The 3rd of May Constitution was passed in 1791 and was the first in Europe and the second in the world (just after the American Constitution of 1787) fully modern, written down basic law regulating the legal system. The individual paragraphs and provisions were designed in such a way as to lead to the most efficient possible dismantling of the political system of the Republic of the Two Nations based on noble democracy and free election. The Constitution of 3 May changed the political system of the Republic of Poland into a hereditary monarchy. Taking this step was to lead to the restriction of aristocratic democracy by, among other things, denying the right to vote to noblemen who do not have the right to vote, equating the political rights of townspeople and the nobility, and providing the peasant layer with the protection of the state (limiting the abuses of the possessing layers). The Constitution of 3 May abolished the principle of the Liberum veto, which gives the right to each of the Members participating in the session to break the session of the Sejm and annul the resolutions adopted there. The adoption of the basic law in this form led to the formation of opposition in the Republican camp and to an increase in hostility on the part of the Russian Empire, which, since 1768, has been a protector and guarantor of the inviolability of the Polish system. The Constitution was only in force for 14 months, and its abolition was decided by the defeat of the Russian army and the Targovice confederation. As a result of these events, the Kościuszko Uprising broke out, the fall of which determined the Third Partition of the Republic of Poland and the loss of independence for 123 years. As noted by Ignacy Potocki (one of the authors of the act): "The Constitution of 3 May was the last will and testament of the fading homeland".