174 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



must be remembered, however, that the Bohemians and Mora- 

 vians dwell on the northern side of the Carpathian moun- 

 tains in Austria, whilst the Slovaks are on the south of the 

 Carpathians and are wholly in Hungary. Between the Mora- 

 vians and the Slovaks, dwelling so near to one another, the 

 relationship was especially close. The Slovak and the 

 Moravian people were among those who first heard the story 

 of Christ from the Slavonic apostles Sts. Cyril and Methodius, 

 and at one time their tribes must have extended down to the 

 Danube and the southern Slavs. The Magyars (Hungarians) 

 came in from Asia and the East, and like a wedge divided 

 this group of northern Slavs from those on the south. 



The Slovaks have had no independent history and have en- 

 dured successively Polish rule, Magyar conquest, Tatar in- 

 vasions, German invading colonization, Hussite raids from 

 Bohemia, and the dynastic wars of Hungary. In 1848-49, 

 when revolution and rebellion were in the air, the Hungarians 

 began their war against Austria ; the Slovaks in turn rose 

 against the Hungarians for their language and national cus- 

 toms, but on the conclusion of peace they were again incor- 

 porated as part of Hungary without any of their rights recog- 

 nized. Later they were ruthlessly put down when they 

 refused to carry out the Hungarian decrees, particularly as 

 they had rallied to the support of the Austrian throne. In 

 1861 the Slovaks presented their famous Memorandum to the 

 Imperial Throne of Austria, praying for a bill of rights and 

 for their autonomous nationality. Stephen Moyses, the dis- 

 tinguished Slovak Catholic bishop, besought the emperor to 

 grant national and language rights to them. The whole move- 

 ment awoke popular enthusiasm. Catholics and Protestants 

 working together for the common good. In 1862 high schools 

 were opened for Slovaks ; the famous "Slovenska Matica," 

 to publish Slovak books and works of art and to foster the 

 study of the Slovak history and language, was founded ; and 

 in 1870 the Catholics also founded the "Society of St. Voy- 

 tech," which became a powerful helper. Slovak newspapers 

 sprang into existence and 150 reading clubs and libraries were 

 established. After the defeat of the Austrian arms at Sadowa 

 in 1866, pressure was resumed to split the empire into two 

 parts, Austrian and Hungarian, each of which was prac- 

 tically independent. The Slovaks thenceforth came wholly 



