The Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49 had received extensive coverage in the American press, and Americans followed Hungary’s revolution against the Austrian Hapsburgs with interest. Americans interpreted the Hungarian struggle and other revolutionary uprisings convulsing Europe as confirmation of America’s own experiment with democracy and conviction that the ideals of liberty and democracy would soon transform Europe. Finding parallels between the Hungarian and the American revolutions, the American public and press sympathized with Louis Kossuth and his fellow revolutionaries. Sympathy for Kossuth and his followers only increased after Austria, with Russian military assistance, crushed the Hungarian uprising. In September 1849, Abraham Lincoln helped draft a series of resolutions adopted by a meeting of Springfield citizens in support of Hungarian freedom. See the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49

In December 1851, Kossuth began a tour of the United States, seeking possible U.S. intervention in the Hungarian revolution. In the public meeting held on January 8, Lincoln proposed resolutions declaring America’s position of non-intervention a “sacred principle of the international law,” while affirming the right of the Hungarians, Irish, and other subject peoples “to revolutionize” against their existing forms of government and to seek national independence.

On January 26, Lincoln was among the Springfield citizens who signed a letter calling for a meeting to take measures to invite Kossuth to visit Springfield on his journey from Indianapolis, Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri.