Preserved documents from the past are often 'living proof' of historical events and facts. Especially when the actions of their authors were significantly ahead of their time. Such is the case with Tadeusz Kościuszko's will.

Tadeusz Kościuszko - hero of the American and Polish nations
The purest son of liberty I have ever known (...) and of liberty for all, and not only for the few and the rich - Thomas Jefferson

Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817) is one of the most popular and most frequently commemorated (both at home and abroad) figures of Polish history. A more extensive presentation of his biography is therefore superfluous. He was a participant in the unsuccessful war in defence of the 3rd May Constitution (1792) and the leader of the unsuccessful uprising (the Kościuszko Uprising, 1794), the last attempt to save the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He belonged to the first of a number of waves of Polish emigrants whose descendants live today in probably all countries of the world.


It is worth recalling how he found his way to the USA, where he played an important part in that country's independence (to this day, along with the "Founding Fathers", he is sometimes referred to as one of the "Founding Uncles").

Kościuszko was a graduate of the Knights' School in Warsaw (with the rank of captain) and the Military Academy of the Royal Guard in Versailles (Paris), where the latest fortification concepts were taught. However, he found no employment in either the army of the Republic or the army of the Elector of Saxony. He therefore returned to Paris, and from there travelled to the USA, where he was accepted into the Continental Army, which was chronically short of trained officers.

He took part in the fortification of Philadelphia and West Point, among others, and his fortifications during the Battle of Saratoga (1777, the turning point of the war) prevented one of the British armies from escaping the trap and led to its surrender. After the battle, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, some 200 acres of land in Ohio and an $18,912 reward (payable in annual instalments). However, he returned to his homeland.

In 1797, after his release by the Tsar, he visited the United States once more, where he was greeted with an ovation. He befriended Thomas Jefferson (one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States, then Vice-President), and his influential supporters pushed through Congress to pay Tadeusz Kościuszko his back pay. A dozen months later, Kościuszko left the young republic forever.

Order of the Cincinnatus for Thaddeus Kosciuszko
Cincinnatus (5th century BC) was one of the most popular figures of Roman antiquity, a paragon of civic virtue. When the Romans were going badly at war with the Ecclesians, the Senate resorted to a tried and tested but risky means of resolving crises: it appointed a dictator, an official who had absolute power for six months. The risk was that this one could resolve the crisis quickly and, for the remainder of his time in office, look after his own interests.

According to legend, when a delegation of senators arrived at Cincinnatus to announce his appointment, he was ploughing the field. He returned to ploughing just fifteen days later - having defeated his enemies, performed his due triumph and relinquished his office.



The city of Cincinnati was named in his honour in the USA. The Cincinnati Society, an association of veterans of the War of Independence (1775-1783), was also founded in 1783, bringing together the most distinguished officers. Tadeusz Kościuszko was one of three foreigners to be a member of this society. He was awarded the Order of the Titian by US President George Washington.

Tadeusz Kościuszko's Testament left in the USA
. The last knight, but the first Pole with a modern understanding of fraternity and equality. Jules Michelet

Thaddeus Kosciuszko left the US in a hurry, incognito (with a false passport arranged by Jefferson). Before he sailed (5 May 1798), he drew up - with the help of Jefferson himself (a lawyer by training) - a will that survives to this day in the form of a letter to an American friend (whom he made the executor of his last will).

I beseech Mr Jefferson, in the event that I should die without a will, to redeem out of my money and liberate so many Negroes that the amount remaining should be sufficient for their education and maintenance. That is, that each of them may learn in advance the duties of a citizen in a free State, and know that he must defend his native land against enemies both foreign and domestic, who would wish to change the Constitution for the worse, so that they may then be gradually shackled into slavery, that he may have a good and humane heart, sensitive to the sufferings of others.

Tadeusz Kościuszko came from an old noble family, settled in the Brest region of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but his political and social views were most influenced by his several years' stay in pre-revolutionary France. When he was in the country (1784-92), despite his very small income, he reduced serfdom on his estates from four to two days a week and completely exempted women (this did not win him the sympathy of the local gentry). In 1792, the King wanted to award him the Order of the White Eagle, but Kościuszko had to refuse, as a declared republican.

The quoted will was written shortly after Tadeusz Kościuszko received an outstanding award from Congress. Despite the financial difficulties he was in, he donated it to a worthy cause without hesitation. Although Kościuszko also upheld his will in the last of his letters to Thomas Jefferson (written a month before his death), the American politician did not execute the will.
In 1852, the Supreme Court of the United States of America declared the document invalid, ordering the funds to be paid to Tadeusz Kosciuszko's heirs in Europe.

Tadeusz Kościuszko's last will and testament
Kosciuszko, already an aged Commander-in-Chief, drew up the last of his wills in 1817, in which he included a provision: Deeply feeling that serfdom is against the law of nature and the well-being of nations, I hereby declare that I abolish it completely and forever in my estate of Siechnowicze, in the Brzesko-Lithuanian province, both in my own name and in the name of its future owners. I recognise the inhabitants of the village belonging to this estate as free citizens and unrestricted owners of the possessed land. I release them from any and all tributes, corvée labour and personal obligations, to which they were previously obliged towards the owners of this estate. I only call upon them to strive to establish schools and promote education for their own and their country's benefit.

Unfortunately, this instruction was not realised either (the Russian Tsar's ban), nor was the promise to abolish the serfdom of peasants contained in the first point of the Polaniecki Umbrella - the programmatic declaration of the Kościuszko Uprising (1794).

With his libertarian and egalitarian views, Tadeusz Kościuszko was ahead of the era in which he lived.