The Slav Congress was officially inaugurated on June 2, the late arrival of some delegates having occasioned the delay. Palacký’s eloquent opening address set the tone for the business ahead. He cited the renewed spirit of liberty, fraternity, and harmony which had drawn the Slavs together, and he charged the delegates to go forward with the task of securing equality and justice for their peoples. Palacky’s remarks were carefully weighed; due gratitude was expressed to the “gracious” Emperor Ferdinand, under whose scepter the Slavs would surely attain a brighter future.13 Despite conclusive evidence that only Slav languages were spoken in the congress sessions, several German press reports gleefully maintained that Palacký’s keynote address was in fact delivered in German.14
Palacký’s most effective contribution outside the formal meetings was in ironing out disputes and, later, in drafting the “Manifesto to the Nations of Europe.” One example of his mediation concerned the changes in the congress program which were proposed by the chairman of the Polish-Ukrainian section, the Poznań democrat Karol Libelt, at a meeting of the Plenary Committee on June 5. The original agenda, a cumbersome document, was in the form of a series of discussion questions. The delegates felt that this program, since it could not be carried out in the time allotted for the deliberations, would have an undesirable effect on European opinion. Libelt’s new program called for a “Manifesto to the Nations of Europe,” a message to the emperor that would convey the Slav nations’ individual as well as collective demands, and adopting a plan for the future federative union of the Austrian Slavs.15 In all likelihood these changes had been worked out previously in private discussions between Libelt and the Czech leaders, especially Palacký and Šafařík.16
The “Manifesto to the Nations of Europe” was the only document that the congress had approved before Whitmonday, June 12, when the street fighting in Prague between students and workers and the Austrian military forces prematurely ended the congress deliberations. The Diplomatic Committee, headed by Palacký, held several meetings before agreeing on the text of the manifesto, most likely on June 10. The actual drafting was entrusted to Palacky, who drew on suggestions from Libelt, František Zach, Šafařík, and Mikhail Bakunin.17
In Palacký’s final version, the manifesto stated the aims of the Slavs gathered in Prague. Recent revolutionary changes throughout Europe now impelled the Slavs—eighty million strong—to assume their rightful place among the peoples of Europe. The yoke of oppression “raised and defended by brute force in collusion with fraud and malice, is collapsing into dusty ruin under our eyes. A fresh vital spirit spreading over wide expanses
