newark, New Jersey, Haledon, New Jersey, Lafayette, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio there are streets named in honor of Lajos Kossuth.

During an impassioned eulogy of Kossuth in New York, Alexander Kohut, a distinguished rabbinic scholar, took ill, and died several weeks later.

Canada

Kossuth Road in Cambridge, Ontario Canada was named in Kossuth's honor.

Famous statues of Kossuth

A bust of Lajos Kossuth was added to the United States Capitol rotunda in 1990.

Works

• Works by Lajos Kossuth at Project Gutenberg
• Memories of My Exile
• The Future of Nations
• Kossuth in New England: A Full Account of the Hungarian Governor's Visit to Massachusetts, with His Speeches
• The life of Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, including notices of the men and scenes of the Hungarian revolution; to which is added an appendix containing his Principal speeches, &c
• Gesammelte Werke: Aus dem ungarischen "Selected Works" Vol. I
• Gesammelte Werke: Aus dem ungarischen "Selected Works" Vol. II
• Die Katastrophe in Ungarn By Lajos Kossuth
• Meine Schriften aus der Emigration By Lajos Kossuth'
• A Pragmatica sanctio Magyarországban. Történeti, jogi és politikai szempontokból By Charles, Lajos Kossuth
• Felelet gróf Széchenyi Istvánnak Kossuth Lajostól By Lajos Kossuth, gróf István Széchenyi

References

1. Parenička, Pavel (14 November 1990). "Košút versus Kossuth". Slovenské Národné Noviny. Retrieved 4 February 2008. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
2. Chmelár, Eduard (2007). "Filozofia slovenských dejín (2): Zrodenie národa". Slovo (38). Retrieved 4 February 2008. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
3. "Wherever we look in Hungary, there is no entity that would constitute a Slovak nationality/nation." ("Bármerre tekintünk is Magyarországon, sehol sem látunk anyagot ily tót nemzetiségre."); A. B. , "Visszapillantás a szláv mozgalmakra." Pesti Hírlap, 26 June 1842.
4. "Kossuth rejected the very idea of a Slovak nation ."; Piotr Stefan Wandycz, The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present. 2001.
5. "Though partly Slovak by birth, he denied the existence of a Slovak nation ."; A J P Taylor, From Napoleon to Lenin: Historical Essays. 1966.
6. Lendvai, Paul (2003). The Hungarians: a thousand years of victory in defeat. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 208. ISBN 978-1-85065-673-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
7. Encyclopædia Britannica
8. "Kossuth, Louis : Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass Oxford Reference". Oxfordreference.com. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
9. Ioan Lupaș. The Hungarian Policy of Magyarization (p. 14). The Center for Transylvanians Studies
10. http://mek.oszk.hu/03400/03407/html/357.html
11. Laszlo Deme. The radical left in the Hungarian revolution of 1848
12. Matthew P. Fitzpatrick. Liberal Imperialism in Europe
13. Peter F. Sugar,Péter Hanák,Tibor Frank. A History of Hungary
14. Mihály Lackó: Széchenyi és Kossuth vitája, Gondolat, 1977.
15. Gróf Széchenyi István írói és hírlapi vitája Kossuth Lajossal , ed. Gyula Viszota, 2 vols. (Budapest: Magyar Történelmi Társulat, 1927-1930).
16. Laszlo Peter, Martyn C. Rady, Peter A. Sherwood: Lajos Kossuth sent word...: Papers delivered on the occasion of the bicentenary of Kossuth's birth (page 101)
17. Richard Frucht: Eastern Europe, Volume I., (an introduction to the people lands and culture) page: 354. ISBN 1-57607-800-0
18. Oskar Krejčí. Geopolitics of the Central European Region: The View from Prague and Bratislava
19. Musical Times (digitized online by GoogleBooks). Vol. 34. 1893. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
20. Donald A. Clark, The Notorious "Bull" Nelson: Murdered Civil War General (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011),23–30.
21. Contemporaneous reports and further information at skocia.co.uk
22. "Kossuth Lajos felvételi kérelme a szabadkõmûves páholyba". Sk-szeged.hu. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
23. Matthew J. Mancini (2006). Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 68. ISBN 9780742523449.
24. Lester H. Brun (2003). Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations: 1607–1932. Routledge. p. 164. ISBN 9780415939157.
25. Thomas L. Krannawitter (2010). Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742559738.
26. Lincoln, Abraham; Cuomo, Mario Matthew; Holzer, Harold (2004). Lincoln on Democracy. Fordham Univ Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780823223459.
27. Lincoln, Abraham; Cuomo, Mario Matthew; Holzer, Harold (2004). Lincoln on Democracy. Fordham Univ Press. p. 376. ISBN 9780823223459.
28. Donald S. Spencer, Louis Kossuth and Young America A Study in Sectionalism and Foreign Policy 1848–1852 (Colombia, 1977)
29. John H. Komlus, Louis Kossuth in America 1851–1852 (Buffalo, 1973)
30. Francis and Theresa Pulsky, “White, Red, Black: Sketches of American Society,” Living Age 37 (April 9, 1853)
31. Stephen Sisa, The Spirit of Hungary: A Panorama of Hungarian History and Culture (Ontario, 1995)
32. Steven Béla Várdy, “Kossuth’s Effort to Enlist America into the Hungarian Cause,” Duquesne University Hungarian Studies (2002)
33. Thomas Kabdebo, Diplomat in Exile Francis Pulsky’s Political Activities in England 1849–1860 (New York, 1979)
34. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Kossuth
35. Hungarianhistory.com
36. Oskar Krejčí. Geopolitics of the Central European Region: The View from Prague and Bratislava
37. Kincsestar.radio.hu
38. Video on YouTube
42. Kossuthhouse.org
43. Singer, Isidore; George Alexander Kohut; Cyrus Adler. "Kohut, Alexander". http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=333&letter=K&search=George%20Alexander%20Kohut. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |work= ignored (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• 1849 newspaper article
• Lajos Kossuth in Scotland
• Lajos Kossuth in Northamerica
• Kossuth at the Capital, NY Times article, Dec. 30, 1851.
• The American Hungarian Federation
• The Hungary Page, featuring Nobel Prize Winners and Famous Hungarians
• Part of his speech on YouTube on a wax phonograph cylinder (1890)
• Early articles of "The Times" about Lajos Kussuth
• Early New York Times articles about Kossuth

v t e Hungarian Revolution of 1848
Belligerents	Austrian Empire Hungarian Revolutionary Army Kingdom of Hungary Russian Empire
Pretext	April Laws
Major battles	Pákozd Schwechat Mór Kápolna Battles of Komárom First battle Second battle Third battle Isaszeg Buda Pered Segesvár Szőreg Temesvár Kishegyes
Other events	1848–1849 massacres in Transylvania Vienna Uprising
Influence	Hungarian Declaration of Independence Surrender at Világos Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867
Leaders for Austria	Ferdinand I of Austria Franz Joseph I of Austria Eduard Clam-Gallas Julius Jacob von Haynau Josip Jelačić Prince Franz de Paula of Liechtenstein Franz Schlik Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz
Leaders for Hungary	Lajos Batthyány Józef Bem János Damjanich Henryk Dembiński Antal Vetter Arisztid Dessewffy András Gáspár Artúr Görgey Richard Guyon György Klapka György Kmety Lajos Kossuth Vilmos Lázár Lázár Mészáros János Móga Alessandro Monti Ferenc Ottinger Mór Perczel István Széchenyi Bertalan Szemere
Leaders for Russia	Alexander von Lüders Fyodor Sergeevich Panyutin Grigory Yakovlevich Skariatin Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich Grigory Khristoforovich Zass Nikolai Fyodorovich Engelhardt Maksim Maksimovich Grotenhelm
Commons

Template:Persondata

• Use dmy dates from December 2011
• 1802 births
• 1894 deaths
• People from Monok
• 19th-century Hungarian people
• People of the Revolutions of 1848
• Hungarian journalists
• Hungarian lawyers
• Hungarian politicians
• Kossuth family
• Hungarian nobility
• Hungarian Protestants
• Hungarian Lutherans
• Hungarian people of Slovak descent
• Hungarian people of German descent
• Hungarian Revolution of 1848
• Finance ministers of Hungary