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Facing the chair

Chapter 2: ANATOLE FRANCE’S APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
By John Dos Passos
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About This Book

A collection of appeals, speeches, legal pleadings, and commentary assembled around the prosecution and conviction of two foreign-born workmen, arguing their innocence and condemning procedural irregularities. The text juxtaposes courtroom arguments, public statements by intellectuals and labor leaders, and activist responses to trace how political pressure, anti-immigrant sentiment, and class dynamics shaped public perception and legal outcomes. It uses the case to examine Americanization, civil liberties, and the relationship between the judiciary, the press, and organized labor, presenting both documentary material and interpretive critique.

ANATOLE FRANCE’S APPEAL TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

October 31, 1921
People of United States of America,

Listen to the appeal of an old man of the old world who is not a foreigner, for he is the fellow citizen of all mankind.

In one of your states two men, Sacco and Vanzetti, have been convicted for a crime of opinion.

It is horrible to think that human beings should pay with their lives for the exercise of that most sacred right which, no matter what party we belong to, we must all defend.

Don’t let this most iniquitous sentence be carried out.

The death of Sacco and Vanzetti will make martyrs of them and cover you with shame.

You are a great people. You ought to be a just people. There are crowds of intelligent men among you, men who think. I prefer to appeal to them. I say to them beware of making martyrs. That is the unforgivable crime that nothing can wipe out and that weighs on generation after generation.

Save Sacco and Vanzetti.

Save them for your honor, for the honor of your children, and for the generations yet unborn.

Anatole France.