The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1879-09-27
Kosciusko,s viii.

A Charlottesville, Va, paper has the
following: Among the records of the
clerks Office Of the Circuit Court of this
county there is document which, from
the notable position the parties con-
nected with it have held in the history of
our country, is of interest. The docu-
ment in question is the will of Thaddeus
Kosciusko, the Polish patriot, the friend
of liberty and of Jefferson. Thaddeus
Kosciusco was born in the Grand Duchy
of Silliciana in 1852. He was sprung of
noble ancestors and inherited consider
able estate. Early in life he espoused
the cause of civil liberty. and one of the
first acts of his manhood was to break
the fetters of his own serfs. After the
partition of Poland, in 1772, he retired
to Paris and sought in her schools mil
itary education. It was here that his at
tention was first directed to America, and
the struggle in which the colonists were
then engaged against the mother country
offered wide field of usefulness to his
hberty-loving heart. He arrived in this
country in ITS, and in the same year
was appointed by the Colonial Congress
colonel of engineers. His services in
the cause of liberty were signal and val
liable. He was ever selected for the
most dangerous and difficult work, and
besides planning the Notifications of va
rious other important forts, the works at
West Point were designed by him and
built under his personal supervision. As
memorial of the valuable services rem
dered in this case, the cadets at West
Point have erected O statue to him
f1a T,x q.
reward for his great services, Congress
bestowed upon him the rank of Briga-
dier General, and passed a vote declara-
tory of their high sense of his faithful
and meritorious conduct" Between
Kosciusko and Mr.. Jefferson there existed
the warmest friendship and intimacy
He was welcome guest at Monticello,
where.he spent some time, and the mu-
tual love of these two great men for lib
| erty and freedom made their companion
ship highly congenial. With the price
| of his service as soldier in the American
army, he had purchased American secu-
rites, and in these consisted the property
comprised in his testamentary DISPOSE
ton. On the eve of his departure from
this country, in 1913, he made this will
and left it in the possession of Mr.. Jeffer-
! son.
The ruling passion of his life-that OF
gaining for his fellow men liberty and
freedoms manifested clearly in this
/ quaint instrument. It reads as follows
/ I, Thaddeus Kosciusko, being just on
my departure from America, do hereby
declare and direct that, should / make
no other testamentary disposition of my
/ property in the United States, | hereby
authorize my friend Thomas Jefferson tc
employ the whole thereof in purchasing
negroes from among his own or any
others and giving them their liberty in
my name, in giving them an education
in trades or otherwise, and in having
them instructed for their new condition
in their duties of morality, which may
make them good neighbors, good fathers
/ or mothers husbands or wives, and il
their duties as citizens, teaching them te
be defenders of their liberty and coun
try and useful; and l make the sale
Thomas Jefferson executor on this 5tl
day of May, 1889 I. KoscIUsKo.
At the bottom of the will is the usua
memorandum of its probate, as of the
18th day of May, 1919, and the memo
randum also contains the statement thai
''Mr. Jefferson, the executor therein
named, refuses to take upon himself the
burthen OF the execution of the sale
will. Teste, John Carr. G. c."
In letter to an eminent Frenchman
written about this time, Mr.. Jefferson
states that he now ''too old to undertak,
such an onerous duty, but is striving t.
have the philanthropic wishes of til,
donor discharged" The probate of tn
will gave occasion to very interesting
correspondence between Mr.. Jefferson
and VIM. Writ, then Attorney Genera
of the United States, as to where the vii
should be proved. It was decided as Mr.
J. held the evidences of the debts, TIL
Circuit Court of this county was tn
proper forum for its probate.
1t nowhere appears whether the pro
visions of the will were carried out o
not. William Wertenbaker, the venera
BILE Librarian of the University, was
, clerk in the Office of the Circuit Court q
the time, and remembers the circum
, stances of the recordation of the will
, What became of this property is nc
known. The securities may have bee
. worthless. and it is highly probable tina
: the philanthropic wishes of the dono
were never carried out.
After Kosciusco had assisted our fore
J fathers to establish the temple of free
dom he returned to his native land
where he fought bravely for liberation
but failing in this he retired to Switzel
land, where he died in 1877.