KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND
by ANDOR
M. LEFFLER
Pastor, First Hungarian Lutheran
Church, Cleveland
At Cleveland's University Circle stands
the unpretentious
statue of Louis Kossuth, Hungarian
patriot. It is one of the
many thousands of typical
nineteenth-century creations found in
public gardens in almost any city of the
Old World. Indeed, this
statue was shipped from Hungary and is
the exact replica of the
one standing in a public garden at Nagy
Szalonta.1 It was a
gift to the city in 1902 by
Clevelanders of Hungarian descent,
commemorating the fiftieth anniversary
of Kossuth's visit to Cleve-
land. Originally the statue was to be
erected on Public Square
and only because of nationality
jealousies2 did the official city
government reluctantly change this first
location. Even then, the
city reserved for itself the right to
remove it some day to a
court of honor.
The importance attached to the statue of
Louis Kossuth by
Clevelanders at the turn of the century
was well merited. There
are few public monuments in Cleveland
which are so intimately
connected with the city's cultural past.
Even today, it plays an
important part in the life of the large
Cleveland Hungarian colony.
On Hungarian "Independence
Day," usually celebrated on the
Sunday nearest to the Ides of March,
thousands of Cleveland
Hungarians gather around it to
rededicate themselves to the demo-
cratic principles propagated by Louis
Kossuth, principles which
are identical with the spirit of the
Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the United
States. The New England
settlers of the city of Cleveland almost
a hundred years ago were
deeply impressed by those same
principles when Kossuth was the
honored guest of their city.
Kossuth, to whose memory and honor the
administration of
1 Geza Kende, Magyarok Amerikahan 2
vols., Cleveland, 1927), II, 218.
2 Cleveland
Plain Dealer, August 1, 1902.
242
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 243
Mayor Tom L. Johnson was willing to
devote a part of Cleve-
land's busy Public Square, had a
romantic career. He was born
in 1802 at Monok, Zemplen County. His
father was a minor
official on the large estate of Baron
Andrassy. Baptized a
Lutheran, Kossuth became acquainted
early with the Bible and
learned to respect the dignity of the
individual. He studied law
at Sarospatak where he showed remarkable
mental powers by
memorizing the whole system of
"Corpus Juris Hungarici."3 As
a result of his published reports on the
proceedings of the Hun-
garian Diet of 1832-36, he was
apprehended by the Austrian gov-
ernment and sentenced to four years of
imprisonment in 1837.
He spent three years in prison where he
studied English from the
Bible, Shakespeare, and Johnson's Dictionary.
On popular in-
sistence he was released in 1840, and
became editor of the first
Hungarian daily, the Pesti Hirlap. The
Budapest Revolt of
March 15, 1848, of which he was one of
the leaders, led to the
declaration of Hungarian independence.
In the newly formed
Hungarian government, he became minister
of finance; and when
Emperor Ferdinand V repudiated the new
government, he was
elected governor of Hungary. He headed
the short-lived Hun-
garian Republic until it was evident
that the national army could
not stand against the overwhelming
Russian forces sent by the
Czar to save the Austrian Empire. In
August 1849 Kossuth fled
to Turkey, where he was interned at
Kutayia as a political pris-
oner. At this point America took a hand
in his future.
The popular demand that Kossuth be
invited to America as
the "nation's guest,"
originated in the State of Ohio. The Rev-
erend Benjamin Franklin Tefft, a Methodist
Episcopal minister,
being irritated by the false propaganda
of the Austrian govern-
ment, and having been educated in
European politics by an Italian
revolutionary, one Signore Alvanola,
took it upon himself to en-
lighten his fellow citizens as to
"the motives and conduct of that
great and true man," and to call
their attention "to his condition
as a prisoner, that something might be
done for his release."4
Tefft's protest produced unexpected
results. A lecture he gave
before the New England Society of
Cincinnati was repeated not
3 Joseph Sarkany, Kossuth Lajos elete
es egyenisege (Cegled, Hungary, 1937), 4.
4 Benjamin F. Tefft, Hungary and
Kossuth (Philadelphia, 1852), 7.
244
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
only in that city but also in
Springfield and before the legislature
at Columbus as well. Tefft's agitation,
together with strong Kos-
suth sentiment throughout the states,
culminated in a resolution
passed by both houses of Congress to the
effect that Kossuth be
invited to the United States as the
"guest of the nation."
At the news of the unexpected American
interest in the fate
of the Hungarian revolutionary leader
and his followers, Kossuth's
popularity in Europe grew to new
heights. With Hungary's revolt
crushed, the last hope of European
republicanism was gone, but
now there was renewed hope. The great
republic of America
took interest in Kossuth. He was on his
way on an American
warship to England and to the United
States. The unprecedented
public enthusiasm in England, the news
of demonstrations in
Italy, France, Portugal, Belgium, and
Sweden convinced him of
the unbelievable: he was the leader of
European republicanism.
Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, and the German
"forty-eighters" were
looking to him for leadership. Addressing the people at Man-
chester, England, he pointed to the only
way democracy could
again enter the continent of Europe:
Your glorious destiny is to offer by
your hand the support of the pub-
lic opinion of England to the United
States, for the purpose of union in the
policy of both countries in respect to
Europe. That union, I say with a per-
fect conviction, would be the turning
point in the destinies of Europe and
mankind; it would be the victory of the
principle of freedom, because, the
United States and England united, they
will not, and they cannot, side but
with freedom.5
Kossuth came to America to convince the
nation of the neces-
sity for this policy. He made one
mistake. He did not foresee
that America first had to solve the
slavery problem before it could
venture abroad.
It was the ever growing slavery issue
which defeated Kos-
suth's real purpose in America. The
abolitionist movement had
traveled a long way since the
establishment of Congregationalist
Oberlin. The Fugitive Slave Law, passed
by the same Congress
which invited Kossuth, proved to be
political dynamite. Upon the
5 P[hineas] C. Headley, The Life of
Louis Kossuth . . . (Auburn, New York,
1852), 366ff.
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 245
news of Kossuth's coming to America, an
abolitionist speaker
at Syracuse said:
A nation in chains, and talk of sympathy
with the Hungarians, and
of sending a ship to bring to the shores
of this country Kossuth! Why, if
Kossuth be a consistent man, instead of
bandying compliments with Cass, he
would send him words that would scorch
his very soul, and say, "If you
have sympathy to spare, pour it over
3,000,000 of chattel slaves in your
midst! . . . If you, Lewis Cass, or you,
Millard Fillmore, or you Daniel
Webster, have a superfluity of sympathy,
send it Southward, and let it con-
sole 3,000,000 of Americans in
bonds!" . . . If he be a patriot a lover of
liberty, whether he fly from the banks
of Danube, the Seine, or the Tiber,
let him go to New England, and find a
home with the persecuted and ma-
ligned abolitionists of the country.6
The Garrison group of Abolitionists7
became his bitter enemy
and remained hostile to the very end.
They called his aloofness
from the slavery question "craven
and time serving conduct."8
The deep South, which preached the
"Greek-democracy" ideal of
Calhoun, was equally hostile to him. But
Ohio and the Middle
West received Kossuth well. His
reception in Cleveland between
January 31 and February 4, 1852, was a
testimony of the citizenry
of the Western Reserve to their firm
belief in the cosmopolitan
political aspirations of American
democracy. Governor Woods at
the meeting of the State Hungarian
Association on February 17,
1852, at City Hall, Columbus, expressed
the sentiment of the
Ohioans:
Thus it appears that there is a combined
effort in continental Europe
to over throw all free and liberal
institutions. This accomplished, what next?
--The efforts of tyrants will be
directed to our institutions. It will be their
aim to break us down. Must we not
prevent this event--peaceably if we
can--forcibly if we must (applause). No
power will prevail with tyrants
and usurpers but the power of gunpowder
or steel--(applause).9
Kossuth understood this romantic thought
in American national-
ism, and at his magic oratory America
became once more vividly
conscious of its national unity and
international destiny before
the outbreak of the "irrepressible
conflict." He was aware of the
6 Letter to Louis Kossuth (Boston, 1552), 107ff.
7 Francis and Theresia Pulszky, White
Red Black (3 vols., London, 1853), I, 183.
8 Letter to Louis Kossuth, 105.
9 Ohio Statesman (Columbus), n.s., IV, 16.
246 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
fact that America possessed in its
nationalism this, "the most vital
and enduring legacy of the eighteenth
century."10
At the time of Kossuth's visit,
Cleveland was already the
chief city of the Western Reserve. Great
developments have
taken place since that memorable day
when the "Rev. Manasseh
Cutler of Ipswich, Mass. seconded the
passage of the Great Ordi-
nance of 1787 which made possible the Northwest freesoil
terri-
tory."11 The State of Ohio had already completed its early stage
as "a melting-pot" for the
Puritan, Quaker, and Cavalier "immi-
grants" who flocked from
Connecticut, New Jersey, and Virginia.
But since the Western Reserve was given
as a special concession
to Connecticut for those of her citizens
who were entitled to land
bonuses from the government,12 it
is not surprising to find that
even in 1852 Mrs. Theresia Pulszky, the
wife of Kossuth's secre-
tary, was impressed by the Puritan
character of Cleveland. She
wrote in her diary:
Our friend Mr. Vaughan, the editor of
the "True Democrat," had
conducted all the arrangements in the
most admirable way. But his task
was comparatively easy, as the
population of Cleveland consists principally
of New Englanders, with whom the love of
order is made innate.13
Suggesting even more forcefully the
Puritan origin of Cleveland's
population were the remarks of the
Reverend Samuel C. Aiken
in one of his evidently popular sermons:
"Those who attend the
theater encourage and support a criminal
Institution,"14 and "the
unavoidable tendency of the theater, is
to dissipate the mind and
to demoralize society."15
By the 1850's there was a large group of
Irish immigrants in
the city who were tactfully noted by
Kossuth in his speech at the
Melodeon praising their love of liberty.
This flattery was timely
and diplomatic, especially since the
Bishop of Pittsburgh had just
then accused Kossuth of being a
socialist and an enemy of the
Catholic Church. There was also a small
band of German immi-
grants in the city. Their leader, a Mr.
Kaylish, in a German
10 Hans K??hn, The Idea of Nationalism (New York, 1944), 289.
11 Harvey W. Cushing, Consecratio
Medici . . . (Boston, 1940), 205.
12 Ibid., 208.
13 Pulszky, op. cit., II, 93.
14 Samuel C. Aiken, Theatrical
Exhibitions, A Sermon (Cleveland, 1836), 8.
15 Ibid., 11.
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 247
address at the Melodeon, pledged their
"means" and their willing-
ness to fight for the liberation of the
"Fatherland." These Ger-
mans were newcomers in Cleveland, and
their presence evoked
this interesting remark in Mrs.
Pulszky's diary:
I. had an interesting conversation with
a German resident of Cleveland,
who, though already a citizen of
America, was not yet Americanised. He
remarked, that, sooner or later, all the
Germans coming to the United States
lose their nationality. I told him that
I thought it was because their lan-
guage and turn of mind are too
metaphysical, so that they must yield to a
practical people.16
There was evidence of an organized group
of colored people in
the city. A "Letter to the
Editor" reveals that they also were
interested in Kossuth:
Would you be so very kind as to inform
the public why the Colored
Committee with some "Material
Aid" was not admitted to Kossuth as well
as other committees. Your truly. An Inquirer.17
The "inquirer" could well have
been Frederick Douglass, who
was mentioned by Francis Pulszky as a
colored "editor of an
abolitionist newspaper in Cleveland,
Ohio."18
Besides the growing cosmopolitan aspect
of the city, there
were other signs of Cleveland's progress
and growth. The city
already had its full share of the
railroad romance. It was the
terminus of two important lines, one
running from Pittsburgh,
the other from Columbus. The citizens of
:Cleveland took special
pride in the fact that they were able to
bring Kossuth on a special
train to Cleveland on one of these lines
and dispatch him on the
other. Cleveland had gone a long way
from those early days of 1834,
when the first railroad19 was built between
Newburgh and "the
town on the lake six miles from
Newburgh," as Cleveland was
sarcastically called by some of the
rival towns in the Reserve.20
The flush of victory and recognition
came.to the city in February
1851, when the Columbus railroad was completed. The Governor
16 Pulszky, op. cit., II, 102.
17 True Democrat (Cleveland, Weekly), February 4, 1852.
18 Pulszky,
op. cit., II, 224.
19 S. O. Griswold, The Corporate Birth and Growth
of the City of Cleveland
(Cleveland, 1884), 21.
20 Western Reserve Historical Society, Tract No. 62, bound in Tracts,
II (Cleve-
land, 1888), 297.
248
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of Ohio, the state legislators, and the
city councilmen of Colum-
bus and Cincinnati were guests in the
city. In due recognition
of the important occasion, the Reverend
Mr. Aiken preached a
sermon on the text: "The chariots
shall rage in the streets: they
shall justle one against another in the
broad ways: they shall
seem
like torches, they shall run like the lightnings."21 He
justified his sermon by saying:
"Let me, in conclusion, recall your
minds to the thoughts already suggested,
that the hand of the
almighty is concerned in the vast system
of railroads."22
From the caustic remarks in the
delightful diary of Mayor
William Case we learn that in 1851
spiritualism was quite the
rage in the city. Mr. Case went "to
visit the girl Miss Loomis,
who sees with her eyes bandaged."
"We tried all manner of
experiments," he writes, "but
could detect no fraud, and she read
everything with ease. I did not like the
idea, though, that if I
held anything first to her forehead, she
failed."23 The good mayor
evidently was not satisfied with the
"Spirits," for on June 16,
1851, he reports that when he was invited "to examine
the medium
and report to the public--declined."24
In this atmosphere of over-heated
sentimentalism Cleveland
was preparing to receive the
"nation's guest," Louis Kossuth.
Tickets were sold at Brainard's Music
Store for the great Kossuth
meeting at the Melodeon. Ten thousand
people were expected to
pay three or four dollars per seat. The
expectation did not prove
too optimistic. Local papers were filled
with advertisements of
the following nature:
Kossuth in England, Illustrated 50 c
at Pearson
Kossuth Cards 10 c, Kossuth Satin
Badges 25 c, Kossuth prints 25 c
at Pearson25
21 S[amuel] C. Aiken, Moral View of Rail Roads, A Discourse
Delivered on
Sabbath Morning, February 23, 1851,
. . (Cleveland, 1851). Text, Nahum, 2:4.
22 Ibid., 26.
23 William Case, Diary, 1840-55, MS., 2871, Western Reserve Historical So-
ciety Library, Cleveland.
24 Ibid.
25 Cleveland Herald, January 29, 1852.
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 249
A little news item from Ohio City--now
Cleveland's West Side--
is a barometer of the highly pitched
emotions:
"The Kossuth exitement extends even
to our neighbor city. A
lady there vows she will call her new
born baby, a fine boy, Louis
Kossuth."26 Geza Kende
reports that in 1902 there still
lived a
gentleman in the city whose parents must
have been real Kossuth
fans, for his name was Eljen Kossuth Wilcox.27
The poets also rose to the occasion. The
Feleky Bibliography
of English Hungarica lists 152 poems
about Kossuth.28 The
poet's voice came not only from such
outstanding literary men
as Whittier, Longfellow, Bryant, and
Lowell, but also from spon-
taneous local bards who were so moved
that the "occasional verse"
had to come forth. As early as January
14, the True Demo-
crat published "Governor Kossuth in America," a
poem by William
Ross Wallace:
Freemen! Shall we stand supinely?
Shall Columbia's thunder sleep?
Up! and bid it roar and mingle
with the storm beyond the deep
With the storm Kossuth is waging
on the kingdoms and the throne
Till, like stars from Godhead bursting
great Republics beam alone!29
This poem with its Miltonic allusions
pointing to a struggle almost
as gigantic in scope as the one
celebrated in Paradise Lost must
have pleased Kossuth immensely, for it
expressed clearly the
sentiment he was hoping to find in
America. There were some
unavoidable local panegyrics.
"Welcome to Kossuth," a poem
by Elizabeth S. Kellogg, sent to
Cleveland from Fairfield, Ohio,
and another of ten stanzas by Mrs. C. M.
.Severance,
were both
published during Kossuth's stay in the
city.30 One must not for-
get Cleveland's own Sarah Knowles
Bolton, who nursed her
26 True
Democrat (Cleveland, Weekly),
February 2, 1852.
27 Kende, op. cit., I, 84. The
English equivalent for the expression "Eljen Kos-
suth," is "Hurrah for
Kossuth."
28 Eugene Pivany, Hungarian-American Historical Connections (Budapest, 1927),
43.
29 Reprint from New York
Times, December 6, 1851.
30 True Democrat (Cleveland, Daily), February 4,
1852.
250 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Kossuth impressions for better than ten
years. In 1865 she pub-
lished in the Literary Recorder her
"Wellesley," a novel on the
insurrection of Kossuth.
Kossuth was God's own gift to the ladies
of Cleveland. Since
the publication of Margaret Fuller's Woman
in the Nineteenth
Century in 1844, feminism had swept the country. There was a
frenzied activity to bring the Golden
Age into quick reality by
the political, humanitarian, and social
activities of the rising
feminine world. Fed by the extreme
sentimentalism of the "ladies'
books," a high watermark was
reached by the 1850's in all imagi-
nable feminine activities.31 Upon
the least provocation "associa-
tions" were formed sometimes for
the most fantastic causes. So
it was not surprising that the cause of
"bleeding Hungary" was
just as warmly supported by the ladies
of Cleveland, as the cause
of "bleeding Kansas" a few
years later. Kossuth himself was a
"prince in armor," stepping
into the American scene as the Saint
George of European republicanism. He
came from the romantic
country of Hungary, a fleeing, but
glorious "Governor," who
as a "wandering bird"32 came to these "happy shores" only to
return as a victorious liberator. He was
the hero of Protestantism
as well. The Turkish government had
offered him Turkish
citizenship if he would embrace the
Mohammedan faith. His other
alternative at the time was extradition
to Austria. He preferred
extradition. This loyalty to his faith
was given wide publicity.
His wife's romantic escape from a
Hungary occupied by Russian
and Austrian forces, and her presence
with him in America,
greatly enhanced his attraction to
feminine hearts. He was hand-
some, theatrical in manner, emotional in
his oratory, and endowed
with a very pleasant voice. His famous
"Kossuth hat," which
was copied by thousands of Americans,
was the final touch of a
perfect hero to a Dickensian democracy.
He knew how to com-
pliment the ladies. In Cleveland he said to them very hand-
somely:
What a beautiful view, to see this
vivifying spirit of the Universe per-
31 C. Harrison Orians, A
Short History of American Literature (New York, 1940),
134ff.
32 Kossuth translated the expression vandor madar as
"wandering bird." "Mi-
grating bird" would be a better
translation. The phase was coined in Hungary, re-
ferring always to the Kossuth exiles,
who were expected-like migrating birds-to return
to the country when the
"spring-time of liberty" should come.
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 251
sonified in the masterwork of the
creation--woman, bestowing its warming
breath upon the chilled hearts of
oppressed nations.33
From a great international celebrity,
such compliment must have
sounded like the very heaven itself to
these highly sentimental
women. Mrs. A. Annie Wade expressed
precisely the feeling of
the ladies of the Western Reserve, when,
in a special "choir song"
which was actually rendered by a church
choir in the Second
Presbyterian Church at Pittsburgh, she
wrote to Kossuth:
Our hearts beat warm for thee;
Thy name we'll shrine in memory's vase
With all things bright and free.34
Thus with all the trimmings of waving
kerchiefs and sighs, the
Cleveland ladies were busy forming a
Ladies' Committee of the
Association of the Friends of Hungary
and placing "Certificates
of Membership" on public sale at
Brainard's Music Store. They
must have been especially pleased with
Kossuth's oration at the
Melodeon, for afterwards they adjourned
to the parlor of the
Weddell House for the purpose of forming
a permanent association
of Friends of Hungary. It was agreed
that every person should
contribute every month at least 25
cents.35 Thus the ladies added
their might to the greatest reception
Cleveland ever gave to a
foreigner.
The general public responded to
Kossuth's visit with such
enthusiasm that it was reminiscent of
the Great Awakening in
Whitefield's days. The friendly press
described the Kossuth ap-
pearances in superlatives: At Palestine,
reported the weekly True
Democrat,36 "from one end of the station to the other, there
was
one dense mass of human beings." At
Salem "there were gathered
an immense throng." At Hudson
"what number were here gath-
ered! Where did such crowds come from?
Many estimated there
were over two thousand." The
incident at the Newburgh station
is expressive of the religious zeal and
personal worship which
greeted Kossuth:
33 True Democrat (Cleveland,
Daily), February 3, 1852.
34 Ibid., February 2,
1852.
35 Ibid., February 3, 1852.
36 February 4, 1852.
252 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
A young man was seen pushing through the
crowd, shouting "Eljen
Kossuth! Eljen Kossuth!" Soon he
reached the car. "God bless you Kos-
suth!" said he, "God bless
you, you are a political Christ." "Say not that,"
said the Magyar, putting both his hands
on his head and blessing him. "He
is the holy one; but for freedom I am
willing now, in humble imitation of
Him, to bear the cross and die on it for
Freedom." The young man wept.37
The Cleveland reception was described as
brilliant:
It was dark when the train, with
Kossuth, reached the depot. The
Banks of the Lake were lined with human
beings. The torch light made all
visible. . . . The O'Reilly office, the
Weddell, the offices of the Plain Dealer
and the True Democrat were brilliantly
illuminated, and a dense mass of
human beings were assembled before the
Weddell.38
On February 2 (the first being
a Sunday which Kossuth spent
quietly attending services) the
celebration continued with renewed
vigor. When at eleven o'clock in the
morning Kossuth was
officially introduced to the city from
the balcony of the American
Hotel, "from the Weddell to
Sanford's Superior St. was one
packed mass of human beings."39 By three-thirty
in the after-
noon the. Melodeon was packed with
people. The atmosphere was
filled with emotional electricity. When
Mayor Case introduced
Kossuth, "someone in the crowd
cried out: 'The voice of one
crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the
way of the Lord.' (great
cheering)."40
Even the children were mobilized. A
group of eighty scholars
from the First and Second Presbyterian
Sunday Schools formed
an "association" and presented
Kossuth with twenty dollars and
a memorial booklet containing the names
and ages of the members.
This activity of the Cleveland children
followed the precedent
made at Philadelphia, where a group of
38 school children had an
oratorical contest for the privilege of
speaking at a children's
meeting where Kossuth was to be present.41
There were some powerful forces in
Cleveland working
against this popular acclaim. On the
night of Kossuth's entry
37 True Democrat (Cleveland, Daily), February 2, 1852.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid., February 3, 1852.
40 Daily Herald, February 3,
1852.
41 P. H. Skinner, ed., The
Welcome of Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, To
Philadelphia, by the Youth (Philadelphia, 1852), vii.
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 253
into the city, the office windows of the
Daily Herald remained
significantly dark. It was evident that
the powerful paper of
the moneyed interests did not side with
the Magyar's cause. Big
business as a whole looked with fear and
alarm on the expression
of public enthusiasm for the man who was
luring the people of
America on a costly and dangerous
adventure. They were sup-
ported by their powerful press all over
the country and by such
intellectuals as Everett, Winthrop,
Prescott, and Ticknor.42 The
conservative government of England,
because of popular anger
against Palmerston's siding with Austria
in 1848-49, was com-
pelled to give wide publicity to the
Austrian propaganda which
was endeavoring to show that the
disturbance in Hungary was
a "war of races." This
Austrian propaganda line was widely
copied by the anti-Kossuth press of the
conservatives and by the
papers under the influence of the Roman
Catholic Church. The
latter, in spite of Kossuth's strong and
repeated protest, saw in
him an enemy.43
Neither of these groups were able to
stop the Kossuth ova-
tions in Cleveland or in the State of
Ohio. The Jefferson-Jackson-
Van Buren line of democracy was firmly
entrenched. The prin-
ciples of the Hungarian Republic were
closely studied in the press
and noted as identical with Jeffersonian
democracy.44 To Cleve-
land and to the State therefore Kossuth
was not another European
revolutionary tramping the country but
the man of destiny who
was to carry their type of democracy
into the continent of
Europe.
Judge Samuel Starkweather expressed this
feeling when at
the Melodeon meeting he introduced
Kossuth to the people as
"the man whom they believe to be
ordained by Providence to be
the great apostle of Liberty on earth,
and whose name gives fear
to tyrants and hope and consolation to
the oppressed."45 Judge
Bissell of Painesville at the same
meeting alluded to an expected
great struggle in Europe by a
significantly prophetic sentence:
"The great wars of the world are
hereafter to be wars of opin-
ion."46 In the name of the Cleveland clergy, the Reverend Sam-
42 Pulszky, op. cit., III,
57.
43 True Democrat (Cleveland, Daily), February 3, 1852.
44 The Columbian and Great West, December 20, 1851.
45 True Democrat (Cleveland, Daily), February 3, 1852.
46 Ibid.
254 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
uel C. Aiken, pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church, expressed
a similar belief: "Permit me to
welcome you, and assure you
of the great respect we entertain for
you as a friend of humanity
and advocate of civil and religious
liberty."47 No one, however,
expressed the sentiment of Clevelanders
more clearly than Mayor
William Case when he officially welcomed
the "nation's guest" on
the balcony of the American Hotel:
I welcome you as one whose life is
devoted to the cause of freedom
. . .
the representative of a gallant nation in which was centered the last great
struggle for Independence in Europe.
Sir, we witnessed that struggle with an
anxious interest, for we have
learned to sympathise with others as we
have taught the trials of our Revo-
lutionary Fathers. . . .
Governor, I esteem it an especial honor
that it has been my privilege
to greet you so near your entrance to
the Mighty West--that land where
Freedom breathes its purest, wildest
air. Sir, you have met, and will again,
receptions, more brilliant with pomp,
and pageantry, and tumultuous joy;
for such are not characteristic of those
now gathered about you; but no
where will you meet with those whose
hearts beat warmer for the cause
of liberty, or whose sympathies are
stronger in behalf of the oppressed . . .
the people of the Reserve, the citizens
of Cleveland.48
These words, coming from a man of Mayor
Case's restrained
temperament, are indicative of the
impression Kossuth was mak-
ing on the people of the Reserve. Mayor
Case was the last man
in the city to allow feelings to run
away with him. His remark
on Jenny Lind's visit to the city well
illustrates his temper:
October 26, 1851--Blowing some, but not
bad. Mayflower came in
at midnight, Jenny Lind and suite on
board. All found they had human
stomacks.49
A man who had only this to say about
Jenny Lind, the darling of
America, could hardly be suspected of
overstatement in behalf of
Kossuth.
It was Judge Starkweather who identified
the cause of Kos-
suth with the historic heritage of
America. In a notable intro-
ductory speech at the Melodeon, speaking
to Kossuth, he declared:
"For who does not feel that the
cause you plead was not the
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
49 Case,
Diary.
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 255
cause of our Fathers, in which they
pledged their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honors?"50 With his
liberal back-
ground Starkweather was especially
suited to appreciate and to
speak for the cause of Kossuth. He came
from the state of
Roger Williams, was educated at Brown
University, and received
his training in political liberalism at
the New York law offices of
the famous Irish lawyer, Thomas Addis
Emmet. He fought for
Andrew Jackson's election, became mayor
in 1844, and was the
first elected judge of the city in 1851.
He endeared himself to
all liberal-minded people in the Reserve
when he pleaded the
case of the Shakers of Warrensville with
such eloquence that "it
seemed to have been prompted by divine
inspiration, as the
Shakers said."51 Through the
lives of such persons as this beloved
judge of the city the Kossuth visit was
translated into a rich
cultural inheritance.
The Reverend Mr. Aiken was the
undisputed spiritual leader
of the city. His opinion carried a great
deal of weight. He knew
this and was seriously aware of his
responsibility. In his famous
"railroad sermon" this
awareness is clearly indicated:
It is the duty of Christians, and
especially of Christian ministers, to
watch the signs of the times--to see
God, and lead the people to see Him, in
all the affairs of the world, whether
commercial, political or religious, in the
varied aspects in which He is presented
to our view in His word.52
Therefore, when Aiken declared Kossuth
to be "the friend of
humanity," his words were neither
spoken nor taken lightly.
The one man who, more than any other,
was responsible
for both the proper introduction and
successful reception of Kos-
suth in Cleveland was John C. Vaughan,
editor of the True Demo-
crat. We learn of his Cavalier background from Mrs. Pulszky's
diary: "Mr. Vaughan is native of
South Carolina, son of a slave-
holder. But he is against institution of
slavery. In Kentucky
he conducted an Abolitionist paper;
later came to Cleveland."53
Vaughan was too busy to make speeches,
but from his vivid re-
ports in his paper, his activities as
chairman of the reception com-
mittee, and his work as organizer of the
state association of the
50 True Democrat (Cleveland,
Daily), February 3, 1852.
51 Harvey Rice, Sketch of the Life of Judge Samuel
Starkweather, MS., 271,
Western Reserve Historical Society Library.
52 Aiken, op. cit., 8-9.
53 Pulszky, op. cit., II,
93.
256 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Friends of Hungary, we know that
Kossuth's cause was close
to his heart. He supported Kossuth in
spite of his own connec-
tions with the abolitionists. To him and
to countless thousands
of Americans Kossuth was not a man with
new ideas, but rather
the man who convinced America of the
possibility of a demo-
cratic order of life on the continent of
Europe. The passion for
the fulfillment of this dream, rekindled
by the eloquence of Kos-
suth, lay deeply in Vaughan's past. In
his celebrated defense of
the Reverend John B. Mahan, who was
accused of helping escaped
slaves at the Mason Circuit Court of
Kentucky in 1838, he clearly
expressed this passion:
We should cause this mighty republic to
rise into greatness, first and
far above the nations of the earth; a
sign to be gazed at--not as a passing
incident, or a dazzling wonder--but as a
living reality to be felt among man
by securing freedom and growth to mind
forever.54
To these people, educated in Jacksonian
democracy, Kossuth
spoke not as a stranger, but as a
brother from the other side of
the Atlantic pointing with prophetic
vision toward the glorious
destiny of the nation. In his first
speech at Cleveland he placed
before his listeners the responsibility
of that destiny, when he
said:
The principles of despotism and despotic
dominion, can be beaten only
by the principles of national
independence and freedom of self-government.
. . . You, only you, can beat down the
execrable opposite principle, by act-
ing as an executive power of the law of
nations, according to the necessity
of your position.55
He restated it again in his second
Cleveland speech:
A Mighty Republic, destined to become
the Executive power of the
law of nations, upon which rests the
independence of the world from all
overwhelming despotism.56
And he saw this world mission of America
not as an opportunistic
diplomacy, but as an inevitable destiny,
logically flowing out of
America's past. Because he believed in
this, he could say: "By
being faithful to your past, you can
have the glory of becoming
54 John C. Vaughan, Argument at the Trial of the Rev. John B.
Mahan (Cincin-
nati, 1838), 20.
55 True Democrat (Cleveland, Daily),
February 3, 1852.
56 Ibid.
KOSSUTH COMES TO CLEVELAND 257
the first nation on earth, you will
conquer the world to your prin-
ciples."57
When in 1902 the
Hungarian colony erected the Kossuth
statue at University Circle, Cleveland
remembered again. "Sixty
thousand witness dedication of statue of
Hungarian patriot,"58
read one of the headlines. Mayor Tom L.
Johnson pointed to the
true function of the Kossuth statue when
he said:
This statue will live; it will be a
guide to those who come after. I
am proud that this city is to have such
a lasting lesson in patriotism by this
monument of one of the world's greatest
lovers of freedom.59
It became just that, a guide. To the
60,000 immigrants from
Hungary this statue became a touchstone
of true democracy. The
spirit of Kossuth was their first guide
to American democracy.
Under the banner of his principles they
rallied to throw in their
influence on the side of liberal
movements in Hungary, often with
telling results. Those who visited them
from Hungary knew that
they would be measured by the Kossuth
principles. Albert Ap-
ponyi, the "grand old man" of
Hungarian liberalism,60 and
Mihaly Karolyi, the leader of the Second
Hungarian Republic
of 1918, reached the heart of the
American-Hungarians through
the homage they paid to the Kossuth
tradition. Even the friends
of Otto Hapsburg made an unsuccessful
attempt to win for the
royalist cause the American-Hungarians
by using the magic name
of Kossuth.61
It was Harry A. Garfield, the son of the
President, who
summarized the sentiments of America
about Kossuth: "He stood
for what Washington stood for; for what
the whole American
people stood for, and he struck a
responsive chord in the Ameri-
can people."62 The city of
Cleveland accepted the scholarly
judgment of Charles F. Thwing, late
President of Western Re-
serve University, who said, "Among
the great ones of the earth
we place him."63
57 Ibid.
58 Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 29, 1902.
59 Ibid.
60 Kende, op. cit., II, 459.
61 "Minutes of the United
Hungarian Societies of Cleveland, Ohio," January-
March, 1940.
62 Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 28, 1902.
63 Ibid.