War & Peace Quote by Lajos Kossuth

Kossuth’s line is a legal brief disguised as a battle cry. Even before you get to “independence and freedom,” the sentence is doing courtroom work: “in a word” signals clarity and finality, the kind of compression meant to cut through diplomatic fog. Then comes the heavy charge: “WAR,” capitalized into a moral category rather than a mere military condition. He’s not describing violence; he’s authorizing it.

The key phrase is “legitimate defence.” Kossuth is deliberately rejecting the framing that makes revolution synonymous with chaos. In 1848-49, when Hungary’s break from Habsburg rule was being judged not only on the battlefield but in European salons and chancelleries, legitimacy was oxygen. By insisting the conflict is defensive, he recasts the Habsburgs as aggressors against a political community with rights. It’s an appeal to international liberal opinion as much as to Hungarian patriots: if this is self-defense, then neutrality becomes complicity, and assistance becomes principled rather than meddlesome.

Notice how the dynasty is the target, not “Austria” or “the empire.” That’s strategic. “Hapsburg dynasty” turns the enemy into a family regime, a relic of hereditary power, making Hungary’s cause sound modern, constitutional, and national. The subtext is brutal: there is no negotiated path back. “By which alone” forecloses compromise and treats war as the only remaining instrument of political repair. It’s persuasion built on inevitability, meant to make resistance feel less like a choice than a duty.