Introduction

Eastern Europe, except for Poland, at this time meant the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian monarchies. In none of them with exceptions for Hungary, was there any elected parliamentary body with powers like those now contemplated for the Polish diet. All of them were lands of peasant serfdom, and while the Polish constitution did nothing to emancipate the peasants, it was in part the work of men, like Kollontay, whose thoughts moved in this direction. In none of the three monarchies did towns enjoy such self-government as was envisaged for Poland. Even in the West, even in England, there were few towns where each property-owner could actually cast a vote for councilman or mayor. In neither Russia, Prussia, nor the Hapsburg empire were burghers as free to acquire rural land as under the new Polish laws. Nor could they so readily rise into the gentry.

Robert R. Palmer¹

In the late 18th century, along with the United States and France, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the three countries in which a constitution was adopted, and the document was acknowledged as a milestone by republican thinkers in Europe and America. This volume constitutes the first attempt in English to present 18th century Poland at a time of political and social reform and cultural revival. The progressive currents in a number of fields which led to the adoption of a constitution are surveyed across the entire 18th century in Poland, and set in the context of the Enlightenment. The main subject of this book is the Constitution of 3 May 1791 seen from various angles as the most important realization of the movement toward reform in 18th century Poland. These essays also reexamine the tradition of Polish parliamentarism in the previous centuries, and the connection between the American, Polish and French ideas of a democratic state at the end of the 18th century.

This reexamination begins in this volume with an article by Norman Davies in which the Constitution of 3 May 1791, “a classic product of European Enlightenment,” is discussed in the context of the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its democratic traditions, with an emphasis on its limitations and its achievements, particularly in the field of religious tolerance. Countering the argument launched by the powers which partitioned the Common wealth—that it had been destroyed because it was “ungovernable”—Davies states: “The fact is, it was destroyed exactly because the Constitution of 3 May had made it governable.”

The next two studies trace the origin and development of the parliamentary system in Poland before the 18th century. Anna Sucheni-Grabowska presents the circumstances under which the Polish parliamentary system was formed and explains the reason for its steady growth in the 16th and 17th centuries. She sheds light on the manner in which the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies and particularly the regional dietines worked, and she examines the relations between the dietines and the Diet; the role of the king; the functioning of the Diet, including the struggle over the “execution of the laws;” the principle of unanimity in adopting laws in the Diet; and the circumstances under which diets were dissolved. In connection with the latter, she delves into the problem of the liberum veto.

Wenceslas J. Wagner describes the constitutional system of the Commonwealth as a system based “on a government of law rather than of men.” He argues that the introduction of democratic institutions in the Commonwealth was not “a groundless extortion of concessions from the king,” not a simple accumulation of privileges, but the recognition of fundamental rights which “set up modern solutions to the problem of the relations between the government and the governed.” Turning from a “positive evaluation of Polish public life in old times” to “some abuses in the application of civic freedoms,” Wagner examines the historical premises on which the ill-reputed liberum veto was based and compares the principles of unanimity in the Diet with an approach toward the veto and unanimity in other countries as well as in contemporary international organizations.

Both Sucheni-Grabowska and Wagner’s studies serve not only as an introduction to the traditions of the Polish parliamentary system, they are also an explanation of the aims and the character of reforms in the 18th century, including those of the Constitution of 3 May.

The numerous attempts at reform in the 18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth are presented in the study by Józef Andrzej Gierowski. The author surveys the reforms and proposals for reform which were initiated in the period between the Dumb Diet in 1717 and the Four-Year Diet of 1788-92. The Constitution of 3 May, “an important step on the road to a modern state,” is viewed by the author as resulting from a long quest for reform, both political and social. Gierowski then proceeds to trace the numerous steps in this process which included Stanisław Dunin Karwicki’s plan for political reform in the beginning of the century; plans for military and financial reforms initiated by the Czartoryskis and the Potockis in the 1740s as well as the changes in education by Konarski, also in the 1740s; King Stanisław Leszczyński’s program of political and social reforms in 1749; Stanisław Konarski’s proposal for improvements in the parliamentary system in the years 1760-63; the creation of the Commission for National Education in 1773; Andrzej Zamoyski’s project to codify the laws in 1778; and ending with the proposals for reform which can be found in the profound works of the main thinkers of the Polish Enlightenment, Stanisław Staszic and Hugo Kołłątaj, which were published before and during the Four-Year Diet. Gierowski’s overview of the numerous reform programs and reforms in 18th century Poland is proof that it is justified to label this period in Polish history also as a century of reform.

Gierowski mentions in his article the interference of Russia and Prussia in many of the attempts at reform in the Commonwealth. The main thesis of the article by Zofia Zielińska is that the internal weakness of the Commonwealth, above all the shortcomings in its social system throughout the entire 18th century, was directly caused by the loss of its sovereignty to Russia. The turning point was in 1715-1720 when Peter I, in mediating the conflict between the nobility and August II, managed to establish in Poland a strong Russian party and a lasting Russian influence which blocked any attempt at reform. The Treaty of Potsdam in 1720 between Russia and Prussia, a treaty renewed numerous times until 1792, foresaw that mutual cooperation was a means of preventing the strengthening of the Commonwealth through reforms. Zielińska presents examples of the inner mechanism of Russian and Prussian policies which by the use of provocation, bribery and armed intervention, and by their support of the two pillars of the gentry’s “golden freedom”— the liberum veto and the free election of the king-were able to keep the Commonwealth in a state of inertia and subjugation. In spite of such obstacles, it was possible to carry out some reforms prior to the Four-Year Diet. However, a fundamental modernization of the state took place only during the Four-Year Diet when Poland, taking advantage of a momentary weakness in the wardship of Russia and Prussia, was able to carry out a fundamental modernization of the state.

One of the most important and far reaching achievements of the reform movement in the Commonwealth before the promulgation of the Constitution was undoubtedly the reform in education. Kamilla Mrozowska’s study deals with the close connections in this area between Polish ideas on education and those of the Enlightenment in England and France. In Poland the preparatory steps in this reform were changes introduced in the curriculum of the Piarist schools by Stanisław Konarski, the founding by him of the Collegium Nobilium, and the creation by King Stanisław August of a secular, state-run Cadets Corps. The crowning achievement of Polish educational reform was the establishment of the Commission for National Education, justly called the first ministry of education in Europe. Its work related to all educational establishments from elementary schools to universities and it had a hand in the new curriculum which it instituted and the new textbooks it published. It should further be noted that the work of the Commission for National Education had wide resonance in other countries of Europe and that it influenced the Russian school reform of 1803.²

Together with a program of national education, the idea of nation, of national consciousness, forms a central theme of the Polish Enlightenment. In his study Andrzej Walicki focuses on questions which are especially important “for a proper understanding of the specific contributions of the epoch of the Enlightenment to the birth of modern nationhood in Poland.” Examining the concept of nationhood in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he emphasizes its political aspects and thereby opposes the widely accepted notion which attributes ethnic nationalism to Central and Eastern Europe. Walicki analyzes “the specificity of the idea of national sovereignty” as developed by the thinkers of Polish Enlightenment, particularly by Hugo Kołłątaj and Stanisław Staszic and concludes that the Constitution of 3 May, which saw property ownership as the basis of political rights, was not the final product of the political ideology of the Polish Enlightenment. Its final transformation into the concept of a “nation of the people” is only found in the Proclamations of Tadeusz Kościuszko during the uprising.

Political and social writing during the Four-Year Diet is the topic of Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz’s article. The author stresses that while political writing constitutes an important element in Poland’s entire history, it flourished especially during the Four-Year Diet. Debates about the reform of the state took place not only in the Diet; it also became the subject of numerous large treatises, polemical articles, letters and even sermons. Grześkowiak-Krwawicz analyzes both the stylistic merits and the content of the most important published political and social works in which foreign models were utilized, particularly those from England and the United States.

Along with educational, political and social spheres, changes in other areas of Polish culture also produced a remarkable renaissance. Adam Zamoyski in his article “The Art of the Possible” examines the special role played by Stanisław August in the area of literature and the arts. An overview of the literature, drama and music of the time is followed by an analysis of the King’s political, personal and artistic aims as revealed in his patronage of the arts; in his efforts to build collections of paintings, medals, and engravings; by inviting foreign and native artists; in his commissions of a multitude of architectural projects; and in his attempts to encourage others to follow his example. Although the King’s grandiose plans were ultimately curtailed by the grim external situation faced by his country, he accomplished a great deal in a brief time and thanks mainly to his activity “an artistic and intellectual environment of great brilliance and sophistication had come into being in Poland.”

The impact of the American Constitution on Polish political opinion before and during the Four-Year Diet is discussed by Zofia Libiszowska. America’s war for independence, the Articles of Confederation and the American Constitution “met with great interest and approval in Poland” as illustrated by numerous articles and reprints in the press. During the Four-Year Diet both sides in the constitutional debate, the so-called “Republicans” and the party of reform, the “Patriots,” used the American Constitution for different purposes and reached different conclusions. Most often references to the American Revolution were “rhetorical ornaments” which “nevertheless influenced the climate of the discussion and awakened social and political consciousness even if they did not offer actual models and solutions suited to Polish problems.”

Although the Constitution of 3 May is present in many articles in this volume it constitutes the main subject of analysis in articles by Jerzy Michalski and Zbigniew Szcząska. Michalski, after a short presentation of Poland’s international situation before and during the Four-Year Diet, focuses his attention on the preparatory stages in the writing of the draft and the final text of the Constitution; on an evaluation of the two laws passed before its adoption, the Law of the Dietines and the Law of the Cities (“the most significant social reform of the Four-Year Diet”); and, finally, on the circumstances surrounding the passage of the Constitution, where he analyzes its basic ideas and its achievements “in the realm of theory and phraseology and in its concrete norms.” The last part of Michalski’s article is devoted to the legislative process after May 3 and plans for future reforms which Kołłątaj termed “economic” and “moral” constitutions. Future Polish generations living in bondage, states Michalski, perceived the Constitution as the country’s “great moment of rebirth, a great social turning point” and as “a symbol of patriotism and an uncompromising aspiration for independence.”

Zbigniew Szcząska analyzes the articles of the Constitution and their implementation in the impressive number of laws produced during the one year when the Constitution was in force. The author shows that despite the absence in the Constitution of an explicitly formulated bill of rights and despite the fact that it preserves the division between the estates, certain statements included in the Constitution as well as regulations and laws passed after its adoption, when taken together, constitute “a kind of Polish bill of rights.” Both Szcząska and Michalski emphasize that many provisions in the Constitution and in other laws passed by the Diet “indicate an attempt to gradually depart from estate division” and envision that in the future all the estates will “comprise the Polish nation.” Szcząska devotes a large part of his discussion to an examination of the political system created by the Constitution and to the activities of the many newly elected bodies.

A comparison between the first three written constitutions, the American, the Polish and the French, all briefly alluded to in the previous papers, is the subject of Rett R. Ludwikowski’s study. Despite the differences in tradition which existed in each of the three countries and despite the variety of local circumstances that occasioned the adoption of each constitution, the author finds far greater similarities, particularly those concerning the manner of the adoption of the constitution, the principle of the division of powers, and the establishment of an independent judiciary. An examination of the three constitutions, the author concludes, reveals an intensive interaction of ideas between the three countries. “It also shows remarkable similarities in the intellectual background of the framers of the constitutions and textual similarities in the constitutional texts.”

Some of the important laws and projects briefly analyzed or only mentioned in preceding studies are more closely examined in articles that follow. The Law on Cities, which formed an integral part of the Constitution, as well as reform proposals concerning the legal status of the Jewish population are discussed by Krystyna Zienkowska who traces the differences in the situation of the Christian and the Jewish urban population before the Four-Year Diet. The Law on Cities granted the burghers most of their demands, but it did not fulfill their requirements concerning the number and the level of their participation in the Diet. The Law was applicable only to inhabitants of royal cities, nevertheless, it included some provisions that “opened a possibility that private towns also could obtain such rights.” The Law on Cities was applicable only to the Christian residents of the royal cities. Economic competition, cultural differences, and the conviction that the Jewish community constituted a separate estate are among the factors which contributed to the reasons for this clause in the Law. On the other hand, the basic ideas of the Enlightenment, financial considerations, an awareness that the status of a large Jewish population must be regulated, were all reasons why the Diet undertook to reform the legal status of the Jews. The author discusses the various drafts of the reform proposals and details the provisions of the final version. Accepted by the Diet Deputation at the end of May, 1792, these provisions came too late to be passed into law by the Diet, the work of which was interrupted by the Russian invasion. Together with granting new privileges, the main idea which permeated this proposed reform was tolerance, the “acceptance of religious and cultural differences.”³

Juliusz Bardach argues in his study that the omission in the Constitution of 3 May of the problem of mutual relations between the two components of the Polish-Lithuanian state resulted from a lack of agreement on this sensitive matter between the side which tended toward centralization and unification of the state and those with more moderate views concerning the character of the future federated state. The intention of protecting the separate rights of Lithuania found its full expression only in the law entitled the Mutual Guarantee of the Two Nations, passed unanimously by the Diet on October 20, 1791. It included provisions that guaranteed “equal representation of the Grand Duchy in the central administration and the preservation of certain institutional differences.” While confirming the political rights of the Grand Duchy, it also stressed “the dual character of the state.” The Law of Mutual Guarantee, as a fundamental statute, was recognized as having the same importance as the provisions of the “Union of Lublin.’”

The Four-Year Diet’s initiative aimed at modernizing Polish local government is considered to be one of the Diet’s most important reforms. Łukasz Kądziela explains in rich detail that the circumstances under which the system of local government was established determined its obligations to serve both the army and civilian needs. The Civilian-Military Commissions of Order, which operated under different statutes in Poland and Lithuania, and which were elected every two years by the so-called electoral dietines, had broad powers. They were to function as “organs of local self-government and the central governments’ local agents.” The long catalog of tasks given to the Commissions includes, among others, the collection of annual census information, the collection of taxes, the maintenance of local roads, and the filing of reports to the Central Treasury Commission and the Police Commission about the economic condition of their territory. More importantly, they were to supervise freedom of the press, primary education in elementary and parish schools, and to serve as local courts.

Among plans to reform the judiciary, the Constitution of 3 May also envisioned the appointment of “a Committee for the formation of a civil and criminal code of laws.” Adam Lityński examines reforms in criminal law during the Four-Year Diet against the background of the ideas and postulates of the humanitarian movement in criminal law. According to the author, the “democratic tradition of the Polish political and legal culture” made Poland “particularly receptive to trends moderating the system of criminal law.” Hence the ideas of the humanitarians fell on fertile ground in Poland and activated native efforts. The author presents the state of criminal law in the Polish Commonwealth before the Four-Year Diet and the changes discussed and adopted during the Diet, accentuating the fact that the direction of such changes “aimed at the transformation of legal procedure from privilege to universal principle in court proceedings.” Main attention in the study is given to the preparatory work for the codification of law in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, subsequently called the Code of Stanisław August, and to an analysis of the proposals submitted by the two Commissions, one for Poland and one for Lithuania. Lityński emphasizes that the principle of personal equality before the law was enforced during the Kościuszko uprising and states: “The introduction of laws and legal practices in the spirit of humanitarianism in such unfavorable conditions is one of most fulfilling moments in the annals of European criminal law in the decisive Enlightenment period.”

Jörg K. Hoensch’s article constitutes a kind of recapitulation of the reform movement in 18th century Poland, but from a different angle, namely in the light of Polish-French relations and mutual influences. Hoensch underlines the significance of “the penetration of the citoyen concept of the encyclopedists” into Poland where the concept of noble citizenship had a long tradition, and the importance of the transference, through Rousseau, of Polish civic-patriotic mentality into prerevolutionary France. He focuses specifically on the influence of the French Revolution and constitutional discussions and of the American debates of 1787-89 on the framers of the Polish Constitution and discusses the essential role played by the Polish Constitution in the creation of “the ultimate draft of the French revolutionary Constitution of September 3 and 13, 1791.” Like Davies in the first essay in the volume, Hoensch concludes that the demise of Poland was “an indication not of its powerlessness, but rather a discovery of its internal strength which had become frightening to the Russian Empire.”

The sessions of the Four-Year Diet and particularly the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May aroused great attention and were followed by the press both in Europe and the United States. Samuel Fiszman in his presentation of the great international importance of the Constitution states that “it would be hard to find a serious journal or newspaper in Europe or the United States which did not discuss, sometimes at length, the significance of the Polish Constitution.” The prominent newspaper, Gazette de Leyde, characterized the Constitution as “ une Pièce aussi essentielle, soit pour l’histoire de l’époque présente, soit pour le connaissance du Droit Public.” In France the most reputable gazette, the Moniteur, included frequent and detailed coverage of events in Poland. In the revolutionary press the Constitution caused an immediate and heated polemic. In England Edmund Burke acclaimed the Polish peaceful revolution of 1791, contrasting it with the French. In the United States George Washington wrote: “Poland, by the public papers, appears to have made large and unexpected strides towards liberty.”

The attitude of the Kościuszko Insurrection toward the resolutions of the Four-Year Diet and the Constitution of 3 May is analyzed by Jerzy Kowecki. According to the author “the Insurrection of 1794 did not grant to the legislation of the Four-Year Diet the power of binding law, but created its own system of law and government. However, this does not mean that it opposed the Diet. In various areas one can easily see references to it as well as a continuation, but a continuation which as a rule greatly radicalized solutions previously achieved.” This radicalization is most clearly visible in social changes, whereby the civil rights of the burghers and their participation in government were increased, and particularly in the introduction of “comprehensive and profound changes” in the situation of the peasants. The framers of the Constitution of 3 May considered their work as a first step in the direction of reform; the Kościuszko Insurrection made a further step in “modernizing the social structure of the nation” by its “departure from a class oriented society.” The Insurrection failed, but its war against the invaders and its social reforms strengthened the will of the nation to endure the partition and to continue its struggle for national independence.

After World War I, when Poland was reborn as a democratic state, the Marshal of the Legislative Diet in his speech inaugurating constitutional deliberations paid tribute to the Constitution of 3 May. The preamble to the adopted Constitution of 1921 also made a direct reference to the “glorious traditions of the historic Constitution of 3 May.” Andrzej Ajnenkiel examines the role the Constitution played in the debates surrounding the creation of the 1921 Constitution. Although it came into play during the discussions about the new Constitution, the 18th century document provided only the format and some ideas and specific language rather then structural solutions for the new state. The Constitution of 3 May was also utilized in debates before the Constitution of 1935.

The last study in the volume is Piotr S. Wandycz’s comparison between the circumstances which led to two revolutions in Poland, the first, the work of the Four-Year Diet between 1788 and 1792 and its culmination in the Constitution of 3 May, the second, the battle of the trade union Solidarność in 1980 and its victory over the Communist government in Poland in 1990. Bloodless and restrained, both revolutions brought about deep changes and international attention to Poland. The two revolutions occurred “in vastly different conditions,” yet there are in both “some features which, if not analogous, permit drawing interesting parallels” as for example: “the notion of compromise and non-violence,” “the concept of civil society,” the notion of “returning to Europe,” and “the international context of the two revolutions.” Wandycz treats both in the context of the sweep of Polish history, exploring the conflicts and problems for which each was an answer.

The brief comments above should not be taken as a summary of the articles’ rich content; they serve rather, to demonstrate the fact that the present volume forms a coherent whole in which individual texts complement and supplement one another.

An attempt was made to clarify in context specifically Polish terms used in individual essays, but two most frequently encountered terms require further elaboration. The first is the name of the Polish state. While the term res publica in reference to Poland appears in the deliberations of scholars in Cracow already at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the term regnum was in regular use and Jan Długosz entitled his work written in the years 1455-80 as Annales seu Cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae. A change in terminology came about in the next century, which saw the flowering of the Renaissance, with its ties to the classical tradition, and the flowering of Polish parliamentarism. Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski called his work, an incomplete edition of which first appeared in Cracow in 1551, and which treated reforms in the Polish state and society, Commentariorum de Republica emendanda, employing a term used for several decades in Polish common political parlance. As Claude Backvis writes: “A new conception of nation and society becomes crystallized around the notion of the term Rzeczpospolita (Republic), ...one which strives for the common weal” and one which supplanted the word państwo (nation) in common usage as the term referring to Poland.⁴ Thus one encounters in the present volume such terms as Respublica, Commonwealth, and, after the union with Lithuania, Respublica or The Commonwealth of Two Nations, as well as the less frequently used terms (for formal differentiation),The Polish Crown and The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and their shorter versions, The Crown and Lithuania. Quite often the shortest term Poland is also used.

The other term which needs clarification is the reference to the Polish parliament, the Sejm, which was at times termed in Latin documents as Dieta and which is translated here as Diet following the example of the first English translation of the 3 May Constitution of 1791. The Sejm, from the moment of its final formation at the end of the fifteenth century, consisted of the Senate, appointed by the king, and the House of Representatives, which was elected. The preeminence of one or the other chamber in this period can be demonstrated in numerical terms. At this time the Senate consisted of 81 members and the House about 40. In measure with the growth in importance of the House, and in the following centuries its dominance, the numerical proportions given above also underwent changes to the advantage of the House. In the middle of the sixteenth century there were 140 senators and approximately 160 deputies, and in the middle of the seventeenth the ratio was 148 to 175.⁵ According to the Law on Diets passed on May 16, 1791, the Senate was to number 132 members and the House of Representatives, 204. In the text of the 3 May Constitution the House of Representatives is designated as the primary body, “as a manifestation and repository of supreme national authority” and “a temple of legislation.” A reading of the articles in the present volume indicates that even though the Constitution took the term Sejm to mean a conjoining of both chambers of the parliament, in actual fact the term Sejm was even earlier and more and more frequently understood as a synonym for the House of Representatives. In time the meaning of the term evolved and after World War I, when the Polish parliament was reestablished, as well as in the present day, it refers unambiguously to the House of Representatives.

The present work contains a few repetitions, especially in articles which examine the central issues of the book. Such repetition, while shedding light on the main theme from a variety of mutually complementary points of view, is unavoidable since it would be impossible to bring proofs to an argument without reference to specific points in the Constitution.

There was no attempt to unify the articles which comprise the book, neither from the point of view of style nor more importantly, from the point of view of reconciling opinions which differ but do not contradict one another.

It is easy in reading a book of this nature to point to important questions dealing with Polish parliamentarism, reforms in the 18th century, the Four-Year Diet, or the Constitution of 3 May, which were barely touched on, or even omitted altogether. In this regard it is hoped that the extensive footnotes, which refer the reader to the literature on the subject matter at hand, will serve as partial recompense.

A different fate awaited each of the first three published constitutions, lawful documents which emerged from the ideas of the Enlightenment and which laid the foundations of modern constitutionalism. The 1787 Constitution of the United States, revered and honored as the basis of the American political system, is still in force, though revised and supplemented by later amendments. The French Constitution of 1791 lasted until 1793, when the Jacobean Convention passed a new Constitution. The Polish Constitution was formally binding for only fourteen months at which time it was abolished as a result of armed intervention by Russia. Even though it could not serve as a binding legal document, it has survived to this day as a symbol of values which foreign might was incapable of destroying. Unable to function as a guarantor of national sovereignty and the freedom of its citizenry, the Constitution was a guardian of the nation’s memory of espoused social and political reforms and of aspirations for national independence during the long night of bondage when Poland was not only crossed off the map of Europe, but attempts were made to eradicate all memory of its existence. Playing a momentous role in its immediate effect, which began a transformation both of the society and of the state, the Constitution also played a significant role in its long-term effects as a vibrant factor present in the life of the nation. The polemics which accompanied its creation continued when its provisions were given greater precision by inclusion in specific statutes. These polemics already began to change their character during the Kościuszko Insurrection and underwent fundamental changes after the fall of the state, when the Constitution became the point of departure for differences of opinion regarding, in equal measure, the reasons for the loss of independence and the form that the reborn nation would assume.

The controversy surrounding the manner in which the Constitution was viewed gathered strength after the defeat of the November Uprising in 1830. The Literary Society, established in Paris in 1832 under the leadership of Prince Adam Czartoryski, in its yearly celebrations on the anniversary of the Constitution declared itself to be the faithful continuator of ideas contained in the 3 May Constitution. This tradition was opposed by the emigree Polish Democratic Society, among others, who sharply criticized the limited nature of social reforms contained in the Constitution. In different form, such arguments found their continuation in the debates of various political parties in the 19th and 20th centuries, in independent Poland after World War I, and in the altered situation of post World War II Poland.

During the period of the November 1830 and January 1863 uprisings differences in interpreting the Constitution found expression mainly in the programs of political parties or in the pronouncements of those representing a variety of ideological orientations, both historians and writers like Joachim Lelewel and Adam Mickiewicz. In the second half of the 19th century, the polarization of positions regarding the Four-Year Diet and the Constitution of 3 May is evident in extensive historical studies where contending attitudes toward the Constitution formed a part of the controversy between two schools in Polish historiography, the so-called Cracovian and Varsovian. Thus, the Constitution played a significant role in the most important debates about the fate of the nation’s past and future. It came to play yet another role in moments especially threatening to the nation’s existence, as Stefan Kieniewicz points out in his discussion of national uprisings in the 19th century: “In moments of a national crisis when it becomes necessary to rouse the masses to repel the invader, arguments about the past fall silent and 3 May is incorporated into a patriotic stream which unites all classes of the population under one tanner.”⁶ Such an assertion can be applied with equal justification to later times: the period of World War I; the German occupation and the Warsaw uprising during World War II; and the enslavement of Poland after the war. The Constitution served as a catalyst for national accord not only in exceptional moments, but, unfailingly it played its role in the daily life of the people and in the public opinion of many generations, where the Constitution is not simply an exemplar of legal norms, but rises to the level of a historical symbol of patriotism and becomes a personification of the nation’s indestructible spiritual strength.

The three constitutions—the American, Polish, and French—the most significant expression of constitutionalism of the Enlightenment, played an important role in the history of their nations, but it fell to the Polish Constitution to play a role not required of the other two: that of a symbol guiding the efforts of future generations in their struggle to preserve the Polish Nation and re-establish the Polish State. As Stanisław Staszic declared: “Even a great nation may fall, but only a contemptible one can perish.” The memory of 3 May 1791, a day which confirmed Poland’s sovereignity, helped the nation to survive. To quote Robert Howard Lord:

The work of the Four Years’ Diet, the lofty character of its leaders, the generous enthusiasm and high hopes of the period, the Constitution of the Third of May, the effort of the Polish army in 1792, and the new struggle for liberty under Kościuszko in 1794—these things brought at least this inestimable advantage that they furnished the nation with a treasure of spiritual goods upon which it could live and maintain its faith in itself and its future after the loss of its independence. From these tragic but ennobling experiences later generations could convince themselves and the unprejudiced outside world that this nation had not deserved to perish. And so, we think, the Patriots of 1788 deserved well of their country. They did not succeed in saving the Polish state—perhaps no one could have done that; but they did succeed in saving Polish nationality and the spiritual life of their people, which was, after all, more important.⁷

Notes

1. Robert R. Palmer, The Age of the Democratic Revolution, v.1 (Princeton, Princeton U.P. 1959), pp. 433-34.

2. For a more detailed discussion concerning the influence of the work of the Commission for National Education on the Russian school reform of 1803, see: Nicholas Hans, History of Russian Educational Policy (1701-1917) (London: P.S. King, 1931), pp. 35-41; Stefan Truchim, Wspóipraca polsko-rosyjska nad organizacją szkolnictwa rosyjskiego w początkach XIX wieku (Polish-Russian cooperation in the organization of the Russian school system at the beginning of the 19th century) (Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1960); Jerzy Skowronek, “Udział A.J. Czartoryskiego w pracach nad reformami wewnętrznymi w Rosji, 1801-1807” (A.J. Czartoryski’s participation in the works of the internal reforms in Russia, 1801-1807) Przegląd Historyczny 3 (1967) 471-73; Daniel Beauvois, Lumières et Société en Europe de I’Est: I’Université de Vilna et les écoles polonaises de l’Empire russe (1803-1832) (Paris: Champion, 1977) Vol. 2, passim; W.H. Zawadzki. A Man of Honour, Adam Czartoryski as a Statesman of Russia and Poland 1795-1831 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 52-58.

3. According to Daniel Beauvois: “It is beyond question that it is to Polish influence (notably that of Prince A.J. Czartoryski) on the young Tsar Alexander I that the statute for the Jews of the Empire of 9 December 1804 owes its relative liberalism...Czartoryski, then the most influential of the Emperor’s familiars, was himself inspired, as to the Jewish question, by Polish Enlightenment thought which had been manifested in the Four Year Diet’s lengthy discussion of social reforms...There is no doubt that the prince was acquainted with the projects aimed at introducing equal rights for the Jews, proposed during the Polish Four Year Diet.” in: Chimen Abramsky, Maciej Jachimczyk, Antony Polonsky, eds. The Jews in Poland (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986) p. 81; Jerzy Skowronek, Udział A.J. Czartoryskiego, 473-74; W.H. Zawadzki, A Man of Honour, p. 81.

4. Władysław Czapliński, Dzieje sejmu polskiego do roku 1939 (The history of the Polish Parliament until 1939) (Kraków: Wyd. Literackie, 1994), pp. 26-27, 48.

5. Claude Backvis, “Les Thèmes majeurs de la pensée politique polonaise au XVI siècle.” L’Annuaire de l’institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves, 14 (1957): particularly part 2.

6. Stefan Kieniewicz, “Tradycja Tizeciego Maja w latach powstań narodowych (1830-1864).” (The tradition of 3 May in the years of national uprisings (1830-1864) in Sejm Czteroletni i jego tradycje, ed. Jerzy Kowecki (Warszawa: PWN, 1991), p. 236. A history of this tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries occupies one half of this volume. This tradition is also the main subject of a large volume Konstytucja 3 Maja w tradycji i kulturze polskiej (The Constitution of 3 May in Polish tradition and culture) ed. Alina Barszczewska-Krupa (Lodz: Wyd. Łódzkie, 1991). This subject is also discussed in a number of articles in Pierwsza w Europie. 200 rocznica Konstytucji 3 Maja 1791-1991 (The first in Europe. The 200th anniversary of the Constitution of 3 May 1791-1991), ed. Henryk Kocój (Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski, 1989) as well as in the following publications: Stanisław Dzięciołowski, Konstytucja 3 Maja w tradycji polskiej (The Constitution of 3 May in Polish tradition) (Warszawa: Epoka, 1991); Jan Ziołek, Konsytucja 3 Maja. Koscielno-narodowa tradycja święta (The Constitution of 3 May. The holiday in the church-national tradition) (Lublin: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski, 1991); Andrzej Wierzbicki, Konstytucja 3 Maja w historiografii polskiej (The Constitution of 3 May in Polish historiography) (Warszawa: Wyd. Sejmowe, 1993); Konstytucja 3 Maja, 200-lecie tradycji (The Constitution of 3 May, 200th anniversary of the tradition), ed. Barbara Grochulska (Warszawa: Wyd. Sejmowe, 1994); Konstytucja 3 Maja i jej tradycje (The Constitution of 3 May and its traditions) (Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1992); Konstytucja 3 Maja prawo-polityka-symbol (The Constitution of 3 May, law-politics-symbol), ed. Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz (Warszawa: Polskie Towarzystwo Hitoryczne, 1992).

7. Robert Howard Lord. The Second Partition of Poland. A Study in Diplomatic History. (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1915), p. 491.