[4] On 29 May 1773 he received the office of Great Clerk (Writer) of Lithuania, a relatively low-ranked position that was seen by some as below the magnates of the Potocki family.

[4] The king tried to appease him with the Order of Saint Stanislaus on 14 July that year, but that failed to bring Potocki to his side.

[4] Instead, Potocki became, for the next decade and half, one of his chief political critics and opponents; in 1776 he went to Moscow to argue, unsuccessfully, for limiting the power of king and the Russian ambassador, Otto Magnus von Stackelberg.

[5] In 1778 however, the growing rift between the king and Stackelberg allowed him to take, through political maneuvering, the chairmanship of the Permanent Council Marshal of the Sejm.

[5] He became de facto head of the "Familia", and of anti-royal opposition (succeeding its previous leader, Stanisław Lubomirski, upon his death in 1783).

[5] During a trip to Italy and France, in absentia, the influence of the Familia resulted in his appointment to the office of the Court Marshal of Lithuania.

[7] After some initial political manevrouving, the issues of a closer relation with Prussia (that would eventually grow into the Polish-Prussian alliance) and a major reform of the government, both with which he was closely involved, begun accelerating in 1789.

[8] At first supportive more of a republican form of a government, political reality (such as royal faction victory at the elections of 1790) resulted in his acceptance of a more constitutional monarchy approach.

[9][10] In 1790, through the mediation of Scipione Piattoli, the king and Potocki begun drifting closer together, working on a draft document that would eventually become the 3 May 1791 constitution.

[11] On 17 May 1791, he resigned his position in the Commission of National Education to take an appointment (Minister of Police) in the newly created government, the Guard of Laws.

[13] Following the victory of the Targowica Confederation and the abrogation of the May 3rd Constitution, Potocki emigrated from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, settling in Leipzig.

[13] He co-authored a work with Hugo Kołłątaj, On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish Constitution of 3 May (O ustanowieniu i upadku Konstytucji Polskiej 3-go Maja, 1793).

[14] During the Uprising he served as a member of the Supreme National Council (Rada Najwyższa Narodowa), as a chief of its diplomatic department.

[15] Released in 1796, following the death of Catherine the Great, Potocki retired to Kurów, Puławy county (central Poland).