38 "CONSTITUTIONALISM"
of the government along more "constitutional" lines was proposed,
Alexander delayed his decision, refused to implement it, and eliminated
everything that might even remotely constitute a restriction of his
prerogatives. The incident with Count Severin Potocki in the Senate,
was a very clear and dramatic illustration of Alexander's attitude to
a consistent and literal implementation of the rights he himself had
granted to the Senate in 1802. And later still, after he had given a
constitution to the Kingdom of Poland in 1815, he refused to confolm
to it and constantly violated its provisions and principles (and in this
respect, Nicholas I was a better "constitutional monarch" - at least as
long as the Constitution remained in force). In 1816, when a group
of high dignitaries and noblemen d~ed to request permission to
coordinate their actions in liberating their serfs, under provisions of
the law on Free Agriculturists (1803), the Emperor bluntly reminded
them that he alone would decide if any coordinated action was to be
taken and that he did not need anyone's advice on how to rule.
Alexander's suspicion of anyone who might conceivably oppose his
autocratic will was almost pathological. He had all dignitaries and even
members of his own family shadowed by the police; to make sure of
the police, his personal secret agents spied on the police. Anyone as
concerned about the preservation of his power and prestige was not
very likely to accept constitutional limitations on his will. And as a
matter of record, he never did. 1
And yet, all his life and throughout his reign, Alexander talked
about giving a constitution to his peoples; he established commissions
and committees to draft constitutional reforms, he asked his friendsand his ministers to submit proposals of constitutions. If the projects
of the Senatorial party were not due to the initiative of the Emperor,
almost all others were. Besides discussing reforms with the Unofficial
Committee, Alexander sought suggestions and advice from Jefferson
and Bentham.^2 In 1814 he ordered the Baltic German Baron Rosen-
kampf, newly arrived in St. Petersburg, to write a constitution -1 Alexander's jealous concern for his power is best described by S, Mel'gunov.
"Sfinks na prestole (cherty dlia kharakteristiki Aleksandra I)." Dela i liudi
aleksandrovskogo vremeni, pp. 35-83 passim.
3 On Alexander's connections with Jefferson see: V. M. Kozlovskii, "Imperator
Aleksandr I i Dzhefferson," Russkaia Mysl', (October 1910); N. Hans, "Tsar
Alexander I and Jefferson: Unpublished correspondence." Slavonic and East EuropeanReview, XXXlI-78 (December 1953), pp. 215-225; E. Holz1e. "Zar Alexander lund
Thomas Jefferson," Archiv filr Kulturgeschichte, 1952, No.2; G. Vernadsky, "Reforms
under Czar Alexander I. French and American Influences," The Review of Politics
Gan. 1947). On the relations between Alexander I and Bentham, see: A. Pypin,
"Russkie otnosheniia Bentama," Ocherki literatury i obshchestvennosti pri Aleksandre
1m, (Petrograd 1917), vol. III, pp. 1-109.