Poland’s Son of liberty

Since the Declaration of Independence was written 250 years ago, it has inspired nationalist movements and those working to extend the rights of man to all. From Simon Bolivar in Latin America to Gandhi in India, many have taken inspiration from this great document. However, the Declaration was not exported only by copy, but also by men like the Marquis de Lafayette who fought in the Revolution and brought its ideas home with him. Another of these men was Tadeusz Kościuszko, the “George Washington of Poland.”

Born into a struggling noble family in 1746, Kościuszko was inspired as a child by Greco-Roman literature, especially the story of Timoleon, who freed his people from foreign tyranny.  Kościuszko attended Poland’s military academy in his adolescence, being sponsored by a cousin of the king. When a coalition of nobles attempted to overthrow the king in 1768, Kościuszko deftly avoided the situation by traveling to France to learn more about engineering, during which time he was exposed to Enlightenment thought in the salons of Paris. When he returned to Poland, Kościuszko pursued an ill-fated love affair which led to his fleeing the country, eventually bound for America.

When he arrived in America, Kościuszko went to the house of Benjamin Franklin, from whom he obtained a letter of recommendation. He would join the American army, and among his many accomplishments during his service, he planned the defenses at the crucial battle of Saratoga in 1777 and designed the now-famous fortifications at West Point. After the war, Congress granted him the rank of brigadier general and 50 acres of land, but Kościuszko left for Poland in 1784. He would bring the ideas of the Declaration, of the right of nations to assert their own independence, to his home.

United together with Lithuania in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the time, Poland was in crisis. With nobles unwilling to give up their privileges, a gridlocked parliament, ethno-religious turmoil, and a recent partition of the country, the reformists in the country were gaining prominence, among them Kościuszko. When the parliament, or Sejm, was called in 1789, Kościuszko travelled to the meeting, where he was appointed to the rank of major-general. However, when the Sejm passed a constitution, Europe’s first, in 1791, a coalition of nobles conspired with the Russians to invade Poland and force the document’s repeal. Kościuszko acquitted himself well in the fighting, but it was to no avail. The king acceded to the nobles, the constitution was reversed, and Russia partitioned Poland again with Prussia.

Since change through existing institutions had proved impossible, reformers in the country turned to revolution to achieve their aims. They decided on Kościuszko to lead the revolt, as he was by far the most experienced commander they had. On March 24, 1794, Kościuszko proclaimed to a crowd in the Krakow marketplace that he would, “…use the power entrusted to me for the personal oppression of none, but will only use it for the defense of the integrity of the boundaries, the regaining of the independence of the nation, and the solid establishment of universal freedom”.

That day, he issued the Act of Insurrection, a document that bears great similarity to the American Declaration of Independence. Kościuszko and his fellow revolutionaries declared that their “sacred aim” was to ensure that Poland was “…liberated from foreign soldiers, its borders are returned and fully guaranteed…and freedom for the nation and independence for the Commonwealth are established…” However, Kościuszko intended to go further in his pursuit of freedom for all. That May, he issued the Proclamation of Połaniec, which advised the freeing of serfs, reduced labour for peasants, and oversight of landlords to his fellow revolutionaries. Although these reforms never came to pass, Kościuszko’s advocation of rights for the peasantry gives weight to Thomas Jefferson’s assertion that, “He is as pure a son of liberty, as I have ever known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone.”

However, his peasant armies could not defeat trained Russian and Prussian forces. After the battle of Maciejowice, outside of Warsaw, Kościuszko was captured by the Russians, who then proceeded to occupy Warsaw. After this final defeat, Poland would not be independent again until 1918. When he was released from captivity, he emigrated to America in 1796 and was welcomed as a hero, but Kościuszko longed to see his home free once again. He would travel to France, where he hoped to gain support for another uprising. However, he was disillusioned by Napoleon’s authoritarianism, rejecting several offers to serve as an officer in his army. In 1817, Kościuszko would take a final journey to his ancestral estates, where he would free his serfs. Later that year, he would die in Solothurn, Switzerland at the age of 71.

Though Kościuszko may not have lived to see Poland’s resurgence, he is remembered in both countries for which he fought. In the U.S., there are three towns, one island, one county, and 22 monuments named for him. In Poland, there’s hardly a city without a Kościuszko Street, and Krakow constructed a 112-foot-tall mound in memorial of him. Although he may not have fought against collectivist tyranny, Kościuszko’s fight for the same rights enumerated in the Declaration should inspire those who profess to believe in the rights of man everywhere.

Quentin Cunningham, a student at Seton Hall Preparatory School in New York, authored this article as part of VOC’s Student Essay Contest.