June 3, 1971
Page 17764
THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO HOME
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I am pleased to cosponsor Senator HARTKE's bill to establish the Thaddeus Kosciusko home at 301 Pine Street in Philadelphia as a national historic site. In paying tribute to General Kosciusko in this way, we will be doing more than honoring one of the military geniuses of the American Revolution. We will be doing more than officially recognizing the contributions of a beloved son of Poland. We will be honoring a man whose entire life was a testimony to freedom for which he fought.
Thaddeus Kosciusko was one of the many outstanding sons of Europe who journeyed to the New World to aid the cause of American independence. He served that cause brilliantly – first, by designing the fortifications at West Point and Saratoga, and later by fighting gallantly in General Greene's Carolina campaign.
Not content merely to participate in a struggle against tyranny in a foreign land, Kosciusko returned home to Poland in 1784 to lead his people in their unsuccessful uprisings against foreign domination. His leadership in that rebellion established him as a Polish national hero.
But, Mr. President, there is a lesser known fact of Kosciusko's life in America that I wish to honor at this time. Just before he left America for the last time in 1798, he drew up a will disposing of his American property. In part, it read:
I, Thaddeus Kosciusko, being just in my departure from America, do hereby declare and direct that should I make no other testamentary disposition of my property in the United States thereby authorize my friend Thomas Jefferson to employ the whole thereof in purchasing negroes from among his own as any others and giving them liberty in my name, in giving them an education in trades 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, and in their duties 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 said Thomas Jefferson my executor of this.
Mr. President, Senator HARTKE's bill would authorize what I believe would be the first national memorial to a great son of Poland. I urge speedy action on the bill so that the Thaddeus Kosciusko National Historic Site will be a reality long before Philadelphia and the Nation celebrate our 200th anniversary.