Posted:
Trigger
Just read Smallest national park? Kosciuszko, forgotten son of liberty. I was sad to read that this tiniest of national parks is rather infrequently visited nowadays compared to other sites in Philadelphia. This article also mentions the controversy about the last will (or multiple wills) of this man of which I do not remember ever having heard of before.
Jefferson wrote of Kosciuszko, "He is as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known."
I wonder, whether Kosciuszko is also being forgotten in his homeland Poland?
When I lived and worked in Philadelphia in the mid 1990s, I visited Kosciuszko's home and I was very impressed about this Polish man. The man who among other achievements contributed to the first, modern, although short-lived constitution of 1791 in Europe patterned after the U.S. Constitution. I do not remember whether this national park site discusses the wills of Kosciuszko.
An Early Abolitionist And Controversy Over The Wills
Sources:
Apparently, and unfortunately there were several, conflicting wills written by Kosciuszko. I do not have the time to learn more about it or go into this.
However, to me it is truly amazing that this Polish man, who did not intend to stay in America and who returned to Poland, resolved to dedicate his U.S. estate/assets to freeing and educating negro slaves and asked nobody less than his friend Thomas Jefferson to execute his will.
Here is the salient quote from his will of 5/5/1798 (emphasis added):
“I, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, being just on my departure from America, do hereby declare and
direct that should I make no other testamentary disposition of my property in the United States, I hereby authorize my friend Thomas Jefferson to employ the whole thereof in purchasing negroes from among his own or any others and giving them liberty in my name, in giving them an education in trade or otherwise, and in having them instructed for their new condition in the duties of morality which may make them good neighbors, good fathers or mothers, husbands or wives, in their duty as citizens, teaching them to be defenders of their liberty and country, and of the good order of society, and in whatsoever may make them happy and useful. And I make the said Thomas Jefferson my executor of this.”
I tend to agree that Thomas Jefferson, at an old age at the time of Kosciuszko’s death, refused to execute the will of his friend for good reasons. However, Thomas Jefferson made the effort to refer this will to another friend of him (i.e. John Hartwell Cocke) for execution, but this friend refused as well.
Upon his return to Poland in 1784, “[f]or five years he lived in poverty on a small country estate, in debt, moreover, because of his exceptional deed of freeing his serfs from part of their villein service.”
No comments:
Post a Comment