Revolt Of Hungary
Author: Vambery, Arminius
Revolt Of Hungary
1848
Deep interest throughout the civilized world was aroused by the
unavailing struggle of Hungary, in 1848, for national independence. The name
of Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot and famous orator, became celebrated
in many lands; and in the various countries where he sojourned as an exile
from his own - especially in the United States (1851-1852) and in England -
his eloquent appeals awakened profound sympathy for his people's cause.
Vambery, however, regards Kossuth's compatriot, Count Stephen Szechenyi (born
in 1791) as "the greatest Hungarian of the nineteenth century." He was
descended from a distinguished family, which had given to its country many
champions of liberty. The great aim of his life was to revive the drooping
energies of the nation. As a youth he served in the army. Entering the
famous Diet of 1825, in which, by right of birth, he took his seat in the
Upper House, he distinguished himself by his liberal leadership, and as a
writer and an advocate of public endowments accomplished much for the
education of his people.
Up to the time at which Vambery, the celebrated historian of Hungary,
begins the present narrative, the growth of the national spirit had been more
and more evident each year since the end of the Napoleonic wars. For more
than two centuries Hungary had been under the oppressive rule of Austria.
Hungary had furnished soldiers to Austria in her struggle against Bonaparte,
and the Austrian Emperor had repeatedly promised to redress Hungarian
grievances; but after the fall of Napoleon these promises were repudiated.
Hungary so emphatically showed her indignation that the Emperor was compelled
to convoke the Diet in which Szechenyi distinguished himself. The subsequent
career of this leader, the character and aims of Kossuth, and the insurrection
they did so much to incite are powerfully described by Vambery, who writes not
only as an author fully versed in his country's annals, but also as a patriot
jealous of her liberties, proud of her heroic sons, and loyal to her fame.
For fifteen years, up to 1840, the popularity of Szechenyi extended over
Hungary, and his name was cherished by every patriot in the land. About this
time, however, the great statesman was destined to come into collision with a
man who was his peer in genius and abilities. The two patriots were
representatives of different methods, and in the contest produced by the shock
of antagonistic tendencies Szechenyi was compelled to yield to Louis Kossuth,
his younger rival. Although there was no material difference between their
aims - for both wished to see their country great, free, constitutionally
governed, prosperous, and advanced in civilization - yet in the ways and means
employed by them to attain that aim they were diametrically opposed to each
other.
Szechenyi, who descended from a family of ancient and aristocratic
lineage, and presented himself to the nation which connections reaching up
into the highest circles of the court, with the lustre of his ancient name,
and with his immense fortune, wished to secure the happiness of his country by
quite different methods from those adopted by Louis Kossuth, a child of the
people, who, although he was a nobleman by birth, yet belonged to that poorer
class of gentry who support themselves by their own exertions, and who, in
Hungary, are destined to fulfil the mission of the citizen-classes of other
countries. It is from this class of the gentry, for the most part, that are
recruited the trades-people, the smaller landowners, professional men,
writers, subordinate officials, lawyers, physicians, clergymen, teachers, and
professors. By virtue of their nobility, it is true, they belonged to the
privileged class of the country, and were not subjected to the humiliations of
the oppressed peasantry, yet they had to earn a living by their own work, and
were therefore not only accessible to, but were ready enthusiastically to
receive, the lofty message of liberty and equality which the French Revolution
of 1830 began to proclaim anew throughout Europe.
These doctrines formed a sharp contrast to the views of Count Stephen
Szechenyi, views which, owing to the social position of the man who held them,
were not devoid of a certain aristocratic tinge, and according to which the
most important part in the regeneration of the Hungarian nation was assigned
to the aristocracy. It was a part, however, which the Hungarian aristocracy
was itself by no means disposed to assume. Among its younger members, indeed,
could be found, here and there, enthusiastic men who were devotedly attached
to the person of the lordly reformer, but the great majority of his class were
hostilely arrayed against Szechenyi's aims, and, obstructing the granting of
even the most inoffensive demands of the nation, supported the Viennese
Government, which was rigidly opposed to political reforms and to any changes
in the public institutions of the country. This attitude of the aristocracy
compelled Szechenyi to avoid as much as possible all questions concerning
constitutionality and liberty, and to confine the work of reform chiefly to
the sphere of internal improvements.
The only way in which he could hope to obtain the support of the court of
Vienna and of the majority of the Upper House for his politico-economical
measures, was to remain as neutral as possible in politics. The idea which
chiefly governed his actions was that the country should be first strengthened
internally, and that afterward it would be easy for the nation to bring about
the triumph of her national and political aspirations.
After 1840, however, the bulk of the nation, and especially the small
gentry whose preponderating influence was making itself continually felt, were
unwilling to follow Szechenyi in his one-sided policy. The reformatory work
of Szechenyi during the preceding fifteen years had educated public opinion up
to new and great ideas, but the leaders of that public opinion were now to be
found in the House of Representatives in the persons of Francis Deak and Louis
Kossuth. They wished to obtain for their country both political liberty and
material prosperity. They knew the effect of political institutions upon the
material well-being and civilization of a nation, and they no longer deemed it
possible to attain these objects without a modern constitutional government.
Louis Kossuth, who was born in 1802, was the very incarnation of the
great democratic ideas of his age. He was entirely a man of work and entered
the legal profession, after he had completed his studies with great
distinction, for the purpose of supporting himself by it. Kossuth was present
at the Diet of 1832, when the Government, which conducted itself most brutally
and arbitrarily toward the press, refused to allow the newspapers to print
reports of the deliberations of the Diet in spite of the repeated urgings by
the Deputies for such an authorization, and it was owing to his ingenuity that
this prohibition was evaded. The censorship was exercised on printed matter
only and did not extend to manuscripts. Kossuth wrote out the reports of the
Diet himself, had numerous copies made of them in writing, and circulated
them, for a slight fee, in every part of the country, where they were looked
for with feverish expectation, and, owing to the spirit of opposition with
which they were colored, were read with the greatest eagerness.
This manuscript newspaper produced quite a revolutionary movement among
the people, frightening even the Austrian Government. The latter now
attempted to silence Kossuth by gentle means, promising him high offices and a
pension, but he refused the enticing offers and continued his work for the
benefit of the nation. Foiled in the attempt to lure Kossuth from his duty,
the Government resorted to violence, seized the lithographic apparatus by
means of which Kossuth planned to multiply his manuscript newspaper, and gave
directions to the postmasters to detain and open all those sealed packages
which were supposed to contain the reports. But these arbitrary proceedings
of the Government could not put an end to the circulation of the newspaper;
the country gentlemen, by their own servants, continued to send each other
single copies, and the matter was given up only when the Diet ceased to be in
session.
Then Kossuth, at the urgent request of his friends and, one might say, of
the whole country, started a new manuscript newspaper at Budapest, which
reported the deliberations of the county assemblies. The effect produced by
this new paper was fraught with even greater consequences than the first had
created, for it was instrumental in bringing the counties into contact with
one another, thus giving them an opportunity to combine against the
Government. The latter, however, soon prohibited its publication, but the
prohibition gave rise to a storm of indignation throughout the whole country.
The counties in solid array addressed protests to the Government against the
illegal act and in behalf of Kossuth, who continued to publish the paper in
spite of the inhibition. The Government at last resorted to the most
barefaced brutality. Kossuth, the brave champion of liberty, its eloquent pen
and herald, was dragged to a damp and dark subterranean prison-cell in the
castle of Buda, and detained there, while his father and mother and his
family, who were looking to him solely for their support, were robbed of the
aid of their natural protector.
Although at that period lawlessness was the order of the day, yet this
last cruel and illegal act of the Government greatly exasperated the public
mind, which was already in a ferment of excitement. But while the excited
passions raged throughout the country, the Government, nothing loth, caused
Kossuth to be prosecuted for high treason, and, having obtained his
conviction, had him sentenced to an imprisonment of three years. Kossuth
applied himself during his detention to serious studies, and acquired also,
while in prison, the English language to such an extent that he was enabled to
address in that language, during his exile, with great effect and
impressiveness, large audiences both in England and in the United States of
America. His imprisonment lasted two long years, after the lapse of which he
obtained, in 1840, a pardon in consequence of the repeated and urgent
representations of the Diet.
Kossuth returned to the scene of his former activity as the martyr of
free speech and the victim to the cause of the nation. He very soon found a
new field in which to labor. The Government perceived at last that violence
was of little avail, and that those questions which were occupying the minds
to such a degree could no longer be kept from being publicly discussed by the
press. Kossuth now obtained permission to edit a political daily paper. Its
publication was commenced under the title of Pesti Hirlap ("Newspaper of
Pest") in 1841, and may be said to have created the political daily press of
Hungary. It disseminated new ideas among the masses, stirred up the
indifferent to feel an interest in the affairs of the country, and gave a
purpose to the national aspirations. It proclaimed democratic reforms in
every department; the abolition of the privileges of the nobility and of their
exemption from taxation, equal rights and equal burdens for all the citizens
of the State, and the extension of public instruction, and it endeavored to
restore the Hungarian nationality to the place it was entitled to claim in the
organism of the State.
The wealth of ideas thus daily communicated to the country appeared in
the most attractive garb, for Kossuth possessed a masterly style, and his
leaders and shorter articles showed off to advantage so many unexpected
beauties of the Hungarian language that his readers were fairly enchanted and
carried away by them. His articles were a happy compound of poetical
elevation and oratorical power, gratifying common-sense and the imagination at
the same time, appealing by their lucid exposition to the reader's
intelligence, and exciting and warming his fancy by their fervor. Kossuth
always rightly guessed what questions most interested the nation, and the
daily press became, in his hands, a power in Hungary, electrifying the masses,
who were always ready to give their unconditional support to his bold and
far-reaching schemes.
The extraordinary influence obtained by Kossuth through his paper
frightened Szechenyi, and, to even a greater degree, those whose prejudices
were shocked or ancient privileges and interests were endangered by the
democratic agitations for reform. Kossuth was attacked in books, pamphlets,
and newspapers, but he came out victorious from all contests. In vain did
Szechenyi himself, backed by his great authority in the land, assail him,
declaring that he did not object to Kossuth's ideas, but that his manner and
his tactics were reprehensible, and that the latter were sure to lead to a
revolution. The great mass of the people felt instinctively that revolution
had become a necessity and was unavoidable if Hungary was to pass from the old
mediaeval order to the establishment of modern institutions and was to become
a state where equality before the law should be the ruling standard. The
masses were strengthened in this conviction by the unreasonable,
short-sighted, and violent policy pursued by the Government of Vienna, which
obstructed the slightest reforms in the ancient institutions and opposed every
national aspiration, and under whose protecting wing the reactionary elements
of the Upper House were constantly paralyzing the noblest and best efforts
made by the Lower House for the public weal, while the same Government
arbitrarily supported claims of the Catholic clergy, in flat contradiction to
the rights and liberties of the various denominations inhabiting the country.
The Government, in its antipathy to the national movement, went even
further. It secretly incited the other nationalities, especially the Croats,
against the Hungarians, and thus planted the seeds from which sprang the
subsequent great civil war. In observing the dangerous symptoms preceding the
last-mentioned movement, and the bloody scenes and fights provoked at every
election by the hirelings of the Government, in order to intimidate the
adherents of reform, the friends of progress became more and more convinced
that the period of moderation, such as preached by Szechenyi, had passed by,
and must give way to that resolute policy, advocated by Kossuth, which
recoiled from no consequences. Numerous magnates, all the chief leaders of
the gentry boasting of enlightenment and patriotism, and imbued with European
culture, rallied around Kossuth, until finally the public opinion of the
country and enthusiasm of which he was the centre caused him to be returned,
in 1847, together with Count Louis Batthyanyi, as Deputy from the foremost
county of the country, the county of Pest.
During the first months of the Diet of 1847-1848, which was to raise
Hungary to the rank of those countries that proclaimed equal rights and
possessed a responsible parliamentary government, it differed very little from
the one preceding it. The opposition initiated great reforms, as before, but
there was no one who believed that their realization was near at hand.
Kossuth repeatedly addressed the House, and soon convinced his audience that
he was as irresistible an orator as he had proved powerful as a writer. But
there was nothing to indicate that the country was on the eve of a great
transformation.
The revolution of February, 1848, which broke out in Paris, changed, as
if by magic, the relative positions of Austria and Hungary. Metternich's
system of government, which was opposed to granting liberty to the people,
collapsed at once. The storm of popular indignation swept it away like a
house built of cards. At the first news of the occurrences in Paris, Kossuth
asked in the Lower House for the creation of a responsible ministry. The
motion was favorably received, but in the Upper House it was rejected, the
Government not being yet alive to the real state of affairs, and still hoping
by a system of negation to frustrate the wishes of the people. But very soon
the revolution reared its head in Vienna itself, and the wishes of the
Hungarian people, uttered at Budapest, received thereby a new and powerful
advocate.
At that time the Hungarian Diet still met at Presburg, but the two
sister-cities of Buda and Pest formed the real capital of the country and were
the centre of commerce, industry, science, and literature. Michael
Vorosmarty, the poet laureate of the nation, lived in Pest, and there the twin
stars of literature, Alexander Petofi and Maurice Jokai, shone on the national
horizon. Jokai, who is still living (1886) and enjoys a world-wide fame as a
novelist, and Petofi, the eminent poet, who was destined to become the
Tyrtaeus of his nation, were then both young men, full of enthusiasm and
intrepid energy, and teeming with great ideas.
About these two gathered the other writers and youth of the University,
and all of them, helping one another, contrived, on hearing the news of the
sudden revolutions in Paris and Vienna, to enact in Budapest the bloodless
revolution of March 15, 1848, which obtained the liberty of the press for the
nation, and at the same time, in a solemn manifesto, gave expression to the
wishes of the Hungarians in the matter of reform. The only act of violence
these revolutionary heroes were guilty of was the entering of a printing
establishment, whose proprietor, afraid of the Government, had refused to
print the admirable poem of Petofi entitled Talpra Magyar ("Up, Magyar"), and
doing the printing there themselves. The first stanza of this poem, later the
war-song of the national movement, runs, in a literal translation, thus:
"Arise, O Magyar! thy country calls.
Here is the time, now or never.
Shall we be slaves or free?
That is the question - choose!
We swear by the God of the Magyars,
We swear, to be slaves no longer!"
This soul-stirring poem was improvised by Petofi under the inspiration of
the moment, and at the same establishment where it was first printed was also
printed a proclamation which contained twelve articles setting forth the
wishes of the people.
While the capital was resounding with the rejoicings and triumphant
shouts of her exulting inhabitants, the proper department of the Government
for the carrying through of these movements, the Diet, assembled at Presburg,
lost no time, and set to work with great energy to reform the institutions of
Hungary, constitutionally, and to put into the form of law the ideas of
liberty, equality, and fraternity. The salutary legislation met now with no
opposition, either from the Upper House or from the court at Vienna, and in a
short time the Diet passed the celebrated acts of 1848, which, having received
the royal sanction, were proclaimed as laws on April 11th, at Presburg, amid
the wildest enthusiasm, in the presence of King Ferdinand V.
By these laws Hungary became a modern state, possessing a constitutional
government. The Government was vested in a ministry responsible to the
Parliament, all the inhabitants of the country were declared equal before the
law, the privileges of the nobility were abolished, the soil was declared
free, and the right of free worship accorded to all. The institution of
national guards was introduced, the utmost liberty of the press was secured,
Transylvania became a part of the mother-country - in a word, the national and
political condition of the country was reorganized, in every particular, in
harmony with the spirit, the demands, and aspirations of our age. At the same
time the men placed at the head of the Government were such as possessed the
fullest confidence of the people. The first ministry was composed of the most
distinguished patriots. Count Louis Batthyanyi was the President; and acting
in conjunction with him were Francis Deak, as Minister of Justice; Count
Stephen Szechenyi, as Minister of Home Affairs; and Louis Kossuth, as Minister
of Finance.
The great mass of the people hailed with boundless enthusiasm the new
Government and the magnificent reforms. The transformation, however, had been
so sudden and unexpected, and the old aristocratic world, with all its
institutions and its ancient organization, had been swept away with such
vehement precipitation that even under ordinary circumstances, in the absence
of all opposition, the new ideas and tendencies could have hardly entered into
the political life of the nation without causing some confusion and disorder.
But, in addition to these natural drawbacks, the new order of things had to
contend with certain national elements in the population, which, feeling
themselves injured in their real or imaginary interests, were bent on
mischief, hoping to be able to rob the nation, in the midst of the ensuing
troubles, of the great political prize she had won. Certain circles of the
court and classes of the people strove equally hard to surround with
difficulties the practical introduction of the Constitution of 1848.
The court and the standing army, the party of the soldier class, feared
that their commanding position would be impaired by the predominating
influence of the people. The non-Hungarian portion of the inhabitants,
choosing to ignore the fact that the new laws secured, without distinction of
nationality, equal rights to every citizen of the State, were apprehensive
lest the liberal constitution would benefit chiefly the Hungarian element of
the nation. They, therefore, encouraged by the secret machinations of the
Government of Vienna, took up arms, in order to drag the country, which was
preparing to take possession of her new liberties, into a civil war. The
Croatians, under the lead of Ban Jellachich, and the Wallachs and Serbs, led
by other imperial officers, and yielding to their persuasions, rose in
rebellion against Hungary, and began to persecute, plunder, and murder the
Hungarians living among them.
Dreadful atrocities were committed in the southern and eastern portions
of Hungary, hundreds and hundreds of families were massacred in cold blood,
and entire villages and cities were deserted by their inhabitants, just as had
previously happened at the approach of the Turks, and thousands were compelled
to abandon their all to the rebels, in order to escape with their bare lives.
In the course of a few weeks, the flames of rebellion had spread over a large
part of the country, and the Hungarian element, instead of enjoying the
liberties won for the whole nation after a bitter struggle of many decades,
was under the sad necessity of resorting to armed force in order to
reestablish the internal peace. The Hungarians now had to prove on the
battlefield and in bloody engagements that they were worthy of liberty and
capable of defending it.
The Government, which, by virtue of the new laws, had meanwhile
transferred its seat to Budapest, displayed extraordinary energy in the face
of the sad difficulties besetting it. As it was impossible to rely upon the
Austrian soldiers who were still in the country, it exerted itself to create
and to organize a national army. A portion of the National Guard entered the
national army under the name of honveds ("defenders of the country"), a name
which became before long famous throughout the civilized world for the
brilliant military achievements connected with it. The Hungarian soldiers
garrisoning the Austrian principalities hastened home, braving the greatest
dangers, partly accompanied by their officers and partly without them. The
famous Hungarian hussars, especially, returned in great number to offer their
services to their imperilled country. But all this proved insufficient, and
as soon as the National Assembly, elected under the new constitution, met,
Kossuth, who had been the life and soul of the Government during this trying
and critical period, called upon the nation to raise large armies for the
defence of the country.
The session of July 11th, during which Kossuth introduced in the House of
Representatives his motions relating to the subject, presented a scene which
beggars all description. Kossuth ascended the tribune pale and haggard with
illness, but the long-continued applause that greeted him after the first few
sentences soon gave him back his strength and his marvellous oratorical power.
When he had concluded his speech and submitted to the House his request for
two hundred thousand soldiers and the necessary money, a momentary pause of
deep silence ensued. Suddenly Paul Nyary, the leader of the opposition,
arose, and lifting his right arm toward heaven, exclaimed: "We grant it!" The
House was in a fever of patriotic excitement; all the Deputies rose from their
seats, shouting, "We grant it; we grant it!" Kossuth, with tears in his eyes,
bowed to the representatives of the people and said, "You have risen like one
man, and I bow down before the greatness of the nation."
These sacrifices on the part of the country had become a matter of urgent
necessity. The Serb and Wallach insurrection assumed every day larger
proportions, while the Croats, under the leadership of Jellachich, entered
Hungarian territory with the fixed determination of depriving the nation of
her constitutional liberties. But the Hungarian Government was already able
to send an army against the Croatians, who were marching on Budapest,
plundering and laying waste everything before them. They were surrounded by
the Hungarian forces, and a part of their army, nine thousand men strong, was
compelled to lay down its arms, while Jellachich, with his remaining forces,
precipitately fled from the country. The young Hungarian army had thus proved
itself equal to the task of repelling the attack of the Croats, but the recent
events were nevertheless fraught with the gravest consequences.
The news of the Croatian invasion filled the Hungarians with deep
anxiety, and the extraordinary excitement caused by it cast a permanent cloud
over the soul of that great and noble man, Count Szechenyi. The mind of the
great patriot who had initiated the national movement gave way under the
strain of the frightful rumors coming from the Croatian frontier. He had been
ailing for some time, and his nervousness increased so greatly under the
pressure of the great events following one another in rapid succession, that
when the news came that the enemy had invaded the country he thought Hungary
was lost. His despair darkened his mind and he sought death in the waves of
the Danube. His family removed him to a private asylum near Vienna, where he
recovered his mental faculties, and even wrote several books. But he was
never entirely cured of his hallucination, and, exasperated by the vexations
he was subjected to by the Viennese Government, even in the asylum, the great
patriot put an end to his own life on April 8, 1860, by a pistol-shot.
Jellachich's incursion had other important political consequences. The
attack on Hungary had been made by Jellachich in the name of the Viennese
Government, and the intimate connection between the domestic disorders and the
court of Vienna became more and more apparent. This state of things rendered
inevitable a struggle between Hungary and the unconstitutional action of the
court. The Austrian forces were arming against Hungary on every side.
Vienna, too, rose in rebellion against the court, and now the Hungarians
hastened to assist the revolutionists in the Austrian capital. Unfortunately
the young national army was not ripe yet for so great a military enterprise,
and Prince Windischgraetz, having crushed the revolution in Vienna, invaded
Hungary.
A last attempt was now made by the Hungarians to negotiate peace with the
court, but it failed, Windischgraetz being so elated with his success that
nothing short of unconditional submission on the part of the country would
satisfy him. To accept such terms would have been both cowardly and suicidal,
and the nation, therefore, driven to the sad alternative of war, determined
rather to perish gloriously than pusillanimously to submit to be enslaved by
the court. They followed the lead of Kossuth, who was now at the head of the
Government, while Gorgei was the Commander-in-Chief of the Hungarian Army.
The two names of Kossuth and Gorgei soon constituted the glory of the nation.
While these two acted in harmony they achieved brilliant triumphs, but their
personal antagonism greatly contributed, at a subsequent period, to the
calamities of the country.
Windischgraetz took possession of Buda in January, 1849, thus compelling
Kossuth to transfer the seat of Government to Debreczin, while Gorgei withdrew
with his army to the northern part of Hungary; but the national army fought
victoriously against the Serbs and Wallachs, and the situation of the
Hungarians had, in the course of the winter, become more favorable all over
the country. The genius of Kossuth brought again and again, as if by magic,
fresh armies into the field, and he was indefatigable in organizing the
defence of the country. Distinguished generals like Gorgei, Klapka,
Damjanics, and Bem transformed the raw recruits, in a wonderfully short time,
into properly disciplined troops, who were able to hold their own and bravely
contend against the old and tried imperial forces whom they put to flight at
every point.
The fortunes of war changed in favor of the Hungarians in the latter part
of January, 1849. Klapka achieved the first triumph, which was followed by
the brilliant victory won by one of Gorgei's divisions commanded by Guyon in
the Battle of Branyiszko, and very soon the Hungarian armies acted on the
offensive at all points. In the course of a few weeks they achieved, chiefly
under Gorgei's leadership, great and complete victories over the enemy near
Szolnok, Hatvan, Bicske, Waitzen, Isaszegh, Nagy Sarlo, and Komarom.
Windischgraetz lost both the campaign and his office as commander-in-chief.
Toward the close of the spring of 1849, after besieged Komorn had been
relieved by the Hungarians, and Bem had driven from Translyvania not only the
Austrians, but the Russians who had come to their assistance, the country was
almost freed from her enemies, and only two cities, Buda and Temesvar,
remained in the hands of the Austrians. The glorious efforts made by the
nation were attended at last by splendid successes, and the civilized world
spoke with sympathy and respect of the Hungarian people, who had signally
shown their ability to defend their liberties, constitution, and national
existence.
It should have been the mission of diplomacy, at this conjuncture, to
turn to advantage the recent military successes by negotiating an honorable
peace with the humbled dynasty, as had been done before in the history of the
country, after similar military achievements by the ancient national leaders,
Bocskay and Bethlen. Gorgei, at the head of the army, was disposed to
conclude peace. But the Hungarian Parliament sitting in Debreczin, led by
Kossuth and under the influence of the recent victories, was determined to
pursue a different course. The royal house at Hapsburg, whose dynasty had
ruled over Hungary for three centuries, was declared to have forfeited its
right to the throne by instigating and bringing upon the country the
calamities of a great war. This act had a bad effect, especially on the army,
tending also to heighten the personal antagonism between Kossuth and Gorgei.
But its worst consequence was that it gave Russia a pretext for armed
intervention. The Emperor Francis Joseph entered into an alliance with the
Czar of Russia, the purpose of which was to reconquer seceded Hungary and
ultimately to crush her liberty.
One more brilliant victory was achieved by the Hungarian arms before the
fatal blow was aimed at the country. The fortress of Buda was taken after a
gallant assault, in the course of which the Austrian commandant bombarded the
defenceless city of Pest on the opposite bank of the Danube, and thus the
capital, too, was restored to the country. Yet after this last glorious feat
of war, good fortune deserted the national banners. The grand heroic epoch
was hastening to its tragic end. Two hundred thousand Russians crossed the
borders of Hungary, and were there reenforced by sixty thousand to seventy
thousand Austrians, whom the Viennese Government had succeeded in collecting
for a last great effort.
It was easy to foresee that the exhausted Hungarian army could not long
resist the superior numbers opposed to them. For months they continued the
gallant fight, and in one of these fierce engagements Petofi, the beloved poet
of the nation, lost his life; but in the month of August the Russians had
already succeeded in surrounding Gorgei's army. Gorgei, who was now invested
with the supreme power, perceiving that all further effusion of blood was
useless, surrendered, in the sight of the Russian army, the sword he had so
gloriously worn in many a battle, near Vilagos, on August 13, 1849. The
remaining Hungarian armies followed his example, and either capitulated or
disbanded. The brave army of the honveds was no more, and the gallant
struggle for liberty was put an end to by the Russian forces. Kossuth and
many other Hungarians sought refuge in Turkey.
Above Komorn, the largest fortress in the country, alone the Hungarian
colors were still floating. General Klapka, its commandant, bravely defended
it, and continued to hold it for six weeks after the sad catastrophe of
Vilagos. The brave defender, seeing at last that further resistance served no
purpose, as the Hungarian army had ceased to exist, and the whole country had
passed into the hands of the Austrians, capitulated upon the most honorable
terms. This was the concluding act of the heroic struggle of the Hungarian
people, the brave attitude of the garrison and their commander adding another
bright page to the honorable record of the military achievements of 1848 and
1849.
As soon as the Imperialists had obtained possession of Komorn, their
commander-in-chief, Baron Haynau, began to persecute the patriots, and to
commit the most cruel atrocities against them. Those who had taken part in
the national war were brought before a court-martial and summarily executed.
The bloody work of the executioner began on October 6th. Count Louis
Batthyanyi was shot at Pest, and thirteen gallant generals, belonging to
Gorgei's army, met their deaths at Arad. Wholesale massacres were committed
throughout the country, until at last the conscience of Europe rose up against
these cruel butcheries, and the court itself removed the sanguinary Baron from
the scene of his inhuman exploits. The best men in the country were thrown
into prison, and thousands of families had to mourn for dear ones who had
fallen victims to the implacable vindictiveness of the Austrian Government.
Once more the gloom of oppression settled upon the unhappy country.
Many of the patriots had accompanied Kossuth to Turkey or found a refuge
in other foreign countries, and for ten years a great number of distinguished
Hungarians were compelled to taste the bitterness of exile. Kossuth himself
went subsequently to England, and visited also the United States. In the
latter country he was enthusiastically received by the great and free American
people, who took delight in his lofty eloquence. During the Crimean War, and
the War of 1859 in Italy, Kossuth and the Hungarian exiles were zealously
laboring to free their country, by foreign aid, from the thraldom of
oppression. At last, however, the Hungarian nation succeeded in reconquering,
without any aid from abroad, by her own exertions, her national and political
rights, and made her peace with the ruling dynasty. But the Hungarian exiles
had their full share in the work of reconciliation, for it was owing to their
exertions that the nations of Europe remembered that, in spite of Vilagos,
Hungary still existed, and that again, at home, the people of Hungary were not
permitted to lose their faith in a better and brighter future.
Kossuth, the Nestor of the struggle for liberty, lives at present [1886]
in retirement in Turin, ^1 and, although separated from his people by
diverging political theories, his countrymen will forever cherish in him the
great genius who gave liberty to millions of the oppressed peasantry, and who
inscribed indelibly on the pages of the national legislation the immortal
principles of liberty and equality of rights.
[Footnote 1: Kossuth died at Turin, Italy, March 20, 1894. - Ed.]
