GOVERNMENT ACT on May 3, 1791

In the name of God in the Holy Trinity, One. Stanisław August, by God's grace and the will of the Nation, the King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Ruthenian, Prussian, Mazowiecki, Żmudzki, Kijowski, Wołyński, Podolski, Inflancki, Smoleński, Siewierski and Czerniechowski, together with the confederate states, in double number representing the Nation of Poland, recognizing that the fate of all of us has only hung from the consolidation and perfection of the national constitution, having learned about our long-standing faults with our long experience, and wanting to take advantage of the time in which Europe finds itself, and this dying moment that returned to us, free from shameful foreign violence orders, valuing more than life, over personal happiness, political existence, external independence and internal freedom of the nation, whose fate is entrusted to our hands, wanting and for blessing, to deserve the gratitude of contemporary and future generations, despite the obstacles that passions may exert in us for the common good, for the foundation of freedom, for the salvation of homelands Our and its borders, we pass this constitution with the greatest constancy of spirit, and we declare this one completely holy and unshakable, as long as the nation, in time, by prescribed law, by its express will, recognizes the need to change any article in it. To which constitution the further laws of the present Seym are to be adhered to in all. I. The ruling religion The prevailing national religion is and will be the Holy Roman Catholic Faith with all its laws. Transition from the dominant faith to any denomination is forbidden under penalty of apostasy 1). That the same holy faith commands us to love our neighbors, therefore we owe peace in faith and government protection to all people, whatever their religion, and therefore we keep all rites and religions free in Polish countries, according to national laws. II. Nobility, landlords Respecting the memory of our ancestors as founders of the Free Government, we most solemnly provide the nobility with all the freedoms, freedoms, prerogatives, and priority in private and public life, and especially rights, statutes and privileges are granted by Casimir the Great, Ludwik Węgierski, Władysław Jagiełło and Witold, his brother, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, nevertheless from Władysław and Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, from Jan Albert 1), Alexander and Sigismund the First brothers, from Sigismund Augustus, the last of the Jagiellonian line, fairly and legally granted, we confirm, assure and recognize as unshakable. We grant the dignity of the nobility in Poland equal to all degrees of nobility used anywhere. We recognize all nobility as equal to each other, not only with regard to seeking office and service to their homeland, honor, fame, benefits, but also with regard to the equal use of privileges and prerogatives, they constitute servants of noblemen, and above all the rights of personal security, freedom personal and movable property and land, as we have served everybody for centuries, we want and keep intact intact, we want and we promise most solemnly that against anyone's property of any variation or conception it shall not make any claims under the pretext of iurium regalium (3) and by any other pretext to civil property, either in part or in whole, it shall not make any claims to itself. Why do we respect, protect and strengthen personal security and all property, to whomever legally belongs, as a real community knot, as a pupil of civil freedom, and so that we want to have respected, insured and intact for future times? We recognize the nobility as the foremost defenders of freedom and of this constitution. Every nobleman is to be respected by virtue, citizenship and honor, its permanence to be respected, as the only fortress of our homeland and our freedoms. III. Cities and townspeople The law passed at the present Seym under the title: "Our royal cities free in the countries of the Commonwealth" we want to have fully maintained and as part of this constitution we declare, as a right of free Polish nobility, for the security of their freedoms and the whole common homeland, a new, true and effective strength. IV. Peasants peasants The agricultural people, from whose hands the most abundant national wealth flows, who is the most numerous in the nation, and therefore the most brave force in the country, both through justice, humanity and Christian duties, as well as through our own interests well understood, under the protection of the law and national government stating that henceforth any freedoms, grants or contracts would be authentically arranged by the heirs with the owners of their estates, i.e. that these freedoms, grants and contracts would be with the communities, i.e. with each individual village resident, would constitute a common and mutual obligation, according to the fair meaning of the conditions and the description contained in such assignments and contracts, under the custody of the subject's national government. Such agreements and the obligations resulting from them, voluntarily accepted by one landowner, not only by himself, but also by his successors or by the rights of buyers, will be so binding that they will never be arbitrarily altered by them. They will not be able to remove any other property or property from voluntary agreements, accepted grants and obligations connected with them, otherwise they will not be able to remove themselves, only in the manner and under such conditions as in the descriptions of these contracts they had, which, either for eternity, i.e. until accepted, strictly will apply to them. Having thus entrusted the heirs with all the benefits of their peasants, and wishing to encourage the multiplication of the native population as effectively as possible, we proclaim complete freedom for all people, both newcomers and those who would first leave the country and now want to return to their homeland. so much so that every person newly arrived or returning to the countries of the Republic of Poland, as soon as he has stepped foot on Polish soil, is free to use his industry completely, and where and when he wishes, he is free to make agreements for settlement, labor or rents, such as and as long as an agreement is made, he is free to settle in a town or in the countryside, he is free to live in Poland or to a country to which he wishes to return, having fulfilled the obligations which he has voluntarily assumed. V. Government or the designation of public authorities All power of human society comes from the will of the nation. So that all states, civil freedom and the order of the community remain in equal weight forever, the three authorities of the government of the Polish nation should and by the will of this law they will forever, that is, the legislative power in the assembled states, the supreme executive power in the king and the guard and the judiciary in the jurisdictions finally constituted or to be established. VI. The Seym, that is, the legislature The Seym, that is the states assembled into two chambers, will be divided: the deputies' chamber and the senatorial chamber under the presidency of the king. The Chamber of Deputies, as the image and composition of national sovereignty, will be the temple of legislation. Therefore, in the Chamber of Deputies, first all bills will be decided: 1 as to general rights, i.e. constitutional, civil, criminal and to the establishment of perpetual taxes, in which the proposals from the throne to voivodeships, lands and poviats to be considered, and by instructions the incoming ones are to be taken first to the room; 2-as to parliamentary resolutions, i.e. temporary salaries, coin rank, incurring public debt, ennoblement 1) and other random awards, distribution of public expenses, ordinary 2) and extraordinary expenses, 3) war, peace, final ratification of trade union treaties and trade, all diplomatic acts and agreements, the law of the adjoining peoples, the acknowledgment of executive magistracies 4) and the like, the main national needs corresponding to the main national needs in which the propositions from the throne will come directly to the chamber of deputies having priority in the conduct. The senatorial chamber, composed of bishops, voivodes, castellans and ministers under the presidency of the king, who has the right to give his vote once, 5) his vote, another time, 6) to dissolve personally or send his opinion to this chamber, it is the duty of 1-for every law that formal passage in the deputies' chamber to the senate should be immediately sent, accepted or suspended by the further nation of deliberation 7) by the majority of votes described in the law. Acceptance will impart the power and sanctity of the law. The suspension, however, will only suspend the right to a future Ordinary Seym, at which, if the consent is repeated, the law suspended from the Senate must be adopted; 2-for each parliamentary resolution in the matters enumerated above, which the chamber of deputies to the senate should immediately, together with this chamber of deputies, decide by a majority of votes, and the joined majority of both chambers, described in accordance with the law, will be the judgment and will of the states. We warn that senators and ministers in their office, either in the guard or in committee, votum decisivum 8) in the Seym will not have and only sit in the Senate to give explanations 9) at the Seym's request. The Seym will always be ready: legislative and ordinary. It is to start every two years and will continue according to the description of the law on parliaments. Ready, when called in urgent needs, it is to decide only on the matter for which it will be called, or on a need after the time of its convocation. No law can be abolished in the Ordinary Seym at which it was established. The set of the Seym will consist of a number of people, described by a lower law, both in the chamber of deputies and in the chamber of senators. We solemnly secure the "Law on sejmiks" established at the present Seym as the most important principle of civil freedom. As legislation cannot be exercised by everyone, and the nation relieves itself in this respect by representatives, i.e. envoys of its voluntarily elected, we stipulate that the deputies elected in the sejmiks elected in the legislation and general needs of the nation under this constitution are to be considered as representatives of the entire nation, being the composition of common confidence. Everything, everywhere, by a majority of votes should be decided; therefore liberum veto, confederations of all kinds and confederate assemblies, as opposed to the spirit of this constitution, overthrowing the government, destroying society, we abolish forever. By preventing, on the one hand, the violent and frequent variations of the national constitution, and, on the other hand, recognizing the need to improve it, after experiencing its effects on public welfare, we mark the time and time for the revision and improvement of the constitution every twenty-five years. Willing to have such an extraordinary constitutional Sejm according to a separate law of description about it. VII. King, executive power No government can stand without the brave executive power. The happiness of nations depends on the righteous laws, and on their execution depends on the laws. Experience has taught that the neglect of this part of the government has filled Poland with misfortunes. Having thus entrusted the free Polish nation with the power to establish rights for itself and the power to be vigilant over any executive power, and to elect officials to magistracies, we entrust the power of the highest exercise of rights to the king in his council, which council shall be called the Guard of Rights. The executive power is strictly bound to uphold the rights and to exercise them. There it will be active on its own, where laws allow, where laws need supervision, execution, and even strong help. Obedience is always due to her from all magistracies, we leave the power of urgency to disobey and neglect their duties in its hands. The executive power will not be able to make or translate, impose taxes and levies under any name, incur public debts, the distribution of tax revenues by the Seym made to alter, issue wars, peace or treaty and any definitive diplomatic act 1) contain. It will only be allowed to negotiate temporarily with foreigners, and to deal with temporary and common needs for the security and peace of the country, about which she should report to the nearest parliamentary assembly. The throne of Poland to be elected by familje 2) we want and we are to have forever. The disasters of interregnums experienced, periodically the government of overturning, the obligation to insure the fate of every inhabitant of Polish land and forever closing the path of foreign powers' influence, the memory of the greatness and happiness of our homeland in the times of the still reigning family, the need to turn away from the ambitions of the throne of strangers and wealthy Poles, to unanimously to cultivate national freedom, indicated the prudence of our surrender to the Polish throne by the law of succession. Therefore, we declare that after the life that God's goodness will allow us, today's Saxon elector will reign in Poland. The dynasty of future Polish kings will begin in the person of Frederick Augustus, today's Saxon elector, whose successor de lumbis 3) from the male gender, we assign the throne of Poland. The eldest son of the king who reigned after his father is to succeed the throne. If the present-day elector of Saski had no male offspring, then the husband, selected by the elector, with the consent of the states gathered for his daughter, would begin with the line of male succession to the Polish throne. For which we declare Maria Augusta Nepomucena, the daughter of the elector, as Infanta Polska, while retaining the law, no prescription 4) not eligible for election to the throne of the second house after the expiry of the first house. Each king, upon ascending the throne, will make an oath to God and the People to observe this constitution, na pacta conventa 5), ​​which will be arranged with the present-day Saxon elector as designated for the throne and which, like the old ones, will bind him. The king's person is holy and safe from everything. By not doing anything by itself, it cannot answer the nation for anything. This law and constitution recognizes and declares him not to be an autocrat, but the father and head of the nation. Income, as will be described in the covenants of conventions and the prerogatives proper to the throne, will not be affected by this constitution for the future elect. All public records, tribunals, courts, magistracy, coins, stamps under the king's name should go. The king, to whom all power to do good should be left to him, will have the ius agratiandi 6) for the death of those condemned, except in criminibus status 7). It will be up to the king to dispose of the highest national armed forces in time of war and to appoint army commanders, with their free variation upon the will of the people. It will be his duty to patent officers and appoint officials according to the law of the lower description, to appoint bishops and senators according to the description of that law, and to appoint ministers as prime officials of the executive power. The guard, i.e. the royal council, added to the supervision of the king and the execution of the rights of the king, will consist of: they cannot sign; 2-to out of five ministers, i.e. the minister of police, minister of the seal, minister belli, 9), minister of the treasury, minister of the seal of foreign affairs; 3, of the two secretaries, of whom they will keep one guard protocol and the other foreign affairs protocol, both of them without a decisive vote. The heir to the throne from minors, having exited and sworn the constitution, executed at all guard meetings, but without a voice, possibly conscious. The Sejm Marshal, being elected for two years, will be included in the number of members of the Guard, without entering into its resolutions, only for the purpose of summoning a ready Seym. In such an event, if he had found VIII. Judicial power The judiciary power can be exercised neither by the legislature nor by the king, but by magistracies, then established and elected. And she should be so tied to places that every person close to him would find justice, that the criminal would see everywhere the threatening hand of the national government over him. 1-mo. Therefore, we establish courts of first instance for each voivodeship, land and poviat, to which judges will be elected at sejmiks. Courts of first instance will always be ready and vigilant to do justice to those who need it. There will be an appeal from these courts to the main tribunals, to be provided for each province, also composed of people at the assemblies elected. And these courts of both first and last instance will be landowners' courts for the nobility and all landowners with anyone else in causis iuris et facti 1). 2-to. We secure judicial jurisdictions for all cities according to the present law of the present Sejm. 3-thio. 2) We want to have separate courts of referenda for each province in matters of free peasants, subject to the former laws of this court. 4th. We keep court courts 3), assessors 4), relational 5) and Courland. 5th. Executive committees will have courts on matters belonging to their administration. 6th. In addition to civil and criminal courts for all states, there will be a Supreme Court, known as the Seym, to which persons will be elected at the opening of each Seym. This court will include transgressions against the nation and the king, that is, crimina status. We order the new code of civil and criminal law to be drawn up by persons appointed by the Seym. 1) In causis iuris et facti - in cases in accordance with the law and procedure 2) A referendum court established in 1507, the king's highest dominal court. Individual court. He considered matters brought by peasants from the royal lands, the economy, monastic estates belonging to the royal cities. 3) Court courts - courts of the royal court of last instance, sitting at the king's place of residence. 4) Judge courts - royal courts of appeal, hearing appeals against decisions of municipal courts. 5) Relational courts - assessor courts in which the king sat with senators and ministers. Consideration of appellate cases from fief lands: Courland and Ducal Prussia. IX. Regency The guard will be also the regency, headed by the queen or, in her unconscious, by the primate. In these three cases only a regency may take place: 1 when the king is minors; 2-to the time of helplessness, permanent confusion of the senses of the exerciser; 3rd in case the king is taken from the war. The minor will only last until the age of 18 fulfilled; and the impotence in relation to permanent confusion of the senses cannot be declared, only by the ready parliament by the majority of votive offerings of three parts against the fourth of the joined chambers. In these three cases, therefore, the Primate of the Polish Crown should convene the Seym immediately, and if the Primate delayed this duty, the Sejm Marshal would issue circular letters to deputies and senators. The ready Seym will arrange for the ministers to sit in the regency and will empower the queen to replace the king in his duties. And when the king, in the first case, goes out of minority, in the second, he recovers from his full health, in the third, he returns from captivity, the regency should return the account of his activities to him and be responsible to the nation for the time of his office, as is prescribed for the guard, in each ordinary Seym, from people and property. X. The education of royal children The royal sons, whom the constitution designates as succession to the throne, are the first children of the motherland, and therefore care for their good upbringing for the nation is due, without, however, derogating from their parental rights. Under the royal government, the king himself will be employed as the guard and the overseer of the education of the princes appointed from the states. In the time of the regency, he will have entrusted them to himself with the aforementioned caretaker of education. In both cases, the caretaker, appointed by the estates, should report to each Ordinary Sejm about the education and conduct of the princes. On the other hand, the educational commission will be obliged to provide the layout of instructions and education of the royal sons to be confirmed by the Seym, and these, uniform in their upbringing, constantly and early instilled in the minds of future heirs to the throne religion, love of virtue, homeland, freedom and the national constitution. XI. National armed force The nation must defend itself from attack and keep its integrity. Therefore, all citizens are the defenders of national wholeness and liberties. The army is nothing else, only a defensive force drawn out and decent from the general strength of the nation. The nation owes its army a reward and respect for sacrificing itself only for its defense. The army should guard the nation's borders and universal peace, in short, it should be its strongest shield. In order for it to fulfill this destiny incorrectly, it should remain under the obedience of the executive authority, according to the legal descriptions, it should make an oath of allegiance to the nation and the king and to defend the national constitution. So the national army can be used for the general defense of the country, for the protection of fortresses and borders, or for the aid of the law, if one would not obey its execution. Kazimierz, Prince Sapieha, General of Artillery Lit., Marshal of the Confederation W.Ks. Lit. Stanisław Nałęcz Małachowski, referendary of the Corporal, Sejm and Confederation of Crown Provinces, Marshal. Józef Korwin Kossakowski, Bishop of Livonia and Courland, n. Coadjutor of the Vilnius bishopric as a deputy. Antoni, prince Jabłonowski, the castellan of Kraków, a deputy from the senate from Mała Poland. Symeon Kazimierz Szydłowski, castellan of Żarnów, deputy from the senate from the province of Lesser Poland, MP Franciszek Antoni in Kwilcz Kwilecki, castellan of Kalisz, deputy to the constitution from the senate from the Greater Poland Province. Kazimierz Konstanty Plater, castellan of general Trakai, deputy to the constitution from the senate of W. Ks. Lit. mp. Walerian Stroynowski, Chamberlain from Busko, MP from Volhynia, deputy from Małopolska to the constitution. Stanisław Kostka Potocki, deputy from Lublin, deputy to the constitution from the Lesser Poland province, MP. Jan Niepomucen Zboiński, envoy of the Dobrzyń region, deputy to the constitution from the Greater Poland Province, MP Tomasz Nowowieski, hunter and envoy from the Wyszogród Land, deputy to the constitution from the Greater Poland Province. Józef Radzicki, chamberlain and envoy from the Zakroczym region, deputy to the constitution from the Greater Poland Province, mp. Józef Zabiełło, MP from the Duchy of Żmudzki, deputy to the constitution. Jacek Puttkamer, MP from the Minsk province, deputy to the constitution from the province of W. Fr. Lit.