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Petition of the Two Thousand

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this was the unofficial name used the Senators of the Old Republic to describe a petition started by Bail Organa and Mon Mothma to overturn some - if not all - of the emergency powers that had been granted to Chancellor Palpatine during the Clone Wars. The Senators who signed the petition - who included the original draftees Padme' Amidala, Fang Zar, Bam Breemu, Giddean Danu, and Chi Eekway - started the petition in an effort to restore democracy in the Republic without starting another war of separation. The goal of the petition was to make Palpatine realize that the need for emergency powers and extended control of the galaxy was no longer necessary. Initially, it was decided that the Jedi Order would not be consulted about the petition, because many signatory Senators were unsure of the true position of the Jedi. Although Palpatine agreed to hear the petition, he twisted its intentions when discussing it later with Anakin Skywalker. Palpatine told Anakin that the petition was not a call for a return to normalcy in the Republic, but the opening salvo in a Jedi-led plot to overthrow the Chancellor's office and place control of the galaxy in the hands of the Jedi Council. According to Palpatine, the Delegation of the Two Thousand that drafted and signed the petition was under the control of the Jedi Council's powers of persuasion. The Petition later became the basis upon which Palpatine began his purge of the Senate, since he knew that most every Senator in the Delegation of the Two Thousand had opposed his control of the galaxy.