ADDRESS FROM AMERICA TO THE CONFEDERATION.
Liberty to Ireland - honor to France - France is a
Republic - tyranny is prostrate - now is Ireland's
opportunity.
She is united, therefore, strong - she is brave, therefore
shall triumph - honor eternal to her people, who though
oppressed grievously for seven centuries, never gave up,
but still bravely battle on for freedom.
Rally, then, friends of Ireland, and attend the large mass
meeting to be held on Monday evening next, the 10th inst.,
at the Museum Building Ninth and George street. Let the
friends of Ireland, native and adopted citizens, be all there
to give Ireland a helping hand - to bid her God speed in the
struggle, and address to her a kindly word to cheer her on.
Let the orange and green be blended with the red, white,
and blue, and the watchword be - liberty - equality -
Ireland, and nationality.
By order of the Executive Committee,
ROBERT TYLER, Chairman.
Francis Tiernan, James Faye,
Joseph Diamond, John Kellion,
John B. Colahan, James Gibbons,
William H. Dunn,
Pursuant to the forgoing call, an
IMMENSE MEETING
to honor France and to encourage Ireland, was held at the
Chinese Museum on Monday evening, the 10th of April
instant.
A fine band stationed at the upper end of the saloon
enlivened the meeting with patriotic airs during the evening.
The French, American, and Irish National airs, were
received with hearty cheers.
The Hon. John Swift, Mayor of the city, called the
meeting to order, who, previously to naming the individuals
selected to preside, in a few remarks of a beautifully and
powerfully eloquent character, stated the object of the
meeting, and referred to the great crisis in Europe which
had called it together. The Mayor then nominated the
following gentlemen as officers of the meeting, who were,
President - Robert Tyler.
VICE PRESIDENTS:
Hon. John Swift, Dennis Mealey,
Hon. Anson V. Parsons, Edward M'Gowran [McGowran?],
Francis Tiernan, Bernard Sharkey,
Doctor Joseph G. Naucride, Hon. J.F. Beesterling,
Hon. W.D. Kelly, George Plitt,
John Price Wetherell, James H. Can,
John M. Reed, J.C. Montgomery,
Joseph R. Chandler, Alex Browne,
Colonel James Page, Colonel R. Flannagan [Flanagan?],
Ex-Sheriff M'Michael [McMichael?], Hon. Charles Gibbons,
General John Davis, William Maroney,
George Edwards, James M'Cann [McCann?],
Alderman J. Thompson, William H. Dunne,
Hon. James Campbell, John Walters,
John T. Coleman, Robert Morris,
James Lucas, John Binns,
Henry Crilly, Nath. Holland,
John Roddy, John C. Formey,
Thomas Doyle, W. White,
Francis E. Brady, John W. Staples,
Colonel John Thompson, Thomas M'Cully,
F. Convey, Captain J. Diamond,
James Kennedy, Colonel T.B. Florence,
Patrick Convey, J.S. Sohillinger,
Thomas M'Grath, Francis Diamond,
General G.M. Keine, Daniel Kenniff,
Hon. R.T. Conrad, Alex. Diamond,
Miles D. Sweeny, Thomas Farley,
Major John Maitland, Charles Brady,
J.A. Phillips, Doctor T.J.P. Stokes,
Colonel Francis Cooper, Daniel Barr,
James Gibbons, Cornelius M'Cauly [McCauley?],
John Maguire, Michael Keenan,
Wm [William?] J. Reid, John Egan,
Alderman Fletcher, Colonel James Goodman.
Recorder R.M. Lee,
SECRETARIES:
James Faye, Captain J. Killion,
Hon. Richard Vaux, John Maguire,
Captain J.B. Colahan, George C. Collins,
Daniel M. Fox, M.J. Dougherty [Dogherty?],
David Webster, Colonel J.S. Dusolle,
William G. Laws, Dr. P.M. O'Brien,
Mayor F. Mullan, John Doyle,
Hugh Barr, George W. Richards,
Colonel William Dickson, Richard R. Spain.
Captain A. Brazier,
Mr. Tyler, on taking the chair, made an able, dignified,
and eloquent speech, which was enthusiastically cheered.
John B. Colahan, Esq., then read the following address
from the pen of Robert Tyler, Esq., amid great applause.
It was unanimously adopted. The band then played the
Marsellaise hymn:-
IRISHMEN - In the Providence of Almighty God a period
has now arrived in the history of your country, so long and
ardently desired by all those who hope for its regeneration
and happiness.
Your grievances are many and the world knows them by
heart. For more than six centuries Ireland has not known
one hour of just and national government; her trust, often
reposed in the British government, has been just as often
betrayed; her people have been divided by a wicked and
cruel policy, the one against the other; her commerce has
been destroyed by a course of unpitying legislators; by the
same means her manufactures have been ruined, her lands
have been encumbered with foreign mortgages and
burdened with insupportable taxation; Christianity itself, a
source of increased consolation, solace, and true happiness
in Ireland into an instrument of torture and the vilest
tyrannies. Thousands of the children have been compelled to
quit the country of their birth and to wander as exiles on
distant shores, because on Irish soil there was to be found
neither sustenance for their bodies nor peace for their
souls. The population that has remained has been decimated by
famine and pestilence. All those heavy grievances are the
social and political results produced by a government which
has confessed itself before all mankind to be unwilling or
unable to secure and sustain public liberty and public
prosperity in Ireland. Heavy, indeed, have been her chains
and long her captivity. But we fervently hope the days of
her bondage and persecution are now at last coming to an end,
hat the manacles are falling from her limbs, and that she
stands on the verge of a new and happier existence. We,
therefore, who enjoy so much liberty and happiness, and who
would see the same measure of of liberty and happiness
extended to our human brethren throughout the world, seize
this occasion, so auspicious with its mingled realities and
hopes, to address you, to sympathise with you, to counsel
you, to encourage you in the procession of the great and
glorious and sacred work in which you are now engaged.
Irishmen! the people of America not only regard you
with respect, but there are associations with you and
ourselves in our past and present relations to each other,
which fill us with a sentiment of affectional interest in
your welfare. We respect you for the grievances and
misfortunes which you have so nobly borne - for the
resolution with which, though prostrate beneath the tyrant
sword, you have ever met his demand and purposes with looks
of pride and scorn - for the bold and persevering assertion
of your national rights made from first to last - for the
contest you have conducted perhaps soon to terminate in a
successful issue with a powerful and remorseless enemy,
whose ingenuity and power have been exhausted in expedients
to overwhelm you by resistance, and to disgrace your honor
and integrity - and for your proverbial national traits of
bravery, gallantry, and generosity. We are inspired with a
feeling of fraternal kindness when in addition to all this
we reflect that the names of Irishmen appear repeatedly upon
the brightest pages of our country's history - that the bones
of hundreds who fell in battle while aiding us in defence of
our homes and liberties have scarcely yet disappeared from
the fields of our revolutionary conflicts. When we reflect
that there are among us thousands of American citizens
sons of the same fathers with yourselves - whose Celtic
blood beating with its ancient and accustomed valour through
their veins, has carried them in time of war foremost in our
armies against the bayonets of the foe, while in time of
peace, always rendering prompt obedience to the laws they
have assisted by their industrious habits and pursuits, and
their patriotic energies, to make the American Union what it
now is, the example and glory of the world. Turning from the
patient, though proud endurance with which you have
suffered years of oppression, insult and wrong, we look
now with constant hope for the day Ireland shall become a
free, happy, and independent nation will be hailed by us with
joy and universal congratulation.
Irishmen! we do not speak of freedom and independence
without fully comprehending the value of these terms. We
believe, nay we know, that the prosperity, happiness, and
glory of our country has been the result of our free
government. How did we make such a government? The
constitution under which we live was not the work of a
day - was not the absolute decree of an hour springing from
a party or a faction, but was produced laboriously - by the
exercise of the most fervent patriotism on the part of the
whole people, in a predetermined resolution of concession
and compromise of individual and sectional interests and
feelings, and consequently emanated from the hands of its
great authors reflecting the popular will. A work of
enlightened charity and justice - a work of national liberty
- a work blessed in its conception, progress, and results by
God himself, while, since our national birth, other nations,
tore to pieces by personal and petty jealousies, hatred and
distractions, have withered and perished in their vice and
imbecility, and union practically attests how much strength,
success, dignity, and virtue always lie in the conduct,
character and policy of an united people. Thus it has
happened by the admirable spirit of their fraternal faith
towards and in each other, the United Colonies, though
feeble in resources and poor in population, beat back the
armies and fleets of Great Britain, and achieved their
independence. By the act and voice of a people, determined
in despite of all subordinate questions of difference to
stand united, the constitution of the United States was
created - a miracle of logical combination and republican
statesmanship. And thus, by the influence of the union of
feeling and action, which has since prevailed among the
citizens of our numerous confederated States, our country
has become, considering the period of its duration, the
proudest, wealthiest, and happiest of which the annals of
time afford any record.
You no doubt, have received, as we have done with
passionate gratification, the startling intelligence of the
successful revolution in France. France, too, is now a
Republic. It is indeed a glorious thought and a mighty fact,
happy for France, happier in the fruits it may bear,
perhaps, for mankind. The American Confederacy, through
one minister plenipotentiary, was the first to extend a
friendly embrace to the new Republic, and to rejoice that
the same effulgent light of liberty which gleams upon the
stars and stripes illumines the tricolor. The revolution
which has taken place in France deserves, as it no doubt
has met, your consideration in its every detail. It may be
important to the people of Ireland to observe that the great
Lamartine has declared in behalf of the Provisional
Government, which he largely represents, that France boldly
commits herself, as one of the leading principles of the
Republican morality, to the aid and assistance of any people
in Europe struggling for freedom through a reconstruction of
this form of government against the armed efforts of any
despot force then into submission. It will be highly
important to notice the easy, deliberate, and peaceful manner
by which the people accomplished the overthrow of the
condemned monarchy. But it will be still more important
to observe the powerful fact, as a matter both of inquiry and
example, that the French people were united in their efforts,
and that herein is seen the secret of their bloodless and
extraordinary success. There were amongst them in this
successful movement no religious prejudices, no class
distinctions, no mere political animosities, but
concentrating themselves on great principles which they
deemed to be necesary to form the basis of public order and
liberty. All France moved as one man, and the King, with his
strong and costly fortifications, and with all his means of
corruption, was swept away, as a feather upon the moving
waters of the sea.
Men of Ireland! we by no means desire to pledge you to
open revolution or to any particular line of policy. We
trust in your intelligence and virtue, and firmly believe
that course will be pursued best calculated for the
attainment of a prosperous result. But we venture to say
that with you as with the people of France, free government
can only be created in an united action on the part of men
of all classes, creeds, and opinions; and we conjure you, as
you reverence the memory of O'Connell - as you feel your
present condition of bondage and misery from which you would
escape by those anticipations of natural freedom and
happiness which crown the brightening future - by all you
hold sacred and valuable in life - we conjure you to forget
all domestic difference and dissensions, and stand together
for emancipation and your country's glory. If then you feel
that the time has come freighted with the glorious prospects
of your liberation - strike - strike fast and heavy and all
together, till Ireland shall belong to herself alone, and
the green flag, the emblem of sovereignty, lost and bravely
won, shall wave once again on the ancient capital of your
beloved land.
Alderaman John Binns here read the following resolutions,
which were adopted with the loudest acclamations:-
Resolved - That the people of the United States have
demonstrated the most important of all political problems,
that in peace and in war the people are not only capable of
self-government, but that they are the wisest, best, and
most provident of governors.
Resolved - That we rejoice with an exceeding joy at the
facility with which the brave and enlightened people of
France and her gallant army recently overthrew and drove
from her soil a corrupt and tyrannical government; and we
heartily thank them for the glorious example which they
have given to the people and the soldiers of other nations.
Resolved - That the history of Ireland from the reign of
Henry II. to that of Queen Victoria, more than 600 years,
is but a detail of merciless cruelties, broken treaties,
oppressive legislation, repeated confiscations, and the
infliction of sufferings of every kind.
Resolved - That the men of '98, by their desperate valour
in the counties of Wicklow and Wexford gave undeniable
proof that the united Ireland with a firm reliance on the
protection of "Divine Providence" is able to conquer and
maintain herself as a free and independent nation.
Resolved - That a country which for ages has fought the
battles of her tyrants, acquired for her territory and glory,
and furnished them with prime ministers and
commanders-in-chief, of whom they are justly proud, can never
want statesmen or soldiers.
Resolved - That an island with a population of eight
millions of established character for courage, is large
enough to constitute a nation, and too large to remain a
province.
Resolved - That at a period when Europe trembles as
though convulsed by an earthquake when tyrants tread her
soil, we do not doubt that the men of Ireland will do their
duty to their country and the human family.
Resolved - That the women of Ireland, ardent in their
love of country, will affectionately and courageously
discharge whatever high and ordinary duties may devolve upon
them.
And, whereas, at a meeting of the friends of Ireland it
is becoming to call to mind an eminent benefactor,
one whose tact, talents, and devoted labours of love enabled
him to confer political freedom and liberty of
conscience on dear native Erin - Whereupon be it, and it
hereby is -
Resolved - That this meeting entertain a deep and
abiding sense of the devotion to freedom which characterised
Daniel O'Connell, and which will cause his name to
descend to posterity as one of the favoured few who
impress their powerful minds upon the age in which they
live and are distinguished by the benefits they confer upon
mankind.
On the motion of Wm. [William?] H. Dunne, Esq.,
Resolved - That acommittee of twenty-two be
appointed as an executive committee to take charge of
matter in relation to Ireland in the coming position of
events, and to take such action as they deem most fitting
under the circumstances which may disclose themselves.
Resolved - That the following named gentlemen compose
that committee:-
Robert Tyler, Doctor P.M. O'Brien,
Francis Tiernan, Alderman John Binns,
Captain J.B. Colahan, Joseph R. Chandler,
Captain Joseph Diamond, Col. Thos [Thomas?] B. Florence,
James Faye, Wm. [William?] Doherty,
Col. John W. Forney, Miles D. Sweeney,
Charles Gibbons, Alex. [Alexander?] Wilson,
John W. Staples, Barthw. Kenniff,
Col. W. Dickson, Cornelius M'Cauley,
Captain John Killion, Charles D. Lybrand,
James Gibbons, John Maguire,
On the motion of Mr. H. Dunne it was unanimously
and enthusiastically adopted:-
Resolved - That this meeting cordially and unanimously
sympathises with Messrs. Smith O'Brien, Meagher, and
Mitchel, Irish chiefs and patriots, in the unjustifiable and
unconstitutional arrests to which they have been subjected by
a tyrant government for the public expression of free
sentiments, the prevention of which in France has hurled a
tyrant from his throne, and the insisting upon the exercise
of which has immortalised the French people, and secured
to them a free and independent government.
R. [Robert?] TYLER, President.
Mr. O'Gorman resumed. He said - It appears, my
countrymen, the freemen of America think well of you - they
believe that you are determined not to lag behind the
rest of the world, nor to falter in your efforts until
by firmness, unity, and perseverance, you achieve the
accomplishment of your country's freedom. All this
is to be proved, and until it is proved, I know
not what answer should be given to this address.
(Hear.) If you are willing to remain month after
month and year after year pursuing the same aimless
course - if you are content for ever to see some
agitation or the other, dragging its slow length along - if
you permit the day of freedom to be indefinitely
postponed - better would it be that no answer whatever
should be sent to your American friends. But, on the other
hand, if you feel the resolution within you - if you have
the determined will that your country shall be free, than I
would recommend that the answer to that address should
emanate from the legislative assembly of Ireland in
College-green. (Great cheering.) And, allow me to add, I
would advise you not to incur the imputation of being
bad correspondents, by delaying your answer for
any long time. (Laughter and enthusiastic cheering.)
With regard to the projected union between both
bodies of Repealers, of which so much has been spoken,
and which all of us have long desired so ardently, I for
one, as well as the rest of my brother Confederates, will
give every exertion and devote every energy that I
command to the end of making that union permanent
and effectual. (Cheers.) I will strive that the body
thus united shall not be united for the purposes of party;
it shall not be united for speechifying - (hear, hear) - or
for the collection of money - (hear, hear) - not united
for effecting registries, or for electing members of
parliament, or for any such round-about proceedings.
(cheers.) The tendency of that body and its operation shall
be direct and immediate. (Loud cheering.) Sir, I believe
that now the mission of this Confederation is, indeed,
at an end. (Hear.) The principles you confided to us to
uphold and defend we have upheld and defended.
(Loud cheers.) They were then the principles of a
party - they now constitute the creed of a nation. (Loud
cheers.) We have done our part. We have pointed out
to you a straight path to freedom. We can do little
more - it is for the people to follow it, if they will.
(Cheers.) Above all things remember this, Confederations,
associations, or leagues of themselves can do
nothing - it is the people who can and must do all. (Hear,
hear.) this league may strengthen, assist, or direct
public opinion - it can form clubs and organise them.
It cannot supply courage - it cannot procure arms or
use them. (Cries of hear, hear.) All this the people
must do for themselves; and if their own common
sense - if their own manly instincts do not point out to
them their duty in this regards, leagues, and unions,
and public meetings will be of no avail. (Cheers.) I have
only to say that it is my conviction that the energy
which this Confederation can bring to bear upon our
common object, when in union with the other body of
Repealers, will effect much - all that any such association
can effect to attain, the glorious results we have
all so long and ardently desired - the independent
legislation of This island. Mr. O'Gorman retired amid
loud cheering.
