Francisco Ferrer; his life, work and martyrdom, with message written ...

:
52 Francisco Ferrer,
ferrers concluding words.
The animus of the judges and prosecuting officers
was by this time so pronounced and violent that Ferrer
must have reahzed that nothing could save him. He contented
himself, in his conchuling speech, with a (juiet
protestation of innocence. He said
"With the consent of the presiding officer, let me ask the Court
to judge me only upon the facts connected with the events of the
last week of July or of the days immediately preceding, during
which certain persons incited or prepared the general strike of
July 26. If this is done, you must find me innocent, for I had no
part whatever in the inciting of that event.
"Let me say also that it would be wholly unjust to condemn
me to-day for my political opinions or utterances during the last
twenty years of the nineteenth century, with none of which have
1 ever been officially reproaclied or called to account for. Nor
should my work during the present century in connection with
the Modern School be brought up against me ; for the publications
of that school are either translations of classic authors, whose
names are accepted and glorious, or else the work of modern
authors of world-wide reputation, of acknowledged wisdom, of
humane sentiments. Let me close by affirming that those who
criticize the works published by the Modern School either have
not read them, or else, as the result of the prejudice which they
entertain, are incapable of judging them."
;