Kossuth: The Vain Hopes of
a Much Celebrated Exile

 

The 1848 Revolution and War of Independence is Hungary's most celebrated historic event: it left its stamp on all subsequent generations, it has divided and united, a main source of national pride, but also of doubt and self-laceration. Did Hungary go too far in the spring of 1848, or perhaps not far enough? What in fact took place: a social revolution for equality, or a national uprising against foreign oppression, or an archaic revolt of the landed aristocracy, clad in a nationalist guise, against the modern, centralising and supra-national Habsburg regime? Could the war have been avoided, and if not, could complete military defeat have been averted? Who was responsible?
So many questions left open.
The Hungarian War of Independence was the bloodiest conflict in the Europe of its day. The political and national sentiments it aroused still hold sway. Never before or after did the peoples of the Habsburg empire fight one another with such passion and determination.
Lajos Kossuth was the most influential and most controversial of the leading figures in this Central European tragedy, but his position in history is still unsettled. An internationally acknowledged advocate of the Hungarian cause, the most popular Hungarian statesman in Hungary (and often the least popular among our neighbours), the greatest orator and the best administrator, he is also an embodiment of the nation's vices: of nationalistic arrogance, pompousness, theatrical gestures, volatile enthusiasm and naivety concerning foreign politics.
In our neighbouring countries, Kossuth is accused of nationalist demagogy, in Slovakia they speak of him as a renegade Slovak.
If the United States granted him unrivalled popularity, it never became his land of success. Numerous friends and supporters notwithstanding, he failed to secure either money or arms to liberate his nation. The American government turned down even his request of "intervention for non-intervention," i.e. that America try to prevent the European powers from getting involved in the Hungarians' war of independence. American foreign policy could not go along with such an appeal at the time.
As Governor-President of Hungary, Kossuth left his country, along with several thousand followers, on August 11, 1849, after he had appointed General Arthúr Görgey dictator of Hungary. Two days later Görgey laid down arms, not to the Austrians but to the Russians (whose intervention had been requested by the Court in Vienna); this achieved nothing since the Russians handed over the entire Hungarian military and civilian leadership to the vengeful Austrian General Haynau. Among many other people, thirteen generals and Prime Minister Count Lajos Batthyány were executed. Once in exile, Kossuth reassumed the title of Governor-President.
By a special irony of fate and history it was the Ottoman Empire that welcomed the Hungarians, their former enemies. But the Porte was by this time so weak that it could hardly defend the Hungarian refugees from Austrian and Russian demands for their extradition. Eventually most of them were able to return to Hungary under an amnesty, while those who did not qualify under the amnesty or those who refused to live under Francis Joseph and Haynau moved on to other countries. As a result, when Kossuth disembarked on Staten Island in December 1851, he was greeted by Hungarians, many of whom had accepted the offer of the American government to start a new life in a free land as free farmers.
The US frigate Mississippi set out with Kossuth and his close followers on board in September 1881 from the Turkish port of Kutahia, where they had spent a relatively comfortable time of internment. When this man-of-war raised her anchor in the Dardenelles, a triumphal voyage started the like of which the world had never seen. At the main ports of call they put into, La Spezia, Marseilles, Southampton and London, people celebrated Hungary's Governor as the champion of liberty and the enemy of all tyrants.

Kossuth was welcomed in the United States with unique enthusiasm, he was compared on banners and flags to Jesus Christ, Moses and even George Washington. Hundreds of thousands were in a frenzy by the roads he drove along with his elegant escort of Hungarian hussars; spell-bound crowds listened to his splendid speeches, and even those who could not hear a word because of the noise and huzzaing felt that they too were party to a wonderful experience. Many praised his flawless, rich, old-fashioned English. As a matter of fact, we still don't know when and where he had acquired it, for it is only a legend that he had improved his command of the English language to such perfection in an Austrian prison, with the help of Shakespeare and the Bible.
Toast masters called for three cheers for St Stephen, the eleventh century founder of the Hungarian kingdom, and the newspapers carefully described Kossuth's distinguished demeanour, fine beard, interesting clothes and hat, which lead to a long-lasting fad. Speakers welcoming him emphasised that the American and the Hungarian people fought for the same goals, and that Kossuth had been the most successful advocate of the American ideal of liberty in tyranny-ridden Central Europe. As Secretary of State Daniel Webster said, "we shall rejoice to see our American model upon the lower Danube and the mountains of Hungary."
We must note at this point how widely Kossuth and the Americans differed in their view of the future. He wanted to collect money, arms and volunteers for a renewed War of Independence; the American public expected this great republican to settle among them and take up farming, like so many other Hungarians exiles. Kossuth however, was no real republican: he had offered the Hungarian crown to most of the royal houses of Europe. He hadn't even set foot on American soil when speakers addressing the American Senate were charging him with duplicity: in Marseilles he had called out "Vive la République," in Southampton "God save the Queen."
The tragedy of popular, one might even say fashionable, public figures is that they soon acquire many enemies. Upon his arrival in the United States, idle tongues commented that Kossuth was becoming bald, that he was shorter than expected, and that his long sword dragged in the dust. The most serious crisis arose when the American public, then anticipating a civil war, demanded how he stood on the question of slavery. This he could not say, because the emancipator of the serfs knew support from Southern states and politicians was essential to him. He was consequently attacked by the most progressive American politicians and journalists as a traitor to the cause of emancipation.
There were some who resented what they deemed Kossuth's interference in American domestic politics, others that he did not interfere enough. Some complained that his attacks on the Catholic Habsburgs and the Pope hurt the feelings of American Catholics, especially those of Irish origin, and that the attacks provided support for ultra-conservative Protestant Know-Nothings. Kossuth himself, on the other hand, despaired of President Millard Filmore's almost complete ignorance of, and even smaller interest in, Hungary, he also despaired of the fact that despite his having been received and feted by both houses of Congress, nothing was done for the Hungarian cause.
The outcome of Kossuth's visit to the United States, from December 1851 till July 1852, was mutual disappointment. The Americans expected Kossuth to settle in their country and contribute his fame to that of the United States. Kossuth, a great admirer of the American constitution, expected help from the American people for the common cause of liberty. But the foreign policy of the United States at the time was based on the principle of non-intervention, there was neither the money nor the energy for any kind of intervention. The two expectations could not be reconciled.
The American president sent young Dudley Mann to Hungary to decide whether the country was free; if it was the United States would recognise the Hungarian state. Mann had not even reached Vienna when The War of Independence was over, and with every step closer to the country, the emissary, who initially had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Hungarian cause, became more and more converted to the Austrian point of view.
For this reason it is no more than patriotic self-delusion to take pride in the great success of the speeches Kossuth gave in America, in his illustrious admirers, or in the American towns named after him. When Kossuth and his wife took ship in New York-with a passport in the name of "Mr Smith and Lady", for fear of Austrian assassins-only a few Hungarians were at the pierhead to see him off. His visit nevertheless did have a lasting effect: Hungarians remained popular in America for quite some time. Many of them became colonels and generals in the army of the Union, others became American diplomats.
Kossuth remained popular much longer in Europe, collecting money for arms and giving hundreds of speeches. In England alone more than a hundred books and thousands of articles were devoted to his person and activity.
In the ensuing years there were promising moments, as in 1859 when he made an alliance with Napoleon III, practically obtaining his promise to liberate Hungary, but this and other plans came to nothing, primarily because his counsel was no longer heeded in Hungary. The country desired a compromise, development and economic prosperity, and understood that the army of the Habsburg empire was Hungary's ultimate guarantee against the national strivings of its ethnic minorities.
Thus Kossuth became an émigré, almost the only real one from Hungary, as Mór Perczel, General György Klapka, Count Gyula Andrássy and hundreds of others had long returned to their homeland and made careers there. Hungarians profoundly respected Kossuth, made pilgrimages to him in Turin, but did not heed his words. His own political party at home, the 1848 Party or Party of Independence, had become so chauvinistic and ethnically intolerant he could no longer bear association with them. Nor could he establish friendly links with the liberal-conservative Compromise Party, as he himself was never ready to reach a compromise with Francis Joseph-neither was, for that matter, the old Emperor King ready to forgive the other old man. So it was in Turin that Kossuth remained; the uncompromising champion of 1848 liberalism, denominational equality and the emancipation of Jews. He was said to be old-fashioned, failing to keep up with the times; he was in fact right, when it came to equality before the law, civil liberties, freedom of religion and ethnic tolerance.
Kossuth died in 1894 in Turin, at the age of 92. He had been the living conscience of the Hungarian people.