Last Speech to the Court

I have, may it please the court, a few words to say.

In the first place, I deny everything except what I have all along admitted—the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri and took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.

Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved—had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends… every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

I believe that to have interfered as I have done—as I have always freely admitted I have done—in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments—I submit; so let it be done!