The voice of Louis Kossuth

This is the speech of Louis Kossuth which he gave for the dedication of the statue for the 13 Hungarian generals, who were executed at Arad, Hungary, on October 6, 1849 (Arad is in Rumania today).

Louis Kossuth was exiled after the fall of the Hungarian Liberation Fight of 1848, and he made his permanent home in Torino, Italy (Ger. Turin). He could not attend the dedication of the monument at Arad, without risking arrest, therefore, using the new technology of sound recording, the phonograph, he recorded his speech in Turin, and sent it to Arad.

He proved the genuity of his voice, recorded on the phonograph, by issuing a letter to the personnel who made the technical work, i.e., Messrs. Tivadar Barna and Károly Felner. The recording was made on September 20, 1890, when Kossuth was 88 years old.

It is a sad fact that the monument Kossuth sent his speech for was torn down by the Rumanian government when they annexed Transylvania, along with Arad, in 1920, after World War I.

Kossuth speaks in Hungarian in this more than a hundred years old wax recording. The recording has a very high noise level, which makes his voice somewhat hard to understand.

Therefore, we recommend to read the text (provided below) along with the recording. Then, it is easy to follow and you will still be able to experience the superior rhetorical power Kossuth possessed and used to ignite the spirits of thousands of Hungarians, in preparation of the war of 1848.

Listening instructions :

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		The voice of Louis Kossuth (RealAudio 3.0 Dual ISDN Stereo sound file, 1 min 21 sec., 0.82 Mb)
		The words of Louis Kossuth read by Imre Ráday (RealAudio 3.0 Dual ISDN Stereo sound file, 1 min 3 sec., 0.63 Mb)
		The voice of Louis Kossuth (Remastered with noise reduction) (RealAudio 3.0 Dual ISDN Stereo sound file, 1 min 26 sec., 0.87 Mb)

The text of Kossuth’s speech in Hungarian

The text of Kossuth’s speech in English

“A világ bírája a történelem fog e kérdésre felelni.

Legyenek a szentemlékű vértanúk megáldottak poraikban, szellemeikben a
hon szabadság Istenének legjobb áldásaival az örökkévalóságon keresztül;
engem ki nem borulhatok le a Magyar Golgota porába, engem október 6-a
térdeimre borulva fog hontalanságom remete lakában látni a mint az
engem kitagadott Haza felé nyújtva agg karjaimat a hála hű
érzelmeivel áldom a vértanúk szent emlékét hűségükért a Haza iránt,
‘s a magasztos példáért, melyet az utódoknak adtanak; ‘s buzgó imával
kérem a magyarok Istenét, hogy tegye diadalmassá a velőkig ható
szózatot, mely Hungária ajkairól a Magyar Nemzethez zeng. Úgy legyen
Ámen !

Turin September 20 1890.

Kossuth Lajos”

“The judge of the universe, history, will decide over this question.

Should the saintly remembered martyrs be hallowed in their ashes, in their spirit with the
highest blessings of the Lord of Liberty and through eternity; I can not pay my sympathies to the ashes of the Hungarian Golgotha, but October 6 will find me on my knees in this reclusive home of exile, as I open my arms to my disowning homeland. With gratitude’s faithful sentiments, I bless the
martyrs’ sacred memory for their faith in their homeland and for the sublime
example they left to their heirs: with ardent prayer I beg the God of
Hungarians to make their appeal which echoes from the lips of Hungaria to
the Hungarian Nation. So be it, Amen !

Turin September 20 1890

Lajos Kossuth”