.A?, <; ,M .tf A LECTURE , IA IRISH REPEAL, IN ELUCIDATION OF . THE FALLACY OF ITS PRINCIPLES, AND IN PROOF OF ITS PERNICIOUS TENDENCY, IN ITS MORAL, RELIGIOUS, AND POLITICAL ASPECTS, BY LEWIS C. LEVIN PHILADELPHIA: 1844 31 A ■I 50 >1 \^\ tf R EPE AL. Repeal ! Irish Repeal ! O'Connell and the Irish Catholics ! Eman- cipation for Ireland. The Queen ! The Pope ! Irish Independence I O'Connell and Sedition ! The Arrest of the Liberator ! The Conspi- racy crushed. "If O'Connell suffers, Peel dies !" Another grand rally for old Ireland ! Slavery and the President of the United States ! His Holiness the Pope, and the degraded American people who give countenance to slavery ! These are a few of the watchwords of the times, that strike upon the ear of an American patriot, in the middle of the 19th century ! The sounds are strange. They strike us with surprise. Nay, they appal us with apprehension. The Pope ! the Queen ! Irish Catholics and African slavery ! What a cluster of ill-assorted associations, to be wound up with the name of Daniel O'Connell, Sedition, Conspiracy, and Arrest ! Do we really live in the middle of the 19th century ? Are we truly awake, or is all this a frightful dream? Is this the chosen land of liberty ? Was it here, that the rights of man were erected oil a foundation of blood 1 Was it here that Washington said, in the tones of a father — "Shun the brawls of Europe?" How is this? The fair land of liberty become the battle-ground of kings, tyrants, popes and their political myrmidons? Why all this din and turmoil? Is the Re- public in danger? Have the monarchs and popes of Europe hired wretches to insult us ? Incendiaries to stir us up to riot ? Slanderers to defile our freedom ? Monarchists to scold us for slavery — themselves the slaves they pity ? Or, have we lost the recollections of liberty, and sent to Europe for a supply of royal tutors to instruct us in the rights of man ? How is this ? We are traduced — abused — insulted. And yet the free American has no equal in past history. He can dread no superior in the future. He stands forth a sovereign man — > such as God made him, invested with all the rights that create power, and all the power that prescribes duties. He is his own master. His own king. He bends the knee to God only; and neither worships nor fears his fellow mortal. If he parts with individual power, it is only to entrench his rights by the rampart of law; but never making a total surrender of the rights that are essential to the retention and preserva- tion of his power. In what quarter of the globe do you behold a freeman like the Ameri- can ? In what spot of the globe can you discover a people who do not bend the knee to a sovereign, or bow their necks to the galling yoke of power, contrary to their will, or repulsive to their feelings, destructive of their happiness, or pregnant with their degradation ? Imposing bur- dens fraught with misery, or exacting duties fatal to content? On what charter of monarchy, can you read the sublime lesson of "the rights of man ?" In what chapter of an Empire's annals, can you point to the inherent and inalienable self sovereignty of the people 7 There is no such thing. Learn then, American?, to appreciate your own position. Our political, our moral, our intellectual destiny, is that of God's most sublime creation. Man the ruler of himself, by the light of reason, not the rod of power. We stand apart from, and above all other people. Exalted on the pedestal of rights, till they mingle with the light of Heaven, showered from the Mercy above, we can proudly say, as we proudly feel, that we overlook the world; and challenge a rival to dis- pute our achievement of the perfection of human government. Can the Pope say as much ? Can O'Connell say it? When the watch (ires on our hills, in the glorious struggle of Inde- pendence, flashed terror on the legions of kings — they shed the light of emancipation on the peasant at his plough, and the smith at his forge. The battleaxe that shivered from the British crown its bright Ameri- can jewel, also snapt asunder all the manacles that degraded the labor- er, as an inferior of the Noble. Equality was the battle cry of Ameri- can Independence. The unfurled banner of freedom was inscribed with the created equality of its champions, as the breeze bore it on- wards to victory, or bathed it in blood. No boon was begged. No knee was bowed. No mercy, but that of heaven appealed to. No compromise implied. No neutral ground for partial concession left open. The Declaration was absolute. Equality — Independence — or, Death. The bugle blast of our raw legions, rang with wild melody along our forest hills, as a chorus to the shouts of Freemen, who had renounced monarchy forever: — its pomp, its pageantry, its follies, and its crimes. — To look once upon our broad expanse of untamed nature, our beetling mountains, our blossomed valleys, our fertile hills and teeming plains, was to imbibe from the very bosom of a mother, the divine instinct that made us spurn a master — a monarch — a king— a crown. The very elements that hymned the tempest on our hills, cried death to tyranny. It was the Genius of a New World, chaunting the incanta- tion of freedom. It was the spirit of holy nature, spurning the mum- mery o( forms, which had degraded, enslaved, and brutified the intel- lect of God's creatures, to the lusts of man's tyrants. Every valley was peopled by the victims of royal bigotry. Every legion was nerved by an arm, that had felt the scourge of that power, which uniting church and state, had dared to say to the revolting conscience, "be this your worship." The idols of superstition — the altars of power — the penal- ties of law — the mandates of state authority — one, or all, had fallen sorely on the smarting spirits of our revolted Fathers. On one hand, nature beckoned them to freedom; on the other, power goaded them to revolution; and they achieved the rights of man. To claim affinity to the sublime fabric of American Freedom, has "been the ambition of many nations, who could never rise even to a con- ception of its principles. The French Revolution of 1793, is entombed in human execration. It arose as the day-star of political redemption, but passed away like a burning comet, destroying every noble associa- tion, every pure and generous feeling. The three days of July have giv- en to France the choice of a king, imposed by the necessity of a feudal principle — making tyranny more galling by a deception that gilds it with false colors. Spain has had her insurrections; Italy her plots; Por- tugal her civil wars; Greece her struggles; but the end of all is — the rule of a King — the Divine right of a Monarch — the Union of Church and State — the consolidation of despotism, and the enlargement of roy- al power. Convulsion may rock the world — Rebellion strew the earth with the dead — Plots stain the scaffold with blood— Conspiracy shake tyrants with fear — but still the end is the same — all is chaos. And when the howling storm has passed, we behold the throne shining in full effulgence, secure in its power, and the king untouched, with mil- lions of slaves crouching at his feet ! This has been the end of all re- volutions but our own ! Why is it so? Because no principle guides the arm of European Revolution. Because Demagogues lead, and Factions only contend for rule. Because the struggle is not for the rights of 7?ki?2, but for the power of Kings. Which Dynasty shall reign? Which branch of a rotten line of Monarchs, void alike of in- tellect and virtue, shall plunder, oppress, bleed, torture, persecute and degrade their white slaves — the bonded subjects of absolute power — to whom God has given the strength of man, but who fetter their own souls by submission to a King. What is Rebellion, without principle? What a revolution, if not to exalt and better the condition of the people? In the choice of masters, a free spirit sees no redemption. Struggles not ending in liberty are not worth the labour. There is no glory where there is no Equality to battle for. Are the rights of man to be the fruit of the struggle? Then, indeed, is the contest ennobled by the object ; then, indeed is the conflict consecrated to victory, for it seeks to shed upon the people the blessings of freedom, which secure them in the enjoyment of life, property, and the pursuit of happiness — liberty of con- science, and the fruit of their industry, untouched by the rude hand of extortion, rapacity and rapine. No taxation without their own con- sent. No tithes! No church rates not voluntary. No labour without its reward. No power not delegated by the people. This is Liberty. All else is counterfeit. A shadow — a delusion — a dream — an impos- ture. Are you asked to support a monarchy? It is an insult. It im- peaches your fidelity to a free Constitution. It invades the very sanc- tuary of the rights of man. It degrades your understanding. It ques- tions your integrity. It seduces your benevolence. It charges you with hypocrisy. It invites you to crime, for all monarchy is crime, or the rights of man could not be a virtue. The name of Liberty has been abused in all ages — prostituted in all countries — adopted as a battle-cry, even by Kings and their myr- mydoms, as well as Demagogues, and Leaders of the blind popu- lace. Like Virtue, the name has a charm, which tempts even vil- lainy to ring changes on its melody. "Oh, Liberty! what crimes are committed in thy name !" was the exclamation of a noble woman, weeping over the desolation of her country by the hands of political parricides. History teaches us not to be deceived by sounds ! Experience whis- pers caution, when Ambition strikes for power. Kings have been known to array themselves in the garb of priests to gain their ends, un- der the mask of piety : and assassins, to be successful, clothe themselves in the gown of the monk ! The shouts of Repeal come booming on our startled ears, over the bosom of (he waters, till they find a thousand echoes on the American shore, which sends back the sound to startle Europe with the uproar. Irish Repeal ' — the repeal of the Union of Ireland with her two sister kingdoms, is the cry of a distant clime by foreign monarchists — re- echoed on our Republican shores, till from hill to hill, the sounds borne on the distant breeze, spread far throughout the land, wakening the loud response from mountain, lake and glen. The shout gathers thou- sands to the banner. Myriads flock around the man who stands forth the champion of this grand revolution, as if the fate of nations depended upon the issue. Men muster in legions, morning, noon and night. Agi- tation is the pass-word. Repeal rings through our ears with a deafening clamour. Orators vociferate harangues to the people, and demagogues swell the tide of infatuation. Ireland kindles to a flame of excitement, which, without ending in the horrors of civil war, stands without parallel in history. The whole land quakes beneath the tread of her repealers. Money is collected; men marshalled; sympathy appealed to. Yet no brawl ensues. On and onward sweep the surges of the social movement. Still no war takes place. It is, cry the minions of the Pope, a moral Revolution ! Behold the weapons of Repeal — the tongue of the orator — the piety of the Pope — the purse of the tribute-monger ! the banquet of the managers ! the dinner! the supper! the carousal! the speech! and the field-meeting ! But is this all? No! Behind the curtain, we be- hold the triple-crowned head of the Pope of Rome! the monarchy of Great Britain ; the throneof the Queen ; the spectral phantoms of super- stition, raised from the sleep of ages, to be dyed afresh in the blood of its victims; the union of Church and State; the religion of force, imposed by the civil power ; the penalty of heresy, and the head as the penalty ! But let us examine this stupendous question, whose noise drowns rea- son, bewilders judgment, inflames the passions, and empties the pockets of its deluded votaries. What are the merits of Repeal? Are they consistent with free principles? Do they become a Democratic people to advocate? Is it compatible with the pacific relations existing be- tween this nation and a power to whom we are bound by the most sa- cred ties of treaty stipulations? Before I analyze its elements, let us hear the plausible arguments by which its popular champions recom- mend it to American sympathy. It is said to be a struggle for Indepen- dence. Is this true? And what sort of Independence is meant, if true? Does it mean Independence based on the rights of man? No! It is a struggle of the subjects of a monarchy to obtain an Irish Parliament, over which the English monarch is to hold sway. O'Connell, the leader of the Irish people, avows his unalterable loyalty, with his knees glued to the foot of the throne, and his hands outstretched in adoration of the Pope! What Independence is this? Not the Independence of Freedom ! — not the Independence which flows from the rights of man, and spurns a foreign yoke, whose galling weight burns into the flesh of the doomed slave ! No ! It is the Independence only of the Reforma- tion of Luther ! It is to shake oiF the sunbeams of Intellect, Science, and Education, which the magic power of the Art of Printing is show- ering upon the hitherto benighted sons of Erin. It is to cut off the mo- ral restraints of Reason, Temperance, Religion, and Law. It is to re- trograde into the gloom of the Dark Ages, and plant oppression, bigotry and fiery persecution, at the door of Virtue and Industry, as the senti- nels of Power. Shame, then, unbounded and eternal shame, to the sophists and demagogues who would compare such an Independence with our own glorious struggle of 1776 ! In what feature do they bear a resemblance? Did our fathers struggle to hold on to the monarchy'? Was Washing- ton an O'Connell? Did he avow himself a monarchist? Did he beg money of the people, and confine his struggles for his country to words? Did Washington quote the declaration of the Pope, or the laws of God and the rights of man ? Did Washington feast, while his followers starved? How, then, can American Independence resemble Irish Re- peal? Did our fathers petition for Repeal ? No! After their decla- ration, they fought man to man, hand to hand, knee deep in carnage, for absolute, unqualified, glorious Liberty. Not to fetter men to Church and State Domination, but to free them. Not to degrade, but to exalt them. Not to plunge them in ignorance, but to usher them into light, knowledge, science, wisdom. Shade of the Immortal Founder of our great Republic, look down with a forgiving eye upon the profanation of thy pure name, in an un- worthy connexion! — made with no ungracious view! Suppose the Repeal of the Union achieved to-morrow? What would be the effect? Would Ireland be less under the dominion of Monarchy? No! She would still hold allegiance to the Crown of Eng- land. O'Connell declares this to be a point of honor. It would most certainly be a point of necessity. The tremendous physical resources of England, could crush and overwhelm her in a week. But if Repeal did succeed, what then? A Republic is not dreamed of — O'Connell hates all Republics. Would the monarchy of England, be less a mon- archy, because an Irish Parliament enacted the laws, that an Imperi- al Parliament now enact? Looking to the repeal movement, then, as a substantive scheme, it is nugatory, absurd, wicked. As a substantive scheme it means nothing. O'Connell never designs its consummation. Yet he is too sagacious not to mean something. Familiar with the generous ardour of Irish hearts, this cunning demagogue, has made the repeal of the Irish Union, the means of concentrating a religious and political power, unsurpassed in the history of the world. A scheme, which in the hands of the Pope himself would prove abortive. A scheme, which attempted by Priests, would be exploded amidst shouts of execration. A scheme that kings and cabinets would shrink from — but which, in the hands of an arch ft demagogue, may prove successful, by eluding popular vigilance, under the cieak of political reform. The world swarms with dupes courting deception, as it abounds with charlatans practiced in the arts of imposture. Pity for the one, and contempt for the other, are the common feelings excited by the ordi- nary acts of false hearted demagogues. There is a sublimity in Irish suffering, which claims exemption from deceit. The virtuous credulity of a land of patriots — the enthusiasm of the sons of Ireland for liberty, scattered as they are over the civil- ized world, ought to have extorted respect, even from the selfish and designing "O'Connell." Shame ought to have held his hand from prac- tising on feelings rendered sacred by ages of thraldom! Intense sensi- bility is the effect of long suffering; and if the Irish bosom throbs with a warmer gush of feeling, and leaps with a more bounding spirit, at the thought of liberty, it is because it has been most oppressed, most abus- ed, enslaved and trampled on. There is a tear for the wrongs of Ire- land in every virtuous eye. A sigh in every noble bosom. But there is no balm for her wrongs in "-Repeal!" There is no succour for her woes, in the schemes of an O'Connell. Ireland! Who would not raise a voice for Ireland? Who would not strike a blow for Ireland! Who would not commiserate her sufferings? Who would not combat for her rights? But O'Connell is not Ireland. Repeal is not the remedy for her wrongs. What Ireland was before the Union, we all know. Why she embraced the Union, is matter of History. Torn by licentious Fac- tions—distracted by domestic brawls — a prey to the Vultures of Party, and the rapacity of her own servants— she embraced the Union as men fly for shelter, in a storm, to some friendly roof, or hospitable dome. She had tried War! Rebellion! Revolution! Societies of United Irish- men, sworn to perish on the field, to suffer on the scaffold, or triumph in their glory! In vain she struggled to shake off the fatal incubus of bondage. Treachery beset her — defection enfeebled — corruption be- trayed her. In battle, Treason fled with her Banners! In Conspira- cies, Perjury betrayed her to the Block! Why did she fail? Why was the noble Victim, still dragged back to be chained to the Chariot Wheels of her proud conqueror; biting the dust of humiliation! — covered with the blood of persecution? The more enslaved — the more she strug- gled? Why did she fail? For want of moral power. Why is she now abused by the pageant, the worse than idle, the wicked pageant of Repeal? — wicked, because pregnant with blood and misery. For want of moral power. The vital element of liberty is knowledge— education, science, virtue, industry, temperance; the virtues of the heart blended with the powers of the mind: it is these that constitute moral power. The machinery that elevates a people to freedom and independence is not the mouth of a demagogue, but moral power. No country can fee enslaved — no people degraded, who possess this tremendous lever of Public Opinion. Nothing but vice and ignorance permit tyrants to place fetters on the mass of men. Vice is always helpless — ignorance always pusillanimous, and most apt to be depraved. If the eye wanders to bar- barous climes, what does it behold? Are the people ignorant? Then be sure they are enslaved. Are they vicious? Then be sure they are ignorant. Look towards the fair clime of classic Italy, even to the very Temples where Titus triumphed, and Vespasian ruled. What do you behold? Ignorance, vice, and tyranny. The descendants of Brutus in love with the manacles bound around their limbs by the slimy hands of cold superstition. Turn your eyes towards Spain, and what spectacles of despotism blast them by the realities of blood, civil war, social rage, desolating vice and consuming ignorance ! Does not your soul sicken at this wretched array of the degeneracy of man? — If not — look once more and behold Portugal,— where Superstition has done her worst; where ignorance lies in abject servitude upon banks of flowers; where licentiousness riots without a curb; where assassination stalks in broad day, fearless of law, and confident of the sanctuary of the church ! Here let us pause. Let Russia have her sway over minds in midnight darkness wrapt, and manners steeped in moral pu- trescence, worse than the plague. Let Austria twinkle in the dubious light of dawning knowledge. Enough is seen to show us, that where superstition holds her sway — where papal tyranny locks and unlocks the souls of men, to suit her selfish ends, — moral power dwells not. — The flame tha.t kindles from the virtues of the heart, to consume the thrones of tyrants, never burns where altars blaze to idols and edicts extinguish science. Once more — why has Ireland always failed in her genuine struggles for Emancipation? The fate of Italy, Spain, Portugal answer the question in tones that wring the bosom of benevolence with anguish, and torture the heart of the patriot with agony. Once more — why k Ireland deficient in moral power ? Because Papal superstition wraps her form within its fatal folds. Religion, as its falls from Heaven, in its purity, blessing all around, is sacred, holy, inviolable. I bow, and with deep awe, to every sigh of piety, every form of worship, every creed of belief, every tenet, every feeling, every passion, every prejudice which touches the heart with the unction of true religion. Sacred be its throbs ; yes, sacred be even the frailties of Faith, that pours balm into the wounded spirit, or flashes light, through the passage of the tomb, to lead to immortality. Reli- gion, in itself \s a right not to be questioned. Liberty of conscience, is the privilege we claim for all men. But when Religion stalks into the political arena — when it proudly ascends the throne — when it firmly grasps the sceptre — when it thun- ders forth edicts and blends temporal with spiritual power! — then it challenges temporal scrutiny, rouses opposition, and justifies resistance. At 6uch a crisis, the rights of man tremble on the precipice of Power. At such a crisis, Liberty shrieks in her efforts to preserve existence. — The very breath of religious government, uniting the baneful power of political energy with the control of the human conscience, is death to Freedom ! Where it sways the sceptre, the very breath of Heaven 2 10 comes loaded with the poison of degeneracy, bondage, imbecility, idiocy. It taints the very blood and dries up the marrow of man. It breeds Fear ! And what great achievement or moral grandeur was ever ac- complished by a people spell-bound by Fear? Look at the abject sub- jects — no, not subjects — the abject slaves of the Pope. Enter the Es- curiel — behold Spain! What are Spaniards? — under the union of Church and State — the Church of Rome, the Stale of Monarchy. What is Ireland? What hand holds down the Irish Catholic's head to the ground, till he faints for want of power — moral power? — till all his throbs of manhood are hushed in the "mass" of the chapel — in the Bulls of the Pope — in the ignorance of the system, which shuts out light till the victim of darkness grows stone-blind ! And being thus shrouded in the darkness of Papal ignorance, the Arch Demagogue, O'Connell, approaches, to tell him his head is held down by the Saxon monarch? Strike for Repeal, cries O'Connell, and your are free! Poor victim of delusion! He believes the Arch Demagogue, — he struggles to rise,—- behold him in his convulsions ! Dead to the glorious calls of his country — dead to the immortal breathings of true Freedom ; which call on him to rise in the majesty of the power and might of man, and be what God designed — not a slave, but a free agent; not a dupe to O'Connell or a slave to the Pope, but a man ! A man in the true sense of the term ; holding his faculties at his own disposal, looking with his own eyes, feel- ing with his own reason. Inquiring, comparing, judging for himself. — An intelligent man ; a responsible man. Ireland ought to boast of such sons. She ought to boast of heroes, not dupes. God made the Irish all that man ought to be. But man has made them all that is the re- verse of manhood. Man ! did I say? It is Church power that has de- graded him. God made the Irish an ornament to human nature. Pa- pal Tyranny has made them all that enthralls, degrades and dispirits them; all that makes wit useless, perception null, judgment wrong, and enthusiasm mischievous; all that renders genius abortive, gallantry of no avail, and imagination a curse, unless transplanted to a soil where the upas of Papal power does not spread its poison. Then, indeed, Irish genius blazes with a heavenly flame. Plant the Irishman on any soil not poisoned by the temporal or spiritual power of the Pope, and be- hold how he flourishes. See Burke in London ! Sheridan in his coat of forensic mail, cleaving the golden casque of the Robber of India ! Turn to the bower of the muses, and weep and laugh by turns, over the racy wit, rich humour and deep pathos of Goldsmith! Or, let us ascend the plains of Abraham, at Quebec, and behold the glorious end of the brave Montgomery ! Or last, not least, hie ye to the Parliament House of Britain, and behold a Wellington, in the House of Lords ! A States- man ! A Soldier! A Hero! Wellington the Invincible! The Pacificator of the World ! The Conqueror of Napoleon ! Genius and Ireland are but two names to denote the same thing; but Ireland and Popery are two deadening influences always fatal to her genius. Why, oh! why, will men hug to their bosoms the slimy ser- pent whose cold embrace is— death ? Why, oh ! Ireland, do you not *ise like a disenthralled spirit, from the tomb of superstition, regenera- 11 ted, vigorous, pure, manly ! Casting off the fetters of an Iron Church, which crushes thought, tramples out the sparks of emulation from the glowing mind, and scatters ignorance, as well as indolence, throughout thy Heaven-blest land? Awake! — benighted, deluded, enslaved men ! — awake to the glorious liberty of mind ! Fulfil your destiny of great- ness ! Look upon the American People ! Slandered by your Arch Deceiver !— abused, villified, insulted ! Look upon them, proud and erect in the God-like attitude of the rights of man, scorning and tramp ling under their feet the tyrannous power of Church and State! Look upon them who hold the Pope to be a rank usurper on the rights of man — a wanton violator of the laws of God ! Look upon them, and say : — Could they have acquired Liberty and Independence, had they been the white slaves of his holiness, the Pope? Think you the Decla- ration of American Independence would ever have seen the light, or its consummation ever have blazed through the world, if Thomas Jef- ferson had been an emissary of his Holiness, or George Washington had been a Daniel O'Connel ? Start not at this question. It is one suggested by common sense. American Independence was the work of a little band of patriots, not one fifth the number of the population of Ireland. They, too, were op- pressed by the persecutions of power, bigotry, and the unholy combina- tion of Church and State. But they were not slaves to Papal power. They boasted "liberty of conscience," which to obtain and preserve, had driven them to horde with the untamed savage; and to battle to the death, with royal troops armed by the hand of monarchy to scourge rebellion. Had this little American band, a handful of men compared to Ire- land's overflowing population, been Roman Catholics, under the guid- ance of the Pope, what would have been their fate ? Instead of a great Washington, some O'Connell would have sprung up among us, with a beggar's bag in his hand, asking for an Independence Fund ! He would have mounted logs, casks, and market stalls, making glorious speeches to the members of an " Independence Association ;" with three cheers for liberty, followed by a rich repast, an elegant dinner, a sump- tuous supper, or a splendid entertainment, where another speech would wind up the day's labor, exhorting the people to send on the Rent, and not let the ''Liberator" starve. This would have been the farce of one day. And what the stage-play of another ? Why, the "Associa- tion of Liberty," would assemble in the Hall of Independence : adopt a ])etition to her most gracious majesty; indite a missive to his holiness, the Pope; read the correspondence of the friends of America from dis- tant climes, remitting their shillings and pence to support the orators of freedom. Then pass a resolution, unanimously, never to disturb the peace ; never to fire a rifle ; never to draw a sword ; never to handle a pitchfork ! But to depend on the gracious clemency of her most gra- cious majesty, to accord us the boon of Independence, as a consequence of our resolving never to fight for it ! This may appear like a picture drawn in the sportive spirit of ridi- cule. Is it so? No ! I merely state what would have been the facts 12 and the fate of American Independence in the hands of Irish Catho- lics, whose souls were bound down in Papal subjection, and who had no knowledge of right or wrong, but from the lips of a selfish dema- gogue, who, living on the hopes and fears of his countrymen, became the Public Pauper of credulous Patriots — keeping alive those hopes, and exciting those fears, as a means of popular extortion, to further the peace/id cause of American Independence ! The tremendous extent of Papal Power admits of no personal liber- ty. Would his Holiness ever have consented to the Declaration of American Independence, which proclaims "all men created free and equal?" which levels the Pope himself to the Beggar? Would he have permitted it to go to the world that all men possess an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; to enjoy liberty of con- science ; to be secure in their houses and persons ; and to pay none but an equal and equitable tax — and free from all support of a Church Establishment? Never ! Thus it is, then, with unhappy ill-fated, Ire- land. She has bound herself to the Iron Wheels of Romish Supersti- tion — she cries out "Liberty " but she means bondage ! O'Connell, the King and Pope Leader of her delusion, joins in full chorus to the cry; but while the word "Liberty" escapes from his mouth, he draws from his pocket and reads a missive or a Bull from the Pope, granting the gracious permission of his Holiness, for Irish Catholics to oppose African Slavery ! Now common sense would here ask the question, why not abolish Roman Catholic Slavery first? Why does not the Pope grant his permission to emancipate Irish Catholics? To make them Freemen in- deed? Is it a bar to liberty that a man has a white or red skin? But says the Irish Catholic, we are free i Then what do you mean by the Liberty and Independence of Repeal? Are you free? Think well of the proposition. Are you a Monarchist? Yes! O'Connell and all his Band of Repealers, are the subjects of a Monarch ! Then they are not free. They cannot exercise the glorious rights of man ! O'Connell and his Band of Repealers owe fealty to Church and State. Then they are not free. O'Connell and his Band of Repealers owe allegiance to the Pope. Then they are not free. The Pope's permission is the whole length of O'Connell's rope of Liberty. This is the chain of poor Ire- land's Liberty ! O'Connell is tied to the political stake of Papal Pow- er, and he dances round it, like some wild animal, to the extent of his chain; and this chain he winds around the souls and bodies of his follow- ers, and calls it "Liberty." "Oh ! sacred Freedom, how is thy name abused !" I have said Re- peal means nothing as a substantive and distinct measure. I have said O'Connell never means to consummate Repeal, even if he could. 1 have said Repeal is deceptive, illusory, futile. I have said O'Connell makes use of it merely as a screen to ulterior objects, hanging the ad- vancement of the Papal power of Rome on the wheels of Irish enthu- siasm for Political Liberty. That his ulterior views reach to Roman Catholic Ascendancy throughout the world — not Liberty and Emanci- pation to Ireland. That his immense machinery ^of Repeal Associations 13 aim at Religious objects exclusively, not the civil and political rights of the Irish people. In part I have already demonstrated this fact, but in part only. I now come to his grand demonstration of Papal power upon the question of Slavery in the United States, as a political en- gine by which to extend the spiritual and temporal domination of Rome. Here the cloven foot of the Pope's Emissary protrudes from the gown of the Patriot Orator. Saian stands revealed! Let us look this mat- ter in the face, as becomes men gifted with common discernment. — What real connexion subsists in any possible relation or contingency, between Irish Repeal and African Slavery? Slavery not over the world, even, but slavery in the United States? This question is impor- tant. It decides the sincerity, or exposes the duplicity, hypocrisy and charlatanism of O'Connell ! How can Slavery in the United States influence Irish Repeal? Is it a question between slaves and their masters? Is it a question which, on any principle of analogy, can affect the liberties of the Irish Catho- lic? No ! Is the Irish Catholic held to servile labour, by a master who can sell him to another owner? No! Is there any principle of analogy in freedom which can extend to the Irish Catholic? I can see none! Has England made it a condition of Irish Repeal that O'Con- nell shall first succeed in procuring the emancipation of the slaves in the United States? No! For O'Connell tells the Irish Catholics him- self, that they are bound by "the Pope's denunciation of the abomina- ble crime." Not by the mandate of the English Throne. High au- thority, then, that of the Arch Demagogue himself, stamps this ques- tion of African Slavery, as having nothing more to do with Repeal, but that the Pope denounces the one and applauds the other. African Slavery in the United States, and the Repeal of a Political Union be- tween England, Scotland and Ireland ! The antipodes are not more remote. But they are brought together by O'Connell, as giving impe- rious force to the Bulls of the Pope ! The Pope denounces slavery in the United States. You must do the same, as faithful subjects of his Holiness. The Pope espouses Repeal. You must do the same, as pious members of the great Romish Church. There is, then, no other con- nexion between the two questions but a religious one, combining the power of Church and State ; and these are urged by O'Connell as im- perative — omnipotent — irresistible! For what object? Not to expe- dite Repeal ! No ! It cannot do that ! But to bind down the soul of the Irish Catholic to the implicit obedience of the mandate of the Pope in matters of a character purely temporal and political. Touch- ing State affairs — not affairs of the Church! Assailing our Constitution. Denouncing our Institutions. Defaming our reputation. Impeaching our love of Liberty. Reviling the true American, as an unfit compa- nion for the Irish Catholic ! Gracious and just Heaven ! was ever wrong so monstrous 1 Was insolence ever so unmeasured ? Was wickedness and hypocrisy ever before so bold ? O'Connell, the slave of a king, denouncing Ame- ricans as unfit to associate with Irish Catholics ! O'Connell, the slave and devotee of the Pope of Rome, reviling the Sons of Washington, as 14 unfit to be in the same council chamber with the subjects of a king, blind in understanding and filled with idolatry ! Monarchists, the su- periors of Republicans ! — wanton, insolent slander ! Whence the right of the Pope thus to interfere in American Sla- very ? How dare O'Connell profane our Republican Institutions by his deceitful and polluting touch ? What is "American Slavery" to Rome? What is it to Ireland? On what ground of principle, or of sympathy, dare either the one or the other to make allusion to the subject of slavery ? There can exist no pnnciple of Freedom, on which the Slaveholder of White Idolaters, or his Champion, O'Connell, can ask the liberation of the African, whose condition, in comparison to his enlightenment, is freedom itself, in contrast to the servile state of the subjects of the Pope. There can exist no sym- pathy between O'Connell and African Slaves, if he is sincere in his desire, and aims to emancipate the Irish Catholics. If he looks well into their condition — physical, moral and religious — he will find more than enough to absorb all his acute sympathies for the slave of Mon- archy — the slave of Indolence — the slave of Intemperance — the slave of Papal darkness and of Papal power. In the honest prosecution of Repeal, this pragmatical interference in "American Slavery'' never could occur. For this reason, I adduce it as one of the most conclusive proofs of WConneWs hypocrisy. He means no Irish Repeal of the Union. He intends no Repeal. What then does he mean? What is his ulterior object? I an- swer, and I mean to convict him of it — the extension of the Papal Au- thority and Power over the United States. A combined political and religious Papal influence, extending to the Ballot Box, and running out into all our social relations with a secret, potent, and all-commanding mastery ! The audacity, the atrocity, of this nefarious plot to de- bauch and contaminate the Institutions of a Free Country, three thou- sand miles distant, as the instrument by which Papal Power is to reconduct the human understanding back to the gloomy caverns of the Dark Ages, might well excite the smile of incredulity, but that it comes before our eyes, solemnly attested by the sign manual of the Pope's Agitator himself. Assuming the authority of a Potentate over his slaves — arrogating the tone and state of the King of the Irish Catholics — O'Connell dates his proclamations from the Corn Exchange Rooms, Dublin, under the pompous title of "Loyal National Repeal Association." In his Edict of Papal Authority, of Oct. 11th, '43, I find this passage : — "You should do all in your power to carry out the pious intentions of his Holiness, the Pope !" This is followed by an injunction, capping the climax to his daring intrusion of Papal Interests in the United States, and placing the seal of confirmation upon his black conspiracy to degrade us into the vassals of the Church of Rome. These are the emphatic words of O'Connell, addressed to the Irish Catholics in the United States. Let them sink deep into your hearts. Engrave them indelibly on your minds, for your children's blood may yet prove the only element powerful enough to wash out the stain, or root out the 15 evil " Where you have the Electoral Franchise, give your votes to none but those who will assist you in so holy a struggle !" These are the solemn words of Daniel O'Connell. What struggle ? The strugggle of carrying out the pious intentions of his Holiness the Pope ! The application is his own. The American Ballot Box, then, is to be the battleground of Eu- ropean Monarchy and Papal Superstition, to vanquish our Republican Institutions, and organize a Party in Political Power, in favor of the in- tentions of the Pope! Tired out in their eflorts to subdue us by open force — wearied of all belligerent struggles in which we ever caused their mailed legions to bite the dust, beneath the lion blows of naked valour, fresh from the mountain air, and free from art or discipline: — the Monarchs of Europe, now plot to assail us through the right of suf- frage! The Irish Catholic vote is to be organized to overthrow Ame- rican Liberty. The extensive ramifications of Repeal Clubs, have suddenly become affiliated societies, to carry out the intentions of his holiness the Pope! The gauze veil of Repeal is thrown aside. The scheme is perfect. The organization complete. The Plot consummat- ed. Societies under the control of O'Connell, swarm in every quarter of the Union. They hum and buzz like the locusts of Egypt. The Pope is no longer the Actor on the Stage, from which popular indignation drove him, but the manager behind the scenes; O'Connell, is his puppet. Rome on this occasion is no longer the head-quarters of Bulls. The scene is changed, but the tragedy is the same. Dublin is the selected and chosen spot, whence this New Legate of his Holiness, fulminates his Decrees. "1 Daniel, dictator of the Irish Catholic Vote in the Uni- ted States of N. America, Legate of the Pope, known as the Agitator of Repeal." Thus runs the real title of this renowned hypocrite; who has surpassed the Jesuits in his mastery of political power, through the organization of "Repeal Associations,^ now converted into nests of Papacy. "The Society of Jesus," the Propogandists of Rome, the exten- sive affiliations of their society, were comparatively harmless because undisguised. The blaze of intelligence that broke upon the world, drove back to their cloistered dens, and Monkish Caverns, the declared and avowed Emissaries of the Pope. Light, intelligence, reason, ex- posed them. The flames of Liberty blasted and consumed them. The abuse of their power to their own ambition and lusts, crushed them. The united execration of the world, sealed by the fears of kings, who trembled while they confessed to their treacherous power, annulled them. Even Papal Infallibility quailed at the outcry of an- guish, and the thunder of indignation, which demanded their dissolu- tion, and he dissolved them. Yet were the Jesuists harmless, when placed in contrast with O'Connell and his societies of Papal Repeal. O'Connell, whose diabolical intentions of consolidated political power are covered under the specious pretexts of Ireland's Emancipation. Whose Bands are marshalled and enrolled as political patriots, not Priestly Propagandists. Whose designs are the same, or worse; — but whose disguise renders them more dangerous, because less suspected. The Incendinary in the cloak of the Patriot, will pass for a Patriot un- 16 til the Impostor stands exposed, by revealing his false intentions. Thou- sands who believed O'Connell a Patriot, anterior to his Proclamation of the 11th of October, now recoil from his touch with horror and conster- nation, as the Emissary of the Pope, whose design is the overthrow of American Liberty! Whose sole and single aim is the political ascend- ancy of Irish Catholics in the American Government. Who can doubt this? O'Connell declares it! Not his words only but his deeds confirm it! Look at his immense machinery of Repeal Associations! Behold his extensive array of societies. Count up the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars contributed to his Rent bag. Repeal wants no such aids. This is not a moral force of opinion, which could move a British Monarch to dissolve the allegiance of eight millions of sub- jects. No — it is not the machinery of Repeal. It is not the organ of Liberty. It stands forth, bleak, and black, and blasted, as the giant machine of Infernal Despotism! At an object so monstrous, so appalling, so hideous, as the possible overthrow of American Freedom, what bosom so callous, what heart so impenetrable, as not to throb and burn into an emotion of horror ! This, the last Asylum of Liberty ! This, the only res ling-place for the hunted wanderer of the earth ! This, the last hope of philan- thropy ! This, the wide, unbounded, trackless home of persecuted mankind ! What ! Destroy this? Take away the only refuge for the weary of spirit— the broken down of fortune — the lacerated of heart — the persecuted of tyrants? Where, when the outcast, leaping from his frail barque, the tears of joy gush from his overcharged heart, to think he has at last escaped the fangs of the bloody Tyrant, who tracked him to the very margin of his covert! No! oh, no! This cannot be. The scorching bosom of an ambitious despot, might, in his madness, plot such an unholy sacrifice of the World's last home, but who would consummate it? O'Connell — the Pope! A King might plot this horrible devastation of the sacred rights of man- kind ; but surely no true son of old Ireland would say "Amen" to such a murder! — the murder of Liberty in her sleep — the murder of the Angel who guards this, the last earthly Paradise of man! — the confla- gration of the great Temple, in which all the world are called to pay homage to virtue, peace, happiness, content ! No! there can be found no Irish heart, capable of so base a crime. The Irish Catholic could not apply the torch to fire the dwelling where his little smiling, prat- tling babe, is hymned to its sweet slumbers by the sweeter melodies of Freedom. No ! the very Angels of Heaven would strike down their parricidal hands, should they attempt the damning act ! The assassin who crawls to his death deed, the hypocrite who con- ceals his wicked purpose beneath the fair exterior of virtue, or the soft sentiments of benevolence, loses more of the character of manhood in his meanness, than in his crime. O'Connell, abject and base, in addition to his villainy, affects sympathy for the American slave. How does he show it ? Does he apply any of the Rent of his Repeal Bags towards their emancipation? No! His object is political power, not African Emancipation. His feeling is political ambition, not the soft It influences of philanthropy. He howls against slaveholders, but it is not to alleviate the sufferings of the slave — assuage his toils, or min- ister to his wants — but to "carry out the intentions of the Pope" — to consolidate the votes of the Irish Catholics in the Ballot Boxes ! The idea is preposterous, that Daniel O'Connell, the man who robs the poor of his own country, to pander to his idleness, could feci pity for a col- ored slave, or shed a tear over the wounds of his galling fetters! O'Connell a Philanthropist ! No ! — the Enslaver of Mankind — a Mon- archist — a Papist ! — never can feel either for the slaveholder or the colored slave ! Curses, both loud and deep, break from the pollu- ted lips of O'Connell upon the slaveholder. Why? Because he knows the unfortunate proprietor of this unhappy race, never can be marshalled under the banners of the Demagogue, to carry out the pious intentions of his Holiness. Hatred, deep and bitter, rankles in his heart against our Southern States — because they afford no prey for the vulture-like rapacity of his Rent Bag. What cares O'Connell for the slave, or the master, when neither will stand to be enrolled and plucked in the ranks of his Repealers? The incendiary would re- joice to behold the flames consume them all — both master and slave. Aye ! he would himself apply the torch. Nay, has he not already done so ? Has he not already kindled a fire that may wrap our sister states of the south in flames, deluge their fair fields with blood, and track the whole land with the cinders of desolation? The political Demagogue, who uses all instruments for his unholy purposes— "Me intentions of the Pope'' — what cares he for human misery ? What cares he for the groans, the tears, the despair of homes made desolate, of fields made barren, of hearts made hopeless ? The Political Dema- gogue ! O ! how can Humanity hold in her grasp the thousand wea- pons of abhorrence, scorn, and detestation, without overwhelming the viper by the thunders of her denunciation! The condition of the slave can never be improved by being made the subject of Political Speculation, by the selfish arts of ambition, or the more abject motives of avaricious rapacity. Philanthropy, anxious to meloriate human suffering, will apply the comforts of charitv, to assuage the misery of destitution. Wide and desolate, in- deed, is the trackless waste of moral sterility, that separates the man of benevolence from the political Charlatan, who borrows his cloak to fire the premises of those he feigns to pity, but pants to plunder. What an infinite moral desert divides an O'Connell from a William Penn ! While we venerate the one, how can we avoid detesting the other ! But the amelioration, or even abolition of slavery, is not the object of O'Connell. Keep this in mind. He works by pretexts. His ulte- rior object appears not on the front and face of his doings. This is demonstrated by the inconsistency and inadequacy of his means to pro- duce the effect proposed. The united poiver of the Irish Catholic vote in the Ballot Box, cannot reach what he pretends to aim at — the repeal of slavery. This he knows. This, he in fact confesses, when he says, that "the States in which slavery obtains, are compe- tent to pass laws for its abolishment." True ! but in those States, there are few or no Irish Catholics to poll a vote! Slave labour dispossesses Irish labour. In the slave States, therefore, he can rally no Irish vote ! Knowing this, O'Connell does not mean to meliorate the condition of the slave, or accomplish his emancipation. But without this pretext, how could he consolidate the Irish Catholic vote, for the ulterior object of securing a political ascendancy to the Papal Crozvn ? To avow thi3 object at the outset, would be to defeat himself, to baffle his own schemes? It is as necessary to the success of his struggle in carrying out the intentions of the Pope, to affect sympathy for the slave, as it was in the beginning to talk about Repeal, in order to disguise hisw//e- rior movement on the American Ballot Boxes. To avow either of his aims, at first, would have proved political suicide. Without Irish Repeal, how could he have organized Popish Clubs? His Repeal Associa- tions? To have called them "Papal Associations to promote the ascendan- cy of the Church of Rome in the United States," would have crushed his plot iu his own hand. In like manner to enjoin the Irish Catholics to a consolidated vote, openly proclaimed, to secure the Pope's ascendancy here, would also have exploded in his own hand, and scattered in con- fusion and dismay, his over zealous bands of political enthusiasts. But he goes to work with all the skill of a master of intrigue. He enters the Ballot Box, ostensibly, not for the Pope's ascendancy, but Afri- can Emancipation. Thus, the whole scheme unravels itself, from the very origin of the plot laid by Pope Gregory, in his famous Bull of 1840, against the Roman Catholic being a slave holder, down to the Proclamation of his Emissary, O'Connell, of the 11th October, 1843. Who believes Pope Gregory sincere in his famous anti slavery Bull any more than O'Connell, in his anti slavery edict? Both find their resting-place in the Ballot Boxes of American Republicans! O'Con- nell, in his Edict of hypocrisy, makes bold reference to the Bull of Pope Gregory, as the fountain of his authority. He avows himself the Emissary of the Papal power! He commands the Irish Catholics to carry out his pious intentions at the Ballot box, by " voting for none" who will not engage in " the struggle." Let it be a struggle. America will never tamely surrender her Ballot box to the Bulls of the Pope of Rome ! The Church of Rome ! Gracious Heaven ! do we live to exhort Ameri- cans to beware of the wiles of Popery ! Do we live to hear and to know, that a power founded in the degraded enslavement of the human un- derstanding, aye, of the human race, has dared to lift its Gorgon head of Infallibility in the free clime of this glorious abode of light, know- ledge, education, virtue, science and reason? Even so. The Bull of Pope Gregory bears on its face the distorted features of Ambition. He leaps into the saddle of a popular excitement, with the agility of a warrior, falchion in hand, helmet on his crest, and battle axe on his saddle bow. He dares all the Christian world to eschew African slavery ! In what epoch of Christian History did the Pope of Rome ever dry the tear of wretchedness, or unbind the fetters of bond- 19 age 7 The simulation of benevolence from that source, the fountain of all slavery, is too gross an hypocrisy to be treated with patience. If sincere, why not — as I before asked — why not institute Abolition So- cieties instead of Repeal Associations? Why not appropriate the con- tents of the " Rent Bag" to the emancipation of the colored slave ? mic- tion is the test of sincerity. The benevolence of words, contradicted by actions, are but the playthings of hypocrites — the tools of impostors. What, then, is the plain inference from all this jumble of mouth pa- triotism and lip-philanthropy ? Why simply this. Rome wants her powers enlarged to the utmost limits of this New World — yet uncursed by the contentions of the Bigot — the fires of the Inquisition — the tor- tures of State power, inflamed by spiritual vengeance. By direct means, she despairs of attaining this darling object, because all men revolt from the double thraldom of soul and body — more galling than the African's chains — more degrading than the slave's toil. Abolition attracted her attention, as a proper vehicle into which she could spring, and ride into the favor of the people ! Not that Pope Gregory or Dan. O'Connell care a straw whether Africans are bound in fetters, or dance, free as the wind, to the merry notes of the melodious banjo ! Let Popery triumph through Abolition, and who dare tell his infallible Holiness that he has proved false to his pledge, by neglecting to fulfil the grand ostensible object of his crusade of popularity ? Having thus demonstrated the duplicity of the great " Agitator" of Repeal ; having shown his ostensible object not to be his real aim ; hav- ing proved the ulterior end of his labours, from his own mouth, to be the advancement of Papal domination; having stripped from him the bor- rowed plumes of Philanthropy, with which he had clothed the carcase of a demagogue, to conceal the deformity of the Pope's emissary ; hav- ing shown the object of O'Connell to be identical with that of Pope Gregory — the propagation of Roman Catholic opinions, and the con- centration of Irish Catholic votes, as a means of wresting this free and vast empire into the extension of the Papal authority, I now pause for a moment, to ask a simple question, dictated alike by common sense, love of country, love of truth, love of humanity. A question which, had Pope Gregory asked, or had his college of learned cardinals in- formed him on, would have saved his Holiness the trouble of all this machinery of Repeal Associations and slavery sympathy. Had O'Con- nell, with the natural sagacity peculiar to Irish minds, paused to ask the question which I am now about to put, to solve, and to answer, he would have been saved the trouble of all that turbid stream of filthy scurrility which, with a tact and a taste peculiar to himself, he has vomited upon the fair fame of our unsullied, our free, our noble, our sublime Republic! Scurrillity uncalled for; abuse unmerited; vitu- peration that recoils on the head of the unmanly traducer, who struck in the dark, and fell by the force of his own blow. What Government first proclaimed the doctrine of African Emanci- pation? This is the simple question I propose. Is not this a plain and simple question ? so I answer — the Government of the United Slates!* African Eman- cipation had its first seed flung upon the earth from the Declaration of American Independence. "All men are free and equal." The Federal Constitution of the United States, framed by those acting on the same principle, as the Declaration of Independence, contained a clause, abolishing' the slave trade at a prospective period. This clause is so important that I must quote it word for word — Sec. 9. P. I, the Constitution ordains — that