In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

MIKLÓS WESSELÉNYI: ORATION ON THE MATTER OF THE HUNGARIAN AND SLAVIC NATIONALITIES Title: Szózat a magyar és szláv nemzetiség ügyében (Oration on the matter of the Hungarian and Slavic nationalities) Originally published: Leipzig, Otto Wiegand, 1843 Language: Hungarian The excerpts used are from the modern edition: Miklós Wesselényi, Szózat a magyar és szláv nemzetiség ügyében (Budapest: Európa, 1992), pp. 184– 194. About the author Miklós Wesselényi [Zsibó (Rom. Jibou, present-day Romania), 1796 – Pest, 1850]: politician, political writer. He was the scion of a Transylvanian oppositional aristocratic family, his father having achieved fame for his cultural patriotism and for his spectacular clashes with the central administration, which resulted in his imprisonment by Joseph II. The young Miklós was educated by private tutors, and was also influenced by Ferenc Kazinczy, who was a friend of his family. Already in his youth Wesselényi attracted wider attention with his intellectual capacities. In the 1810– 1820s, he made a number of trips—on one occasion with István Széchenyi—to Italy , France, and England and became conscious of the socio-economic gap between Hungary and Western Europe. In the 1830s he emerged as one of the protagonists of the opposition movement, being active in the Transylvanian and Hungarian Diets as well. At the beginning, he was the closest ally of Széchenyi, but gradually he became more radical. The Viennese government disapproved of Wesselényi’s public activities , and he was indicted on charges of disloyalty to the Crown. In the spring of 1838 he was in Pest when the Danube flooded the city and through his heroic rescue efforts he saved hundreds of people, which earned him great repute. In 1839, after litigation lasting for four years, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment. He never served his term, as due to an illness he lost his sight in one eye and was released for treatment in a Silesian sanatorium (Gräfenberg; present-day Láznĕ Jeseník, Czech Republic). In 1844 he became totally blind and withdrew from public life. Nevertheless , he continued to publish political articles. In 1848, already seriously ill, he participated in the Transylvanian Diet when it declared union with Hungary. Soon after this, however, he came to consider the revolution as doomed to fail and left the country for Gräfenberg. He died in April 1850 on his way back to Hungary. He is considered as one of the iconic figures of the Hungarian Reform Age. MIKLÓS WESSELÉNYI: ORATION 331 Main works: A régi híres ménesek egyike megszűnésének okairól [On the causes of the dissolution of one of the old and famous studs] (1829); Balítéletekről [On misjudgments ] (1833); Szózat a magyar és szláv nemzetiség ügyében [Oration on the matter of the Hungarian and Slavic nationalities] (1843); Teendők a lótenyésztés körül [Tasks regarding horse-breeding] (1847). Context The intellectual itinerary of Wesselényi is in many ways representative of the evolution of the Hungarian ‘liberal nationalism’ of the Reform Age. In the 1820s he subscribed to the vision of István Széchenyi, which sought to promote the social life of the nobility—with casinos, horse-races and cultural foundations—and also hoped to modernize the economical structure of the country by adopting new technologies and developing the infrastructure. In his political activities of the early 1830s, however, Wesselényi went beyond this program towards a more encompassing insitutional reform, and his stance towards Vienna became increasingly conflictual. Building on traditional oppositional rhetoric, he emphasized the constitutional harm caused by the government and tried to mobilize the institutional framework of the estates in order to implement a wide range of social and political reforms. He thus established a conceptual link between the ‘liberties’ of Hungarian ‘ancient constitutionalism’ and modern ‘civic liberty.’ This agenda of reform thus embraced not only the securing of more freedom , e.g., freedom of the press, for the traditional ‘political nation’, but extending the framework of the nation to the underprivileged strata by emancipating the serfs. While Wesselényi was a fervent supporter of these reforms, he admitted that such a profound transformation had its dangers as well, as the entrance of the previously underprivileged and overwhelmingly nonHungarian masses, who nursed an ardent hatred against their erstwhile oppressors , could have catastrophical consequences for the entire...

Share