Prussia abandoned Poland by breaking the alliance both countries had and the Prussian commander of the army of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania betrayed the Polish-Lithuanian cause. The Polish army retreated to the Bug River, where Tadeusz Kościuszko fought the Battle of Dubienka to a draw. The Russian army, however, was granted free passage through Austrian territory.
The Constitution abolished pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the liberum veto, which at one time had placed the sejm at the mercy of any deputy who might choose, or be bribed by an interest or foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by that sejm.
In the War in Defense of the Constitution, Poland was betrayed by its Prussian ally Frederick William II and defeated by the Imperial Russia of Catherine the Great, allied with the Targowica Confederation, a cabal of Polish magnates who opposed reforms that might weaken their influence.
The Constitution abolished several institutional sources of government weakness and national anarchy, including the liberum veto, confederations, confederated sejms (paradoxically, the Four-Year Sejm was itself a confederated sejm), and the excessive sway of sejmiks (regional sejms) stemming from the binding nature of their instructions to their Sejm deputies.
A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, John Adams (1787-89) — Comprehensive historical review of how various national constitutions worked, with quotes from political philosophers and historians, that influenced the Founders in their drafting of state and federal constitutions.
New Views of the Constitution of the United States, John Taylor (1823) — A discourse on the constitutional nature of the American union reflecting views of Jefferson and Madison.
The American Republic: its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny, O. Brownson (1866) — Argument against secession, distinguishes the constitution of government from the underlying constitution of the society, and territorial from socialistic or egoistic democracy.
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