* * * * *
Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dishonor; let no man
attaint my memory by believing that I could have engaged in any cause
but that of my country's liberty and independence; or that I could have
become the pliant minion of power in the oppression or the miseries of my
countrymen. The proclamation of the provisional government speaks for
our views; no inference can be tortured from it to countenance barbarily
or debasement at home, or subjection, humiliation, or treachery from
abroad. I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor for the same
reason that I would resist the foreign and domestic oppressor; in the
dignity of freedom I would have fought upon the threshold of my country,
and its enemy should enter only by passing over my lifeless corpse. Am
I, who lived but for my country, and who have subjected myself to the
dangers of the jealous and watchful oppressor and the bondage of the
grave only to give my countrymen their rights and my country her
independence--am I to be loaded with calumny and not suffered to resent
or repel it? No, God forbid! ROBERT EMMET.