1My lords, you are impatient for the sacrifice. The blood which you seek is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim; it circulates warmly and unruffled through the channels which God created for noble purposes.
2I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world — it is the charity of its silence! Let no man write my epitaph.
3No man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them. Let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them.
4Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character.
5When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written.
6I am going to my cold and silent grave: my lamp of life is nearly extinguished: my race is run.
7The grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom!
8I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world — it is the charity of its silence! Let no man write my epitaph.
9For as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them.
10Let them rest in obscurity and peace, my memory be left in oblivion, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.
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