After he graduated school in Graz, Vrhovac joined the army, but soon left when he realized that he did not qualify for this occupation.

During his stay, Jernej Kopitar requested that Vrhovac organize a collection of local songs, but this attempt was not successful.

After Napoleon captured the territory of Austria-Hungary, he issued a proclamation in 1813 to "natives across Sava" (Serbo-Croatian: prekosavskim domorocima), emphasizing that there were no more borders between Croats in Croatia, Dalmatia, and the Coastal region.

[8] After the defeat of Napoleon in Russia and the return of Austria-Hungary to its borders from 1806, the court in Vienna resented Vrhovac for his earlier behavior.

[11] Nevertheless, Mahanović did somewhat follow the idea of Kopitar to develop a unified orthography for all South Slavic languages.