^^ THE MEN OF '48. 'J BEING A BRIEr HISTOET OF THE REPEAL ASSOCIA* TION AND THE IRISH CONFEDERATION; WITH SIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE LEAD- ING ACTORS IN THE LATTER ORGAN- IZATION, THEIR PRINCIPLES, OPINIONS, AND LITER- ART LABORS. BY COL. JAMES E. McGEE, £* author of "irish soldiers in every land," "lives of irishmen's sons," etc. IN ONE VOLUME. BOSTOK COLLEGE LIBRART CHESTNUT HILL, MAbS, BOSTON : B. O'LOUGHLTN, IRISH NATIONAL PUBLISHING HOUSE. 630 Washington Street. C'or.yriffht. 1831. B. O'LOUGHLIB. BOSTON COLLEGE LIB:^ARr CHESTNUT HILL, MA 021 67 A CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introductory — Ireland's second greatest griev- ance — The Act of Union— Debasement of the Irish people — Daniel O'Connell — Catholic struggles for civil rights — The Emancipation Act of 1829 — Agrarian agitation — Symptoms of a Eepeal movement. CHAPTER II. The Repeal Association — Establisliment of the Nation — Thomas Davis — His birth and edu- cation — Views on National subjects — Prose and Poetry — Influence on Irish literature — Death — Opinions of his cotemporaries. . . _ CHAPTER III. The Repeal year — Monster Meetings — The Net- tion — Opening of Conciliation Hall — "William Smith O'Brien — His birth and descent — Career in parliament — Joins the Repeal Association. - CHAPTER IV. Arrest of O'Connell, John O'Connell, Duffy, Gray, Barrett, Ray, Steele, Rev. Fathers Tyrrell and Tierney — Feeling of the country — State Trials —^Conviction — Effect in Parliament — Sentence and Imprisonment — More troops for Ireland — Reversal of Judgment — G^nj^ral rejoicing. PAQS. 29 48 76 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE. State of the Country — Its prosperity, resources, and revenue — Diminution of Crime — Rev. Theobald Mathew — His birth, education, and services — His political views — Effect of his labors in the Na- tional cause — Affection for the ' ' Young Ireland- ers " — O'Connell's and O'Brien's eulogies on his character. -93 CHAPTER VI. Symptoms of disunion in the Repeal Association — Charitable Bequests bill — Federalism advocated by O'Connell— Denounced by the Nation and O'Neil Daunt — English intrigues at Rome — The Papal Rescript — Financial reforms proposed — Formation of- the '83 Club— The Queen's Col- • leges bill — The Irish Hierarchy on education. - 112 CHAPTER VII. Celebration of the first anniversary of the 30th of May, 1844 — O'Connell in Thurles — Action of the British parliament respecting absent members — Michael Doheny — William Smith O'Brien and John O'Connell — Imprisonment of the former, dereliction of the latter — Debate in Conciliation Hall — Address of the '82 Club — More dissen- sions — Approach of the Famine. . - - 140 CHAPTER VIH. Opening of Parliament — Coercion and Free Trade — O'Connell and O'Brien in London — Defeat of the Tories — The Whigs in office— Conciliation Hall defies them — Thomas Francis Meagher — Repeal abandoned — O'Gorman, Mitchel, and Doheny— CONTENTS. V PAGK. O'CounelTs strange course — Trial of Charles Gavan Duflfy — Peace Resolutions — Secession from the Association. - - - . . iqq CHAPTER IX. O'Brien's account of the secession— Attempts at a reconciliation — The "Old Trelanders " in favor of place-taking — The Dublin Remonstrants — Tliomas D'Arcy McGee — Position of the Nation —Whig treachery — O'Connell in Parliament — Progress of the Famine. 197 CHAPTER X. Attempts at reunion — John B. Dillon — The Irish Confederation — Its organization and aims — The Galway election — More overtures for union — Charles Gavan Duffy— Rev. C. P. Meehan. - 218 CHAPTER XI. The American-Irish Banquet — Richard O'Gorman, Jr. — A truce proposed — O'Brien in the Confeder- ation — A disgraceful scene in Conciliation Hall —Rev. Mr. McHugh— Death of O'Connell— Its effects on the people — Fate of Conciliation Hall — The Nation on the future — Election in Cork, a Confederate victory. - - - . . 343 CHAPTER XII. The General Election of 1847— J. O'Connell with- draws from Dublin — O'Brien reelected for Limerick — Meagher in Waterford — The Repeal members — Grattan on the Famine — The Irish Council — The Confederate clubs— Division in vi CONTENTS. PA6B. the Confederation — John Mitchel — meeting in Dublin— The French Revolution of 1848— Its effects on Ireland — Deputation to Paris — Arrests — Transportation of Mitchel — End of the old I^ation. 260 CHAPTER XIII. Attempts at insurrection in the south — The affair of Ballingarry — Escape of Dillon, Doheny, O'Gor- man, and McGee — Arrest of O'Brien, Meagher, O'Donohoe, and McManus— their trial and con- viction — O'Brien's intrepidity — Character of O'Donohoe and McManus — Meagher's speech — - Last of the Irish Confederation. . - . 286 CHAPTER XIV. The literature of the "Young Ireland" party — James Clarence Mangan — Denis Florence McCarthy — Richard D'Alton Williams Lady Wilde — The Library of Ireland— Davis, Duffy, Father Meehan, Doheny, McNevin, Mitchel, McGee, McCarthy, and Mrs. Callan — Their legacy to *' Young Ireland" of to day. - - - 299 Recent advices from Europe indicate that the strusfo'le for self-o-overnment and the ri^ht of domestic legislation, which has been suspended in Ireland since 1848, is about to be renewed j and, it is to be hoped, under more favorable auspices than those which usher- ed in the Repeal movement under O'Connell, or the Irish Confederation of Dufiy and O'Brien. Men, almost entirely new to the mass of the people, seem to be tak- ing the most prominent part in this revived agitation j and a generation, who know little of the virtues and faults, the victories and defeats, which characterized the popular leaders of 1840-50, are their followers. As, in conducting this new crusade against English misgovernment, those champions of national rights will have to go over much of the ground trodden by their predecessors, they will, if they hope for success, be obliged to avoid and overcome the pitfalls and obsta- cles which entrapped or retarded the men of '43 and '48 in their progress towards independence. '^ Sweet are the uses of adversity ; " and from the misfortunes of the past may be gleaned many valuable lessons for the guidance of the present generation. It was partially with this purpose in view that I have written this volume j for, though it may not find many readers on the other side of the Atlantic, it will not be without its influence here. America and Ireland viii PREFACE. are now so intimately connected by ties of blood, mu- tual interest, and a common appreciation of the advan- tages of free government, that nothing which concsrns the one can be ^vithout interest to the other. In these days of the rapid transmission of intelligence, public opinion, in either hemisphere, is constantly acting and reacting upon the people and government of both. But what I designed principally was to present to those of my countrymen in the United States, who personally remember something of the Repeal Agitation under the great O'Connell and the Irish Confederates, a brief and, as far as possible, an accurate account of the origin, growth, and culmination of the differences which, in the year 1846, grew up in the Repeal Association ; as well as to convey some true ideas of the character, opinions, aims, and mental status of the sincere and gifted m.en who felt called upon to separate from the bulk of the Lib- erator's followers. In endeavoring to do so, I can safely say that I have not been actuated bv anv want of • • • admiration for the genius or patriotism of that illustrious Irishman 5 nor infliieuced by any personal predilection for those who differed from him on what is qow o^enerallv con- ceded, the high grounds of political faith and public duty. As to the prominent members of the Irish Confedera- tion, I am btit too well aware that, smarting from recent defeat, and perhaps laboring under false impressions, they have said words of each other that had better not have been uttered, and which they themselves have regretted more deeply than any person : I have there- fore striven to avoid, as raich as possible, instituting PREFACE. i:£ invidious comparisons between men who were equal in honesty, in truthfulness, in devotion, and who only diflered in mental attributes in degree. If I Lave spoken harshly or slightingly in these pages of the attempts of the Confederates to produce an armed revolution in Ireland, it is because I would warn all others from the imitation of such a danorerous ex- periment in a country where the use of arms is un- known to the vast majority of the population, and where the only military knowledge possessed by Irish- men is unfortunately used in the enslavement of their country. The right of Ireland to secure complete in- dependence, even by the utmost exertion of force, is, in my mind, unquestionable ; but no people, no matter how badly governed, have a right to adopt this ultimate alter- native without the moral probability of success. Nor, indeed, is any man, no matter how distinguished or expe- rienced, justified in exciting his fellow-beings to aims, who is not prepared to show that he has the capacity to lead them, and reasonable means to insure their success. For many of the facts and incidents related in this volume, I have been indebted to the cotemporary files of the Nation and Dublin Freeman, to MitcheFs " Last Conquest of Ireland — Perhaps ; " Doheny's " Felon's Track ; " the letters and personal statements of many of the chief actors in the scenes related j and to several volumes of the N. Y. Truth-Teller^ kindly furnished me by the late Mr. William McN. Denman. J. E. M. New York :— St. Patrick's Dav, 1874. CHAPTER I. Introductory — Ireland's second greatest grievance — The Act of Union — Debasement of the Irish people — Daniel O'Connell— Catholic struggles for civil rights — The Emancipation act of 1829 — Agrarian agitation — Symptoms of a Repeal movement. The greatest misfortune that has ever befallen the people of Ireland, always ex- cepting the loss of her national indepen- dence, was the deprivation of her legislative power, and consequently of the right of her people to make their own laws, subject only to the supervision of the monarch of the United Kingdoms. The first calamity was brought about by slow degrees, as well as by an almost end- less series of desultory battles, wholesale confiscations, and unparalleled atrocities. If we examine the records of Anglo-Norman conquest in Ireland, from the invasion in 1169 down to the '^ pacification " of Mount- joy in the time of Elizabeth, we will find that it required more than four hundred 10 THE MEN OF '48. years of continual warfare, undertaken by a po^yer far more numerous and wealthy, and assisted by mercenaries from the Con- tinent, to overwhelm, for the time at least, that perennial spring of patriotism and bravery which flows so purely and strongly from the Gaelic heart. Other countries, notably England herself, have been conquered in a couple of cam- paigns or even in a single battle. The Romans found little difficulty in subduing the primitive barbarians of Albion; Hen- gist and Horsa literally swept the Britons off the face of the soil and drove them into the recesses of the Welsh mountains, from which they never returned ; and the descend- ants of those very Saxons, in the eleventh century, were in turn trampled upon and enslaved by William's filibuster os^ without- let or hinderance, after his first battle, Hast- ings. A century latter saw the descendants of those very conquerors in Ireland, equally as ready for spoliation and confiscation ; but tlieir success was not commensurate with their hopes or advantages. William's THE MEN OF '48. 1 1 ^'Normans" were gathered from the four winds of heaven, and from all classes of society : men of desperate fortunes, and with consciences not over-scrupulous, tliough brave and experienced soldiers. Those of their progeny who went to Ireland were very much of the same caste and character; for as yet the baser Saxon blood had not been allowed to commingle with the sup230sed purer strain of their mas- ters. They had this advantage, also, over their ancestors : that, as the military art was becoming more and more developed on the Continent, the interminable wars of the earlier Norman kings, in defence of their territorial rights in France, gave them ample opportunities of becoming skilled and intrepid warriors : an advantage totally be- yond the reach of an insular and isolated people like the Irish of that period. In building, defending, and assailing fortifications, they had no superiors in Europe ; and, though their strategy was prhnitive and their tactics simple, they were vastly in advance of the Irish in 1 2 THE MEN OF '43. tlieir mode of initiating and conducting a campaign, as well as in the excellence of their armor and weapons of war — in everything, in fact, that leads to successful warfare, except coui'age and an unyielding spirit of resi^ance. Yet with all those advantages on their side, the Anglo-Normans made little prog- ress in their conquests for the first two or three centuries after their ariival, and it may be safely asserted that there was no time between the reign of the second and that of the eighth Henry — a period of nearly four centuries — that the Irish 23rinces and chiefs, if united, might not easily have driven their invaders from the country as the Northmen had been exiDclled by their forefathers, when " MalacLy conquered the foeman, and Biian uprooted tLe Dane." But sectional jealousy and personal spite were always in the ascendant in the councils of the Irish chiefs, even while the star of their country's independence was setting" red in the blood of her chivalrous THE MEX OF '48. 13 sons. Then came the quasi Irish parHa- ments of the Pale, who very generously voted — what did not belong to them to give — the crown of Ireland to that monster of iniquity Henry VIII. For this gracious act of munificence, as well as for turnino- over body and soul from the ancient faith to the new reformation, the pliant tools were liberally rewarded by their august master with grants of abbey and chui'ch lands, and the revenues of pillaged hospi- tals, colleges, and nunneries. It is unneces- sarv to sav that the terais of the bargfain were mutually satisfactory. Henceforward the so-called Irish parlia- ment was always to be found the most obedient, humble servant of the English officials ; and nothing was so sycophantic or grovelling that it would not do, did its masters but intimate the slightest wish to that effect. It was of course a representa- tive body only in name, for its benches were filled with placemen and pensioners ; neither the people, nor even a fi-action of the people, ever being consulted in its for- 14 THE MEN OF '48. Illation or advised of its doings. But it answered the purpose of its founders well enono'h, and became in course of time one of those agreeable delusions of the English system of government, by which the masses are led to believe that they are governed by a fixed constitution and equitable laws, made, in part at least, by their veritable representatives. Toward the close of the last century, however, a change was becoming apparent in the tone and temper of the so-called national assembly. Every device and scheme that could be suggested to acute and intolerant minds had been used against the Catholic Irish until they were beggared, exiled, or driven to starvation ; then their persecutors rested for a while in their head- long course, as it were, through sheer sa- tiety. But there was still another code of laws which pressed heavily on the whole people, irrespective of creed or religion. A portion of the enactments under this sytem restricted the exportation of the produce of the soil to ports other than those of THE MEN OF '48. 15 England and a few of her colonies, while the markets of the world were virtually closed to lier manufactures. As those laws had been passed by the English parliament, of course the Irish travesty upon it had no power to repeal or modify them. Now, as the landlords, directly or indirectly con- cerned in the exports of agricultm-al prod- ucts, were invariably Protestants ; and the manufacture and sale of linen, cloth, glass, etc., were almost exclusively monopolized by the Ulster Presbyterians, it followed that there was great dissatisfaction among that class of his Majesty's most faithful subjects. It was all very well to crush and humiliate the Catholics, then three-fourtlis of the population ; but as soon as the lash was applied to the back of the dominant minority it was declared rank tyranny. When the war of the American Revolu- tion had drained Ireland of her usual de- fenders and jailers, the occasion was seized upon by this class to organize a national, unpaid militia, called the "Volunteers," who instead of at once taking possession of the 16 THE MEN OF '48. government and declaring thorough inde- pendence of all foreign domination, which might have been done without the effusion of a drop of blood, boasted of their loyalty, of their readiness to fio-ht ao\ainst the French and Americans, declared the right of Protes- tants to bear arms, and demanded — unre- stricted trade with foreign countries. This concession was quickly granted, as would any other that might have been required, simply because England had no power to refuse it. But there were some men, high- spirited, eloquent, and, to a certain extent, national in feeling, like Grattan, Flood, Charlemont, and Daly, who had ulterior motives, and who felt that the only security for the country {i. e., the Protestant faction), was the complete independence of- the parliament, and this also was conceded, after a brief show of opposition, in 1782. Then the Volunteers, flushed with victory, re- solved to take a further step, and having secured the corporate independence of the legislature, determined to reform and purify it, by getting rid of the majority of its mem- THE MEN OF '48. 1 7 bers, the paid creatures of tlie government or the representatives of rotten boroughs. They accordingly met in convention in DubHn in 1783, and having reiterated the sapient opinion that Protestants had a right to carry arms ; that Protestants with a certain property qualification ought to be allowed to vote ; and by inference none but " Prot- estants " had or ought to have either^ they applied to parliament, through their repre- sentative, Harry Flood, a leading jDatriotic bigot, for a reform bill embodying theii* plans. But times had changed, the Ameri- can war was over, and England had with- drawn her shattered forces from the New World once more to sustain her despotic power in the Old ; while the mass of the Irish, the Catholics, who had so long en- couraged and sustained the Volunteers, in hopes of obtaining some measure of justice through their aid, now, finding their confi- dence cruelly betrayed, and themselves de- clared unfit to bear a weapon for self-defence or to have the slightest share in making the laws, by the very men they had trusted so 18 THE MEN OF '48. far, withdrew their assistance and the moral support of their overpowering numbers. Mr. Flood's bill was not only rejected by an immense majority, but he was not per- mitted even to introduce it in the accus- tomed form. From that time the Volunteers degenerated, andi in a few years disappeared from the sio'ht of men. The result of their labors, freedom of trade and legislative in- dependence, vanished almost as quickly, if not so quietly. England having thus effectually h'elped the Volunteers to destroy themselves, set to work svstematicallv to annihilate the body which they had rendered independent, and by one bold stroke to abolish forever tlie assembly that had of late become so dangerous to her interests, commercially and politically. With one hand she petted and caressed the Catholics, and with the other she armed tlie Orano^emen as^ainst them. She encouraged secret revolutionary societies while proclaiming martial laAV in the disturbed districts, and finallv over the entire countrv. In turns she threatened THE MEN OF '48. 19 the timid, bribed tlie venal, and allured, by false j)i'omises of speedy amelioration, the oppressed and persecuted. The object throuo^hout was to win tlie of-ood-will of the Catholics, who had no votes, but great phys- ical power, while at the same time to secure a working majority of those who sat in parliament and of those Avhom they were supposed to represent. This line of policy was only partially successful, for it was found necessary to resort to more stringent measures before the popular voice would declare, or the slavish parliament vote for so execrable a measure as the djestruction of their last shred of nationalitv. But Pitt, and his lienchman, Castlereagh, were equal to the occasion. The unruly patient who would not consent to suicide must be treat- ed to a little phlebotom}". Then commenced midnight murders bv " Oranoremen : " and retaliation by "Defenders;" quartering of brutal and licentious troops in the households of peaceful and virtuous families, lialf hang- ing, pitcli-cap, triangle, and other like tor- tures, and, as if this were not enough to 20 THE MEN OF '48. drive the most patient and most enduring jDeople in the world to open rebelHon, churcli bm-ninors and wholesale massacres of the defenceless peasantry by the armed Orange yeomen were supplemented. Then followed, in rapid succession, the uprising of the gallant men of Wexford, the abortive at- tempts of the United Irishmen of the North, the arrest of the leaders of that oro["anization in Dublin ; trials by courts-martial, execu- tions without number, and general terror- isms and stupefaction. This was the opportune moment for the conspirators against the only remaining rights left to the nation. Bills to further cement the union of Ireland and England were simultaneously introduced into the par- liaments of both countries, and in July, 1800, were passed by large majorities. To effect this unconstitutional and unexampled out- rage on the liberties of the people, not only intimidation and cajolery were freely resorted to, but the most unblushing corruption and bribery were lavishly used; so repulsive was the deed even to those who most favored it THE MEN OF '48. 21 secretly, or advocated its consummation with apparent candor. From tlie first day of January, 1801, Ireland ceased to have even the semblance of nationahty. Her laws in future were to be made in London, in a House of Commons seven-eighths of whose members had never seen Ireland or knew anything whatever of her resources, trade, commerce, or agri- culture; and in a House of Lords where the ignorant majority was even more anti- Irish and anti-Catholic. Thus the country became, and so remains to this day, as much a portion of Great Britain, and as totally devoid of au}^ political individuality, as Yorkshire or Kent, except when it sub- serves English designs to think otherwise ; and then the comparative freedom of action and religious equality which is permitted those shires, are practically and unhesita- tingly denied to one of the grandest and most illustrious of the old nations of Europe. The condition of the Irish Catholics after the Union was humiliating and pitiful in the extreme. Weakened by the late civil 22 THE MEN OF '48. struggle, betrayed by insidious advice into a partial support of the bill that took away the trifling rights yet remaining, and be- trayed by those whom they had foolishly trusted, thev found themselves without a leader or an advocate, scarcely daring to lift up their eyes to the Great Power above them, and ask His assistance to recover the oppor- tunity they had so idly cast away. ^* In the public journals of the period," says a late writer, '^ they exhibit few symptoms of polit- ical life. They had lapsed into that drowsy torpor in which they are buried at present ; and, as at present, the possibility of political action was precluded by the absence of po- litical harmony. It was not consonant with the dignity of Catholics, as their aristoci'acy asserted, to address a jDarliament by which their petitions had been previously rejected. This insidious suofsfestion had the desired effect — it mummified the Catholic body. The same sophistry, under another form, has been employed in recent times to pro- duce the same inaction. O'Connell dashed it aside. He was aware of the horror THE MEN OF '43. 2 o with which tKe titled sensuaUsts wlio ruled the empire regarded agitation. To them, he knew that the irritation, the fret, which public meetings occasion is more annoying than violent and open war. Hence it was that O'Connell taught one uniform doc- trine, Aofitate ! ag-itate ! ag-itate ! " But even Daniel O'Connell, full of life, enthusiasm, energy, and eloquence as he then was, could not arouse the Catholic masses from their lethargy or instil into their degenerate souls one tittle of his own fire and manliness. In vain he organized Catholic Committees and Catholic Boards, in vain he denounced, with a wealth of lan- guage and a power of invective beyond conception, the illegality and utter injustice of the act of union and the diabolical atroc- ity of the penal laws ; equally in vain did he try by example and precept to unite his oppressed co-religionists and infuse into their hearts some of his own hopefulness and moral courage. The terrors of '98 had entered into their very marrow, while the duplicity of those who sold their country 24 THE MEN OF '48. for a mess of pottage sickened and disgusted tliem. A man with less pertinacity and de- termination than O'Connell would have given up the task in despau' ; as it was, he turned his attention more to his profession and to the preparation of those majestic forensic displays of wit, eloquence, and pathos — half legal, half political — whicli, while they seldom failed to convince the court and sway the jury, always served to electrify and arouse the j)l^^dits of the audience. While he was waiting for a new generation he Was schooling himself, and training the people for the great impending struggle for religious liberty which cul- minated in 1829. This was inaugurated by O'Connell in the early part of 1823, by the formation of a Catholic Association, an organization which for more than a year after its inception attracted little attention and wielded no popular power. But when its objects and aims became gradually developed, the people and the priesthood flocked around its stand- ards, till so dangerous had it become, in its THE MEN OF '48. 25 numerical and moral strength, to English interests in Ireland, that an act was passed by the imperial parliament for its suppres- sion. But the time had at length arrived when the new generation took the lead in public affairs without fear or hesitation. A few months after the dissolution of the fii'st association another one was formed, and the people's demand for civil and relig- ious rights was more thoroughly discussed and more persistently urged. The result was that George IV, acting under the direc- tion of Wellino'ton and the other members of his cabinet, signed the act of Emancipa- tion on the 13th of April, 1829, and thus, as it was at the time said, placed the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland on an equality with the Protestant sects. The relief afforded the Catholics was not, however, either complete or unaccompanied by civil disabilities, some of which were removed by the Reform act, which opened the municipal corporations to Catholics ; others in our own day by the Church Disestablishment bill, which abolished the 26 THE MEN OF '48. tithe system ; and many are still in exist- ence. The old system of collecting tithes, it is tiTie, was abandoned years ago ; but being made a rent charge and payable by the owners of the land was no advantage to the tenants, as it was, of course, added to their already exorbitant rents. The reform bill of 1831 was an English measure, passed for the benefit of that people, and had very little influence for good or evil on Ireland. The disfranchisement of the forty shilling freeholders which had been made a con- dition of the passage of the Emancipation Act, was, under the circumstances then sur- rounding the peasant population, at best a negative evil. The position of the Catholics was however substantially improved. O'Connell, in re- ward for his great services, was presented with the handsome sum of fifty thousand pounds sterling by his admiring co-religion- ists, and his presence everywhere through- out the country was hailed with the most enthusiastic demonstrations and tokens of gratitude by all classes. THE MEx\ OF '48. 27 But his late successes were but partial, lie had obtained a great boon, it is true, for a portion of his country, and had destroyed a monster which had so long preyed on its vitals. Still he had only captured the out- works of the enemies' defences ; the citadel remained in their possession. His former labors had been for the benefit of a class, he now intended to make them national. In other words, he proposed to unite all parties and creeds under one banner, with the common war-cry : Repeal of the Union. Too shrewd a man not to see that the cancer which was eating into the heart of Ireland could not be effectually cured by half measures introduced and mainly carried out by an alien parliament, and too proud a patriot to be content to see his native land in a state of worse than colonial dependence, he must have felt that, except the violent disruption of the Empire, there was no complete remedy for Irish grievances short of the restoration of her right of self- government. This was ever the burden of his speeches and addresses during the 28 THE MEN OF '48. decade subsequent to emancipation, as well as through the whole course of his after life, while he had strength to raise his voice or wield his pen in behalf of his suffering countrymen. From 1830 till 1840, there were spas- modic efforts made, from time to time, to enlist the sympathies of the entire people in favor of a repeal agitation, but with little or no effect. Some were satisfied with what they had obtained by the law of '29 ; others were more interested in local and agrarian matters; and still others, whose ambition rose no higher than keeping on terms with the English party in power for the sake of obtaining offices for themselves or friends, who attempted to use for selfish and de- grading purposes the very provisions of the Emancipation Act, which allowed Catholics to hold office, not as an inducement for de- 'serting the national cause, but as an abso- lute right and a token of religious equality. CHAPTER 11. The Repeal Association — Establishment of the "Nation' — Thomas Davis — Plis Ijirth and education — Views on national subjects — Prose and poetry — Influence on Irish literature — Death — Opinions of his contemporaries. In 1840, tlie excitement tliat had at- tended tlie Reform, Titlie, and Mnnicipal Reform bills had subsided. O'Connell and his colaborers, having had nearly ten years' experience in the imperial parliament, Avith ample opportunity to study the inclinations and views of the overwhelming majority of that body, found the sad conclusion forced on their minds that no hope for Ireland — no fair, imj)artial laws for her people — no adequate redress for her many grievances — could be expected from an assembly in which the w^ants of the country were neither recognized nor appreciated. Ignorance of Irish character and distress, and even of the very text and existence of the statutes of which most complaint had been made, w^as supplemented, in the case of the English, 30 THE MEN OF '48. Welsh, and Scotch members, by the most offensive display of superiority and conde- scension, which had at its root a bitter, hos- tile antipathy to the very name of Ireland. • O'Connell, therefore, disgusted but not disheartened, left his place in St. Stephen's and returned to Dublin, with a firm resolve to found an association for the purpose of restoring to the country her parliament ; to arouse the dormant spirit of the nation to a sense of its degradation and of its strength; and to devote the few remaining years of his life — he was then sixty-four — to the con- summation of his country's regeneration. On the 15th of April, 1840, the first meeting of the new organization took place. It was held in the Corn Exchange building ; about one hundred and fifty persons were present, the great Emancipator being the principal speaker on the occasion. In his opening address he said : '^ My Fello w-Countrymen — I rise witli the deep sense of the awful importance of the step I am about to propose to the Irish people, and a fall knowledge of the difficulties by which we are surrounded and the obstacles we have THE MEN OF '48. 31 to contend with. I trust that my heart is pure, and my judgment, on the present occasion, unclouded ; and I declare in the presence of God, who is to judge me for an eternity of weal or woe, that I have no object in view but the good of m}'' native land, and that I feel, in the deepest sense, the responsibility I am about to incur. We are about to enter on a straggle that will teiTuinate only in having the most ample justice done to Ireland by placing her upon an equality with the sister- country, or in the establishment of our legislative in- dependence. We commence under auspices that afford little prospect of ultimate success to some ; but those who know the character of the brave, moral, religious, and patient Irish people, cannot be of that opinion. We shall, no doubt, be laughed at and derided on all sides, sneered at by friends who believe everything impracticable, and opposed by those malignant enemies who will be delighted to find an opportunity for mani- festing their hostility. But no matter. We w^ere de- rided and laughed at before by persons of this descrip- tion when we set about the accomplishment of that great moral revolution which has won religious freedom for all." These were brave words, bravely uttered, in defiance of the vast, intolerant, and un- principled Opposition whose hostility and ridicule he had anticipated and defied. But they settled deep in the minds of those to whom they were addressed, and in time 32 THE MEN OF '48. produced abundant fruits. Though during that and the two succeeding years the growth of the association was slow and not always regular, the opinions of the leaders in the movement were permeating the minds of the masses in every section of the country. O'Connell himself, by public letters, ad- dresses, and private influence, was inces- santly developing his plans and enforcing his arguments in favor of the absolute ne- cessity of domestic legislation for Ireland. His speeches in Mullingar, Cork, Limerick, Belfast, and Carlow, during this period, were full of his ancient fire, vehemence, logic, and pathos, solidified and chastened by the ex- perience of a long and laborious life. His election as Lord Mayor of Dublin in the latter part of 1841, not only drew to him the attention of the empire, but added a gravity and significance to his casual utter- ances fai* beyond what was attached to those of any other man of his nationality. He was now indeed the true leader of the Lish people, and around him crowded prelates, priests, and people — the old men THE MEN OF '48. 33 wlio recollected the vanished gloiies of the days of Grattan and the volunteers, as well as the young spirits, fresh from their classic studies of Greek and Roman liberty, who knew nothing of the atrocities of '98 nor of the debasement of their fathers under the infamous persecutions that preceded and followed that sad catastrophe. Among the latter were three men, com- paratively young, who were destined to be among his most efficient supporters, so long as a sense of justice and a due regard for their country's welfare would allow them to be so. These were Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy, and John B. Dillon, the nucleus of what was afterwards called the " Young Ireland" party ; and truly did they represent the young blood and young mind of Ireland, or rather the old spirit and ancient genius of their warrior ancestors rejuvenated and revivified. The first, Davis, was a Protestant, the other two. Catholics. Duffy had large experience as a journalist, Dillon was a lawyer, and Davis a man of letters. Each represented a province, north, 34 THE MEN OF '43. west, and south, when they met in the capi- tal of Leinster to establish a journal — The Nation — which, while designed to be devoted primarily to the advocacy of a repeal of the act of Union, was intended to create a national literature, a taste for Irish art and archaeology, a love for Ii'ish music and song, and to make them ''racy of the soil." The Nation was fii'st issued in the au- tumn of 1842. Before many weeks had elapsed it had taken a position not only at the head of Irish journalism, but second to none of its class then published in any country or language. So solid, terse, and pointed were its editorials, so brilliant and captivating its literary essays and poetry, that in its very infancy it excited general astonishment and comment, and, with the magnetism of true genius, drew around it, j)roud to swell the tide of its fame, a host of volunteer contributors, some of whose names now are counted among those of the best writers of our century. Of the tlu'ee originators of this great THE MEN OF '48. 35 journal, Thomas Davis was undoubtedly tlie most versatile, and, as a litterateur^ tlie most gifted. Born in Mallow, in the county of Cork, A. D. 1 814, he early imbibed the poetic afflatus which seems to delight in lingering round the mountains and babbling- in the brooks of Munster. Not belonoino- to the proscribed faith, he had every advantage of a good education, and Avliile still a youth entered the Dublin University. His life in Trinity was marked neither by incident nor any great signs of precocious ability. He passed through the regular course of study in the usual manner, without particular notice or remark, and went into the wide world with no apparent aim or definite coui'se in life. He had, in fact, one of those pecu- liarly constituted minds, usually of slow de- velopment, which, unconscious of its own grasp and power, fails at fu'st to see the straight path before it. His studies in col- lege were systematically and conscientiously attended to, but he had no taste for the forms and fetters of pedantic scholasticism. He loved nature in all her bloom and freshness, 36 THE MEN OF '48. and his happiest hours were devoted to the contemplation of her beauties or to com- muning with poets and naturahsts who had exhausted their powers of description in her praise. Thus dreaming and aindess he passed the first years of his manhood. " During his college-course," says an inti- mate friend and fellow-student, '' and for some years after, while he was very gen- erally liked, he had, unless perhaps wath some few who knew him intimately, but a moderate reputation for high ability of any kind." At length Davis, in his twenty-eighth year, found his true vocation. Then his soul burst out in a gush of melody, and in strong, tlnilling prose that captivated all hearts and carried conviction with them, such as mere oratory or ordinary verse could never have accomplished. Week after week the columns of the Nation were filled with his contributions on every con- ceivable subject afi*ecting Ireland: her history, resources, literature, antiquities, and art; and with a plenitude of ideas and THE MEN OF '48. 37 language, combined with such perfect mas- tery of his theme, that he astonished not only his associates but himself The rock had been struck at last, and a pure, limpid stream of erudition and patriotism came forth to quench the ardent thirst for knowl- edge of his captive people. While he lived he was the life and soul of the Younof Irelanders, their prophet and then- guide, and though seldom found on the rostrum, he was admitted by all to be one of the principal, if not the very ablest, of the sup- porters of O'Connell. It is, however, as a poet, as the one who had discovered the secret springs of the*Irish character and knew well how to touch each in turn, that his memory is embalmed in the popular heart. Of all the brilliant spirits that added grace and harmony to the Eepeal epoch, there is none so fondly re- membered as he ; for his ballads and songs have not only a local interest and a definite object attached to them, but they are so warm, so true to nature, and so consonant with Irish feeling that, heard but once or 38 THE MEN OF '48. twice, they are sure never to be forgotten. When we reflect that only such moments as he could snatch from more serious occupa- tions were devoted to the muses ; that his selected poems as published fill a good sized volume ; that, though many of them bear evidence of haste, they are every one full of deep and original thought, in most instances melodiously expressed ; we are inclined to wonder at his previous silence as well as to speculate on W'hat he might have produced had his life been prolonged for a few more years. But our sm-prise is still further increased when we read, in the Introduction to his poems written by his friend Mr. Wallis, the following statement. '' Until about three years before his death," this editor says, ** I am assured he had never written a line of poetry. His efforts to acquire knowl- edge, to make himself useful, to find a suit- able sphere of action, were incessant ; but they tried every path, and took every di- rection but this. The warmth of his affec- tions, and his intense enjoyment of the beau- THE MEN OF '48. 39 ties of nature and character, literature and art, ouglit early to have marked him out as one destined to soar and sing, as well as to think and act. But the fact is, that among his youthful contemporaries, for many a long year, he got as little credit for any promise this way as he did for any other remarkable qualities, beyond extreme good-nature, untir- ing industry, and very varied learning." To this Mr. John Mitchel adds his testimony. " He was no boy-rhymer," he says, in his preface to the same collection, '' and brim- ful as his eye and soul were of the beauties and glories of nature, he never felt a neces- sity to utter them in song." That Davis, while doubtful of his own ability to supply the deficiency, was yet fully alive to the importance of song as a lever to raise a down-trodden race to man- liness and independence, we are well assured by his own words. In his essay on the '' Ballad Poetry of Ireland" he wrote: '' That a country is without national poetry proves its hopeless dulness or its utter provincialism. National poetry is the very flowering of the 40 THE MEX OF '48. soul — the greatest evidence of its health, the greatest excellence of its beauty. Its melody is balsam to the senses. It is the playfellow of childhood, ripens into the com- panion of his manhood, consoles his age. It presents the most dramatic events, the largest characters, the most impressive scenes, and the deepest passions in the language most familiar to us. It shows us magnified, and ennobles our hearts, our in- tellects, our countr}^, and our countrymen — binds us to the past by its condensed and gem-like history, to the future by examples and by aspirations. It solaces us in travel, fires us in action, prompts om- invention, sheds a grace beyond the power of luxury around our homes, is the recognized envoy of our minds among all mankind and to all time " Inspired by such profound appreciation of the value of poetry, ballad, and song, in the education and elevation of the people, Davis wrote continually and always to the point, with steadily increasing excel- lence ; and, if we have to-day in the English THE MEN OF '48. 41 lanofuaofe melodies and ballads that no tliorouo'li Irishman need blush to sing* or feel humiliated in hearing repeated, we owe it, in great part, to his pure genius and burning patriotism. But alas ! in the very hour of his great- est usefulness, while an entranced country hung lovingly on his notes, when on the very threshold of his fame, he was snatched away from his race and nation, to the deep regret of all, even of those who either would not or could not agree with his political or personal view^s. He died after a short sick- ness on the 16th of September, 1845, in Dublin, and was buried amid tears and lamentations in Mount Jerome chm*ch-yard outside of that city. To those who know his worth, abilities, and character only through his writings, he stands forth as a noble, sagacious, and accomplished journalist ; a pure-souled and unselfish patriot; a true poet, full of sub- lime aspirations and beautiful conceptions, wanting only the hand of time to mellow and retouch the defects of an untrained 42 THE MEN OF '48. and exuberant fancy. But it is not always well to judge a man by his words or writ- ings. Let us see, then, what some of his contemporaries and most intimate acquaint- ances — men who knew every pulsation of his heart and marked his every action — said of him. And first we take the opinion of the great Agitator. He was at Derrynane when the sad news reached him of the death of the young poet. He immediately wrote to the Repeal Association a letter, in which the following feeling allusions were made to the recent calamity. " I do not know what to write. My mind is be- wildered and my heart afflicted. The loss of my be- loved friend — my noble-minded friend — is a source of the deepest sorrow to my mind. What a blow — what a cruel blow — to the cause of Irish nationality ! He was a creature of transcendent qualities of mind and heart. His learning was universal — his knowledge was as minute as it was general. And then he waS' a being of such incessant energy and continuous exei'tion. I, of course, in the few years — if years they be — still left to me, cannot expect to look upon his like again or to see the place he has left vacant adequately filled up. And I solemnly declare that I never knew any man THE MEN OF '48. 4 Q who could be so useful to Ireland in the present stage of her struggles. His loss is indeed irreparable. What an example he was to the Protestant youths of Ireland ! What a noble emulation of his vu'tues ought to be ex- cited in the Catholic young men of Ireland ! And his heart, too ! — it was as gentle, as kind, as loving as a woman's. Yes ! it was as tenderly kind as Lis judg- ment was comprehensive and his genius magnificent. We shall long deplore his loss. As I stand alone in the solitude of my mountains, many a tear shall I shed to the memory of the noble youth. Oh ! how vain are words or tears when such a national calamity afflicts the country. Put me down among the foremost contributors to whatever monument or tribute to his memory shall be voted by the National Association. Never did they perform a more imperative or — alas ! — so sad a duty. I can write no more — my tears blind me ; and after all, 'Fungar inane munere.'" Charles Gavan Duffy, in writing shortly after the death of his lost co-laborer, said of him: "We are still too near to estimate his proportions truly. The friends to whom his singularly noble and lovable character was familiar, and who knew all the great desiras he was brino^ino* to maturity, are in no fit condition to measure his intellectual force with a calm judgment. The people who knew liim imperfectly, or not at all — 44 THE MEN OF '48. for it was one of the practical lessons lie taught the young men of his generation, to be chary of notoriety — have still to gather from his works whatever faint image of a truly great man can ever be collected from books. Till they have done this, they will not be prepared to hear the whole truth of him. All he was, and might have become, they can never fully know ; as it is, their unconsciousness of what they have lost, impresses those who knew him with that pity- ing pain we feel for the indifference of a child to the death of his father. Students who will be eager to estimate him for them- selves, must take in connection with his works the fact, that over the grave of this man, living only to manhood, and occupying only a private station, there gathered a union of parties and a combination of intellect that would have met round the tomb of no other man who has lived in our time. No life — not that of Guttenberg, or Franklin, or Tone — illustrates more stiikingly than his, how often it is necessary to turn aside from the dais on which stand the great and THE MEN OF '48. 45 titled, for the great moving power of tlie time — the men who are stirring hke a soul in the bosom of society. Such a one they will quickly discover Davis to have been." The late General Thomas Francis Meagher, one of Davis's earliest pupils, and always his warm admirer, spoke of him in his wonted glowing and impassioned terms of admiration. Alluding to the attempts to heal differences which had sprung up between the members of the Association shortly previous to the poet's decease, he thus said: ''Amid the discordant elements, the heart and voice and pen of Thomas Davis were tasked to the uttermost to restore union, cordiality, and brotherly love. Never did genius or truth assert a brighter future than when she flashed from his pen in the din of these unnatural passions. . . The death of Thomas Davis was an unspeakable calamity. Never did heavier one fall on a doomed nation." John Mitch el, his succes- sor on the Nation J also adds his tribute to the worth and genius of his predecessor: 4G THE MEN OF '43. *' By liis ardent temperament," he writes, '^amiable character, and high accompKsh- ments, he soon gatliered around him a gifted circle of educated young men, Protestant and CathoHc, whose head-quarters was the Nation office, and whose chief bond of union was their warm attachment to their friend. It was the one grand object of these men — and it was grand — to lift up the Irish cause high above Catholic claims and Protestant pretensions, to unite all sects in the one character of ' Irishmen,' to put an end to English domination. Their idea was pre- cisely the idea of the United Irishmen ; although their mode of action was very different." In reading over these eloquent eulogies we can form some idea of the loss which the country sustained in the death of Davis at the critical moment when the action of the Repeal Association was paralyzed by internal dissensions, and the shadow of the impending famine was already casting its gloom over the face of the land. But, as it has been well said, they never fail who die THE MEN OF '48 47 in a good cause. We liave still with us those brilliant coruscations of his genius which will shine like meteors on the onward path of future laborers in the field in which he wrought so well, and for which he, in his short life, accomplished so much good. CHAPTER III. The Repeal year — Monster meetings — The Kation — Opening of Conciliation Hall — William Smith O'Brien — His birth and descent — Career in parliament- Joins the Repeal Association. After nearly three years spent in prep- aration, O'Connell felt that the time had come to arouse the entire country, and to force on the people of England and Scotland and, indeed, on all Clnistendom, the convic- tion that at least four-fifths of the Irish were thoroughly unanimous in then' demands for the restoration of their jDarliament; and were resolved that their voice should be heard on this all-impprtant subject by friends and foes alike. The mode of pro- ceeding which he proposed to himself was the holding of vast, open-air meetings in different portions of the provinces, to the end that the entire population of the coun- try might have a full opportunity of hear- ing the repeal question fully discussed in all its bearings ; and, by their multitudinous THE MEN OF '48. 49 presence of indorsing tlie actions of their representatives in the imperial legislature. The voice of a united and (being united), powerful nation, demanding rights at once just and expedient to be granted, could not, he argued, be raised in vain. Accordingly, early in 1843, from his home in Derrynane, he addressed a letter to the Association requiring that three mil- lion repealers should be enrolled, which being done, he promised that the Irish parliament would be restored. But he was not content to leave this work alto- gether to the committee, and the repeal wardens. He resolved to forego his atten- dance on the coming session of parliament, and to devote his entu^e. time and energy to arousing the people. He therefore left his home, in January, for Dublin, where he intended to strike the first blow, in the capital and in the presence of the highest representative body of the country. He had already put on the books of the corporation a notice of motion declar- ing the necessity of a repeal of the Union 50 THE MEN OF '48. f!ct. Tlio debate on tliis motion took place in the Assembly Rooms, on the 28th of February and occupied three days, amid intense excitement. O'Connell opened the proceedings by presenting the following propositions, and supported them in a speech of remarkable power, calmness, and famil- iarity with the subject. They were : ^' 1st, The capability and capacity of the Irish nation for an independent legislature. 2d, The perfect right of Ireland to have a do- mestic parliament. 3d, This right w^as fully established by the transactions of 1782. 4th, That the most beneficial effects ac- crued to Ireland from her parliamentary independence. 5th, That the Irish parlia- ment was utterly incompetent to annihilate the Irish Constitution by uniting with England. 6th, That as the Union was car- ried by fraud, force, terror, and the gross- est corruption, it is not a bargain or con- tract. 7th, That the most disastrous con- sequences resulted to Ireland from the Union. 8th, That the Union can be abol- ished by jDcaceable and constitutional THE MEN OF '48. 51 means — witliout tlie violation of law and without the destruction of property or life. 9th, That none but the most salutary results can spring from a repeal of the Union." He was answered at great length and with marked ability by Mr. Isaac Butt, Q. C, noAv one of the leaders of the Home- Rule movement, and even then a quasi- repealer, though the spokesman of the Tory aldermen. All the arguments that keen, legal ingenuity could devise and finished elocution express, were advanced and re- iterated against O'Connell's propositions, but with little effect on the corporators, and none at all on the audience. The Eman- cipator closed the debate in his happiest style. "No report," says one who was present, "no description could possibly do justice to that magnificent reply. O'Con- nell took uj) in succession all the objections of his opponents, and demolished them one by one. The wdiole phalanx of Unionists looked like pygmies in the grasp of a giant. The dexterities of Butt — some of which had been plausibly managed — shrank and 52 THE MEN OF '48. withered into nothing when touched by O'Connell. The consciousness of a great moral triumph seemed to animate his voice — his glance — his gestures. Never had I heard him so eloquent ; never had I wit- nessed so noble a display of his transcend- ent powers." The victory was complete, and the resolution was carried by a vote of forty-one against fifteen. The key-note, thus struck, reverberated throughout the island, and the corporations of the various cities hastened to take it up and swell the chorus for repeal. This was but a prelude, however, to what were, with justice, called the ^^ monster meetings." The first of these was held at Trim on the 16th of March, 1843, and at the banquet which followed it O'Connell uttered the memorable apothegms: ^'Bet- ter to die like a freeman than be sold like a slave ; . . . it will not do to say you like to be free. What care I for your liking it, if you do not reduce it into action ? The man who thinks and does not act upon his thoughts is a scoundrel who does not THE MEN OF '48. 53 deserve to be free." Then followed simi- lar gatlieriiigs at Cabircoiilish, Bellewstown, Clones, Ratlikeale, and Limerick ; at the latter place over a liundred thousand persons of all ages, sexes, and conditions turned out to receive him, and a few days after he met nearly double that number at Kells. On the 14th of May was held the great meeting of Mullingar, of which O'Connell, afterwards speaking before the Association, said : '' I do not exaggerate my belief that there were hundreds of thousands assem- bled at that meeting. It was a majestic assembly of sober, loyal, patriotic people. The number of Catholic clergymen that attended there — the talent they displayed — the anxiety they exhibited, made it still more important ; and then there were two bishops of the Catholic Church at the head of the meeting." The prelates thus alluded to were the Most Rev. Dr. Cantwell, the patriotic Arch- bishop of Meath, and Dr. Higgins, Bishop of Ardagh, the latter of whom, in the course of a most glowing speech, said : 54 THE JMEN OF '48. " I wisli to state that I have every reason to believe — I may add that I know, that every Catholic bishop in Ireland, without exception, is an ardent Repealer. I know that virtually you all have reason to believe that the bishops of Ireland are repealers ; but I have now again formally to announce to you that they have all declared themselves as such, and that from shore to shore we are repealers. I, for one, defy all the minis- ters of England to put down the agitation in the diocese of Ardagh. If they attempt, my friends, to rob us of the daylight, which is I believe, common to all, and prevent us from assembling in the open fields, we will retire to oui* chapels, and we shall suspend all other in- struction in order to devote all our time to teaching the people to be Repealers in spite of them. If they beset our temples and mix spies with our people, Y/e shall prepare our people for the circumstances — if they bring us for that to the scaffold, in dying for the cause of our country, we shall bequeath our wrongs to our successors." The allusion in Bishop Higgins's address to the possibility of coercive measures being resorted to, was called out by the declaration of Sir Robert Peel, the English prime minis- ter, in response to a question in the House of Commons, that " there is no influence, no power, no authority which the prerogative of the crown or the existing laws give the government, that shall not be exercised for THE MEN OF '48. ^5 the purpose of maintaining the Union — the dissolution of whicli would involve, not merely the repeal of an act of parliament, but the dismemberment of this great empire." He likewise stated the further threat that if the laws then on the statute book were not sufficient to suppress the Irish agitation, the ministry would apply to parliament for more effectual powers. The challenge thus thrown down by Peel to the Irish people was quickly and joyously taken up, and instead of intimidat- ing them added zest to their patriotism. The monster meetings became more fre- quent and more gigantic than ever. That of Charleville, May 18th, was attended by some three hundred thousand people ; and on the 21st, half a million persons assem- bled at Cork to hear the Liberator speak, and to pass strong, earnest resolutions in fa- vor of home government. Two days after he a'ddressed four hundred thousand at Cashel, and on the 25th, an equal number at Nenagh. On the 28th, over a quarter of a million assembled at Longford ; on the 4th 56 THE MEN OF '48. of June, one hundred and fifty thousand met at Drogheda ; four days subsequently there were three hundred thousand at Kil- kenny ; four hundred thousand at Mallow, on the 11th; seven hundred thousand in Clare on the 15th, and a hundred thousand at Athlone, the centre of Ireland, on the 16th of June. Never was there more order, good-humor, or stern resolve exliibited in any nation or age than that which characterized those im- mense assemblages of unarmed men ; and never did popular orator, warrior, or mon- arch in ancient or modern days appear be- fore such numerous, obedient, and enthusi- astic multitudes. The very name of O'Con- nell was a talisman that called together, on the shortest notice, hundreds of thousands, and though it was beyond the reach of possibility that any human being could be heard by one half of those assembled on such occasions, those who did not heai* saw their darling chief, and went away con- tented to learn subsequently the gist of his words from their more fortunate neighbors. THE MEN OF '48. 57 The numbers who left their ordinary avo- cations and travelled for miles to attend those monster meetings were incredible, nor could we believe them ourselves had we not personally witnessed two such gatherings. They were usually held in the vicinity of places where two or more roads intersected each other. From early dawn of the event- ful day of such a meeting might be seen throngs of men of all ranks in life troop- ing along the roads, converging on the point cVapimi. The rural districts gave forth thousands of stalworth farmers, well mount- ed, and myriads of hardy tillers of the soil on foot ; while the villages and towns sent out their various trades, under proper leaders, with the banners and other appropriate in- signia of their guilds. Bands of music, generally furnished by the local temperance societies, were interspersed in the various tributary processions, and on the pure morn- ing breeze floated the stin-ing notes of many a martial or patriotic air. As each detach- ment arrived it was assigned its proper place on the field with something like military 58 THE MEN OF '48 order ; the cavalry, or rather the cavalcades, on the flanks, and the footmen in the centre, till a complete semi-disk was formed in front of the platform. Though thirty years have passed we almost imagine we can once more behold the grand spectacle. There is a pause : a cloud of dust is seen in the far distance, and a cheer from those nearest to it announces that it is the carriao^'e of the Liberator. The shout is taken up along the line, again and again repeated. The car- riages halt at the rear of the platform, and O'Connell and his staff ascend, the numerous bands playing a welcome. The chairman gets up to open the meeting, but he is scarcely heard or heeded. At last a majes- tic figure comes forward, and, doffing his cap, bows low to the multitude amid a storm, a very hurricane of applause. His presence alone is a speech ; in his eye there is the elo- quence of a hundred orators; his port is the sublime impersonation of grandeur and power. He stands indeed the '^ uncrowned monarch of the Irish people"; and never had king or kaiser more devoted subjects. THE MEN OF '48. 59 At length he is allowed to speak ; and his stentorian tones roll over the heads of that sea of human beings like a roll of thunder or the voice of the storm, till even the very hills take them up and send them back again. Those who are fortunately nearest to him, strain every nerve to drink in each word he says ; those far beyond ear-shot are con- tent to rivet their gaze on that ponderous face, and guess, from its varied expression, the meaning of what he is saying. But though tens and hundreds of thousands, from different parishes, baronies, and even coun- ties, are assembled, all is order, peace, and the best of feelings ; and when the meeting is over they disperse. Each goes to his home, full of enthusiasm and hope for his native land. With wonderful energy O'Connell con- tinued his series of assemblies into the early autumn. In the latter part of June, and the months of July and August, meet- ings were held at Dundalk, Skibbereen, Galway, Donnybrook, Waterford, Tulla- more, Wexford, Tuam, Mayo, Clontibret, 60 THE MEN OF '48. and other central localities, at which, it was estimated, at least three millions of people, collectively, attended. At the his- toric hill of Tar a, on the 15 th of August, another demonstration of surpassing sublim- ity was made. " Nearly every district in Ireland," writes a biographer of O'Connell, ^^sent its tributaries to this great ocean of human life. The meeting was enlivened by forty-two bands of music, some of which liad travelled a distance of over fifty miles. During the whole preceding night crowds were constantly arriving, and at the dawn of day the grass-gi'own hill, clothed in j)er- petual verdure — where St. Patrick converted kings and the United Irishmen fought for the freedom of Ireland — was mantled with men — black with human swarms. Nothing else could be seen. O'Connell's carriage, slowly wading through this dense mass, consumed two hours in accomplishing one mile. As he approached the hill he could see a priest on the very summit, standing before a temporary altar, celebrating the divine mysteries, at which seven hundred THE Mi:X OF '48. 61 thousand people knelt and prayed. When the Masses, which continued from nine till twelve, were all ended, a priest preached a sermon on temperance, and, raising* his hands, invoked the blessing of heaven on the bendino^ thousands and on their Liber- at or," At the last of these great popular gather- ings, which took place at Mullaghmast in the following October, an incident occurred which, though jDcaceful and harmless in itself, was full of significance to the English authorities, and doubtless had a great influ- ence on their subsequent dealings with the repeal leaders. Nearly half a million people were surrounding the platform upon wliicli was seated the Liberator in all the plenitude of his power, and with a dignity that his long and hitherto successful struo-o-les with the oppressor had added to his naturally noble form and reverend old age. Suddenly there emerged from the crowd of distinguished gentlemen on the stand, no less a personage than the sculptor Hogan, who advancing toward O'Connell, placed on his head a cap 62 THE MEN OF '48. of green velvet embroidered with gold, and designed after tlie fashion of an ancient Irish crown. '' Sir," said the donor, when the wild applanse of the meeting had sub- sided, '' my only regret is that this is not of gold." The Liberator in reply said, in his most impressive manner, '' I shall wear this cap with the proud remembrance that it was given to me on the Rath of Mullagh- mast, and that it was placed upon my head by one of the first of modern sculptors in this or any country. I shall continue to wear it during my life, and it shall after- wards be bm-ied with me in my grave." This meeting may be called the culmina- tion of the Repeal movement ; much that followed was downward, hopeless, and full of misery and national humiliation. It having been agreed between the leaders in the Association that the out- door agitation for the year should be closed by a grand rally to sm-pass all preceding ones, the plains of Clontarf, outside Dublin, sacred in Ireland's history as the scene of the utter defeat of the Danish invaders by THE MEN OF '48. 63 the illustrious Brian, and the spot upon which that great warrior and statesman died, Sunday, the 8th of October, was selected as the day ; but long before its arrival the metropolis was crowded with deputations from the principal cities and tOAvns, and visitors not only from the remot- est parts of the island, but from England, Scotland, and the Continent. The Castle authorities, alarmed at the previous impres- sive demonstrations, resolved at all hazards to prevent the intended assemblage, and took such insidious steps to carry out their plans, as led to the very grave suspicion that they intended, if opportunity offered, a general massacre of the defenceless people. Though the day and place of meeting were known to every one weeks before, it was only on the 7th, the day previous to the one selected by the Repealers, that the inten- tion of the government was made manifest. Late on the evening of Saturday, when it was too dark for the passers-by to read, a proclamation was posted on the city walls, signed by the Lord-Lieutenant, De Grey, 6 4 THE MEN OF '48. proliibiting the meeting. At tlie same time the roads leading from all directions into Dublin were thronged by ardent and en- thusiastic repealers, who hoped that the next morning would bring them face to face with tlie much loved Chieftain, who then held the destiny of their country in his hands. It was impossible that those num- berless thousands could be informed of the proclamation or intercepted in their march and prevented from encamping overnight on the ground, except extraordinary efforts Avere made to apprise them of tlie villanous plans of the government. The Repeal Committee hastily met, O'Connell at its head, and resolved, even at that late mo- ment, to frustrate the diabolical -designs of their enemies by postponing the meeting. As quickly as possible the public were in- formed of this determination by a counter proclamation signed by O'Connell ; and messengers, well mounted, were despatched in every direction along the road, to turn back the hosts who were concentrating on the capital. THE MEN OF '48. 65 At the time, and some years after, the wisdom and expediency of tins decision of tlie committee were very seriously doubted by men of large intelligence and warm national feeling ; but in the light of the experience of more than a quarter of a century we think that to have attempted a meetinof" on that occasion would have been an act of gross cruelty and inhumanity. The assembled people would have been, to a man, unarmed, wdiile the government was fully prepared. Of cavalry, artillery, and infantry it had abundance, in fact a very respectable army, well drilled, officered, and equipped; the guns of the Pigeon House fort covered the approaches to Clontarf, while three ships of war in the harbor ran out their guns to enfilade the very place of the expected meeting. Had a contrary policy been pursued than tliat suggested by O'Connell, the result would have been, beyond any doubt, a most relentless and merciless slaughter of the defenceless patriots, to which the very magnitude, and density of their ranks would have contrib- 66 THE MEN OF '48. utecl additional horror. Fortunately, the meeting did not take place, and the repeal cause was greatly the gainer thereby. During all the commotion of the memo- rable repeal year, the Nation fairly glittered with arguments in favor of the movement, and irresistible appeals to the people to rise up and assert their rights to self-govern- ment. O'Connell never had so useful an ally as this potent newspaper, the product of a hundred gifted, energetic, and accom- plished minds : and, though he sometimes thought its tone too revolutionary, he gladly accepted the services, and freely recognized the ability and sincerity of its conductors. The plain, straightforward, and overpowering logic of Duffy ; the brilliant, vehement prose and poetiy of Davis, and the multitudinous and ever- varying essays and poems of a host of contributors, all concentrated in one journal and on one object, could not be resisted by Irish hearts. The efforts of the Nation, which were ever directed to heal all dissensions among Irish- men of different forms of faith, and to unite THE MEN OF '48. 67 Catholics and Protestants nnder the one banner, were about tins time particularly successful; and its friends were deeply gratified by the adhesion of a gentleman who w\as destined to occupy a very promi- nent position in the subsequent struggles for repeal. On the 22d of October, 1843, the new building erected by the Association, called Conciliation Hall, was formally opened. Though very spacious it was filled to over- flowing. Many prominent gentlemen pre- sented themselves, and letters of congratu- lation and sympathy were read from Lord French, Sir C. Wolesley, Sir R. Musgrave, and others. But what created the most intense satisfaction was a communication from William S. O'Brien, M. P. for Lim- erick, announcing his adhesion to the cause of the repeal of the Union. A portion of that letter read as follows : " Lest I should be led to form a precipitate decision, I availed myself of the interval which followed the close of the session, to examine whether, among the Govern- ments of Central Europe, there are any so indifferent to 68 THE MEN OF '48. the interests of tlieir subjects as England Las been to the welfare and happiness of our population. After visiting Belgium, and all the principal capitals of Germany I returned home impressed with the sad con viction that tliere is more human misery in one county in Ireland, than throughout all the populous cities and distiicts wliich I had visited. On landing in England I learn that the Ministry, instead of applying themselves to remove the causes of complaint, have resolved to deprive us even of tlie liberty of discontent — that public meetings are to be suppressed — and that state prosecu- tions are to be carried on against Mr. O'Connell, and others, on some frivolous charges of sedition and conspiracy. " I should be unworthy to belong to a nation which may claim, at least as a characteristic virtue, that it exhibits increased fidelity in tlie hour of danger, if I were to delay any longer to dedicate myself to the cause of my country. Slowly, reluctantly convinced that Ireland has nothing to Lope fiom the sagacity, the justice, or the generosity of tLe EnglisL parliament, my reliance sLall henceforth be placed upon our own native energy and patriotism." When O'Brien resolved to cast liis lot with the national party he was in the jDrime of his manhood- and in the full enjoyment of his mental faculties. Having" been born in Clare on the 1 7th day of October, 1803, THE MEN OF '48. G9 he had just completed his fortieth year, and thouo'h educated at Harrow and Cambridofe, ndiere EngHsh prejudices prevailed to their fullest extent, his mind, while absorbing all the knowledge afforded in these institu- tions, never for a moment entertained a feeling but those of proud love for his na- tive land and a yearning sympathy for her manifold sufferings. Descended from the princely house of Thomond, whose ances- tors can be traced in an uninterrupted line, from the great Brian Boromha, he was by nature and by blood a patriot. His grand- father. Sir Lucius O'Brien, who had long been a member of the Irish parliament, was noted for his independence and unflinching honesty; and his father. Sir Edward O'Brien, Avho sat in the same body during its latter years, w^as one of the stanchest and most incorruptible of the anti-Union party. Mr. W. S. O'Brien entered the imperial ])arlianient for the borough of Ennis when in his twenty-fifth year, and in 1832 he was elected by the voters of the county of Lim- erick one of their representatives, a position 70 THE MEN OF '43. he continued to hold until 1849, when his seat was declared vacant. He commenced public life as a moderate Whig, but from the first he considered the interests of his country paramount to all party considera- tions. In 1829, when O'Connell stood for Clare a second time, O'Brien issued an address to tlie people of his native county, in which he endeavored, but without effect, to dissuade them from supporting the Eman- cipator. " Mr. O'Connell," he wrote, *' en- deavors to delude those among you who know little of political matters, by represent- ing himself as the sole author of the eman- cipation of the Catholics. When you hear these extravagant pretensions, you should be informed that it has long been a question with the most attentive observers of the progress of that measure, whether his intem- perance has not been the chief cause of its delay ; and that of the majorities that car- ried it through, more than four-fifths were English representatives, wholly beyond the reach of any influence, except the justice of the cause — and that all were Protestants." THE MEN OF '48. 71 The first statement in this paragraph mani-- festly is an error ; the two latter are facts very capable of elucidation. More than four-fiftlis of the law-makers foi' Ireland un- fortunately are Englishmen who hold them- selves '' wholly beyond the reach of an in- fluence " which millions of the Irish people — composing it is said an integral portion of the British empire — are unable to bring to bear on them, hence the strongest argu- ment in favor of a repeal of the Union. That the Emancipation act was carried by Protestant votes arose from the very good reason that at the time none but Protestants were allowed to sit in parliament. Mr. O'Connell's reply to O'Brien was for- cible and convincinoj" ; but beino" altog-ether too personal, and so tinged with unfounded aspersions on the famil}^ of his opponent, much of its moral effect was lost on the public. O'Brien had also asserted that none of the gentry of Clare supported the Emancipation candidate ; and this expres- sion having excited the ire of the O'Gorman Mahon and Mr. Steele, who were natives of 72 THE MEN OF '48. the county, the latter challenged him to mortal combat, the former acting as his second. A duel was the consequence, in which shots were exchanged ; but happily neither of the principals was injured, and the matter was amicably settled. Mr. Mahon in turn sent a hostile message ta O'Brien, but upon his explaining that the words to which exception had been taken were not intended for him, that matter was allowed to drop. Still O'Brien in parliament continued to hold a position of neutrality, and semi-in- dependence of the existing parties, without being looked upon as belonging to the Na- tionalists. Time, however, was slowly but surely bringing to him the sad conviction that no justice could be expected from Eng- lish politicians. He was insensibly gravi- tating toward the great mass of his coun- trymen, even in spite of his early impres- sions. In May, 1843, when Lord Chancellor Sir Edward Sugden dismissed all the repeal magistrates, he resigned his commission, and in a manly letter to Sugden he said that THE MEX OF '48. 73 thoug-li not a repealer he could not consent to hold so important an office upon such dis- graceful conditions. Soon after, while the parliament was going through the forms of a discussion on the disarming act, O'Brien rose from his seat, and to the amazement of both ^Yliigs and Con- servatives, moved that the House, in place of passing so cruel and unjustifiable a measure, should resolve itself in a com- mittee of the whole to inquire into the actual condition of Ireland. His speech on that occasion, July 4th, is said to have been even more than usually grave, imjDressive, and replete with a knowledge of the resources, wants, and miseries of the Irish peojDle. Mr. Mitchell thus epitomizes it in his "History of Ireland": "He pointed out the facts which justified discontent — that the union made Ireland poor and kept her poor — that it en- couraged the absenteeism and so caused a great rental to be spent in England — that, nearly a million sterling of ^ surplus revenue,' over what was expended in the government of Ireland was annually remitted from the 74 THE MEN OF '48. Irish to the English exchequer — that Irish manufactures had ceased, and the profits of all the manufactured articles consumed in that island came to England — that the tenantry had no permanent tenm'e or security that they would derive benefit by any imjDrovements they might make — that Ireland had but one hundred and five members of parliament, whereas her popu- lation and revenue together entitled her to one hundred and seventy-five — that the municipal laws of the two countries were not the same — then the new ' Poor Law ' was a failure, and was increasing the wretchedness and hunger of the people — and the right honorable gentleman (Sir R. Peel) had now declared his ultimatum ; he had de- clared that ^conciliation had reached its limits'; and that the Irish should have an Arms bill, and nothing but an Arms bill." The motion so ably advocated was lost the Disarming bill was passed into a law by overwhelming majorities ; and O'Brien, de- spairing of any good from alien legislation, and acting upon most deliberate conviction, THE MEN OF '48. 75 determined to devote the balance of his life to the advocacy of domestic govern- ment. In a popular point of view, parti- cularly in the south, where he was well known and, personally, much respected, this decisive step was a som'ce of deep congratu- lation to the repealers ; but it was as the representative of an ancient and most illus- trious line, as a landholder and a Protes- tant, that his presence was most welcomed by the leaders of the movement. Of thor- ough education, rare personal honor and courage, and of stainless character, he brought to the Association a varied practical knowledge of the different systems of Euro- pean governments and nearly twenty years' experience acquired as an indefatigable and observant parliamentarian. CHAPTER IV. Arrest of O'Connell, John O'Connell, Duffy, Gray, Barrett, Ray, Steele, Rev. Fathers Tyrrell and Tiemey — The feeling of the country — State trials — Conviction — Effect in Parliament — Sentence and imjDrisonment — More troops for Ireland — Reversal of the judgment — General rejoicing. Ox\ tlie 14th of October, 1843, O'Con- nell and a number of his most prominent associates were arrested and held to bail on charges of entering into a conspiracy to intimidate the government, to supersede the tribunals of justice, and other divers seditious practices too numerous to mention : all, however, subsequently set out on a roll of parchment ninety-seven feet long, being the indictment, which was found by a Dublin grand-jury January 15th, 1844. The names Dientioned in that formidable document were, Daniel O'Connell, M. P. for Cork ; his son, John O'Connell, M. P. for Kilkenny ; Charles Gavan Duffy, editor of tlie^Nation ; Richard Barrett, editor of tlie Pilot; Dr. THE MEN OF '48. 77 (now Sir John) Grey, editor of the Free- man s Journal; Th<)mas Matthew Ray, sGcretar}' of tlie Association ; Rev. Mr. Tierney, of Clontibret, county Monaghan ; and Tliomas Steele. The Rev. Mr. Tyrrell, of Lusk, county Dublm, though' arrested with the others, died soon after from sick- ness superinduced by the extraordinary exertions he had used on the eve of the in- tended meeting at Clontarf The prompt obedience of the people to the behests of the repeal committee in de- ciding to postpone that gathering had so much of military disciiDline in it, and showed so completely how thoroughly O'Connell held them in hand, that it is questionable whether the step taken by the authoiities was not a blunder as much as, if persisted in, it would have been a monstrous crime. And now, when the repealers saw their trusted and faithful leaders entangled in the meshes of the law, and that law ad- ministered in the interest of their implacable enemies, by corrupt or weak-minded j udges, sheriffs appointed by tlie crown for their sub- 78 'JfHE MEN OF '48. serviency and total absence of conscience, and packed juries carefully selected not to try, but to convict ; their conduct was ad- mirable. Nothing intimidated or disheart- ened, they set to work more earnestly than ever to recruit the repeal ranks. The greatest excitement, no doubt, prevailed throughout the island, but all was peace and order, and money flowed freely into the exchequer of Conciliation Hall, to be used in the propagation of the cause and in de- fence of the menaced leaders. Every Mon- day the large hall of the Association was crowded by members of parliament, pri- vate and professional gentlemen of for- tune and eminence, the stal worth farmers of the provinces and the most respectable merchants and traders of the metropolis. The trial itself lasted till the second Aveek in February, but though the deepest interest was taken in its proceedings, no one was astonished at the result ; for even before its commencement it was generally understood that the jury was to be packed; that all the Catholics and liberal Protestants were THE MEN OF '48. 79 to be stricken off the array, and tlie good name, liberty, and property of the accused, left to the tender mercies of the Orange- men. *^ If our Saviour himself were in the dock," Jack Giffard, a notorious Orange juryman, is reported to have said, " the Dublin Orangemen would find him guilty to serve their party." O'Connell and his son were defended by Richard Lalor Shell, the eloquent assistant of the Liberator during the emancipation struggle ; while the other defendants were represented by Whiteside, Fitzgibbon, Henn, and Mac- donagh — all lawyers of great experience and legal acumen. From the beginning O'Connell resolved to take part in the defence. He could not let slip such a favorable opportunity to di- late on his favorite theme, nor was it often that he could find so peculiar an audience or have his words sj)read so correctly and extensively before the world. On the nineteenth day of the trial he rose and ad- dressed the jury in terms which, though often eloquent and frequently impassioned, 80 THE MEN OF -43. were more remarkable for their dignity, calmness, and solidity of logic. He ignored the smaller and more technical points of the counsel on both sides, and confined him- self to two questions : that no conspiracy had been formed, or attempted to be proved, that the present proceeding was illegal and unjustifiable, and therefore unlawful and unconstitutional. In reference to the former he said to the jury : ^^ It is quite certain that there are considerable dis- crepancies of opinion between you and me, on subjects of the utmost importance j you differ with me on the question of the Repeal of the Union — for if you did not, there is not one of yoa would be in that box; j^ou diflfer with me on a more important subject, in religious belief — for if you did not, you would not be in that box. These differences are perhaps aggravated by the fact that I am not only a Catholic, but that Catholic who (without boasting) has done most to pull down that Protestant ascendency for which perhaps you were the champions, but certainly not the antagonists j and although having established that equality, against which some of you contend and against which all your opinions were formed, it does not terrify me from the performance of my duty ; for— I care not what evil effects occur to myself or what punishment it may bring on me — I glory in what I have done — I glory that I THE MEN OF '48. 81 have been the successful and you the beaten party. But, gentlemen, nevertheless, I trust in your honor and sincerity ; and to that alone I appeal. ... I leave the case in your hands. I deny that I have done anything to stain me. I reject with contempt the ap- pellation of conspirator. I have acted boldly in open day, in the presence of the magistracy j there has been nothino^ secret or concealed. I have struofo^led for the restoration of the parliament of my native country. Others have succeeded before me ; but succeed or fail, it was a straggle to make the fairest land in the world possess those benefits which nature intended she should enjoy. " In the House of Commons the news of the conviction of the " conspirators " created great commotion. The Whigs were out of power and the Tories were tottering to a fall, so that the spokesmen of the former, like Macaulay, Russell, and others, with a keen eye to a restoration, found in the trial a powerful weapon against their opponents. Lord Russell, in giving a history of the pro- ceedings in a speech of several hours' du- ration, made use of the following remarkable words, which are here quoted as the delib- erate testimony of one of the most anti- 82 THE MEN OF '48. Irish and anti-Catliolic statesmen tliat ever sat in either house of parliament. He said: ^^ Nominally, indeed, the two countries liave the same laws. Trial by ji^iy? for instance, exists in both countries; but is it administered alike in both? Sir, I remember on one occasion when an honorable gentle- man (Mr. Brougham), on bringing forward a motion, in 1823, on the administration of the law in Ireland, made use of these words : ' The law of England esteemed all men equal. It was sufficient to be born within the king's -allegiance to be entitled to all the rights the loftiest .si^bject of the land enjoyed. None were disqualified j the only distinction was between natural born subjects and aliens. Such indeed was the liberality of our system in the times which we called barbarous, but from which, in these enlightened days, it might have been well to take a hint, that if a man were even an alien born, he was not deprived of the protection of the law. In Ire- land, however, the law held a directly opposite doc- trine. The sect to which a man belonged, the cast of his religious opinions, the form in which he worshipped his Creator, were grounds upon which the law separated him from his fellows, and bound him to the endurance of a system of the most cruel injustice.' Such was the statement of Mr. Brougham when he was the advocate of the oppressed. But, sir, let me ask, was what I have just now read the statement of a man who was ignorant of the country of which he spoke ? No ; the Q THE MEN OF '48. 8," same language or to the same effect, was used by Sir M. O'Loughlin, in liis evidence before tlie House of Lords. That gentleman stated that he had been in the habit of going the Munster circuit for nineteen years, and on that circuit it was the general practice for the Crown, in criminal prosecutions, to set aside all Catholics and all the liberal Protestants 5 and he added that he had been informed that on other circuits the practice was carried on in a more strict manner. Sir M. O'Loughlin also mentioned one case of this kind which took place in 1834, during the lord-lieutenancy of the Marquis of Wellesley, and the attorney-generalship of Mr. Black- bourne, the present Master of the Rolls, and in which, out of forty-three persons set aside (in a cause which was not a political one) there were thirty-six Catholics and seven Protestants, all of them respectable men. This practice is so well known, and carried out so gen- erally, that men known to be liberals, whether Catholics or Protestants, have ceased to attend assizes, that they might not be exposed to these public insults. Now, I would ask, are these proofs of equal laws, or laws equally administered"? Could the same, or similar cases have happened in Yorkshire, or Sussex, or Kent ? Are these the fulfilment of the promise made and en- gagements entered into at the Union ? " Such language as this from the leader of a great party, though even less than the truth, would at the time of utterance have astonished everybody had it not been felt 84 THE :MEN of '48. that an English Whig is capable of saying or doing anything for the sake of office. Four short years were not allowed to pass when the very same crimes against justice, in a more aggravated form, were perpe- trated by this party, and tliose very speak- ers who had once more regained power. From the day of the arrest of the repeal leaders, troops were being constantly poured into the country; regiment after regi- ment was dail}^ landed in Dublin or some of the neighboring ports; marching and countermarching were the order of the day, and the streets of the capital were in a per- petual state of excitement from the glitter- ing of thousands of bayonets, the gleaming of sabres, and the heavy rumble of artil- lery and caissons. In October, there were in Ireland twenty-eight thousand regular troops, besides about ten thousand well- armed constabulary, and the remnant of the militia; in February following it was cal- culated that there were at least forty thou- sand soldiers in Dublin alone, or within a coui^le of days' march of it. And, as if this THE MEN OF '48. 85 were not enough, the King of Hanover — a man black with every crime political and personal from murder downwards — was graciously jDleased to offer the loan of twenty thousand men to her most gracious majesty to slaughter her most faithful sub- jects a les Hessians, The objects of the government were now perfectly patent — to provoke discontent by imprisoning the leaders ; to drive the people, thus left without guides, into insurrection, and to enact the tragedy of '98 over again. The means which Pitt and Castlereagh adopted to insure the Union, it was supposed by Peel and De Gray, would prove equally effectual to perpetuate it. On the 30th of May, 1844, nearly thi'ee months after con^dction, the '"'' conspirators " were brought up in the Queen's Bench for sentence. To O'Connell as the chief offen- der was awarded one year's imprisonment, a fine of £2,000, and the filing of a personal bond of £5,000, with two sureties justifying in £2,500 each, to keep the peace for seven 3'ears. Charles Gavan Duffy and the other 86 THE MEN OF '48. traverser were to be imprisoned for nine months, fined each £50, and to enter into their own recognizance of £1,000, with two sureties of £500 each, to keep the peace for the same length of time. This was EngHsh justice — as then and now, and all the time administered in Ireland. The conspirators against the peace of the realm were then safely lodged in Richmond penitentiary. Where now were the millions that rallied round them the previous year ? Where the masses that greeted the Liber- ator at Mallow and Wexford, Tara and Mul- laghmast, and cheered to the echo every word that fell from his lips savoring of free- dom and independence I Surely they would rise in their might, and by the sheer force of numbers overwhelm their oppressors and drive them from the island. Not so. The dragoons, the artillery, and the'' British gren- adiers" sharpened their sabres, trained their guns and pipe-clayed their accoutrements in tranquillity. Even the bloody King of Hanover lost the opportunity of filling his depleted coffers from the common treasury THE MEN OF '48. 87 of England and Ireland by selling the blood of his stolid subjects : for O'Connell, imme- diately after his imprisonment, wrote to the Irish people to be patient and to give the enemy no chance of revenge ; and they obeyed him most faithfully. To a friend who had called on him in jDrison he re- marked : " The people are behaving nobly. I was at first afraid, despite all my teaching, that at such a trying crisis they would have done either too much or too little — either have been stung into an outbreak — or awed into apathy. Neither has hap- pened, blessed be God ! — the people are acting nobly ! " The people did indeed exhibit remark- able forbearance and vitality. Had O'Con- nell and his friends but given the slightest encouragement for armed resistance and rescue, there cannot be the least doubt but both would have been cheerfully, nay, gladly attempted by millions of their devoted adherents ; nor can the horrible result of such rash acts, if resorted to, be for a moment questioned. As it was, 88 THE MEN OF '48. chafing under tlie double insult of packed juries and hireling soldiery, the people showed their attachment to their chiefs as well as their contempt for the troops, by thousands of local meetings and by pour- ing into the repeal treasury thousands of pounds sterling ever}^ week. A '' prison fund," for the further defence of the incar- cerated, was likewise established, while the citizens of Dublin flooded the jail with all sorts of presents for their joint j)ei'sonal comfort. Meanwhile an appeal had been taken from the lower Court to the House of Lords. After a good deal of learned non- sense on the part of the noble members of that body, lay and clerical, the writ of error was referred to the law lords, Lynd- hurst, Brougham (the same wliom Russell had quoted !) Cottenham, Denman, and Campbell. The first two, being of the party in power, decided that the trial was in every respect conducted according to law and equity ; the others, who were on the side of those out of ofhce, while not joassing on THE MEN OF '48. 89 tlie guilt or innocence of the prisoners, de- clared the method of trying them con- trary to law, and that they should be set at liberty. This news reached Dublin on the 5th of September, and was spread through the island with wonderful rapidity. The peo- ple were intoxicated with joy, their enthu- siasm knew no bounds, for they looked upon the reversal of the decision of the Orange jury and the corrupt judges, as another triumph for their invincible leader, and as the harbinger of new life for their country. Two days afterwards the formal procession from the Bridewell to O'Connell's house was arrayed at the former place, and after passing tlu'ough the principal streets of the city halted at Merrion square. Half a million of people thronged the line of march ; the houses, almost, without exception, were gayly decorated, and a spirit of enthusiasm and exaltation beyond description pervaded all ranks of society. From the balcony of his residence O'Connell addressed the surg- ing multitude below. Alluding to the 90 THE MEN OF '48. former monster meetings lie said : ^^ One meetino' alone remained unassembled — the meetinof of Clontarf Some of the minions of power laid, I fear, a scheme to dye that day in gore — to deluge the soil with the blood of the people ; but w^e disappointed them. I issued my counter proclamation audit was obeyed. The people did not put themselves in danger. But has the law since declared that we were acting illegally 1 Oh ! no — it dared not do that ; but it spelled illegality out of a number of legal meetings. Our Clontarf meeting has not taken place as yet, but it w^ill be for the Repeal Association, which has the con- fidence of the Irish people, to determine , whether it may not be necessary, for the sake of public principle, to decide wdiether that meeting may not be hereafter held. I hope they may arrive at the conclusion that it is not necessary to have that meet- ing ; but if the cause of liberty requires it, we will all go 'there, peaceably and un- armed, and we shall return with an . in- creased determination that Ireland shall THE MEN OF '48. 91 be a nation." From the corporate cities and towns came large deputations to con- gratulate the liberated '^ conspirators," and throughout the provinces bonfires burned on every hill, and newspapers were in great demand ; while the Nation^ in honor of the event and of the triumph of its principles in the person of its chief editor, appeared the following week j)i'iiited in green ink. Had the great agitator died at this time the whole world would have revered his memory and exalted his glory; his name would have been a spell to evoke the spirit of liberty in every land and to point the way to freedom's sacred altar. He, too, would have left his people, as he fondly believed thev then were, on the threshold of legislative independence, and would have been saved the torture of beholding the gathering clouds of famine, pestilence, and woe which, though yet unnoticed, were fast enshrouding the land in a pall of gloom and untold misery. But such was not his destiny. His soul had to be purified by the sight of 92 THE MEN OF '48. human sufferings lie could not alleviate, and his death was to take place ainonof a strano-e people, far from the land and the nation whose applause he perhaps sometimes loved more than a Christian statesman should have done. CHAPTER V. State of the country — Its prosperity, resources, and revenue — Diminution of crime — Rev. Theobald Mathew — His birth, education, and services — His political views — Effect of his labors on the national cause — Affection for the "Young Irelanders" — O'ConnelPs and O'Brien's eulogies on his character. Before we proceed to trace the current of disastrous events which led to the de- struction of the plans and hopes of the national party, and gave to exile or the grave nearly a moiety of the population, we may be pardoned for dwelling a few moments on the social and industrial con- dition of the country immediately pre- vious and subsequent to the imprisonment of the leaders in the Repeal movement. The population, the true wealth of a nation, which in 1841, had been officially reported as considerably over eight mil- lions, could have been little less than nine millions in 1844-5, according to the ratio of increase during the previous decades. This 94 THE MEN OF '48. addition was principally observable among the agricultural classes : small farmers, cot- tiers, and tillers of the soil ; for, though the masses were never so prosperous, nor better able to piu'chase the products of manufac- turers and skilled labor, the commerce and trade of Ireland were slowly but steadily dying out. The country had, however, been blessed wath a succession of rich harvests, and notwithstanding that a large portion of the receipts of the sales, calcu- lated at from twenty-five millions to forty millions of dollars, w^ere annually sent to England to fill the purses of absentee landlords, there was comparatively very little want or destitution. About eighty millions of dollars' worth of farm produce was each year sent across the Channel to feed the operatives of England and Scot- land ; still, the surplus, at home, was sufficient to supply the necessities of the entire population. True, the food of two- thirds of the people was scant indeed, and their raiment coarse and homespun, but the}^ were content — at least for the present THE MEN OF '48. 95 — living as they did in the fond hopes of speedy poHtical amehoration. Crimes of all descriptions decreased in inverse ratio to the augmentation of the population. In 1841, the number commit- ted was 9,287; in 1842, 9,875; in 1843, 8.620 ; in 1844, 8,042 ; and in 1845, 7.101 ; or twenty-seven per cent, decrease in four years. The number of capital offences perpe- trated show seven a more astonishing fall- ing off. In 1841, there were sentenced to death 40 persons ; in 1842, 25 ; in 1843, 16 ; in 1844, 20 ; and in 1845, but 13 ; or about sixty-eight per cent, decrease in the same period. Of transportable infractions of the law there were, in 1841, 643 cases ; in 1842, 667; in 1843, 482; in 1844, 526; and in 1845, but 428 ; a diminution equal to thirty- six per cent, in four years. Perhaps no country in Christendom can show at any period of her existence such a record as this. Certainly not in these days of modern progress and religious decadence, when even our own newspapers are constantly filled with relations of crimes of every dye 96 THE MEN OF '48. and degree without exciting much com- ment and less public reprobation. Much of this gratifying improvement was due to the higher tone and more elevating sentiments of national dignity, constantly and persistently inculcated by the writers of the Nation^ not only in that journal, but in their other literary productions, lectm-es, and speeches, as well as the example of the Repeal reading-rooms, mainly established and fostered by them. More credit how- ever in this instance is to be awarded to O'Connell, who was perpetually ringing in the ears of his confiding countr^naien the great political dogma, '^who commits a crime gives strength to the enemy " ; and to the Catholic clergy, who were never tired of denouncing secret agrarian societies — the fruitful source of many outrages — and of warnino: their conoreof-ations ag-ainst all attacks on life or property, as not only against religion and morality but as un- worthy of men aspiring to be free. But the good genius of the nation at this time was a humble Capuchin friar. THE MEN OF '48. 97 a man wlio had spent t^Yenty years of lils life as an obscure and laborious priest in the city of Cork, and whose name was known to but few outside his immediate neighborhood. This was Father Mathew. the apostle of temperance, without whose potent and almost miraculous aid the efforts of the Young Ireland literati, the influence of the Liberator, and even the moral suasion of the priesthood, would have been weak indeed. Alluding to the result of Father Mathew's teachings on the masses who composed the monster meetings, his biographer, the late John F. Maguire, very justly remarks : " Though taking no part whatever in politics, Father Mathew was still proud to know that his influence was felt in the political agitation of the day, and was thoroughly appreciated by O'Connell, for this reason — that enormous multitudes of people, who assembled at the call of the political leader, were held in perfect restraint by the controlling influence of the moral leader ; and that many thousands of the full-grown pop- ulation of Ireland met together, in various places and at different times, in all seasons and under all circum- stances, and that no instance of outrage or riot ever 98 THE MEN* OF '48. justified the interference of tlie watchful and jealous authorities. Large bodies of men^ young and old, came from long" di^ances to the places of meeting, and re- turned to their homes and occupations with a peaceable- ness and good order that were among the most striking features of that wondrous political agitation, which seemed to rouse the whole manhood of at least three provinces of the kingdom. If O'Oonnell were able to keep in check an excitable and ardent people, whom he had inflamed to the highest point, by visions of future prosperity and happiness, of glory ^nd grandeur to their countrv, as the result of that lesfislative inde- pendence which he assured them, and which he no doubt at the time believed, they could obtain — it was through the aid of Father Mathew that he did so ; for though O'Oonnell might have successfully imposed total ab- stinence from all kinds of intoxicating drink upon his countrymen for a week, or for a month, as was done during the Olare election, on which Oatholic Emanci- pation mainly turned, it would have been impossible for him to have imposed it upon 'them for any consider- able time. And had he to deal with a people liable to drunkenness and therefore ripe for disorder and tumult, he never could have guided his followers for so many years within the narrow paths of obedience to the law, respeot for the sacredness of property, and mideviating adhei'ence to the doctrine of ' moral force.^ It was to Father Mathew that O'Oonnell was mainly indebted for the peace and good order which so singularly marked those great gatherings, that inspired the apprehension THE MEN OF '48. 99 of tbe g-overnraent of the day, and the wonder of those who regarded them with the interest or the curiosity of strajigers. Independently, then, of the good which temperance conferred on the people in their individual capacity, and of the greater industry and higher moral- ity which it promoted, O'Oonnell cherished it as a means to his own ends — the accomplishment of the object which required a thoroughly obedient and docile })eo[)le to lead. And only in a countr}^ elevated and purified by Father Mathew's preaching, could the polit- ical tribune have found that thoroughly obedient and docile people." This extraordinaiy self-denial on the part of the people was an argument stronger than any other that could have been advanced in favQr of their right and ability to govern themselves. Wlien we consider that the Irish are eminently a social and proverbially a hospitable race, we can well appreciate the sacrifices they made at this epoch in order that their grand uprising should not be stained by any act that might lessen its dignity and significance. Besides, it must be remembered that to them the 'Svorld was not their friend, nor the world's law ; " at least English law, and that any breach of it, 100 THE MEN OF '48. when not necessarily involving an infraction of the moral code, has ever been considered, and with good reason, not only not blam- able, but, in many instances, highly meri- torious. Law, so-called in Ireland, is not made by or for the Irish people ; it is not their protector, but the insidious enemy, and instead of being their sword and buckler against wrong and evil-doers, it is simply and absolutely an engine of oppression, a badge of servitude, and a token of national humiliation. Still the people obeyed it, not from any respect for the alien authority which framed it, nor evenfromfear of consequences, but from the fixed hope that the day was not far distant when in then' own legislature they could enact statutes embodying equal justice and equity for all. O'Connell and his companions counselled this moderation and love of order, as much from political motives as from anything else ; Father Mathew, who was not mixed up in politics, but who as we have seen was a most efficient ally of the Repealers, took higher moral grounds. He was a most singular THE MEN OF '48. 101 man, and the conversion of his countrymen to the cause of temperance will long re- main a chapter in history to astonish and encourao'e other zealous reformers. '^ Actu- ated by motives as inspiring," said Cardinal Wiseman in his consecration sermon at St. Andrew's, Dublin, "a humble son of St. Francis has travelled your land, preaching against a vice which was the greatest bane of your domestic happiness and spiritual welfare ; calling upon you to take up the cross of the Church and place it in your hearts, and not on your garments. How has this mission succeeded, and how was that call obeyed ? It has been obeyed be- yond all human calculation ; and the adhe- sion, not of thousands, but of millions, has proved the authority that sanctioned it. Has God not thus extended His blessing even to the most despised among you ? " This is but one instance of the many eulogiums bestowed on the great temper- ance leader by the highest in position and the most distinguished in morals, in both hemispheres. Born in Thomastown on the 102 THE MEN OF '48. lOtli of October, 1790, he was old enough to recollect the disastrous issue of the re- bellion of '98, and the disgraceful scenes which' occurred in Ross, where the gallant Wexford men threw away the fruits of vic- tory, and, perhaps, at the same time the freedom of their coimtry, by the indulgence of their passion for drink. Of an old and respectable family, his early training at school was as good as the times permitted to the children of the persecuted; at home his moral tuition was such as an intelli- gent father and a loving mother would wish for their offspring. When about seventeen years of age he was sent to Maynooth College, but he did not remain there long, having little appreciation of the discipline then prevailing in that institution. In 1 8 1 4, having joined the Capuchins, the most hum- ble and least influential order in the country, and after studying under the Very Rev. C. Corcoran, he was ordained, and assigned to the Kilkenny mission ; but was soon after transferred to Cork. Here he labored for many years with all his might, among the THE MEN OF '48. 103 very lowest class of that "sw(et city," the very outcasts of society , male andfemale, and the good results of his toil were in proportion to his remarkable zeal and perseverance. Few ecclesiastics of our time performed so many distinct duties and with so much good effect as did this lowly friar, whose life seems to have been spent on a determined plan, and to whom every moment brought some task to be executed, some special work to be carried out. When, therefore, he espoused the temper- ance cause in April, 1838, he was but adding another labor to the measure of his duties already full ; but it was a work of such magnitude and comprehensiveness that it gradually absorbed all others, except those specially pertaining to his sacred office. Strange to say, his first co-laborers were an Episcopal clergyman, a Unitarian*, and a Quaker, a strong evidence, if any were wanted, of the cosmopolitan character of his new mission. The first ^ve or six years of his labors were devoted to root out the vice of intem- 104 THE MEN OF '48. perance in his native country, and how great was his success, many yet Hving can joyfully attest. For every year of that period he could average a million converts to teetotalism, and as a consequence the character of the country rose so high as to become the admiration of all, and the special theme of praise with European and Ameri- can statesmen and moralists. Though warmly attached to his native land he did not meddle directly with the repeal movement, lest by so doing he might give a political or partisan complex- ion to an undertaking which was designed to benefit all classes, creeds, and parties alike. He admired O'Connell, fully appre- ciated his genius, and was glad when he joined the temperance ranks, but when that indefatigable leader, as Lord Mayor of Dublin, somewhat ostentatiously proposed to join the great procession at Cork in 1842, he met with little encouragement from him. *' If Father Mathew could, "says Maguire, himself a repealer, " by any possibiHty, or on any pretence, have adjourned the pro- THE MEN OF M8. 105 cession, or got rid of it altogether, he cer- tainly would have done so; but Easter Monday was the day specially devoted to such demonstrations, and the temperance societies, throughout an extensive district of the country, had already made their preparations for taking part in it. There was no help for it now, and therefore the best thing that could be done was to put a good face on the matter ; which he ac- cordingly did." For the ^^ Young Ireland" party, as they then were, and for several years after up to the beginning of 1848, he had sincere esteem, and for many of the individual members a lasting, warm, and paternal affection. He admired their ardor, honesty, and nobleness of purpose ; he was fond of reading and quoting their soul- stirring poesy and bril- liant speeches, and, until the horrors of the famine and the glare of the French revolu- tion of February '48 had driven many of the leaders to premature attempts at revolt, he was in full sympathy with their aims and policy. Even after their failure, and 106 THE MEN OF '48. when some were in the penal settlements of Australia, and others in exile in this country, he was wont to speak of them in terms of the highest regard, and to mourn over the infatuation which seduced them from the path of duty into the hazy wilderness of revolution. In the Nation and its able corps of writers he recognized most valuable auxiliaries, not only from their elevated tone and wide pop- ularity, but because they were, with few ex- ceptions, practical belie vers in his teachings. He in turn reacted upon them, for the men he drew away from the allm-ements of the public house and the ''wake" soon discov- ered the necessity of other and less delete- rious amusements, and found them in the reading-rooms or by their own peaceful firesides. Thus, as the temperance cause was advanced, education became more thorough and general, and the number of readers of good national literature corre- spondingly increased. This was the end for which the Nations contributors strove, and while the Apostle of Temperance was THE MEN OF '4a 107 spreading the blessings of sobriety, and its attributes, peace, health, and mental clarity, they were supplying the intellectual food which was to nourish and complete liis moral revolution. In one thing both thoroughly agreed: that no people ever rose to true greatness, or recovered their freedom, who were unable to control their passions and subordinate their individual caprices to the general good. AVhile Father Mathew divided the affec- tions and confidence of the Irish with O'Con- nell, without being either his opponent or his rival, but for all useful purposes his efficient ally, the political leader enter- tained and expressed for liim, on more than one occasion, the most unbounded respect and reverence. A meeting held in Dublin in January, 1843, which was attended by four bishops, some eighty noblemen, mem- bers of parliament, etc., afforded O'Connell an ample opportunity of giving vent to those feelings so creditable to both parties. When the resolutions intended for adoption were submitted to him for criticism he censured 1 08 THE MEN OF '48. them as '^ tame and unworthy of the object." Snatching up a pen, he altered the first resolution by adding to the phrase, which declared Father Mathew " entitled to the nation's gratitude," the words, " beyond all li\dng men." ''What! beyond all living men, eh?" exclaimed a by-stander ; "is not that too strong ? " " Not in the least," said O'Connell emphatically ; " it is literally true." At the public meeting, held to pre- sent a fitting testimonial to the good friar, he amplified this opinion with his usual power and wealth of words. Among other things he said : " The name of the Reverend Theobald Mathew is in fact a spell- word. It proclaims in itself the progress of temperance, morality, prudence, and every other social vivtue in the land. I have, as I have already said, come here not to make a speech, but to bear my testimony to his indescribable merits. I could not stay away from such an assemblage as this j for though I feel how little importance my attendance here could be, still I owed it to mvself to share in the testimonv of the miMitv moral miracle that has been performed, and to raise ray humble voice in the declaration of my sentiments of admiration at his utility as a man and his virtues as a clergyman, by joining in this demonstration of the gratitude of his THE MEN OF '48. 109 country toward liim . . . . Having said so much, I ought to retire, for I feel this — that it is not in language to describe, and that there is not rapidity in human speech to follow the brilliancy of his career. There can be no wings given to words, to enable them to rise to his moral exaltation. You might as well think of looking the noonday sun in face, without injuring the vision, as to place the merits of Father Mathew in a clearer point of view than they at present exist. No, and if w^itnesses are wanting of his utility I call on four millions of teetotallers to come forward with their testimony. " On tlie same occasion O'Brien, though not yet a pronounced nationalist, dehvered a dignified and hearty eulogium on the labors of Father Mathew, on behalf of the county he represented in parliament, which he as- serted was benefited much more than any other by his teachings. " Whatever it shall be," he said, in alluding to the proposed testimonial, '^ will be best determined by the committee ; but of this he was quite sure, that they could not erect any testimony so acceptable to him, or so glorious in its results, as an inviolate fidelity to the solemn en- gagement entered into by the great mass of the nation to the good man." Years after- 110 THE MEN OF '48. wards, when the iUustrious advocate of tem- perance had closed, amid pam and suffermg, his long and most useful life; and when William Smith O'Brien had retm-ned from his convict home in Van Diemen's Land, he took up his pen to express, in part at least, his poignant sorrow for the loss of his great and beneficent friend. He wrote : " For myself, whether he be or be not canonized as a saint by the Church of Rome, I am disposed, to regard him as an Apostle who was specially deputed on a divine mission by the Almighty, and invested with power almost miraculous. To none of the ordinary operations of human agency can I ascribe the success which attended his effoits to suppress one of the beset- tinsT sins of the Irish nation. If I had read in history that such success had attended the labors of an unpre- tending priest whose chief characteristic was modest simplicity of demeanor, I own that I should have distrusted the narrative as an exaggeration ; but we have been all of us witnesses to the fact that myriads simultaneously obeyed his advice, and, at his bidding, abandoned a favorite indulgence." There is no mistaking the sincerity of this praise nor of its entire truthfulness ; and, coming as it does from a gentleman who was THE MEN OF '48. Ill ever chary of liis applause, a strict, though liberal-minded Protestant, wliose love of his kind led him even under the shadow of the scaffold, it may be considered one of the most appropriate epitaphs that ever graced the tomb of saint or philantln-opist. CHAPTER VI. Symptoms of division in the Repeal Association — Chari- table Bequests bill — Federalism advocated by O'Connell — Denounced by the "Nation" and O'Neil Daunt — English Intrigues at Rome — The Papal Rescript — Finan- cial reforms proposed — Formation of the '82 Club. — The Queen's Colleges bill — The Irish hierarchy on edu- cation. From the day of O'Connell's liberation from Richmond bridewell, a change in his policy was observed by many who knew him intimately and whose affection and re- spect for his person and great services could not blind them to the sad fact that he was no longer the same fiery, indefatigable agitator, the magnetic orator whose voice could call millions around him and sway them as he listed* by the magic of his elo- quence. Some attributed the transfor- mation to decaying health and advancing age — he only lacked two years of the ordinary term allotted to men — others sus- pected that the repeal movement had ad- THE MEN OF '48. 113 vanced as far as peaceable agitation could go, and that either the legitimate demands of the people sliould be supported by armed men, as in 1782, or that a backward step, fatal to all revolutions, political and moral, should be taken. The second alternative seemed the better to O'Connell. In accordance with this view, the great leader, it is said, upon tolerably good au- thority, proposed in a secret session of the committee that the Association should be dissolved, and another, under a different name and with what was called by some the '' illegal features " of the old one stricken out ; or, in other w^ords, to eliminate from the Repeal platform every statement of principle that might give offence or alarm to the English government. This, it will be remembered, was a favorite ruse of O'Con- nell during the emancipation excitement, and was generally successful, but times and circumstances were now greatly changed. Then it was the organizations that were alleged to be unlawful per se ; but the re- peal leaders had not been indicted, tried, 114 THE MEN OF '48. and convicted of crime because they belonged to an illegal body, but on account of attend- ing certain meetings and' using language which, it was asserted, was " seditious." Be- sides, such a change of base at so critical a juncture would be a confession of defeat, a victory for the common enemy, and a source of dissatisfaction among the people. Such at least were the views of Mr. O'Brien and the other members of the committee who affiliated with the Young Irelanders. They protested against such a course as false, craven, and fatal. Mr. O'Connell, at length seeing how distasteful the proposed change was to so influential a portion of the com- mittee, abandoned it for the time, though it is not probable that he ever forgot or completely forgave this first act of insubor- dination to his wishes, which heretofore had been unquestioned. The next cause of discord among the Nationalists appeared in a quarter from which it was least expected — amongst the Hie- rarchy. In August, 1844, against the most earnest remonstrances of priests and people THE MEN OF '48. 115 was passed tlie Charitable Bequests act. By the provisions of this statute no charitable be- quest made for a Catholic purpose was valid unless devised six months before the death of the testator, and singular enough tlu'ee bishops were selected to administer this law, and accepted the trust, though the Catholics of the country almost unanimously looked upon the act with aversion as an insult to their clergy, an imputation on their character, and an insidious attempt on the liberties of the entire Catholic body. The Repeal Association opposed the measure on these grounds ; the Nation denounced it with its usual force and energy, and the prelates themselves in convocation were divided as to the propriety of any of their number acting as commissioners. Of the proceed- ings of this meeting, the Right Rev. Dr. Cantwell shortly after wrote to O'Connell the following account : " Tlie resolution did not meet the approval of all the bishops, neither did it convey to any one of the Episcopal commissioners the most distant notion tliat in accepting the office he did not oppose the views and wishes of 116 THE MEN OF '48. many of his Episcopal brethren. When the resolution was moved^ there were six of the protesting bishops absent, and a moment was not allowed to pass, after it was seconded; when it was denounced in the strongest manner by two of the bishops present. They solemnly declared before the assembled prelates that in the event of any prelate accepting the odious office, they would never willingly hold any communication with him in his capacity of commissioner." Then came O'Connell's sudden and inex- plicable conversion to Federalism, involving of course the abandonment of the absolute repeal of the Union, and the obliteration of all the promises, vows, and pledges of the previous ^ve years. There was, it seems, a small knot of Federalists in the north, composed of such men as Grey Porter, Ross, Crawford, and Caulfield, acting, it was gen- erally supposed, on the inspiration of the Lord Lieutenant, Heytesbury, who had ad- dressed the Liberator on this subject and found him more pliant than they had hoped. He even went so far as to write from his retirement at Derrynane a public letter contrasting the benefits to be expected from Repeal and from Federalism respectively, THE MEN OF '48. 117 and giving his preference to tlie latter. As his views were very similar to those of the present '' Home Kule" movement, we give the following extracts from this peculiar epistle : " The Simple Repealers are of the opinion that the reconstructed Irish parliament should have precisely the same power and authority wliich the former Irish par- liament had. " The Federalists, on the contrary, appear to me to require more for the people of Ireland than the Simple Repealers do 3 for, besides the local parliament in Ireland, having full and perfect authority, the Fed- eralists require that there should be, for questions of imperial concern, colonial, naval, and military, and for foreign alliance and policy, a Congressional or Federal Parliament, in which Ireland should have her fair share and proportion of representatives and power. " It is but just and right to confess that in this respect the Federalists would give Ireland more weight and importance in imperial concerns than she could acquire by means of the plan of Simple Repealers. ''For my own part, I will own that since I have come to contemplate the specific differences, such as they are, between Simple Repeal and Federalism, I do at present feel a preference for the Federative plan, as tending more to the utility of Ireland and the main- tenance of the connection with England, than the plan of Simple Repeal. . . . The Federalists cannot but 118 THE MEN OF '48. perceive that there has been upon my part a pause in the agitation for Repeal since the period of our release frotti unjust imprisonment." The last two sentences of this document if nothing else, would have excited in the bosom of the Nationalists a strono^ feelinof of dissatisfaction and regret. They did not care to maintain any closer connection with their despoiler, England. They thought it was close enough already, and whether they would encourage any connection at all with her, should a fair opportunity offer for dissolving it altogether, would depend on the good behavior of Great Britain and the demands of true Irish state policy. They had indeed noticed that there had been " a pause in the agitation for repeal," but had kept their sad forebodings to them- selves lest they might have been accused of trying to sow seeds of dissension, but now that it had been openly announced, they felt hui-t and irritated beyond measure. ^* I felt it my duty, " says O'Neil Daunt, his most intimate friend and enthusiastic admirer, ^'to write to O'Connell on the sub- THE MEN OF '48. 119. ject of his recent manifesto. I did not keep a copy of my letter, but I recollect its sub- stance. I stated the general dissatisfaction excited by his advocacy of Federalism. I reminded him that I was publicly committed to ' Simple Repeal.' I told him that no man was less disposed than I was to create dis- cord in our ranks by expressing dissent from the movements of the leader, but that for the sake of consistency I was desirous to exonerate myself from any predilection for Federalism. I concluded by announcing my purpose to repeat at our next day's meet- ing my former profession of faith on the point in dispute ; and, at the same time to vindicate him from the unjust imputation of intending to surrender any portion of his claim for Irish constitutional liberty ! ^ Do not enter into any vindication of me,' wrote O'Connell in reply. ' Leave every miscon- ception afloat until I reach the Association. We are on the eve of knowing whether or not the Federalists will make a public dis- play. If they do not do so within a week I shall again address the people — not to 120 THE MEN OF '48. vindicate or excuse, but to boast of tlie offer I have made and the spirit of concihation we have evinced.' " This was weak reasoning for so great a mind, and, while it may have satisfied a few, it alienated tens of thousands of the best men in the land. The pause of surprise and sorrow which followed O'Connell's letter of October 2d, was interrupted by the ap- pearance of one in reply from Charles Gavan Duffy. It was a production worthy of the distinguished editor of the Nation; full of profound thought, clear statements, admu'ably logical in its conclusions, and replete with plain, broad arguments which can'ied conviction with them even to the most mediocre understanding. It was now the Liberator's turn to be surprised. Here- tofore his sway, though consistent and bene- ficial, had been despotic. His system of politics was thoroughly personal, but now he became perfectly aware of the fact that he was living in a generation far different from that of the pre-Emancipation period, and that he no longer could control the in- THE MEN OF '48. 121 telligent masses of the nation except by recognizing their right to a voice and an influence in the aff'airs of their common country. He found that though he might himself prefer to the soHd advantages of a repeal of the Union the delusive promises of the Federalists, and be willing to suspend for a time, or for all time, the agitation for a domestic parliament, others would not do so unless well convinced of the wisdom of the change. '^ Among the great party to whom he appealed," says a former promi- nent repealer, ''not one voice was heard to suggest a practical step in the direction intimated. The project fell, if indeed it were ever seriously entertained, leaving no memory and no regret." It had, however, a very disastrous effect upon the harmony of the nation's councils. It lessened the good feeling that had hither- to prevailed in the committee, and strength- ened the popular belief that O'Connell was never sincere in his promises of repeal. But though we are not inclined to coincide in this view, it cannot be denied that his hasty 122 THE MEN OF '48. adherence to Federalism, and the equally sudden abandonment of it, greatly impaired his influence and, in proportion, increased that of the Young Irelanders. These were some of Peel's intrigues to disrupt the Association, and were so far successful ; but more were to follow. The English ministry had been acting as a spy for the Italian governments on their refractory refugee subjects in Malta and elsewhere, and even, by opening their letters while in tran- situ, had obtained valuable information which, with the true breeding of detectives, they were willing to sell for a consideration. Some were disposed of to the King of Naples, and another part was communicated to the coui't of Rome, the reward in the latter case no doubt, being the expected interference of the Vatican in the repeal movement. A certain recreant English Catholic named Petrie was the secret agent of the govern- ment at Rome, and with that mendacity which generally characterizes an English- man, when speaking on Irish affairs, he pre- sented the grossest fabrications and pu^ THE MEN OF '48. 123 foi'ward the basest falsehoods against tlie Irish priests and hierarchy. Partially mis- led by the representations of this un- scrupulous emissary, as well as from a natural sense of gratitude for English inter- vention against the enemies of the Papal States, the Sacred College issued a Rescript forbidding the Irish clergy to take a promi- nent or violent part in the repeal agitation. The receipt of this document at first, and until its real spirit and contents were under- stood, created much disorder in the national ranks. O'Connell denounced it as ^^unca- nonical." In the Association, O'Neil Daunt, who, in the absence of the leader was sup- posed to express his views, said : ^* Assuming tliat this rescript is an injunction to the Irish clergy to abstain from Repeal agitation, what does it amount to ? It amounts to a call upon a portion of the Queen's Irish subjects to abdicate partially their rights as Irish citizens. Is this, or is it not, a direct in- terference with their civil rights'? If so, will those to whom it is addressed obey it 1 Just look at the posi- tion in which they would be placed by such obedience. All their lives they have been charored bv their enemies with holding a divided allegiance. Now here is the test 124 THE MEN OF '48. — here is the touchstone. If they obey the Papal man- date upon a matter purely temporal — then, by their own act, they will confirm the charge of divided allegiance, against which they have been loudly protesting ever since the very outset of the struggle for Emancipation. The criminal inconsistency of the government in making people swear that the Pope hath no temporal power in the queen's dominions, and yet manoeuvring to get his Holiness to exercise temporal power against Irish freedom, is obvious to all. But we, the Repeal- ers of Ireland, are the sworn foes of all foreign dicta- tion in Irish domestic affairs. As much theolos^v from Rome as you please, but no politics.'*' When O'Connell was afterwards asked if he did not think this was going too far, he answered : '' Not in the least. Recollect, my good friend, that what Daunt says, we have already solemnly sworn." But though he had publicly pronounced the order uncanonical he was soon forced to admit and apologize for his mistake. The Most Rev. Dr. Crolly addressed him a letter on the 11th of January, 1845, in which he says : *' T was surprised and sorry to find that you had ventured to assert that a letter sent to me some time past, from the Propa- ganda, was not a canonical document." THE MEN OF '48. 125 And lest there should be any doubt about its character the primate appended a copy of the resolution regarding it, passed by the assembled bishops. It was as follows : "Moved by tlie Rt. Rev. Dr. Brown of Elpliin and seconded by the Rt. Rev. Dr. McNally of Clogber. " Hesolved, That the most Reverend Doctor Crolly be requested to reply to the letter received from the Holy Father, stating that the instnictions therein con- tained have been received by the assembled prelates of Ireland with that degree of profound respect, obedience, and veneration that should ever be paid to any docu- ment emanating from the Apostolic See, and that they all pledge themselves to carry the spirit thereof into effect." The English and the anti-Irish press hailed the Rescript as the death-blow of Eepeal, and trumpeted forth the above resolution as the dividing wedge between the priesthood and the people — a consum- mation, from their stand-point, most de- voutly to be wished. Not so, however, did the great majority of the patriotic prelates and priests so understand it. ^^The Cardi- nal only censures violent and intemperate language," wrote Dr. Cantwell, ^'in either 126 THE IklEN OP '48. priests or bishops, whether they address their flocks in their temples, or mix with their fellow-countrymen in banquets or public meetings. We [the prelates] inferred, and I think we were justified in the inference, that conduct and language at all times un- becoming our sacred character, and not our presence on such legitimate occasions, were the object of this salutary caution." This was also the interpretation placed on it by the Nationalists. In Conciliation Hall, Thomas McNevin, a gifted young Catholic lawyer, went even farther, and his words were received with great applause. ^' We are informed, " he said, " that there is an English emissary — shall I say spy — at Eome. Is his the discretion which guides the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda ? Do not suppose for a moment that I question the supremacy of the Pope in spiritual matters. Surely nothing is farther from my mind ; but, sir, I do question his right to dictate to an Irish clergyman the degree of prominence or prudence with which he shall serve his country. I hope I am not irreverent in THE MEN OF '48. 127 doing so. I shall continue to hold my opinion until I am authoritatively informed that he has the right — then I shall be. silent. But I never heard before — and it will be a singular doctrine in my view of the case — that his Holiness can take cognizance of the political movements of the Irish people, and use his influence to disarrange the powers we bring to bear in favor of our liberty." ^* It (the rescript) announces the undoubted truth," said Davis, '' that the main duty of a Cluistian priest is to care for the souls of his flock, and both by precept and ex- ample to teach mildness, piety, and peace. It does not denounce a Catholic clergy- man from aiding the Repeal movement in all ways becoming a minister of religion. Nowhere in the rescript is the agitation as a system, or Repeal, as a demand, cen- sm-ed; but some reported violence of speech is reproved." The writers of the Nation^ and those who generally acted with them, were in perfect accord with McNevin and Davis, as well as with the clergy and the bishops ; and most 128 THE MEN OF '48. prominent among the latter was to be found the venerable Archbishop McHale of Tuam, who, a few days after the re- ception of the Cardinal's letter, attended a repeal banquet at Limerick and delivered one of his characteristic speeches, full of fire, eloquence, and denunciation. ^^A distinguished Catholic priest," says one of O'Connell's biographers, "who fre- quently visited Rome, informed O'Neil Daunt that the expression of Irish senti- ment and purpose at Conciliation Hall produced a powerful and salutary effect at the Vatican." Mr. Petrie's occupation was gone. The only apparent change produced by the Cardinal Prefect's letter was a more moderate tone on the part of such of the clergy as were naturally impetuous or justly indignant at the perpetual insults heaped on their countrymen by an alien legislature ; but the remote effect was deleterious to the national cause, for it served still more to separate the laity from their old friends and guides and to expose them to THE MEN OF '48. 129 the absurd and impractical teachings of amateur revolutionists. While the Association was a unit on the questions of the Bequest act and the Rescript it was far from being so harmonious on other matters affecting its interests ; more particularly on finance. Even be- fore the arrest of the repeal leaders and during their imprisonment, low murmurings were heard against the lavish expenditure of the funds in many useless ways, but particularly in paying handsome salaries to persons who performed no equivalent work. Sinecurists, the relatives and friends of cer- tain pretentious repealers, were, it was hinted, eating up the funds supplied for a very different purpose, and, as no official report of the receipts and expenditure had ever been published, it was insinuated that the treasury of the body was in incapable or corrupt hands. Though no one ever thought of implicating O'Connell in these charges, he saw fit to express his indigna- tion at what he called the unwarrantable interference of the minority, and unluckily 130 THE MEN OF '48. took part with those who wished their pro- teges retained in the nominal employment of the committee, or who had good reasons for withholding statements of account. Dur- ing his temporary absence from the Associ- ation several useless persons had been dis- charged by a vote of the committee, and considerable money saved thereby to the Association, but on his return he took a de- cided stand against any further removals. He did not care so much, it seems, for the displaced officials, though some of them were his friends, as for the spirit of insub- ordination which he believed was mani- fested against his authority and wishes, and this he could not overlook. As years stole on apace and as, in the natural course of events, his career in this world was fast drawing to a close, it be- came apparent to his warmest friends that his love of absolute authority was rapidly increasing, and that signs, of a disposition to look on every one who honestly differed from him, as his enemy, became every day more evident. Thus when the 'Eighty- THE MEN OF '48. 131 two Club was organized in January, 1845, and when some of his friends who pre- sented themselves for admission and were rejected, doubtless for good reasons, he, though its president, finding he could not control all its actions, ceased to take anv interest in its deliberations, and even occa- sionally alluded to it in terms not very complimentary. As many of the most active members of the club were prominent Young Irelanders w^e find that the breach was thus gradually but surely widening. But all these disagreements were insig- nificant in comparison with the dissensions which sprung up after the passage of the Queen's Colleges bill in July, 1845. The ostensible object of the act was the estab- lishment of three secular colleges in Ulster, Connaught, and Munster, to be supported by the government, who claimed complete control over them, in every particular, and to be open to students without regard to creeds or politics ; but the real design, be- yond all question, w^as to fling another apple of discord among the priesthood and 132 THE MEN OF '48. the people, to excite discussion between the sticklers for mixed education and the advocates of the denominational system. A faint hope, also, was latent in the breast of the ministry that if those colleges proved a success they could in time be so managed that the youth of Ireland, while being perverted in faith and morals by the aid of English books, British professors, and judicious distribution of honors, might be brought to look with indifference, if not with contempt, on their religion and father-land. When the bill was first introduced and its leading features given to the public, the Irish hierarchy met in synod and drew up the following memorial, which, as there are statements of principles in it as true and as applicable to education in our day as they then were, are well worthy of reproduction. The prelates laid down the following con- ditions : " That memorialists are disposed to cooperate on fair and reasonable terms with her majesty's government and the legislature, in establishing a system for the further extension of academic education in Ireland. THE MEN OF '48. 133 " That a fair proportion of the professors and other office-hearers in the new colleges should be members of the Roman Catholic Church, whose moral conduct shall have been properly certified by testimonials of character signed by their respective prelates. And that all the office-bearers in those colleges should be appointed by a board of trustees, of which the Roman Catholic prelates of the provinces in which any of those colleges shall be erected, shall be members. " That the Roman Catholic pupils could not attend the lectures on history, logic, metaphysics, moral phi- losophy, geology, or anatomy, without exposing their faith or morals to imminent danger, unless a Roman Catholic professor will be appointed for each of those chairs. " That if any president, vice-president, professor, or office-bearer, in any of the new colleges, shall be convicted before the board of trustees of attempting to undermine the faith or injure the morals of any student in those institutions, he shall be immediately removed from his office by the same board." Whether the Irish hierarchy seriously- entertained the idea that the prayer of this memorial would be granted we cannot well say; if they did, they were sadly disap- pointed, for the bill became a law without as much as conceding one iota to their opinions or in fact to the sentiments of any portion of 134 THE MEN OF '48. the people it professed to serve. No, tlie Iiish were to be overburdened with favors even against then' expressed opposition. The bishops therefore almost unanimously re- solved to denounce tlie colleges, and kept their pledge so faithfully that in despite of the cajoler}^, threats, and intrigues of several successive ministries who have lavished honors and money on those institutions, their efficiency at present is a matter of very grave doubt to the majority of the people of Ireland. On this occasion O'Connell was with the bishops, and he was right. At fii'st he seemed to approve of the project of mixed secular colleges, but when he considered the clauses of the bill closely, had read the memorial just quoted, had reflected on how powerful an instrument those institutions might become, in the hands of an unscrupulous government, against faith, morals, and patriotism, his opinions were quickly changed. He com- menced with desirinof laro-er facilities for a higher education of the children of the masses, without regard to religious opinions, THE MEN OF '48. 135 lie tlien adojDted the views of the hierarchy, who did not, in terms, condemn the endow- ment of mixed schools, under circumstances and guarantees, and ended in rejecting alto- gether, as immoral and anti-Irish, mixed 0-overnment colleo^es in all their details. Alluding to the advocacy of the Act by c'ertain nationalists, a biographer of O'Con- nell says : " These opinions did not meet O'ConnelPs approbation ; he drew very opposite conclusions. The founders of the new colleges hated Catholicity much, but Irish nationality more. The bright lamp of patriotism, which had burned for ages in the gloom of the sanctuary, would languish and die in the glaring light of those academic halls, where religion would be sneered at as an antiquated superstition, and honest patriotism as a "pre- judice of place" — both of which should be sacrificed by men of sense for a situation in the colonies or an ap- pointment in England. Servility to aristocracy would be substituted for obedience to religion and homage to God. In short, the godless colleges would be the slave- markets of Irish intellect.'^ O'Connell, as we have seen, abjured the colleges, not as government foundations but for the irreligious and unpatriotic teachings wiiich he anticipated from them ; the Young 136 THE MEN OF '48. Irelanders were perfectly satisfied that the English government should pay the ex- penses but not select the professors, as the tenth clause in the bill authorized them to do, a very illogical and unreasonable expec- tation when it is remembered that it was an English ministry dealing with an Irish sub- ject. This latter objection was not offered on the grounds of danger to faith and morals, but from a dread of undue official influence. '' The rising generation, of opposite opin- ions, mingling freely in those academic halls, would cast aside their sectarian sympathies," they fancied, " and melt into a homogeneous mass of ardent nationalism, forgetful of party feeling and fervently attached to Ireland." In other words, they wished to subordinate Christianity itself to *' nation- alism, " and while grasping at a shadow would be certain to lose the substance ; for without fixed principles of morality and justice, the true offspring of religion, all the merely mental cultivation of which man is susceptible and all the abstract devotion THE MEN OF '48. 137 lie may entertain for his country, are merely snares to the thoughtless, and worse than delusions. Mr. O'Brien was particularly emphatic ''n his opposition to that portion of the act which allowed the professors to be ap- pointed by government and not by trustees. In seconding the adoption of a petition against this clause, he said : "I am not dis- posed to assist the government in making those seminaries, which ought to be seats of learning, the filthy sties of corruption. It is because I believe that such would be their character if this tenth clause were to remain a legislative enactment, that I shall oppose it to the utmost." For weeks and months before the bill passed, Conciliation Hall rung with noisy debates on the measui-e, till the word Repeal was almost unheard or unheeded. Both sections were opposed to certain objection- able features of the act, but the '' Young L'elanders " continued to support the princi- pal plan itself, while the ^' Old Irelanders," as they began to be called, condemned it 138 THE ^lEN OF '48. in toto. To do the Liberator justice, it must be said that he endeavored as much as possible to avoid a discussion so fraught with dissensions ; and it was only in his absence, at Derrynane or in parliament, that the premonitory symptoms of a near approaching ruptui'e could be noticed. His son, John O'Connell, who had always the bitterness of a fanatic, without any of the honesty which frequently palliates, if not redeems, a character so disagreeable, was generally the fii^st to evoke the e^dl spirit of discord by appeals to the lowest preju- dices of his audience. This naturally pro- voked retort or \^ndication on the part of those who favored mixed education. Then followed angry words and simulated ex- pression of a desire to avoid disunion, and the weekly meetings of the Association usually adjourned, and left the sting of defeat or disappointment rankling in the bosom of either faction. The dissolution of the Repeal Association was now only a question of time. Peel and Heytesbury had triumphed, the incom- THE MEN OF '48. 139 ing Whigs sniffed an easy victory when they again got into office, and the cause of Irish independence was put back for one generation at least. For accelerating this catastrophe O'Connell himself was not blameless, nor were the Young Ireland party, whose views, to speak mildly, were not conceived in the spirit of true states- manship, or advanced always with proper regard to the well- formed opinions of others ; but the chief guilt — for guilt it most assuredly was — rested on John O'Con- nell, Conway, and such parasites of the Liberator, who thought to find favor in his eyes by the exercise of the most vile and uncalled for abuse of those who differed from him, and whom they went so far as to style publicly as the '^baffled faction" and the ^* infidel party," even in his presence. CHAPTER VII. Celebration of the first anniversary of the 30th of May, 1844 — O'Connell in Thurles — Action of the British par- liament respecting absent Irish Members — Michael Doheny — William Smith O'Brien and John O'Connell — Imprison- ment of the former — Debate in Conciliation Hall — Ad- dress of the '83 Club — More dissensions — Approach of the famine. During all those unseemly bickerings and sad foreboding, the first anniversary of the imprisonment of the leading Repealers, the 30th of May, was not forgotten or neg- lected. The special committee appointed to make all necessary arrangements, con- sisting of Sir Coleman O'Loughlin, Thomas Davis, and several men of like calibre and taste, selected the Rotundo as a fitting place to hold the celebration ; and determined that a grand lev^e, to which were to be invited all Repealers of note in the United King- dom, would be the most appropriate and most popular manner of testifying their de- testation of the cruelty and injustice of English law as administered in Ireland, as THE MEN OF '48. 141 well as tlieir esteem and affection for its latest distinguished victims. Tliey felt, perhaps, that from the ominous signs of the times this would be, in all probability, the last demonstration of the kind Ireland would ever behold, and their preparations were on a scale of magnitude such as the capital had never beheld in its palmiest days. Early on the morning of the 30th, the spacious round room of the Rotundo was filled with corporate delegations, bishops, noblemen, members of parliament, repre- sentatives of the learned professions, mag- istrates, artists, poets, orators, and authors ; while in the streets leading to the building dense human masses swayed and crowded, content if they could only catch a glimpse of their favorite champions as they passed in or retired. O'Connell, the chief object of attraction, occupied the centre of a raised platform sm-rounded by his former fellow- prisoners, and right royally saluted the guests as they were presented to him. ' ' His demeanor," says one who was present on the occasion, '* while exercising the prerogatives 142 THE MEN OF '48. of his position, was such as became a man conscious that he occupied a throne loftier than any ever yet decked by a kingly crown. But when his official functions were dis- charged, he addi'essed the impassioned throng in language too tame for the most ordinary occasion." Alas ! though a free man, and surrounded by the sunshine of myriads of fond, warm hearts, the shadow of the prison, the consciousness of defeat, nay, the very mark of speedy dissolution was upon him. '^ The cynosure of all eyes, the observed of all observers," his was, perhaps, the only heavy heart, the only troubled mind, in that august and brilliant assemblage of Irish Nationalists. After the lev^e was over there was a meeting held in the Pillar room — John O'Connell, M. P. for Kilkenny, in the chair, O'Brien moved the adoption of the following resolution and pledge, which, on being seconded by Henry Grattan, son of the illustrious statesman of that name, were adopted with great earnestness and en- thusiasm : THE MEN OF '48. 143 " Resolved, That in commemorating tliis first anni- versary of the 30th of May, we deem it our duty to record a solemn pledge that corruption shall not seduce, nor deceit cajole, nor intimidation deter iis from seek- ing to obtain for Ireland the blessings of self-govern- ment through a national legislature, and we recommend that tlie following pledge be taken : u i Y^Te, the undersigned, being convinced that good government and wise legislation can be permanently secured to the Irish people only through the instrumen- tality of an Irish Legislature, do hereby pledge our- selves to our country that we will never desist from seeking the repeal of the Union w'itb England by all peaceable, moral, and constitutional means, until a par- liament be restored to Ireland/ ^' Dated this 30th day of May, 1845."' This solemn covenant and agreement was there and then signed by all present, in- cluding the Irish mayors, various delega- tions from the provinces, members of parliament, of the ^82 club, and thousands of others ; and the scene closed amid general rejoicing and mutual congratula- tions among the Nationalists. How hollow was the entire pageant, how soon the vows so grandiloquently made were to be broken, was known to, or suspected by, but few, 144 THE MEN OF '48. In the latter part of September of the same year, another and the last of the great mon- ster meetings was held at Thurles, at which about one hundred thousand persons were present. There was plenty of enthusiasm displayed on the part of the people, and O'Connell made the principal speech. But how changed from his former inspiriting and defiant tones ! He spoke, indeed, of repeal of the Union, of petitions to the queen and to the parliament, of having seventy Repeal members in that body ; but the burden of his address was peace, still peace, and for the first time in his life broadly hinted at the possibility of the defeat of his projects. *^ I do solemnly declare," he said, " that, even though my efforts were not to be crowned by success, I had rather be engaged in this struggle for the welfare and happiness of my native land, than enjoy all of wealth, and resplendence, and magnificence that the treasures of congregated worlds could bestow on me." Times, however, were rapidly changing, and the high-flown lan- guage of the once daring Liberator fell flat THE MEN OF '48. 145 on the general ear, and left the lieart of the nation untouched. The Repeal Association, though occasionally showing spasmodic symptoms of existence, was really dying beyond the power of resuscitation. The people knew and keenly felt that it would soon be a loathsome, untenanted body, a putrid carcass, Avithout a soul : already given over to dissolution and the worms of corruption. Some months previous to this meeting a step was taken by Conciliation Hall, which, at one time, it was thought, would have led to grave and very complicated questions concerning the power of the imperial parliament in controlling Irish af- fairs. The committee of the Association passed a resolution, that all members of parliament who were members of their body should be required to absent them- selves from the House of Commons, unless when bills of a strictly Irish nature were under consideration. Upon this, Joseph Hume, M. P., gave notice of a motion in the Commons for a call of the House so as 146 THE MEN OF '48. to compel all absentees to attend. The question then arose in the Association, whether the House, under the act of Union, had a right to compel Irish members to attend ; and, secondly, if the speaker's writ, in case of refusal, would run in Ireland ? A sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Do- heny, O'Hea, O'Loughlin, Mullin, and O'Dowd, was appointed to consider and rej)ort on the matter. The members of the . committee being all familiar with constitu- tional law, naturally reported in the affirma- tive, but upon their decision being submitted to O'Connell he dissented from it, and after some consideration drew up a directly con- trary one for adoption by the sub-committee. Mr. Doheny, the chairman, objected to the soundness of O'Connell's legal views, and an acrimonious debate ensued, in the course of which some very unworthy insinuations were advanced by the latter against his opponent. Michael Doheny was at this time an ardent Nationalist, an excellent popular speaker, thoroughly honest, and, witlial, a good lawyer, but with all the fire THE MEN OF '48. 147 of his native county, Tipperary, he resented those charges and maintained his well- digested views with, perhaps, undue warmth and tenacity, even against all odds. The result was that O'Connell's report was accepted, and at the next meeting of the Association it was adopted with great en- thusiasm. It was also agreed in committee that O'Brien and John O'Connell should be instructed to test the question of parliamen- tary compulsion : O'Brien, by going to London and thus placing himself within the jurisdiction of the house of Commons ; and John O'Connell, by remaining in Ireland to await the speaker's writ. Those two gentlemen being in the English capital in the latter part of June, 1845, received from the chairman of the Committee of Selection a notice to the fol- lowing effect : "I am directed by the Committee of Selection to inform you that your name is on the list from which members will be selected to serve on the railway com- mittees which will commence their sittings in the week beginning Monday, the 14th July, during which week 148 THE MEN OF '48. it will be necessary for you to be in attendance, for the purpose of serving, if requested, on a railway com- mittee." To this O'Brien replied : ''I trust tliat tlie Committee of Selection w^ill not think I am prompted by any feeling of disrespect to- ward them, or toward the House of Commons, when I inform them that it is ray intention not to serve on any committees, except such as may be appointed with reference to the affairs of Ireland. . . . '' Desiring that none but tiie representatives of the Irish nation should legislate for Ireland, we have no wish to intenneddle with the affairs of England or Scot- land, except in so far as tbey may be connected with the interests of Ireland, or with the general policy of the empire. " In obedience to this principle I have abstained from voting on English and Scotch questions of a local nature, and the same motive now induces me to decline attendance on committees on any private bills except such as relate to Ireland." John O'Connell also wrote a letter, ^' ab- solutely declining to attend," and previous to its delivery returned to Ireland to await the result. Matters, however, were allowed to rest for a time, and it was only in the spring of the following year, upon O'Brien's visit to London, that he again was notified THE MEX OF '48. 149 to attend bj the Committee on Selection. Thougii lie found that in his absence, and without anv consultation with the Associa- tion, O'Connell, his son, and several other Repeal members, in face of tlie resolution which they had framed and supported in Conciliation Hall the previous year, were acting on English or Scotch railway commit- tees, his resolution was unshaken. In reply to the cu'cular again requesting his attend- ance, he wrote : ^' I have been called over from Ireland at a period wten tlie deplorable situation of that country requires the presence of all whose duties connect them with it, for the purpose of resisting a measure by which it is proposed to invade the personal freedom and to suspend the constitutional liberties of the Irish people. In offering resistance to that measure, it will be necessary for me to assist in exposing the systematic misgovernment which has produced those results, which furnish a pretext for this renewed attempt to coerce Ireland. The time and facilities at my command being limited, I do not feel myself at liberty to allow my attention to be diverted from subjects of higher import to matters of local con- cern, which do not affect the interests of my country. " I must, therefore, respectfully decline to serve on the committees on private bills, except such as relate to 150 THE MEN OF '43. Irelami. I am aware that the House has the power to deprive my constituents of such humble services as I can render them, by imprisoning my person, contrary to law. I have fully considered and am prepared to abide that alternative. " On the 6tli of April, 1846, O'Brien received a reply to his letter, stating, in polite terms, that his reasons did not con- stitute a valid excuse for exemption, but suoro^ested that, if he would consent to serve at some future period, matters might be amicably arranged. O'Brien persisted in his refusal. On the 27th, the House, on motion of Mr. Est court, chairman of the Committee of Selection, ordered Mr. O'Brien to attend the Railway Committee on group II. After its passage, that gen- tleman rose and quietly said ''that he had understood the motion put by the Speaker to be merely a request that he would attend ; he was willing, as he before stated, to do so, in discharge of his general duty to his con- stituents, under protest against any right in the House to enforce his attendance as an L'ish member. But, understanding that THE MEN OF '48. 151 the motion put and carried was, that he be * ordered by the House to attend the Commit- tee,' he begged at once, with all respect, to state that it was his intention not to attend the committee on group II." On the fol- lowing day the House declared him ^' guilty of contempt," by a vote of one hundred and thirty-three to thu'teen, and on the 30th he was arrested by the sergeant-at-arms and put in the ''cellar," or prison of the Com- mons. During the debate on the motion for com- mitment for contempt, the conduct of the Repeal members and other Irish representa- tives was anything but sympatlietic or just. Even O'Connell, when challenged to give some legal reason or authority why the House should not act as it was doing, failed to give any definite response, but contented him- self with a half-apologetic, half- deprecatory reply, more objectionable to the proud spirit of his resolute countrymen than open attack or condemnation. John O'Connell, who had but lately declared himself '' ready to die on the floor of the House," went even farther 152 THE MEiN OF '43. in his canting way; and Sir T. Wilde, doubtless to please tlie parasites of O'Con- nell and to fan the flame of jealousy that was now so apparent, openly asserted his belief that O'Brien was solely influenced by a ^^ morbid love of popularity and notoriety.'^ To this truckling knight, Mr. Fitzgerald answered emphatically, from his own knowl- edge, '' that Mr. O'Brien adopted his present course, not with a view of making himself a martyr, but in order to serve his country. As for popularity, it was impossible to make him more popular than he now was." On the 1st of June, O'Brien wrote a letter to his friend, Mr. Roache, M. P., explaining his position, and concluding in the following terms : " I do not wish you to reveal to the House what an Irishman thinks of such a mode of proceeding. Suffer- ing from the injustice of the British parliament, I expect nothing from its generosity. I shall make no further appeal to the House. Yesterday I was extremely anx- ious to have been allowed to speak on my own behalf, before my committal as a culprit. I shall not agaiu condescend to solicit even this trifling favor. In con- cluding, I beg most anxiously and earnestly to request THE MEN OF '48. 153 you to inform the House that I am no party to any motion for my discharge. " The firm stand of O'Brien, and his conse- quent imprisonment, created an intense feeling in Ireland. The corporation and the citizens of Limerick passed votes of con- fidence in him, and fully indorsed his con- duct, Avhile his constituents of the county declared that they fully approved of his course tlu'oughout. Addresses of a similar nature were also sent to him from Waterford, Galway, Newry, Ennis, Athlone, Cork, Kilkenny, Cashel, Tuam, Ballingarry, and several other cities and towns. O'Brien was now in confinement for daring to serve his country in preference to English and Scotch railway speculators, and his own countrymen thanked him for his resolute stand. He had taken this stand from a conviction that it was the only one that an Irish member ought to assume ; as well as in obedience to the behests of the Association. He, of all who scarcely a year before had pledged themselves not to serve in parliament, remained faith- 154 THE MEN OF '43. ful to his word. What, then, was the Association as a whole to do 1 What words of cheer and encouragement were to pene- trate the solitude of his prison, bidding him resist the unjust demands of an alien parlia- ment to the bitter end ? In the committee of the Association a resolution was offered and passed, indorsing O'Brien's conduct and pledging the Associ- ation's cooperation in sustaining his course ; but Mr. O'Connell declared it illegal in terms and tone. Upon his suggestion, it was modified ; but it again met his disap- proval, with an intimation, conveyed through Captain Broderick, that it might be better not to pass it in any shape. Mr. Dolieny, who had charge of the resolution, refused to accede to this request, and against the wishes, and even threats, of the sycophants of Conciliation Hall, brought it forward at the next meeting and had the satisfaction of finding it, though in a diluted form, unanimously adopted. It read as follows : '^ Resolved, That having learned with deep regret, that, by a resolution of the House of Commons, the THE MEN OF '48. 155 country has been deprived of the eminent services of Mr. William Smith O'Brien, and that illustrious member of the Association himself committed to prison, we cannot allow this opportunity to pass without conveying* to him the assurance of our undiminished confidence in his integrity, patriotism, and personal courage, and our ad- miration for the high sense of duty and purity of pur- pose which prompted him to risk his personal liberty in asseition of a principle which he believed to be inherent in the Constitution. " Still there was not that general feeling of hearty approval of O'Brien's actions that the occasion demanded. It was evident to many that some underhand agency was at work among the people to weaken their sympathy for O'Brien, impugn his motives, or underrate his wisdom, while at the same time to discourage any public manifesta- tions of popular approbation. But his warm friends, and the flower of the Nation- alists, were not content that O'Brien should be so slighted, or that the common enemy should indulge in unalloyed satisfaction over their supposed victory. The 'Eighty- two Club, of which O'Brien was one of the vice-presidents, resolved to take action on 15G THE MEN OF '48. the matter, and at a more than usually full meeting they passed resolutions and ?idopted an address, the tone and temper of which were unmistakable. Major William Bryan, John Mitchel, Richard O'Gorman, Thomas Francis Meagher, Michael Doheny, John Pigot, and Terence Belle w McManus, the deputation appointed to present the ad- dress, immediately proceeded to London. On their arrival they waited on O'Connell, president of the club, and, after showing him the address, requested him to accompany them to present it. This he declined on the ground that O'Brien, on account of his action since the imprisonment, had refused to receive a visit from him. The address, which was presented without the president, read thus : ^^ To William Smith O'Brien, Esqr. : "Respected Vice-Pkesident and Beothee — Heartily approving of tbe course you have taken in refusing to devote to tbe concerns of another people any of the time which your own constituents and country- men feel to be of so much value to them, we, your brethren of the '82 Club, take this occasion of recording our increased confidence in and esteem for you, person- THE MEN OF '48. 157 ally and politically, and our determination to sustain and stand by you in asserting" the right of Ireland to the undistracied labors of our own representatives in parliament. " We, sir, like yourself, have long since ^ abandoned forever all hope of obtaining wise and beneficial legis- lation for Ireland from the imperial parliament ; ' nor would such legislation, even if attainable, satisfy our aspirations. We are confederated together in the '82 Club, upon plain ground, that no body of men ought to have power to make laws binding this kingdom, save the monarch, lords, and commons of Ireland. From that principle we shall never depart, and, with God's help, it shall soon find recognition in a parliament of our own. ^^ Upon the mode in which the House of Commons has thought fit to exercise the privilege it asserts, in the present instance — upon the personal discourtesy which has marked all the late proceedings in your regard, we shall make but one comment, that every insult to you is felt as an insult to us and to the people of Ireland. " It would be idle and out of place to offer condo- lence to you, confined in an English prison for such an ofi'ence. We congratulate you that you have made your- self the champion of your country's rights, and sub- mitted to ignominy for a cause which, you and we know, shall one day triumph. (Signed) " Coleman M. O'Loughlin, Vice-President, " Chairman." "May 9th, 1846." 158 THE MEN OF '48. O'Brien, who was deeply gratified at the presentation of this spirited address, re- ceived the deputation with the greatest warmth and affection. In his written re- ply, after thanking them for their friend- ship and good- will, he said : " In acknowledging your address I shall not dwell upon the many important considerations w^hich are in- volved in my present contest with the House of Com- mons. I cannot but think, indeed, that the consti- tutional questions at issue are of the highest moment — not alone to the Irish people, but also to each member of the legislature, and to every parliamentary elector in the United Kingdom. Upon the present occasion, however, I am content to waive all reference to all collateral issues, and to justify my conduct upon the simple ground upon which it has received 3^our approval — namely, that until a domestic legislature shall be obtained for Ireland, my own country demands my un- divided exertions. '' Be assured that those exertions wall not be with- held so long as life and liberty remain to me, until Ireland shall again fiat the declaration of 17S2, ' that no body of men is entitled to make laws to bind the Irish nation, save only the monarch, the lords, and com- mons of Ireland. ' " Whoever wavered in this trying hour, it was evident that it was not the distin- THE MEN OF "48. 159 guislied prisoner. His lofty spirit scorned alike the threats of the hereditary foes of his race, and the vulgar arts of the dema- gogue. He was always firm, dignified, and even reserved, except to his most intimate friends. When the House of Commons found that the edict of their Speaker, in- stead of being a token of disgrace, was in reality the signal for renewed love and esteem of the Irish for their victim, they re- solved to liberate him. On the 25th, Mr. Shaw, M. P., moved that he be discharged, remarking that '' the authority of the House had been vindicated by his imprison- ment for twenty-five days," and adding that, ''in justice to Mr. O'Brien, he would say that the motion was made without that gentleman's acquiescence." There being no opposition, the Irish patriot walked out of his dungeon more imperturbable, and, if possible, more firmly opposed to British legislation than ever. But the faction that had usurped the leadership of the Repeal movement, and even the control of the Liberator himself, was not 160 THE MEN OF '43. satisfied with those proceedings. Jealous of the shining abiUties of the Young Irehmders, alarmed at their growing popularity and outspoken method of declaring their im- mutable intention of obtaining the repeal of the Union at all hazards, it souglit every opportunity to thwart and oppose them, and even to induce the great leader, now bowed down with years and labors, to countenance, if not personally support, its petty, malig- nant schemes. When the 'Eighty-two Club deputation returned to Dublin their conduct was severe- ly commented on in the Committee of the Association by O'Connell and others ; and the course of the Nation^ in sustaining O'Brien and censuring the members who had, unlike him, forgotten their promises and yielded to English intimidation, was made the cause of withdrawing the support of the Association from that newspaper. l^heNation and the '82 Club occupied the attention of the committee during several sitings; and while bitter personalities passed between both sections, and charges and counter- THE MEN OF '48. 161 cliarofes were made that were not destined to be easily overlooked, the paper continued in the same line of policy, Mr. Duffy and his co-editors pursued the even tenor of their way, undismayed by any threats that could be made against them, and with un- diminished ardor in the cause of self-govern- ment for their country. In the midst of all these scenes of quarrel and petty spite the year 1845 was passing away ; for the people of Ireland, at least, in actual suffering and destitution, with pre- monitor}^ symptoms of worse evils yet to come. The very land audits products, at least the most valuable portion, because the most used by the people — the potato — seem- ed to be cursed by the Great Giver, and to wither like the prophet's gourd in a single night. To the betrayal of some of the pop- ular leaders, the lukewarmness of others, and the unworthy conduct of nearl}^ every prominent layman in what was called the Old Ireland ranks, were to be superadded the horrors of famine and the scourge of pes- tilence. In October, O'Connell gave a warn- 162 THE MEN OF '48. iiig note from tlie southwest. ^^ In my own district," he said, ''in the neighborhood of DeiTjnane, up to Saturday last, there was not the least appearance of disease. But thougli that particular locality is free from the calamity, the local information in gen- eral tells us that the disaster is all but universal — that it is now reaching from the potatoes to the turnips." He jolainly fore- saw the impending visitation, and proposed the remedy. "This is no time," he thun- dered, ''to be bungling at trivial remedies. The absentees ought to be taxed. The government should declare that tliey would apply to parliament to tax the property of absentees fifty per cent. I don't shrink from being taxed myself as a resident. I think every resident should be taxed ten per cent, and every absentee fifty per cent. By these means abundant funds would be found to keep the people alive. They should send to the Carolinas for rice — they should send to other parts of America for Indian corn and every other kind of grain, and be able to pay for it out of the public money." THE MEN OF '48. 163 Yet, in the face of this warning, the govern- ment remained indifferent. Father Mathew, whose peregrinations through the south afforded him ample occa- sion to discover tlie extent of the calamity, about tlie same time wrote to Mr. Richard Pennefather, under-secretary in Dublin Castle, detailing the terrible destitution prevailing in Cork and the neighboring counties. He was politely thanked for his information, but no action whatever was taken in the matter. Play fair and Lindsey, an Englishman and a Scotchman who knew nothing at all of Ireland, were appointed commissioners to report on the state of the agricultural dis- tricts ; and thouo^h thev were forced to admit that the exclusive food of four millions of people, and the main sustenance of two or three millions more, was in great part de- stroyed, little notice was taken of the fact. ^' We can come to no other conclusion," they said, " than that one half of the actual potato crop of Ireland is either destroyed, or re- mains in a state unfit for the food of man. 164 THE MEN OF '48. We, moreover, feel it our duty to apprise you that we fear tiiis to be a low estimate." The whole country was now in a state of alarm, all except the representatives of that paternal government which England persists in foisting on Ireland. The cor- poration of the capital sent petitions to the queen, that amiable creature who is repre- sented as amodel of all the virtues, telling her that strong men and feeble women, mothers and their little babes, were dying or about to perish from actual starvation; and entreating her to call an early session of parliament, that some speedy relief might be afforded the sufferers ; but their prayers fell on deaf ears. The representative of royalty in the castle, the hoary schemer, Heytesbury, was waited on by a deputa- tion consisting of the Duke of Leinster, the Lord Mayor, O'Connell, and Lord Clon- curry ; but that cold-blooded wortliy, who had evidently been taking a survey of the field, laying his j)lans for the complete de- struction of the Repeal movement, and who saw in the impending famine a most valuable THE MEN OF '48. 1G5 assistant, received tliem with scant polite- ness, turning them away with false promises of government aid, and vague assurances that there was no real cause of apprehension. Still the absentees continued to draw their rents out of the country at the rate of about forty million dollars per annum ; and prod- uce double that amount in value, which the farmers had raised, but dared not consume, was continually being shipped to England : and still the people went on starving. CHAPTER VIII. Opening of Parliament — Coercion and Free Trade — O'Connell and O'Brien in London — Defeat of the Tories — Ttie Whigs in office — Conciliation Hall defies them— Thomas Francis Meagher — Repeal abandoned — O'Gor- man, Mitchel, and Doheny — O'Connell's strange course — Trial of Charles Gavan Dufiy — Peace resolutions — Secession from the Association. Though famine stalked the land and everywhere the voice of supplication was raised for help, the English ministry were in no particular hurr}^ to summon parlia- ment. Though the corporation of Dublin and of other large cities had earnestly re- quested the queen to convoke as soon as possible the su]3posed national legislature, it was late in the following January when it was called together, and then only to disgust and dishearten, not alone the Re- pealers, but every person who had the least touch of humanity in his composition. The speech from the throne, as far as it related to Ireland, was eminently characteristic of the English law system as applied to Ire- THE MEN OF '48. 167 land ; that is, simply barbarous, cruel, and mendacious. ^'I have observed," said the royal lady, "with deep regret, the very frequent instances in which the crimes of deliberate assassination have been of late committed in Ireland. It will be your duty to consider whether any measure can be devised, calculated to give increased protection to life, and to bring to justice the perpetrators of so dreadful a crime." Now this, in plain language, meant simply the adoption of more oppressive measures for the Irish ; additional facilities for whole- sale evictions ; more policemen, bailiffs, and soldiers to harass and tenify the poor starv- ing peasantry. Accordingly, on the first opportunity, a new Coercion bill was intro- duced. The measures suggested to be taken for the "increased protection of life," referred not to that of the tillers of the soil, but to the landlords and their understrap- pers. Their lives were precious in the eyes of her majesty's ministers, but as for the people, the " common herd," they were not worthv of consideration. Though the 168 THE MEN OF '48. creatures of the government liad already registered several hundred deaths from starvation in the latter part of 1845, and the sapient commissions sent to Ireland by government reported at least half of the food upon which millions of human beings were forced to subsist, absolutely destroyed ; though the country had, in its granaries or on its way to England, more corn and cattle than would feed twice the number of the j)opulation, and the best-infonaied circles were complacently calculating, within a few thousand or so, how many millions of Irish people must necessarily die for want of food in the course of the current year ; the whole matter was looked upon with such preconcerted and cruel indifference that the complaints of the nation were actually treated with quiet, supercilious contempt. It is not food the Irish people want, they said, but powder and ball ; not almoners, but po- licemen. Still, to keep up appearances, they were pleased to make some show of generos- ity. One hundred thousand pounds worth of Indian corn was purchased by the govern- THE MEN OF '48. 1G9 ment, stored in their dock-yards for awliile, and then, when prices rose, offered at the highest market-rates to the starving people who had no money to buy it. Fifty thousand pounds were voted as a loan, to be repaid, by a local cess, to the Commis- sionei's of Public Works, and an equal amount, on similar terms, for the improve- ment of waste lands ; but in order that as little as possible of those funds might be expended for the relief of the sufferers, its distribution was intrusted to the hands of Eno'lish officials whose salanes and contin- gent expenses devoured the greater part. But, beside the Coercion bill, there was another measure introduced, ostensibly for the benefit of Ireland, but actually one of the most deadly blows ever aimed at a nation so circumstanced as she was. This was the repeal of the Corn Laws. The manufactures of England had increased so much during the century, and had absorbed such a preponderance of the labor of the country, that the producers were unable to supply the home demand, and recourse was 170 THE MEN OF '48. obliged to be had to foreign countries to make up the deficiency. On those importa- tions the landholders had succeeded in plac- ing a high protective tariff, which it was now proposed, in the name of Ireland, to remove; and to admit all corn, cattle, etc., into British and Irish ports free of duty. Had Ireland been situated as was England, this would have been a substantial boon, but unfortun- ately she had practically no manufactures, and depended almost exclusively on her agricultural productions. AVliatever, there- fore, would bring her into competition with such vast grain-producing countries as Russia and North America, and cheapen food, though a blessing to the o]Deratives of Manchester and Birmingham, would be a curse to the Irish faiTaers. '^ With respect to the proposal before us," said O'Brien in Conciliation Hall, alluding to the proposed repeal of the duties on corn, '^ I have to re- mark that it professes to abrogate all protec- tion. It is, in my opinion, a proposal mani- festly framed with a view to English rather than Irish interests. About two-thirds of THE MEN OF '48. 171 the population of England (that, I believe, is the proportion) are dependent on manufac- tures and commerce, directly or indirectly. In this country about nine-tenths of the population are dependent on agriculture, directly or indirectly. It is clearly the object of the Eng-lish minister to obtain the asri- cultural produce which the people of this country send to England, at the lowest possible price — that is to say, to give as little as possible of English manufactures and of foreign commodities in return for the agricultural produce of Ireland." O'Connell, O'Brien, and other Irish mem- bers were in London in March, for the pui'- pose of opposing the Coercion bill, and of endeavoring to extort from the ministry some adequate measure of relief for their suffer- ing countrymen. They did not go to beg or solicit charity, but to demand that a por- tion of the public money which Ireland had been, year after year, pouring into the impe- rial treasury, be now used to save the country from wholesale destruction. On this point they were all agreed, and their instructions 172 THE MEN OF '48, were plain and intelligible. O'Connell, in a speech delivered byliimin Conciliation Hall on December 8, 1845, while advocating the restoration of the Irish parliament, had thus foreshadowed the duty of the government : '' If we bad a domestic parliament, would not the ports be thrown open — would not the abundant crops with wdiich heaven has blessed her be kept for the people of Ireland — and would not the Irish parliament be more active than even the Belgian parliament, to provide for the people food and employment I The blessings that would result from Kepeal — the necessity for Repeal — the impossibilit}^ of the country enduring the want of Repeal — the utter hopelessness of any other remedy — all those things powerfully urge you to join with me, and hurrah for Repeal." The committee of the Association, in their address, also laid down the true course of the Irish representatives, by saying : "Your committee beg distinctly to disclaim any par- ticipation in appeals to the bounty of England or Englishmen. They demand, as a right, that a portion of the revenue which Ireland contributes to the state, may be rendered available for the mitigation of a great public calamity." O'Brien had already expressed his views THE MEN OF '48. 173 on the sul3Ject in a speech before the Asso- ciation. ''I congratulate you," he said, •^ that the universal sentiment hitherto ex- hibited upon tliis subject has been that we will accept no English charity. The re- sources of this country are still abundantly adequate to maintain our population, and, until those resources have been utterly ex- hausted, I hope there is no man in Ireland who will so degrade himself as to ask the aid of a subscription." With these sentiments the Repeal mem- bers took their seats m the imiDerial parlia- ment : O'Connell's efforts were mainly di- rected to the defeat of the Coercion bill. In the course of a speech, the last of any importance which he delivered in the House of Commons, he is reported to have said : ^' He did not deny tlie existence of crime in certain parts of Ireland ; but he disputed the efficiency of the ministerial remedy. He called upon the government to look into the real condition of the j)eople of Ireland, and to pass the only coercion act that was required — an act to coerce the landlord who would not do his duty. The government had the power in their hands, and if they would take a manly tone with respect to Ireland, 174 THE MEN OF '43. ttey miglit wave the wand that would turn her misery and poverty into prosperity and happiness. He could trace the outrages which served as a pretext for the pres- ent measure to the nature of the land tenure and the anomalous relations between landlord and tenant. The acts passed since the Union showed the many un- just advantages conferred upon the landlord, and the consequent helplessness of the tenant. These advan- tages had proved the fertile sources of murder — espe- cially that which related to the power to distrain grow- ing crops. There is a season in Ireland — what is called a starvinsf season — for about six weeks before the new harvest j and if the growing crops are distrained, the laborers are deprived of their means of subsistence, they are prevented from digging, and if their wives and chil- dren come out in the evening to take a few potatoes, they are consigned to a jail; the husbands of the prisoners are driven to madness ; and can it be a matter of surprise that this state of things is a fruitful source of crime — of crime which did not exist before the Union, but which is traceable directly to the legislation of this house ? The evils which have been fostered under the existins^ svs- tem are not to be cured by a coercion bill. Similar experiments have been tried several times, and every one of them has failed." He tlien proposed as the proper remedy the modification of the Ejectment act, of the grand-jmy laws, increased representation, tenant right, and the distribution or aboli- THE MEN OF '48. 175 tion of the Church temporalities ; and con- ckided by moving, as an amendment to the ministerial bill, the following: '^ That, instead of an. unconstitutional coercion bill, measures should be adopted by the House to eradicate the causes which produce crime." The amendment, of course, was rejected. O'Brien, ever anxious about his stricken countrymen, lost no time, on his arrival in London, to ask the ministry what steps had been taken to mitigate, even in part, their destitution. Sir James Graham, in answer, stated, that '^ instructions had been given on the responsibility of the Govern- ment, to meet every emergency. It would not be expedient for me to detail those instructions, " he continued ; ^' but I may state, generally, there is no portion of this distress, however wide-spread or lamentable, on w^hich the government have not en- deavored, on their own responsibility, to take the best precautions, and to give the best directions, of which circumstances could admit." O'Brien, who had just left Ireland, 176 THE MEN OF '48. and had during tlie winter ample opportu- nity of learning the wide extent of the destitution which prevailed in the south and west, and of w^itnessing the supine in- difference of the English authorities in his county, was not at all satisfied with the apparent truth or candor of Graham's re- marks. '' He was bound to say," he re- plied, "with regard to the sums of money mentioned by the right honorable baronet as having been on a former occasion voted by the House for the relief of Ireland, that, as far as his (O'Brien's) own information went, not one single guinea had ever been expended from those sources. He was also bound to tell the right honorable baronet that one hundred thousand of his fellow-creatures in Ireland were famishing. Under such cu'cumstances, did it not be- come the House to consider the way in which they could deal with the crisis f He would tell them frankly — and it was a feel- ing participated in by the majority of Irishmen — that he was not disposed to appeal to then* generosity in the matter. THE MEN OF '48. 177 They bad taken, and they had tied, the purse-strings of the Irish purse." O'Brien's words of warning were unheed- ed. No relief other than the paltry sum be- fore mentioned was voted^at this session, the Corn Laws were repealed, but the Coercion bill was defeated by a coalition of Whigs, Repealers, a few radicals, and some disgust- ed protectionists, on the 25th of June ; and on the 6th of July the Whigs, under the leadership of Lord John Russell, went into office. We shall see farther on how un- fortunate for L'eland this change of min- istry proved. The L'ish nationalists, though they re- garded the Tories as bitter, implacable foes, looked upon the Whigs as even more dangerous, from their seeming friendship, but concealed hatred, for everything L'ish. The general opinion that they were about to come into power, and that O'Connell was already in correspondence with them, aroused the indignation of the Young Ire- landers. At the meeting of the Association held on the 15th of June, some leading 178 THE MEN OF '46. speakers auiong that party took strong grounds against an alliance with the Whigs, who, it was anticipated, were soon to succeed the Peel ministry ; and mth whom, it was more than suspected, some of the promi- nent Repealers in London had entered into treaty for the abandonment of the Repeal movement. Amongst the most eloquent and captivating of the young orators on this occasion was one who was destined to occupy a very important place, not only in the history of his own land, but in this re- public — Thomas Francis Meagher. He was then only in his twenty-third year, having been born in the city of Water- ford, August 13th, 1823. All the care that a fond and wealthy parent could bestow on a beloved son was lavished on his educa- tion. At the age of eleven he was placed at Clongowes-Wood College, andsubsecpiently tranferred to Stonyhurst in Lancashire, England, where, under the tutelage of the Jesuit Fathers, he grew to manhood, a ripe scholar, an accomplished gentleman, and a iDatriot whose devotion to L-eland and in- THE MEN OF '48. 179 tense pride in her history, literature, and art, were unsurpassed even by any of the chivah'ous and brilliant spirits of that glo- rious epoch. He was originally intended for the legal profession, but the necessities of the hoar, the earnestness of the struggle for national independence, so absorbed all other considerations, that he threw himself into the contest with all the might of his young, ardent heart, and suddenly became one of the most persuasive and forcible orators in the Repeal ranks. His otherwise unoccu- pied moments were devoted to voluntary contributions to the Nation^ but it was from the rostrum that he could best move the popular heart, and from whence his words of hope, cheer, and stern resolve, flowing brightly and rapidly, produced the deepest impression and awoke most potently the depths of Irish feeling. He had already made some harangues in Conciliation Hall, which had equally sur- prised and delighted his auditors, but on the occasion alluded to he more than sur- passed himself. Speaking of the rumored 180 THE MEN OF '48. compromise with Lord John Russell, he said: " Sir : I state tliis boldly, for tlie suspicion is abroad tliat the national cause will be sacrificed to the Whigs, and that the people, who are now striding on to free- dom, will be purchased back into factious vassalage. The Whigs themselves calculate upon j^our apostasy — the Conservatives predict it. They cannot believe that you are in earnest — at least, it seems difficult to con- vince them of your truth. On the hustings you will dispel their incredulity, read them an honest lesson, and .vindicate your characters. On their return to power? the Whigs shall find that, in their absence, you have become a reformed people — that you have abjured the errors of faction, and have been instructed in the truths of patriotism. They shall find, I trust, that a new era has here commenced — that you have been roused to a sen^e of your inherent power, and, with the conviction that you possess an ability equal to the sustainment of a high position, you have vowed never more to act the Bcpoy for English faction. " Society — the perfumed society of your squares ! — was happy in those days, and loved the amiable Whig government, and would, no doubt, in gratitude for the viceregal balls at which it flounced and whirled, vote for Whig candidates to-morrow. But, sir, the society that is not exempt from the primeval curse— the society tliat wears out strong sinews to earn the privilege of thp: men of '43. 181 bread — the society that knows no day of rest, no day of joy, but God's own holiday — tliat on wliicli lie bids tlie toiler go forth and soothe his sorrows amid the glories of his creation — that day on which many a worn hand may wreathe a garland of flowers, that has been wear- ing a crown of thorns the liv^elong week — the society that decks out fashion, that rears up the mansions of the rich, and by which alone, if there was danger on the coast to-morrow, this land could be furnished with a guard for her defence — this, the elder, the stronger, the nobler society has no such memories, no such incentives to subserviency. Roused from the slumber, into which the insidious eloquence of English liberal- ism has lulled them, the people have started up, and now, for the first time, see before them a country of which they had not dreamt, and a new destiny revealing itself to them, like the sun from behind theu' old hills, and that destiny expanding into glory as it mounts the heaven and settles high above the island ! No, sir, the people of Ireland can never more be duped into sub- serviency by assurances of sympathy and promises of redress. "We have become incredulous of every party in the senate and the state. We distrust, we repudiate, we reprobate them.'' No wonder that such bummg words found a sympathetic echo in the hearts of his hearers, and that cheer after cheer greeted every sentence, till Conciliation Hall rung again with applause. The 182 THE MEN OF '48. }'oang Irisli tribune was followed by Mitch e], O'Gorman, and others, in a like strain of condemnation of Whig treachery and unfaithfulness, to which the audi- ence responded with equal vehemence. They believed that the Whigs were even greater enemies of Ireland than the Tories, and they had not long to wait to find their opinions more than confirmed. The views of the Young Irelanders thus presented in the capital, were immediately spread far and near on the wings of the press, and even before Russell and his party were installed in their offices, the people were apprised of their new danger, and firmly resolved to face it manfully. But, unfortunately, this did not suit O'Connell. He had, during the combined opposition against the Coercion bill, been brought into contact with the Whigs, and, se- duced by their plausible promises, had actually consented to abandon, for the time at least, any active agitation for Eepeal. When the news of the anti-Whig demon- stration in Dublin reached him in London, THE MEN OF '48. 183 lie forthwith addressed a letter to the com- mittee, which was read at the next meetinof of the Association, expressing the '^ bitterest regret at the efforts being made by some of their juvenile members to create dissensions in the Association." This was strang-e Ian- guage for one who, in the heyday of his power, had called the very party whom it was now criminal to denounce, ''base, brutal, and bloody." Let us see what their leader, Russell, himself said in parliament about those "juvenile members" — the best blood in Ireland — on the very day they were ex- posing his mendacity and trickery in Con- ciliation Hall : " There is a numerous body in Ireland," he observed, " numerous even among" her representatives, which says that no legisla- tion of a united parliament can debase fit remedies for Irish grievances, and that it is in a domestic parliament alone that fit and wise legislation can be looked for. There are others, I fear, who, if I read rightly their sentiments as expressed in a news- paper — I will name it — called the Nation, 184 THE MEN OF '48. wliicli lias great circulation in Ireland — who go beyond the question of the legislative union — who would wish, not merely to have such a parliament as that which it was the boast of Grattan to found, and which legislated under the sceptre of the same sovereign as the parliament of Great Britain, but a party which exerts every species of violence, which looks to disturbance as its means, and regards separation from England as its end." O'Connell, with a simplicity that could be accounted for only by declining years and health, actually gave credence to this most absurd and utterly untrue statement ao-ainst the Nation. Some time after, allud- inof- to Russell, he said: " He was not the man to put anything forward to serve a party purpose, and was it not time for him (O'Connell) to take up the subject when he found his lordship saying that the Nation had a tendency to separation? " There was a time, and that not very remote, when the opinion of his lordship, or of all their lord- ships in the British Empire, would not THE MEN OF '48. 185 liuve weighed a feather agamst tlie truth, honesty, and manhness of the men who wrote for that journal, once his best friends and always his warmest admirers. But the Nation, with its school of writers and orators, had too lonof been a thorn in the side of all English parties, and much too thoroughly national in its aims and policy, not to be dreaded by the time-servers and place-hunters who now had O'Connell in their keeping. It was therefore determined to get rid of it at once and forever. An unholy alliance of Whio^s and so-called Re- pealers was formed to crush it, and would undoubtedly have succeeded, had it pos- sessed less courage and vitality. The time for the attack was well chosen, but the success of the assailants was only partially assured. Late in 1845, an article appeared in the Nation, in answer to some statements in the English papers, that the railroad system was now so complete in Ireland that, in case of insurrection, troops could be sent in six hours to any part of the country. To this 18G THE MEX OF '48. it was replied that in one night all those roads could be destroyed, with some allu- sions to Ilofer in the Tyrol, and other fanci- ful suggestions as to amateur warfare. This was considered seditious. Duffy was immediately arrested, indicted, and, on the 17th of June, 1846, tried in the Queen's Bench. Every exertion was made to con- vict him, but the jury disagreed and he was discharged. However, some admissions made durinof the trial, that the tone of the Nation three years previously was such as might have led some persons to look for entire separa- tion from England as the only true remedy for Irish discontent, was made use of by the clique that passed by the name of ^' Old Irelanders ;" and they, resolving to commence where the government had left off, agreed to bring the Nation into disrepute among the people, by misrepresenting its motives and falsifying its statements. That this was but part of a plan re-ar- ranged between O'Connell and Lord Rus- sell, to drive the Young Irelanders out of THE MEN OF '48. 187 tlie Repeal organization, and to paralyze, if not destroy, the Repeal movement, there can be little doubt, the other portion being* the introduction of peace resolutions, which, it was easily anticipated, the ardent and as- j)iring minds of the young patriots could never endure. Looking back at that epoch in the history of Ireland, we are lost in amazement at the utter absurdity of such a proposition as that embodied in the peace resolution ever having been submitted, seri- ously, to men who had even the semblance of manhood or patriotism left. It was admitted, in fact, it was the constant theme of liun- dreds of speeches, books, newspaper articles, letters, and songs, for many years, that the Irish nation was and had been cruelly, bar- barously, inhumanly persecuted by Eng- land, that her conquest was effected by the slaughter of countless hecatombs of her sons ; that her parliament was wrested from her by fraud and violence, and that her peo- ple groaned beneath the weight of an intol- lerable alien satrapy. And yet, in the face of all this, the down-trodden, despised, 188 THE MEN OF '48. and outraged people were asked to pledge themselves, tliat, in case tlieir moderate and just demands were rejected, or answered by more policemen, soldiers, and coercion acts, tliey would not seek to obtain their rights by the strong arm ; that at no time nor under any circumstance were they justi- fied in shedding one drop of blood to secure their inalienable rights and defend tlieir homes and altars. A people who could consent to this, who could so sla\Tishly i^lace their necks under the heel of the despot, would deserve and should receive the contempt and scorn of mankind. What would the fathers of our Revolution, to whose heroism we are all heirs, have said, if such a doctrine had been preached to them before the battle of Bunker Hill or the surrender of Yorktown^ It may be alleged that Ireland was not then in a condition to enforce her claims by the sword, and such, indeed, was the fact. But wherein lay the necessity of proclaiming that she never would resort to aims under any provocation ? For such, in truth, were the THE MEN OF '48. 189 letter and spirit of the resolution introduced in Conciliation Hall on the loth of July, 1846. It was brought forward by O'Con- nell, '^ to draw a line of distinction between Old and Young Ireland," as he himself said, and read as follows : " That, to promote political amelioration, peaceable means alone should be used, to the exclusion of all others^ save those that are peaceful, legal, and constitutional." The original resolution, passed when the Association was founded, only pledged the members while in that capacity to ''the total disclaimer of an absence of all ph3"s- ical force, violence, or breach of the law. " Therefore, the new one, which went beyond all bounds of reason, and implied a whole- sale condemnation of every hero, statesman, and nation, whom the world loves to honor and applaud, met with the most unqualified disapproval of every lover of his country that day present in Conciliation Hall. O'Grorman, Meagher, Barry, and Mitchel, while disclaiming any intention to resort to physical force, or to violate the principles of the Association, refused absolutely to sub- 190 THE MEN OF '48. scribe to the new heresy ; the latter, in par- ticular, delivering a very able speech on the entire subject, in the course of which he said : " This is a legally organized and constitutional society^ seeking to attain its objects, as all the world knows, by peaceable means and no other. Constitutional agita- tion is the very basis of it ; and nobody who contem- plates any other mode of bringing about the indepen- dence of the country, has any right to come here or consider himself a fit member of our society. I believe, sir, the national legislative independence of Ireland can be won by these peaceful means, if boldly, honestly, and steadily carried out ; and with these convictions I should certainly feel it my duty, if I knew any mem- ber who, either in this hall or out of it, either by speak- ing or writing, should attempt to incite the people to arms or violence as a method of obtaininoj- theh liberty while this Association lasts, to report that member to the committee and move his expulsion. It is impossible to insist on this too strongly ; and perhaps it is the more necessary at this time to explain the fundamental rules of the Association clearly, as the prime minister of England is reported to have stated in the House of Commons that there exists a party in this country who are looking not merely for national independence, but abso- lute separation, and who contemplate the employment, not of legal agitation, but of outrage and bloodshed to bring about that result. To refute the calumnies of the THE MEN OF '48. 191 Erglisli prime minister, and of all our otLer enemies, it is well to lay before the piiblic once more the real state of the matter — once more to disavow solemnly all inten- tion of exciting onr coimtrymen to insurrection — once more to declare our conviction that all the political and national rights we seek for can be obtained without shed- ding a drop of blood, and that we mean so to obtain them. In so far, then, as these resolutions purport to embody the rules and constitution of this body, and iaso far as they disclaim on the part of the society all inten- tion of resortins^ to force of arms, I cordiallv concur in them. And as for the abstract and universal principle which seems to be contained in them — the principle that no national or political rights ought at any time, or under any circumstances, or by any people, to be sought for with an armed hand — even upon any abstract princi- ple, widely as I dissent from it, I do not hold it neces- sary to raise any question here. ... I content myself with saying I do not approve of the principle. I do not abhor, for instance, the Volunteers of 1782, who took up arms to procure a political amelioration, and would have deemed it cheaply purchased by a river of blood. 'Free trade or else 'was the lesrend on their cannon, and indicates that they reckoned even commer- cial reform worth powder and shot. And, sir, I hope that even in these piping times no man will tell us that the Volunteers of '82 were criminals and miscreants. America sought a political amelioration, and won it by somewhat similar means. . . . That was a noble deed, sir ; and instead of abhorring those Americans, I 192 THE MEN OF '48. envy them. Even if we in tliis hall passed a unanimous vote of abhon'ence against George Washington, I ap- prehend that all mankind, while the world stands, will proclaim him a hero and a patriot. My father, sir, was a United Irishman. The men of '98 thought liberty worth some blood-letting ; and although they failed, it were hard that one of their sons should be thought unworthy to unite in a peaceful struggle for the inde- pendence of his country, unless he will proclaim that he abhors the memory of his father." Such were, in general, the sentiments of those opposed to the resohition ; but having been introduced by O'Connell, and sup- ported by a faction whose attachment to the Whigs arose out of that species of gratitude which has been defined as ^' a lively sense of favors yet to come," it was passed by a large majority. The Natioriy also, was dissevered from the Association about the same time, and the subscriptions sent to it, through the committee, were either re- turned or transferred to other and more plia- ble publications. Had that newspaper con- sorted to forget its grand record and to sustain the peace resolutions, it would have received all the moral and pecuniaiy assist- THE MEN OF '48. IMo ance from O'Connell and liis followers it might reqiiii'e upon its new departure. In fact, a proposition to that effect was person- ally made to Duffy by O'Connell, which, of course, was firmly and indignantly rejected. It gallantly stood its ground, and, if possi- ble, became more vehement than ever in asserting the rights of the Irish people, though in a few weeks its circulation was curtailed by many thousand copies. O'Con- nell then returned to London, having, as he supposed, thoroughly crushed the Young Irelanders and their organ; and the alliance with the Whigs was considered consummated. But he was mistaken ; for on the following Monday the Young Irelanders, who he considered had been expelled, reappeared on the platform of the hall, and took part as usual in the proceedings. O'Connell there- fore instructed his eldest son John to re- open the debate on the peace resolutions, and, if possible, to force a rupture : the Whigs, his new adherents, would be satisfied with no less a concession. That nothing might be neo-lected that could add solemnitv to 194 THE MEN OF '48. the fatal quarrel, the Lord Mayor of Dublin was called upon to preside, and John O'Connell moved the resolutions in a speech of several hours' duration. Mitchel replied with even more ability and closeness of argument than on the former occasion, and Meagher delivered his famous speech on "The SAVord," which is now, and long will be, we hope, a favorite piece of declamation with the rising generation. He was inter- rupted by John O'Connell, who impertinent- ly remarked that " it was the strongest con- viction of his soul that it would not be safe for the Association to allow Mr. Meagher to proceed. He had no puzzle whatever in say- ing that the language of Mr. Meagher was not language that could safely be listened to by the Association — that the sentiments were sentiments directly and diametrically opposed to the sentiments of that Associa- tion — and that, therefore, the Association must cease to exist, or Mr. Meagher cease to be a member of it." In answer to this uncalled for decision, O'Brien, with his characteristic dignity and forbearance, said : THE MEN OF '48. 195 " He could not allow tlie meeting to come to such a conclusion without expressing his opinion that the course of ai'gument adopted by Mr. Meagher was per- fectly fair and legitimate. He understood they were invited to come there that day for the purpose of con- sidering deliberately whether any gentleman could con- tinue to be a member of the Association, who enter- tained the opinion, conscientiously, that there were oc- casions which justified a nation in resorting to the sword for the vindication of its liberties. Mr. Meagher had distinctly stated that he had joined the Association for the purpose of obtaining Repeal by peaceful and moral means alone. But he does not consider, nor did he (Mr. O'Brien) consider that, when they were invited to a dis- cussion of that description, they were precluded from asserting the opinion, w^hich, after all, was involved in the discussion, and fi^om submitting such reasons, as they felt themselves at liberty to submit to their fellow- countrymen, in vindication of the opinions which had been arraigned. " But Jolm O'Connell had resolved to reap the crop of dissension which he and others had so laboriously sown, and, still insisting that Meagher's words were illegal and dan- gerous, declared that either he or that gentle- man should leave the hall. The audience were divided ; the younger and more en- thusiastic were with O'Brien and Meagher, 19G THE MEN OF '48. tlie older, more timid, or more venal, with the moral-force advocates. The result was that the '' Seceders," as they were styled, with a large portion of the meeting, left Conciliation Hall never to return, and the once great Repeal movement received a blow from w^hich it never recovered. CHAPTER IX. O'Brien'3 account of the secession — Attempts at a rec- onciliation — The Old Irehinders in favor of place-taking — The Dublin remonstrants — Thomas D'Arcy McGee — Position of the Nation— Y^^hig treachery — O'Connell in parliament -Progress of the famine. O'Brien, who had not taken any promi- nent part in the previous discussion of the loth of July on the Whig alliance, the Nation^ or the peace resolutions, was yet considered as in some manner the leader of the secessionists, principally from his high social standing, mature years, large experi- ence of public affairs, and natural gravity of character. In a letter addressed by him to the Rev. Dr. Miley, December, 1846, he thus recounts, in a calm, dispassionate manner, the causes of the division in the Association, so disastrous to Irish hopes and aspira- tions : "Negotiations were opened between Mr. O'Connell and the Whigs at Cbesham Place. ^ Young Ireland ' protested, in the strongest terms, against an alliance with the Whigs. Mr. O'Connell took offence at the 198 THE MEN OF '48. languao'e used by Mr. Meaglier and otliers. When I arrived in Dublin, after the resignation of Sir Robert Peel, I learned tha the contemplated a rupture with the writers of the Nation. Before I went to the county of Clare, I communicated, through Mr. Ray, a special message to Mr. O'Connell, who was then absent from Dublin, to the effect that, though I was most anx- ious to preserve a neutral position, I could not silently acquiesce in any attempt to expel the Nation or its party from the Association. Next came the Dungarvan election, and the new ' moral force ' resolutions. I felt it my duty to protest against both at the Kilrush dinner. Upon my returning to Dublin I found a public letter from Mr. O'Connell, formally denouncing the Nation, and no alternative was left me but to declare that, if that letter were acted upon, I could not cooperate any longer with the Repeal Association. The celebrated two-day debate then took place. Mr. J. O'Connell opened an attack upon the Nation and upon its adhe- rents. Mr. Mitchel and Mr. Meagher defended them- selves in language which, it seemed to me, did not transo-ress the bounds of decorum or of leg-sd safetv. Mr. John O'Connell interrupted Mr. Meagher in his speech, and declared that he could not allow him to proceed with the line of argument necessary to sustain the prin- ciples which had been arraigned. I protested £igainst this interruption. Mr. J. O'Connell then gave me to understand that, unless Mr. Meagher desisted, he must leave the hall. I could not acquiesce in this attempt to stifle a fair discussion, and sooner than witness the THE MEN OF '48. 199 departure of Mr. J. O'Connell from an association found- ed by his father, I preferred to leave the assembly. " Soon after this occurrence I intimated to Mr. O'Con- nell, by a private message, conveyed through his son, my readiness to assist in bringing about an accommoda- tion, in case he felt disposed to change his conduct with respect to the Young Ireland party. He preferred to proceed in a career, of which we have since w^itnessed the full development. He induced the committee to stop the circulation of the Nation. Having failed to ruin the property of Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy (whom I believe to be not only one of the ablest men in this kingdom, but also one of the most virtuous), lie next aiTaigned him as guilty of high-treason by a formal indictment, which was sustained bv neither leg-al nor con- stitutional argument, but was marked by all the per- verted ingenuity of a crafty attorney -general. He has since endeavored by most ungenerous means to fix upon Mr. Duffy, and upon his friends, the charge of infidelity in regard to religious belief." Such was the forbearance exercised by O'Brien and his associates upon being actu- ally expelled from an association they had helped so much to extend and foster, by their example and unceasing teachings. The country was at first shocked and then stupefied by the loss of so many able and uncompromising advocates. At the begin- 200 THE MEN OF '48. ning, it was hoped that the breach might be closed, and an unsuccessful attempt was even made by a few distinguished clerics and lay gentlemen to heal the wound which the national cause had received, but in vain ; the faction who held possession of the hall, its records, and funds, were resolved that they should rule or ruin. Week after week, and day after day, the foulest epithets were applied, from the platform, and through the Whig- Repeal newspapers, to the se- ceders. They were called blasphemous, infidel, and revolutionary, and the very worst passions of the low Dublin mob were continually excited against them individ- ually and collectively. Even O'Connell so far forgot his ancient dignity and love of fair play as to attempt to hold them up to ridicule. He did more ; he sought to undermine the independence and vitiate the opinions of those of any note who continued to take part in the proceedings of the Asso- ciation, by placing before their eyes, as a reward for their ser\dlity and debasement, the hope of government patronage. " There THE MEN OF '48. 201 were," he said, at tlie meeting subsequent to the secession, " a great many young men of talent — Repealers in principle — who were afraid to join the Association lest they should thereby deprive them- selves of the chance of obtaining the honors and dignities of their professions. I am happy to be able to say that I have reason to know it is the opinion of Lord Besbor- ough (Whig Lord Lieutenant), that the fact of a man's being a Repealer is no reason at all for excluding him from office." And to make the information more explicit and pointed, he added : " Young Ireland stands up and opposes those who take office under the government, by calling them ^apos- tates.' " Pending negotiations between the Young and Old Ireland parties, which were initiated and conducted mainly by the Rev. Dr. Miley, a learned priest, and an Irishman of sincere but moderate views, but which proved to be an utter failure, a number of citizens of Dublin, old members of the Re- peal organization, associated themselves to- 202 THE MEN OF '48. getlier under tlie title of Eemoiistrants, for tlie purpose of assisting the self-imposed task of Dr. Miley, as well as to sliow the malcontents of Conciliation Hall that the mass of the intelligent men of the capital had no sympathy with the arbitrary course pursued by John O'Connell and his sup- porters. They were composed principally of shopkeepers and young mechanics — the most respectable of their class in the city — and were headed by Martin Crean, Joseph Hollywood, Halpin, Barry, and others. Af- ter a few weeks spent in quietly canvassing the opinions of their fellow-workmen, they drew up a respectful remonstrance against the unwarrantable action of the Old Ireland faction and the expulsion of O'Brien and his friends, and having presented it in form on the 24th of October, it was ordered by John O'Connell not only to be rejected, but to be cast literally into the gutter. The two thousand men who had signed the document felt indignant at this treatment, as did, indeed, the genei^al public, so they resolved to hold a public meeting in the THE MEN OF -48. '203 Eotuiido to express their indignation at the insult. The meeting took place on the 3d of November, and was very largely attended. Some signs of opposition were shown by the mob, composed chiefly of coal-porters, and attempts were made to force in the doors and break up the assembly by sheer vio- lence, but the tradesmen inside quickly dispersed then- "moral force" assailants. The principal speaker on that occasion was a young man whose name had been hitherto unknown in Irish politics, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, but who, though only in Ids twenty-second year, had acquired con- siderable reputation as a writer and orator at this side of the Atlantic. Mr. McGee was a native of Carlingford, in the county of Louth, where he was born on the 13th of April, 1825, though most of his boyhood was spent in Wexford amid those historic scenes of that county which have long been celebrated in Irish history. When seven- teen years old he emigrated to the United States, and, settling in Boston, became con- THE MEN OF '48. itected with the Filot^ first, in a subordinate capacity, and, next, as editor. In this latter capacity he had many occasions for study- ing from a distance and with perfect imparti- ality the workings of the Repeal Association, pmd the drift of the younger and more reso- lute elements in the organization. The Pilot^ then the only Irish Catholic journal of any note published in the eastern portion of the United States, was, as it still is, one of the most popular and widely circulated of the weekly press ; and being frequently quoted abroad on Irish-American subjects, its arti- cles generally attracted much attention in Ireland. After the imprisonment and liber- ation of O'Connell, its editor, Mr. McGee, was invited by Doctor, now Sir John Gray, of the Daily Freeman^ s Journal j to take a posi- tion on his editorial staff. In 1845, Mr. McGee, being naturally anxious to return home, accepted the invitation, and for nearly a year acted as special London correspond- ent of the Freeman. While in the English capital the news reached him of the dis- ruption in Conciliation Hall; and as the THE MEN OF '48. 205 Freeman appeared to take sides with the Old Irelanders, lie cancelled his engagement, and, returning to Dublin, became one of the editors of the Nation. The tlii'ee years he had spent in this country, his indefatigable labors in every part of New England to establish auxiliary Repeal Societies, and his practical acquaint- ance wdth the workings of our republican system, as well as his subsequent knowl- edge of parliamentary affairs acquired as London correspondent, fitted him admira- bly for the position of spokesman of the Re- monstrants ; and as he had taken no part whatever in the previous discussions in the Associations, his mind could not be sup- posed to be warped by any of the personal feeling or local jealousy so apparent in the sti'uggles of the rival Repeal parties. The meeting was a success; and the citizens, re- covered from the onslauo-ht made on their rights in the talismanic name of their great chief, began to breathe more freely. The awe, the spell, that still hung round the very name of O'Connell, was dissipated, 20G THE MEN OF '48. and it was then and there determmed that if the Old Irelanders would not abandon their absurd Quaker doctrines, and more criminal subserviency to the Whigs, a new national organization should be founded to continue the agitation, on the original basis of no compromise with the enemies of the country till the demands of the people for a domestic legislature were conceded. To carry out this design, all hope of a reconciliation having failed, a second meet- ing w^as held on the 2d of December. The Round Room of the Rotundo was at an early hour filled with men and women of the very best classes in society — solid traders, skilled mechanics, enthusiastic students, and professional men of all ages and degrees. The leading seceders were escorted to the hall by platoons of working men, for so rife was the spirit of violence among the mob, instigated thereto by the advocates of moral suasion, that it was feared, and not without reason, that freedom of speech was not only not to be tolerated in Conciliation Hall, but in every part of the metropolis where the THE ME^ OF '48. 207 rowdies of Burgh Quay held sway. All the leaders of the Young Ireland party then in the city attended, and most of them, as well as the representative of the Remonstrants, addressed the assemblage, and amid the w^armest greetings vindicated their past course in calm, firm, and well chosen terms. The previous suggestion for the establish- ment of a permanent organization was also presented to this meeting, and, on being favorably received, a day was set apart for the formation of a new Eepeal Society. From the expulsion of the Young Ire- landers from the Repeal Association, and the vhtual condemnation of their organ, the Nation^ by O'Connell and those who agreed with him, the course of that remarkable newspaper was singularly dignified, candid, and manly. It was even conciliatory, as far as was consistent with the advocacy of its principles, towards its most virulent enemies. It met slanders and falsehoods of the deepest dye with short notice or con- temptuous silence ; but when anything like argument was adduced against it, it replied 208 THE MFN OF '48. in the best of temper, and witli a force of logic so overwhelming", that it seldom be- came necessary to refer a second time to any one charge advanced against it The hostility of O'Connell and the calumnies of the place-hunters had succeeded in re- ducing its subscription list, j^erhaps a hun- dred per cent at first, but this loss was partly made good by the patronage of a middle class of Irishmen, who, while they loved their country and desired legislative independence for her, could never brook the absolutism and assumption which cliar- acterized a few of the leaders of the Associ- ation. Charles Gavan Duffy, who was from its commencement the editor-in-chief, was nov/ also the principal proprietor of the paper ; John Mitchel, one of its most forcible and trenchant writers, ranked next in point of seniority, and then followed Thomas Devon Eeilly and Thomas D'Arc}^ McGee, each in his way gifted with peculiar and remarkable talents as a journalist. Of these four, Reiily is the least known ; partly from the collapse THE MEN OF '48. 209 of tlie YoiiRf^ Ireland movement, but mainly from his untimely death, which took place in this country several years ago, before he had reached the vears of mid-life. He was, nevertheless, an accomplished and facile writer, more solid than brilliant, and less likely to be carried away by poetic imag- inings and mere word-painting than many of his contemporaries. He had been a neigh- bor of Duffy's in his boyhood, and in his maturity he enjoyed for a long time the confidence and esteem of that patient cul- tivator of young genius, and profound mas- ter of the pen. The, contributors to the columns of the Nation at that period were legion, and in- cluded such names as those of Miss Elgee (^' Speranza"), now Lad}^ Wilde; '^ Eva," Mrs. Dr. Callan ; R D. Wilhams (''Sham- rock") ; Denis Florence McCarthy ('' Des- mond") ; James Clarence Mangan ('' TeiTe Filius" and '' J. C. M.") ; Daids Q' The Belfast Man") ; J. de J. Frazer, Meagher, O'Gor- man. Dr. Kane of Kilkenny, Rev. C. P. Meehan, J. B. Dillon, McDermott, Samuel 210 THE MEN OF '48. Ferguson, Pigot, and a host of others, who, in poetry or prose, all aimed at the same object — the elevation of the Irisli race from the slough of mental as well as physical bondage, and the regeneration of their coun- try, by teaching its sons how to win and deserve freedom. '' To create and to foster a public opinion in Ireland, and to make it racy of the soil," was the motto chosen for the first number of the paper, and never did one publication in the English, or any other language, gather around it, to execute its designs, so much rare ability, genuine merit, and lofty national spirit. Easily flinging from its skirts, as unworthy of serious no- tice, the filth that was thrown at it by the Castle hirelings in and out of Conciliation Hall, it continued each successive week to pour its broadsides into that corrupt amal- gamation of cheats and frauds called the Lib- eral party, wdiile its appeals to the national- ists, its reports and reviews on Irish indiis- try and Hterature, its sweet songs and his- torical ballads, found their way into every Irish household, and rekindled the smoulder- THE MEN OF '48. 211 ing fires of patriotism wliicli liad wellnigh been extinguislied by the cowardice and subserviency of the underlings of the Asso- ciation. But there was an enemy in Ireland, and that, too, under the special patronage of the British government, against which tlie Nation and its brilliant phalanx were power- less, — the Famine. Like a terrible pall, it spread over the entire face of the land, carrying destruction, disease, and death to hundreds of thousands of households. The very atmosphere seemed poisoned witli its breath ; and the healthful saline breezes that blow in on its shores from the west, appeared to be overladen with pestilence the moment they touched the mountains or descended into the valleys. In the midst of plenty, for the grain crop and the dairy produce were never more prosperous than in the autumn of 1846, the people were dying by scores, by hundreds, and by thou- sands, on their cold hearths, in the bleak fields, and by the roadside. But it may be said. What did the liberal 212 THP] MEN OF MS. Whigs do to alleviate this fearful calamity, to stay this tide of woe and national disaster! They had promised justice to Ireland ; and O'Connell, in order to give them an- other trial, had virtually abandoned his agi- tation, and had driven from the Repeal ranks all who were manly and uncompromising among his supporters. Did they keep their covenant and arrest the progress of the fam- ine 1 On the contrary, they encouraged it, helped it along, in fact,- and, with an inge- nuity truly diabolical, used the very means provided for the relief of the Irish, for the purpose of extirpation or total destruction. Before the crimes of that sleek, smooth- spoken, treacherous English party, the atrocities of the Red Earl, Sydney, Mont- joy, and Cromwell, pale their ineffectual fires, and become in Irish history mere trifles either in deliberation of purpose or worse than savageness of execution. The last appearance of O'Connell in Par- liament was in January, 1847. Broken down in health, sickened and disappointed at the awful state of his country, he rosetotteringly THE MEN OF '48. ') 1 - 1 <> in his seat, and with feeble, but still patlietic accents implored the imperial legislature to interpose and stay the tide of Irish famine ; but in vain. His power was gone, his strength was sped. His locks had been shorn by the \Yhig Delilah, and he had become a subject of brutal mirth to the modern Pliilistines. The party for whose friendship he had bartered the love and confidence of so many of his gifted country- men, and for whom he had turned his back on tlie glorious history of the past, treated his appeals and demands with equal scorn — till, thoroughly overcome by their base treachery; he vanished from the House of Commons, so long the scene of his conten- tious victories, and returned no more. To keep up the illusion of charitableness, however, the party in authority voted fifty thousand pounds to be expended in the most plague-stricken districts, and passed what was called a Labor-Rate act. By this cunning de- vice money was to be raised by the imposition of a new and additional tax on each Poor Law disti'ict ; but, instead of being expended 214 THE MEN OF '48. by tlie local authorities, it was to be con- trolled by tlie government, which means by its officials, most of whom were sent over from England, totally ignorant of the wants of the people, and whose salaries ate up more than half of what was levied on the countr}^. No better plan could have been adopted to increase pauperism and to utterly ruin the small farmers, who, unable to pay the ex- cessive tax, were obliged to abandon their little forms, seek refuge in emigration, or descend to the rank of beggars, and thus increase the mass of destitution and disease that prevailed throughout. ^'It is enough to say," says Mr. Mitch el, ''that in this year, 1846, not less than three hundred thousand 23erislied, either of mere hunger, or of typhus fever caused by hunger." No powers of description, no imagination, no matter how inventive, no words, nor com- bination of words, can adequately convey the faintest impression of the unheard-of suffering endured by the Irish people at that time. The most callous mind, the greatest stoic, cannot but turn away from THE MEN OF '48. 215 the mere mention of the loatlisoine effect produced by famine and fever combined. Here is an account of Skibbereen, wliicli might with equal truth have been apphed to many other locaKties, taken from a letter addressed to the Duke of Wellino-ton by N. M. Cummins, Justice of the Peace, in December, 1846. " I accordingly went, on tbe }5ih, to Skibbereen, and to give tlie instance of one townland wliicli I visited, as an example of the state of tbe entire coast district, I shall state simply what I there saw. It is situated on the eastern side of Castlehaven Harbor, and is named , South Keen, in the parish of Mycross. Being aware that I should have to witness scenes of fn'o^htful hunger, I provided myself with as much bread as five men could cany, and on reaching the spot I was surprised to find the wretched hamlets apparently deserted. I entered some of the hovels to ascertain the cause, and the scenes that presented themselves were such as no tongue or pen can convey the slightest idea of. In the first, six famished and ghcstly skeletons, to all appearance dead, were huddled on some filthy straw, their sole coveiing what seemed a ragged horse-cloth, their wretched legs hanging about, naked above the knees. I approached in horror, and found, by a low moaning, that they were alive — they were in fever: four children, a woman, and what had once been a man. It is im- 216 THE MEN OF '48. possible to go tlirough the detail ; suffice it to say that, in a few minutes, I was surrounded by at least two hun- dred of such phantoms, such frightful spectres as no words can describe. By far the greater number were de- lirious, either from famine or from fever. Their demo- niac yells are still ringing in my ears, and their horrible images are fixed upon my brain. My heart sickens at the recital, but I must go on. '^ In another case decency would forbid what follows, but it must be told. My clothes were nearly torn ofiF in my endeavor to escape from the throng of pestilence around, when my neck-cloth was seized from behind by a grip that compelled me to turn. I found myself grasped by a woman, with an infant, apparently just born, in her arms, and the remains of a filthy sack across her loins — the sole covering of herself and babe. The same morning the police opened a house on the adjoining lands, which was observed shut for many days, and two frozen corpses were found, lying upon the mud. floor, half devoured by the rats. "A mother, herself in fever, was seen the same day to drag out the corpse of her child, a girl about twelve, perfectly naked, and leave it half-covered with stones. In another house within five hundred yards of the cav- alry station at Skibbereen, the dispensary doctor found seven wretches lying, unable to move, under the same cloak. One had been dead many hom's, but the others were unable to remove either themselves or the corpse.'^ Such is the horrible picture as sketched THE MEN OF '48. 217 by no less a personage than a liigli local official of tlie government — the paternal gov- ernment of England — whose sympathies for Ireland were so much vannted by the rec- reants of Conciliation Hall, and for con- demning whom, the "juvenile members" were accused of endeavoring to sow dissen- sion and of provoking disunion. CHAPTER X. Attemj^ts at reunion — John B. Dillon — The Irish Con- federation — Its organization and aims — The Galway elec- tion — More overtures for union — Charles Gavan Duffy — — Rev, C. P. Meehan. The latter half of the year 1846 was spent by the expelled members of the Re- peal Association in various ways which they individually considered the mdst likely to keep alive the spirit of Irish patriotism, and to save it fi-om sinking beneath the triple weight of Whig misgovernment : Repeal, sycophancy, and the famine. Still, the hope of a reorganization of the Association was not altogether abandoned. O'Brien published several letters on the subject, ex- hibiting great good sense and moderation, and, pending the result of Dr. Miley's nego- tiation, he recommended the formation of a literary society for the promulgation of thoroughly national opinions and general intelligence on Irish subjects, each member to take up a special topic for his task. THE MEN OF '48. 219 Consistently with liis own suggestion, lie 111 111 self took up tliat of Land Tenure, and treated it in a very masterly manner. John B. Dillon, one of the original founders of the Nation^ but at that time a practising barrister of high repute, also published a letter in the metropolitan press, advocating a reunion of the dissevered elements. Amono" other reasons adduced by him why this should be effected at once, were the following : ^' The position in wliicli tlie country is now placed presents to the Repeal leaders a noble opportunity of pushing forward the Repeal cause, by giving practical demonstration of the utility of home legislation. The whole people of Ireland are at length united in one sentiment — dissatisfaction with things as they are, and a desire for change. Tlie landlords, in terror for their estates, are compelled, in self-defence, to consider the condition and necessities of the country, and are pre- pared to enter on any safe and honorable coui'se that leads out of the difficulties which surround them. If the committee of the Association could noiv stand before the country as the instructors of tlie English government — if it possessed wisdom to originate useful measures, and influence to compel their adoption, the advantages of self-government would be made plain to all, and de- 220 I^HE MEN OF '48. ceiicy itself would compel our EnglisK rulers to al)andou duties wliich tliey discharged under the guidance of others. This, my dear sir, I take to be the rationale of ^ moral force.' To seek for change by moral force is not to sljout for it, but to demonstrate its utility. And the only way to demonstrate the utility of Repeal is, by show- ino^ that we can do our own business better than others can do it for us." But the Old Irelanders were beyond con- viction or the reach of appeals ; and to the fair and candid approaches of the national- ists they returned nothing but personal and vulgar abuse, mixed with a sort of sancti- monious cant in which John O'Connell, and such thoroughly debased men as Robert Dillon Brown, Sommers, Reynolds, Costel- loe, and others, of neither private nor public character, who now occupied each week the platform of Conciliation Hall, were ex- perts. The inhuman policy of the Whigs, the groans of millions of their starving countrymen could not move tliem from their schemes of ruin, nor stay their thirst for office. They went headlong to their own, and, unfortunately, to the nation's, destruction. THE MEN OF '48. 221 No other course being left, the seceders resolved to form a new organization and endeavor to revise the sinking cause of na- tional independence. The loth of January, 1847, was the day chosen for the first meet- ing ; and on that occasion the large room of the Rotundo was crowded to its ultimate capacity by gentlemen and ladies, the in- telligent mechanics of the city, and profes- sional men from all parts of the country. About a hundred of the principal movers in the matter occupied the platform, amongst whom were O'Brien, O'Gorman, Sr., O'Gorman, Jr., Captain Bryan, Major Talbot, Lawlor, Duffy, Martin, McGee, Mitchel, G'Hagan, Meagher, Reilly, Taaffe, Dillon, Haughton, Barry, McCarthy, McManus, O'Callaghan, Doheny, Crean, etc. John Shea Lawlor occupied the chair ; Duffy and Dillon acting as secretaries. O'Brien was the first and principal speak- er. He dwelt at considerable length and with great emphasis on all the circumstances which had preceded, accompanied, and fol- lowed the retirement of himself and friends 222 THE MEN OF '48. from Conciliation Hall. Passing to tlie ob- jects to be attained by the new organization about to be formed, he said : — " Our object will be to combine every section and class of the Irish people in one united eflbrt to obtain the legislative independence of Ireland. From the hour I joined the Repeal Association to the present moment, I have been of the opinion, and, whenever I have had the opportunity, I have delivered that opinion, that the repeal of the Uniop could not be carried until there be a much greater union among classes and creeds than there is at present. Repeal cannot be earned by the democ- racy alone, nor by the aristocracy alone ; but it can be car- ried by the combination of the nobles, gentry, and people of Ireland, and carried without one moment's struggle. Well, then, gentlemen, remember it will be your solemn, your important duty, to prove in every way in your pow- er that your fellow-countrymen may depend on your moderation, on your sense of justice, on your toleration of adverse opinion, whether in politics or religion, that there is no man among you who does not desire to sus- tain the rights of property, which can be of no value if not equally valuable to you as to the highest and wealth- iest member of society. Deprive men of the argument which is now used, that your object is to establish Catholic ascendency. Believe me, the proceedings of the last three months have done much to shake that argument. Is there one single advantage that Catholics could obtain from Repeal, that Prote stants should not THE MEN OF M8. 223 share! For my part, I am not able to discover sucli an advantage,' and I liere declare, what 1 have declared before at the hustings, in Limerick and elsewhere, that if there Avere to bean attempt made to establish Catho- lic ascendency, no man would more vehemently oppose tbe attempt than I. But, gentlemen, those apprehen- sions appear to me, and ever did, to be entirely vision- ary. Still they have existed, and a remnant of them still exists. Be it your most earnest endeavor, each iu his individual sphere, to remove those apprehensions." The speaker concluded his lengthy and lucid addi'ess by moving the following esolutions, which, having been seconded hy Michael Joseph Barry of Cork, in a very able speech, were passed by acclama- tion : — '' That Domestic Legislation is now, as it has been for forty-six years, the great and urgent want, as well as the inalienable right, of the Irish Nation ; and that the helpless and. dependent condition of Ireland, under the calamity of tins present season, has made that ne- cessity more apparent and more imperative. "■ That circumstances having rendered it impossible for us to cooperate, as members, with the existing Associa- tion, which was instituted to seek this great national ob- ject, it becomes our duty to make ourselves a separate sphere of activity, in which we may humbly strive for our country's independence in the way that seems to us 224 THE MEN OF '48. best suited to attain it. But we desire to Lave it clearly understood that, in taking this step, we disclaim all an- tagonism to the Association already in existence, to which we wish success in every honest effort it may make in furtherance of Repeal. '' That a society be now formed under the title of ^ The Irish Confederation,' for the purpose of protecting our national interests and obtaining the Legislative Inde- pendence of Ireland, by the force of opinion, by the combination of all classes of Irishmen, and by the exer- cise of all the political, social, and moral influence within our reach." Dolieny, Meagher, and several other gen- tlemen spoke on this occasion; and in allusion to the resolution, ^' that the basis and essence of ' the Irish Confederation' shall be absolute independence of all English parties ; and that any member of the Council, accepting or soliciting for himself or others an office oi emolument under any government not pledged to effect the Eepeal of the Union, shall thereupon be removed from the Council," — Meagher said : — '' It gives me sincere delight to move this resolution. I know you will adopt it — I am confident you will act up to it boldly. Public men have said that the cause of THE MEN OF '48. 225 Repeal is strengthened by Repealers taking places. I maintain that it is weakened. The system decimates the ranks. In 1843, where were the Repealers who as- sumed the official garb — after the movement of 1834? " Repealers occupying office may not abandon their opinions, but they withdraw their services. It is impos- sible to serve two masters. You cannot serve the min- ister who is pledged to maintain the Union, and serve the people who are pledged to repeal it. Will the report on the financial grievances, infficted by the Union, ac- company a treasury minute from London ? Will you get a farthing a week, a penny a month, or a shilling a year from the Mint ? Will a Repeal pamphlet issue from the Board of Public Works! The Trojans fought the Grreeks through the streets of Troy, in Grecian armor. Will the Repealers fight the Whigs upon the hustings, with Whig favors in their pockets? Recollect, the Union was carried by Irishmen receiving English gold. Depend upon it, the same system will not accelerate its repeal. Sir, we must have an end of place-begging. The task we have assumed is a serious one. To accom- plish it well, our energies must have full play. The trappings of the Treasury will restrict them more than the shackles of the prison. State liveries usually en- cumber men, and detain them at the Castle gates. Not a doubt of it, we shall work the freer when we wear no royal harness." It was under these auspices, and with such solemn pledges, that the Irish Confederation 226 THE MEN OF '48. was formed, and new hope gleamed athwart the face of the famine-stricken land even in her gloomiest horn*. The well-known ability and thorough honesty of the leaders were acknowledged by all, even by those who most widely differed from them, whether Old Irelanders or Orangemen; while the openness of their statement of principles, and their eloquent and powerful advocacy of Irish rights, enlisted the attention and excited the sympathies of the thinking class- es of all denominations and political opin- ions. A Council was created to administer the affairs of the new 'party, and sub-com- mittees appointed on Finance, Famine, Public Instruction, Trade, Parliamentary Matters, Elections, etc. ; upon which promi- nent places were held by such men as O'Brien, Duffy, Dillon, Bryan, Martin, Mitchel, McGree, McCarthy, Richard O'Gor- man, Sr., Richard O'Gorman, Jr., Pigott, Barry, Lawlor, Crean, Reilly, McManus, Doheny, Dr. Cane, Lane, Comyn, Houghton, etc., with appropriate secretaries. The per- manent meeting-rooms of the Council were THE MEN OF '48. 227 at No. 9, D'Olier St., Dublin, andtlie Music Hall, one of tlie most spacious buildings in the city, was usually selected for the semi- monthly public meetings. No sooner had the proceedings of the meeting in the Ro tun- do been made public, than a large number of persons, including men of all ranks in life, signified their desire to become members of the Confederation ; and subscriptions poured in from all quarters, though no pecuniary qualification was fixed for membership. The first attempt of the young organi- zation was bold, and, though not as success- ful as was hoped, had yet a wonderful moral effect on the nation. Early in February a vacancy occurred in the repres- entation of Galway by the resignation of Valentine Blake, and two candidates ap- peared to claim the suffrages of the '' City of the Tribes." One was James Henry Mon- aghan, lately so infamous in Ireland for his brutality and partisanship as one of her Maj- esty's judges, who was supported by his own party, the Whigs, and by the Tories : the other being aa independent Repealer, 228 THE MEN OF '48. A^nthony O'Flaherty. The council of the Confederation immediately issued a stirring address to the Repealers of Gal way, in which they said : — " We do not presume to suggest a candidate for your sufFraofes — vou will choose for yourselves. One thinsr onlv we ask of vou — to vote for no Whio;-, for no Torv, for none but a pledged and determined Repealer. This, Repealers of G-alway, all Irishmen are entitled to demand at your hands — that you send no nominee of an English government to inform his emplo^-ers that his constituency, for their part, have repented the pledge of '45, have revoked the vows of '45, and are content to ac- cept some paltry, foreign patronage, instead of the bless- ings, the pride, and the security of an Irish Legislature. ''You will forgive us if we seem for an instance to doubt the fate of your election. But there is a painful and shameful rumor abroad : that an official of the English government dares to hope for the votes of Galway Repealers ; an officer of that government which has starved the poor and impoverished the rich — that government which declares that it will resist to the death the attainment of the national independence which we have all sworn to win. Think, Repealers of Galway, of your countr^mien most foully murdered by the blast- ing Union. " Let Galway be saved for Ireland ; and rely on the zealous assistance of this Confederation in securing the et'jrn of any true Repealer. " THE MEN OF '43. 229 Mr. O'Flalierty was not a member of the Confederation; but notwithstanding that he still adliered to the old Association, beino* a man of patriotic views and opposed to place- hnnting, the Council resolved to follow up their 23i'oclamation by sending a deputation to Gal way to arouse the people into action. The effect of this step was thus described in the Limerick and Clare Examiner : " The Repeal party put forth its strength in a marked and decisive manner. For the past week meetings were held each ni^-ht in the committee rooms and the theatre, at which the most soul-stirring addresses weie delivered by the members of the deputation of the Irish Confederation, whose sincere and untiring exertions on this tr^ang occasion cannot be too highly appreciated. Messrs. O'Gronnan, Michael J. Barry, T. F. Meagher and J. B. Dillon, are the men to whom in a great measure may be attributed the enthusiastic ardor which pervades all ranks of the Galwegians at present. Our reporters, on their arrival, found the court-house crowded to suffo- cation. In one of the galleries, Mr. O'Flaherty and his friends mustered in great numbers, resting their hopes of success, not on the tinsel of office or assurances of those comfortable births, which seem to captivate not a few of the opposite party ; but in the glorious, the noble, and the chivalrous principle of national redemp- tion, the principle of Ireland's right to native legislation. 230 THE MEN OF '48. On the otlier side were arrayed Mr. Monaglian and tlie apostate Repealers, many of wliom, though members of the Association, openly sided with the government can- didate. The body of the court was crammed by the vis- itors, the tried, the unshrinking, frieze-coated Repeal- ers : the cheering was so loud and continuous, that the sheriff was unable for a considerable time to procure a hearing for the candidates. Much confusion was creat- ed by a drunken banditti of forty or fift}'' degraded mer- cenaries from Oladdagh, w'ho w^ere content to barter their freedom for some petty consideration. With this ex- ception, the great body of the people were on the side of nationality." The election, however, was gained by the Whig candidate through the aid of John O'Connell's Repealers, by a majority of four , but the people of the west recognized the treachery of the followers of that person ; and to this day they have ample cause to rue the choice which their chief city made in that eventful struggle. *' You saw the men who voted for the Repeal candidate," said Meagher in one of his thrilling harangues duiing the election: ''did they reorister their votes under the sabres of the hussars ? No ; they voted for their coun- try, and werC; therefore, under no obliga- THE MEN OF '48. 231 tions to tlie livened champions of the Eng- lish flag. They went up to the hustings like honest citizens, and were protected, not by the musket of the soldier, but by the arm of the God of Hosts. Their souls were as untrammelled as their limbs, and recording their votes, they were distin- guished for the manliness which men who love freedom can alone exhibit. They voted like men who knew well that the scheme of the Whigs is to soothe this country into degradation, and they looked like men who scorned to be soothed for that purpose — scorned the vile scheme that would pros- trate this country by patronage — scorned the vile scheme that Avould perpetuate the Union by making it prolific in small boons/^ The Confederation continued daily to re- ceive new accessions, some from the ranks of the landholders, but the majority be- longed to a class of men who, amid all the horrors of the plague and famine, still had faith in Ireland's future, who read books and newspapers and formed their own political opinions. These were the trades- 2o2 THE MEN OF '48. men of the towns and the tenant farmers of the rm-al districts — the bone and sinew, the hope and trust of the hind. In promoting this good work, in spreading broadcast the sterhng views of the Confederates, and in meetinof" and refutino" the arof-uments of their enemies, the Nation was preeminent and untiring. Still, though its own course was becoming more and more popular, as that of Conciliation Hall was becoming weak and distasteful, it did not relinquish the at- tempt to fuse all nationalists in one common array against the common oppressor. In AjDril, 1857, an article appeared in its col- umns, which excited general attention and carried conviction to the minds of many doubtful or wavering Repealers. A few short extracts wdll be sufficient to show the gravity of the Irish question at this time, and the willinOTess of the oro^an of the Confederacy to yield everything possible for the sake of Union. '^ There is one resource adequate to our emergency — we believe there is only one : a convocation of our best and wisest Irishmen, to detenniue how the nation THE MEN OF '48. 233 may be Scaved. Not a new Rotiindo meeting to be adu- lated at home and spat upon abroad, but an assembly tliat shall be spat upon nowhere; being fit to act as well as to speak. An assembly full of a deep and grave sense of our terrible condition ; and which, representing all the interests of the country, the aristocracy, the gentry, the clergy, the professional and mercantile classes, the tenant fanners and the artisans, shall feel it- self competent to speak with plenipotentiary authority for this Irish nation." '^A national Assembly, then, is our only resource. The ways and means of action which we have suggest- ed may be impolitic or ineffective. Wiser and better plans may exist, of which we know nothing. We stand upon no details. We insist upon no more than the moral necessity of taking counsel together, and doing whatever may seem best to the assembled wisdom of the country. But to act has become essential to our nation- al life, now — now — now — now — or never. If the coun- try do not feel this instinctively and without bidding, as men in a sinking ship fly to the boats, nothing is be- fore us but hopeless ruin." ^'Mr. John O'Oonnell asks for a reunion of the Re- peal party. Surely, surely, if it be upon some basis of action, some centre like this, round which hope and purpose may rally. And the Conservative press, the Warde)' and the Pacliet, which have preached na- tionality ; and the Mail and the Dublin Universityy 234 THE MEN OF '48. wliich have threatened it, — now, if tliey meant honestly, their time for action is come. The hmdlords, it is af- firmed, are ready for such a movement as we have indi- cated, if the press in whicli they trust would counsel it. If the}'^ are indeed ready, all the interests in the state may still be saved, and our nation win the holiest and most peaceful triumph in history. If not — if they still falter, still scheme, and still look to their own sel- fish interests alone, they are doomed of Grod ; and their class — the very men now dallying with our fate — will be trampled under the feet of the English Minister or of the Irish Parliament.'' Meanwliile the Council of the Irish Con- federation were diligently at work, perfect- ing its organization, extending its ramifica- ions throughout the country by means of Repeal reading-rooms or clubs, and fur- nishing, through its committees, much valu- able information on the progress of the Famine, the Land Tenure, Manufactures and Industry, Parliamentary Proceedings, Emigration, and other topics of general interest. They also held public meetings semi-monthly in Dublin, at wdiich large numbers of the citizens and gentlemen from the provinces, in sympathy with the move- ment, were wont to attend. At first the THE MEN OF '48. 235 speakers at those meetings were assailed by the mob which had attempted to intimidate the Bemonstrants ; but it was invariably re- pulsed by the Confederates, till by degrees public opinion became so strongly in favor of freedom of speech, that the champions of moral force were compelled to desist. One of the most important of those meetings was held in April, and was remarkable, not only for the number and enthusiasm of attendants, but for a speech of Charles Gavan Duffy, the first of any importance ever delivered by him in public. Duify was, and is, a remarkable man, and in his own sphere one of the ablest that this or any other century has produced in Ire- land. In early life he went from his northern home to Dublin, a stranger with but a few shillino-s in his Docket, with noth- ing to recommend him but a plain, solid, primary education, sound common-sense and an unconquerable will. For several years he labored in a subordinate capacity on one of the metropolitan newspapers, working hard at his desk for a trifling pittance, and 236 THE MEN OF '48. devoting his spare hours, usually spent by young men of his age in pleasure, to study and self-improvement. He subse- quently engaged himself as editor of the Belfast Vindicator, which became under his management one of the best and most spirit- edly conducted papers in Ireland. In 1 842, when in his twenty-sixth year, he became editor-in-chief, and, with Davis and Dillon, joint-proprietor of the Nation, relations which he continued to hold to that remark- able journal till its sup])ression by the gov- ernment in the summer of 1848. As an editor, it is no exaggeration to say that we have had no writer of the Enorlish lano-uaofe, in his time, who could be counted his superior, and even very few his equals. Strong, robust, didactic English flowed flu- ently from his pen, not as a bubbling stream dancing and sparkling, only to be enjoyed momentarily and forgotten ; nor as a half- turbid rhetorical torrent, that brinofs neither persuasion nor conviction ; but like a rapid, broad, and limpid river which holds its course, irresistibly bearing along on its THE MEN OF '48. 237 ample bosom many an argosy freiglited witli deep tlioiights, clear ideas, and profound reasons. Without for a moment detracting from the merits of his gifted associates, we may be allowed to say that to him, more than to any one man, was due the great suc- cess and potency of the Nation from the very beginning. His wise counsels governed its course, and his strong, almost abrupt, force and patriotism inspired its editorial columns, and even sometimes lent grace to its lighter literary attractions. As a judge of human nature in the in- dividual, as a patron of young struggHng men, as a political organizer, he was far above most of his cotemporaries ; in the lat- ter qualit}", particularly, he was so preemin- ently an adept, that his advice and views were highly prized, and freely acknowledged by O'Connell in his best days, and were of incalculable benefit to the new Confedera- tion from its very inception. Like most men who think deeply and are accustomed to shape the course of others from their closets, Duffy had never paid much atten- 238 THE MEN OF '48. tion to oratory, and it was only as a matter of duty that he could ever be induced to address an audience. On the occasion, liow- ever, of the April meeting, a very impor- tant resolution was to be offered, requesting /'O'Brien and the other Irish members of all parties henceforth to withdraw altogether from parliament, and to take measures for serving the country at home," and Dujffy was requested to propose it. In compliance with this request, he, in the course of a long and impressive speech, said : — '' Is it strange, then, that the Council of the Confed- eration has come to the resolution of asking you to call upon the Irish members to quit that parliament aud take their stand at home, among their own people? We have prayed to the deaf ears of parliament long enough. Wherever succor and redemption are to be had, it is clear enough that thev are not to be had there. There is but one place we can find them — there is but one place we have a right to look for them — in ourselves. England at this hour is teeming with wealth and plenty, yet it is not alleged that she pos- sesses any natural advantages that we do not share. She does not starve. Her people do not die in mj^riads, or fly with averted eyes from her shore. They prosper at home, and glory in the home which shelters and THE MEN OF '4.^. 239 protects them. friends ! lias your land no natural rights? Is there some ordinance of God by which we, living in the same latitudes and under the same skies, must see our people die of hunger and nakedness "? Oh, infamy ! are we to ask this question forever ? Let us at least not blaspheme Providence j let us not even blame England : the fault is not England's, but our own. It is the right of this people, and their sacred duty, to protect themselves against all aggressors on the face of the earth, come they east or west, over the broad Atlan- tic, or across the British Channel. And surely the time has come, while we still suffer under one calamity and await another, to determine the cause of our misery and to take some sure measures for our protection." Messrs. Mitcliel, Dolieny, Reilly, McGee, O'Gorman, Jr., Coyne, and Rev. C. P. Mee- han, also, spoke at this great meeting. The latter, the pastor of S.S. Michael and John's, Dublin, as distinguished for his erudition as for his charity and zealous devotion to the poor, said in the course of his remarks : — ^' Look abroad ! — wherever there was not provincialism there were manufactures. Need he point to France, Belgium, or glo- rious America I Let them turn their eyes then to home — let them go to the liberties and into the lanes and alleys of the city of 240 THE MEN OF '48. Dublin, and here he would take leave to state, from his own personal knowledge, that no person was thoroughly acquainted with the misery and fetid disease of these localities, with the exception of the medical attendants, the clergymen, and, in thousands of instances, the Sisters of Charity. This misery, this total absence of manufactures — this total inertness in the mechanics — their pining, haggard asj)ect — the distress of their families — all these things could be traced as the result of the absence of do- mestic legislation." The report alluded to was presented by McGee, and was a very exhaustive relation of the state of Irish manufactures and trade. He closed his speech by the following practical advice : — *' Let us alter our condition at home. Let us see what relics of our old prosperity are left us — let us vow to each other to reward the industry of our people — in trade, in mechanics, or in letters. Free Trade and the Famine — two events which have occurred since 1840 — will give this important movement motives and means which the old movement could not have had. If we are determined to stay at home, let it be to help each other, not to destrov. If we will not abandon Ireland, THE MEN OF '48. 241 in God's name let us drive famine and bigotry an