Day 28: A Polish Revolutionary

     In 1776, America decided that it had had enough with the British, and they were gonna take their ball and bat and leave the British Empire.  Obviously, our tea-drinking rulers from across the pond took issue with that, and thus we got involved in the Revolutionary War.  Now while the Revolutionary spirit displayed by our Founding Fathers would serve as a shining example to this day, we needed some help.  In addition to the French getting in on the action to thumb their nose at the Brits, there were a number of ex-pats from other countries who helped us out.

     One of those folks was Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish General.  Before we get too far into this, we should iron out one important detail: his name.  "Thaddeus" is just the most popular Anglicized way of spelling his given name.  His actual name is Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko.  In Lithuanian his name is given as Tadeušas(or Tadas) Kosciuška, and in Belarusian it is Tadevuš Kaściuška.  How Kosciuszko came to be involved with the Revolution is an interesting story.  Due to a conflagration of turmoil in Poland and family infighting, Kosciuszko had emigrated to France by 1775.  That next summer, word of the Revolution made its way to the people of France, who were in total favor of it. After a successful appeal by American diplomats, the French government gave a substantial loan to an arms dealer so that there could be a shell corporation established to smuggle guns and ammo to the Continental Army.  In June of 1776, Kosciuszko, having made contact with the arms dealer, sailed for America.  His first task was to supervise the fortification of Philadelphia.  After that, he served in both the Northern and Southern Theaters of the war, and then retired after the war ended.

     Upon his retirement, he returned to Poland, where he was active in the military there, but then eventually left Poland for good.  First to settle in France, and then finally in Switzerland.  One final note about Kosciuszko of note pertains to his will.  In it, he left $50,000 to Thomas Jefferson so that Jefferson's slaves could be freed and educated.  However, Jefferson was unable to carry out his bequest, since in 1817 (when Kosciuszko died) the state of Virginia did not allow the freeing or the education of slaves.  Therefore, that portion of his bequest languished until 1852, when the U.S. Supreme Court gave the money back to his heirs living in Poland.

     Now, I bet you're all wondering how this connects back to Chicago.  On the Museum Campus, there are a series of statues.  One of them is of Nicolaus Copernicus, and another one is of Kosciuszko.  And in yet another rehash of the name dispute from earlier, the inscription on the statue identifies him as "Theodore Kosciuszko".  This just serves as yet another example of the Polish influence in Chicago, as well as an important reminder that our freedom wasn't paid for by only Americans, but at times concerned foreigners as well.