Kościuszko: A BiographyGardner, Monica M. (Monica Mary)
History
Kościuszko: A Biography
Gardner, Monica M. (Monica Mary)
Kościuszko, Tadeusz, 1746-1817
With considerable difficulty, constantly turned back by police
authorities, forbidden entrance by the Bavarian frontier, sent about
from pillar to post, the white-haired, frail old soldier at last reached
the Tsar's headquarters at Braunau. The Tsar and he conferred for a
quarter of an hour. Kościuszko derived small satisfaction from the
interview, and immediately proceeded to visit Czartoryski in Vienna.
Czartoryski had nothing good to tell. The wrangling over the Polish
question at the Congress, the mutual suspicions and jealousies of every
power represented, nearly brought about another war. In May, 1815,
Russia, Austria, and Prussia signed an agreement for a renewed division
of Poland between them. An autonomous Kingdom of Poland was, it is true,
to be formed, with the Tsar as king, but only out of a small part of
Poland. As regards the remaining Polish provinces that remained under
Russia's rule, they were severed from the Kingdom and incorporated with
Russia.
Kościuszko heard these things. Under the shock of his apprehensions he
wrote to the Tsar, pleading in the strongest language at his command,
that penetrates through the diplomatic wording he was compelled to use,
against the separation of lands that were Polish from the mother
country, the mutilated Kingdom of Poland.
After expressing his gratitude for what the Tsar was prepared to do in
the foundation of the new Kingdom of Poland, he proceeds:
"One only anxiety troubles my soul and my joy.
Sire, I was born a Lithuanian, and I have only a few years to live.
Nevertheless, the veil of the future still covers the destiny of my
native land and of so many other provinces of my country. I do not
forget the magnanimous promises that Your Majesty has deigned to make me
by word of mouth in this matter, as well as to several of my compatriots
... but my soul, intimidated by such long misfortunes, needs to be
reassured again." He is prepared faithfully to serve Alexander: let the
writer descend to the tomb in "the consoling certainty that all your
Polish subjects will be called to bless your benefits."[1]
[Footnote 1: d'Angeberg, _Recueil des Traités, Conventions et Actes
Diplomatiques concernant la Pologne_.]
In vain he waited for an answer. Then, openly, as to the Tsar he could
not write, he wrote to Czartoryski:
"My Dear Prince,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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