significance.

"In this wise attach a people, deceived by the fanaticism of Russia, to
our country. They will be more devoted to their fellow-countrymen when
they see that the latter treat with them like brothers ... and that they
open to them the entrance, as to common fellow-citizens, to the highest
offices. Assure all the Oriental Greeks in my name that they shall have
in common with us every liberty which freedom gives men to enjoy, and
that their episcopate with all its authority according to the laws of
the Constitutional Diet shall be restored to them. Let them use all the
influence they may have on the people of their religion to convince them
that we, who are fighting for liberty, desire to make all the
inhabitants of our land happy."[1]

He wrote to the clergy of the Ruthenian Greek Orthodox rite, laying
emphasis on the persecution that their faith had suffered from Russia
and on the liberty that Poland promised them. "Fear not that the
difference of opinion and rite will hinder our loving you as brothers
and fellow-countrymen. ... Let Poland recognize in your devotion her
faithful sons. Thus you have the road open before you to your happiness
and that of your descendants."[2]

[Footnote 1: T. Korzon, _Kosciuszko_.]

[Footnote 2: _Op. cit_.]

Following all these enactments of Kosciuszko's there ensued a curious
interchange of communications between him and the King of Poland.
Stanislas Augustus, under the apprehension that he was to follow Louis
XVI to the scaffold, wrote to Kosciuszko, placing the continuance of
such shreds of Royal power as he possessed at the dictator's
arbitration. Once again Kosciuszko was called to measure swords with his
King and sometime patron. This time it was Kosciuszko who was in the
commanding position. His sovereign was more or less at his mercy. What
his opinion of the man was is clear from the scathing indictment which
his sense of outrage at the betrayal of his country tore from his lips
as he wrote the history of the Ukraine campaign that Stanislas Augustus
had brought to ruin. Yet this was how he answered, at the moment when
his power was supreme, in a letter dated May 20, 1794:

"My Lord King,

"Just when I was engrossed in the midst of so many other labours with
the drawing up of the organization of the Supreme Council, I received a
communication from Your Royal Majesty under the date of the 5th instant.
Having read therein that Your Royal Majesty only desires