I would prefer to be a citizen of an independent country rather than Emperor of an enslaved one.
If your government had given me a thousandth of the sum it spent to depose me, I could have won that war.
In this decisive hour of our national history, union means life and division means death.
The time has come to put an end to the fratricidal war and to recover at last peace and accord.
Henceforth, we shall be happy to be a free citizen in an independent country.
As for us, during twenty years' reign, we have known much bitterness.
I do not wish a foreign army to spill the blood of my people.
