Stallman kind of reminds me of Richard Altmayer from the Asimov store "In A Good Cause--". Brief summary:

The story opens describing a statute of Richard Altmayer that stands in the center of the courtyard of the capital of the galactic union. It has inscribed a quote, "In a good cause, there are no failures", and there are three dates inscribed. They are the three dates Altmayer went to prison for his beliefs.

The story then jumps back to the first date, and tells about the first arrest. At that time, Earth had established many colony planets throughout the galaxy, and many of these had become independent. They were organized into many small groups of allies, and relations were sometimes hostile. A war had just broke out, and Altmayer, and his friend Geoffrey Stock, had just been drafted from college. Stock was preparing to head off to the war. Altmayer was refusing, feeling that humanity must unite, not remain divided. Altmayer is jailed for refusing.

The story then goes to the second incident. Stock did well in the war, and has become a member of the Earth government. He was on the first diplomatic mission from Earth to the one race of intelligent aliens known, the Diaboli. There were more human planets than diaboli planets, but they were one united race, and were expanding faster than humans. Although they required an atmosphere that was poisonous to humans (and our atmosphere was poisonous to them) so there was no competition for habitable planets between us and them, there was competition for resources from non-habitable planets. The Diaboli were taking advantage of the fact that humanity was not unified, negotiating separate deals with different human planets.

Altmayer fears that the Diaboli are a threat to humanity, and tries to force the issue by assassinating a Diaboli diplomatic mission on Earth, hoping to force a war to contain the Diaboli before it is too late. (He's a pacifist when it comes to war between human planets, because he thinks we need to be united. He thinks a war with the Diaboli would actually help accomplish that, as humanity would unite to fight the common enemy).

Stock knows of this plan, and tricks Altmayer, preventing the assassination, and sending Altmayer to jail for the second time.

The story then jumps to the final arrest, which occurs many years later, when Altmayer is an old man. The Diaboli have organized a galactic conference, to organize a Galactic Union. They occupy most of the galaxy, and there has been little expansion of humanity. Altmayer obtains secret documents that show that the Diaboli have been terraforming some human-habitable planets to make them suitable for Diaboli. Some of those worlds were occupied by small colonies.

Altmayer manages to get the documents to a broadcaster before Stock (now leader of Earth's government) comes to arrest him. Stock tells him that the government doesn't support the Diaboli-led plan for galactic union, but can't support exposing the documents. No doubt Altmayer believes, Stock says, that humanity would unite in indignation and defeat the Diaboli, but Stock knows better. The Diaboli would deny the accusations, and several human worlds would find it in their immediate interest to side with the Diaboli. No human worlds could defeat the Diaboli if there were other humans fighting on the Diaboli's side.

Altmayer is disappointed, figuring that Stock will stop the broadcast. Stock says he is not--but after they are broadcast, Earth is going to join the Diaboli in saying they are lies. The other human planets won't believe that--they will think Earth is allied with the Diaboli. No other world will attack Earth if they believe Earth and the Diaboli are cooperating, and they will stay neutral if there is then a future war between Earth and the Diaboli.

Altmayer points out that Stock may fool the other human worlds, but the Diaboli will know that Earth is lying when Earth says the documents are lies. Stock then reveals that the documents ARE lies. His government made them up, and purposefully had them leaked to Altmayer.

The story winds up with Stock visiting Altmayer in jail, to set him free. He tells Altmayer that Earth has been at war with the Diaboli for the last six months. He explains how when he first visited a Diaboli world, he realized it was eventually going to be humanity or them (just as Altmayer had realized). Since then, all of Earth's diplomatic efforts have been toward making it so that when the war with the Diaboli came, no human world would join the Diaboli. When the time came, the Diaboli were no match for Earth. They ha never fought a war, whereas Earth had fought many wars with other human planets, and so had much more experience and much better military technology. The Diaboli main fleet has been defeated, at almost no casualties to Earth. The other human worlds are now jumping in to declare war on the Diaboli. Most are calling to now unite and form a galactic union. Stock wants Altmayer to be Earth's representative to the galactic conference to form the union. Altmayer was always the voice in the wilderness, crying for union. His words will carry much weight.

Altmayer is stunned and doesn't understand, since Stock turns out to have been right all along. Stock tells Altmayer that he always misunderstood human nature. When the United Worlds is formed, and future generations look back, they will have forgotten the purpose behind Stock's methods. He will represent war and death. Altmayer's idealism and calls for union will be remembered forever. Altmayer barely hears his last words as he leaves: "and when they build their statues, they will build none for me".