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European and American Opinions of the Constitution of 3 May

Samuel Fiszman

The crowning achievement of the sessions of the Four-Year Diet, the Constitution of 3 May aroused lively interest, and the process of its creation was followed assiduously by the press in Europe and the United States. Alatge volume would be needed to contain the numerons statements, articles, reviews and even poems from the last decade of the 18th century that relate to the Constitution and reflect the intense debates of the time concerning the different paths leading to revolutionary reforms in the political and social sphere. It is fair to state on the basis of even inadequate research concerning this topic that it would be hard to find a serious newspaper or journal of the time in Europe or the United States which did not discuss, sometimes at length, the significance of the Polish Cooslilelioo, or one which did not include excerpts or often a complete translation of its articles.¹

The Nouvelles Extraordinaires de Divers Endroits, universally called the Gazette de Leyde, played a leading role in reporting political news from Poland. As the most prominent international newspaper in the second part of the 18th century, with its extraordinarily large circulation and a reputation for its independence and impartiality, the Gazette de Leyde was the main source of information, not only for its readers, but also for other newspapers, about European political events both in Europe and in the United States. It was also an important and most objective source of news about the American revolution, and it published many materials received from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The latter had a high regard for the Gazette and called it “the only paper in Europe worth reading.”²

Ideologically the Gazette de Leydewas clearly and consistently committed to democracy. It sided with independence movements, political and social reform and came out against absolutist regimes. Initally after the events of July 14, 1789 it took a friendly position towards the reforms in France and reprinted the text of Declaration du droits de l’homme et du citoyen, but the rapid radicalization of the revolution caused a change in the Gazettes attitude and ever increasing reservations toward events in France.

The editors of the Gazette, Etienne Luzac (from 1738) and his nephew Jean Luzac, who joined the editorial board in 1772 and after Etienne’s death in 1787 became the editor-in-chief until 1798, were able to provide rapid and detailed information about events in Poland, due largely to the dispatches of their correspondents in Poland, to the use of bulletins issued by the royal court in Warsaw, and to the efforts of Augustyn Middleton who, starting in 1790, was first the secretary and later the minister of the Commonwealth in the Hague.

The first period during which the Gazette published news about Poland relates to the years 1772-1775, the years of the First Partition and the stormy discussions of the post-partition Diet. The second period embraced the years of the Four-Year Diet, the Russian invasion, and the Kościuszko Insurrection.³

Often accompanied by editorial comments, and extensive reports, which at times took up a significant part of an issue and often continued in the Supplement to each issue, the Gazette de Leyde provided information about the political situation in Poland, the long negotiations concerning the alliance with Prussia, and it reported extensively on the proceedings of the sessions in the Diet, pronouncements of the deputies and, especially, those of the King, continually coming out on the side of the partisans of reform, the “Patriotic Party,” since the moderate nature of their ideas corresponded with the editor’s own convictions.

In 1789 the Polish burgher movement intensified its activities and became formally organized when delegates from approximately two hundred royal cities from Poland and Lithuania signed the Act of Union in Warsaw. The movement, which strove for improvements in burgher rights, found particular resonance among the middle class in Holland and in the rest of Europe. In its Supplement of December 29, the Gazette wrote about the Memorandum, which contained the burghers’ demands, and which was presented on December 2 to the King, to the Marshals of the Diet, and to the Chancellors by the delegates of cities assembled in Warsaw: “Les dix points, dont il est composé, sont tous également remarquables et tendent directement á réintégrer les Bourgeois dans leurs Droits de Citoyen.” This was already the second version of the Memorandum presented by the delegates who, clad in black costumes resembling those worn by French burghers, arrived at the royal castle in a solemn procession of carriages (hence the term “black procession”). The first Memorandum had been criticized by the King, who found in it expressions “borrowed from the contemporary French press.”⁴ Eventually even the second version was not considered to be fully satisfactory and a final, slightly different, version was prepared. In the January 1, 1790 issue, the Gazette placed a condensed text of the third version entitled Memorandum of the Cities of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which had been distrubuted to the King, and the Diet between December 8 and 10, 1789. The terms used in the commentary to these reports: Tiers-état, Droits de Citoyen immediately suggested a comparison with contemporary French terms referring to the Third Estate, while the phrase “L’époque oú noussommes,...fertileen Révolution...” placed the demands of the Polish cities in the broader context of the American and French revolutions.

The interest of the Gazette de Leyde in Polish affairs was roused not only by the burghers’ quest for rights, but even more so by the work of the Diet on the reform of the State. In its edition of January 8, 1790, the paper contained information about the Principles to Reform the Government, the text of which was submitted to the Diet by the Marshal of Lithuania and the leader of the “Patriotic Party,” Ignacy Potocki, on December 17, 1789. On January 12, the Gazette published the amended eight-point second version of the Principles together with a report on the furious discussion in the Diet over both the final version of the Principles and the Memorandum of the Cities, In this discussion, continued in the January 15 issue, essential differences were noted between the partisans de l’oligarchie polonaise and the champions of reforms whose ideas were in accord with the spirit of the times. The next stage in the reformation of the state, the new and extensive Project to Reform the Government, proposed on August 2, 1790, did not escape the notice of the paper. In the September 21 edition, the paper reports on controversy which was immediately stirred up by the Project with regard to the question of succession versus free elections to the throne, whereas the October 5 edition gave a generally positive characterization of the Project. However, the Gazette did not overlook the difficulties of quieting the voices of the opponents of reform in the Diet.

Les dernières Deliberations de la Diète ont été des plus intéressants puisque l’on y a posé les principes fondamentaux du Gouvernement de la République. Dans un travail, qui avait pour objet de lui donner une Constitution permanente, l’on aurait pu s’attendre á de grandes innovations proportionnées aux lumières de notre Siècle et au changement, survenu dans la plupart des systèmes politiques, depuis que la Pologne a reęu sa Forme actuelle. Mais, soit le nombre de difficultés insurmontables, qui se sont présentées, soit la force des préjugés Nationaux, l’on ne s’est guères écarté des anciennes Loix fondamentales.

The Gazette de Leyde filled its pages with extensive news about the work of the Diet with even greater frequency when the Diet in 1791, after protracted discussions on projected reforms, began to promulgate new laws. The news about the passage of the Law on Cities met with special approval from the editor, who wrote in the Supplement of May 3:

A l’époque si intéressante pour les Droits de l’Humanité, dont nous sommes témoins, nous regardons comme l’un de nos principaux devoirs d’éclairer le Public, par de fidèles rapports, sur les succès qu’ont les généreux Défenseurs de leurs Concitoyens et les Amis de la Liberté, dans les divers Pays de l’Europe...C’est donc avec la plus vive satisfaction, que nous nous voyons en état de communiquer á nos Lecteurs des détails authentiques sur le nouvel ordre de choses, qui va naître en Pologne.

This promise is fulfilled in the May 3 to May 17 issues in which the paper reported news from Warsaw about the circumstances surrounding the passage by the Diet on April 14 of the Principles to the Project on Cities; printed a translation of the 18 points of the Principles; and reported on the session of the Diet on April 18 when the final version of the Law on Cities was decided on.

In the May 3 issue, the Gazette de Leyde, announcing the passage by the Diet on April 14 of the Principles, deems it a manifestation of the Epoch of Human Rights, a victory by the Friends of Freedom and stresses the differences in approach in France and Poland both in terms of substance and in the manner of passage of these rights. In France this took place in conditions of turmoil and violent upheaval, whereas:

La Pologne seule aura la gloire de se regénérer sans troubles civils, sans convulsions, parce qu’elle le fait par degrés, et qu’elle ne s’expose point á risquer le tout pour le tout, en changeant tout-á-coup ses principes et la Forme de son Gouvernement.

Such a comparison in which the peaceful character and the moderate nature of Polish transformations is revealed, came to characterize accounts of Polish reforms on the pages of the Gazette.

With the greatest satisfaction the paper reports on the passage of the Law on Cities on April 18 in its May 6 issue:

La nouvelle Constitution de la Pologne, telle qu’elle a été agréée dans la Séance du 14 de ce mois, vient d’étre sanctionnée et convertie en Loi.

Ce fut avant-hier, 18 Avril, que le Comité pour le travail de la Constitution présenta á la Diète in pleno le Projet, touchant les droits des Villes et de la Bourgeoisie, couché dans toute son étendue; et il passa unanimement, á la grande satisfaction de la Capitale et de tous les bons Citoyens, qui en témoignèrent leur joye, non pas néanmoins par des applaudissements, qu’on croit ici déroger á la dignité des Représentants d’une grande Nation et plus convenir á un Théatre qu’á une Assemblée Législative...Chacun sent le dégré de force et par conséquent de véritable indépendance, que la Nation Polonaise va acquérir par la réunion de toutes ses parties dans un seul Corps, que les intérêts opposés de deux Ordres distincts ne partageront plus. Il en est même parmi la haute Noblesse, qui se montrent supérieurs aux préjugés et á l’amour-propre de leur naissance.

Praise for the stance taken by the Polish nobles, their voluntary agreement to the conferment of rights on townspeople and their participation in the reforms of the state became issues to which the paper was to return more than once.

Describing in its issue of May 10 the enthusiasm with which the townspeople had greeted the rights they had been granted, their gratitude to the King for his assistance, and the enrollment of the Marshal of the Diet, Stanisław Małachowski, into Warsaw’s city register, the Gazette de Leydenotes:

Ce n’est pas seulement l’esprit d’égalité vraiment Républicaine, qui a tout-á-coup gagné le dessus parmi les Représentans de la Nation Polonaise; c’est encore celui de Tolérance Religiouse et Civile.

Looking at the Law on Cities from the perspective of a Protestant country and recalling earlier arguments in the Diet about religious dissent, the newspaper saw the passage of the Law as a manifestation of religious tolerance and an affirmation of the fact that all Christians may become citizens of towns. It further expressed its approbation by the assertion that “in this instance Poland has emulated the splendid example of France.”

But the Gazette devoted its greatest attention to the debates on and the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May. Almost the whole issue of May 20 was filled with dispatches from Poland about this event:

La journée d’hier a produit ici la Révolution la plus heureuse pour la Pologne, en ce qu’elle n’a pas coûté une goutte de sang; qu’il n’y a pas été employé un seul Soldat, ni aucune Arme, et que sans aucune violence elle a été effectuée de manière, que tous les droits légitimes de la Liberté sont assurés plus que jamais...

S’il y a dans ce siècle des Miracles, il s’en est opéré un en Pologne...toute la Constitution Polonaise a été refondue, améliorée, fixée, passée et décrétée dans un seul jour, dans une seule Séance; il ne reste que quelques Réglements á faire, qui en sont la suite naturelle. Ce qu’il y a de plus étonnant encore, c’est que cette Révolution, qui sera á jamais mémorable dans les Annales de la République et dans l’Histoire de l’Humanité, a été tout-á-fait inattendue, qu’elle s’est effectuée sans appareil Militaire, sans appui étranger, sans intrigues comme sans violence, par la sagesse du Roi, aidé d’un petit nombre de Ministres Patriotes et éclairés, et par un mouvement volontaire de la très grande pluralité des Représentants de la Nation, applaudie par l’unanimité des Habitants de Varsovie.

Reports from Warsaw about the day of May 3, together with a condensed, but not entirely accurate, version of the articles of the Constitution were printed in the same issue. They were accompanied by commentary from the publisher where the opinion is expressed that in terms of form, the Polish Constitution is to a significant degree a copy of the French Constitution (that is, the Declaration du droits de l’homme et du citoyen).

Telle est l’esquisse rapide de la nouvelle Constitution, qui va régénérer la Pologne...Ce que nous venons de dire suffit pour faire voir, que, quant á sa forme, elle est calquée en très grande partie sur la nouvelle Constitution Franęaise. Et, si cette Constitution a pour ennemis tous les Partisans du Pouvoir arbitraire, répandus sur la surface de l’Europe...ce n’est pas une petite gloire pour la Nation Franęaise, que son exemple ait sitót servi á modéler une heureuse réforme chez d’autres Peuples.

However, in terms of its less extreme content and, especially, in the manner of its creation the Polish Constitution differs from its exemplar, in favor of the former, As distinct from the French, the Polish Constitution was prepared and sworn to by the King and the Diet, and it was welcomed by the nation. Such distinctions were, in feet, noted earlier in the pages of the Gazette de Leyde in its treatment of the Law on Cities. They became even more pronounced in reference to the Polish Constitution, and the Gazette emphasized its moderate and peaceful nature as opposed to the stormy events in France. It also pointed out that the democratization of the Polish governmental system was achieved as a result of the good will shown by a patriotic King, enlightened magnates and noble deputies.

The Supplement to the issue of May 20 and the Gazette of May 24 with its Supplement published more details on the events of May 3 and on the adoption of the Constitution, as well as a more detailed and corrected summary of its articles. This was continued in the issues of May, June and July. In the Supplement to the issue of June 21, the paper announced that it is starting to reprint the entire text of the Constitution from the French translation published in Warsaw by P. Dufour and added the following explanation:

Quoique nous ayons déjá donné le Précis de cette Constitution une Pièce aussi essentielle, soit pour l’histoire de l’époque présente, soit pour la connaissance du Droit Public, mérite, que nous l’insérions successivement, mais en entier, dans nos Feuilles.

The last installment appeared in the issue of July 15.

In the remaining months of 1791 and in the first half of 1792, the Gazette de Leyde provides extensive accounts of sessions in the Diet and of the new laws passed there. The ceremony of welcoming the first city deputies in the Diet was described in the August 4 issue. The October 21 issue contained information on the speech given in the Diet by Stanisław Sohyk, deputy from Cracow and an active proponent of reform, on the occasion of the proclamation of the French Constitution in September, Sohyk called on the Diet:

pour rendre aux principes de la Révolution Franęaise la justice, que tout Ami de l’Humanité leur doit, mais qu’il est surtout du devoir de tout vrai Polonais de ne leur point refuser, á raison de la conformité, qu’il y a dans les principaux points entre la nouvelle Constitution Polonaise et celle de France.

One should note that the French Constitution was immediately reprinted in Warsaw, both in the original and in translation and that articles expressing admiration for the French Constitution and noting the similarity to it of the Polish Constitution appeared simultaneously in the press.⁵ The avoidance of any reference to such a connection and even an expressed denial of any similarity in the official declarations by Stanisław August was, to a great extent, caused by the necessity of not providing Poland’s neighbors with arguments against the Polish Constitution.

On November 11 the paper described the circumstances leading to the preparation of the Law of Mutual Guarantee of Two Nations which regulated the relations between the two basic components of the Republic, Poland and Lithuania, and it published the relevant text. In the fall of 1791 the newspaper gave special attention to the extended debates in the Diet concerning the sale of royal demesnes which had previously been leased, usually for life, to the royal officials (starosta). Those in Poland who opposed this proposal argued that it imitated similar resolutions by the French National Assembly. In the Supplement of January 3, 1792, the paper noted with satisfaction that “Enfin la longue discussion sur la vente des Starosties et des Biens Domaniaux de la Couronne s’est terminée par la triumphe du Parti.” The resolution of December 19 was in fact won with great difficulty by the “Patriotic Party,” due particularly to the efforts of Hugo Kołłątaj, the main ideologist behind the plan for broad reforms. The paper returned to this resolution in its January 17, 20, and 27 issues where it published the text of the resolution, explained its goals, and cited the King’s words from his address to the Diet that the rights of the peasants living on these estates “are guaranteed on the basis of ancient royal prerogatives.” Such assurances were not accidental. The main purpose of selling the estates was to reorganize the treasury and to create funds for the army, but this occasion also provided the opportunity, consciously undertaken, to touch on the matter of guaranteeing the rights of the peasants and to provide “a precedent and model for a broader peasant reform.”⁶

The Supplement of March 9, 1792, carried the news about the sessions of the dietines, which voiced their approval of the Constitution. The paper unfailingly continued to report on the work of the Diet and on the external situation of Poland until the time that the Diet terminated its deliberations on May 29 as a result of the Russian invasion.

Collected together, information about the Diet in the pages of the Gazette de Leyde, the texts of passed laws, the discussions, the addresses of the King, marshals and deputies, would form in large measure a diary of the Four-Year Diet’s activities. Extensive also were its reports about prevailing attitudes, and about the popular support enjoyed by the Constitution, both in the circles of the nobility and among city dwellers. Less space was given to the isolated and generally condemned group of enemies of reforms, who were preparing “sous les auspices et avec le secours de la Russie, une contre-révolution en Pologne.” Here the names of the future leaders of the infamous Targowica Confederacy were mentioned for the first time. Reports about the Diet and the internal situation of the Republic were interspersed with equally extensive information about Poland’s international situation. Such information, collected in a single volume, would also form a kind of chronicle of events.

In all of these reports and in the editorial commentaries, the Constitution met with general applause in the Gazette which referred to it as a “grand événement,” “grande Révolution,” “hereuse Révolution,” “memorable Révolution,” “monument trop digne.” During the dramatic weeks of war with the Russian invader, Jean Lusac in an editorial of June 29,1792, expressed his admiration for the Polish revolution, contrasting it in even sharper terms than previously to the French revolution, which was taking on even more radical turn in this period. He writes that:

Si la fin du dix-huitième Siècle, dont nous sommes les témoins, formera dans l’Histoire une époque aussi intéressante qu’aucune de celles que nous offrent les Annales de l’Humanité, ce n’en est pas une des moindres singularités, qu’il existe á cette même époque deux Révolutions á la fois, entreprises pour la réforme du Gouvernement et pour l’établissement de la Liberté Nationale,...

The revolution and the manner of its realization, wrote Luzac, was exactly opposite in the two countries, since the unity of the nation is evident in Poland while anarchy and lawlessness came to rule in France. Given such a state of affairs, he argues, the Polish revolution provides a shining example which serves to negate the arguments of the enemies of humanity who would deny man’s aspirations toward freedom:

Il semble, que la Providence ait réservé la Révolution Polonaise pour réfuter les calomnies des Fauteurs du Despotisme, qui se servent de l’exemple de la Révolution Franęaise en preuve de leur thèse, que “la vraie Liberté n’est par faite pour le Genre humain, et que les Souverains sont intéressés á châtier sévèrement tous les Peuples, qui oseraient y aspirer.”

In the Supplement to the issue of 10 August 1792, Luzac once again affirmed his high regard for the Polish Constitution, so often given voice in the pages of the Gazette de Leyde. This time he wrote when the Constitution already ceased to have force as a result of external military intervention:

La Pologne est en ce moment, après la France, le principal objet de l’attention publique dans toute l’Europe. Le dénouement des circonstances compliquées, qu’a amené la Révolution Franęaise, s’approche. Celui de la Révolution Polonaise est déjá venu. Les principes généreux, sur lesquels celle-ci était fondée; l’excellence de la nouvelle Constitution prise en général; l’approbation presqu’ universelle; la joie du People surtout en la recevant; le courage, avec lequel la brave armée Polonaise l’a défendue;—tous ces titres réunis lui eussent mérité une issue des plus favorables, et cependant sont sort est malheureux.

One can certainly agree with Jeremy D. Popkin’s statement that:

With the exception of the American Constitution, he had never committed his paper so enthusiastically to the celebration of such a movement... Luzac’s paper ensured that Poland’s fate did not go unnoticed...More than any other periodical at the time, the Gazette de Leyde publicized the valiant efforts at reform that culminated in the liberal constitution of May 1791, and thus preserved for posterity proof that Poland’s fate was not wholly due to internal weaknesses and divisions. The Gazette de Leyde’s coverage was one link in the chain of publicity that kept sympathy for Polish independence alive in western Europe throughout the nineteenth century and made some contribution to the eventual reemergence of an independent Polish state after the First World War.⁷

According to the testimony of the time, as well as from a historical perspective, together with the Gazette de Leyde the most respected and most widely read newspaper in the last decade of the eighteenth century was the Moniteur, the full tide of which was Gazette Nationale, ou Le Moniteur Universel⁸ Beginning with its first issues which appeared in November 1789, the Moniteur devoted a great deal of attention to news from Poland, both its external and internal situation. The very quantity of its information compares favorably and at times supplements that of the Gazette de Leyde, since the Moniteur, like the Gazette, had its own correspondents in Poland. One should also mention in this context the significance of the efforts to create contacts with the French press made by Philip Mazzei, a participant in the American Revolution and a friend and correspondent of Jefferson, who acted as the agent for Stanisław August in Paris. The manner in which the two newspapers interpreted news from Poland differed. The tone taken by the Gazette de Leyde concerning Polish reforms was consistendy similar and at times identical to that of the “Patriotic Party” and the King. The attitude of the Moniteur to the reforms, together with approval, was tinged with criticism which grew sharper as the paper became more radical, reflecting the growning radicalism of the French Revolution.

The first matter which significantly engaged the attention of the as it had the Gazette de Leyde, was the burgher movement of 1789. Initiated in Warsaw and restricted at this time to royal cities, the movement sought to secure rights for the burgher class and had spread in the fall of that year to other royal cities in the Republic. In the December 3,1789 issue, the Moniteur writes approvingly of opinions which had at this time arisen in the Diet concerning the rate of taxation which was to be levied on Warsaw and other large cities. It writes specifically of those in the Diet who had the audacity to assert:

qti’il serait peut-être nécessaire un jour d’être justes envers une classe nombreuse d’hommes utiles, qui n’ont point de Patrie dans le pays oú ils ont pris naissance; dans un pays qu’ils servent de leur industrie, qu’ils soutiennent de leur labeur, et qui pourtant sont forcés de se dire habitants d’une République, sans en être citoyens.

In the following issues from December, the Moniteur reports on the meeting of delegates from royal cities and on the postulates they presented to the King. While the realization of these postulates is uncertain, the paper is convinced that the burghers must ultimately attain their rights, and hopes that “alors nous apprendrons s’il y aura bientót en Europe un Peuple Polonais, et en Pologne une vraie République.” In the December 23 issue the newspaper further deliberates on the situation of the burghers, and also the peasants, and asserts: “Donner une existence politique á un Peuple, c’est créer des hommes. Nous l’avons déjá dit en parlant de la Pologne; les habitants d’une République doivent en être les citoyens.” Writing on December 25 about the December 2 manifestation of the delegates from royal cities and about their Memorandum of Cities, the paper notes that in Warsaw these events were identified with those in France: “On dit que la revolution de France éveille dans le Peuple de la République un véritable esprit de liberté.” In the January 8 issue the paper summarized the postulates contained in the Memorandum of Cities and in the February 22, 26 and 28 issues it published a translation of the second edition of the Memorandum. Nor did the Moniteur fail to mention the project to reform the situation of the Jewish population which was proposed to the Diet on November 30 and December 5, 1789. The Moniteur wrote in its January 14, 1790 issue: “Il est probable que le dernier mémoire en faveur des Juifs, presenté á la diète, contient des principes d’humanité et de justice proportionnés aux progrès que font les lumières en Pologne.”

In addition to the burgher question, the Moniteur devoted a great deal of space to the proposals for changing the political system in Poland. In the January 10 issue the newspaper placed, just as the Gazette de Leyde had done on January 12, its own translation of the Principles to Reform the Government, presented to the Diet on December 17, 1789. It concluded that this document could become the basis for a future constitution, but on the condition that it take into consideration the rights of the two estates, the burghers and the peasants.

In the course of 1790 news about Poland’s internal and international situation received significant coverage in the Moniteur, especially the sessions on the Diet, reports on the deliberations concerning the Polish-Prussian alliance, addresses by the King, and, on numerous occasions, proceedings of lengthy discussions referring to the introduction of laws governing an orderly succession to the throne. The paper asserted with regret that the postulates forwarded by the burghers still had not been passed and that the Polish gentry considers itself to be the only class empowered to discharge legislative and executive duties. It felt that the present Diet had in fact made progress in some areas, that it had become, like the Estates General, a constitutional assembly, but that it was essentially composed of the nobility while the participants in the Estates General came from the Third Estate.

In the wealth of information about Poland in the first months of 1791 one notes approving comments relating to the comedy Powrotposia (The Return of the Deputy) by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. In the February 7 issue, the paper comments on the play’s biting criticism of Sarmatian prejudicies, its advocacy of political reform, and its effect on current political debates, particularly those concerning the question of a hereditary throne. In the April 27 issue the Moniteur expresses its enchantment with the eloquent speech by Niemcewicz in the Diet where he argued for equal rights for the burgher class. The Moniteur cites his disagreement with the opinion that a nation is composed solely of those of noble birth and it poses the question: “Qui nous parle du père de Washington: qui s’informe des ałeux de Franklin: et cependant nous savons et la postérité saura que l’Amerique doit la liberté á ces deux hommes si justement fameux.”

The postulates of the burghers finally became law and the paper welcomes the Law on Cities passed on April 18 in its issue of May 7, 1791:

La diète a terminé, dans la séance d’avant hier, jour devenu mémorable, un des points les plus importants de la constitution nouvelle, l’affaire des bourgeois, événement heureux pour la Pologne, lequel donne en un seul jour tant de citoyens á la republique. Les bourgeois des villes ont obtenu les articles constitutionnels qu’ils demandaient.

This statement is followed by a description of a long, intense debate at the session of the Diet which ended in the unanimous passage of the Law on Cities, and by a synopsis consisting of five points summarizing the privileges gained by the burghers. In connection with the reported discussions in the Diet concerning the rights of the burghers, the paper predicts a new destiny for Poland and contrasts events taking place at that time in Russia with those in Poland:

Ainsi l’on peut prévoir les nouvelles destinées de l’empire polonais. Tandis que...l’empire russe, se repaît de victoires, et donne des fêtes sur la tombe de trente mille turcs égorgés en un jour á Ismail, le Polonais discute les droits de l’homme et du citoyen, et manifeste son avancement dans l’an social, la premiere des sciences utiles et honorables pour l’espèce humaine.

The adoption of the Constitution of 3 May was received by the Moniteur with genuine enthusiasm. The Supplement from May 21 printed in its entirety the translation of the Constitution published by Dufour. In its May 22 issue the Moniteur published extensive information on the event:

La séance du 3 mai sera á jamais célèbre dans les fastes de la Pologne. La plus heureuse révolution s’est faite, pour ainsi dire, en ce seul jour mémorable. Dans une république de nobles, pays d’esclavage pour les autre hommes, la liberté a été rendue á tous, et les droits politiques aux habitants des villes, sans effusion de sang; il n’y a pas été commis une seule violence; il ne s’est pas présenté un seul soldat, et le peuple était sans armes.

There follows a description of how the text of the Constitution was prepared by “friends of the public weal,” the role played by its creators, above all that of the King, details of the deliberations in the Diet, which led to the adoption of the Constitution by acclamation, and, finally by a discussion of the most important articles contained in the Constitution. The May 23 issue printed excerpts from numerous letters from Warsaw about the revolution which had taken place on May 3. The issue of May 26 published the proceedings from successive deliberations of the Diet devoted to the Constitution, while the May 30 issue contained a sizeable condensation of all eleven Articles of the Constitution, as well as the Declaration of the States Assembled from May 5, which nullified former laws contrary to the Constitution. In its June 2 issue the Moniteur placed a description of the celebrations in Warsaw on May 8 in honor of the King’s birthday, a circumstance which provided a fitting occasion for the expression of the prevailing enthusiasm precipitated by the unique event of the 3 May revolution.

In the following months of 1791 and 1792 the Moniteur in almost every issue covered Poland’s standing in the international arena, the situation in Poland, the proceedings of the Diet and the legislation passed there. Occasionally it printed texts in their entirety, such as the law of Mutual Guarantee in the November 16 issue, printed in a translation identical to that found in the Gazette de Leyde. Like the Gazette de Leyde, the Moniteur attached great importance to the long discussions concerning the matter of the sale of the royal demesne, stressing in the January 2 issue that in this respect Poland is following in the footsteps of France: “Le France s’en ressent et la Pologne va l’éprouver á son tour...” The newspaper wrote in its January 10 issue about the intelligent tactics of the designers which caused the Diet, on December 19, to pass the Principles for Organizing the Permanent Sale of Royal Lands, and on January 18 it provided further details concerning the vote on these Principles. A number of times the paper wrote about machinations by the enemies of the Constitution and compared them to the antirevolutionary forces in France. With particular satisfaction it reported about the cooperation between the nobility and the burghers, about the election of burgher representatives to the Diet and their solemn reception by applause from the asembled deputies. On numerous occasions the paper discussed the role of Stanisław August, the roi-citoyen, as a promoter of reform. On the other hand, the paper praised the participation and the might of the Third Estate in the French revolution and contrasted it with the small role played by the burgher class in Polish reforms. Given the influence exerted by political clubs on events in France, the paper also exhibited a keen interest in the club which was formed in Warsaw called The Association of Friends of the Constitution.

As the situation in France took a more radical turn, the Moniteur adopted a more radical stance and, consequently, became more critical of the moderate Constitution of 3 May. In an article entitled Réflexions sur la constitution polonaise, which appeared on January 7, 1792, its author prefaced his remarks with the admission that:

Il faut bien connaître l’état de dégradation oú se trouvaient en Pologne les habitants des villes, pour apprécier les avantages que la nouvelle constitution leur a accordés. Sous ce rapport on doit convenir qu’on a beaucoup feit. C’est le premier pas vers les lumières, c’est-á-dire, vears la véritable prospérité de l’Empire...Stanislas-Auguste mérite sans dout les plus grands éloges, ainsi que les principaux de la noblesse, qui ont si efficacement concouru á la réforme des lois de l’Etat.

Nevertheless, later the article criticized not so much the Constitution as a whole, but its social program which did not grant freedom to the peasants, while the rights granted to the burghers related only to the royal cities, omitting private cities altogether. The author points out that the Constitution permits the gentry to grant freedom to their peasants (that is to exchange villein service for a rental charge) and to declare towns belonging to them as free. The alternative, he warns, is to risk civil war. In addition, the Law on Cities applied only to Christians; Jews and other non-Christians were excluded. The author concedes that the burghers gained a great many privileges since their representatives have become members of government commissions, the courts and the Diet, but he argues that their voice is of an advisory nature and restricted to matters concerning towns. It is true, he notes, that distinguished burghers will be granted nobility, but this is not a solution to the problem. The author concludes that the Polish nation is truly represented only by the nobility; the burghers still do not constitute a political force. Written from the point of view of achievements made in the realm of individual right by the French revolution, the article contains still another reproach, one often expressed in France, that in Poland “devenant un mode de dépréciation, par rapport á la célebre revolution franęaise.” It would appear that the article did not take into account the admiring statements (referred to above) about the French constitution found in the pages of the organs of the reform camp in Poland. The avoidance of offical statements comparing the two revolutions or showing the dependence of the Polish revolution on the French, did not intend to diminish the latter’s importance. The lack or absence of such statements was, as has already been stated, the result of fears that such comparisons might be exploited by the absolutist neighboring states, something that did, in fact, take place. The article was correct in perceiving the difficulties of bringing to fruition certain legislation, including that concerning social reforms. However, to answer some of the criticism in the brief period that the Constitution was in force, a number of private towns did in fact become free towns, and a proposal was submitted that cities belonging to the church would also be granted the same rights as the royal cities.⁹ As far as the Jewish population is concerned, the Diet Deputation continued its work which had as its aim the regulation of the legal status of the Jews. Furthermore, the situation of the peasants, as was pointed out earlier, was also in the minds of the reformers, as is evident from their attempts to connect the resolution of the peasant problem with the decision to sell the royal demesnes. As can be seen from Hugo Kołłątaj’s plans for the future, the co-author of the 3 May Constitution intended it not as a termination, but as the beginning of further social reforms.

In the first half of 1792 the Moniteur continued to devote a great deal of attention to events in Poland and to the deliberations in the Diet, but with the growing threat to Poland’s independence, greater space was given to political news. In its May 28 issue the Moniteur published a detailed description of the ceremony in Warsaw organized to honor the first anniversary of the Constitution of 3 May. The Moniteur did not cease publishing detailed relations about the war with Russia, especially the Kościuszko Insurrection and, when Polish resistance was nearing its end, it wrote in the February 26, 1794 issue: “Ainsi a fini la plus juste des guerres, entreprise pour la cause la plus belle et la plus glorieuse qu’un peuple ait á défendre.” The Moniteurhas been called “the faithful mirror of the French Revolution,” but it was also, in a significantly more modest way, for its contemporary and later readers, a mirror of the Polish revolution, of the dramatic battles in defense of its achievements, and of Poland’s quest for independent existence.

Together with those of the Moniteur, there were other rapid and varied responses to the proclamation of the Constitution of 3 May in the French press, which had developed greatly in the revolutionary period and represented various parties, fractions and institutions. The special interest in the Polish constitution and at the same time the dissimilar and often ambivalent response of revolutionary France to the revolution in Poland was motivated by a number of factors. The memory of an old, close friendship which had joined Poland and France for centuries, memories of political and cultural ties, as well as very recent connections in the realm of political thought unquestionably played a role. Thanks to the rich political literature in 18th century France which touched on or was directly devoted to Polish affairs, France was not only well aware of such faults of the Polish political system as the all-powerful nobility and the bondage of the peasants. Due to Stanisław Leszczyński’s Voix Libre published in France in several editions and due to the treatises devoted to Poland by Mably and, especially, by Rousseau, they were also aware of a very specific idea in Poland which proclaimed “a close bond between the concept of democracy and patriotism since love of country is a direct result of a republican political system.” Jean Fabre notes that Garran de Coulon, himself a revolutionary activist, when he searched for antecedents to the young French revolution credited Poland with “le mérite d’avoir sauvegardé, en des siècles d’absolutisme, la liberté politique et comme l’image vivante de la démocratie.” According to Fabre:

Avant l’exemple américain, l’exemple polonais compte donc parmi ceux qui ont favorisé la cristallisation d’une certaine pensée politique franęaise, celle qu’on trouve chez les lecteurs de Mably et de Rousseau, autour d’un idéal spécifiquement républicain.¹⁰

But, of course, the main reason for the admiration, and also a cause for argumentation, was the publication on May 3, 1791, of the Constitution in Poland, which occurred at the very moment when France, embroiled in debate, was nearing the moment of finishing its own Constitution.¹¹ At the meeting of the General Council of the Paris municipalityon May 24, one of its members, the same Garran de Coulon mentioned above, proposed “that the municipality of the French capital send greetings to the municipality of Warsaw on the occasion of the successfully completed revolution, and that on June 3 a citizens’ holiday be declared to honor the occasion.”

Il a exposé que les officiers municipaux de la ville de Paris qui avaient le plus contribué á la glorieuse révolution de France devaient voir avec la plus grande satisfaction que cet exemple fût imité á l’extrémité de l’Europe, que cet heureux événement donnait une nouvelle stabilité á notre ouvrage et rompait les projets de tous les monarques qui auraient l’intention de la détruire.¹²

Garran de Coulon’s proposition did not receive the support of the majority, primarily due to the opposition of the Jacobin clubs. However, this did not prevent other clubs in Paris and the provinces from sending to Stanisław August a number of congratulatory messages.¹³ Garran’s proposition provoked a lively discussion in the newspapers and at the meetings of the Jacobin clubs, as well as in the sections of the Council of the Paris municipality. Opinions on Garran’s proposal, both for and against, contain the same arguments as those presented in the press in its reactions to the Polish Constitution. Logographe, edited by Le Hodey, a most important paper at the beginning of the revolution, which started publishing in April 1791, having changed its name from Journal des États Généraux, reacted critically in its May 23 issue to the Polish Constitution, claiming it to be one which the French aristocracy could welcome. The paper saw it as the creation of a single caste which only by virtue of the degraded state in which the burghers of Poland and Lithuania found themselves, was forced to grant concessions to the burghers, but only in part. Nevertheless, the paper concluded:

mais il n’était peut-être ni possible, ni prudent de pousser plus loin ce premier essai. La diète a fait beaucoup, et quoiqu ’elle n’ait pas fait assez, il est toujours vrai que les amis de l’humanité lui doivent un juste tribut d’éloges; il sera toujours grand qu’investie de la toute-puissance et juge dans sa propre cause elle n’ait point attendu comme l’aristocratie franęaise... et n’ait cédé qu’á l’ascendant irrésistible de la raison, de la justice, du patriotisme et des insinuations d’un monarque vertueux.¹⁴ Much more sharply worded statements concerning the Constitution appeared in the radical press and in the organs of revolutionary parties. The main figure among the Girondists was Jacques-Pierre Brissot. The organ of the Girondists, Le patriote franęais, in its May 23 issue restricted its comments to the opinion that the Polish revolution may possibly exert an influence on neighboring countries: “On ne peut nier que cette révolution qui va changer la Pologne ne doive changer la face des affaires de ce cóté. Car la Pologne inoculera sans doute la liberté á tous ses voisins, ainsi que la France l’a fait.”¹⁵ A much more clearly unfavorable position was taken by Antoine-Joseph Gorsas, who, moving closer to the ideology of the Girondists, wrote in his journal Le Courrier des 83 departements.

La Pologne est libre, elle vient d’opérer sans efforts, sans la moindre effusion de sangla plus belle et la plus glorieuse des révolutions. Tel est le cri public dans la capitale, [mais] ceux que les caresses perfides du despotisme n’ont jamais séduits ne voient dans la révolution polonaise qu’un moyen adroit de perpétuer l’esclav;qge.¹⁶

In the article “Révolution du 3 mai, á Varsovie” published in Révolutions de Paris, the organ of the Jacobins, edited by Louis Marie Prudhomme, the author linked the Polish revolution to the French:

La nation polonaise, en ce moment, rend de solennelles actions de graces au ciel, en reconnaissance de la mémorable journée du 3 mai qui lui donne aussi une constiution, et la délivre du joug des Palatins. C’est au roi qu’elle en est redevable; c’est lui qui vient de porter un coup mortel au régime féodal, endoctriné, ajoute-t-on, par une correspondance avec des patriotes de Paris. Aussi est-ce á la révolution franęaise qu’on fait honneur de cet événement, qui n’est pas seulement á l’avantage du peuple polonais.

However, in the latter part of the article, the author cooled his initial enthusiasm and came to the conclusion that this Constitution was granted by a king and nobles in order to strengthen their own power. But the author was especially indignant at the emphasis given by the French press to the restraint shown by the Polish revolution and saw in this an attempt to diminish the achievements of the French revolution.¹⁷

The varied responses in the French revolutionary press to the Polish constitution presented here by way of example have one feature in common. They not only reflect attitudes towards the Polish constitution, but reflect simultaneously the writer’s attitude towards the direction in which the French revolution was moving.

Opinions about the Polish constitution were not restricted to the pages of the press; they were also given voice in the French National Assembly where it received high praise. At the May 24 session of the Assembly General Jacques-François Menou expressed his admiration for the Polish nobility: “...la noblesse la plus orgueilleuse de l’Europe, qui venait, par un élan sublime d’amour pour la liberté et de respect pour les droits des peuples, d’adopter les principales bases de notre constitution.”¹⁸ Sièyes, Volney, Condorcet and other declared their goodwill for the Polish revolution. Deliberations about it can also be found in historical works. The first to ponder its significance was Louis-Philippe de Ségur:

Jamais peut-être, dans aucune époque de son existence, cette nation infortunée ne développa plus de patriotisme, de sagesse et d’énergie qu’au moment qui précéda sa ruine. La diète, abjurant les préjugés sans détruire trop subitement les institutions antiques, et réformant les abus sans attaquer les propriétés, profitant des lumières de la philosophie sans manquer aux calculs de la politique, releyant le peuple opprimé sans sacrifier les classes supérieures, préparant graduellement á la liberté les hommes qu’un affranchissement trop rapide aurait portés á l’anarchie, proclama, le 3 mai 1791, la constitution qu’elle venoit de décréter, et qui fut reęue par tous les citoyens avec d’autant plus d’enthousiasme qu‘elle sembloit assurer et la gloire et le bonheur des générations futures, sans coûter de larmes ni de sang á la génération qui existât.¹⁹

While in England a century-long tradition of political and cultural ties with the Polish Republic was not as developed as it was in France, the response evoked by the proclamation of the Constitution of 3 May was significant and widespread.²⁰ A certain role in such interest was played by the recent, but brief alliance between England, Prussia and Holland against Russia, an alliance which, had it not failed, would have inevitably involved Poland. Information about the revolutionary resolutions of the Diet appeared rather quickly in British journals. News came from the journals’ own correspondents, from diplomatic reports of the foreign office, from occasional translations from the Gazette de Leyde, and from frequent reports given by the unfailingly active Minister of the Commonwealth Franciszek Bukaty, who, on instructions from Stanisław August, established close contacts with the editorial offices of newspapers. Already on May 24 Bukaty was able to apprise the King of the fact that the Constitution, which he had translated, was already in print and that it would soon be supplemented by the texts of the Law on Dietines and the Law on Cities, also in his translation. It was published by John Debrett and in terms of appearance had precisely the same look as the American and French Constitutions, also published by Debrett.

The passage of the Law on Cities created just as great an impression in the British press as it had in the Gazette de Leyde and the Moniteur. In its May 3 issue, the independent Times, which had a wide readership, hurried to register its approval of the discussions in the Diet concerning the rights of the burghers: “The Diet has just given very strong proof of its desire to improve the Constitution. The cause of the people has been most ably supported and has nearly triumphed over all former prejudices, in conformity to the first principles of civil society.” Already in its May 11 edition the Times was able to provide information about the passage of the Law on Cities based on a note from Warsaw from April 20 entided “Important particulars of the Revolution in Poland:”

The new Constitution of Poland, as it was delineated in the sitting of the Diet, on the 14th instant, has been sanctioned and enacted into a Law. The day before yesterday, the Committee appointed to propose Constitutional Articles, presented to a full Diet, the plan which they had drawn relative to the Rights of the Citizens of the several towns, at full length. It passed unanimously, to the inexpressible joy of the inhabitants of the capital, and of all other good citizens.

Approved on April 14, the 18 points of the Principles to the Project on Cities, which became the basis of the Law on Cities passed on April 18, were published on May 16 in the Times in a condensed version. The article contains a brief commentary which emphasized, like the Gazette de Leyde, that the new law for the burghers embraces all Christians: “Every man who professes the Christian religion may be of whatever sect he pleases, and adopt whatever mode of worship which he shall prefer to others.” The government sponsored Courier de Londres, which appeared twice weekly, reported in its May 10 and 11 issues, on the passage of the Law on Cities. Comparing it to the Declaration de droits de l’homme et du citoyen, the newspaper gave the Law on Cities its highest praise.

News of the passage of the Constitution of 3 May evoked real enthusiasm in England, a fact which was reflected both in the government and the oppositionist press. The Polish revival was perceived as an event of epoch making proportions. Special attention was given to its peaceable nature, a characteristic specifically underlined by the Courier de Londres in its edition of May 24 in much the same terms as those of the Gazette de Leyde on May 20. The Courier also included a condensed version of the articles of the Constitution in its May 27 issue, and continued with a description of events which took place in Warsaw on May 3rd.

The Times, which was the first to notify its readers about the passage of the Constitution in its May 20 issue, and in its next issues gave details surrounding the events of May 3, expressed the hope in its May 31 edition that: “The Revolution so happily begun will, according to all appearance, be completely consolidated, without violence or tumult.” In its June 15 edition the Times published a summary of the eleven Articles of the Constitution, together with the main points of the Declaration of the States Assembled adopted on May 5, and provided the folio-wing commentary:

Such is this excellent Constitution, dictated by equity, enlightened by understanding, and founded on the imprescriptible rights of man. If this new Constitution is maintained in its purity and retouched from time to time, as the beneficent Sovereign and illustrious State propose, the result will be, that the Polish nation after having vegetated so long in obscurity, groaning under the yoke of oppression, will become one of the happiest nations in the Universe.

The political literary monthly The Gentleman s Magazine already in its May issue included a short note about events in Poland:

... a most important Revolution took place in Poland, where the King has planned a new Constitution founded on that of England as improved in America, which the Diet adopted. But more of this when brought to maturity.

This promise was realized in the issue for June. In its section “Foreign Intelligence,” the journal published a detailed report of the events which had lately taken place in Poland, and which had entirely changed the constitution of that Republic. The article describes the proceedings of the session in the Diet on May 3 and includes a quotation from the Crown Marshal Stanisław Małachowski’s speech (erroneously attributed to the King) that there has been prepared a plan of a Constitution, founded principally on those of England and the United States of America, but avoiding the faults and errors of both, and adapted it, as much as possible, to the local and particular circumstances of the country. Further, the article reports the reaction to the Constitution in the capital: “Cries of joy filled the streets; but this joy was the expression of a pure and calm patriotism.” This is followed by information about the session of May 5 when the adoption of the Constitution was confirmed and the visit of Małachowski and the deputies to the Warsaw Town Hall “where they were solemnly received as citizens.” The report also summarizes, not entirely correctly, the articles of the Constitution, underlines the role of the King, “who had been the chief author and promotor of it,” and notes that not only the capital, but the whole country were filled with “utmost joy,” and that: “Without the almost universal sentiment, so great a revolution could never have been effected with so little trouble.” The Supplementto the Gentleman ’s Magazine for the year 1791 contains a somewhat shortened text of the Constitution of 3 May and the Declaration of the States Assembled, printed along with the French Constitution.

The universal approbation given the Polish revolution in England came from opposing sides which, nevertheless, had a single source, namely their relationship to the French revolution. British radical circles which sympathized with the French left, wanted to see in the Polish revolution ideas close to those of the French revolution, while the Tories and the moderate Whigs claimed that it represented a denial of the French revolution and that it was modeled on the British example. These differences found their expression both in the press and in a variety of public activities. At the manifestation in honor of the French revolution organized in London on June 14, 1791, toasts were raised in honor of three revolutions, the French, American and Polish, seen as outposts of a new order based on the natural rights of man. In Ireland, where ideas of revolution were joined to those of national independance, during a manifestation honoring the anniversary of the French revolution by a throng of many thousands, banners announced the common revolutionary goals of America, France and Poland. Under the slogan of the close relationship between the French and Polish revolutions a meeting took place in London in May, 1792, described in the Morning Chronicle and other papers, which honored the anniversary of the 3 May Constitution.

The nature of the Polish revolution was presented from a different position in the yearly, The Annual Register, or A View of the History, Politics and Literature for the Year 1791. The Annual Register was assisted, starting with its first volume in 1758, by Edmund Burke and the imprint of his ideas is clearly visible in the issue of 1791, particularly when praise of the Polish revolution is contrasted with criticism of the French. This attitude is presented in the Preface of the Annual Register:

The year 1791 seemed auspicious to human nature. In two of the greatest kingdoms in Europe, new constitutions were formed...The revolutions and the new constitutions in Poland and in France, are vast subjects of reflection in themselves, and as they are connected with the affairs of other nations. In themselves, though both of them intended to promote the welfare with the liberty of the nation, they were strongly contrasted by the different means through which the same ends were expected to be accomplished. The French legislators considered mankind under general views, and lost sight not only of individuals, but of particular classes in society...The Poles did not want talents for abstraction, nor the faculty of perceiving the symmetry and beauty of ideal systems; but they were too generous and good to suffer any general principles to break in upon the happiness of the different ranks of society. Liberty was dear to them, but humanity dearer.

Chapter six of the first part of the Register, devoted to the history of Europe, deals with the external and internal situation in Poland at the close of 1790 and the first half of 1791, including a detailed discussion of the circumstances that led to the preparation and adoption of the Constitution of 3 May and a general evaluation of its achievements:

Poland had the honor, and seemed to have the felicity of attaining the end it proposed without the loss of a single life. Whether the constitution it embraced was the best that could be framed, has been a matter of doubt and dispute among politicians; but this was certain, that on a retrospect of the situation of the Poles, antecedently to this constitution, it wrought a most advantageous and desirable change in their circumstances, and was calculated, if foreign violence had not intervened, gradually to produce most of those national improvements and benefits that can only be expected from the progress of time.

The translation of the complete text of the Constitution of 3 May, together with the Declaration of the States Assembled, along with the French Constitution is published in the second part of the Register.

The contrast between the Polish and French revolutions formed one of the arguments in Edmund Burke’s famous pamphlet published in 1791, An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, in Consequences of Some Late Discussions in Parliament, Relative to the Reflections on the French Revolution. The preceding pamphlet, Reflections on the French Revolution, mentioned in the title, was published a year earlier and produced a sharp debate in the House of Commons which brought about a break in the Whig party. An Appeal.... forms another attack by Burke against the English devotees of the French Revolution and a defense of English parliamentarism. Depicting the internal situation in Poland before the reforms in the darkest of colors, Burke greets the manner in which the revolution was conducted and the resulting changes with the warmest approval:

We have seen anarchy and servitude at once removed; a throne strengthened for the protection of the people, without trenching on their liberties; all foreign cabal banished, by changing the crown from elective to hereditary.. ..Inhabitants of cities, before without privileges, placed in the consideration which belongs to that improved and connecting situation of social life. One of the most proud, numerous, and fierce bodies of nobility and gentry ever known in the world arranged only in the foremost rank of free and generous citizens. Not one man incurred loss or suffered degradation. All, from the king to the day laborer, were improved in their condition. Everything was kept in its place and order, but in that place and order everything was better. To add to this happy wonder, this unheard of conjunction of wisdom and fortune, not one drop of blood was spilled; no treachery; no outrage; no system of slander more cruel than the sword; no studied insults on religion, morals, or manners; no spoil, no confiscation; no citizen beggared; none imprisoned; none exiled; the whole was effected with a policy, a discretion, a unanimity and secrecy such as have never been before known on any occasion, but such wonderful conduct was reserved for this glorious conspiracy in favor of the true and genuine rights and interest of men.²¹

Burke emphasizes the rights granted the burghers, expresses his praise for the behavior of the nobles regarding this matter and concludes with the highest praise for the king. After this splendid rhetorical exposition there follows a comparison of the two revolutions as well as ironic commentary addressed to those who in place of congratulating the Polish revolution, express their enthusiasm for the French. Burke’s severe view of the French revolution evoked sharp polemics. The most famous response to Burke’s censure was Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man in which the Pollsh revolution is also referred to, and in which Paine notes its exceptional nature, but incomparably more modestly than Burke. “Poland, though an elective monarchy, has had fewer wars than those which are hereditary; and it is the only Government that has made a voluntary essay, though but a small one, to reform the condition of the country. ²²

A summary of the events in Poland in 1791 can be found on the pages of the yearly, The New Annual Register or General Repository of History, Politics and Literature, For the Year 1791 established in 1781 mainly due to the efforts of biographer Andrew Kippis. In Chapter V of The New Annual entided “British and Foreign History,” the Polish Revolution is included among the important events which took place in Europe in the year 1791. The author describes Poland’s complicated and dangerous external political situation and states:

Happily for Poland, she was at this crisis possessed of some men of the most eminent abilities, and apparently of the most exalted patriotism. The King had indeed been elected by the Russian interest, but he has shown that foreign obligations have not been able to eradicate from his breast an attachment to his country. During the session of the diet many excellent decrees had been passed in favor of general liberty, and calculated to attach the citizens to the interests of their country.

The article greatly praises the law passed on April 18, 1791, which recognized the rights of the burghers and describes in detail the session in the Diet on May 3 (in wording similar to the description in The Gen deman s Magazine), and formulates the following conclusion: “Thus without bloodshed, and even without tumult, was effected a revolution honorable to those who projected it, and promising to be essentially conducive to the happiness of the people.” There follows a general summary of the Constitution which is viewed in favorable terms.

The situation in Poland aroused lively interest in the English press in 1792 and in years that followed. An example is provided by the Courier de Londres where reports on the work of the Diet in Warsaw and on the political situation in Poland appeared among the foreign news in almost every issue. Like the Gazette de Leyde and the Moniteur, the issue of January 17 contained information about the principles of the law concerning the sale of the royal demesnes, and included a translation of its articles. The issue of February 17 published, among others, news about the appointment of a committee responsible for the preparation of new statutes for the Jewish population in Poland. In the issue of March 2 the paper wrote about the treacherous activity directed against the Constitution by Szczęsny Potocki and Seweryn Rzewuski: “Il est glorieux pour la Pologne, de ne compter parmi ses nobles que deux ennemis de son immortelle constitution.” In subsequent issues until June, the paper published reports about the sessions of the Diet and the growing danger of Russian intervention.

At the end of May 1792 the English press placed a description of the solemn celebrations of the anniversary of the Constitution in Warsaw. Soon afterwards the intervention of Russian troops provoked a campaign of protests from the Times, the Courier de Londres, the Morning Chronicleand others. The Times was the first in its May 13 issue to condemn this unprovoked attack on the Constitution, passed with the agreement of the nation. On June 31 the Times once again expressed its praise for the Polish revolution as “one of the most important events in history, and which reflects the highest honor on the whole nation.

After the defeat in the war with Russia in 1792 and the overthrow of the Constitution, The New Annual Register for the year 1792 in Chapter V of the Section “British and Foreign History” began its report on events in Poland with the words: “In our last volume we announced to the public the establishment of a free, and apparently, well-poised constitution in Poland. In this we have the ungrateful task of recording its destruction...The spirit of humanity indignantly rises at such unprovoked and unprincipled attack upon the independence and the freedom of a nation.” The article was pleased to inform the readers about a monetary subscription organized in England to help the cause of fighting Poland, which, however, turned out to be belated.

After the fall of the Kościuszko uprising and the Third Partition, the Annual Register for the Yea-1795 printed an extensive article devoted to Poland. The first part of the Register, devoted to the history of Europe, in chapter two provides “a summary view of the vicissitudes of [Poland’s] history and government” in the last two years of its existence. The chapter ends with a reflectioin on the significance of the Constitution of 3 May:

The new constitution of 1791 was still a greater proof of temper and moderation, and appears to be the happiest medium that had hitherto been adopted between monarchy and popular government. For moderation, equity, and sound political wisdom, it formed a contrast with the precipitation, violence, and impracticable complexity of the French revolution, or rather revolutions. In the former, the ground work of the constitution remained the same; respect was paid to the rights and privileges of all the orders of the subjects; and the reform begun, but not considered as finished, was to be carried on, as the way to perfection should be pointed out by times and circumstances.

The first sketchy news reaching America in July 1791, about the Polish Constitution adopted on May 3 in Warsaw immediately drew the attention of George Washington, who, in a letter of July 20, shared his opinion on the subject with his close friend David Humphreys, at that time the American minister in Lisbon:

The example of France will undoubtedly have its effects on other kingdoms. Poland, by the public papers, appears to have made large and unexpected strides towards liberty, which, iftrue, reflects great honor on the present King, who seems to have been the principal promoter of the business.²³

Humphreys in turn, in a letter dated August 1, wrote to his companion in arms in the American war of independence, Tadeusz Kościuszko, and included excerpts relating to Poland from Washington’s letter as proof of the President’s “very favorable “opinion on “the unexpected and happy revolution which has taken place in your country.”²⁴ Washington’s words to Humphreys, and the fact that they were relayed to Kościuszko have special significance. One of the reasons for the American interest in the changes taking place in Poland in 1791 was the memory of the Polish volunteers in the Revolutionary War, of Pułaski, who gave his life in defense of American independence, and of Kościuszko’s service “to the land whose liberties you had been so instrumental in establishing,” as Washington was to write later to Kościuszko in a letter of August 1797.²⁵

The word “unexpected” used by Washington and Humphreys also has an explanation. In the heat of intense debates about a model for the new nation during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the specific features of government in the far away Polish Republic were referred to a number of times in a critical manner. In addition, it was judged to be a government without balance by John Adams in A Defense of the Constitution of the Government of the United States, published in 1787.²⁶ Neither the aspirations of the Polish reformers in the 18th century nor the achievements of Polish social and political thought, which prepared the ground for the Constitution of 3 May, were known in America. Therefore, the “unexpected” Polish constitution, one which removed the faults of the system and introduced such major social and political reforms, was evaluated with even greater appreciation.²⁷

But there was yet a third and most important reason for the weight given the Polish revolution, seen by Washington as resulting from the influence of the French revolution. The early transformations in France were understood as a continuation and a confirmation of the American revolution. To the enthusiasm in America for the French revolution was added a fascination with the Polish revolution; together with the American, it provided even greater justification for the hope that the ideas of freedom and democracy which lay at their basis would spread and take hold in other countries.

Perhaps the first from among illustrious American statesmen to react to the 3 May Constitution was Gouverneur Morris, the author of the later plan to reconstruct Poland, who was in Europe at the time. He notes (partially incorrectly) in his diary for May 22, 1791:

The kingdom of Poland has formed a new Constitution which will I think change the political face of Europe by drawing that Kingdom out of Anarchy into Power. The leading features of the change are an hereditary monarchy, the affranchisement of the peasants and a share of the government given to the towns. These are the great means of destroying pernicious aristocracy.²⁸

The American press drew its information of European events mainly from the British newspapers and the Gazette de Leyde. In addition, some news contained in reports sent in by American diplomatic representatives in European capitals filtered down to the newspapers. Due to the efforts of Jefferson, who at that time was the Secretary of State, the news from the Gazette de Leyde, including news about Poland, was translated and printed in the American press. For a brief time in 1790 Jefferson himself selected and translated excerpts from the Gazette for the Gazette of the United States, among others a condensed version of the postulates contained in the Memorandum of Cities. Printed in the April 24, 1790 issue, the postulates initially appeared in the January 1, 1790 issue of the Gazette de Leyde. Jefferson’s efforts resulted in the fact that in 1791 excerpts from the Gazette de Leyde were also printed in the General Advertiser, and in 1792 in the National Gazette, the editor of which was Philip Freneau, the translator from the French to the office of the Secretary of State.²⁹

News about the Law on Cities passed on April 18,1791, reached American newspapers in July. Readers of the Newport Mercury were able to read the following dispatch on July 30:

The 18th of April, the day before yesterday, will hereafter be a memorable day in the annals of Poland. In the session of that day a law was passed by the Diet relative to cities and their inhabitants, which restores them to their primitive rights, associates them with the legislative power, and will serve as a basis for still more extensive regulations, to reduce the different orders of citizens, to that relative quality, which constitutes the very soul of a solid and just constitution.³⁰

The paper repeated the praise, expressed on numerous occasions in European opinion, for the role played by the Polish nobility in granting rights to the burghers:

When the National Assembly of France reduced the nobility to an equality with the citizens, the greater number of its members consisted of the Tiers Etat, but when Poland raised her citizens to that equality the Diet consisted of nobility only.

William Short, who at that time was the Chargé d’Affaires in France, also noted such differences in a letter to Jefferson written on May 8,1791, in Paris:

The Diet of Poland have come to a determination to give the right of citizenship to the Bourgeois of the Republick. They have adopted the inverse system of France. Instead of taking the nobility from those who possessed it they have given it to those who had it not. The bourgeois have now the privileges of nobility, this being granted by an assembly of nobles almost unanimously and of their own accord is a strong proof of the progress of philosophy even in that region.³¹

In the same July 30 issue of the Newport Mercury, Niemcewicz’s address to the session of the Diet on April 14 did not escape the attention of the paper, which quoted in a slightly altered version Niemcewicz’s argument (already noted among others by the Moniteur against the assertion that only the noble-born are entitled to have all the rights and honors: “None of us knows who were the ancestors or what was the religion of Washington and Franklin; but all of us know what important services these illustrious characters rendered to their country.” A short discussion of the rights gained by the burghers can be found in the Newport Mercury which wrote on August 6: “Yesterday civil and religious prejudices were abandoned in the same moment, and the Tiers Araradmitted without distinction of birth or religion, to a participation of the legislative and executive powers.” The newspaper expressed its admiration for the role played by Stanisław August in bringing about “the most difficult and most glorious reformation.” It repeated the information contained in the Times and the Gazette de Leyde about the enthusiasm generated among the burghers by the fact that they were granted rights and about the acceptance of citizenship from the city of Warsaw by Marshal Małachowski and the deputies to the Diet.

Simultaneously with the news about the Law on Cities there appeared in the pages of the American press notes and articles about the adoption by the Diet of the new Constitution on May 3. Apparendy the press materials from Europe on which the news about the Constitution was based arrived by the same ship. Soon after, copies of the translated Constitution published in London reached the American shore. As is evident from American library holdings these were for the most part the second edition since the first sold out rapidly. There is, however, a copy of the first edition in Jefferson’s library, undoubtedly sent out as soon as it appeared. But Jefferson was already aware of the principles guiding the initial draft of the future Constitution because they had been sent to him by Scypione Piattoli in a letter dated March 9, 1790. These principles were in turn based on the draft of the Principles to Reform the Government, by Ignacy Potocki.³² Piattoli, who had been in Poland since 1783 was in Paris between 1785 and 1789 where he became friends with Philip Mazzei and where he became acquainted with Jefferson. When he returned to Poland in 1789, Stanisław August employed him as his reader. Piattoli was also closely connected to Ignacy Potocki and undoubtedly served as an advisor in the elaboration of the Principles. Piattoli, an advocate of American democracy, played a significant role in reconciling various positions during 1790-1791, years when the text of the Constitution was being prepared.³³

The first extensive report, based on an article in the Gentleman s Magazine, appeared in Dunlap ’ŻAmerican Daily Advertiser on July 26,1791. It reponed on the stormy discussions in the Diet on May 3; the swearing in of the Constitution; the service in the Cathedral; the joy of the citizenry in the capital; and on the session in the Diet on May 5 when the text of the Constitution was signed. Dunlap’s al$o contained a somewhat inaccurate condensation of the articles of the Constitution, which Dunlap’s characterizes as: “...combining liberty with subordination, and subjecting the first citizen as well as the last to the law, secures to all the means of happiness, and gives to each citizen the true enjoyment of his rights.” The paper quite naturally focused its attention on Marshal Małachowski’s address to the Diet on May 3 (his words erroneously ascribed to the King), in which he stated that the Constitution was “founded principally on those of England and the United States of America.” A similar statement was made by David Humphreys in a letter to Jefferson dated June 17, 1791: “Change in government of Poland ’certainly one of the wonderful events of this age.’ It is said the King stated the new constitution to be modelled after English and American constitutions.”³⁴ Many newspapers reprinted the full text of the Constitution published in London. The Gazette of the United Żrares printed this text in succeeding issues starting with September 10.

A characteristic feature of the information about the Constitution found in the American press is a selection of texts, primarily from the British press, which highlight the role of the King in the preparation and passage of the Constitution. Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser in the August 23, 1791, issue writes:

In the history of mankind there are but very few instances to be found, where kings, unsolicited and unintimidated, have made a voluntary surrender of their power. There are many great sayings of great acts; but we read of none that deserves to be preferred to the late conduct of the King of Poland. The form of the new constitution of Poland, is not merely sanctioned by the King; but dictated, framed, and fashioned in the exalted superiority of his own mind, affords a new lesson to the world.

In its March 23, 1792, issue the American Apollo reprinted from William Coxe’s Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark (1784) a very favorable characterization of the Polish King with the following footnote:

It is worthy of special remark, that the two most accomplished and virtuous Princes now existing, the King of Poland and the President of the United States, were born in the same year, that both were raised to their stations by election, and not by hereditary claim; and that both have been active instruments of rescuing their country from confusion, and establishing just and free Constitutions of Government.

Given the prevailing enthusiasm in America for both the French and Polish revolutions, the American press, as distinct from the European, rarely pointed to sharp contrasts between them, restricting itself to comparing the different roles played by the nobility in the revolutionary changes brought about in both countries. These differences, pointed to in Edmund Burke’s pamphlet An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, were noted again in the Gazette of the United States on July 18 and on August 29 it reprinted the entire section containing praise for the Polish revolution from this well-known pamphlet.

The American press continued its scrutiny of the Diet’s activities, looking for “the completion of the most wonderful revolution;” it wrote about the laws concerning the Internal Organization of Cities and the law of Mutual Guarantee of the Polish and Lithuanian Nations; and about plans to regulate the legal status of the Jewish population. Summarizing the events of 1791, the Columbian Sentinel wrote on January 4, 1792:

The year just expired has been pregnant with great and interesting events in Poland with propriety we may say, that a Nation of Freemen has, in the preceding year, been born in a day. Therein we have seen, a Revolution in government favourable to the people, planned, promulgated and put into execution by its King.

Admiration for the Polish revolution manifested itself not only in the press. It was also voiced during a variety of celebrations, among others those celebrating the French revolution. As an example one can cite the commencement at Harvard in 1792 where students debated “upon the comparative importance of the American, French and Polish revolutions to mankind,” as reported by Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser on July 28, 1792. On the occasion of George Washington’s 60th birthday, the Gazette of the United States printed on February 22, 1792, a poem by an anonymous poet which began:

Wak’d by the vernal breeze, see Poland, France,

With youth renew’d , and vig’rous health advance.

Poems in honor of the Constitution and Stanisław August were written by two poets and diplomats who belonged to the circle of writers known as the “Connecticut or Hartford Wits,” David Humphreys and Joel Barlow. Humphreys enclosed his poem with the letter to Kościuszko (August 1,1791) mentioned above:

To thee, thou Sage of higher, nobler sort,

Than e’er before adorned an earthly Court,

Parent of Millions! Paragon of Kings!

A Bard from new-found Worlds new laurels brings,

To thee, great Stanislaus!—Thy glorious name

Shall stand unrivaled on the rolls of fame

Hail patriot King! And hail the Heav’n-born plan

Thy voice pronounc’d to fix the rights of man;

The godlike voice, that op’d the feudal graves,

Call’d to new life innumerable Slaves,

Nor call’d to life alone... Inspir’d by thee

Thy gen’rous Nobles made those Vassals free—

Hail blest example! Happy Poland hail!

No more... to lure thy foes... shall feuds prevail;

No more shall bord’ring Pow’rs, with lawless arms,

Divide thy confines and despoil thy farms;

No more shall Slav’ry sterilize thy soil,

But fruits, that prompt, shall pay the Peasant’s toil;

While soothing Faction! rage, fair Concord reigns,

And crowns with bliss the plenty of the Plains;

While, Age succeeding Age, a patriot King!

Both Worlds admire and all the Muses sing.³⁵

Barlow sent King Stanisław August Poniatowski the first version of his poem, entitled The Vision of Columbus, (now known under its later tide, Columbiad) in which he praised Kościuszko, and received a letter dated May 25,1791, in which the King wrote that he would “endeavor to have it translated into Polish.” In his answer of February 20, 1792, Barlow wrote about the Constitution of 3 May: “The extraordinary and successful manner in which Your Majesty has lately given a constitution to your country has excited no small degree of my admiration; and I cannot forbear offering you my congratulations on a subject so interesting to mankind.”

In the conclusion of his poem The Conspiracy of Kings, as in his letter to the King written the same year, Barlow expressed his admiration for the “sceptred sage” who “points the progressive march:”

In northern climes, where feudal shades of late

Chilled every heart and palsied every State,

Behold, illumin’d by th’ instructive age,

That great phenomenon, a sceptred sage;

There Stanislaus unfolds his prudent plan,

Tears the strong bandage from the eyes of man,

Points the progressive march, and shapes the way

That leads a realm from darkness into day.³⁶

Jefferson’s judgment, expressed in 1816 in a letter to John Adams, that “A wound indeed was inflicted on the character of honor in the eighteenth century by the partition of Poland,”³⁷ is a good reflection of the prevalent public opinion in the United States in the years when the crime of the partitions was being perpetrated. American newspapers reacted to Poland’s defense of its independence and its constitution against the Russian invader in numerous articles full of goodwill for Poland and sharp condemnation of the invader. Based on reports from London from July 3, Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser wrote on October 8 that Poland’s neighbors are planning to divide among themselves Poland “which offended no other, which never meddled in foreign affairs, which in peace, and without spilling a drop of blood, or doing injury to its fellow citizens, had created a new Constitution, which merited the admiration of Europe...” The destruction of Polish democratic reforms was viewed broadly as an attack of despotism on the achievements of freedom by the Columbian Sentinel on November 7, 1792. Representing the views of politicians allied with Jefferson, the paper wrote that: “Notwithstanding the late excesses of the republican party in France, the cause of the French is still that of humanity - is still the cause of freedom.” The article treats Poland, together with France, as an example of a country in Europe where the principles of the American revolution had become disseminated. “Poland—people, nobles, king, with one voice, framed a constitution, founded principally on the unalienable rights of the people, bearing, in many parts, a striking resemblance to our forms of government.” Coming out against the victory of these principles was Catherine, “unwilling to see one link of the despotic chain broken.” The article, written during the war between revolutionary France and Austria and Prussia, sees a threat coming from “Europe’s despots fearing the further spreading of the sacred flame...” a threat not only to France, but also to America from where the flame emanates.

The ensuing battle of freedom with despotism, the Kościuszko Insurrection, received a great deal of attention in American newspapers which published the entire “Act of Insurrection” and other documents. They published detailed descriptions of battles and the uprising in Warsaw, Wilno and other parts of the country. They also quoted toasts in honor of the uprising and of Kościuszko given during a variety of celebrations in numerous American cities, as well as the texts of a number of poems dedicated to the uprising or describing the imprisonment of Kościuszko, his liberation and the triumphant reception in America of this “illustrious Defender of the Rights of Mankind.”³⁸

The examples cited here of opinion in Europe³⁹ and America about the renewal taking place in Poland in 1791 testify to the fact that the Polish revolution was recognized in its time as the next step after the American and French revolutions on the path of creating states and societies concerned with the rights of man. This was as Robert R. Palmer notes, “the two countries which along with America were then the most famous for revolution—Poland and France.”⁴⁰ The conviction about the crucial and equiponderant significance of the three revolutions for the future of the world was widespread. Palmer cites the opinion of Peter Ochs, a member of the Council of Basel, who, enchanted by the French revolution, wrote in 1791: “The revolutions of America, France and Poland obviously belong in a chain of events that will regenerate the world.”⁴¹ The habit of mentioning them together in one breath lasted a long time. Noah Webster in the first edition (1828) of The American Dictionary of the English Language defines the term “revolution” as: “revolution in politics, a material or entire change in the constitution of government. Thus the revolution in England in 1688...so the revolution in Poland, the United States of America and in France consisted in a change of constitution.” In the years 1791-1792, when they were in force simultaneously, the three constitutions were honored together on various occasions, especially in England and America, as visible realizations of the slogans of freedom and democracy. In actual feet, manifestations of revolutionary aspirations for change in the political system could be seen in those years in Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Ireland, but only in three countries, significant in terms of territory and population, were the main ideas of the age of Enlightenment consolidated in fundamental laws of State, in constitutions which derived from the social contract and natural law. The three legal documents were viewed as having a common genesis and common goals: the establishment of democratic governments and the recogntion of individual rights. Attention was given not only to their common origins, but also to the connections existing between the constitutions. The ties which existed between the Polish, English and American constitutions were noted by Marshal Małachowski at the session of the Diet on May 3, and his words were quoted in all European and American press reports. Małachowski purposely omitted mention of the obvious connections to the French revolution taking place at that time, not wanting to provoke the despotic rulers of the three neighboring countries. Nevertheless, it was specifically these connections,⁴² made in the form of comparisons and contrasts, that played a distinct role and assumed a remarkable feature in the western press. As Albert Sorel noted long ago: “La révolution de Pologne eut le rare privilège d’etre admirée á la fois par les partisans de la Révolution franęaise et par le plus irréconciliable de ses adversaires.”⁴³

As an example of the latter, Sorel cites the praise of Burke. In France as well, even the few critical voices were not lacking in admiration, and the extremist Gorsas had to admit that public opinion in Paris expressed its regard for the Polish constitution. Its deliberate preparation, its revolutionary promulgation during a single session of the Diet, its content full of visible compromises, the gradual realization of its founding assumptions and the open declaration of guaranteed changes in the future, all pointed to the distinct character of this model of a constitution and distinguished it from the other two.

English parliamentarism, reshaped by the “glorious revolution” of 1688, as well as the example of French Enlightenment thought (especially Montesquieu) lay at the foundations of the American Declaration of Independence, The Virginia Plan, and the Constitution of 1787. The Declaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen of 1789 grew out of the French intellectual revolution, from the thought of Montesquieu, Voltaire and especially from Rousseau’s Contrat social, but the American example as well as the English model, so highly regarded by Montesquieu and Voltaire, also played a very significant role. In the intertwined connections between London, Philadelphia and Paris one also finds Warsaw. In republican Poland, however, such connections manifested themselves differently than they did in monarchist France, since they were superimposed on a parliamentary tradition centuries in duration, one which, to be sure, had become deformed in the 18th century and petrified in this form as a result of foreign wardship, but a tradition which was, nevertheless, alive and continued to harbor voices hoping for reform. Therefore, when, as a result of Russia’s entanglement in a war with Turkey, Poland gained, as it turned out for only four years, full sovereignty, the advocates of reform used a different model for introducing political and social changes than that used in France, one which saw changes accompanied not by a bloody outburst, but which took on the form of a truly benign revolution. Both Europe and America followed with the greatest attention this alternate possibility of realizing common aspirations for a just system, and public opinion on both continents expressed a real enthusiasm for this peaceful departure from an antiquated form of government and relations between estates. In the conclusion of an article cited above, The Annual Register for the Year 1795 wrote about the exemplary nature of such a constitution: “On the whole, as the history of the old Polish constitution warns men of many things to be avoided, so the new constitution, though strangled at its birth, exhibits others worthy of imitation.”

The image of the Polish Republic undergoing reform was recorded and preserved in the pages of the newspapers and journals of Europe and America, publications which were full of high regard for the direction of such reforms and for the efforts required to defend the independence of the renewed nation. An important role played by such publications is that they bore witness to and served to preserve the truth--which later was to be frequently undermined by historians of countries which participated in the partitions of Poland—about the real nature of the Constitution of 3 May, and about the important role it played along with the American and French Constitutions in initiating a constitutional era in world history. Finally, it told the truth about the condemnation by public opinion in Europe and America of the outrage committed by the partitions, and about the confirmation by this same public opinion of the right of the Polish nation to “political existence, external independence and internal liberty,” as set forth in the preamble of the Constitution of 3 May.

Notes

1. See Zofia Libiszowska, “Odglosy Konstytucji 3 Maja na Zachodzie” (Repercussions of the 3 May Constitution in the West) in Alina Barszczewska-Krupa ed. Konstytucja 3 Maja w tradycjj i kulturzepolskiej (Łódz: Wyd. Łódzkie, 1991) pp. 70-81; Samuel Fiszman The Bicentennial of the Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791. An Exhiibition of Rare Publications (Bloomington: Indiana University Polish Studies Center, Lilly Library, 1991).

2. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Julian P. Boyd, ed. (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1961), vol. 19, p. 467.

3. See Jerzy Łojek, Polska inspiracja prasowa w Holandii i Niemczech w czasach Stanisława Augusta (Polish attempts to influence the press in Holland and Germany in the time of Stanisław August) (Warszawa: PWN, 1969); Jerzy Łojek, “International French Newspapers and their Role in Polish Affairs during the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century” East Central Europe 1,1 (1974): 54-64.

4. Janusz Woliński, Jerzy Michalski, Emanuel Rostworowski, eds. Materialy do dziejów Sejmu Czteroletniego (Sources related to the history of the Four-Year Diet) (Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1959), vol. 2, p. 322.

5. Helena Rzadkowska, Stosunek polskiej opinii publicznej do rewolucji francuskiej (The attitude of Polish public opinion toward the French revolution) (Warszawa: Książka, 1948), pp. 70-72.

6. Emanuel Rostworowski, Ostatni król Rzeczypospolitej. Geneza i upadek Konstytucji 3 maja (The last king of the Commonwealth. The genesis and fall of the Constitution of 3 May) (Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1966), p. 253.

7. Jeremy D. Popkin, News and Politics in the Age of Revolutton Jea Luzac’s Gazette de Leyde (Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1989), pp. 228, 257-8.

8. See Andrzej Zahorski, “Moniteur 1789-1795 w sprawach polskich” (Moniteur 1789-1795 on Polish affairs), Przegląd Historyczny 62, 1 (1966): 70-96.

9. Emanuel Rostworowski, “Miasta i mieszczanie w ustroju Trzeciego Maja” (Cities and burghers in the system of 3 May) in Jerzy Kowecki ed. Sejm Czteroletni i jego tradycje (Warszawa: PWN, 1991), p. 149.

10. Jean Fabre, Stanislas-Auguste Poniatowski et Europe des Lumières (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1952), pp. 87-88,

11. See Marceli Handelsman, “La Constitution Polonaise du 3 Mai 1791 et l’Opinion Franęaise” La Révolution Franęaise 58 (1910): 412-434; Julien Grossbart, “La Politique Polonaise de la Révolution Franęaise jusqu’aux traités de Bâle,” Annales Historiques de la Révolution Franęaise 6: (1929), 34-55.

12. See Handelsman, La Révolution, pp. 429-34.

13. Fabre, Stanills--Auguste... pp. 526-530.

14. See Handelsman, pp. 414-415.

15. See Handelsman, p. 422.

16. See Handelsman, p. 422.

¹⁷ Revolution de Paris, 23-28 May, 1791, pp. 311-316.

18. Albert Sorel, L’Europe et la Revolution Franęaise (Paris: Libraire Plon, 1895) vol. 2, p. 214.

19. Louis-Philippe Comte de Ségur, Histoire des principaux événements du règne de F. Guillaume IL. Roi de Prusse, et Tableau politique de l’Europe, depuis 1786 jusqu ’en 1796, ou l’an 4 de la République; Contenant un précis des révolutions de Brabant, de Hollande, de Pologne et de France (Paris: 1800), vol. 2, pp. 195-201.

20. Zofia Libiszowska, Zycie polskie w Londynie w XVIII wieku (Polish affairs in London in the 18th century) (Warszawa: Pax, 1972); “Polska reforma w opinii angielskiej” (Polish reform in English opinion) in Kowecki, ed. Sejm Czteroletni... pp. 63-74; see also Izabela Rusinowa, “Rozbiory Polski w opinii The Annual Register (The partitions of Poland in the opinion of The Annual Registei) in Francja - Polska XVIII-XIXw. (Warszawa: PWN, 1983), pp. 339-348.

21. Edmund Burke, An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (London: J. Dodsley, 1791), pp. 102-104.

22. Thomas Paine, Rights of Man. Pat the Second Combining Principle and Practice (London: J.S. Jordan, 1792), p. 25.

23. The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939), vol. 31, pp. 320-21.

24. Miecislaus Haiman, The Fall of Poland in Contemporary American Opinion (Chicago: Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, 1935), p. 53.

25. The Writings of George Washington... (1941), vol. 36, p. 22.

26. Adams includes a long quotation from the treatise Voix Libre, attributed to King Stanisław Leszczyński, one more proof of the popularity of this treatise in France. The quotation deals with the miserable state of the Polish peasant, but Adams failed to notice that this passage provides one of the arguments in what is a call for political and social reforms.

27. Haiman, The Fall..., pp. 5-13; Piotr S. Wandycz, The United States and Poland (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press; 1980), pp. 32-50; Piotr S. Wandycz, “The American Revolution and the Partitions of Poland” and Anna M. Cienciala, “The American Founding Fathers and Poland” in Jarosław Pelenski ed. The American and European Revolutions, 1776-1848 (Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 1980), pp. 95-124; Janina W. Hoskins, “A Lesson which all our Countrymen Should Study. Jefferson Views Poland,” The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 33,1 (1976); 29-46.

28. Gouverneur Morris: A Diary of the French Revolution, Beatrix Davenport ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1939), p. 188.

29. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 16, pp. 246, 257-8.

30. Quotations from American newspapers are based on Haiman, The Fall...

31. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 20, p. 385.

32. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 16, pp. 214-219.

33. Rostworowski, Ostatni król Rzeczypospolitej, p. 180.

34. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 20, p.556, as recorded in Jefferson’s “Summary Journal of Letters.”

35. Haiman, The Fall.., pp. 53-4.

36. Columbian Centinal, August 18, 1792, see Haiman, p. 59.

37. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. A.A. Lipscomb (Washington: T. Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), vol. 14, p. 394.

38. Haiman, The Fall..., pp. 123, 360; Izabela Rusinowa, “The Kościuszko Insurrection through the Eyes of The New York Herald, 179’4-1795” Polish-American Studies! (1976): 59-74.

39. For opinions on the Constitution of 3 May in the German states see: Hermann Vahle, “Die polnische Verfassung vom 3 Mai 1791 in zeitgenössischen deutschen Urteil.” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 19 (1971), 347-370.

40. Robert R. Palmer, The Age of Democratic Revolution (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1959), vol. 1, p. 407.

41. Palmer, The Age... vol. 1, p. 364.

42. See Henri Mazeaud, Les Constitutions franęaise et polonaise de 1791 (Paris: Institute de France, 1983), pp. 1-10.

43. Albert Sorel. L’Europe... vol. 2, p. 215.