It is notorious that Goergei abused the full powers with which he was entrusted, instead of procuring the preservation of Hungary by a negotiation for peace, by an ignominious treachery to his native country.  From that very moment the power conferred on him by the above-mentioned instrument, and the conditional abdication of the government, consequently and legally reverted to him who had invested him with it.  To deny this, would be to recognize in the foreign rule which crushed Hungary, in consequence of that treachery, legitimate right and lawful power.

I, however, perfectly agree with the noble count, that the nation, once more restored to its constitutional existence, and free from foreign yoke, will have the unlimited right to dispose of all the affairs of the country, and consequently of the executive power.  To assert a contrary opinion would be a crime against the nation.  Not over a liberated nation (which, of course, would have the right to choose whom it will), but over a nation crushed by an usurping power, the claims of Kossuth, as elected Governor of Hungary, are, I submit, lawful.

Republican principles have not been proclaimed at Kossuth’s dictation as the aim of our national exertions.  They were, during our struggle, the well-ascertained and deep-rooted sentiment of the country, and Kossuth could only faithfully represent the proclaimed will and feeling of the nation, by inscribing them on his banner.  Immediately after the declaration of independence, all the manifestations of the national will were unanimous in the desire for a republic.  The ministry, which was nominated by the Governor as a consequence of that legislative act, declared in both houses of the Diet, that its efforts would be directed to the establishment of a republic.  Both houses joined in this declaration, and in the government no opposition whatever was manifested against it.  One of the first acts of the new government was to remove the crown from all national scutcheons, and from the great seal of Hungary.  The press in all its shades developed republican principles.  The new semi-official paper bore the name of The Republic.  It is true that the government was only provisional, for the war continued, and the definite decision of this question depended on unforeseen circumstances.  We should have preferred almost any settlement to the necessity of a subjection to the Austrian dynasty; and at the price of emancipation from that detested power, the nation would even have been prepared, for the sake of aid, to choose a king from another race; but certainly if it had been the unaided victor in the struggle, never.  Monarchical government would have been for us the resort of expediency.  The government of our wishes and principles was “The Republic.”