Daily Inspiration Quote by Lajos Kossuth

Kossuth opens with a kind of verbal bow, but it is a bow with steel in its spine. “I must therefore implore your indulgence” performs humility while quietly asserting necessity: he is not choosing to be long-winded; history is forcing his hand. The phrase “pretty long and plain” is calculated, too. “Long” signals seriousness and depth; “plain” promises accessibility and honesty, an attempt to disarm any suspicion that a foreign revolutionary is selling romantic turmoil dressed up as principle.

The real work happens in how he flatters without groveling. By naming “the citizens of New York” and then narrowing to “you particularly, gentlemen,” Kossuth constructs a ladder of audience: the city as democratic emblem, then the influential men in the room as gatekeepers of money, press, and political leverage. “Honour with generous interest” recasts their attention as moral action already underway. If they are already “generous,” the next step is to behave generously again - with tangible support.

Context sharpens the edge. Kossuth was the exiled leader of Hungary’s failed 1848 revolution, touring the United States to rally sympathy against Habsburg rule and, ideally, pry open American diplomatic or material aid. In that light, the sentence is not mere etiquette; it’s coalition-building rhetoric. He frames his “cause” as worthy of American civic identity, not European factionalism. The subtext: you pride yourselves on liberty; now prove it, and let my struggle be the stage where your ideals become foreign policy.