The 1850s saw the first substantial immigration of Hungarians to America. Sometimes referred to as the Kossuth Emigration, named for Hungary's fiery leader, these were for the most part educated men who had participated in Hungary's ill-fated 1848-49 War of Liberation. The war was an attempt to wrest their homeland from its ties to Austria and to set up a modern European country. Frustrated with Austria's desire to keep Hungary as a technologically backward source of food, and inspired by the growth of liberal political ideas in Europe, they sought to, among other things, abolish serfdom, withdraw the privileges of the nobility (which included exemption from paying taxes), and institute freedom of the press and religion.

After their disastrous military loss, due in large part to the intervention of Russia which had come to the aid of its sister monarchy, officers found themselves in grave danger. An angry Austria reacted by levying long prison sentences or conscription into the Austrian army, confiscation of their property, and in some cases execution. Some fled with Kossuth to Turkey, others emigrated to lands with democratic regimes, especially England and America. Although exact numbers are not known, by the time of the Civil War in 1861 it is estimated that there were 4000 Hungarians living in America.¹

This is the story of one such émigré, Ignácz Bátory.
Ignácz was born in 1818 in Buda into a Jewish family by the name of Freisinger. Little is known of his early years aside from his education in a Catholic school. By the time he became a lawyer, prior to the war, he had adopted the family name of Bátory,² a long-revered name in Hungarian history. Such name changes were common at the time, especially among those who bore German, Slavic, or Jewish names.³ Growing feelings of nationalism and identification with Hungarian history and culture led to a period of Magyarization during which the Hungarian language (Magyar) was preferred over the many other languages in use in the country and where it was an advantage to have a Magyar name.

When war broke out with Austria in 1848, Bátory joined the Hungarian army as a lieutenant.⁴ He was stationed at the fortress of Komárom when it became the last outpost to capitulate to Austrian and Russian troops on 27 September 1849. Among the terms of the capitulation, officers were promised passports out of the country. A number of the officers at Komárom made hasty plans to congregate in Hamburg with the goal of immigrating to America, the "land of freedom." For the most part these were young men, in their 20s, unencumbered by families, eager to trade certainty of Austrian retribution for the uncertainties of life in a strange land. Though many of them came from privileged backgrounds, they left hurriedly with almost no money and little more than a suitcase, trusting only to providence for their survival. Their motivations were mixed. Certainly fear played a large role, but also their political idealism, and more than a small dose of adventurism. While most of them harbored hopes that Kossuth would regroup and lead them back to a victorious Hungary, they were realistic enough to know that they might never seen their homeland again.⁵

A group of about thirty of these young men boarded a sailing ship to America, limping in to New York in January 1850 after a dreadful 72 days of storms and starvation in midwinter. They joined fellow émigrés in a boarding house where they gratefully wolfed down meals prepared by a Hungarian cook. Americans looked upon them as heroes, and numerous fund-raisers were held on their behalf. While that sufficed for the short term, they all had to face the problem of how to support themselves in a land where they could not even speak the language. Not content to survive long on the largesse of others, within two months Bátory opened a cigar shop in Manhattan. One biography suggests that he also used his wide-ranging language skills to work as an interpreter for the port.⁶ He and others made haste to officially declare their intent to become citizens, renouncing their allegiance to the "Emperor of Austria."⁷

Batory's cigar shop failed after two years, but Ignácz married and moved to Brooklyn where he opened a confectionery.⁸ This business thrived, and he and his wife, Josephine, became parents to four daughters.⁹
For most of the Kossuth Emigration, the idealism which led them to support the liberal and progressive aims of the 1848-49 War of Liberation did not cease at the port of New York. Once they had established a means of making a living, they turned the focus of their idealism onto their new country. The Hungarian community was small and unorganized, but they readily joined their German neighbors whose numbers were large and growing. They were politically active, and a number of German Democratic clubs sprang up in Brooklyn. Their concerns were both for the welfare of the immigrants, many of whom could not speak English, and for national issues. Politically they were close to the prevailing concerns in the area regarding fear of antagonizing the South, on which New York depended economically for its cotton and sugar, and what they perceived as a threat by the growing black population. This put them somewhat at odds with their counterparts in other areas of the country who were joining the new Republican party and becoming strong abolitionists. At a political meeting of the Democrats in 1860 Batory addressed the large group in their native German. "His remarks were frequently interrupted by marked manifestations of approval."¹⁰

However much their sympathies had lain with the South, once the Civil War began they became fervent supporters of the Union. At its outbreak, Hungarians were in considerable demand by the Union army because of their military experience in the 1848-49 war. Though they were few in terms of absolute numbers, a larger proportion of them joined the Union forces than any other ethnic group.¹¹ One of them was George Frederick D'Utassy, who organized and led the 39^th New York State Volunteers, also known as the Garibaldi Guard, comprised of men of a half dozen nationalities. Batory, with his skills as a merchant, became sutler to the regiment. Despite his acknowledged military ability, D'Utassy was also a scoundrel and was finally court martialed in 1863 and spent a year in Sing Sing.¹² One of the charges against him was extortion of his sutlers, including Batory. Despite his problems with d'Utassy, it is evident that Batory did very well in profiting from the war, as was typical for sutlers.

By 1870 Batory and his family were living in Baltimore, where Josephine gave birth to a fifth daughter. He had Americanized his name to Ignatius, and the Baltimore census for that year lists Batory as a "real estate broker" with real property worth $50,000 and personal property worth $3000. With such wealth, Batory could easily have lived a life of leisure and ease, but this was not to be.

It is not known how long Batory continued to be interested in real estate, but by 1880 he had become a jobber, a wholesale distributor of "fruits, jellies, and bakers' supplies."¹³ A man of means, he provided very comfortably for his family, and four of his five daughters married well. The second daughter remained single.

Batory was drawn to the issue of the inequitable distribution of wealth in this country, a plight that also had hampered the progress and development of his homeland and had been one of the causes of the 1848-49 revolution. From the Civil War period until his old age he fought for economic reform that would result in prosperity for all Americans. For him, "pursuit of happiness" as promulgated in the constitution meant "obtain[ing] an easy mode of making a living" through mental and physical labor.¹⁴ He decried the concentration of wealth among those who did not earn it and faulted the government regulations that supported them to the disadvantage of the many.

Initially he turned to labor unions as a possible source of redress. He became involved in the 1860s with the strong Iron Moulders Union and then the National Labor Union, founded in Baltimore in 1866.¹⁵ He contributed articles to the People's Weekly of Baltimore and by 1868 was an impassioned promoter of the Workingmen's Party as a third-party alternative. However, as time went on he became disullusioned with the ability of labor unions to reform the economy of the country. Although many of his goals appear similar to socialism, he rejected both communism and socialism as cures because they limited the independence of individuals. The solution, he felt, lay in increased production and consumerism funded by excess profits. Make more, buy more, and everyone will become prosperous.

Some of his ideas, however, were strange. For instance, he advocated that the courts should not be used to collect debts. (Had he, perhaps, been subject to court proceedings when his tobacco shop failed?) He also thought that all forms of investment such as stocks, bonds, mortgages, and ground rent should be abolished, as well as the charging of interest on loans, as this income was not tied to labor of any kind. Excess profits should be used only to generate greater productivity. He was also against minimum wages and an 8-hour work day, issues important to the labor unions.

More often than not his ideas fell on deaf ears, or even led to scorn and ridicule. One of his descendants recalls that his fiery speeches in the streets of Baltimore sometimes resulted in his being pelted with tomatoes.¹⁶ Yet he persisted in promoting his beliefs, and in 1896 he published a small book entitled States' Philosophy, States' Economy, and States' Finances: Inseparable but Distinct Sciences, a compilation of his writings from 1866 through that year. At the end of the book he vented his frustration at his life's efforts:

For half a century in vain did I try to enlighten fellow men in relation to the iniquitous system of finances and its uses. In vain did I make the effort to prove to fellow-men the cause of his poverty on one hand and the concentration of immense wealth on the other hand. In vain did I try to convince fellow-men that our form of government does fully warrant his prosperity.

In vain did I try to make fellow men see the roots that cause his proverty and debasement. But they could not see! In vain did I speak the words of plain reason; the seed fell in untilled ground. But the evil will soon remedy itself! For necessity is a great teacher. (p. 95)

Yet some of his ideas did indeed eventually take root, including the prohibition of monopolies and the graduated income tax. But there is still a great gap between the very wealthy and the poor in America, a situation which would have pained him greatly.
Batory died in 1906 at the ripe age of 87 and is buried in Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore. Curiously, his gravesite is not far from the magnificent D'Utassy tomb, burial place of his controversial countryman.

1. Steven Bela Vardy, The Hungarian-Americans (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985), p. 13; Stephen Beszedits, "Notable Hungarians and Their Contributions in the Civil War," http://www.suvcw.org/mollus/art014.htm

2. Gábor Bona, "Az 1848-49-es honvédsereg zsidó születésű tisztjei," Múlt és Jövő, 1998/1, 59-87.

3. It is possible that Batory ceased identifying himself as a Jew at the same time, but this might have come later. In any case, his American family was Protestant.

4. Ibid.

5. Most of the information on Batory's emigration and early life in America is taken from the unpublished personal diary of Eugene Arthur Kozlay, Batory's fellow émigré and cabinmate aboard the Mont Stuart Elphinstone.

6. Bona.

7. Batory was naturalized in the Superior Court for New York County on 21 September 1855. Eugene Kozlay was named witness to the naturalization.

8. Kozlay diary, 11 February 1852 [translated from the Hungarian]: "One tradesman, called Freisinger or Bátory, not only stumbled, but he fell. And that caused the creditors also to fall with him and share the pain that was pressing on his chest. But maybe that's why he got married only 14 days before his failure, and spent too much on the wedding. Now his poor chestnut-brown wife is also sorrowful-why? Because, the young couple's joy a few weeks after their wedding can turn into bitterness."

9. U.S. Census, 1860, Brooklyn, New York.

10. Brooklyn Eagle, 26 October 1860, p. 2.

11. Vardy, p. 14.

12. U.S. War Department, Adjutant General's Office, General Orders No. 159, 29 May 1864; Col. Eugene A. Kozlay, Regimental Journal of the 54^th NYSV.

13. U.S. Census, 1880, Baltimore, Maryland.

14. Ignatius Batory, States' Philosophy, States' Economy, and States' Finances: Inseparable but Distinct Sciences (Baltimore, MD, 1893), p. 5.

15. John Commons et al., A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. 9, Labor Movement (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Co, 1910), pp. 196, 215, 219, 220.

16. Personal communication, Henry L. Conway, Baltimore, MD, great-grandson of Ignatius Batory.