Biskupi w obradach sejmu grodzieńskiego 1793 roku

ENAn exceptionally small number of senators appeared at the Grodno Seym, among whom there were only three bishops: Józef Kossakowski, Ignacy Massalski and Wojciech Skarszewski. Their participation in the deliberations was necessary in order to ensure the relative legality of the partition parliament in Grodno, because they had to represent the episcopate from Greater Poland, Lesser Poland and Lithuania. They also had to participate in the work of parliamentary deputies, which they usually chaired, a position often entrusted to Skarszewski. In this exceptional Seym, the bishops had no opportunity to avoid expressing their opinion during the voting, which translated into their very high oratorical activity. It was connected with the need to present appropriate oratory skills, which they were endowed with to an uneven degree. Particularly noticeable differences were in the strength of their voice, though Massalski was already deprived of it as oldest and most ailing in their group. They also differed in the ability to choose the right argumentation, which was particularly important for gaining support for the ratification of territorial cessions to Russia and Prussia, a skill which was demonstrated to the greatest extent by Kossakowski, while Skarszewski, at the same time, was characterized by clumsiness. Still, all of them presented the same submissiveness to the demands of the invaders, guided by their own interest (including collecting salaries from ambassadors) or timidity. They were considered traitors by public opinion and finally, in 1794, two of them were sentenced to death and only Skarszewski was pardoned, which did not change the way he was seen by the public. Keywords: Grodno Seym of 1793, Jozef Kossakowski, Ignacy Massalski, Wojciech Skarszewski, partitions of the Commonwealth. [From the publication]

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