[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 151 (Monday, October 28, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMEMORATING THE LIFE OF POLISH GENERAL KAZIMIERZ PULASKI
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HON. MARCY KAPTUR
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Monday, October 28, 2013
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, during this month of October, the American
people honor the life of Polish General Casimir (Kazimierz) Pulaski
whose love of liberty, bravery and military prowess in founding the
American cavalry played a pivotal role in winning our American
Revolution. Let his timeless story inspire generations to come. May the
eagles that soar over both our lands--as symbols of liberty--strengthen
our partnership in freedom's cause. Onward.
Commemorating the Life of Polish General Kazimierz Pulaski
Thank you to all who have gathered here today to remember
and to commemorate the contributions of General Casimir
Pulaski to our nation's victory in the American Revolution
and to passing to us the blessings of liberty. As a young
child, I first learned his name as the street on which our
grandparents lived which was named ``PULASKI''.
Kazimierz Pulaski was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1745, 268
years ago, son of Polish Count Jozef Pulaski and Marianna
Zielinska. Within a little more than two decades, he would
come to be known as a freedom fighter and ``the father of the
American cavalry.'' Through his family in Poland, Pulaski
became involved at a very early age--age 15--in political and
military activity. He accompanied his father and other
members of the Polish nobility to publicly oppose the
Prussian, Russian, and Austrian empires' designs on
dominating their Polish homeland. Pulaski pushed for Polish
independence, free of outside interference. When he was
outlawed in his homeland by the Russian empire after initial
uprisings failed, he decided to travel to Paris, France, in a
self imposed exile. In so doing, he came to befriend Benjamin
Franklin, a father of our country, who also had travelled to
France imbued with the spirit of the French Revolution and
its values of liberty, equality, fraternity. They both were
seeking alternatives to the empire-driven political systems
of the European continent. Franklin was captivated with the
ideas of the Enlightenment as he tried to help lead a
fledgling nation, casting off the oppression of Great
Britain's monarchy. Franklin was impressed by Pulaski and
wrote of him to George Washington: ``Count Pulaski of Poland,
is an officer famous throughout Europe for his bravery and
conduct in defense of the liberties of his country against
the three great invading powers of Russia, Austria and
Prussia . . . he may be highly useful to our service.''
A century before their encounter, new ideas of how people
should live, and govern themselves, were brewing and emerging
on a European continent fraught with empires and suppression
of individual liberty. These ideas were transformational
concepts in human history. They revolved around how people
should live and govern themselves. The new concepts
emphasized democracy not monarchy; equality not subservience
nor serfdom; liberty not repression; freedom of thought and
reason, not dogma nor emotion; freedom of expression not
regimented thought; freedom of press, not propaganda; and
full separation of church and state, not theocratic control
of government. For those of us living in the 21st century,
with our nation an heir of Enlightenment thinking, perhaps we
have become so accustomed to our way of life that we forget
how radical these thoughts were at the time. Let us remember
what a price was paid for their emergence globally.
Pulaski's life reminds us of that early struggle of our
founders to build a new America, casting off the remnants of
old empires. Pulaski volunteered his services in the
Revolutionary War of the United States. America's founders
were about building a brand new nation girded by
Enlightenment ideals. That struggle did not happen overnight.
In fact we should recall that almost 4 decades after Pulaski
first volunteered, the new America was still fighting for its
future. The ballad ``Battle of New Orleans'' recounts
America's fight to finally drive the British from its
territory. You might recall the words from the last great
land Battle in the War of 1812 . . .``in 1814, we took a
little trip, along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty
Mississip. We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
and we caught the bloody British in a town called New
Orleans.'' Of course, this year of 2013, our region of the
United States is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the
Battle of Lake Erie, when Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry
defeated the British in Lake Erie, the only time the British
Navy has ever lost a battle on the high seas. The British
monarchy finally was driven out of the westernmost reaches of
the new America.
So, imagine, Casimir Pulaski fighting bravely 33 years
earlier before the War of 1812, at the dawn of the American
Revolution. To my knowledge, there are no ballads written yet
about his achievements, though they are legendary and worthy
of expression.
Pulaski travelled in 1777 to Philadelphia--America's first
capital--a decade before our Constitution was drafted and
signed. He wrote to Washington: ``I came here, where freedom
is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it.''
Washington knew that the colonies had no trained cavalry, so
he met with Pulaski and introduced him to Marquis de
Lafayette and John Hancock. Pulaski showed off some of his
riding abilities, and tried to convince Washington of the
superiority of the cavalry over the infantry. And in Sept.
1777 Washington persuaded the Continental Congress to give
Pulaski temporary command of the Cavalry. On that very same
day, Pulaski pushed back the Birdshot at the Battle of
Brandywine in which he came to the aid of Washington's forces
and demonstrated his brilliant military tactics. He saved
Washington's Army from defeat, and some have recorded he took
a bullet aimed at George Washington himself. Congress
acknowledged Pulaski's leadership and commissioned him as a
Brigadier General. He was placed in command of four light
cavalry regiments. But, Pulaski as a foreigner had difficulty
with the Continental Congress allowing him to fight. So he
asked Washington to allow him to start his own legion. He
even offered to pay for them. Congress finally agreed. With
68 horses and 200 foot soldiers, the Pulaski Legion would
become the colonists' first fully trained cavalry. He spent
the winter of 1777 to 1778 at Valley Forge with most of the
army. He was then ordered to defend Little Egg Harbor in New
Jersey and then Minisink on the Delaware; Washington then
ordered him to proceed South to Charleston, South Carolina.
During the Battle of Savannah, on October 9, 1779, Pulaski
was wounded by cannon as he charged into battle on horseback.
He fell to the ground, mortally wounded. He died from
complications from that wound. But Pulaski was so respected
for his courage, even by his enemies, that he was spared the
musket and permitted to be carried from the battlefield. He
died on Oct 15, 1779 at age 34. There is a Pulaski Monument
erected in his honor, on Monterrey Square in Savannah,
Georgia.
In 1791, twelve years after his death, his homeland in
Poland adopted a new constitution modeled on that of the U.S.
Constitution, which just had been adopted in 1789. The Polish
Constitution too was a revolutionary document as Poland
became the first nation in Europe to outlaw serfdom. Indeed,
her constitution was so threatening to Europe's empires,
Poland was wiped off the map of Europe for 126 years emerging
as a nation after World War I and the Peace Treaty of
Versailles due significantly to the friendship between U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson and Polish pianist Ignacy
Paderewski.
Many national recognitions of Pulaski's contributions to
America's victory in our Revolution have been accomplished.
On October 29, 1779, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution
that a monument be dedicated to him. The first memorial was
built in 1854 and a bust of Pulaski was added to busts of
other heroes in the U.S. Capitol in 1867. In 1910, President
William Taft of Ohio unveiled a Congress-sponsored General
Casimir Pulaski statue. In 1929, Congress passed a General
Pulaski Memorial Day. There is a federal observance of
General Pulaski Memorial Day commemorating Pulaski's death
from wounds suffered at the Siege of Savannah on October 9,
1779. After a previous attempt failed, on Nov. 6, 2009,
President Barack Obama signed a joint resolution of the U.S.
Senate and House conferring on Pulaski an honorary American
citizenship, 230 years after his death, making him the 7th
person so honored.
Today, we, here in the heart of Cleveland, again bear
witness and respectfully remember General Casimir Pulaski. We
express our gratitude in America's third century for his
bravery and vision. And we collectively join together, as
eagles fly above both our nations, to say: Long live his
memory, long live America, long live Poland and long live
liberty.
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