WARSAW: the May 3 Constitution was the first such act enacted in modern Europe. In the world, it was the second, just after the American Constitution and just before the French Constitution. It was adopted by the deputies of the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on May 3, 1791.
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The Constitution of May 3 – the first constitution in Europe
The constitution changed the system to a hereditary monarchy and also took away the right to vote and decide on matters of state from the landless nobility (chars). It also established the Catholic religion as the state religion, but guaranteed the freedom of other religions.
The constitution also established the Catholic religion as the state religion, but guaranteed the freedom of other faiths.
The revolutionary change was the political equalization of the bourgeoisie and nobility and the state protection of peasants, who acquired rights through it. The Constitution formally abolished the liberum veto, i.e., the possibility of breaking off the image of the Sejm with just one deputy. The constitutional monarchy model developed by the Government Act was taking on the characteristics of a constitutional-parliamentary monarchy.
Constitution of May 3 – to save the Fatherland
In the preamble of the Government Act it is written:
„…Free from the disgraceful dictates of foreign violence, valuing more dearly than life, than personal happiness, political existence, the external independence and internal freedom of the nation whose fate is entrusted to our hands, wishing and to earn the blessing, the gratitude of contemporary and future generations, despite the obstacles that passions may exercise in us for the common good, for the consolidation of freedom, for the salvation of our Fatherland and its borders with the greatest constancy of spirit, we enact this Constitution and this one entirely as sacred, as unshakable we declare”.
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Constitution of the 3rd of May – sworn in by the King
The Constitution was passed without reading by the combined states in the Senatorial Hall of the Royal Castle in Warsaw. Inflanta MP Michal Zabiello called for the adoption of the constitution, and King Stanislaw August to swear it in. The ruler raised his hand as a sign that he wanted to speak, which the supporters of the constitution understood as a desire to take an oath. So the king did indeed take the oath at the hands of Bishop Feliks Turski of Krakow, and then asked the deputies to proceed to St. John’s Collegiate Church for a thanksgiving service.
Constitution of May 3 – annulled in 1793
The May 3 Constitution ceased to be a valid legal act on November 23, 1793. At that time, the Sejm of Grodno declared the Four-Year Sejm defunct and repealed all the resolutions it had established.
„-First, The May 3 Constitution was the first in a long line of various later constitutions. Second, it was its own, issued by Poles and Lithuanians for the benefit of both nations. Third, she embodied the hopes of many generations who, until recently had to live either under foreign occupation or under a non-sovereign regime. Here in Warsaw, constitutions issued under the seal of Napoleon or Tsar Alexander or the Polish People’s Republic always suffered from a lack of real authority. The May 3 Constitution, on the other hand, was real, it was a beloved child choked in the cradle – ” said Prof. Norman Davis on the 200th anniversary of the May 3 Constitution.
3 May – National Holiday
The anniversary of the Constitution of May 3 was recognized as a national holiday by a resolution of the Legislative Sejm on April 29, 1919. After World War II, the communist authorities ceased and banned public celebration, and attempts to manifest the anniversary were suppressed by the police. The holiday was officially abolished by the January 18, 1951 law on public holidays, and its place was taken by Labor Day, celebrated two days earlier – May 1. It was not until 1981 that the authorities again celebrated this historic event. The National Holiday of the Third of May was reinstated by the law of April 6, 1990 (it came into force on April 28). Since 2007, May 3 has also been the national holiday of Lithuania.
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Illustration: painting by Jan Matejko „Constitution of May 3” (1891) wikipedia
The article The May 3 Constitution – the pride of the Republic is from Agencja Informacyjna.
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