Robert Coover - Public Burning

PRES: ( pressing on ) When democracy’s enemies have been judged guilty of a crime as horrible as that of which the Rosenbergs were convicted.

PRIS: ( rising to full power ) Our sentences violate truth and the instincts of civilized humanity! The compassion of men sees us as victims caught in the terrible interplay of clashing ideologies and feverish international enmities… As Commander-in-Chief of the European theater, you had ample opportunity to witness the wanton and hideous tortures that such a policy of vengeance had wreaked upon vast multitudes of guiltless victims… Today, while these ghastly mass butchers, these obscene racists, are graciously receiving the benefits of mercy and in many instances being reinstated in public office, the great democratic United States is proposing the savage destruction of a small unoffending Jewish family, whose guilt is seriously doubted throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world! We appeal to your mind and conscience, Mr… President, to take counsel with the reasons of others and with the deepest human feelings that treasure life and shun its taking… The facts of our case have touched the conscience of civilization!

PRES: ( momentarily weakening ) My only concern is in the…area of statecraft… The effect of the action.

PRIS: ( seizing on this ) If you will not hear our voices, hear the voices of the world! Hear the great and humble for the sake of America!

VOICES: ( rolling in behind the PRISONER’S last speech, overlapping each other, slowly augmenting in volume, then diminishing when the PRESIDENT interrupts ) We the undersigned rabbis and religious leaders of the Holy Land… Our committee is today comprised of men who you know, Mr… President, to be of the highest character… Will you express in my name the deep revulsion… I, an Orthodox rabbi… I had the honor to fight with the American Army…spiritual and executive leaders in their respective denominations… Is it customary for spies to be paid in wristwatches and console tables?…utterly disproportionate to the offense for this couple with two young children to be put to…sinister threat of fascism and a new world war…Mr… President, all of us, as pastors…aggressive pressure of the anti-Semites, Negro-haters…hope thus to honor and render justice to the memory of my brother Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who before dying said…indeed regrettable…profoundly moved by the death sentence pronounced on Ethel and…the extreme severity…a tragic event for all lovers of the…when conducted in a climate of fear and suspicion which breeds reckless and irresponsible action… I cannot but deplore… My conscience compels me…without precedent in the West… I pray the Lord and hope the cruel sentence passed…contemplate with horror…obtained during a period of mounting hysteria…never before imposed… Together with nearly twenty-three hundred other clergymen…cruel, inhuman and barbaric in the extreme…in the name of God and the quality of mercy…your deep religious feeling and your awareness of the spirit of good within you…in the very name of our common ideal of justice and generosity which we derive from the Bible…political murder…to use the power which the Constitution of the United States gives you…urge you to commute…in the spirit of love which casts out fear…your prerogative of clemency…to reconsider your refusal…this savage verdict…would it not be embarrassing if, after the execution of the Rosenbergs, it could be shown that.

PRES: ( interrupting fiercely , VOICES fading ) I am not unmindful of the fact that this case has aroused grave concern both here and abroad in the minds of serious people.

PRIS: ( to the PRESIDENT, trying to hang on to the momentum ) The guilt in this case, if we die, will be America’s! The shame, if we die, will dishonor this generation!

PRES: ( as though calling out to the vanished VOICES) But what you did not suggest was the need for considering the known convictions of Communist leaders that free governments — and especially the American government — are notoriously weak and fearful

PRIS: Mr… President—

PRES: …and that consequently subversive and other kinds of activities can be conducted against them with no real fear of dire punishment on the part of the perpetrator.

PRIS: ( urgently, almost amorously ) Take counsel with your good wife; of statesmen there are enough and to spare.

PRES: It is, of course, important to the Communists to have this contention sustained and justified.

PRIS: Take counsel with the mother of your only son; her heart which understands my grief so well and my longing to see my sons grown to manhood like her own.

PRES: In the present case, they have even stooped to dragging in young and innocent children in order to serve their own purpose!

PRIS: …with loving husband at my side even as you are at hers!

PRES: The action of these people has exposed to greater danger literally millions of our citizens.

PRIS: Her heart must plead my cause with grace and with felicity!

PRES: Within the last two days, the Supreme Court, convened in a special session, has again reviewed a further point which one of the Justices felt the Rosenbergs should have an opportunity to present.

PRIS: ( on her knees, pleading ) I approach you solely on the basis of mercy.

PRES: ( edging away ) This morning the Supreme Court ruled that there was no substance to this point.

PRIS: …and earnestly beseech you to let this quality sway you rather than any narrow judicial concern, which is after all the province of the courts.

PRES: The legal processes of democracy have been marshaled to their maximum strength to protect the lives of convicted spies.

PRIS: It is rather the province of the affectionate grandfather.

PRES: Accordingly.

PRIS: …the sensitive artist, the devoutly religious man.

PRES: Accordingly, only the most extraordinary circumstances.

PRIS: …that I would enter… I ask this man.

PRES: Only the most extraordinary circumstances would warrant executive intervention in the case.

PRIS: I ask this man, himself no stranger to the humanities, what man there is that history has acclaimed great, whose greatness has not been measured in terms of his goodness? Truly.

PRES: If any other different situation arises that makes it look like a question of policy, of state policy, they can bring it back to me… As of now.

PRIS: Truly, the stories of Christ, of Moses, of Gandhi hold more sheer wonderment and spiritual treasure than all the conquests of Napoleon!

PRES: As of now, my decision was made purely on the basis of what the courts had found in all this long discussion.

PRIS: We do not want to die!

PRES: We are a nation under law and our affairs are governed by the just exercise of these laws.

PRIS: We are young, too young, for death… We wish to live!

PRES: The courts have done for these people everything possible.

PRIS: We told you the truth! We are innocent of this crime!