The senator Wibicki presented this address to him at Wilna.  He told him “that the Poles had neither been subjected by peace nor by war, but by treason; that they were therefore free de jure, before God and man; that being so now de facto, that right became a duty; that they claimed the independence of their brethren, the Lithuanians, who were still slaves; that they offered themselves to the entire Polish nation as the centre of a general union; but that it was to him who dictated his history to the age, in whom resided the force of Providence, they looked to support the efforts which he could not but approve; that on that account they came to solicit Napoleon the Great to pronounce these few words, “Let the kingdom of Poland exist!” and that it then would exist; that all the Poles would devote themselves to the orders of the founder of the fourth French dynasty, to whom ages were but as a moment, and space no more than a point.”

Napoleon replied:  “Gentlemen deputies of the confederation of Poland, I have listened with deep interest to what you have just told me.  Were I a Pole, I should think and act like you; I should have voted with you in the assembly of Warsaw:  the love of his country is the first duty of civilized man.

“In my position, I have many interests to reconcile, and many duties to fulfil.  Had I reigned during the first, second, or third partition of Poland, I would have armed my people in her defence.  When victory supplied me with the means of re-establishing your ancient laws, in your capital, and a portion of your provinces, I did so without seeking to prolong the war, which might have continued to waste the blood of my subjects.

“I love your nation!  For sixteen years I have found your soldiers by my side on the plains of Italy and Spain.  I applaud what you have done; I authorize your future efforts; I will do all which depends on me to second your resolutions.  If your efforts be unanimous, you may cherish the hope of compelling your enemies to recognize your rights; but in countries so distant and extensive, it must be entirely on the exertions of the population which inhabits them, that you can justly ground hopes of success.

“From the first moment of my entering Poland, I have used the same language to you.  To this it is my duty to add, that I have guaranteed to the emperor of Austria the integrity of his dominions, and that I cannot sanction any manoeuvre, or the least movement, tending to disturb the peaceable possession of what remains to him of the Polish provinces.

“Only provide that Lithuania, Samogitia, Witepsk, Polotsk, Mohilef, Volhynia, the Ukraine, Podolia, be animated by the same spirit which I have witnessed in the Greater Poland; and Providence will crown your good cause with success.  I will recompense that devotion of your provinces which renders you so interesting, and has acquired you so many claims to my esteem and protection, by every means that can, under the circumstances, depend upon me.”