why the absolutist tendency of the dynasty succeeded in encroaching upon
our liberty. So we replaced the Board of Council by Ministers; the empty
responsibility of a Board by the individual responsibility of men--and
_the king consented to it_. I myself was named by him Minister of
the Treasury. That is all. But precisely here was the rub. The dynasty
could not bear the idea that we would not give to its ambition the life
sweat of our people; it was not contented with the 1,500,000 dollars
which were generously appropriated to it yearly. It dreaded that it
would be disabled in future from using our brave army, against our will,
to crush the spirit of freedom in the world. Therefore it resorted to
the most outrageous conspiracy, and attacked us by arms, and upon
receiving a false report of a great victory this young usurper issued a
proclamation declaring that Hungary shall no more exist--that its
independence, its constitution, its very existence is abolished, and it
shall be absorbed, like a farm or fold, into the Austrian Empire. To all
this Hungary answered, "Thou shalt not exist, tyrant, but we will;" and
we banished him, and issued the declaration of the deposition of his
dynasty, and of our separate independence.

So you see, gentlemen, that there is a very great difference between
your declaration and ours--it is in our favour. There is another
difference; you declared your independence of the English crown when it
was yet very doubtful whether you would be successful. We declared our
independence of the Austrian crown only after we, in legitimate defence,
were already victorious; when we had actually beaten the pretender, and
had thus already proved that we had strength to become an independent
power. One thing more: our declaration of independence was not only
overwhelmingly voted in our Congress, but every county, every
municipality, solemnly declared its consent and adherence to it; so it
became sanctioned, not by mere representatives, but by the whole nation