View source for Lajos Kossuth

{{short description|Hungarian statesman (1802–1894)}}
{{Hungarian name|udvardi&nbsp;és&nbsp;kossuthfalvi&nbsp;Kossuth Lajos}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix   = [[Hungarian nobility|Noble]]
| name               = Lajos Kossuth
| honorific-suffix   = de Udvard et Kossuthfalva
| image              = Portrait of Lajos Kossuth, 1852.jpg
| caption            = [[Daguerreotype]] portrait by [[Southworth & Hawes]], May 1852
| office             = [[Regent of Hungary|Governor-President of the Hungarian State]]
| term_start         = 14 April 1849
| term_end           = 11 August 1849
| monarch            = ''Vacant''{{efn|The [[April Laws|Constitution of 1849]] did not recognize the claim of [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Joseph I]] to the Hungarian throne.}}
| primeminister      = [[Bertalan Szemere]]
| predecessor        = ''Position established''
| successor          = [[Artúr Görgei]] (acting)
| office1            = 2nd [[Prime Minister of Hungary|Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary]]{{efn|''[[De jure]]'' [[head of government]] as president of the Committee of National Defence.}}
| term_start1        = 2 October 1848
| term_end1          = 1 May 1849
| monarch1           = [[Ferdinand I of Austria|Ferdinand V]]{{efn|The Hungarian assembly did not recognize the claim of [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Joseph I]] to the Hungarian throne after Ferdinand's resignation.}}
| deputy1            = Pál Nyáry
| predecessor1       = [[Lajos Batthyány]]
| successor1         = [[Bertalan Szemere]]
| office2            = [[Hungarian Defence Forces|Commander-in-chief of the Hungarian Revolutionary Army]]{{efn|''[[Ex officio member|Ex officio]]'' as president of the Committee of National Defence from 2 October 1848 to 2 May 1849, then as governor of Hungary until 11 August 1849.}}
| term_start2        = 2 October 1848
| term_end2          = 11 August 1849
| 1blankname2        = Supreme Commander
| 1namedata2         = {{plainlist|
* {{ill|János Móga|hu|Móga János}}
* [[Artúr Görgei]]
* [[Henryk Dembiński]]
* [[Antal Vetter]]
* [[Lázár Mészáros]]
* [[Józef Bem]]
}}
| predecessor2       = Lajos Batthyány
| successor2         = Artúr Görgei
| office3            = 1st [[Minister of Finance (Hungary)|Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Hungary]]
| term_start3        = 7 April 1848
| term_end3          = 12 September 1848
| primeminister3     = Lajos Batthyány
| predecessor3       = ''Position established''
| successor3         = Lajos Batthyány
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1802|09|19|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Monok]], Hungary, Habsburg monarchy
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1894|3|20|1802|9|19|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Turin]], Italy
| resting_place      = [[Kerepesi Cemetery]], Budapest
| party              = [[Opposition Party (Hungary)|Opposition Party]]
| children           = 2, including [[Ferenc Kossuth|Ferenc]]
| relatives          = [[Juraj Košút]] (uncle)
| alma_mater         = [[Eötvös Loránd University|University of Pest]]
| occupation         = {{hlist|[[Lawyer]]|[[Politician]]|[[Diplomat]]|[[Journalist]]}}
| signature          = Kossuth Lajos aláírása.jpg
| module             = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Voice of Lajos Kossuth.ogg|title=Lajos Kossuth's voice|type=speech|description=Recorded 20 September 1890}}
}}
'''Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva''' ({{IPA|hu|ˈlɒjoʃ ˈkoʃut|lang}}; {{langx|hu|udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos}}; {{langx|sk|Ľudovít Košút}}; {{langx|en|'''Louis Kossuth'''}}; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, politician, statesman and governor-president of the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848|revolution of 1848–1849]].<ref name=HeadlamEB1911/>

Kossuth, known for his public speaking skills, rose from a lesser noble (gentry) background to become regent-president during the 1848–1849 Hungarian revolution. As the influential contemporary American journalist [[Horace Greeley]] said of Kossuth: "Among the orators, patriots, statesmen, exiles, he has, living or dead, no superior."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://captainjamesdavis.net/2014/02/27/hungarian-president-louis-kossuth-concerning-the-centralization-of-power|title=Hungarian President Louis Kossuth Concerning the Centralization of Power|date=27 February 2014|website=Captainjamesdavis.net|access-date=19 November 2017|archive-date=30 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630022644/http://captainjamesdavis.net/2014/02/27/hungarian-president-louis-kossuth-concerning-the-centralization-of-power/|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kossuth-edc.com/community/kossuthbio.htm|title=Kossuth County EDC|website=Kossuth-edc.com|access-date=19 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304091447/http://www.kossuth-edc.com/community/kossuthbio.htm|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Kossuth's powerful speeches so impressed and touched the famous contemporary American orator [[Daniel Webster]], that he wrote a book about Kossuth's life.<ref name="Webster/1851/Kossuth">{{cite book |last1=Webster |first1=Daniel |author1-link=Daniel Webster |title=Sketch of the Life of Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary: Together with the Declaration of Hungarian Independence; Kossuth's Address to the People of the United States; All His Great Speeches in England; and the Letter of Daniel Webster to Chevalier Hulsemann |date=1851 |publisher=[[Stringer & Townsend]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDosAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}<!-- https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=ha008686900 https://archive.org/details/websterkossuthdi00piv https://archive.org/details/sketchlifelouis00websgoog https://books.google.com/books?id=fn2hy-U7KNoC https://books.google.com/books?id=O8UEAAAAYAAJ --></ref> During his lifetime, Kossuth was publicly honored in countries such as Great Britain and the United States, where he was viewed by some supporters as a symbol of democratic movements 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''. [[Friedrich Engels]] considered him to be "a truly revolutionary figure, a man who in the name of his people dares to accept the challenge of a desperate struggle, who for his nation is [[Georges Danton|Danton]] and [[Lazare Carnot|Carnot]] in one person{{nbsp}}...".<ref name="MS">{{cite journal |last1=Engels |first1=Frederick |title=Magyar Struggle |journal=Neue Rheinsiche Zeitung |date=1849 |issue=194 |url=https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/1849/01/13.htm |access-date=14 July 2018}}</ref>

==Early years==
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2023}}
Lajos Kossuth was born into an untitled lower noble (gentry) family in [[Monok]], Kingdom of Hungary, a small town in the county of [[Zemplén (county)|Zemplén]] in modern-day [[Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County]] of [[Northern Hungary]]. He was the eldest of five children in a [[Lutheran]] noble family of [[Slovaks|Slovak]] origin. His father, László Kossuth (1762–1839), belonged to the [[Zeman (nobleman)|lower nobility]], had a small estate and was a lawyer by profession. László had two brothers ([[Simon Kossuth]] and [[György Kossuth]]) and one sister, [[Zsuzsanna Kossuth|Zsuzsanna]].

The family moved from Monok to Olaszliszka in 1803, and then to [[Sátoraljaújhely]] in 1808. Lajos had four younger sisters.

Lajos' mother, Karolina, raised her children as strict Lutherans. As a result of their mixed ancestry, and as was quite common during his era, her children spoke three languages – [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[German language|German]] and [[Slovak language|Slovak]] – even in their early childhood.

Lajos studied at the [[Piarist]] college of [[Sátoraljaújhely]] and the [[Calvinist]] college of [[Sárospatak]] (for one year) and the [[Eötvös Loránd University|University of Pest]] (now [[Budapest]]). At nineteen he entered his father's legal practice. Between 1824 and 1832 he practiced law in his native Zemplén County. His legal and political career advanced steadily, partly due to family connections, as his father, who was a lawyer for several higher aristocratic families, and thus involved his son in the administration, and his son soon took over some of his father's work. He first became a lawyer in the Lutheran parish of Sátoraljaújhely, in 1827 he became a judge, and later he became a prosecutor in Sátoraljaújhely. During this time, in addition to his office work, he made historical chronologies and translations. In the national census of 1828, in which taxpayers were counted in order to eliminate tax disparities, Kossuth assisted in the organization of the census of Zemplén county. 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 (city)|Pest]]. He was subsequently dismissed on the grounds of some misunderstanding in regards to estate funds.

==Ancestry==
[[File:Monok (Kossuth Lajos).jpg|200px|thumb|The house in [[Monok]] where Kossuth was born]]
[[File:Kossuth 1838.jpg|thumb|Lajos Kossuth's earliest known portrait (1838)]]
[[File:Kossuth 1842.jpg|thumb|Lajos Kossuth in 1842]]
[[File:Kossuth photograph 1847.png|thumb|Early photograph of Lajos Kossuth (1847) [[Daguerreotype]]]]
The House of Kossuth, into which Lajos was born, originated from the [[Turóc County|county of Turóc]] (now partially [[Turiec]] region, [[Košúty (Martin)|Košúty]], north-central [[Slovakia]]). They acquired the rank of nobility in 1263 from King [[Béla IV of Hungary|Béla IV]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Vas|title=Kossuth Lajos élete|publisher=[[Magvető|Magvető kiadó]]|date=1976|page=835}}</ref><ref name="parenicka">{{cite journal|title=Košút versus Kossuth|journal=Slovenské Národné Noviny|date=14 November 1990|first=Pavel|last=Parenička |url=http://kosutm.aspx.sk/kosutovci/kosut_kossuth.htm|access-date=4 February 2008|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025003907/http://kosutm.aspx.sk/kosutovci/kosut_kossuth.htm|archive-date=25 October 2008}}</ref><ref name="chmelar">{{cite journal|title=Filozofia slovenských dejín (2): Zrodenie národa|journal=Slovo|year=2007 |first=Eduard|last=Chmelár |issue=38|url=http://www.noveslovo.sk/clanok.asp?id=15700|access-date=4 February 2008|url-status = dead|archive-date=13 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213232626/http://www.noveslovo.sk/clanok.asp?id=15700}}</ref> The Kossuths married into the [[Zathureczky]], [[Nedeczky]], [[Borcsány]], and [[Prónay]] families, amongst others.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Turul-turul-1883-1950-1/1894-7A52/1894-2-7C73/kossuth-lajos-eredete-elso-kozlemeny-7C74/i-7C7A/ | title=I. {{pipe}} Turul 1883-1950 {{pipe}} Kézikönyvtár }}</ref> Lajos Kossuth's paternal grandmother was a Beniczky and her Beniczky ancestors had married into the following families: Farkas, Zmeskal (one-eight Polish ancestry); [[Révay]], [[Pajor]] (one-quarter German Baierle Magyarized to Pajor); and finally, [[Prónay]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/people/P%C3%A9ter-Beniczky/6000000007211335428 | title=Péter Beniczky | date=26 April 2022 }}</ref> Lajos Kossuth's mother, Karolina Weber (1770–1853), was born to a Lutheran family (Kaltensteìn-Hidegkövy) of three-quarters-German and Magyarized-German (with one-quarter of their descent unknown),<ref name="arcanum.com">{{cite web | url= http://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Nagyivan-nagy-ivan-magyarorszag-csaladai-1/hatodik-kotet-4391/kossuth-csalad-kossuthfalvi-es-udvardi-509F/ | title=Kossuth család. (Kossuthfalvi és udvardi.) {{pipe}} Nagy Iván: Magyarország családai {{pipe}} Kézikönyvtár }}</ref><ref name=MacartneyEB2015>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Macartney|first=Carlile Aylmer|author-link=Carlile Aylmer Macartney|encyclopedia=The Encyclopædia Britannica (online) [Dale Hoiberg, ed.]|title=Lajos Kossuth: Hungarian political leader|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lajos-Kossuth|access-date=13 September 2015|year=2015}}</ref> living in [[Upper Hungary]] (today partially Slovakia).

===Family-tree===

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+{{nowrap| Ancestry ({{langx|hu|Származása}}): Family tree of Lajos Kossuth<ref>{{cite book |title=Révay Nagy Lexikona: Lovas–Mons |title-link=Révai nagy lexikona |date=1915 |publisher=Révai Brothers Literary Institute |volume=XII |location=Budapest}}</ref><ref name="arcanum.com" />}}
|-
| rowspan="8" align="center" style="width: 30pt;" | '''Lajos Kossuth''' 
| rowspan="4" align="center" style="width: 120pt;" | '''László Kossuth''' de Udvard 
(Kossut, 23 June 1765–<ref>{{cite web |title=sign-in required |url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KSTL-RHH |website=Family Search}}{{nonspecific|date=August 2024}} https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KSTL-RHH</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2024|certain=y}} Alsódabas, 13 March 1839) 
''uradalmi ügyész'' (financial and legal supervisor of a [[Manorialism|manor]])
| rowspan="2" align="center" style="width: 200pt;" | '''Pál Kossuth''' de Udvard 
(Kisraksa, 20 May 1738 – 1791) a {{lang|hu|{{ill|táblabíró|hu}}}} (county court judge) 
in [[Turóc County]]
| align="center" style="width: 150pt;" | '''György Kossuth''' de Udvard<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/people/D%C3%A1niel-Kossuth-de-Udvard/6000000007211245266 | title=Dániel Kossuth de Udvard | date=27 April 2022 }}</ref>
|-
| align="center"| '''Katalin Raksányi''' de Raksa (1701 – Kisraksa, 8 November 1759)
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center"| '''Beniczky Zsuzsánna''' de Benicze et Micsinye 
(Pribóc, 10 January 1737<ref>https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KH7B-J9Y {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref> – ?)
| align="center"| '''Péter Beniczky''' de Benicze et Micsinye<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/people/Tam%C3%A1s-Beniczky-de-Benicze/6000000020437913244 | title=Tamás Beniczky, de Benicze | date=6 November 1475 }}</ref><ref>Vö.: [[Nagy Iván (történész)|Nagy Iván]]: [http://mek.oszk.hu/09300/09379/pdf/mo_csaladai_01.pdf ''Magyarország családai czímerekkel és nemzékrendi táblákkal: I. kötet (Aaron - Benyovszky).''] Pest: Friebeisz István. 1857. 296. o. III. tábla, Zsuzsa, a IV. Péter (Prónay Évától)</ref>
|-
| align="center"| '''Éva Prónay'''
de Tótpróna et Blatnica
|-
| rowspan="4" align="center"| '''Karolina Weber''' de Tyrling 
(Liszka, 1770 – [[Brussels]], 28 December 1852)
| rowspan="2" align="center"| '''András Weber''' de Tyrling
[[postmaster]]
| align="center"| unknown
|-
| align="center"| unknown
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center"| noble '''Erzsébet Hidegkövy''' ('''Kaltenstein''')
| align="center"| noble Tóbiás '''Hidegkövy''' ('''Kaltenstein'''; born in [[Sátoraljaújhely]]), 
pharmacist<ref>Vö.: [[Nagy Iván (történész)|Nagy Iván]]: [http://mek.oszk.hu/09300/09379/pdf/mo_csaladai_05.pdf ''Magyarország családai czímerekkel és nemzékrendi táblákkal: V. kötet (Haagen - Justh).''] Pest: Ráth Mór. 1859. 110. o.: "Hidegkőy család: Hidegkőy előbb Klatenstein Tóbiás 1792-ben kelt czimeres nemes levél által nemesittetett meg. (...)"</ref>
|-
| align="center"| '''Anna Mária Musczler'''
|}

==Entry into national politics==

{{One source|section|date=July 2018}}
Shortly after his dismissal by Countess Szapáry, Kossuth was appointed as deputy to Count Hunyady at the [[Diet of Hungary]]. The Diet met during 1825–27 and 1832–36 in [[Bratislava|Pressburg]] (Pozsony, present Bratislava), then capital of Hungary.

Only the upper aristocracy could vote in the [[House of Magnates]] (similar to the British [[House of Lords]]) and Kossuth took little part in the debates as a deputy of Count Hunyady. At the time, a struggle to reassert a Hungarian national identity was beginning to emerge under leaders such as [[Miklós Wesselényi]] and the [[Széchenyi]]s. In part, it was also a struggle for fundamental economic and political and societal reforms against the stagnant and conservative [[Austrian Empire|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 [[Liberalism|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. The newfound publicity gave the assemblies national political prominence. Previously, they had had little idea of each other's proceedings. His 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195167771.001.0001/acref-9780195167771-e-0326|title=Kossuth, Louis : Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass Oxford Reference|publisher=Oxfordreference.com|access-date=7 November 2012|isbn=9780195167771|date=6 April 2006}}{{better source needed|date=September 2015}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=September 2015}} 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 [[Ofen|Buda]] awaiting trial, he was condemned to four more years' imprisonment. Kossuth and his friend Count [[Miklós Wesselényi]] were placed in separated solitary cells. Count Wesselényi's cell did not have even a window, and he went blind in the darkness. Kossuth, however, had a small window and with the help of a politically well-informed young woman, Theresa Meszlényi, he remained informed about political events. Meszlényi lied to the prison commander, telling him she and Kossuth were engaged. In reality, Kossuth did not know Meszlényi before his imprisonment, but this permitted her to visit. Meszlényi also provided books. Strict confinement damaged Kossuth's health, but he spent much time reading. He greatly increased his political knowledge and acquired fluency in [[English language|English]] from study of the [[King James Version]] of the [[Bible]] and [[William Shakespeare]] which he henceforth always spoke with a certain archaic eloquence. While Wesselényi was broken mentally, Kossuth, supported by Terézia Meszlényi's frequent visits, emerged from prison in much better condition. His arrest had caused great controversy. The Diet, which reconvened in 1839, demanded the release of the political prisoners and refused to pass any government measures. Austrian chancellor [[Klemens von Metternich|Metternich]] long remained obdurate, but the danger of war in 1840 obliged him to give way.

===Marriage and children===

On the day of his release from the prison, Kossuth and Meszlényi were married, and she remained a firm supporter of his politics. She was a Catholic and her Church refused to bless the marriage since Kossuth, a proud Protestant, would not convert. At the time of their marriage it was unheard of that people of different religions married. According to the traditional practice, the bride or more rarely the fiancé had to convert to the religion of his or her spouse before the wedding ceremony. However Kossuth refused to convert to Roman Catholicism, and Meszlényi also refused to convert to Lutheranism. Their mixed religious marriage caused a great scandal at the time. This experience influenced Kossuth's firm defense of [[Interreligious marriage|mixed marriages]]. The couple had three children: [[Ferenc Kossuth|Ferenc Lajos Ákos]] (1841–1914), Minister for Trade between 1906 and 1910; Vilma (1843–1862); and Lajos Tódor Károly (1844–1918).

==Journalist and political leader==
{{Liberalism sidebar}}

Kossuth gained national prominence and public recognition during this period. He regained full health in January 1841. In January 1841 he became editor of the Pesti Hírlap. The job was offered to him by Lajos Landerer, the owner of a big printing house company in Pest (in fact, Landerer was an undercover agent of the Vienna secret police). 
The government circles and the secret police believed that censorship and financial interests would curtail Kossuth's opposition, and they did not consider the small circulation of the paper to be dangerous anyway. However, Kossuth played a significant role in shaping modern Hungarian political journalism. His editorials dealt with the pressing problems of the economy, the social injustices and the existing legal inequality of the common people. The articles combined a critique of the present with an outline of the future, combining and supplementing the reform ideas that had emerged up to that point into a coherent programme.
The paper achieved unprecedented success, soon reaching the then immense circulation of 7000 copies. A competing pro-government newspaper, ''Világ''(World), started up, but despite its attacks against Kossuth's ideas, it became counterproductive, and it only served to increase Kossuth's visibility and add to the general political fervor.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024|reason=Paragraph is entirely un-cited.}}

Kossuth's ideas stand on the enlightened Western European type [[liberal nationalism]] (based on the "[[jus soli]]" principle,<ref>{{cite book|first=Alexander J.|last=Motyl|author-link=Alexander J. Motyl|title=Encyclopedia of Nationalism|volume=2|page=276|isbn=9780080545240|year= 2000|publisher=Elsevier }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Finkelman|author-link=Paul Finkelman|title=His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid|url=https://archive.org/details/hissoulgoesmarch00fink|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/hissoulgoesmarch00fink/page/148 148]|publisher=University Press of Virginia|year=1995|isbn=9780813934600}}</ref> that is the complete opposition of the typical Eastern European [[ethnic nationalism]],<ref>{{cite book|author1=Andrea Friedli|author2=Aline Gohard-Radenkovic|author3=Francois Ruegg|title=Nation-Building and Identities in Post-Soviet Societies: New Challenges for Social Sciences Volume 47 of Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology/Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien Series Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology/ Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien Volume 47 of Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien|publisher=[[LIT Verlag Münster]]|year=2017|page=75|isbn=9783643802187|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zz9BDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Eastern+European%22+%22ethnic+nationalism%22&pg=PA75}}</ref> which based on "[[jus sanguinis]]").

Kossuth followed the ideas of the French nation state ideology, which was a ruling liberal idea of his era. Accordingly, he considered and regarded automatically everybody as "Hungarian" – regardless of their mother tongue and ethnic ancestry – who were born and lived in the territory of Hungary. He even quoted King [[Stephen I of Hungary]]'s admonition: "A nation of one language and the same customs is weak and fragile."<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last= Király |editor1-first=Béla K.|editor2-last=Romsics |editor2-first=Ignác |title=Geopolitics in the Danube Region: Hungarian Reconciliation Efforts, 1848–1998 |date=1999 |publisher=Central European University Press |pages=99–130|quote-page=107|location= Budapest |isbn=978-963-9116-29-0 |oclc=630204542|last=Miskolczy|first=Ambrus |chapter=The Dialogue Among Hungarian and Romanian Exiles in 1850–1851 |doi=10.7829/j.ctv1wvms9m.9|quote='A nation of one language and the same customs is weak and fragile.' [King Stephen I of Hungary]}}</ref>

Kossuth pleaded in the newspaper ''Pesti Hírlap'' for rapid [[Magyarization]]: "Let us hurry, let us hurry to Magyarize the [[Croats]], the [[Romanians]], and the [[Transylvanian Saxons|Saxons]], for otherwise we shall perish".<ref>[[Ioan Lupaș]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_0ppAAAAMAAJ&q=%22the+Croats,+the+Romanians+and+the+saxons%22 The Hungarian Policy of Magyarization] (p. 14). The Center for Transylvanians Studies</ref> In 1842 he argued that Hungarian had to be the exclusive language in public life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mek.oszk.hu/03400/03407/html/357.html |title=The Hungarian Liberal Opposition's Approach to Nationalities and Social Reform|publisher=Mek.oszk.hu|access-date=19 September 2015}}</ref> 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 be Hungarian".<ref>Laszlo Deme. [https://books.google.com/books?id=r91nAAAAMAAJ&q=%22in+one+country+it+is+impossible+to+speak%22 ''The radical left in the Hungarian revolution of 1848'']; accessed 31 October 2017.</ref>

Kossuth's assimilatory ambitions were disapproved by [[Zsigmond Kemény]], though he supported a multinational state led by Hungarians.<ref>Matthew P. Fitzpatrick. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uczFAAAAQBAJ&dq=Sz%C3%A9chenyi+kossuth+magyarization&pg=PA97 ''Liberal Imperialism in Europe'']; accessed 31 October 2017.</ref> [[István Széchenyi]] criticized Kossuth for "pitting one nationality against another".<ref>Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák, [[Tibor Frank]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=SKwmGQCT0MAC&dq=szechenyi+was+more+conciliatory&pg=PA200 ''A History of Hungary'']; accessed 31 October 3017.</ref> 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 [[Fee tail|entail]], the abolition of [[feudal]] burdens and taxation of the nobles. He went on to broach the possibility of separating from the [[House of Habsburg]]. By combining this nationalism with an insistence on the superiority of the [[Hungarian culture]] to the culture of [[Slavic peoples|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 the popular {{ill|Védegylet society|hu|Védegylet (reformkor)|lt="Védegylet" society}} whose members consumed only Hungarian industrial products. He also argued for the creation of a Hungarian port at [[Rijeka|Fiume]].

Kossuth played a major role in the formation of the Opposition Party in 1847, whose programme was essentially formulated by him.

In autumn 1847, Kossuth was able to take his final key step. The support of [[Lajos Batthyány]] during a keenly fought campaign made him be elected to the new Diet as member for [[Pest (city)|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 (politician)|Ferenc Deák]] was absent. As Headlam noted, his political rivals, Batthyány, [[István Széchenyi]], Szemere, and [[József Eötvös]], believed:

{{blockquote|1=his intense personal ambition and egoism led him always 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. The crisis came, and he used it to the full.<ref name=HeadlamEB1911>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Kossuth, Lajos|volume=15 |last= Headlam |first= James Wycliffe |author-link= James Wycliffe Headlam |pages=916–918}}</ref>}}

===The "long debate" of reformers in the press===

Count Széchenyi judged the reform system of Kossuth in a pamphlet, ''Kelet Népe'' from 1841. According to Széchenyi, economic, political and social reforms must be instituted slowly and carefully so that Hungary would avoid the violent interference of the Habsburg dynasty. Széchenyi was listening to the spread of the expansion of Kossuth's ideas in Hungarian society, which did not consider good relations with the Habsburg dynasty. Kossuth believed that society could not be forced into a passive role by any reason through social change. According to Kossuth, the wider social movements can not be continually excluded from political life. Behind Kossuth's conception of society was a notion of freedom that emphasized the unitary origin of rights, which he saw manifested in universal suffrage. In exercising political rights, Széchenyi took into account wealth and education of the citizens, thus he supported only limited suffrage similar to the Western European (British, French and Belgian) limited suffrage of the era. In 1885, Kossuth called Széchenyi a liberal elitist aristocrat while Széchenyi considered himself to be a democrat.<ref>Mihály Lackó: ''Széchenyi és Kossuth vitája'', Gondolat, 1977.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

Széchenyi was an isolationist politician while, according to Kossuth, strong relations and collaboration with international liberal and progressive movements are essential for the success of liberty.<ref>Lacko p. 47</ref> Regarding foreign policy, Kossuth and his followers refused the isolationist policy of Széchenyi, thus they stood on the ground of the [[liberal internationalism]]: They supported countries and political forces that aligned with their moral and political standards. They also believed that governments and political movements sharing the same modern liberal values should form an alliance against the "feudal type" of monarchies.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/hungary_europe_liberal_conservative_foreign_policy_reform_era |title=Hungary's Place in Europe: Liberal–Conservative Foreign Policy Disputes in the Reform Era |date=29 July 2023 |access-date=30 July 2023 |archive-date=30 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730110111/https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/hungary_europe_liberal_conservative_foreign_policy_reform_era |url-status=live }}</ref>

Széchenyi's economic policy based on [[Anglo-Saxons|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.<ref>''Gróf Széchenyi István írói és hírlapi vitája Kossuth Lajossal'' [Count Stephen Széchenyi's Literary and Publicistic Debate with Louis Kossuth], ed. Gyula Viszota, 2 vols. (Budapest: Magyar Történelmi Társulat, 1927–1930)</ref>

==Work in the government==

{{see also|Hungarian Revolution of 1848}}
[[File:Országgyűlés megnyitása 1848.jpg|thumb|right|260px|5 July 1848: The opening ceremony of the first parliament, which was based on popular representation. [[Lajos Batthyány|Batthyány]], Kossuth and other members of the first responsible government are on the balcony.]]
[[File:Kollarz Kossuth Cegléden 1848.JPG|thumb|260px|Kossuth inspired many Hungarians to rise up against the [[Austrian Empire]] in a speech he made in the town of [[Cegléd]] on 24 September 1848.]]

===Minister of Finance===

The crisis came, and he used it to the full. On 3 March 1848, shortly after the news of the [[The Revolutions of 1848 in France|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 I of Austria|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 which overthrew Metternich (13 March); when a deputation from the Diet visited Vienna to receive the assent of Emperor [[Ferdinand I of Austria|Ferdinand]] to their petition, Kossuth received the chief ovation. While Viennese masses celebrated Kossuth (and from the Diet in Pressburg a delegation went to Buda and sent the news of the Austrian Revolution) as their hero, revolution broke out in Buda on 15 March; Kossuth traveled home immediately.<ref>Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák, ''[[Tibor Frank]]: A History of Hungary'' (Indiana University Press, 1994) p. 213</ref> On 17 March 1848 the Emperor assented and [[Lajos Batthyány]] created the first Hungarian government, that was not anymore responsible to the King, but to the elected members of the [[Diet of Hungary|Diet]]. On 23 March 1848, Pm. Batthyány commended his government to the Diet. In the new government Kossuth was appointed as 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 of Hungary|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 [[ban (title)|Croatian ban]] [[Josip Jelačić]] was marching on Pest, the Hungarian government was in serious military crisis due to the lack of soldiers, Kossuth used his popularity, he went from town to town rousing the people to the defense of the country, and the popular force of the [[Royal Hungarian Landwehr|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.
Prime minister [[Lajos Batthyány]]'s desperate attempts to mediate with the Viennese royal court to achieve reconciliation and restore peace were no longer successful. Due to his unsuccessful peace missions, Batthyány slowly began to become politically isolated and increasingly lost the support of the parliament.

On 6 September, Kossuth ordered the first Hungarian banknotes to be issued to cover defence expenses.

In early September 1848, after the Habsburg King of Hungary, Ferdinand V, compelled the Batthyány government to resign, the nation found itself once more bereft of executive authority.<ref name="auto23">Hermann Róbert: [https://docplayer.hu/2839887-Magyarorszag-forradalom-es-szabadsagharc-1848-1849-hermann-robert.html Magyarország története 14.] Kossuth Kiadó, 2009 Budapest, p. 54</ref>

The government meeting of 11 September, under Kossuth's leadership, adopted revolutionary decisions on finance and the military to defend the invaded homeland. Another attempt by Batthyány to form a cabinet failed, and Kossuth declared that until another government was appointed, he would retain his position as finance minister.

According to legend, it was in this year that Kossuth was attacked by the country's most famous [[betyár]], [[Sándor Rózsa]]. According to the story, Kossuth was on his way to [[Cegléd]] in a horse-drawn carriage when the bandit leader attacked him, but he kept his temper and persuaded him to join the national cause and stop robbing. The story might even be true, as Kossuth granted amnesty to the criminal on 23 October, who inturn launched an independent rebel group with 150 armed horsemen.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-16 |title=A legenda szerint Kossuth Lajost is ki akarta rabolni Rózsa Sándor |url=https://mult-kor.hu/a-legenda-szerint-kossuth-lajost-is-ki-akarta-rabolni-rozsa-sandor-20240716 |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=Múlt-kor történelmi magazin |language=hu}}</ref> Both men inspired legends in their time that are still alive today. In popular poetry, Rózsa is seen as a [[Robin Hood]]-like character, while Kossuth was the personification of the nation. Also, the Serbs referred to him as King Kossuth, whose carriage was said to be drawn by 600 horses.<ref>Jung Károly: Adatok és Legendák Kossuth és Kossuthné menekülésének történetéről, adattar.vmmi.org/cikkek/17104/hid_2002_08-09_13_jung.pdf</ref>

===Regent-President of Hungary===

On 7 December 1848, the [[Diet of Hungary]] formally refused to acknowledge the title of the new king, Franz Joseph I, "as without the knowledge and consent of the diet no one could sit on the Hungarian throne" and called the nation to arms.<ref name=phillips>{{EB1911 |inline=y |last=Phillips |first=Walter Alison |author-link=Walter Alison Phillips |wstitle=Hungary |volume=13 |page=917}}</ref> From a legal point of view, according to the coronation oath, a crowned Hungarian King could not relinquish the Hungarian throne during his life; if the king was alive and unable to do his duty as ruler, a governor (or regent with proper English terminology) had to deputize the royal duties. Constitutionally, his uncle, Ferdinand remained still the legal [[King of Hungary]]. If there was no possibility to inherit the throne automatically due to the death of the predecessor king (as Ferdinand was still alive), but the monarch wanted to relinquish his throne and appoint another king before his death, technically only one legal solution remained: the Diet had the power to depose the king and elect his successor as the new King of Hungary. Due to the legal and military tensions, the Hungarian parliament did not make that decision for Franz Joseph.
This event gave to the revolt an excuse of legality. Actually, from this time until the collapse of the revolution, Lajos Kossuth (as elected regent-president) became the de facto and de jure ruler of Hungary.<ref name=phillips/>

====President of the OHB====
Subsequent to 28 September, the National Defence Committee (Országos Honvédelmi Bizottmány, or OHB) assumed the reins of power, initially in a provisional capacity and then, upon a parliamentary decree issued on 8 October, in a permanent manner for wartime.<ref>{{Harvnb|Spira|1959|pp=259–263, 293–294}}.</ref> Lajos Kossuth was elected president of the OHB, which operated as the de facto government.<ref>{{Harvnb|Spira|1959|pp=293}}.</ref>

Already on 14 September, a rapidly growing number of his supporters called in parliament for Kossuth to be given temporary dictatorial powers because of the critical and desperate war situation.<ref>{{cite book|author=György Ráthkay|title=Kossuth parlamenti élete|publisher=Heckenast Gusztáv sajátja|year=1850|page=95|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2wCn0yQtjpIC&dq=kossuth+megv%C3%A1laszt%C3%A1sa+bizottm%C3%A1ny&pg=RA1-PA95}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|For the first time in the revolutionary movements of 1848, for the first time since 1793, a nation surrounded by superior counterrevolutionary forces dares to counter the cowardly counterrevolutionary fury by revolutionary passion, the terreur blanche by the terreur rouge.{{pb}}For the first time after a long period we meet with a truly revolutionary figure, a man who in the name of his people dares to accept the challenge of desperate struggle, who for his nation is [[Georges Danton|Danton]] and [[Lazare Carnot|Carnot]] in one person – Lajos Kossuth|[[Friedrich Engels]] about Kossuth (January 1849)
<ref>{{cite book|author1=Hal Draper|author2=Ernest Haberkern|title=Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Volume 5|publisher=[[NYU Press]]|year=2010|page=41|isbn=9781583675229|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Y2XBwAAQBAJ&q=Marx+kossuth+danton&pg=PT41}}</ref>}}

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 removed him from command; twice he had to restore him.

==== Declaration of Independence ====

{{blockquote|The House of Lorraine-Habsburg is unexampled in the compass of its perjuries{{nbsp}}... Its determination to extinguish the independence of Hungary has been accompanied by a succession of criminal acts, comprising robbery, destruction of property by fire, murder, maiming{{nbsp}}... Humanity will shudder when reading this disgraceful page of history.{{nbsp}}[...] "The house of Habsburg has forfeited the throne".
|Kossuth
|In Liszt, ''The Weimar Years''<ref>{{cite book|title=Franz Liszt: The Weimar years, 1848&ndash;1861|volume=2|author=Alan Walker|edition=2nd|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|year=1997|isbn=9780801497216|pages=63–64}}</ref>
}}

====Minority rights====
[[File:Hungarians in Hungary (1890).png|thumb|right|The percentage of [[ethnic Hungarians]] (Magyars) in Hungary in 1890.]]
Despite appealing exclusively to the [[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.<ref>Laszlo Peter, Martyn C. Rady, Peter A. Sherwood: Lajos Kossuth sent word...: Papers delivered on the occasion of the bicentenary of Kossuth's birth (p. 101)</ref> It gave minorities the freedom to use their mother tongue within the local administration and courts, in schools, in community life and even within the national guard of non-Magyar councils.<ref>Richard Frucht: ''Eastern Europe'', Volume I, (an introduction to the people lands and culture) p. 354. {{ISBN|1-57607-800-0}}</ref>

However, he did not support any kind of regional administration within Hungary based on the nationality principle. Kossuth accepted some national demands of the [[Vlachs|Vlach]] (like the independence of the Vlach clergy<ref>In 1848 on 20 August, for example, a Vlah envoy called on the government to act, because the local Vlah church was subordinate to the Serbs', who have incited the Vlahs against the local Hungarians via the church. Kossuth supported this, then stressed the importance of separating church and nation, but condemned Eftimie Murgu's Transylvanian national assembly, which tried to rule without involving the other ethnic groups.

www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Kossuth-kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-1/kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-xii-DDF2/kossuth-lajos-184849-ben-ii-kossuth-lajos-az-elso-magyar-felelos-miniszteriumban-1848-aprilisszeptember-DDFD/429-budapest-1848-augusztus-26-kossuth-felszolalasa-a-kepviselohazban-a-roman-kerdes-helyes-megoldasarol-F828/?list=eyJmaWx0ZXJzIjogeyJNVSI6IFsiTkZPX0tPTllfS29zc3V0aF8xIl19LCAicXVlcnkiOiAicm9tXHUwMGUxbiJ9</ref>) and the Croats, but he showed no understanding for the requests of the [[Slovaks]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=38ciAe4J4VMC&q=%22did+not+include+any+conception+of+regional+administration+within+Hungary+based+on+the+nationality+%22&pg=PA219 |title=Geopolitics of the Central European Region: The View from Prague and Bratislava |via= Google Cărţi|access-date=19 September 2015|isbn=9788022408523|last1=Krej?í|first1=Oskar|year=2005|publisher=VEDA, Publishing House of the Slovak Academy of Sciences }}</ref> Despite his father's Slovak origin and the fact that his uncle [[György Kossuth]] was the main supporter of Slovak national movement, Kossuth considered himself Hungarian and went so far as to reject the very notion of a Slovak nation in the Kingdom of Hungary.<ref>"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. [Lajos Kossuth], "Visszapillantás a szláv mozgalmakra." ''Pesti Hírlap'', 26 June 1842.</ref><ref>"Kossuth rejected the very idea of a Slovak nation.{{nbsp}}..."; Piotr Stefan Wandycz, ''The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present.'' 2001.</ref><ref>"Though partly Slovak by birth, he [Lajos Kossuth] denied the existence of a Slovak nation.{{nbsp}}..."; A[lan] J[ohn] P[ercivale] Taylor, ''From Napoleon to Lenin: Historical Essays.'' 1966.</ref>
<!--He wrote about himself that "I was born Hungarian and brought up as a Hungarian";<ref>{{cite book|title=The Hungarians: a thousand years of victory in defeat|last=Lendvai|first=Paul|year=2003|publisher= C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=978-1-85065-673-9}}</ref>-->

According to [[Oszkár Jászi]], a huge part of the reason as to why Kossuth opposed giving large-scale [[autonomy]] (such as a separate [[parliament]]) to various ethnic groups in Hungary (such as the [[Romanians]], Slovaks, [[Ruthenians]], and [[Germans]]) is because he was afraid that this would be the first step towards a fragmentation and break-up of Hungary.<ref name = "foreign affairs">{{cite magazine|last=Albert |first=Eleanor |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/hungary/1933-10-01/kossuth-and-treaty-trianon |title=Kossuth and the Treaty of Trianon |magazine=Foreign Affairs |access-date=2019-04-21}}</ref> Kossuth did not believe that a Hungary that was limited to its [[Ethnic group|ethnic]] or [[linguistic borders]] would actually be a viable state.<ref name = "foreign affairs"/>

====Russian intervention and failure====
{{more citations needed|section|date=April 2022}}
During all the terrible winter that followed, Kossuth 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 [[William Henry 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]].

By 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.

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 Tsar [[Nicholas I of Russia]], who acted as the protector of ruling legitimism and as guardian against revolution; 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 [[Surrender at Világos|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, including the execution of the [[13 Martyrs of Arad]]. Kossuth steadfastly maintained until his death that Görgey alone was responsible for the humiliation.

Kossuth's calls for independence and cut off ties with the Habsburgs did not become British policy. Foreign Secretary [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]] told parliament that Britain would consider it a great misfortune to Europe if Hungary became independent. He argued that a united Austrian Empire was a European necessity and a natural ally of Britain.<ref>Klari Kingston, "Gunboat liberalism: Palmerston, Europe and 1848 " ''History Today'' 47.2 (1997): 37–43 at p 41</ref>

During this period, Hungarian lawyer [[George Lichtenstein (musician)|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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q44PAAAAYAAJ&q=G.+Lichtenstein+music&pg=PA156|title=Musical Times|volume=34|year=1893|access-date=9 February 2012}}{{primary source inline|date=September 2015}}{{better source needed|date=September 2015}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=September 2015}}{{better source needed|date=September 2015}}

==Escape and tour of Britain and United States==
[[File:Haynau in Britain.jpg|thumb|Austrian General [[Julius Jacob von Haynau]] was attacked by Londoners due to the brutal suppression of Hungarian revolution. Plaque in London, Park Street in Southwark]]
[[File:Photo of Lajos Kossuth.jpg|thumb|200px|Photo of Kossuth]]
[[File:Kossuth egykori lakhelye Londonban.JPG|thumb|Kossuth's villa in London]]
Kossuth's time in power was at an end. A solitary fugitive, he crossed the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] frontier. He was hospitably received by the Ottoman authorities, who were supported by the [[British Empire|British]]. The Ottomans refused to surrender him and other fugitives to Austria, notwithstanding the threats of the allied emperors. 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]]. There, he was joined by his children, who had been confined at Pressburg; his wife (a price had been set on her head) had joined him earlier, having escaped in disguise.

On 10 August 1851 the release of Kossuth was decided by the [[Sublime Porte]], in spite of threats by Austria and Russia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1851/09/18/issue.html |title=TimesMachine: Thursday September 18, 1851 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-04-21}}</ref> The [[United States Congress]] approved having Kossuth come there, and on 1 September 1851, he boarded the ship [[USS Mississippi (1841)|USS ''Mississippi'']] at [[İzmir|Smyrna]], with his family and fifty exiled followers.

The Hungarian asked the crew of ''Mississippi'' to leave the shipboard at [[Gibraltar]].<ref>Donald A. Clark, The Notorious "Bull" Nelson: Murdered Civil War General (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011), 23–30.</ref> During his journey on board the American frigate Mississippi on his way to [[London]], an enormous [[French people|French]] crowd waited to welcome Kossuth at the port of [[Marseille]]. However the French authorities did not allow the dangerous revolutionary to come ashore.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Paul Lendvai]]|title=The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=2021|page=249|isbn=9780691200279|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2C33DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA249}}</ref> At Marseille, Kossuth sought permission to travel through [[France]] to [[England]], but Prince-President [[Napoleon III|Louis Napoleon]] denied the request. Kossuth protested publicly, and officials saw that as a blatant disregard for the neutral position of the [[United States]].

===Great Britain===
[[File:Lajos Kossuth Arrives at Southampton Docks.jpg|thumb|Lajos Kossuth Arrives at Southampton Docks]]
[[File:Lajos Kossuth addresses the crowd from the balcony of Andrew’s coach factory.jpg|thumb|Lajos Kossuth addresses the crowd from the balcony of Andrew's coach factory.]]
[[File:Kossuth in the in the Guildhall.jpg|thumb|Lajos Kossuth's reception among businessmen industrialists and bankers in the Guildhall above the Bargate]]

On 23 October, Kossuth landed at [[Southampton]] and spent three weeks in England, where he was generally feted. After his arrival, the press characterized the atmosphere of the streets of London as this: "It had seemed like a coronation day of Kings".<ref>Phineas Camp Headley: ''The Life of Louis Kossuth: Governor of Hungary'', p. 241, Publisher: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1856</ref><ref>Maria Bucur, Nancy Meriwether Wingfield: ''Staging the Past: The Politics of Commemoration in Habsburg Central Europe, 1848 to the Present'' p. 256, {{ISBN|9781557531612}}</ref> Contemporary reports noticed: "Trafalgar Square was 'black with people' and Nelson's Monument peopled 'up to the fluted shaft.'"<ref>Freifeld, Alice (2000). ''Nationalism and the Crowd in Liberal Hungary, 1848–1914,'' p. 112, Washington, DC, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, {{ISBN|9780801864629}}</ref>

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.<ref>Hague Academy of International Law: Recueil Des Cours, Volume 326 p. 20, Publisher Hachette, 2007 [https://books.google.com/books?id=-gkzAQAAIAAJ&q=his+spoken+English+was+%22wonderfully+archaic%22+and+theatrical]</ref> ''[[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;<ref>See: Hague Academy of International Law: Recueil Des Cours</ref> 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 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, London|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.

Despite efforts by some British politicians to limit public enthusiasm, Kossuth’s visit attracted large crowds and popular support. When ''[[The Times]]'' tried to fiercely attack Kossuth, the copies of the newspaper were publicly burned in public houses, coffee houses, and in other public spaces throughout the country.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael Diamond|title=Victorian Sensation: Or the Spectacular, the Shocking and the Scandalous in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Anthem Nineteenth-Century Series|publisher=Anthem Press|year=2004|pages=47–50|isbn=9780857289308|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_GR8CAAAQBAJ&q=haynau+kossuth+england&pg=PA49}}</ref>

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.{{quote without source|date=September 2015}} At the Fields themselves, the crowd was enormous; but the hostile newspaper ''The Times'' estimated it conservatively at 25,000,{{full citation needed|date=September 2015}} while the ''[[Morning Chronicle]]'' described it as 50,000,{{full citation needed|date=September 2015}} and the demonstrators themselves 100,000.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}

The [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]], [[Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|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; Victoria reputedly was so incensed by the possibility of her Foreign Secretary supporting an outspoken republican that she asked the Prime Minister, [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|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",<ref>Jasper Ridley: Lord Palmerston, Publisher Pan Macmillan (2013), {{ISBN|9781447244196}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxjEikA7Iy0C&dq=%22despots%2C+tyrants+and+odious+assassins%2C%22&pg=PT365]</ref> it was noted as a mark of indifference to royal displeasure. That, together with Palmerston's support of Louis Napoleon, eventually caused the [[First Russell ministry|Russell government]] to fall.

Kossuth’s activities coincided with growing anti-Austrian sentiment in Britain, when Austrian general [[Julius Jacob von Haynau]] was recognized on the street, he was attacked by British draymen on his journey in England.<ref>{{cite book|author=David Paterson|title=Liberalism and Conservatism, 1846–1905, Heinemann advanced history|publisher=Heinemann|year=2001|page=112|isbn=9780435327378|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KfCAX_E-OwQC&q=haynau+kossuth+england&pg=PA112}}</ref> In 1856, Kossuth toured [[Scotland]] extensively, giving lectures in major cities and small towns alike.<ref>{{Citation |last=Victuallers |title=English: County Hotel, 3–11 High Street, Selkirk (hotel building in Selkirk, Scottish Borders, Scotland, UK) |date=2022-12-10 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:County_Hotel,_Lajos_Kossuth_former_governor_of_Hungary_3-11_High_Street,_Selkirk.jpg |access-date=2022-12-10}}</ref>

In addition, the indignation that he aroused against [[Russian Empire|Russian]] policy had much to do with the strong anti-Russian feeling, which made the [[Crimean War]] possible. During the Crimean War, the activism of Kossuth also intensified in London, but since Austria did not side with Russia, there was no chance of Hungarian independence being achieved with Anglo-French military help.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Ignác Romsics]]|title=Nemzet, nemzetiség és állam Kelet-Közép- és Délkelet-Európában a 19. és 20. században|year=1998|publisher=Napvilág Kiadó|isbn=9639082139}}</ref> In the following years, Kossuth hoped that the conflicts between the great powers would allow the liberation of Hungary after all, and so he contacted the French Emperor Napoleon III. When Napoleon III and the Prime Minister of Sardinia, [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]], promised to help liberate Hungary in the run-up to the [[Second Italian War of Independence|Franco-Sardinian-Austrian war of 1859]], Lajos Kossuth founded the Hungarian National Directorate with László Teleki and György Klapka and began to organise the Hungarian Legion. Following Napoleon III's unexpected peace with Austria after his brilliant victory at [[Battle of Solferino|Solferino]], Kossuth sought to link the liberation of Hungary more and more clearly to the movement of the peoples fighting for their independence. However, [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]'s invasion of [[Sicily]] in 1860 raised new hopes. Many Hungarians fought among his [[Redshirts (Italy)|Redshirts]], and his successes could have led to another Italo-Austrian war. In the event, the Hungarian Legion was re-established, and Kossuth negotiated cooperation with the Italians. But the war was not fought. Although Hungary remained under Austrian rule, the decline of Habsburg power increasingly forced compromise on the Austrian government. Hungarian passive resistance and the foreign activities of the Kossuth group reinforced each other. Kossuth and the émigré movement's armed preparations and negotiations with the great powers, on the other hand, were backed by the political backdrop of a silent and passively resistant country.

===United States===
[[File:When Kossuth rode up Broadway. Below, left- Louis Kossuth, the great Hungarian patriot, received with cheers by 100,000 Americans upon his arrival in New York on December 6th, 1851 (NYPL Hades-1788354-1659158).jpg|thumb|"When Kossuth Rode up Broadway" (New York on 6 December 1851)]]
[[File:The-Reception-Of-General-Louis-Kossuth-In-New-York-City,-6th-December-1851.jpg|thumb|right|The dress parade of US. Army in New York for Kossuth on 6 December 1851]]
[[File:Louis Kossuth in New York.jpg|thumb|right|Grand reception of Kossuth: "the champion of Hungarian Independence" at the City Hall, New York]]
[[File:Kossuth szabadkomuves.jpg|thumb|right|Kossuth's admission to Freemason Grand Lodge of Cincinnati, US, 1852 (Manuscript from University of Szeged<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sk-szeged.hu/statikus_html/kiallitas/kossuth/szabadkom.html |title=Kossuth Lajos felvételi kérelme a szabadkõmûves páholyba |publisher=Sk-szeged.hu |access-date=2012-11-07}}</ref>)]]

From Britain Kossuth went to the United States of America aboard the Humboldt postal vessel. He was warmly welcomed since the Congress in a letter inviting him to the country as the 'guest of the nation'. On 6 December 1851, this revolutionary hero arrived in [[New York City]] to a reception that only [[George Washington|Washington]] and [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Lafayette]] had received before. The mayor of New York City introduced him as "a champion of human progress, an eloquent proclaimer of universal freedom".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Abraham Lincoln megtartja gettysburgi beszédét – Kossuth Lajos gondolatai köszönnek vissza belőle? |url=https://rubicon.hu/cikkek/abraham-lincoln-megtartja-gettysburgi-beszedet-kossuth-lajos-gondolatai-koszonnek-vissza-belole?rovat=naptar |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=Rubicon |language=hu}}</ref> On the posters and in the news, he appeared as an ambassador of the European nations yearning for freedom and democracy, an implacable opponent of the tyranny embodied by the Habsburgs and the Russian [[House of Romanov|Romanovs]]. Like the more than 600 other speeches he has given in America, it as well ended with applause.

The report of [[The Sun (New York City)|''The Sun'']] about the arrival of Kossuth in New York:

{{blockquote|Thus immediately previous to the Christmas of 1851 New York city underwent a period of Kossuth mania, and it affected the holiday presents. Every New Year's gift associated itself in some designation with Kossuth and Hungary. Restaurants abounded with Hungarian goulash, a savory dish of boiled beef and vegetables strongly infused with red peppers; and there were Kossuth cravats (formidable bands of satin or silk wound around the neck, with ends liberally folded over the shirt front), Kossuth pipes, Kossuth umbrellas, Kossuth belts and buckles, Kossuth purses, Kossuth jackets, and Kossuth braid and tassels for wearing apparel...The [[Barnum's American Museum|American Museum]] on Broadway "was literally covered with paintings and flags. One, a portrait of Kossuth, in the folds of Hungarian and American flags, with the words at the bottom: 'Kossuth, the Washington of Hungary.'<ref>{{cite web|url=http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.be/2013/05/the-1928-kossuth-monument-riverside.html |title=Daytonian in Manhattan: The 1928 Kossuth Monument – Riverside Drive at 113th Street |publisher=Daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.be |date=2013-05-28 |access-date=2015-09-19}}</ref>}}

President [[Millard Fillmore]] entertained Kossuth at the [[White House]] on 31 December 1851 and 3 January 1852. The US Congress organized a banquet for Kossuth, which was supported by all political parties.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lester H. Brun|title=Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations: 1607–1932|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=9780415939157|page=164}}</ref>

In early 1852, Kossuth, accompanied by his wife, his son Ferenc, and [[Theresa Pulszky]], toured the American Midwest, South, and [[New England]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oliver |first=John W. |date=1928 |title=Louis Kossuth's Appeal to the Middle West--1852 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1897151 |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=481–495 |doi=10.2307/1897151 |jstor=1897151 |issn=0161-391X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Tim |date=2015 |title=Lajos Kossuth and the Permeable American Orient of the Mid-Nineteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26376714 |journal=Diplomatic History |volume=39 |issue=5 |pages=793–818 |doi=10.1093/dh/dhu070 |jstor=26376714 |issn=0145-2096|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Kossuth was the second foreigner after the Marquis de Lafayette to address a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress.<ref>{{cite book|author=Matthew J. Mancini|title=Alexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to Ours|url=https://archive.org/details/alexisdetocquevi0000manc|url-access=registration|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/alexisdetocquevi0000manc/page/68 68]|isbn=9780742523449}}</ref> He gave a speech before the [[Ohio General Assembly]] in February 1852 that probably influenced [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]]'s [[Gettysburg Address]]: "The spirit of our age is Democracy. All for the people, and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people{{snd}}That is Democracy!{{nbsp}}..."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/archives/3834 |title="All For the People, and All By the People"–Lajos Kossuth's Fight for Hungarian Independence ohiohistoryhost.org |access-date=15 April 2019 |archive-date=14 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414134246/https://ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/archives/3834 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Kossuth gained widespread popularity and admiration across the continent. Even babies were named after him during his American tour. At the same time, dozens of books, hundreds of pamphlets, articles, and essays, as well as about 250 poems were written to, for, or about him in the 1850s.<ref>Steven B. Várdy, Ph.D.: (2008) "A Celebrated, Disillusioned Hungarian Revolutionary's Visit to Pittsburgh in 1852", p. 20 [https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/download/7815/7588/]</ref>

Queen Victoria had a negative remark about the American version of Kossuth fever too:
"the popular Kossuth fever of the time to ignorance of the man in whom they (the Americans) see a second Washington, when the fact is that he is an ambitious and rapacious humbug."<ref>Bernard Porter: The Refugee Question in Mid-Victorian Politics, p. 106, Publisher: Cambridge University Press (2008) {{ISBN|9780521088152}}</ref>

There is no evidence that Kossuth ever met Abraham Lincoln, although Lincoln did organize a celebration in Kossuth's honor in [[Springfield, Illinois]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas L. Krannawitter|title=Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2010|isbn=9780742559738}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Abraham|last1=Lincoln|first2=Mario Matthew|last2=Cuomo|first3=Harold|last3=Holzer|title=Lincoln on Democracy|year=2004|publisher=Fordham Univ Press|isbn=9780823223459|page=50}}</ref> calling him a "most worthy and distinguished representative of the cause of civil and religious liberty on the continent of Europe".<ref>{{cite book|first1=Abraham|last1=Lincoln|first2=Mario Matthew|last2=Cuomo|first3=Harold|last3=Holzer|title=Lincoln on Democracy|year=2004|publisher=Fordham Univ Press|isbn=9780823223459|page=376}}</ref> Kossuth believed that by appealing directly to European immigrants in the American heartland that he could rally them behind the cause of a free and democratic Hungary. United States officials feared that Kossuth's efforts to elicit support for a failed revolution were fraught with mischief. 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, he caused further defection. Luckily for him, it was unknown then that he entertained a proposal to raise 1,500 mercenaries, who would overthrow [[Haiti]] with officers from the [[United States Army|US Army]] and [[United States Navy|Navy]]. [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] praised Kossuth: "You have earned your own nobility at home. We admit you ad eundem (as they say at College). We admit you to the same degree, without new trial. We suspend all rules before so paramount a merit. You may well sit a doctor in the college of liberty. You have achieved your right to interpret our Washington."<ref>[https://emersoncentral.com/texts/miscellanies/address-to-kossuth/ Ralph Waldo Emerson: Address to Kossuth at Concord, May 11, 1852]</ref>

However, the issue of slavery was tearing America apart. Kossuth infuriated the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] by refusing to say anything offensive to the pro-slavery establishment, which, however, did not give him much support. Abolitionists said that Kossuth's "hands off" position regarding [[Slavery in the United States|American slavery]] was unacceptable. [[Wm. Lloyd Garrison]], on behalf of the [[American Anti-Slavery Society]], published a pamphlet "exposing the Hungarian as a self-seeking toady."<ref>{{cite book
|title=A letter to Louis Kossuth concerning freedom and slavery in the United States : in behalf of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
|last=Garrison
|first=Wm. Lloyd 
|author-link=William Lloyd Garrison
|year=1852
|location=Boston
|publisher=R. F. Wallcut, for the [[American Anti-Slavery Society]]
|url=https://archive.org/details/ASPC0001979700/mode/1up}}</ref> Kossuth left the U.S. with only a fraction of the money he had hoped to earn on his tour.<ref name=Religious>{{cite book |last=DeCaro |first=Louis |date= 2002 
|title="Fire from the Midst of You": A Religious Life of John Brown
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7_Qnpl2_NSgC |location=New York |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0814719220 |access-date=1 August 2020}}</ref>{{rp|198}} However it is proven by captain of the artillery Károly László's contemporary diary entries, that the Hungarian delegation expressed strong disapproval of slavery in the American South. He also condemned [[blackface]] in his entries. He describes a slave auction he saw in [[New Orleans]] this way: "Here we have seen how the owners put their fellow human beings who are just as advanced and perhaps more sensitive than they are, up for sale as if they were animals, and how they are scrutinised by buyers. We have seen how [a trader] sold a mother and her 10-year-old son as a calving cow.... Seeing such things makes you feel sick."<ref>Ildikó, Pordán: LÁSZLÓ KÁROLY BESZÁMOLÓJA KOSSUTH AMERIKAI ÚTJÁRÓL, 1996, mek.oszk.hu/02200/02216/02216.htm</ref> Kossuth was of the same opinion, as he expressed his ideas on the matter on several [[Diet of Hungary|Hungarian diets]]. In 1833 he compares slavery to serfdom and condemns both,<ref>[https://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Kossuth-kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-1/kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-ii-7F65/orszaggyulesi-tudositasok-ii-1833-augusztus-51834-marcius-24-7F66/76-8195/a-1833-augusztus-30-orszagos-ules-targy-az-urberi-iv-t-c-6-2-3-4-pontja-a-robot-teljesitesenek-modozatai-8196/?list=eyJmaWx0ZXJzIjogeyJNVSI6IFsiTkZPX0tPTllfS29zc3V0aF8xIl19LCAicXVlcnkiOiAic3plcmVjc2VuIn0 a) 1833 augusztus 30 Országos ülés. Tárgy: Az úrbéri IV. t. c. 6. §. 2., 3., 4, pontja: a robot teljesitésének módozatai. {{!}} KOSSUTH LAJOS ÖSSZES MUNKÁI {{!}} Kézikönyvtár]</ref> on another occasion, expressed the need for the immediate liberation of the serfs, which just as emancipation, must be radical.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Kossuth-kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-1/kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-ii-7F65/orszaggyulesi-tudositasok-ii-1833-augusztus-51834-marcius-24-7F66/81-8334/b-1833-szeptember-17-18-19-a-forendek-ulesei-targy-az-urberi-torvenycikkek-szovegenek-tovabbi-vitaja-8359/?list=eyJmaWx0ZXJzIjogeyJNVSI6IFsiTkZPX0tPTllfS29zc3V0aF8xIl19LCAicXVlcnkiOiAic3plcmVjc2VuIn0 | title=B) 1833 szeptember 17, 18, 19 a főrendek ülései: Tárgy: Az úrbéri törvénycikkek szövegének további vitája. &#124; KOSSUTH LAJOS ÖSSZES MUNKÁI &#124; Kézikönyvtár }}</ref> In 1834 he declares that [[Abolitionism|abolition]] is the most glorious act, nobler than any victory in battle.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.arcanum.com/hu/online-kiadvanyok/Kossuth-kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-1/kossuth-lajos-osszes-munkai-iii-8AA5/orszaggyulesi-tudositasok-iii-1834-marcius-25november-29-8AA6/173-91C0/az-augusztus-19-21-22-es-23-i-keruleti-ulesekben-a-tizeddel-kapcsolatban-elhangzott-vitak-reszletesebb-ismertetese-i-eltoroltessek-e-a-tized-91C1/?list=eyJmaWx0ZXJzIjogeyJNVSI6IFsiTkZPX0tPTllfS29zc3V0aF8xIl19LCAicXVlcnkiOiAic3plcmVjc2VuIn0 | title=Az augusztus 19., 21., 22., és 23-i kerületi ülésekben a tizeddel kapcsolatban elhangzott viták részletesebb ismertetése: &#91;I.&#93; El… &#124; KOSSUTH LAJOS ÖSSZES MUNKÁI &#124; Kézikönyvtár }}</ref> In America, he is afraid to do such a thing, because he feared that there would be fewer like-minded people in America, having seen the South.
[[File:Kossuth Lajos színezett litográfia 1848 Prinzhofer.jpg|thumb|Coloured lithograph by August Prinzhofer and Johann Rauh (c. 1848)]]
Kossuth’s endorsement of [[Franklin Pierce]] was controversial and may have affected his standing with some supporters. The gaffe brought him back to London in July 1852.

Early the next year, he sent [[Ferenc Pulszky]] to meet with Pierce to obtain support for intervention in Europe. Pulszky was to also meet in secret with Lt. [[William "Bull" Nelson|William Nelson]] USN and make plans for an expedition against Haiti and [[Santo Domingo]]. The plot ended with the failure of the Milanese riots of 1853, and Kossuth made no further efforts to win backing from the United States.<ref>Donald S. Spencer, ''Louis Kossuth and Young America A Study in Sectionalism and Foreign Policy 1848–1852'' (Colombia, 1977)</ref><ref>John H. Komlus, ''Louis Kossuth in America 1851–1852'' (Buffalo, 1973)</ref><ref>Francis and Theresa Pulszky, "White, Red, Black: Sketches of American Society", ''Living Age'' 37 (9 April 1853)</ref><ref>Steven Béla Várdy, "Kossuth's Effort to Enlist America into the Hungarian Cause," Duquesne University Hungarian Studies (2002)</ref><ref>Thomas Kabdebo, ''Diplomat in Exile Francis Pulsky's Political Activities in England 1849–1860'' (New York, 1979)</ref>

==London==

===Attempted leadership in exile===
After returning from America to Europe, he lived permanently in London for eight years, where he gained many important connections in British parliamentary, writer and journalistic circles. He also liaised with circles of French, Italian, Russian, German, and Polish emigrants, most notably [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Stanisław Gabriel Worcell]], who were influential in organizing unsubstantiated uprising attempts in the early 1850s. In the following years, Kossuth expected that the conflicts between the great powers would still make it possible to liberate Hungary, and therefore he had even several personal talks with Emperor Napoleon III in Paris.

He made a close connection with his friend 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.

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 that impossible. There were still significant international forces supporting the Habsburgs to maintain their empire, because Austria was seen as an important element in the balance of great powers.

Gradually, his autocratic style and uncompromising outlook destroyed any real influence among the Hungarian 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. Hungarians were especially offended by his continuing use of the title of Regent. Kossuth considered the use of his regent title constitutionally justified until the next democratic elections in Hungary. Accordingly, he used his title until the [[1869 Hungarian parliamentary election]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Tanárky Gyula|title=A Kossuth-emigráció szolgálatában. Tanárky Gyula naplója (1849–1866)|year=1961}}</ref>

==Later years: Italy==

=== Embittered break with Hungarian patriots ===
[[File:Kossuth villa Collegno.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The villa where Kossuth lived in Collegno al Baraccone from 1874 until 1882. Kossuth himself is visible standing on the balcony.]]There were still significant international forces supporting the Habsburgs to maintain their empire, because Austria was seen as an important element in the continental balance of power. However, Garibaldi's invasion of Sicily in 1860 raised new hopes for Kossuth. Many Hungarian 1848 veterans fought among the Italian soldiers, and the Italian successes could have led to another Italian-Austrian war. To this end, the Hungarian Legion was re-established, and Kossuth negotiated cooperation with the Italians. However the promise of the international conference never took root. In 1861, Kossuth moved to [[Turin]], Italy, had to watch [[Ferenc Deák (politician)|Ferenc Deák]] guide Hungary toward a compromise with the Austrian monarchy. He did so with a bitter heart, and on the day before the [[Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867]] ([[German language|German]]: ''Ausgleich'', [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]: ''Kiegyezés''), 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.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Kossuth">Encyclopædia Britannica Kossuth</ref> 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 the 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 on the Continent, which would be fueled and induced by extremist nationalism, with Hungary on the side of a "dying empire".

"I see in the Compromise the death of our nation," he wrote.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/hunspir/hsp36.htm |title=An Era of Light and Shadow |publisher=Hungarianhistory.com |access-date=2015-09-19}}</ref>

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.

In 1874 Kossuth bought a villa in the village of [[Collegno]] with a large garden in a small hamlet called Baraccone not far from the train station, and spent his days with gardening, botanical expeditions to the Alps, writing his memoirs and receiving Hungarian guests. He was forced to sell the villa in 1882 due to financial difficulties plaguing him since he lost most of his wealth in the aftermath of the [[Panic of 1873|1873 financial crisis]]. Reluctantly he moved back to the city of Turin.<ref>[https://rubicon.hu/cikkek/a-turini-remete-2 László Csorba: A turini remete, in: Rubicon]</ref>

Facing financial hardships, he struggled in his later years. However, encouraged by Ignác Helfy, he started compiling his life memories in 1879, focusing particularly on documents related to emigration history. Additionally, he allowed British, American, French, and Italian publishers to print his renowned speeches and political debates. The remarkable success of his books swiftly reinstated his financial stability and wealth, and throughout his later years, he took pride in the knowledge that he was still making a living through his work.<ref>{{cite book|author=[[József Révai]]|title=Lajos Kossuth|publisher=[[Szikra]]|year=1947|page=45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ybldAQAACAAJ}}</ref>

In 1890, a delegation of Hungarian [[pilgrim]]s in Turin recorded a short patriotic speech delivered by the elderly Lajos Kossuth. The original recording<ref>[http://kincsestar.radio.hu/rolunk/hengern.jpg] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051027033731/http://kincsestar.radio.hu/rolunk/hengern.jpg|date=27 October 2005}}</ref> on two [[wax]] cylinders for the [[Thomas Edison|Edison]] [[phonograph]] survives to this day, barely audible<ref>{{YouTube|id=x_SBwVB83WU}}</ref> because of excess playback and unsuccessful early restoration attempts. Recording Kossuth's voice was one of the earliest applications of phonograph,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0oT0m2HIWdsC&q=%22The+earliest+born+celebrity+to+be+recorded+was+Hungarian+revolutionary+Lajos+Kossuth%22 |title=Norris McWhirter's book of millennium records: the story of human achievement ... |via= Google Books |access-date=2015-09-19|isbn=9781856136860 |last1=McWhirter |first1=Norris |year=1999 |publisher=Book People }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OHe7AAAAIAAJ&q=%22In+conformity+with+this+prognosis,+the+phonograph+was+first+used+to+disseminate+the+voices+of+leaders+(Kossuth,+Gladstone,+etc.)%22&pg=PA92 |title=Noise: The Political Economy of Music |via=Google Books |access-date=2015-09-19|isbn=9780719014710 |last1=Attali |first1=Jacques |year=1985 |publisher=Manchester University Press }}</ref> and his few sentences are the earliest known recorded Hungarian speech.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxQQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Kossuth's+few+sentences+preserved+by+the+phonograph+are+the+earliest+spoken+Hungarian+words+that+we+possess%22 |title=Hungarian Digest |via=Google Books |date=2010-09-10 |access-date=2015-09-19}}</ref> Until the discovery of a recording of [[Helmuth von Moltke the Elder|Helmuth von Moltke]] in 2012, Lajos Kossuth was the person with the earliest birth date from whom a sound recording was known.<ref name="The 1880s Speak">{{Citation|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OD3ZmD_t5I&t=2022s|title=The 1880s Speak: Recent Developments in Archeophony|date=19 May 2012|author=Patrick Feaster|periodical=Annual Conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections|place=Rochester, New York|access-date=21 November 2021}}</ref>

===European federalism===
[[File:Kossuth és fiai.jpg|250px|thumb|Louis Kossuth and his sons. Lajos Tódor Károly is on the left, Ferenc on the right.]]
[[File:Kossuth Turin 1892 EllingerA.jpg|thumb|right|Kossuth in Turin, 1892]]

Publicly, Kossuth remained unreconciled to the house of Habsburg and committed to a fully independent state. He expressed the idea of uniting with the Hungarian and neighbouring peoples in his plans for the future, which also contained many utopian elements, and in his equally utopian plan for the future confederation of the already liberated peoples under the name of Republics of Danubian Confederation.<ref>[http://mek.niif.hu/04800/04882/html/szabadku0178.html A „Dunai Szövetség” tervezete (1862. május 1.)]</ref> Though elected to the Diet of 1869, he never took his seat. 


===The "Kossuth party" in the Hungarian parliament===
{{main|Party of Independence and '48}}
The Party of Independence and '48 was established in 1884 by a merger of the [[Independence Party (Hungary)|Independence Party]] and the Party of 1848.<ref name=VM>Vincent E McHale (1983) ''Political parties of Europe'', Greenwood Press, p. 509 {{ISBN|0-313-23804-9}}</ref> Although Kossuth had never returned to Hungary, he was the spiritual leader of this opposition party until he died in 1894, and the party was also referred to as the "Kossuth Party" thereafter.<ref name=VM/> From the [[1896 Hungarian parliamentary election|1896 elections]] onwards, it was the main opposition to the ruling [[Liberal Party (Hungary)|Liberal Party]]. The Kossuth party won the [[1905 Hungarian parliamentary election|1905]], and [[1906 Hungarian parliamentary election|1906 elections]], his older son [[Ferenc Kossuth]] was Minister for Trade between 1906 and 1910. However it lost the [[1910 Hungarian parliamentary election|1910 elections]] to the [[National Party of Work]].
Kossuth's political legacy achieved that ethnic Hungarians did not vote for the ruling pro-compromise Liberal Party in the Hungarian parliamentary elections, thus the political maintenance of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise was mostly a result of the popularity of the pro-compromise Liberal Party among the ethnic minorities.<ref>András Gerő (2014). ''[http://www.geroandras.hu/2014_Nationalities_and_the_Hungarian_Parliament.pdf Nationalities and the Hungarian Parliament (1867–1918)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425200559/http://www.geroandras.hu/2014_Nationalities_and_the_Hungarian_Parliament.pdf |date=25 April 2019 }}''.</ref>

==Death, legacy, complete works==
As Headlam noted, Kossuth died in Turin, after which "his body was taken to Pest (Budapest), where he was buried amid the mourning of the whole nation, [[Mór Jókai]] delivering the funeral oration"; furthermore, a "bronze statue (was) erected by public subscription, in the [[Kerepesi Cemetery]]..." which commemorates Kossuth as "Hungary's purest patriot and greatest orator."<ref name=HeadlamEB1911/>

A Hungarian language version of his complete works were published in Budapest between 1880 and 1895.<ref name=HeadlamEB1911/>
<gallery class="center">
File:Kossuth Lajos várása.jpg|Waiting for the arrival of the coffin of Kossuth at the [[Budapest-Nyugati Railway Terminal|Western Railway terminal of Budapest]] in 1894
File:Kossuth funeral procession 1894.png|Kossuth funeral procession in Budapest
File:Kossuth funeral 2.jpg|Kossuth's funeral procession in [[Budapest]] in 1894
File:Kossuth_Lajos_emlekmu_P8270223.jpg|Mausoleum in [[Kerepesi Cemetery]]
File:Fiumei_-_Kossuth_Mauzóleum.JPG|The coffin in the mausoleum
</gallery>

==Honors and memorials==
===In Hungary===
[[File:Lajos Kossuth, Hungry issues.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|In 1944 the Hungarian government released four postage stamps in Lajos Kossuth's honor]]
The [[Kossuth Square|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 (Bartók)|Kossuth]],'' the [[funeral march]] which was [[transcription (music)|transcribed]] for piano and published in Bartók's lifetime.

The memorials to 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 [[Revolutions of 1989]] by local councils or private associations. They play an important role as symbols of national identity of the Hungarian minority.{{POV statement|date=October 2012}}
[[Magyar Posta]] paid homage to Kossuth by bringing out eight postage stamps.<ref>1 July 1932, Scott Catalog # 475, 30 filler; on 15 March 1947, Scott Catalog # 821, 40 filler; on 15 March 1952, Scott Catalog # 990, 20 filler this stamp shows Kossuth and speech at Debrecen; 17 February 1994, Scott Catalog # 3424, 19 forint in the Personalities series,</ref> Again, a set of four stamps commemorating 50th anniversary of the death of Lajos Kossuth were issued by Hungary on 20 March 1944<ref>Scott # 621-24, denominations 4,20,30,50 filler</ref>

===In Slovakia===
The most important memorial outside the present-day borders of Hungary is a statue in [[Rožňava]], that was knocked down twice but restored after much controversy in 2004.

Mlynská ulica in [[Košice]], an important street in the historic city center used to be called Lajos Kossut utca for most of its history.

===In 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 [[Székelys|Székely]] village of [[Ciumani]]. The Kossuth Memorial in [[Arad, Romania|Arad]], the work of [[Ede Margó]] from 1909, was removed by the order of the [[Ion I. C. Brătianu|Brătianu]] government in 1925.

===In the United Kingdom===
There is a [[blue plaque]] on No. 39 Chepstow Villas, the house in [[Notting Hill]] in [[London]], where Kossuth lived from 1850 to 1859. A street in [[Greenwich]], also in London, is named Kossuth Street after him. There is a letter of support from Kossuth on display at the [[Wallace Monument]], near [[Stirling]]. The building of the monument, dedicated to Scottish patriot [[William Wallace]] coincided with Kossuth's visit to Scotland.

===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]]. Lajos Kossuth Street exists in the cities of Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Mukachevo, Tyachiv, Uzhhorod. 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.

The house where Kossuth lived when in exile, on Macar Street (meaning ''Hungarian Street'' in Turkish) in [[Kütahya]], [[Turkey]], is now a museum (Kossuth Evi Müzesi). The house is on a hill, with two stories in the back and one facing Macar Street. The walled back yard has a life size statue of Kossuth. The interior is furnished with period pieces, and houses a portrait of Kossuth and a map of his travels.

In Turin, Italy, there is a plaque on the building in which Kossuth lived, as well as a street bearing his name (Corso Luigi Kossuth).

===In the United States===
[[File:Lajos Kossuth, 4c & 8c,1958 issues.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|In 1958 the US Government issued two postage stamps honoring Lajos Kossuth; part of the [[Champion of Liberty commemorative stamps|Champion of Liberty commemorative series]].<ref>{{cite web |title=8-cent Lajos Kossuth single |url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_1980.2493.5251 |publisher=US Post Office / Smithsonian National Postal Museum|access-date=December 25, 2023}}</ref>]]
[[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 towns of [[Kossuth, Ohio]], [[Kossuth, Mississippi]], [[Kossuth, Maine]], [[Kossuth, Pennsylvania]], and [[Kossuth, Wisconsin]], as well as a populated area within the town of [[Bolivar, New York]]<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://newyork.hometownlocator.com/ny/allegany/kossuth.cfm |title = Kossuth Populated Place Profile / Allegany County, New York Data}}</ref> 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<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kossuthhouse.org/ |title=Kossuthhouse.org |publisher=Kossuthhouse.org |access-date=2015-09-19 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018185913/http://www.kossuthhouse.org/ |archive-date=18 October 2015}}</ref> (owned and operated by the [[Hungarian Reformed Federation of America]]). A statue of Kossuth stands in New York City on [[Riverside Drive (Manhattan)|Riverside Drive]] at 113th Street 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. There are streets named in his honor in [[Bronx, New York|the Bronx]], [[Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn]], [[Utica, New York|Utica]], [[Ronkonkoma, New York|Ronkonkoma]], and [[Bohemia, New York|Bohemia]] in [[New York State]]; [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]], [[Haledon, New Jersey|Haledon]], and [[Wharton, New Jersey|Wharton]] in [[New Jersey]]; [[St. Louis, Missouri]]; [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]];  [[Lafayette, Indiana]]; and [[Columbus, Ohio]]. There is also a neighborhood in [[Dayton, Ohio]] known as the [[Kossuth Colony Historic District]].

During an impassioned eulogy of Kossuth in New York, [[Alexander Kohut]], a distinguished rabbinic scholar, took ill, and died several weeks later.<ref name=jewe>{{Cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia|article=Kohut, Alexander|author-link=Isidore Singer|author-link2=George Alexander Kohut|author-link3=Cyrus Adler|last=Singer|first=Isidore|author2=George Alexander Kohut|author3=Cyrus Adler|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=333&letter=K&search=George%20Alexander%20Kohut}}</ref>

The bust of Kossuth that was added to the United States Capitol in 1990 is presently displayed in that building's "Freedom Foyer" alongside busts of [[Václav Havel]] and [[Winston Churchill]].

===In Canada===
Kossuth Road in [[Cambridge, Ontario]], Canada was named in Kossuth's honor as is Kossuth Park Wainfleet, Ontario Port Colborne, Ontario.

===In Kurdistan, Iraq===
The main street in [[Rawanduz]] was renamed in Kossuth's honor in 2017.<ref>{{cite news|title=Kurdish poetry anthology published in Hungarian|url=https://dailynewshungary.com/kurdish-poetry-anthology-published-hungarian/|access-date=4 April 2017|work=Daily News Hungary|date=24 February 2017}}</ref>

== Memorials ==
<gallery class="center">
File:Kossuth 104th RSD jeh.JPG|Kossuth statue in [[List of streets in Manhattan|113th Street]] and [[Riverside Drive (Manhattan)|Riverside Drive]], New York City
File:Hungary Pecs 2005 June 032.jpg|Kossuth statue in [[Pécs]]
File:Kossuth szobor.JPG|[[Kossuth Memorial]], originally in [[Budapest]], moved to [[Orczy Park]] in 2014.
File:Budapešť 0086.jpg|The statue of Kossuth on the [[Hősök tere]] (Heroes' Square), Budapest
File:Louis Kossuth (4644584118).jpg|Kossuth [[blue plaque]] in [[London]]
File:Lajos (Louis) Kossuth (225710109).jpg|Kossuth Road in [[Cambridge, Ontario|Cambridge]], Canada
File:Kossuth Museum.JPG|Kossuth Museum in [[Kütahya]], Turkey
File:Kossuth plaque, Lord Nelson Street.jpg|Plaque installed in 2017 commemorating speeches made in Liverpool in 1856
</gallery>

==Works {{anchor|Kossuth's writings}}==
* {{Gutenberg author |id=3641 |name=Lajos Kossuth}}
* [https://archive.org/details/memoriesmyexile00kossgoog ''Memories of My Exile'']
* [https://archive.org/details/futurenations00kossgoog ''The Future of Nations'']
* [https://archive.org/details/kossuthinneweng00kossgoog ''Kossuth in New England: A Full Account of the Hungarian Governor's Visit to Massachusetts, with His Speeches'']
* [https://archive.org/details/lifeoflouiskossu00headuoft ''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'']
* [https://archive.org/details/gesammeltewerke00kossgoog ''Gesammelte Werke: Aus dem ungarischen'' "Selected Works" Vol. I]
* [https://archive.org/details/gesammeltewerke01kossgoog ''Gesammelte Werke: Aus dem ungarischen'' "Selected Works" Vol. II]
* [https://archive.org/details/diekatastrophei00kossgoog ''Die Katastrophe in Ungarn'' By Lajos Kossuth]
* [https://archive.org/details/meineschriftena01kossgoog ''Meine Schriften aus der Emigration'' By Lajos Kossuth']
* [https://archive.org/details/apragmaticasanc00kossgoog ''A Pragmatica sanctio Magyarországban. Történeti, jogi és politikai szempontokból'' By Charles, Lajos Kossuth]
* [https://archive.org/details/feleletgrfszche00szgoog ''Felelet gróf Széchenyi Istvánnak Kossuth Lajostól'' By Lajos Kossuth, gróf István Széchenyi]

===Notes===
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book|last=Spira|first=György |title= A magyar forradalom 1848-49-ben ''("The Hungarian Revolution in 1848-49")''|publisher=A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Történettudományi Intézete|place=Budapest|year=1959|page=678|language=hu }}

==Further reading==
* Deák, István. ''Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians 1848–1849'' (Phoenix, 2001)
* Godwin, Parke. "Louis Kossuth." In: [https://archive.org/details/curtisedwinbooth00godwrich/page/106/mode/2up ''Commemorative Addresses''] (1895), 107ff.
* Horvath, Eugene. "Kossuth and Palmerston (1848–1849)." ''The Slavonic and East European Review'' 9#27 (1931): 612–631. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4202564 in JSTOR]
* Lada, Zsuzsanna. "The Invention of a Hero: Lajos Kossuth in England (1851)." ''European History Quarterly'' 43.1 (2013): 5–26.
* Laszlo Peter, Martyn Rady & Peter Sherwood, eds. ''Lajos Kossuth Sent Word'' (2003) scholarly essays [https://archive.org/details/SSEES0026 online]
* Moore, John Bassett. "Kossuth: A Sketch of a Revolutionist. I." ''Political Science Quarterly'' 10.1 (1895): 95–131. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2139581 in JSTOR free]; [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2139732 part II in JSTOR free]
* Nobili, Johann. ''Hungary 1848: The Winter Campaign''. Edited and translated Christopher Pringle. Warwick, UK: Helion & Company Ltd., 2021.
* Roberts, Tim. "Lajos Kossuth and the Permeable American Orient of the Mid-Nineteenth Century." ''Diplomatic History'' (2014) {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20151018185913/http://dh.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/12/01/dh.dhu070.short online]}} doi: 10.1093/dh/dhu070
* Spencer, Donald S. ''Louis Kossuth and young America: a study of sectionalism and foreign policy 1848–1852'' (Univ of Missouri Press, 1977)
*{{cite book |last1=Webster |first1=Daniel |author1-link=Daniel Webster |title=Sketch of the Life of Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary: Together with the Declaration of Hungarian Independence; Kossuth's Address to the People of the United States; All His Great Speeches in England; and the Letter of Daniel Webster to Chevalier Hulsemann |date=1851 |publisher=[[Stringer & Townsend]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDosAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}<!-- https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=ha008686900 https://archive.org/details/websterkossuthdi00piv https://archive.org/details/sketchlifelouis00websgoog https://books.google.com/books?id=fn2hy-U7KNoC https://books.google.com/books?id=O8UEAAAAYAAJ -->
*{{cite book |title=The Life of Gov. Louis Kossuth: With His Public Speeches in the United States, and a Brief History of the Hungarian War of Independence |date=1852 |publisher=W. Lord |location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=psQEAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons}}
* {{cite book | last = Anonymous | year = 1897 | chapter = Louis Kossuth (1802–1894) (Obituary Notice, Wednesday, March 21, 1894) | title = Eminent Persons; Biographies reprinted from The Times | publisher=Macmillan and Co & The Times Office | place = London and New York | pages= 100–115 | volume= VI (1893–1894) | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/eminentpersonsbi06timeiala/page/100 | access-date =12 February 2019 | via= Internet Archive}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120321133351/http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=EOB/1849/06/16&EntityId=Ar00103 1849 newspaper article]}}
* [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030213/1851-10-20/ed-1/seq-5/ 1851 Address to the American People (NY Tribune October 20, 1851 p. 5)]
* [http://www.skocia.co.uk Lajos Kossuth in Scotland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923063149/http://www.skocia.co.uk/ |date=23 September 2017 }}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050908200542/http://hungary.ciw.edu/kossuth/ Lajos Kossuth in North America]}}
* [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1851/12/31/87825654.pdf Kossuth at the Capital], NY Times article, 30 December 1851.
* [http://www.americanhungarianfederation.org/news_kossuth.htm The American Hungarian Federation]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050207070543/http://www.thehungarypage.com/kossuth.htm The Hungary Page, featuring Nobel Prize Winners and Famous Hungarians]}}
* {{YouTube|id=x_SBwVB83WU|title=Part of his speech}} on a wax [[phonograph cylinder]] (1890)
* [http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/keywordsearch.arc Early articles of "The Times" about Lajos Kussuth]{{dead link|date=February 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
* [https://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&daterange=period&query=Louis+Kossuth&srchst=p&hdlquery=&bylquery=&mon1=01&day1=18&year1=1851&mon2=12&day2=31&year2=1870&submit.x=42&submit.y=14 Early New York Times articles about Kossuth]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/06700/06720/index.phtml Kossuth in New England] (MEK)
* {{Gutenberg author |id=3641 |name=Lajos Kossuth}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Lajos Kossuth}}

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{{s-off}}
{{succession box|title=[[Minister of Finance of Hungary|Minister of Finance]]|before=post created|after=[[Lajos Batthyány]]|years=1848}}
{{succession box|title=[[Prime Minister of Hungary|President of the Committee of National Defence]]|before=[[Lajos Batthyány]]<br /><small>as Prime Minister</small>|after=[[Bertalan Szemere]]<br /><small>as Prime Minister</small>|years=1848–1849}}
{{succession box|title=[[President of Hungary|Governor-President of Hungary]]|before=post created|after=[[Artúr Görgey]]<br /><small>as acting civil and military authority</small>|years=1849}}
{{s-end}}
{{HungarianPrimeMinisters}}
{{HungarianFinanceMinisters}}
{{Heads of State of Hungary}}
{{Hungarian Revolution of 1848}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kossuth, Lajos}}
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