Page "Galactic Republic" Paragraph 31

Palpatine, who had been grotesquely disfigured by Mace Windu's " assassination attempt ", proclaimed himself to be the first Emperor of the galaxy.

Deluded by Palpatine's charisma and skill ( and perhaps also by his considerable dark side power ), the majority of the Senate cheered him on loudly in approval, which provoked one of Senator Padmé Amidala's more memorable lines: " So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause.

" After more than twenty-five millennia, the Galactic Republic had ceased to exist.