The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-05
HIS PROTEST AGAINST
 SENTENCE AS A TRAITOR

Ills PROTEST AGAINST
 l SENTENCE AS A TRAITOR. Delivered at His Trial Before Lord Norbury, Dublin, September 19, 1803.) My Lords:
 i I. am asked what I have to say why sentence of death should not be pro-
 nounced upon me-, according to law.
 I have nothing to say that can alter your predetermination, nor that it will
 become me to say, with any view to the mitigation of that sentence which you are to pronounce, and I must abide by. But have that to say which interests me more than life, and which
 you have labored to destroy. I have l much to say why my reputation should
 be rescued from the load of false ac-
 cusatiOn and calumny which has been
 cast upon it. I do not imagine that,
 seated where you are, your mind can be so free from prejudice as to re- ceive the least impression from what
 I am going to utter. I have no hopes
 that I can anchor my character in the breast of a court cOnStituted and tram
 meled as this Is. I only wish, and
 that is the utmost that I expect, that | your lordships may suffer 1t to float
 down your memories untainted by the foul breath of prejudice, until it finds l some more hospitable harbor to shel- | ter it from tie storms by which 1t is
 buffeted. Were I only to suffer death,
 after being adjudged guilty by your
 tribunal, should bow in silence, and
 meet the fate that awaits me without 1 a murmur; but the sentence of the law which delivers my body to the ex- | ecutioner, will, through the ministry
 of the law, labor in it's own v1ndica- ton to consign my character to oblo- quy; for there must be guilt some ! where; whether in the sentence of the | court, or in the catastrophe, time must
 determine. A man in my situation | has not only to encounter the difficult
 ties of fortune, and the force of power
 over minds which 1t has corrupted or l subjugated, but the difficulties of es- l tabMshed prejudice. The man dies, but his memory lives. That mine may
 not perish, that it may live in the res | pect of my cOuntrymen, I seize upon | this opportunity to vindicate myself
 from some of the charges alleged | against me. When my spirit shall
 be waited to more friendly port-when
 my shade shall have joined the band of
 those nartyred heroes who nave shed l their blood on the scaffold and in the
 field, in defense of their country and
 of virtue, this is my hope: I wish that
 my memory and my name may animate i those who survive me, while look down with cOmplacency upon the de-
 struction of that peridious government which upholds it's domination by blas- I phemy of the Most High; which dis plays it's power over man, as over the | beasts of the forest; which sets man
 upon his brother, and lifts his hand,
 in the name of God, against the throat
 of his fellow who believes or doub ! a little more or a little less than the government standard-a government
 which is steeled to barbarity by the | cries of the orphans and the tears
 of the widows it has made.
 | Here Lord Norbury interrupted, say- ing that "the mean and wicked en- | thusiasts who felt as Emmet did, were
 not equal to the accomplishment Of their wild designs.")
 | I appeal to the immaculate God
 I swear by the throne of Heaven, be- fore which I muss shortly appear-by
 who have gone before me-that my
 conduct has been, through all this
 peril, and through all my purposes, governed only by the conviction which
 I have uttered, and by no other view
 than that of the emancipation of my
 country from the superinhuman & op- pression under which she has so long
 and too patiently travailed; and con- | fioently hope that, wild and chimericai | as it may appear, there is still union
 and strength in Ireland to accomplish | this noblest of enterprises. Of this I
 knowledge, and with the consolation
 that appertains to the confidence.
 Think not, my lords, I say this for the petty qualification of giving you
 transitory uneasiness. A man who never yet raised his voice to assert
 lie will not hazard his character with rosterity by asserting a falsehood on a
 subject so important to his country,
 and on an occasion like this. Yes, my
 lords, man who does not wish to
 have his epitaph written until his
 country is liberated will not leave
 weapon in the power of envy, or pretense to impeach the probity which i he means to preserve, even in the grave to which tyranny consigns him. | (Here he was again interrupted by | the court.)
 Again I say, that what have spok- en was not intended for your lord
 ship, whose situation I commiserate rather then envy-fny expressions were ] for my countrymen. If there is a true Irishman present, let my last words
 cheer him in the hour of his affliction. 1 (Here he was again interrupted. Lord I NOrbury said he did not sit there to i hear treason.)
 I have always understood 1t to be
 the duty of a judge, when a prisoner
 has been convicted, to pronounce the
 sentence of the law. I have also un-
 derstood tbat judges sometimes think | it their duty to hear with patience and
 to speak with humanity: to exhort
 the victim of the laws, and to offer,
 with tender benignity, their opinions l of the motives by which he was actu-
 ated in the crime of which he was ad- l judged guilty. That @ judge has thought it his duty so to have done. ! have no doubt; but where is the
 boasted freedom of your institutions | where is the vaunted impartlality, clemency, and mildness of your courts Of justice, if an unfortunate prisoner whom your policy, and not justice, i is about to deliver into the hands of | the executioner, is net suffered to ex | plain his motives sincerely and truly, I and to vindicate tho principles by
 which he was actuated? My lords, it | may be a part of the system of angry | justice to bow mans mind by hu-
 initiation to the purposed ignominy of 1 the scaffold; but worse to me than ! the purpoSed shame of the Scaffold's S i terrors would be the shame of such 1 foul and unfouAded imputations as court. You, my lord, are a judge; I am the supposed culprit. I am man; you are a man also. By revolution | of power we might change places, i though we never could change charac- i ters. If I stand at the bar of this 1 court and dare not vindicate my char l acter, what a farce is your justice! 1 If I stand at this bar and dare not vindicate my character, how dare you | calumniate it? Does the sentence of | death, which your unhallowed policy l inf1icts on my body, condemn my ton- gue to silence and my reputation to
 abridge the period Of my existence; but while exist, I shall not forbear to vindicate my character and motives I from your aSpersionS: and, as man,