
[[Image:Konstytucja 3 Maja.jpg|right|thumb|350px|''May 3rd Constitution'' (painting by Jan Matejko, 1891). King Stanisław August (left, in regal ermine-trimmed cloak), enters St. John's Cathedral, where Sejm deputy will swear to uphold the new Constitution; in background, Warsaw's Royal Castle, where the Constitution has just been adopted.]] The Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 (Polish language: ''Konstytucja Trzeciego Maja'') was Europe's first modern Codification national constitution, and the world's second after the United States Constitution (which was written in 1787 and came into force in 1789). It was instituted by the Government Act (Polish: ''Ustawa rządowa'') adopted on that date by the Sejm (parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federation Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (''szlachta'') and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The Constitution abolished pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the ''liberum veto'', which at one time had placed the sejm at the mercy of any deputy who might choose, or be bribery by an interest or foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by that sejm. The May 3rd Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more Egalitarianism and democracy constitutional monarchy. The adoption of the May 3rd Constitution provoked the active hostility of the Polish Commonwealth's neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, Poland was betrayed by its Prussian ally Frederick William II of Prussia and defeated by the Imperial Russia of Catherine II of Russia, allied with the Targowica Confederation, a cabal of Polish magnates who opposed reforms that might weaken their influence. Despite the defeat, and the subsequent Second Partition of Poland, the May 3rd Constitution influenced later democratic movements in the world. It remained, after the demise of the Polish Republic in 1795, over the next 123 years of Partitions of Poland, a beacon in the struggle to restore Polish sovereignty. In the words of two of its co-authors, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kollataj, it was "the last will and testament of the expiring Fatherland." ==History== ===Background=== The May 3rd Constitution was a response to the increasingly perilous situation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, only a century and a half earlier a major European power and indeed the largest state on the continent. Already two centuries before the May 3rd Constitution, King Zygmunt III's court preacher, the Jesuit Piotr Skarga, had famously condemned the individual and collective weaknesses of the Commonwealth's citizenship. Likewise, in the same period, writers and philosophers such as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki, and Jan Zamoyski's ''egzekucja praw'' (Execution-of-the-Laws) reform movement, had advocated reforms. By the early 17th century, the magnates of Poland and Lithuania were in near-total control of the Commonwealth — or rather, they managed to ensure that no reforms be carried out that might weaken their privileged status. They looked after their own interests while neglecting the commonweal. They spent lavishly on banquets, drinking-bouts and other assorted amusements, while the peasants languished in abysmal conditions and the city dwellers were hemmed in by an array of anti-municipal legislation and fared much worse than their thriving Western world contemporaries. Many historians hold that a major cause of the Commonwealth's downfall was the peculiar institution of the ''liberum veto'' ("free veto"), which since 1652 had in principle permitted any Sejm deputy to nullify all the legislation that had been adopted by that Sejm. Thus deputies bribed by magnates or foreign powers, or simply benighted and content to believe that they were living in some kind of "Golden Age," for over a century paralyzed the Commonwealth's government. The threat of the ''liberum veto'' could, however, be overridden by the establishment of a "confederated sejm," which operated immune from the ''liberum veto''. The Four-Year, or "Great," Sejm of 1788–1792, which would adopt the Constitution of May 3, 1791, was such a confederated sejm; and it was due only to that fact that it was able to put through so radical a piece of legislation. By the reign (1764–1795) of Poland's last king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the Age of Enlightenment had begun to take root in Poland. The King proceeded with cautious reforms. Fiscal and military "commissions" (ministries) were established. A national customs tariff was instituted. Thoroughgoing constitutional reforms were discussed. However, the idea of reforms in the Commonwealth was viewed with growing suspicion by neighboring countries, which were content with the Commonwealth's impotence and abhorred the thought of a powerful — and more democratic — country hard by their borders. Accordingly Empress Catherine the Great of Russia and King Frederick the Great of Prussia provoked a conflict between Sejm conservatives and the King over civil rights for religious minorities. Catherine and Frederick declared their support for the Polish nobility (szlachta) and their "liberties," and by October 1767 Russian troops had assembled outside the Polish capital, Warsaw. The King and his adherents, in face of superior Russian military force, were left with little choice but to bow to Russian demands and accept the five "eternal and invariable" principles which Catherine vowed to "protect in the name of Poland's liberties": the free election of kings; the right of ''liberum veto''; the right to renounce allegiance to, and raise rebellion against, the king (''rokosz''); and the szlachta's exclusive right to hold office and land, and the landowner's power of life and death over his peasants. Not everyone in the Commonwealth agreed with King Stanisław August's decision. On February 29, 1768, several magnates, including Kazimierz Pulaski, vowing to oppose Russian intervention, declared Stanisław August a "lackey of Russia and Catherine" and formed a confederation at the town of Bar. The Confederation of Bar opened a civil war with the goal of overthrowing the King and fought on until 1772, when overwhelmed by Russian intervention. [[Image:Rzeczpospolita Rozbiory 1.png|thumb|right|300px|The First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772.)]] The Bar Confederation's defeat set the scene for the next act in the unfolding drama. On August 5, 1772, at St. Petersburg, Russia, the three neighboring powers, Russia, Prussia and Austria, signed the Partitions_of_Poland#First_Partition. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was to be divested of over 30,000 square miles of territory, leaving her 74,000 square miles. This was justified on grounds of anarchy in the Commonwealth and the latter's refusal to cooperate with its neighbors' efforts to restore order. The three powers demanded that the Sejm ratify this first partition, otherwise threatening further partitions. King Stanisław August yielded to duress and on April 19, 1773, called the Sejm into session. Only 102 deputies attended; the rest, aware of the King's decision, refused. Despite protests, notably by the deputy Tadeusz Rejtan, the First Partition of Poland was ratified. Partitions_of_Poland#First_Partition of the three successive 18th-century partitions of Poland by Russia, Prussia and Austria that would eventually blot Poland from the map of Europe, had made it clear to progressive minds that the Commonwealth must either reform or perish. Even before the First Partition, a Sejm deputy had been sent to ask the France ''philosophes'' Gabriel Bonnet de Mably and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to draw up tentative constitutions for a new Poland. Mably had submitted his recommendations in 1770–1771; Rousseau had finished his in 1772, when the First Partition was already underway. Supported by King Stanisław August, a new wave of reforms were introduced. The most important included the establishment (1773) of a Commission of National Education — the first ministry of education in the world. New schools were opened in the cities and in the countryside, uniform textbooks were printed, teachers were educated, poor students were provided scholarships. The Commonwealth's military was modernized; a standing army was formed. Economic and commercial reforms, previously shunned as unimportant by the szlachta, were introduced, and the development of industries was encouraged. The peasants were given some rights. A new Police ministry fought corruption. Everything from the road system to prisons was reformed. A new executive body was created, the Permanent Council (Polish: ''Rada Nieustająca''), comprising five ministries. [[Image:Uchwalenie_Konstytucji_3_Maja.jpg|thumb|350px|right|In 1791, the "Great" or Four-Year Sejm of 1788–1792 adopts the May 3rd Constitution at Warsaw's Royal Castle (rebuilt in the 1970s after its deliberate destruction by the Germans in World War II).]] In 1776 the Sejm commissioned Chancellor Andrzej Zamoyski to draft a new legal code, the Zamoyski Code. By 1780, under Zamoyski's direction, a code (''Zbiór praw sądowych'') had been produced. It would have strengthened royal power, made all officials answerable to the Sejm, placed the clergy and their finances under state supervision, and deprived landless szlachta of many of their legal immunities. Zamoyski's progressive legal code, containing elements of constitutional reform, failed to be adopted by the Sejm. ===Drafting and Adoption=== Events in the world now played into the reformers' hands. Poland's neigbors were too occupied with wars — especially with the Ottoman Empire — and with their own internal troubles to intervene forcibly in Poland. A major opportunity for reform seemed to present itself during the "Great" or "Four-Year Sejm" of 1788–1792, which opened on October 6, 1788, and from 1790 — in the words of the May 3rd Constitution's preamble — met "in dual number," the newly elected Sejm deputies having joined the earlier-established confederated sejm. While a new alliance between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussia seemed to provide security against Russian intervention, King Stanislaw August drew closer to leaders of the reform-minded Patriotic Party. A new Constitution was drafted by the King, with contributions from Stanislaw Malachowski, Ignacy Potocki, Hugo Kollataj, Stanislaw Staszic, the King's Italian secretary Scipione Piattoli, and others. The advocates of the Constitution, under threat of violence from the Sejm's Muscovite Party (also known as the "Hetmans"), and with many contrary-minded deputies still away on Easter recess, managed to set debate on the Government Act forward by two days from the original May 5. The ensuing debate and adoption of the Government Act took place in a quasi-coup d'etat: many pro-reform deputies arrived early and in secret, and the royal guards were positioned about the Royal Castle where the Sejm was gathered, to prevent Muscovite adherents from disrupting the proceedings. The Constitution ("Government Act") bill was read out and passed overwhelmingly, to the enthusiasm of the crowds gathered outside. ===The fall=== The May 3rd, 1791, Constitution remained in effect for only a year before being overthrown, by Russian armies allied with the Targowica Confederation, in the War in Defense of the Constitution. War between Turkey and Russia having by now ended, Empress Catherine was furious over the adoption of the May 3rd Constitution. Russia had viewed Poland as a ''de facto'' protectorate. The contacts of Polish reformers with the National Assembly (French Revolution) were seen by Poland's neighbors as evidence of a revolutionary conspiracy and a threat to the absolute monarchies. The Prussian statesman Ewald von Hertzberg expressed the fears of European conservatives: "[The Poles] have given the ''coup de grâce'' to the Prussian monarchy by voting a constitution." [[Image:Wieszanie_zdrajcow.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Hanging in effigy of the Targowica Confederation traitors (Warsaw, 1794).]] A number of magnates who had opposed the Constitution from the start, such as Feliks Potocki and Ksawery Branicki, asked Tsarina Catherine to intervene and restore their privileges abolished under the Constitution. With her backing they formed the Targowica Confederation, and in their proclamation denounced the Constitution for spreading the "contagion of democratic ideas." They asserted that "The intentions of Her Highness the Empress of Russia [Catherine the Great], ally of the Polish Commonwealth, in introducing her army, are and have been none other than to restore to the Commonwealth and to Poles freedom, and in particular to all the country's citizens, security and happiness." On May 18, 1792, over 20,000 Confederates crossed the border into Poland, together with 97,000 veteran Russian troops. The Polish King and the reformers could field only a 37,000-man army, many of them untested recruits. The Polish Army, under the King's nephew Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, did defeat the Russians on several occasions, but the King himself dealt a deathblow to the Polish cause: when in July 1792 Warsaw was threatened with siege by the Russians, the King came to believe that victory was impossible against the Russian numerical superiority, and that surrender was the only alternative to total defeat and a massacre of the reformers. On July 24, 1792, King Stanisław August abandoned the reformist cause and joined the Targowica Confederation. The Polish Army disintegrated. Many reform leaders, believing their cause lost, went into self-exile. The King had not saved the Commonwealth, however. To the surprise of the Targowica Confederates, there ensued the Partitions_of_Poland#Second_Partition. Russia took 250,000 square kilometers, and Prussia took 58,000. The Commonwealth now comprised no more than 212,000 square kilometers. What was left of the Commonwealth was merely a small buffer state with a puppet king and a Russian army. For a year and a half Polish patriots bided their time, while planning an insurrection. On March 24, 1794, in Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko declared what has come to be known as the Kosciuszko Uprising. On May 7 he issued the "Połaniec Proclamation" (''Uniwersał Połaniecki''), granting freedom to the peasants and ownership of land to all who fought in the insurrection. After some initial victories — the battle of Raclawice (April 4) and the capture of Warsaw (April 18) and Wilno (April 22) — the Uprising was dealt a crippling blow: the forces of Russia, Austria and Prussia joined in a military intervention. Historians consider the Uprising's defeat to have been a foregone conclusion in face of the gigantic numerical superiority of the three invading powers. The defeat of Kościuszko's forces led to Partitions_of_Poland#Third_Partition in 1795. ===Legacy=== Nevertheless, memory of the world's second modern codified national constitution — recognized by List of political scientists as a very progressive document for its time — for generations helped keep alive Polish aspirations for an independent and just society, and continues to inform the efforts of its authors' descendants. In Poland it is viewed as the culmination of all that was good and enlightened in Polish history and Polish culture. The May 3rd anniversary of its adoption has been observed as Poland's most important civic, May 3rd holiday, since Second Polish Republic in 1918. Prior to the May 3rd Constitution, in Poland the term "constitution" (Polish: ''konstytucja'') had denoted all the legislation, of whatever character, that had been passed at a Sejm. Only with the adoption of the May 3rd Constitution did ''konstytucja'' assume its modern sense of a fundamental document of governance. The very concept of a codified national constitution was revolutionary in the history of political systems. The first such constitution was the Constitution of the United States of America, written in 1787, which began to function in 1789. The second was the Constitution adopted by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on May 3, 1791. These two charters of government form an important milestone in the history of democracy. Poland and the United States, though distant geographically, showed some notable similarities in their approaches to the design of political systems. By contrast to the great absolute monarchy, both countries were remarkably democratic. The kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were elected, and the Commonwealth's parliament (the Sejm) possessed extensive legislative authority. Under the May 3rd Constitution, Poland afforded political privileges to its townspeople and to its nobility (the szlachta), which formed some ten percent of the country's population. This percentage closely approximated the extent of political access in contemporary America, where effective suffrage was limited to male property owners. The defeat of Poland's liberals was but a temporary setback to the cause of democracy. The destruction of the Polish state only slowed the expansion of democracy, by then already established in North America. Democratic movements soon began undermining the absolute monarchy of Europe. The May 3rd Constitution was translated, in abridged form, into French, German and English. French revolutionaries toasted King Stanisław August and the Constitution — not only for their progressive character, but because the War in Defense of the Constitution and the Kosciuszko Uprising tied up appreciable Russian and Prussian forces that could not therefore be used against Revolutionary France. Thomas Paine regarded the May 3rd Constitution as a great breakthrough. Edmund Burke described it as "the noblest benefit received by any nation at any time…. Stanislas II has earned a place among the greatest kings and statesmen in history." In the end, the conservatives managed to delay the ascent of democracy in Europe only for a century; after the First World War most of the European monarchies were replaced by democratic states, including the reborn, Second Polish Republic. ==Features== King Stanisław August described the May 3rd Constitution, according to a contemporary account, as "founded principally on those of England and the United States of America, but avoiding the faults and errors of both, and adapt[ed] as much as possible to the local and particular circumstances of the country." Indeed, the Polish and American national constitutions reflected similar Enlightenment influences, including Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu's advocacy of a separation of powers among the three branches of government — so that, in the words of the May 3rd Constitution (article V), "the integrity of the states, civil liberty, and social order remain always in equilibrium" — as well as Montesquieu's advocacy of a bicameral legislature. The Constitution comprised 11 articles. It introduced the principle of popular sovereignty (applied to the nobility and townspeople) and a separation of powers into legislative (a bicameral Sejm), executive ("the King in his council") and judicial branches. The Constitution advanced the democratization of the polity by limiting the excessive legal immunity and political prerogatives of landless nobility, while granting to the townspeople — in the earlier Our Free Royal Cities in the States of the Commonwealth Act (Polish: ''Miasta Nasze Królewskie wolne w państwach Rzeczypospolitej'') of April 18, 1791, stipulated in Article III to be integral to the Constitution — personal security, the right to acquire landed property, eligibility for military commissions, public offices, and membership in the nobility (szlachta). The Government Act also placed the Commonwealth's peasantry "under the protection of the national law and government" — a first step toward the ending of serfdom and the enfranchisement of that largest and most oppressed social class. The May 3rd Constitution provided for a Sejm, "ordinarily" meeting every two years and "extraordinarily" whenever required by a national emergency. Its lower chamber — the Chamber of Deputies (Polish: ''Izba Poselska'') — comprised 204 deputies and 24 plenipotentiary of royal city; its upper chamber — the Senate of Poland (Polish: ''Izba Senacka'') — comprised 132 senators (voivodes, castellans, Political ministers and bishops). [[Image:May constitution pre20th cent book cover.jpg|thumb|right|200|Title page of Piotr Dufour's 1791 edition of the Polish May 3rd Constitution (''Government Act'').]] Executive power was in the hands of the royal council, called the Guardianship of the Laws (Polish: ''Straż Praw''). This council was presided over by the King and comprised 5 ministers appointed by him: a minster of police, minister of the seal (i.e. of internal affairs — the seal was a traditional attribute of the earlier Kanclerz), minister of the seal of foreign affairs, minister ''belli'' (of military), and minster of treasury. The ministers were appointed by the King but responsible to the Sejm. In addition to the ministers, council members included the Roman Catholic Primate (who was also president of the Education Commission) and — without a voice — the Crown Prince, the Marshal of the Sejm, and two secretaries. This royal council was a descendant of the similar council that had functioned over the previous two centuries since King Henry's Articles (1573). Acts of the King required the countersignature of the respective minister. The stipulation that the King, "[d]oing nothing of himself, […] shall be answerable for nothing to the nation," parallels the United Kingdom constitutional principle that "The King can do no wrong." (In both countries, the respective minister was responsible for the king's acts.) To enhance Commonwealth integration and security, the Constitution abolished the erstwhile Polish-Lithuanian Union in favor of a unitary state and changed the government from an individually- to a dynasty-elective monarchy. The latter provision was meant to reduce the destructive, vying influences of foreign powers at each royal election. Under the terms of the May 3rd Constitution, on Stanisław August's death the throne of Poland was to pass to the house of Saxony, which had provided two of Poland's recent elective kings. The Constitution abolished several institutional sources of government weakness and national anarchy, including the liberum veto, confederations, confederated sejms (paradoxically, the Four-Year Sejm was itself a confederated sejm), and the excessive sway of sejmiks (regional sejms) stemming from the binding nature of their instructions to their Sejm deputies. The Constitution acknowledged the Roman Catholicism as the "dominant religion," but guaranteed tolerance of, and Freedom of religion. The Army was to be built up to 100,000 men. Standing income taxes were established (10% on the nobility, 20% on the church). Amendments to the constitution could be made every 25 years. The May 3rd Constitution recognized, as integral to itself, the act on ''Our Free Royal Cities in the States of the Commonwealth'' that had been passed on April 18, 1791 (Constitution, article III) and the act on regional sejms (''Sejmiki'') passed earlier on March 24, 1791 (article VI). Some authorities additionally regard as parts of the Constitution the ''Declaration of the Assembled Estates'' of May 5, 1791, confirming the ''Government Act'' adopted two days earlier, and the ''Mutual Declaration of the Two Peoples'' (i.e., of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) of October 22, 1791, affirming the unity and indivisibility of Poland and the Grand Duchy. The provisions of the ''Government Act'' were fleshed out in a number of implementing laws passed in May–June 1791 on sejms and sejm courts (two acts of May 13), the Guardianship (June 1), the national police commission (that is, ministry: June 17) and civic administration (June 24). The May 3rd Constitution remained to the last a work in progress. Its co-author Hugo Kollataj announced work underway on "an economic constitution…guaranteeing all property rights [and] securing protection and honor to all manner of labor…" Yet a third basic law was touched on by Kołłątaj: a "moral constitution," most likely a Polish analog to the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. ==Notes== # Article IV (''The peasants''): "we accept under the protection of the law and of the national government the agricultural folk […] who constitute the most numerous populace in the nation and hence the greatest strength of the country [...]." # John Markoff (professor) describes the advent of modern codified national constitutions as one of the milestones of democracy, and states that "The first European country to follow the U.S. example was Poland in 1791." John Markoff, ''Waves of Democracy'', 1996, ISBN 0803990197, p.121. # It bears noting that the contemporaneous United States Constitution sanctioned the continuation of slavery. Thus neither constitution enfranchised all its adult male population: the U.S. Constitution discriminated against America's slaves, the Polish Constitution — against Poland's peasants. # King Stanisław August himself had been elected in 1764 with the support of his ex-mistress, Russian Tsarina Catherine II the Great — including bribes and a Russian army deployed only a few miles from the election sejm, meeting at Wola outside Warsaw. ==See also== *Constitution of France *History of democracy *History of Poland (1569-1795) *''Magna Carta'' *''Neminem captivabimus'' *Constitution of 1772 ==References== * Adam Zamoyski, ''The Polish Way: a Thousand-Year History of the Poles and Their Culture'', New York, Hippocrene Books, 1994. * Jacek Jedruch, ''Constitutions, Elections and Legislatures of Poland, 1493-1993'', Summit, NJ, EJJ Books, 1998, ISBN 0781806372. * Jozef Kasparek, ''The Constitutions of Poland and of the United States: Kinships and Genealogy'', Miami, American Institute of Polish Culture, 1980. * Norman Davies, ''God's Playground'', 2 vols., ISBN 0231053533 and ISBN 0231053517. * Pawel Jasienica, ''Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów'' (The Commonwealth of the Two Peoples), ISBN 8306010930. * Emanuel Rostworowski, ''Maj 1791 - maj 1792: rok monarchii konstytucyjnej'' [May 1791 - May 1792: the Year of Constitutional Monarchy], Warsaw, Zamek Królewski [Royal Castle], 1985. ==External links== * [http://www.polishconstitution.org/index1.html Polishconstitution.org: site about the Polish May 3rd Constitution that contributed some texts to wikisource] * [http://www.senat.gov.pl/k5eng/historia/noty/nota16a.htm History of Polish law until 1795] * [http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/constitution.html The Constitution of May 3, 1791 by Hon. Carl L. Bucki] * [http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/JJ.html Constitutions, Elections and Legislatures of Poland, 1493-1993] 1791 in law Constitutions of Poland Defunct constitutions
== Translation == Making the first translation - I know it is not today's English, I am at the same time trying to make it understandable and keep the orginal form. Believe me, it sounds as bad in today's Polish as in English. Any suggestions welcome. --User:Piotrus 18:37, 9 May 2004 (UTC) ---- Hmmm, I found the translated text here: http://www.polishconstitution.org/index1.html I will @ them if they allow us to use it here. --User:Piotrus 19:30, 11 May 2004 (UTC) ...And..? User:Halibutt 12:10, Jun 17, 2004 (UTC) And they have not replied at all. Perhaps if few more people would enquire and send emails to info@polishconstitution.org that would help? Tommorow I will post here the text of email I sent, so you can just copy&paste. --User:Piotrus 21:21, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC) : update - good news. I have received email from the above site (from Andrzej Batorski) and he kindly writes: ''I have no problem releasing it, but I did not translate it and I don't know the source of this translation. All other content on the web site is original, written by my wife, and can be used without limitations. The only thing I ask is to give proper credit when publishing any information coming form www.polishconstitution.org'' --User:Piotrus 17:43, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC) :: published polish and english text on wikisource, see external links in the article for links --User:Piotrus 18:53, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC) == Second free? == From [http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/pl__indx.html]: ''May 1791: After four years of discussion and drafting, Poland gets the first freely adopted, written constitution in Europe. The only earlier written Constitution in Europe was imposed on Sweden.''. What was this Sweden constitution? When, imposed on whom, etc.? --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 16:41, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC) :See Wikipedia article, Constitution of 1772. Following the Swedish King Gustav III's coup d'etat against the country's oligarchs, its Estates-General on August 21, 1772, at the King's demand, within 20 minutes adopted a constitution of 57 articles. The document was subsequently amended in January 1789. This Swedish constitution, however, is considered a far cry from what would be regarded as a modern national constitution. Indeed, it is entirely passed over in the collection of constitutions, ''Najstarsze konstytucje z końca XVIII i I połowy XIX wieku; wybrał, przełożył i wstępem opatrzył Paweł Sarnecki'', Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, 1997. User:Logologist 03:12, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::The Swedish Instrument of Government from 1772 was not even the first codified constitution in Sweden. It basically ended the period of relative democracy preceding it, what was known as the Age of Liberty (which had been established by the Constitution of 1719). I use the world relative here because in early 18th-century Sweden nobles were still one of the most dominating groups in society. But that's not important. What I think is important is that the key word in this debate is ''modern''. The May Constitution can correctly be considered the first ''modern'' codified national constitution in Europe. But simply saying that it was the first codified constitution in Europe (of any kind) is misleading, and is likely to confuse some readers. —User:Gabbe 15:15, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC) :::Thanks for this information, some of which I've incorporated into the article. It does help put perspective on the matter of "first constitutions." User:Logologist 23:58, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Poland's Constitution of May 3, 1791 == This document is known in Polish as "''Konstytucja 3 maja''" — "May 3rd Constitution." (It is in fact — due to its unique importance, which was immediately recognized at the time — the only Polish constitution that is called by a ''specific date''; all subsequent ones are commonly designated only by ''month'' of adoption.) I propose that this article be retitled either "Polish 1791 Constitution" or "Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791." The second version has the advantage of being more faithful to the Constitution's Polish name, including as it does the date of adoption. The first version, on the other hand, is recommended by simplicity. (This was, after all, the only Polish constitution that was adopted in 1791). The article's present title, "May Constitution of Poland," is perhaps the worst that could be selected: it is both ahistoric and uncommunicative. User:Logologist 04:11, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) : Good point. I support "Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791". Unless there any objections, which I don't really expect, I'll move it in a day or two. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 09:29, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) If the Polish name is ''Konstytucja 3 maja'', then why isn't this article called ''Polish Constitution of May 3''? Were there other Constitutions made in Poland on other May 3s? User:Kingturtle 02:36, 3 May 2005 (UTC) For example, nihil novi constitution of 1505 was adopted on the very same day. There are several English names, but Google test shows that 'Polish Constitution of May 3' is the most common. Adding a date is simply a kind of a disambig extention. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 18:55, 3 May 2005 (UTC) == Government Act == Dear Peter, In your "Note on Polish constitution definition," you overexerted yourself in seeking to justify why the May 3rd Constitution was adopted as a "Government Act" rather than as a "Constitution." The body of the Government Act itself (i.e. the text of the Constitution) refers to itself repeatedly as "this Constitution," as inspection of either the Polish original or its English translation (on Wikisource) will show. The reason that the document went through the Sejm as the "Government Act" was simply that the Polish May 3rd Constitution, contrary to the way the U.S. Constitution came into force, was voted in by the existing ''national legislature'' as an ''ordinary act'', instituting a framework of ''government''. User:Logologist 08:18, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) : Goes to show that working ot 2am is not always the most efficient way :) Btw, I adopted this info from [http://www.senat.gov.pl/k5eng/historia/noty/nota16a.htm]. You may want to check this, seems fairly credible (being the official Polish government site). --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 09:35, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Thanks for the reference. I find its argument and language a bit difficult to follow. ::Regrettably, even the writings of "experts" must be approached ''cum grano salis''. For example, the caption to Matejko's painting that illustrates the paper by "Hon. Carl L. Bucki" describes the painting as "show[ing] Stanislaw August Poniatowski, King of Poland, being bourn [''sic''] in triumph from the Royal Palace..." If so, then who is the gentleman in the regal-looking ermine-lined cape, entering the Cathedral on the left? ::"Constitutions" were very much in the air well before the various "world's first written national constitutions" were adopted. Much as Polish politicians in the 1990s sought constitutional models in western Europe and America, so on the eve of the First Partition of Poland a member of the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm was sent on a mission to ask the French ''philosophe'' Mably and ''antiphilosophe'' Rousseau to draw up tentative constitutions for a new Poland. Mably submitted his recommendations in 1770-1771; Rousseau finished his in 1772, when the First Partition was already underway. ::I think the May 3rd Constitution article already qualifies for Featured Article status. The introduction is now adequate. The article is comprehensive, with nearly all linked references worked up, is informative, and is well written. User:Logologist 00:24, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::: Well, I think I can still expand this article a little - for axample with your info on Mably and Rousseau. Do give me a few more days :) Could you redirect/write articles about Mably and antiphilosophe? --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 12:00, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Quotes == I urge that the "Quotes" ''not'' be italicized (it's distracting and unnecessary) and that they be rearranged in chronological order: Burke, von Hertzberg, Establishing Act, Szczęsny Potocki, Kołłątaj and Ignacy Potocki, Marx, Churchill, John Paul II. (In their current order, they're a historic hash.) User:Logologist 08:42, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) : Be bold :) I agree with you. I will do it soon. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 16:23, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) I've added a quote from Thomas Jefferson and rearranged some quotes. (I think the reasons are clear, but I'll be happy to provide them.) I've also abridged, without loss of substance, the quote from Edmund Burke, who uses an obsolete expression ("defacated") that the reader will probably misread as "defecated." User:Logologist 05:01, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC) == The term == We must be careful not to overdo the uniqueness of the Polish political system. Yes, Poland had one of the world's first modern written national constitutions and was not burdened with a divine-right monarchy. But Britain, for example, even if she ''still'' doesn't have a "written constitution," had gone through a civil war a century and a half earlier to limit monarchical power (and had killed her king). The Polish story is remarkable enough without gilding the lily. User:Logologist 09:28, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) : I try to be NPOV, but sometimes I may get to POV - it happens. I hope you and others will correct me when I make such mistakes :) --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 16:23, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) == FA close == The article is 32kb now, which means it reached my bottom-lenght line for a comprehensive article. What it needs now is: *logical restructuring - i.e. rewriting - of the Features section. It contains all the needed information, but reads *bad*. Not only it has too many short paragraphs, but it jumps from one fact to another, repeats itself, and such.
* general 'Logologist magic' for the entire article, yet again - i.e. making it into beautiful English prose. I am sure I can count on you, L, for this :)
* well, that's all I can think of. We are close :) Hopefully FAC will be made this weekend. Perhaps we can make if for the May 3 anniversairy? --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 16:23, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== Numbers/rerefences for this: ==
''Under the May 3rd Constitution, Poland extended political privileges to its townspeople and to its nobility (the szlachta), which latter formed some ten percent of the country's population. This percentage closely approximated the extent of political access in contemporary America, where effective suffrage was limited to male property owners.'' Ok, I can just see this being torn apart at FA. We need info on: what % of Commonwealth population were the townsfolk? Reference for what % of USA were the 'male property owners', and what is meant by the 'effective' in this sentence? I will have to rewrite it or move it here if we cannot back this statement up by sources. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 19:19, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== State of this article ==
I've re-edited half this article, and have some questions and misgivings. For example:
I'm not sure that mandatory majority rule at sejmiks was introduced at the early stage suggested in the article. In any case, at sejmiks the threat of the liberum veto could be overridden by means of "confederated sejm" the session, as with sejms.
: I did some research. I couldn't find the exact answer to your question (i.e. about history of voting specifically on sejmiki), but the history of voting in sejm shows that majority voting was common until late 16th century, when unanimity and liberum veto took hold. This concides with the rise of confederated sejms which preserved majority voting. It appears logical that this voting custom chage is true for both sejms and sejmiks. I assume that whatever holds true for sejms is true for sejmiki. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 14:20, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
::If both sejm and sejmik abolished the liberum veto at the same time, then the sejmik couldn't have done so ''before the First Partition'' (the impression given by the article) since the sejm did so on ''May 3, 1791''.
Some reforms that were introduced ''after'' the First Partition, e.g. Andrzej Zamoyski's proposed codification of laws (completed 1780), seem to be alluded to anachronistically ''before'' the First Partition (1772). --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 14:20, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
: I see you fixed this mistake.
::So, ''did'' Andrzej Zamoyski present a plan for municipal reform? ''When? In what form? What became of it? Was it acted on? Was it implemented?''
How many deputies ''total'' were there at the time of the April 19, 1773, Sejm?
: Good question. It would be nice to find the answer, but I don't think it is of key importance.--User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 14:20, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
User:Logologist 10:02, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
::Saying that "''Only'' 102 deputies attended..." is meaningless if we don't know how many ''didn't''. User:Logologist 15:15, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== Sections to give direct reference to. ==
A quick start on some examples of sections which should have references.
* Replied to some, will check others. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 21:22, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
===important information===
* The Constitution instituted political equality between townspeople and nobility (Polish: szlachta) and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom.
**This is explained in text and based directly on constitution text available on wikisource. Perhaps I will add articles numbers to make it more evident. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 21:22, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
* The first such constitution [....] The second was the constitution adopted by the Polish-Lithuanian ...
**Well...this is basic encyclopedic knowledge - but I can add a source. For example: John Markoff, 'Waves of Democracy'. 1996, ISBN 0803990197 which I have just next to me: p.121 'The first European country to follow the U.S. example was Poland in 1791'. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 21:22, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
* while the peasants languished in abysmal conditions and the city dwellers were hemmed in by an array of anti-municipal legislation and fared much worse than their thriving Western contemporaries.
** This is confirmed by many sources, and in such strong terms definetly expressed in 'Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów' by Paweł Jasienica --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 15:05, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
* Catherine vowed to "protect in the name of Poland's liberties":
** The quotes are translated by me and logologist from Polish orginal text. On Wikiquote there are links to site I found them, and that site gives printed references. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 21:22, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
* Even before the First Partition, a Sejm deputy had been sent to ask
* the ensuing debate and adoption of the Government Act took place in a quasi-coup d'etat:
** The phrase 'coup d'etat' is used for example in this external link [http://www.polishconstitution.org/index1.html] --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 21:22, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
*** Also it is used by Norman Davies in 'God's Playground'. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 15:05, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
===might be disputed===
* feared the rebirth of a strong Commonwealth
** Stressed by both Jasienica and Davies. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 15:05, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
* Most historians agree
===potentially controvercial phrasing which should be attributed===
* internal traitors
** Again, many magnates were labelled as such by Jasienica and Davies. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 15:05, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
User:Mozzerati 19:39, 2005 Apr 27 (UTC)
== Section titles ==
...are now decent. People, don't make redundant titles. Don't say "History of the blah" if the article's title is already "Blah." What else would a "History" section concern, if not the topic of article? And for god's sake, don't make a sub-article section inside the article. Why was there a "May 3 constitution" section inside an article about the May 3 constitution? Is the rest of the article unrelated to the May 3 constitution or something? Jesus christ. User:141.211.234.229 16:49, 3 May 2005 (UTC)
: While the titles were to long (tnx for trimming them), I had to reintroduce 2nd level sectioning (i.e. subsectioning) to make the table of contents more readable. I have also moved the 'features' section to the bottom of the article - it is now structured into history first, features later, instead if features in the middle of the history sections. I have also merged 'importance' into legacy, it makes more sense now. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 19:32, 3 May 2005 (UTC)
==World's second modern codified national constitution==
The current article states that it was "the world's second [ modern codified national constitution] after the United States Constitution. How was this determined? Specifically, why do the Articles of Confederation not qualify as an earlier "modern codified national constitution?" -- User:Fingers-of-Pyrex 16:59, 2005 May 5 (UTC)
: I never heard Articles of Confoderation described as a constitution. Perhaps you should ask this on the articles or US constitution talk page. As far as May constitution - which I researched - is concerned, many sources, including Markoff (referneced in text) mention that PCM3 was the second constitution. To quote Markoff: "Constitutions explicitly describing and limiting the authority of powerholders: The Constitution of US, ratified in 1789, was the model, inspiring numerous successors. Important precursors include some of the documents produced in the course of the English revolution of 1640s and the 18th century Swedish constitution. The first European country to follow the US example was Poland in 1791." I'd say that any documents before that era simply don't qualify to requirements of the constitution definition. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 18:22, 5 May 2005 (UTC)
==Corsican constitution==
After a note on Polish wiki, I found out there is another legal act that might be the 'first' constitution - before Polish May and US: the Corsican Constitution of Pasquale Paoli. Direct text of the constitution is linked from PP wiki article. Some aditional info I googled: "It all started when Pascal Paoli led the Corsican nationalists of the day to resist the rule of Genoa and drew up a democratic constitution in 1755. In 1765, the writer Boswell said of Corsica that it was "the best model... ever to exist in the Democratic tradition"." [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JBrannan/corsica.htm]. "In this text of 1755, during the independence of Corsica, Pascal Paoli defined the great principles of the Corsican Constitution that will later be part of the inspiration for the Constitution of the United States of America." [http://www.kallistetours.com/corsica-about.htm]. "In 1755, at the Consulta of Casabianca, the representatives of the people adopted a modern constitution. It asserted national sovereignty and organised the separation of powers and the election of a national representative assembly with the power to raise taxes, pass laws and declare war, elected by all citizens over 25, including women. The assembly elected an executive, the Supreme Council, which was the government. The head of the government was directly elected by the assembly, which kept the name of Consulta. One of the first decisions was to create the University of Corte to train the future cadres of the nation. It was no doubt not a model of absolute democracy." [http://www.redflag.org.uk/frontline/twelve/12corsica.html]. "Settling the capital in Corte he made vote there a Constitution asserting the sovereignty of the Corsican Nation and also the separation of powers, made strike a coin, gave the law regular courts, created an army and tried hard to give the country a small fleet." [http://www.corsica.net/corsica/uk/discov/hist/histhom.htm]. "He wrote a project of egalitarian Constitution which was known by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and possibly inspired Thomas Jefferson." [http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/flags/fr-co.html]. "a local called Pascal Paoli managed to unite the Corsicans and lead an insurrection against the Genoese. He gained enough power to cobble together a rough constitution, a unique act in an era of dynasties and absolutism." [http://www.zuji.com.au/dest/guide/0,1277,ZUJIAU%7C15902%7C7091%7C1,00.html] I was unable to find, so far, any references to this constitution in more academic texts, though. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 11:55, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Polish_Constitution_of_May_3,_1791:
Polish_Constitution_of_May_3,_1791
Polish_Constitution_of_May_3,_1791
Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791
[[Image:Konstytucja 3 Maja.jpg|right|thumb|350px|''May 3rd Constitution'' (painting by Jan Matejko, 1891). King Stanisław August (left, in regal ermine-trimmed cloak), enters St. John's Cathedral, where Sejm deputy will swear to uphold the new Constitution; in background, Warsaw's Royal Castle, where the Constitution has just been adopted.]] The Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 (Polish language: ''Konstytucja Trzeciego Maja'') was Europe's first modern Codification national constitution, and the world's second after the United States Constitution (which was written in 1787 and came into force in 1789). It was instituted by the Government Act (Polish: ''Ustawa rządowa'') adopted on that date by the Sejm (parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the federation Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its Golden Liberty. The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (''szlachta'') and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. The Constitution abolished pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the ''liberum veto'', which at one time had placed the sejm at the mercy of any deputy who might choose, or be bribery by an interest or foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by that sejm. The May 3rd Constitution sought to supplant the existing anarchy fostered by some of the country's reactionary magnates, with a more Egalitarianism and democracy constitutional monarchy. The adoption of the May 3rd Constitution provoked the active hostility of the Polish Commonwealth's neighbors. In the War in Defense of the Constitution, Poland was betrayed by its Prussian ally Frederick William II of Prussia and defeated by the Imperial Russia of Catherine II of Russia, allied with the Targowica Confederation, a cabal of Polish magnates who opposed reforms that might weaken their influence. Despite the defeat, and the subsequent Second Partition of Poland, the May 3rd Constitution influenced later democratic movements in the world. It remained, after the demise of the Polish Republic in 1795, over the next 123 years of Partitions of Poland, a beacon in the struggle to restore Polish sovereignty. In the words of two of its co-authors, Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kollataj, it was "the last will and testament of the expiring Fatherland." ==History== ===Background=== The May 3rd Constitution was a response to the increasingly perilous situation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, only a century and a half earlier a major European power and indeed the largest state on the continent. Already two centuries before the May 3rd Constitution, King Zygmunt III's court preacher, the Jesuit Piotr Skarga, had famously condemned the individual and collective weaknesses of the Commonwealth's citizenship. Likewise, in the same period, writers and philosophers such as Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Wawrzyniec Grzymala Goslicki, and Jan Zamoyski's ''egzekucja praw'' (Execution-of-the-Laws) reform movement, had advocated reforms. By the early 17th century, the magnates of Poland and Lithuania were in near-total control of the Commonwealth — or rather, they managed to ensure that no reforms be carried out that might weaken their privileged status. They looked after their own interests while neglecting the commonweal. They spent lavishly on banquets, drinking-bouts and other assorted amusements, while the peasants languished in abysmal conditions and the city dwellers were hemmed in by an array of anti-municipal legislation and fared much worse than their thriving Western world contemporaries. Many historians hold that a major cause of the Commonwealth's downfall was the peculiar institution of the ''liberum veto'' ("free veto"), which since 1652 had in principle permitted any Sejm deputy to nullify all the legislation that had been adopted by that Sejm. Thus deputies bribed by magnates or foreign powers, or simply benighted and content to believe that they were living in some kind of "Golden Age," for over a century paralyzed the Commonwealth's government. The threat of the ''liberum veto'' could, however, be overridden by the establishment of a "confederated sejm," which operated immune from the ''liberum veto''. The Four-Year, or "Great," Sejm of 1788–1792, which would adopt the Constitution of May 3, 1791, was such a confederated sejm; and it was due only to that fact that it was able to put through so radical a piece of legislation. By the reign (1764–1795) of Poland's last king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the Age of Enlightenment had begun to take root in Poland. The King proceeded with cautious reforms. Fiscal and military "commissions" (ministries) were established. A national customs tariff was instituted. Thoroughgoing constitutional reforms were discussed. However, the idea of reforms in the Commonwealth was viewed with growing suspicion by neighboring countries, which were content with the Commonwealth's impotence and abhorred the thought of a powerful — and more democratic — country hard by their borders. Accordingly Empress Catherine the Great of Russia and King Frederick the Great of Prussia provoked a conflict between Sejm conservatives and the King over civil rights for religious minorities. Catherine and Frederick declared their support for the Polish nobility (szlachta) and their "liberties," and by October 1767 Russian troops had assembled outside the Polish capital, Warsaw. The King and his adherents, in face of superior Russian military force, were left with little choice but to bow to Russian demands and accept the five "eternal and invariable" principles which Catherine vowed to "protect in the name of Poland's liberties": the free election of kings; the right of ''liberum veto''; the right to renounce allegiance to, and raise rebellion against, the king (''rokosz''); and the szlachta's exclusive right to hold office and land, and the landowner's power of life and death over his peasants. Not everyone in the Commonwealth agreed with King Stanisław August's decision. On February 29, 1768, several magnates, including Kazimierz Pulaski, vowing to oppose Russian intervention, declared Stanisław August a "lackey of Russia and Catherine" and formed a confederation at the town of Bar. The Confederation of Bar opened a civil war with the goal of overthrowing the King and fought on until 1772, when overwhelmed by Russian intervention. [[Image:Rzeczpospolita Rozbiory 1.png|thumb|right|300px|The First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772.)]] The Bar Confederation's defeat set the scene for the next act in the unfolding drama. On August 5, 1772, at St. Petersburg, Russia, the three neighboring powers, Russia, Prussia and Austria, signed the Partitions_of_Poland#First_Partition. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was to be divested of over 30,000 square miles of territory, leaving her 74,000 square miles. This was justified on grounds of anarchy in the Commonwealth and the latter's refusal to cooperate with its neighbors' efforts to restore order. The three powers demanded that the Sejm ratify this first partition, otherwise threatening further partitions. King Stanisław August yielded to duress and on April 19, 1773, called the Sejm into session. Only 102 deputies attended; the rest, aware of the King's decision, refused. Despite protests, notably by the deputy Tadeusz Rejtan, the First Partition of Poland was ratified. Partitions_of_Poland#First_Partition of the three successive 18th-century partitions of Poland by Russia, Prussia and Austria that would eventually blot Poland from the map of Europe, had made it clear to progressive minds that the Commonwealth must either reform or perish. Even before the First Partition, a Sejm deputy had been sent to ask the France ''philosophes'' Gabriel Bonnet de Mably and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to draw up tentative constitutions for a new Poland. Mably had submitted his recommendations in 1770–1771; Rousseau had finished his in 1772, when the First Partition was already underway. Supported by King Stanisław August, a new wave of reforms were introduced. The most important included the establishment (1773) of a Commission of National Education — the first ministry of education in the world. New schools were opened in the cities and in the countryside, uniform textbooks were printed, teachers were educated, poor students were provided scholarships. The Commonwealth's military was modernized; a standing army was formed. Economic and commercial reforms, previously shunned as unimportant by the szlachta, were introduced, and the development of industries was encouraged. The peasants were given some rights. A new Police ministry fought corruption. Everything from the road system to prisons was reformed. A new executive body was created, the Permanent Council (Polish: ''Rada Nieustająca''), comprising five ministries. [[Image:Uchwalenie_Konstytucji_3_Maja.jpg|thumb|350px|right|In 1791, the "Great" or Four-Year Sejm of 1788–1792 adopts the May 3rd Constitution at Warsaw's Royal Castle (rebuilt in the 1970s after its deliberate destruction by the Germans in World War II).]] In 1776 the Sejm commissioned Chancellor Andrzej Zamoyski to draft a new legal code, the Zamoyski Code. By 1780, under Zamoyski's direction, a code (''Zbiór praw sądowych'') had been produced. It would have strengthened royal power, made all officials answerable to the Sejm, placed the clergy and their finances under state supervision, and deprived landless szlachta of many of their legal immunities. Zamoyski's progressive legal code, containing elements of constitutional reform, failed to be adopted by the Sejm. ===Drafting and Adoption=== Events in the world now played into the reformers' hands. Poland's neigbors were too occupied with wars — especially with the Ottoman Empire — and with their own internal troubles to intervene forcibly in Poland. A major opportunity for reform seemed to present itself during the "Great" or "Four-Year Sejm" of 1788–1792, which opened on October 6, 1788, and from 1790 — in the words of the May 3rd Constitution's preamble — met "in dual number," the newly elected Sejm deputies having joined the earlier-established confederated sejm. While a new alliance between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussia seemed to provide security against Russian intervention, King Stanislaw August drew closer to leaders of the reform-minded Patriotic Party. A new Constitution was drafted by the King, with contributions from Stanislaw Malachowski, Ignacy Potocki, Hugo Kollataj, Stanislaw Staszic, the King's Italian secretary Scipione Piattoli, and others. The advocates of the Constitution, under threat of violence from the Sejm's Muscovite Party (also known as the "Hetmans"), and with many contrary-minded deputies still away on Easter recess, managed to set debate on the Government Act forward by two days from the original May 5. The ensuing debate and adoption of the Government Act took place in a quasi-coup d'etat: many pro-reform deputies arrived early and in secret, and the royal guards were positioned about the Royal Castle where the Sejm was gathered, to prevent Muscovite adherents from disrupting the proceedings. The Constitution ("Government Act") bill was read out and passed overwhelmingly, to the enthusiasm of the crowds gathered outside. ===The fall=== The May 3rd, 1791, Constitution remained in effect for only a year before being overthrown, by Russian armies allied with the Targowica Confederation, in the War in Defense of the Constitution. War between Turkey and Russia having by now ended, Empress Catherine was furious over the adoption of the May 3rd Constitution. Russia had viewed Poland as a ''de facto'' protectorate. The contacts of Polish reformers with the National Assembly (French Revolution) were seen by Poland's neighbors as evidence of a revolutionary conspiracy and a threat to the absolute monarchies. The Prussian statesman Ewald von Hertzberg expressed the fears of European conservatives: "[The Poles] have given the ''coup de grâce'' to the Prussian monarchy by voting a constitution." [[Image:Wieszanie_zdrajcow.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Hanging in effigy of the Targowica Confederation traitors (Warsaw, 1794).]] A number of magnates who had opposed the Constitution from the start, such as Feliks Potocki and Ksawery Branicki, asked Tsarina Catherine to intervene and restore their privileges abolished under the Constitution. With her backing they formed the Targowica Confederation, and in their proclamation denounced the Constitution for spreading the "contagion of democratic ideas." They asserted that "The intentions of Her Highness the Empress of Russia [Catherine the Great], ally of the Polish Commonwealth, in introducing her army, are and have been none other than to restore to the Commonwealth and to Poles freedom, and in particular to all the country's citizens, security and happiness." On May 18, 1792, over 20,000 Confederates crossed the border into Poland, together with 97,000 veteran Russian troops. The Polish King and the reformers could field only a 37,000-man army, many of them untested recruits. The Polish Army, under the King's nephew Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko, did defeat the Russians on several occasions, but the King himself dealt a deathblow to the Polish cause: when in July 1792 Warsaw was threatened with siege by the Russians, the King came to believe that victory was impossible against the Russian numerical superiority, and that surrender was the only alternative to total defeat and a massacre of the reformers. On July 24, 1792, King Stanisław August abandoned the reformist cause and joined the Targowica Confederation. The Polish Army disintegrated. Many reform leaders, believing their cause lost, went into self-exile. The King had not saved the Commonwealth, however. To the surprise of the Targowica Confederates, there ensued the Partitions_of_Poland#Second_Partition. Russia took 250,000 square kilometers, and Prussia took 58,000. The Commonwealth now comprised no more than 212,000 square kilometers. What was left of the Commonwealth was merely a small buffer state with a puppet king and a Russian army. For a year and a half Polish patriots bided their time, while planning an insurrection. On March 24, 1794, in Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko declared what has come to be known as the Kosciuszko Uprising. On May 7 he issued the "Połaniec Proclamation" (''Uniwersał Połaniecki''), granting freedom to the peasants and ownership of land to all who fought in the insurrection. After some initial victories — the battle of Raclawice (April 4) and the capture of Warsaw (April 18) and Wilno (April 22) — the Uprising was dealt a crippling blow: the forces of Russia, Austria and Prussia joined in a military intervention. Historians consider the Uprising's defeat to have been a foregone conclusion in face of the gigantic numerical superiority of the three invading powers. The defeat of Kościuszko's forces led to Partitions_of_Poland#Third_Partition in 1795. ===Legacy=== Nevertheless, memory of the world's second modern codified national constitution — recognized by List of political scientists as a very progressive document for its time — for generations helped keep alive Polish aspirations for an independent and just society, and continues to inform the efforts of its authors' descendants. In Poland it is viewed as the culmination of all that was good and enlightened in Polish history and Polish culture. The May 3rd anniversary of its adoption has been observed as Poland's most important civic, May 3rd holiday, since Second Polish Republic in 1918. Prior to the May 3rd Constitution, in Poland the term "constitution" (Polish: ''konstytucja'') had denoted all the legislation, of whatever character, that had been passed at a Sejm. Only with the adoption of the May 3rd Constitution did ''konstytucja'' assume its modern sense of a fundamental document of governance. The very concept of a codified national constitution was revolutionary in the history of political systems. The first such constitution was the Constitution of the United States of America, written in 1787, which began to function in 1789. The second was the Constitution adopted by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on May 3, 1791. These two charters of government form an important milestone in the history of democracy. Poland and the United States, though distant geographically, showed some notable similarities in their approaches to the design of political systems. By contrast to the great absolute monarchy, both countries were remarkably democratic. The kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were elected, and the Commonwealth's parliament (the Sejm) possessed extensive legislative authority. Under the May 3rd Constitution, Poland afforded political privileges to its townspeople and to its nobility (the szlachta), which formed some ten percent of the country's population. This percentage closely approximated the extent of political access in contemporary America, where effective suffrage was limited to male property owners. The defeat of Poland's liberals was but a temporary setback to the cause of democracy. The destruction of the Polish state only slowed the expansion of democracy, by then already established in North America. Democratic movements soon began undermining the absolute monarchy of Europe. The May 3rd Constitution was translated, in abridged form, into French, German and English. French revolutionaries toasted King Stanisław August and the Constitution — not only for their progressive character, but because the War in Defense of the Constitution and the Kosciuszko Uprising tied up appreciable Russian and Prussian forces that could not therefore be used against Revolutionary France. Thomas Paine regarded the May 3rd Constitution as a great breakthrough. Edmund Burke described it as "the noblest benefit received by any nation at any time…. Stanislas II has earned a place among the greatest kings and statesmen in history." In the end, the conservatives managed to delay the ascent of democracy in Europe only for a century; after the First World War most of the European monarchies were replaced by democratic states, including the reborn, Second Polish Republic. ==Features== King Stanisław August described the May 3rd Constitution, according to a contemporary account, as "founded principally on those of England and the United States of America, but avoiding the faults and errors of both, and adapt[ed] as much as possible to the local and particular circumstances of the country." Indeed, the Polish and American national constitutions reflected similar Enlightenment influences, including Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu's advocacy of a separation of powers among the three branches of government — so that, in the words of the May 3rd Constitution (article V), "the integrity of the states, civil liberty, and social order remain always in equilibrium" — as well as Montesquieu's advocacy of a bicameral legislature. The Constitution comprised 11 articles. It introduced the principle of popular sovereignty (applied to the nobility and townspeople) and a separation of powers into legislative (a bicameral Sejm), executive ("the King in his council") and judicial branches. The Constitution advanced the democratization of the polity by limiting the excessive legal immunity and political prerogatives of landless nobility, while granting to the townspeople — in the earlier Our Free Royal Cities in the States of the Commonwealth Act (Polish: ''Miasta Nasze Królewskie wolne w państwach Rzeczypospolitej'') of April 18, 1791, stipulated in Article III to be integral to the Constitution — personal security, the right to acquire landed property, eligibility for military commissions, public offices, and membership in the nobility (szlachta). The Government Act also placed the Commonwealth's peasantry "under the protection of the national law and government" — a first step toward the ending of serfdom and the enfranchisement of that largest and most oppressed social class. The May 3rd Constitution provided for a Sejm, "ordinarily" meeting every two years and "extraordinarily" whenever required by a national emergency. Its lower chamber — the Chamber of Deputies (Polish: ''Izba Poselska'') — comprised 204 deputies and 24 plenipotentiary of royal city; its upper chamber — the Senate of Poland (Polish: ''Izba Senacka'') — comprised 132 senators (voivodes, castellans, Political ministers and bishops). [[Image:May constitution pre20th cent book cover.jpg|thumb|right|200|Title page of Piotr Dufour's 1791 edition of the Polish May 3rd Constitution (''Government Act'').]] Executive power was in the hands of the royal council, called the Guardianship of the Laws (Polish: ''Straż Praw''). This council was presided over by the King and comprised 5 ministers appointed by him: a minster of police, minister of the seal (i.e. of internal affairs — the seal was a traditional attribute of the earlier Kanclerz), minister of the seal of foreign affairs, minister ''belli'' (of military), and minster of treasury. The ministers were appointed by the King but responsible to the Sejm. In addition to the ministers, council members included the Roman Catholic Primate (who was also president of the Education Commission) and — without a voice — the Crown Prince, the Marshal of the Sejm, and two secretaries. This royal council was a descendant of the similar council that had functioned over the previous two centuries since King Henry's Articles (1573). Acts of the King required the countersignature of the respective minister. The stipulation that the King, "[d]oing nothing of himself, […] shall be answerable for nothing to the nation," parallels the United Kingdom constitutional principle that "The King can do no wrong." (In both countries, the respective minister was responsible for the king's acts.) To enhance Commonwealth integration and security, the Constitution abolished the erstwhile Polish-Lithuanian Union in favor of a unitary state and changed the government from an individually- to a dynasty-elective monarchy. The latter provision was meant to reduce the destructive, vying influences of foreign powers at each royal election. Under the terms of the May 3rd Constitution, on Stanisław August's death the throne of Poland was to pass to the house of Saxony, which had provided two of Poland's recent elective kings. The Constitution abolished several institutional sources of government weakness and national anarchy, including the liberum veto, confederations, confederated sejms (paradoxically, the Four-Year Sejm was itself a confederated sejm), and the excessive sway of sejmiks (regional sejms) stemming from the binding nature of their instructions to their Sejm deputies. The Constitution acknowledged the Roman Catholicism as the "dominant religion," but guaranteed tolerance of, and Freedom of religion. The Army was to be built up to 100,000 men. Standing income taxes were established (10% on the nobility, 20% on the church). Amendments to the constitution could be made every 25 years. The May 3rd Constitution recognized, as integral to itself, the act on ''Our Free Royal Cities in the States of the Commonwealth'' that had been passed on April 18, 1791 (Constitution, article III) and the act on regional sejms (''Sejmiki'') passed earlier on March 24, 1791 (article VI). Some authorities additionally regard as parts of the Constitution the ''Declaration of the Assembled Estates'' of May 5, 1791, confirming the ''Government Act'' adopted two days earlier, and the ''Mutual Declaration of the Two Peoples'' (i.e., of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) of October 22, 1791, affirming the unity and indivisibility of Poland and the Grand Duchy. The provisions of the ''Government Act'' were fleshed out in a number of implementing laws passed in May–June 1791 on sejms and sejm courts (two acts of May 13), the Guardianship (June 1), the national police commission (that is, ministry: June 17) and civic administration (June 24). The May 3rd Constitution remained to the last a work in progress. Its co-author Hugo Kollataj announced work underway on "an economic constitution…guaranteeing all property rights [and] securing protection and honor to all manner of labor…" Yet a third basic law was touched on by Kołłątaj: a "moral constitution," most likely a Polish analog to the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. ==Notes== # Article IV (''The peasants''): "we accept under the protection of the law and of the national government the agricultural folk […] who constitute the most numerous populace in the nation and hence the greatest strength of the country [...]." # John Markoff (professor) describes the advent of modern codified national constitutions as one of the milestones of democracy, and states that "The first European country to follow the U.S. example was Poland in 1791." John Markoff, ''Waves of Democracy'', 1996, ISBN 0803990197, p.121. # It bears noting that the contemporaneous United States Constitution sanctioned the continuation of slavery. Thus neither constitution enfranchised all its adult male population: the U.S. Constitution discriminated against America's slaves, the Polish Constitution — against Poland's peasants. # King Stanisław August himself had been elected in 1764 with the support of his ex-mistress, Russian Tsarina Catherine II the Great — including bribes and a Russian army deployed only a few miles from the election sejm, meeting at Wola outside Warsaw. ==See also== *Constitution of France *History of democracy *History of Poland (1569-1795) *''Magna Carta'' *''Neminem captivabimus'' *Constitution of 1772 ==References== * Adam Zamoyski, ''The Polish Way: a Thousand-Year History of the Poles and Their Culture'', New York, Hippocrene Books, 1994. * Jacek Jedruch, ''Constitutions, Elections and Legislatures of Poland, 1493-1993'', Summit, NJ, EJJ Books, 1998, ISBN 0781806372. * Jozef Kasparek, ''The Constitutions of Poland and of the United States: Kinships and Genealogy'', Miami, American Institute of Polish Culture, 1980. * Norman Davies, ''God's Playground'', 2 vols., ISBN 0231053533 and ISBN 0231053517. * Pawel Jasienica, ''Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów'' (The Commonwealth of the Two Peoples), ISBN 8306010930. * Emanuel Rostworowski, ''Maj 1791 - maj 1792: rok monarchii konstytucyjnej'' [May 1791 - May 1792: the Year of Constitutional Monarchy], Warsaw, Zamek Królewski [Royal Castle], 1985. ==External links== * [http://www.polishconstitution.org/index1.html Polishconstitution.org: site about the Polish May 3rd Constitution that contributed some texts to wikisource] * [http://www.senat.gov.pl/k5eng/historia/noty/nota16a.htm History of Polish law until 1795] * [http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/constitution.html The Constitution of May 3, 1791 by Hon. Carl L. Bucki] * [http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/JJ.html Constitutions, Elections and Legislatures of Poland, 1493-1993] 1791 in law Constitutions of Poland Defunct constitutions
Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791
== Translation == Making the first translation - I know it is not today's English, I am at the same time trying to make it understandable and keep the orginal form. Believe me, it sounds as bad in today's Polish as in English. Any suggestions welcome. --User:Piotrus 18:37, 9 May 2004 (UTC) ---- Hmmm, I found the translated text here: http://www.polishconstitution.org/index1.html I will @ them if they allow us to use it here. --User:Piotrus 19:30, 11 May 2004 (UTC) ...And..? User:Halibutt 12:10, Jun 17, 2004 (UTC) And they have not replied at all. Perhaps if few more people would enquire and send emails to info@polishconstitution.org that would help? Tommorow I will post here the text of email I sent, so you can just copy&paste. --User:Piotrus 21:21, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC) : update - good news. I have received email from the above site (from Andrzej Batorski) and he kindly writes: ''I have no problem releasing it, but I did not translate it and I don't know the source of this translation. All other content on the web site is original, written by my wife, and can be used without limitations. The only thing I ask is to give proper credit when publishing any information coming form www.polishconstitution.org'' --User:Piotrus 17:43, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC) :: published polish and english text on wikisource, see external links in the article for links --User:Piotrus 18:53, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC) == Second free? == From [http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/pl__indx.html]: ''May 1791: After four years of discussion and drafting, Poland gets the first freely adopted, written constitution in Europe. The only earlier written Constitution in Europe was imposed on Sweden.''. What was this Sweden constitution? When, imposed on whom, etc.? --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 16:41, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC) :See Wikipedia article, Constitution of 1772. Following the Swedish King Gustav III's coup d'etat against the country's oligarchs, its Estates-General on August 21, 1772, at the King's demand, within 20 minutes adopted a constitution of 57 articles. The document was subsequently amended in January 1789. This Swedish constitution, however, is considered a far cry from what would be regarded as a modern national constitution. Indeed, it is entirely passed over in the collection of constitutions, ''Najstarsze konstytucje z końca XVIII i I połowy XIX wieku; wybrał, przełożył i wstępem opatrzył Paweł Sarnecki'', Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, 1997. User:Logologist 03:12, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::The Swedish Instrument of Government from 1772 was not even the first codified constitution in Sweden. It basically ended the period of relative democracy preceding it, what was known as the Age of Liberty (which had been established by the Constitution of 1719). I use the world relative here because in early 18th-century Sweden nobles were still one of the most dominating groups in society. But that's not important. What I think is important is that the key word in this debate is ''modern''. The May Constitution can correctly be considered the first ''modern'' codified national constitution in Europe. But simply saying that it was the first codified constitution in Europe (of any kind) is misleading, and is likely to confuse some readers. —User:Gabbe 15:15, Apr 16, 2005 (UTC) :::Thanks for this information, some of which I've incorporated into the article. It does help put perspective on the matter of "first constitutions." User:Logologist 23:58, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Poland's Constitution of May 3, 1791 == This document is known in Polish as "''Konstytucja 3 maja''" — "May 3rd Constitution." (It is in fact — due to its unique importance, which was immediately recognized at the time — the only Polish constitution that is called by a ''specific date''; all subsequent ones are commonly designated only by ''month'' of adoption.) I propose that this article be retitled either "Polish 1791 Constitution" or "Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791." The second version has the advantage of being more faithful to the Constitution's Polish name, including as it does the date of adoption. The first version, on the other hand, is recommended by simplicity. (This was, after all, the only Polish constitution that was adopted in 1791). The article's present title, "May Constitution of Poland," is perhaps the worst that could be selected: it is both ahistoric and uncommunicative. User:Logologist 04:11, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) : Good point. I support "Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791". Unless there any objections, which I don't really expect, I'll move it in a day or two. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 09:29, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) If the Polish name is ''Konstytucja 3 maja'', then why isn't this article called ''Polish Constitution of May 3''? Were there other Constitutions made in Poland on other May 3s? User:Kingturtle 02:36, 3 May 2005 (UTC) For example, nihil novi constitution of 1505 was adopted on the very same day. There are several English names, but Google test shows that 'Polish Constitution of May 3' is the most common. Adding a date is simply a kind of a disambig extention. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 18:55, 3 May 2005 (UTC) == Government Act == Dear Peter, In your "Note on Polish constitution definition," you overexerted yourself in seeking to justify why the May 3rd Constitution was adopted as a "Government Act" rather than as a "Constitution." The body of the Government Act itself (i.e. the text of the Constitution) refers to itself repeatedly as "this Constitution," as inspection of either the Polish original or its English translation (on Wikisource) will show. The reason that the document went through the Sejm as the "Government Act" was simply that the Polish May 3rd Constitution, contrary to the way the U.S. Constitution came into force, was voted in by the existing ''national legislature'' as an ''ordinary act'', instituting a framework of ''government''. User:Logologist 08:18, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) : Goes to show that working ot 2am is not always the most efficient way :) Btw, I adopted this info from [http://www.senat.gov.pl/k5eng/historia/noty/nota16a.htm]. You may want to check this, seems fairly credible (being the official Polish government site). --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 09:35, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Thanks for the reference. I find its argument and language a bit difficult to follow. ::Regrettably, even the writings of "experts" must be approached ''cum grano salis''. For example, the caption to Matejko's painting that illustrates the paper by "Hon. Carl L. Bucki" describes the painting as "show[ing] Stanislaw August Poniatowski, King of Poland, being bourn [''sic''] in triumph from the Royal Palace..." If so, then who is the gentleman in the regal-looking ermine-lined cape, entering the Cathedral on the left? ::"Constitutions" were very much in the air well before the various "world's first written national constitutions" were adopted. Much as Polish politicians in the 1990s sought constitutional models in western Europe and America, so on the eve of the First Partition of Poland a member of the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm was sent on a mission to ask the French ''philosophe'' Mably and ''antiphilosophe'' Rousseau to draw up tentative constitutions for a new Poland. Mably submitted his recommendations in 1770-1771; Rousseau finished his in 1772, when the First Partition was already underway. ::I think the May 3rd Constitution article already qualifies for Featured Article status. The introduction is now adequate. The article is comprehensive, with nearly all linked references worked up, is informative, and is well written. User:Logologist 00:24, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::: Well, I think I can still expand this article a little - for axample with your info on Mably and Rousseau. Do give me a few more days :) Could you redirect/write articles about Mably and antiphilosophe? --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 12:00, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Quotes == I urge that the "Quotes" ''not'' be italicized (it's distracting and unnecessary) and that they be rearranged in chronological order: Burke, von Hertzberg, Establishing Act, Szczęsny Potocki, Kołłątaj and Ignacy Potocki, Marx, Churchill, John Paul II. (In their current order, they're a historic hash.) User:Logologist 08:42, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) : Be bold :) I agree with you. I will do it soon. --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 16:23, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) I've added a quote from Thomas Jefferson and rearranged some quotes. (I think the reasons are clear, but I'll be happy to provide them.) I've also abridged, without loss of substance, the quote from Edmund Burke, who uses an obsolete expression ("defacated") that the reader will probably misread as "defecated." User:Logologist 05:01, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC) == The term == We must be careful not to overdo the uniqueness of the Polish political system. Yes, Poland had one of the world's first modern written national constitutions and was not burdened with a divine-right monarchy. But Britain, for example, even if she ''still'' doesn't have a "written constitution," had gone through a civil war a century and a half earlier to limit monarchical power (and had killed her king). The Polish story is remarkable enough without gilding the lily. User:Logologist 09:28, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) : I try to be NPOV, but sometimes I may get to POV - it happens. I hope you and others will correct me when I make such mistakes :) --User:Piotrus User_talk:Piotrus 16:23, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC) == FA close == The article is 32kb now, which means it reached my bottom-lenght line for a comprehensive article. What it needs now is: *
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