235th Anniversary of Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791
This Sunday, May 3, 2026, marks the 235th anniversary of the adoption of the Polish Constitution on May 3, 1791. This year also marks the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence adopted July 4, 1776.
Poland and America share not only the early adoption of a written constitution, but a profound love of liberty, freedom and the right of self-governance.
The Polish Constitution was the first written constitution in Europe, and the second in the world after the American Constitution — which had become effective on March 4, 1789 after ratification by nine states (the required 2/3 of the then-existing 13 states).
Based primarily on the governing principles of Great Britain and America, the Polish Constitution unfortunately lasted only a short while before it was abrogated by the Grodno Sejm in 1793. Two years later, Poland disappeared from the map of Europe in the final 1795 Partition among its rapacious neighbors Prussia, Austria and Russia.
A written constitution is only as good as the people it governs — if they don’t honor its terms, then it is no more than ink on paper. In speaking of the American Constitution, Founding Father John Adams said it this way: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
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