The Life of Governor Louis Kossuth with His Public Speeches in the United States, and a Brief History of the Hungarian War of Independence [antikvár]

Life of Governor Louis Kossuth This distinguished General was born at Monok, in Zemplin, one of the northern counties of Hungary, on the 27th of April, 1806. His father was in the Austrian army during the wars against Napoleon; his mother is a woman of extraordinary force of mind and character. When a boy, he was remariiable for the winning gentleness of his disposition, and for an earnest enthusiasm, which gave promise of eminence. Ayoung clergyman, attracted by the character of the boy, took upon himself the office of his tutor. His father died, his tutor was translated to another post, and the walls of his prison-house seemed again to close upon him; but, by the aid of menil)ers of his family, he was enabled to attend such schools as the district furnished. He was taught the Latin language, and through that door he was introduced into the broad domains of history, where he could range at will through the immortal past. During the wars which occurred in Austria from 1527 to 1715, seventeen of the family of Kossuth had been attainted for high treason against Austria. The last, most desperate, and decisively unsuccessful struggle was that waged by Rakozky, at the beginning of the last century. Kossuth pored over the chronicles and annals which narrate the incidents of this contest, till he was master of all the minutest details. When just entering upon manhood, he made his way to Pest, the capital, to study the legal profession. He entered the office of a notary, and began gradually to make himself Imown by his liberal opinions, and the fervid eloquence with which he set forth and maintained them. Kossuth, having completed his legal studies, and finding no favorable opening in the capital, returned in 1830 to his native distnct, and commenced the practice of the law, with marked success. He also began to make his way toward public life, by his intelligent action in the local assemblies. In a new Diet assembled in 1832 he received a commission as the representative, in the Diet, of a magnate who was absent. He early made himself known as a debater, and gradually won his way