Documents of the First International 1867
Programme of the Tea-Party and Public Meeting
held in Cambridge Hall, Newman Street, on January 22nd, 1867, in commemoration of the last Polish Revolution, of 1863.
Source: Minutes of the General Council of the First International 1866-1868, 1964;
First published: as a leaflet in London, January 1867.
Tea served at 7 o'clock.
During tea the band of the musical instrument-makers will perform as follows:
1. Polish National Hymn
2. Tancredi’s Overture
3. Juliet Waltz
4. A Polish Hymn
5. French Bouquet Quadrille
6. Marseillaise
7. Pretty Bird’s Waltz
8. Garibaldi’s Air
9. Orpheus’ Gallop
After tea, the Chairman will-introduce the chorus, to sing the Polish Anthem, “Boze, Cos Polske ...”
Chairman’s introductory oration.
After which will be proposed and seconded:
The Poles here assembled to commemorate the anniversary of their insurrection declare that they faithfully adhere to the Manifesto of the Polish National Government, dated January 22nd, 1863, which Manifesto abolished all privileges, endowed the peasantry with land, and proclaimed all the inhabitants without distinction free and equal before the law, and they firmly believe that this is the only available means whereby to resist the present nefarious attempts of the Muscovite Czar to decompose Polish Society into fragments of various classes, religions, and races, and the only just principle whereon to consolidate the unity of the people, and, to organise a national power sufficiently strong to recover their freedom and independence, and further, they appeal to this meeting to declare that in the prosecution of these aims, they are entitled to the good-will and co-operation of all free and civilised people, and especially, the working classes throughout the world.
That liberty cannot be established in Europe without the independence of Poland.
La branche francaise de l'association internationale des travailleurs proteste au nom de la solidarité des peuples contre l'asservissement des Polonais et leur promet son concours pour les aider à se reconstituer sur des bases republicaines, démocratiques et sociales.
The French branch of the International Working Men’s Association protests, in the name of the community of interests among nations, against the enslavement of the Poles, and pledges to the latter their aid towards the reconstitution of Poland on democratic, republican, and socialist bases,
That the recent abolition of the “Congress Poland"369 by the Czar is an insult to those great powers of Europe which promoted those arrangements by their connivance or mutual jealousies, but that we who represent the popular sentiment and interest cannot regret the sweeping away of the unrighteous and inevitably abortive compromise of 1815, but even are glad that henceforth the Polish question is necessarily reduced to this simple issue: either to acquiesce in the total disappearance of the name of Poland from the map of Europe, or to champion its reestablishment within the boundaries of 1772.
After the resolutions are passed the band will play the Polish National Hymn, “Jeszcze Polska nie zginela.”