Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History

by Unknown

  For the king, indeed I will not… [At this point a gentleman touched the ax, and the king said, “Hurt not the ax that may hurt me.”] For the king: the laws of the land will clearly instruct you for that; therefore, because it concerns my own particular, I only give you a touch of it.

  For the people. And truly I desire their liberty and freedom, as much as anybody whomsoever; but I must tell you that their liberty and their freedom consists in having of government those laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in government, sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things; and therefore, until they do that, I mean, that you do put the people in that liberty as I say, certainly they will never enjoy themselves.

  Sirs, it was for this that now I am come here: if I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword, I needed not to have come here; and therefore, I tell you (and I pray God it be not laid to your charge) that I am the martyr of the people.

  In troth, sirs, I shall not hold you much longer; for I will only say this to you, that in truth I could have desired some little time longer, because that I would have put this I have said in a little more order, and a little better digested, than I have done; and therefore I hope you will excuse me.

  I have delivered my conscience, I pray God, that you do take those courses that are best for the kingdom, and your own salvation.

  [Doctor Juxon: Will Your Majesty (though it may be very well known Your Majesty’s affections to religion, yet it may be expected that you should) say somewhat to the world’s satisfaction.]

  I thank you very heartily, my lord, for that; I had almost forgotten it. In troth, sirs, my conscience in religion, I think, is very well known to the world; and therefore I declare before you all that I die a Christian according to the profession of the church of England, as I found it left me by my father; and this honest man [pointing to Dr. Juxon] will witness it. Sirs, excuse me for this same. I have a good cause, and I have a gracious God; I will say no more. I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world.

  ***

  GENTLEMEN, I DID not expect to have spoken a word to you at this time; but seeing there is a silence commanded, I will speak something of the work God had in hand in our days. Many of you have been witnesses of the finger of God, that hath been seen amongst us of late years, in the deliverance of his people from their oppressors, and in bringing to judgment those that were guilty of the precious blood of the dear servants of the Lord. And how God did witness thereto by many wonderful and evident testimonies, as it were immediately from heaven, insomuch that many of our enemies—who were persons of no mean quality—were forced to confess that God was with us; and if God did but stand neuter, they should not value us; and, therefore, seeing the finger of God hath been pleading this cause, I shall not need to speak much to it; in which work I, with others, was engaged; for the which I do from my soul bless the name of God, who out of the exceeding riches of his grace accounted me worthy to be instrumental in so glorious a work. And though I am wrongfully charged with murder and bloodshed, yet I must tell you I have kept a good conscience both toward God and toward man. I never had malice against any man, neither did I act maliciously toward any person, but as I judged them to be enemies to God and his people; and the Lord is my witness that I have done what I did out of the sincerity of my heart to the Lord. I bless God I have no guilt upon my conscience, but the spirit of God beareth witness that my actions are acceptable to the Lord, through Jesus Christ; though I have been compassed about with manifold infirmities, failings, and imperfections in my holiest duties, but in this I have comfort and consolation, that I have peace with God, and do see all my sins washed away in the blood of my dear Savior. And I do declare as before the Lord that I should not be guilty wittingly, nor willingly, of the blood of the meanest man—no, not for ten thousand worlds, much less of the blood of such as I am charged with.

  I have again and again besought the Lord with tears to make known his will and mind unto me concerning it, and to this day he hath rather confirmed me in the justice of it, and therefore I leave it to him, and to him I commit my ways; but some that were eminent in the work did wickedly turn aside themselves, and to set up their nests on high, which caused great dishonor to the name of God and the profession they had made. And the Lord knows I could have suffered more than this, rather than have fallen in with them in that iniquity, though I was offered what I would if I would have joined with them; my aim in all my proceedings was the glory of God, and the good of his people, and the welfare of the whole commonwealth.

  Gentlemen, by reason of some scoffing that I do hear, I judge that some do think I am afraid to die, by the shaking I have in my hands and knees; I tell you no, but it is by reason of much blood I have lost in the wars, and many wounds I have received in my body, which caused this shaking and weakness in my nerves; I have had it this twelve years; I speak this to the praise and glory of God; he hath carried me above the fear of death; and I value not my life, because I go to my Father, and am assured I shall take it up again.

  Gentlemen, take notice that for being instrumental in that cause and interest of the Son of God, which hath been pleaded amongst us and which God hath witnessed to my appeals and wonderful victories, I am brought to this place to suffer death this day; and if I had ten thousand lives, I could freely and cheerfully lay them down all, to witness to this matter.

  Oh, what am I, poor worm, that I should be accounted worthy to suffer anything for the sake of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I have gone joyfully and willingly, many a time, to lay down my life upon the account of Christ, but never with so much joy and freedom as at this time; I do not lay down my life by constraint, but willingly, for if I had been minded to have run away, I might have had many opportunities; but being so clear in the thing, I durst not turn my back, nor step a foot out of the way, by reason I had been engaged in the service of so glorious and great a God. However men presume to call it by hard names, yet I believe, ere it be long, the Lord will make it known from heaven that there was more of God in it than men are now aware of.

  I do desire as from my own soul that they and everyone may fear the Lord, that they may consider their latter end, and so it may be well with them; and even for the worst of those that have been most malicious against me, from my soul, I would forgive them all so far as anything concerns me; and so far as it concerns the cause and glory of God, I leave it for him to plead; and as for the cause of God, I am willing to justify it by my sufferings, according to the good pleasure of his will. I have been this morning, before I came hither, so hurried up and down stairs (the meaning whereof I knew not) that my spirits are almost spent; therefore, you may not expect much from me.

  Oh, the greatness of the love of God to such a poor, vile, and nothing creature as I am! What am I, that Jesus Christ should shed his heart’s blood for me, that I might be happy to all eternity, that I might be made a son of God, and an heir of heaven! Oh, that Christ should undergo so great sufferings and reproaches for me! And should not I be willing to lay down my life, and suffer reproaches for him that hath so loved me; blessed be the name of God that I have a life to lose upon so glorious and so honorable an account.

  I have one word more to the Lord’s people that desire to serve him with an upright heart; let them not think hardly of any of the good ways of God for all this; for I have been near this seven years a suffering person, and have found the way of God to be a perfect way, his word a tried word, a buckler to them that trust in him, and will make known his glorious arm in the sight of all nations. And though we may suffer hard things, yet he hath a gracious end, and will make a good end for his own glory and the good of his people; therefore be cheerful in the Lord your God, hold fast that which you have and be not afraid of suffering, for God will make hard and bitter things sweet and easy to all that trust in him; k
eep close to the good confession you have made of Jesus Christ, and look to the recompense of reward; be not discouraged by reason of the cloud that now is upon you, for the sun will shine, and God will give a testimony unto what he hath been doing, in a short time.

  And now I desire to commit my concernments into the hands of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he that hath delivered himself for the chief of sinners; he that came into the world, was made flesh, and was crucified; that hath loved me and washed me from my sins in his own blood, and is risen again, sitting at the right hand of God, making intercession for me.

  And as for me, Oh! who am I, poor, base, vile worm, that God should deal thus by me? For this will make me come the sooner into his glory, and to inherit the kingdom and that crown prepared for me. Oh, I have served a good Lord and Master, which hath helped me from my beginning to this day, and hath carried me through many difficulties, trials, straits, and temptations, and hath always been a very present help in time of trouble; he hath covered my head many times in the day of battle; by God I have leaped over a wall, by God I have run through a troop, and by my God I will go through this death, and he will make it easy to me, Now into thy hands, O Lord Jesus, I commit my spirit!

  Rebel Richard Rumbold, on the Gallows, Attacks Booted and Spurred Privilege

  “I am sure there was no man born marked of God above another; for none comes into the world with a saddle on his back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him….”

  At the market cross in Edinburgh, rebel Richard Rumbold came to the gallows in June of 1685, after the failure of the Monmouth rebellion. Having supported Cromwell, Rumbold was among the Puritan leaders to be executed following the restoration of the Stuarts, specifically for his actions against the monarchy. The republican sentiments of his final words, however, continued to make an impression almost a century later, in the rhetoric of the American Revolution.

  Particularly forceful in this gallows speech is Rumbold’s attack on “booted and spurred” privilege, a phrase that came to suggest the “man on horseback” imagery of dictatorship. Through rhetorical questions and biblical allusions (to the destruction that occurs in stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, and Nimrod), he emphasizes his view of “a deluded generation, veiled with ignorance.” Rumbold’s commentary on his generation, with “popery and slavery be riding in upon them,” sets up the horseback imagery of his most memorable phrase.

  ***

  IT IS FOR all men that come into the world once to die; and after death the judgment! And since death is a debt that all of us must pay, it is but a matter of small moment what way it be done. Seeing the Lord is pleased in this manner to take me to himself, I confess, something hard to flesh and blood, yet blessed be his name, who hath made me not only willing but thankful for his honoring me to lay down the life he gave, for his name; in which, were every hair in this head and beard of mine a life, I should joyfully sacrifice them for it, as I do this. Providence having brought me hither, I think it most necessary to clear myself of some aspersions laid on my name; and, first, that I should have had so horrid an intention of destroying the king and his brother…. It was also laid to my charge that I was antimonarchical. It was ever my thoughts that kingly government was the best of all where justly executed; I mean, such as it was by our ancient laws—that is, a king, and a legal, free-chosen Parliament—the king having, as I conceive, power enough to make him great; the people also as much property as to make them happy; they being, as it were, contracted to one another! And who will deny me that this was not the justly constituted government of our nation? How absurd is it, then, for men of sense to maintain that though the one party of his contract breaketh all conditions, the other should be obliged to perform their part? No, this error is contrary to the law of God, the law of nations, and the law of reason. But as pride hath been the bait the devil hath caught most by ever since the creation, so it continues to this day with us. Pride caused our first parents to fall from the blessed state wherein they were created—they aiming to be higher and wiser than God allowed, which brought an everlasting curse on them and their posterity. It was pride caused God to drown the old world. And it was Nimrod’s pride in building Babel that caused that heavy curse of division of tongues to be spread among us, as it is at this day, one of the greatest afflictions the church of God groaneth under, that there should be so many divisions during their pilgrimage here; but this is their comfort that the day draweth near where, as there is but one shepherd, there shall be but one sheepfold. It was, therefore, in the defense of this party, in their just rights and liberties, against popery and slavery—

  [Being here interrupted by drum beating, he said that they need not trouble themselves, for he should say no more of his mind on that subject, since they were so disingenuous as to interrupt a dying man. He then continued:]

  I die this day in the defense of the ancient laws and liberties of these nations; and though God, for reasons best known to himself, hath not seen it fit to honor us, as to make us the instruments for the deliverance of his people, yet as I have lived, so I die in the faith that he will speedily arise for the deliverance of his church and people. And I desire of all you to prepare for this with speed. I may say this is a deluded generation, veiled with ignorance, that though popery and slavery be riding in upon them, do not perceive it; though I am sure there was no man born marked of God above another; for none comes into the world with a saddle on his back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him; not but that I am well satisfied that God hath wisely ordered different stations for men in the world, as I have already said; kings having as much power as to make them great and the people as much property as to make them happy. And to conclude, I shall only add my wishes for the salvation of all men who were created for that end.

  Revolutionist Robespierre Delivers His Final Speech

  “Shall we say that all is well? Shall we continue to praise by force of habit or practice that which is wrong? We would ruin the country.”

  “Incorruptible” was the contemporary description applied to Maximilien-François-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre, controversial leader of the French Revolution. With a concern more for championing “virtue” than for maintaining political friendships or meeting the material needs of the people, he fell out of favor as quickly as he had ascended to power. In the same way that the Reign of Terror had executed any and all political opponents, so Robespierre himself was not able to escape a death sentence.

  On July 26, 1794, he addressed the National Convention to deny charges made against him and to seek another purge of his enemies. The next morning, however, the Convention ordered his arrest, and he was guillotined the following day.

  In the July 26 address, his final speech, Robespierre speaks directly to “Frenchmen” and “my people.” He delineates the powers of virtue and vice that have commingled in the Revolution and, with a series of rhetorical questions, refuses to allow his sense of virtue to give way to vice. That refusal to compromise, and the memory of his implacable bloodiness, led inevitably to Robespierre’s execution at the age of thirty-six.

  ***

  WHEN I SEE the mass of vices the torrent of the Revolution has rolled pell-mell with the civic virtues, I have sometimes trembled for fear of becoming tainted in the eyes of posterity by the impure vicinage of those perverse men who mingled in the ranks of the sincere defenders of humanity; but the overthrow of the rival factions has, as it were, emancipated all the vices; they believed that the only question for them was to make division of the country as a booty rather than make her free and prosperous. I am thankful that the fury that animates them against everything that opposes itself to their projects has traced the line of demarcation between them and all right-minded people; but if the Verres and the Catilines of France believe themselves already far enough advanced in the career of crime to expose on the rostrum the head of their accuser, I also have but now promised to my fellow citizens a testament formidable to the oppressors of the people, and I bequeath to them from this
moment opprobrium and death!

  I conceive that it is easy for the league of the tyrants of the world to overwhelm a man; but I also know what are the duties of one who can die in defending the cause of humanity. I have seen in history all defenders of liberty overcome by ill fortune or by calumny; but soon their oppressors and their assassins also met their death. The good and the bad, the tyrants and the friends of liberty, disappear from the earth, but under different conditions. Frenchmen, do not allow your enemies to degrade your souls and to unnerve your virtues by a baleful heresy! No, Chaumette, no, Fouchet, death is not an unending sleep. Citizens, efface from the tombstones this impious maxim which throws a funeral crape upon all nature and flings insults upon death. Rather engrave that: “Death is the beginning of immortality!” My people, remember that if in the republic justice does not reign with absolute sway, and if this word does not signify love of equality and of country, then liberty is but a vain phrase! O people, you who are feared—whom one flatters! you who are despised; you who are acknowledged sovereign, and are ever being treated as a slave—remember that wherever justice does not reign, it is the passions of the magistrates that reign instead, and that the people have changed their chains and not their destinies!