Cornish, Louis Craig: Transylvania. The land beyond the forest (Philadelphia, 1947)
7. Kossuth’s American visit and afterward
VII KOSSUTH'S AMERICAN VISIT AND AFTERWARD in the last half of the eighteenth century Britain was attempting to make the American colonies subservient to her trade and industries, somewhat as Austria later and far more thoroughly made Hungary subservient under her absolute government, a province instead of a constitutional partner. Washington fought to be rid of all British interference. Up to this point we remember his “principles,” which Kossuth claimed as his. Often we forget that Washington was also welding thirteen individualistic little states, only slightly related, into a nation. E Pluribus Unum! One out of many! It was uphill work. “Who will deal with us,” he cried, “when we are one nation today and thirteen tomorrow?” In the welter of their war it was the mutual concernments of these American Colonies, even despite themselves, that drew them haltingly together into a working whole, and made them a nation. Washington’s principles were to make them one nation and to make them free. When Kossuth knelt in farewell to Hungary he had been fighting to make her free, and also he had tried to extend 66