The sixty or seventy Members of the Great Sejm seated on the east side all rose to their feet, fervently supporting Jan Kiliński:
"To appease the Russians is to betray the warriors who died in the War of National Defense!"
"The Russians have deceived us with lies for decades—there's no way we can trust them again!"
"Count Blanicki, you may well grovel and wag your tail before your Tsar, but we will never do so!"
"Damn it, we shed our blood to drive out the Russians—we will never allow them to return..."
Though Count Blanicki's faction only had about a dozen people, they still stubbornly refuted in loud voices:
"We can't drag this out forever."
"Why don't you go to Bobruisk or Turów and see for yourselves? People there, unable to pay taxes, have to flee east of the Dnieper River."
"We may hate the Russians, but we also need to trade with them."
"If this continues, there will be riots in the Eastern Province!"
