Nicola Sacco

“Last Will

Prologue:
We, Sacco and Vanzetti, sound of body and mind,
Devise and bequeath to all we leave behind,
The worldly wealth we inherited at our birth,
Each one to share alike as we leave this earth.

To Wit:
To babies we will their mothers’ love,
To youngsters we will the sun above.
To spooners who wont to tryst the night,
We give the moon and stars that shine so bright.
To thrill them in their hours of joy,
When boy hugs maid and maid hugs boy.
To nature’s creatures we allot the spring and summer,
To the doe, the bear, the gold-finch and the hummer.
To the fishes we ascribe the deep blue sea,
The honey we apportion to the bustling bee.
To the pessimist—good cheer—his mind to sooth,
To the chronic liar we donate the solemn truth.

And Lastly:

To those who judge solely seeking renown,
With blaring trumpets of the fakir and clown;
To the prosecutor, persecutor, and other human hounds,
Who’d barter another’s honor, recognizing no bounds,
To the Governor, the Jury, who another’s life they’d sell—
We endow them with the fiery depths of HELL!

(Industrial Worker, Aug. 20, 1927)”
― Nicola Sacco

“From sympathizers viewing Sacco and Vanzetti as victims, it was only a short step to viewing them as martyrs. To their partisans they exemplified all that was admirable—innocence, virtue, and idealism—while the forces arrayed against them embodied all that was intrinsically evil: bigotry, hypocrisy, and reaction.”
― Nicola Sacco, The Letters of Sacco and Vanzetti