| Today is the 275 birthday of Polish hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the Naczelnik, Commander of Poland. Before leading an insurrection against Czarist Russia, he was a hero of the US Continental Army. As an engineer, he devised the winning strategy at the Battle of Saratoga, a turning point of the American Revolution. Kosciuszko drafted plans to build a fortress at West Point, suggesting to Thomas Jefferson that it be utilized as a military academy.
In a historic act of treason, the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold tried to sell Kosciuszko’s plans of West Point to the British. As a commander, Kosciuszko supported Poland’s democratic constitution and fought to free European serfs and win more rights for Jews and women. In the U.S., Kosciuszko spoke up for the rights of Native Americans and donated his salary from the American Revolution to purchase and free enslaved Africans and to purchase land, farm tools, and pay for their education.
Kosciuszko was a prince of tolerance ahead of his time who said, “we are all equal.” Frustrated by the subjugation of his own country, he wrote, “I am the only true Pole in Europe, all the others have been rendered by circumstances the subjects of different powers.” And so on this anniversary of his birth, we honor Kosciuszko who was always a “true Pole.”
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