The masses were
strengthened in this conviction by the unreasonable, short-sighted, and
violent policy pursued by the Government of Vienna, which obstructed the
slightest reforms in the ancient institutions and opposed every national
aspiration, and under whose protecting wing the reactionary elements of
the Upper House were constantly paralyzing the noblest and best efforts
made by the Lower House for the public weal, while the same Government
arbitrarily supported claims of the Catholic clergy, in flat
contradiction to the rights and liberties of the various denominations
inhabiting the country.
The Government, in its antipathy to the national movement, went even
further. It secretly incited the other nationalities, especially the
Croats, against the Hungarians, and thus planted the seeds from which
sprang the subsequent great civil war. In observing the dangerous
symptoms preceding the last-mentioned movement, and the bloody scenes
and fights provoked at every election by the hirelings of the
Government, in order to intimidate the adherents of reform, the friends
of progress became more and more convinced that the period of
moderation, such as preached by Szechenyi, had passed by, and must give
way to that resolute policy, advocated by Kossuth, which recoiled from
no consequences.
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