In 2017, the Library of Congress’s website published the entirety of a Polish birthday card that was addressed to the United States on the country’s Declaration of Independence.
On the 14th of October 1926, Leopold Kotnowski paid a visit to the White House for the occasion. He was a little late given the fact that the anniversary of the Independence Declaration was four months earlier, on the 4th of July. However, the gift was certainly worth a look.
President Calvin Coolidge had the opportunity to admire a massive gift containing innumerable pages decorated with drawings from renowned Polish artists, pressed flowers, as well as notes from people of every endeavour.
In the mid-1920s, Poland had just regained its independence after having been wiped out from the map of Europe. A large part of the Polish population considered the role of the US as decisive in the promotion of democracy and liberty across the West.
They thanked their American partners for the role they played in WWI and for having prevented tens of thousands of Polish children from starvation. It is also worth mentioning President Woodrow Wilson’s 13th of his famous 14 points suggesting a framework for postwar peace, calling for the re-establishment of an independent state of Poland, with access to the sea.
“It’s essentially a gigantic birthday card, signed by […] almost a sixth of the population of Poland in 1926,” Sahr Conway-Lanz, a manuscript historian at the library, explained, as quoted by the Washington Post.
Here are some passages of the letter:
“Noble Americans,” the Poles wrote, “your national holiday is sacred not for you alone. It finds a warm reverberation over the whole world.”
“We, the people of Poland, send to you, citizens of the great American union, fraternal greetings and […] our deepest admiration […] for the institutions which have been created by you […] In them, Liberty, Equality, and Justice have found their highest expression and have become the guiding stars for all modern democracies […] With eternal gratitude in our hearts […] wish your country and your nation all possible prosperity […] Long live the United States of America!”
Image: Library of the Congress
Author: Sébastien Meuwissen
