Pivotal Parliament Session: Tuesday, May 19, 1789

The session was initiated by Speaker Stanisław Małachowski with the following words:

The speech of the Speaker of Congress can be found on page 194.

Spectators were summoned for a recess, and Speaker Stanisław Małachowski gave the floor to Secretary Jan Łuszczewski to read the draft note with amendments.

After the reading, Speaker Stanisław Małachowski asked for agreement, which was loudly expressed by all present.

Following the spectators' recall, Speaker Stanisław Małachowski began reading a draft proposal for the appointment of temporary judges to hear the inquests of those accused of insurrections.

After the reading, Senator Symeon Szydłowski from Żarnów responded:

The read-out draft for the establishment of a secular court seems to me to be against the Law, for if there are guilty parties convincingly accused of crimine status, we have in our Law that such cases should belong to Congressional Courts. We still do not know if these incarcerated individuals are convicted of Crimen Status because if that were the case: a secular court would not be a sufficient tribunal. Your Honor, though you have nominated such worthy individuals from the Senate and the Honorable Marshals of the Confederation from the Polish-Ukrainian State, I do understand that it is not for a court but for an inquest. It is only when we are informed of the transgressions of the inquirers, should we find them committing Crimen Status, then, I say, the decision will belong to Your Honor along with the Congressional Court. Then, Dear President, you, sir, will sit with the Senate, and the Representatives, according to the Laws, by secret votes, will be assigned so accordingly to the Law, I have expressed my opinion, I do not understand that anyone should take offense that I do not allow the read-out draft.

Priest Józef Kossakowski, bishop senator from Latvia expressed that there are only presumptions about those, it is not known whether the insolence of scoundrels or politics or imagined misfortunes and fanaticism are the spring of the rebellions, yet the source never hides when persons captured by various Courts will be sentenced to death without reference to the highest authority.

Mateusz Butrymowicz expressed:

If our Law is to close the provisions about the Congressional Court as lightly as expressed in this draft, then I submit an addendum, so that this court uses every possible way to avoid the truth; because what other than the words of the draft mean that this court should focus only on voluntary confessions in old criminal cases to pursue even a murderer if there was no Delator, then by the Court Instigator. And if one life is so valued, then us, having deprived so many lives already, some through the plots of scoundrels, others by the sword of justice without investigation of the source and the initial leader, should we now let them go? Oh unfortunate motherland, we want to cast a veil over you ourselves, you poor citizens, you infants, we want to abandon you as the target of bitterness, so that just like in Human when the enemy slaughtered your massacre, threw you into the wells; not to establish Courts but to examine as strictly as possible, and not only the guilty but also the suspected, it is better to cause trouble for ten innocent than to let one guilty go free.

Wojciech Suchodolski, representative from Chełm expressed:

A householder who suffers a ready enemy in his home without securing his integrity by granting him the benefits of the law and not avail oneself of these benefits, that enemy is the archimandrite of Slutsk; our state's zeal could have done nothing other but to have him under guard for instigating revolts according to received reports and to bring him here; this archimandrite cannot be protected by the law because not even in the Commonwealth can he find shelter for himself, as nothing under the protection of the law can serve him who himself violated public security.

The remaining proceedings were largely focused on the laws regarding internal security, the logistics of various parliamentary concerns, and updates on the situation with rebellions and the public's discontent.

Topics: Marshal of the Sejm Stanisław Małachowski; Note Project with amendments; appointment of temporary judges; incarcerates accused of riots; case of crimen status; public fund; tax projects and levy on Wyderkaf sums; deputies' queries and propositions; project prohibiting the emigration of serfs; Russian troops on the territory of the Republic;