Concerning His Own Restoration
1 Demosthenes to the
Council and the Assembly sends greeting
I used to believe, because of my conduct in public life, that, as one who was guilty of
no wrong toward you, I should not only never meet with such treatment as this
2 but, even if I should have
committed some slight offence, that I might meet with forgiveness. Since, however, it has
turned out as it has, so long as I observed you, without any manifest proof or even a
scrutiny of evidence on the part of the Council,
3 condemning all the accused on the strength of the
unrevealed information of that body, I chose to make the best of it, thinking that you
were surrendering rights no less valuable than those of which I was being deprived.
Because, for the jurors under oath to assent to whatever the Council should declare,
without any proof having been cited, that was a surrender of a constitutional right.
[
2]
Since, however, you have happily become aware of the
undue ascendancy. which certain members of the Council were contriving for themselves and
since you are now deciding the cases in the light of the proofs and have found the
secretiveness of these men deserving of censure, I think it is my right, with your
consent, to enjoy the same acquittal as those who have incurred the like accusations, and
not to be the only one to be deprived on a false charge of his fatherland, his property,
and the company of those who are nearest and dearest to him.