" "For our rights and liberty," "For
Cracow and our country," or "Vivat Kosciuszko." The drums were rolled,
and in the midst of a dead silence the army took the oath of the Rising.

"I, N. N., swear that I will be faithful to the Polish nation, and
obedient to Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the Commander-in-Chief, who has been
summoned by this nation to the defence of the freedom, liberties, and
independence of our country. So help me God and the innocent Passion of
His Son."

Then Kosciuszko himself stepped forward. With bared head, his eyes
lifted to heaven and his hands resting on his sword, standing in plain
civilian garb before his people, surrounded by no pomp or retinue, in
the simplicity that was natural to him, the new dictator of Poland in
his turn took his oath:

"I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, swear in the sight of God to the whole Polish
nation that I will use the power entrusted to me for the personal
oppression of none, but will only use it for the defence of the
integrity of the boundaries, the regaining of the independence of the
nation, and the solid establishment of universal freedom. So help me God
and the innocent Passion of His Son."

He then went inside the town hall. There he was greeted by cries of
"Long live Kosciuszko ! Long live the defender of our country! "When
silence was restored he delivered a speech, the exact terms of which are
not accurately recorded; but it is known that he demanded of every class
in the country to rally to the national banner--nobles, burghers,
priests, peasants, Jews--and that he placed himself at the disposal of
his people without requiring of them any oath, for, said he, both he and
they were united in one common interest. Then he ordered the formal Act
of the Rising to be read. It was received with an outburst of applause,
and the clamour of rejoicing rang to the skies.

This Act was in part grafted on Kosciuszko's personal observation of the
American Declaration of Independence, but only in part. Kosciuszko's own
intensely Polish soul speaks through the document--the anguish of a Pole
at the sight of his country's wrongs, the cry of a desperate but
undespairing patriotism, the breathing of the spirit that should bring
new life.

"The present condition of unhappy Poland is known to the world"--so the
Act opens. "The iniquity of two neighbouring Powers and the crimes of
traitors to the country have plunged her into this abyss. Resolved upon
the destruction of the Polish name