To John Jay from John Trumbull, 10 June 1797
From John Trumbull
29 Berner’s Street, London June 10th. 1797.
Dear Sir
You will permit me to present to your acquaintance the Bearer of this Letter. Mr. Neimsiwits a Polish Gentleman the Friend & Companion of the unfortunate Kosciusko.1
Mr Neimsiwits was a member of the constitutional Assembly of Poland;— was afterwards wounded by the Genls. side:—and carried with him a Prisoner to Petersburg, where, so long as the Empress lived, He was confined & treated in the most rigorous manner;—being set at Liberty by the present Emperor. He goes with his friend to America, and hopes there to find an hospitable Asylum.
I beg leave to commend him to your protection and friendship— and am Dear Sir Your much obliged friend & servant,
Jno: Trumbull
His Excelly John Jay Esqr. &c &c &
ALS, NNC (EJ: 07207). Addressed: “His Excellency / John Jay Esqr / Govr. of the State of New York / New York”. Endorsed.
1. Former Continental army officer Tadeusz Kosciusko, the leader of a Polish uprising against Russia, was captured in October 1794 at the Battle of Maciejowice. In 1796, following the death of Catherine the Great, Czar Paul I pardoned Kosciusko, who them emigrated to the U.S. Kosciusko later returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. His aide Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758–1841), Polish playwright, poet, novelist and translator, accompanied him to America. In 1800 Niemcewicz married SLJ’s cousin Susan Livingston Kean, widow of Congressman John Kean, but returned to Poland after Napoleon’s invasion in 1807. He subsequently became secretary of the senate and president of the constitutional committee of Poland and engaged in his literary activities. During the failed November uprising of 1830–31 against Russia, Niemcewicz went to London as the Polish envoy to Britain unsuccessfully seeking aid, and remained in exile, first in Britain, then in France, until his death in Paris in 1841.