The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-13


DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
WASHINGTON, February %, 1851.
Hon. DANIEL WEBSTER,
Secretary Of State of the United States:
SIR: have had the honor to receive your
letter of the Dad instant, in which you are
pleased to request that should communicate
to the department whatever information may
possess respecting the circumstances connected
with the detention of Mr.. Louis Kossuth and
his companions, now in Kutayieh, in Asia Minor
and consequently beg leave to lay before it the
following statement:
When in September, Is49, Mr. Kossuth and
his companions fed from Hungary, and found
safety in the dominions Of the Sultan of Turkey
from the united forces Of Austria and Russia,
they (the Poles and Hungarans together)
amounted to some four thousand in number.
You are aware that the emperors of Austria and
Russia demanded that the Sultan Of Turkey
whose protection they had claimed, should de-
liver them up, and that the Sultan generously
refused to accede to their demands. The Sui
tan, however as a matter of compromise, adj
dressed to each of these sovereigns an auto
graph letter, offering to expel from his empire,
or to detain in it under surveillance. any of the
refugees whom they might designate. The en-
should be expelled from Turkey; and conse-
ouently the Sultan sent to Malta some two hun
dred and fifty Poles, in one of his own steamers,
and they have dispersed throughout France and
Belgium. The emperor of Austria asked the
detention in Turkey of such of the Hungarian
chiefs as he might name in list, which would
be given to the Porte by the Austrian legation
at Constantinople. In the mean time, large
number Of the refugees escaped from Turkey
through the generous connivanee Of the Turk
ish authorities, and made their way to the diff
ferent parts of Europe, and even to the United
States. In this manner the original number Of
the refugees soon became very much diminished
In the Sultan's offer to detain the Hungarian
Chiefs he made no allusion to any period of time,
and its duration consequently depends wholly
upon himself Notwithstanding the pressing
demands of the Austrian government that Mr..
Kossuth and the Others named in its list should
be detained for life the humane and generous
Sultan promised only one year. The Austrian
government subsequently diminished its de-
mand to twenty, fifteen, and ten, and finally to
five years; but the Sultan remained firm at his
offer of one year 1t was questioned previous
to my departure from Constantinople, when the
year offered by the Sultan should commence
and when terminate and as the refugees had
crossed the Danube and entered Turkey in the
month Of September, l849, it might commence
with that event, and end in the same month of
the following year; or it might commence with
the date Of the list of the individuals whom the
Austrian government desired should1be detained
that is to say, at the end Of May, 1850, (when
the lis. was, by mutual agreement, to be'closedD
in which case the period of their detention
would terminate with the month of May Of the
present year.
In the meantime Mr.. Kossuth, with some
twenty-five or thirty others named in the list,
and about forty more, who, at their own request
were allowed to share in the exile Of their late
governor, were removed by the Sultan's order
from Shnmla, in ROomelia, to Kutayieh, the
place fixed upon for their residence, and where
they yet remain under that surveillance. The
HuDgarians who remained at Sbumla continued
to receive rations and small monthly stpend
out of the Sultan's treasury. Those who es-
capped to the capital, and did not leave the coun-
try, forfeited this pecuniary assistance, and con-
sequently soon fell into very destitute crcum-
stances. Many of the latter found employment
in the service of the benevolent Musselmen;
others were employed in the Sultan's army. and
a good number embraced Islamism, in the hope
of receiving military preferment Contributions
were made among the foreign legations. and
many of the foreign residents in Peru for the
relief Of the more needy, and the Turkish min
lister never failed to aid those whose peculiar
destitution was made known to them.
This was the position of the affair when left
Constantinope. May 20th'of last year, and in
the expectation that the year for which. Mr..
X ossuth was h be detained would terminate 10
the month of last September fully believed
that he would ere this have been released, and in
the enjoyment of the blessing of liberty in the
United States.
IL was the SuItan's promise, contained In his
lutorvaph letter 10 the Emperor of Austria,
which prevented his government from accepting
be generous offer Of the late lamented Prssi-