The special stamp deals with one of the most significant events of the modern Slovak history – declaration of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation on June 6 – 7, 1861 at the national assembly in Martin. It was already the second Slovak national programme (the first one were the Demands of the Slovak Nation of 1848). The Slovaks tried to obtain acknowledgement of their national individuality and drawing political consequences of this acknowledgement – obtaining Home Rule on a designated area (Slovak area) which they inhabited. It was related to the renewal of political life in the Austrian Empire, where the Slovaks lived after the fall of the Bach´s absolutism. It followed the October Certificate of the Emperor of 1860 promising the renewal of free political life. Since this life was supposed to be carried out in historically constitutional monarchy units, the Slovaks sent their memorandum primarily to the Diet of Hungarian Kingdom. It, however, refused to deal with it. After the Diet was dismissed, the permanent committee elected in Martin turned to the Emperor with the Memorandum. This so called Vienna Memorandum was supplemented with the Privilege (constitution) for the Slovak area in which the constitutional position of the Slovak nation within the Monarchy was determined. At that time the Memorandum was not successful, its ideas, however, were the basis of the Slovak political programme until 1938.
            The stamp contains the portraits of Š. M. Daxner and J. Francisci, the main organizers of the Memorandum assembly and a young man portraying Slovakia in the background with a woman representing freedom, tearing her chains. On the bloc sheet into which the postage stamp is places, the Memorandum is visualized by portraits of many patriots who were present at the assembly in Martin, and a winged figure (national genius) walking forward, into the future free Slovak land. Interruption, another step on the road is the Memorandum, which was milestone on the road to freedom and independence. The assembled representatives of the nation on the FDC are portrayed by the styled eagle as the symbol of freedom and independence. The stamp contains a lime twig as the modern symbol of the Slavs, as well as the symbol of a meeting place (Under lime-trees).               
PhDr. Anton Hrnko, CSc.