II

I have named Tone and Davis and Lalor and Mitchel as the four among us

moderns who have chiefly developed the conception of an Irish nation.

Others, I have said, have for the most part only interpreted and

illustrated what has been taught by these; these are the Fathers and the

rest are just their commentarists. And I need not repeat here my reasons

for naming no other with these unless the other be Parnell, whom I name

tentatively as the man who saw most deeply and who spoke most splendidly

for the Irish nation since the great seers and speakers. I go on to

examine what these have taught of Irish freedom. And first as to Tone.

He stands first in point of time, and first in point of greatness.

Indeed, he is, as I believe, the greatest man of our nation; the

greatest-hearted and the greatest-minded.

We have to consider here Tone the thinker rather than Tone the man of

action. The greatest of our men of action since Hugh O’Neill, he is the

greatest of all our political thinkers. His greatness, both as a man and

as a thinker, consists in his sheer reality. There is no froth of

rhetoric, no dilution of sentimentality in Tone; he has none even of the

noble oratoric quality of a Mitchel. A man of extraordinarily deep

emotion, he nevertheless thought with relentless logic, and his

expression in exposition or argument is always the due and inevitable

garb of his thought. He was a great visionary; but, like all the great

visionaries, he had a firm grip upon realities, he was fundamentally

sane.

It is necessary at times to insist on Tone’s intellectual austerity,

because the man’s humanity was so gracious that his human side

constantly overshadows, for us as for his contemporaries, his grave

intellectual side. Most men of his greatness are loved at best by a few,

feared or disliked or mistrusted by the many. Tone was one of the

extremely rare great men whose greatness is crowned by those gifts of

humility and sweetness that compel affection. Some men are misunderstood

because they are disliked; a few men are in danger of being

misunderstood because they are loved. If the greatest thing in Tone was

his heroic soul, the soul that was gay in death and defeat, the second

greatest thing was his austere and piercing intellect. That intellect

has dominated Irish political thought for over a century. It has given

us our political definitions and values. Constantly we refer doctrines

and leaders and policies to its standards, measuring them by the mind of

Tone as an American measures men and policies by the minds that shaped

the Declaration of Independence. Tone’s mind was in a very true sense a

revolutionary mind. The spokesmen of the French Revolution itself did

not base things more fundamentally on essential right and justice than

Tone did, did not pierce through outer strata to a firmer bedrock than

he found. And it was an original mind. Influenced no doubt by

contemporary minds, and responsive to every thought-wave that vibrated

in either hemisphere, Tone for the most part worked out his own

political system in his own way. He did not inherit or merely accept his

principles; he thought himself into them.

Tone’s first political utterance was a pamphlet in defence of the Whig

Club, entitled “A Review of the last Session of Parliament” (1790). Of

this pamphlet he writes in his Autobiography:

“... Though I was very far from entirely approving the system of

the Whig Club, and much less their principles and motives, yet,

seeing them at the time the best constituted political body

which the country afforded, and agreeing with most of their

positions, though my own private opinions went infinitely

farther, I thought I could venture on their defence without

violating my consistency.”

The pamphlet contains no definitely Separatist teaching. Before the end

of the year, however, Tone had found his voice. It is a Separatist that

speaks in “The Spanish War” (1790), but a cautious Separatist, one who

is feeling his way. Tone himself describes the expansion of his views

which had taken place between the publication of his first and his

second pamphlets:

“A closer examination into the history of my native country had

very considerably extended my views, and, as I was sincerely and

honestly attached to her interests, I soon found reason not to

regret that the Whigs had not thought me an object worthy of

their cultivation. I made speedily what was to me a great

discovery, though I might have found it in Swift and Molyneux,

that the influence of England was the radical vice of our

Government, and consequently that Ireland would never be either

free, prosperous, or happy until she was independent, and that

independence was unattainable whilst the connection with England

existed.”

Accordingly:

“On the appearance of a rupture with Spain, I wrote a pamphlet

to prove that Ireland was not bound by the declaration of war,

but might, and ought, as an independent nation, to stipulate for

a neutrality. In examining this question, I advanced the

question of separation, with scarcely any reserve, much less

disguise; but the public mind was by no means so far advanced as

I was, and my pamphlet made not the slightest impression.”

The pamphlet, in fact, tended to prove the impossibility of Grattan’s

constitution, _i.e._, of the co-existence of a British connection with a

sovereign Irish Parliament. It did not propound this in so many words,

but the logical conclusion from its extraordinarily able and subtle

argument is that no “half-way house” is possible as a permanent solution

of the issue between Ireland and England. There were and are only two

alternatives: an enslaved Ireland and a free Ireland. A “dual monarchy”

is, in the nature of things, only a temporary expedient.

In 1790 Tone met Thomas Russell. Theirs was the most memorable of Irish

friendships. It was in conversations and correspondence with Russell

that Tone’s political ideas reached their maturity. When he next speaks

it is with plenary meaning and clear definition. Towards the end of 1790

he made his first attempt in political organisation. He founded a club

of seven or eight members “eminent for their talents and patriotism and

who had already more or less distinguished themselves by their literary

productions.” It was a failure, and the failure satisfied Tone that “men

of genius, to be of use, must not be collected in numbers.” In 1791

Russell went to Belfast. An attempt of Russell’s to induce the Belfast

Volunteers to adopt a declaration in favour of Catholic emancipation,

which Tone had prepared at his request, was unsuccessful. Russell wrote

to Tone an account of the discussion, and, says Tone:

“It immediately set me thinking more seriously than I had yet

done upon the state of Ireland. I soon formed my theory, and on

that theory I have invariably acted ever since.

“To subvert the tyranny of our execrable Government, to break

the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our

political evils, and to assert the independence of my

country--these were my objects. To unite the whole people of

Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to

substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the

denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter--these were

my means.”

I have said that I hold all Irish nationalism to be implicit in these

words. Davis was to make explicit certain things here implicit, Lalor

certain other things. But the Credo is here: “I believe in One Irish

Nation and that Free.”

Tone had convinced himself as to the end and the means. And now for

work:

“I sat down accordingly, and wrote a pamphlet addressed to the

Dissenters, and which I entitled ‘An Argument on behalf of the

Catholics of Ireland,’ the object of which was to convince them

that they and the Catholics had but one common interest and one

common enemy; that the depression and slavery of Ireland was

produced and perpetuated by the divisions existing between them,

and that, consequently, to assert the independence of their

country, and their own individual liberties, it was necessary to

forget all former feuds, to consolidate the entire strength of

the whole nation, and to form for the future but one people.”

This pamphlet, signed “A Northern Whig,” gave Tone his place in Irish

politics. The Catholic leaders approached him and commenced the

connection which led ultimately to his selection as their agent; the

Volunteers of Belfast elected him an honorary member of their corps. He

was soon afterwards invited to Belfast, where he founded, with Russell,

Neilson, the Simmses, Sinclair, and MacCabe, the first club of United

Irishmen. Tone wrote for the United Irishmen the following declaration:

“In the present great era of reform when unjust governments are

falling in every quarter of Europe; when religious persecution

is compelled to abjure her tyranny over conscience; when the

Rights of Man are ascertained in Theory and that Theory

substantiated by Practice; when antiquity can no longer defend

absurd and oppressive forms against the common sense and common

interests of mankind; when all government is acknowledged to

originate from the people, and to be so far only obligatory as

it protects their rights and promotes their welfare; we think it

our duty as Irishmen to come forward and state what we feel to

be our heavy grievance, and what we know to be its effectual

remedy.

“We have no National Government; we are ruled by Englishmen and

the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of

another country; whose instrument is corruption; whose strength

is the weakness of Ireland; and these men have the whole of the

power and patronage of the country as means to seduce and subdue

the honesty and the spirit of her representatives in the

legislature. Such an extrinsic power, acting with uniform force

in a direction too frequently opposite to the true line of our

obvious interests, can be resisted with effect solely by

unanimity, decision, and spirit in the people, qualities which

may be exerted most legally, constitutionally, and efficaciously

by that great measure essential to the prosperity and freedom of

Ireland--an equal Representation of all the People in

Parliament....”

The declaration was not openly Separatist. Tone, however, avows that,

while not yet definitely a republican, his ultimate goal even as early

as 1791 was Separation: the union of Irishmen was to be but a means to

an end. Commenting on the foundation (9th November, 1791) of the Dublin

Club of United Irishmen, in which the republican Tandy co-operated with

him, Tone writes:

“For my own part, I think it right to mention that, at this time

the establishment of a Republic was not the immediate object of

my speculations. My object was to secure the independence of my

country under any form of government, to which I was led by a

hatred of England so deeply rooted in my nature that it was

rather an instinct than a principle. I left to others, better

qualified for the inquiry, the investigation and merits of the

different forms of government, and I contented myself with

labouring on my own system, which was luckily in perfect

coincidence as to its operation with that of those men who

viewed the question on a broader and juster scale than I did at

the time I mention.”

Thus, Tone in November 1791 had not yet settled his views on abstract

theories of government, but on the practical business of separating

Ireland from England his resolve was fixed and unshakable.

In June 1791 there had been issued a secret Manifesto to the Friends of

Freedom in Ireland which is attributed to Tone in collaboration with

Neilson and others. Tone himself makes no reference to this document in

his Autobiography. If it is really his it is the nearest approach to a

formulation of the theory of freedom which we have from the mind of this

essentially practical statesman. Whether it be Tone’s or another’s, it

is one of the noblest utterances of the age and it is a document of

primary importance in the history of Ireland. It may be described as the

first manifesto of modern Irish democracy. It bases the Irish claim to

freedom on the bedrock foundation of human rights:

“This society is likely to be a means the most powerful for the

promotion of a great end. What end? _The Rights of Man in

Ireland._ The greatest happiness of the greatest numbers in this

island, the inherent and indefeasible claims of every free

nation to rest in this nation--the will and the power to be

happy, to pursue the common weal as an individual pursues his

private welfare, and to stand in insulated independence, an

imperatorial people.

“The greatest happiness of the Greatest Number.--On the rock of

this principle let this society rest; by this let it judge and

determine every political question, and whatever is necessary

for this end let it not be accounted hazardous, but rather our

interest, our duty, our glory, and our common religion: The

Rights of Man are the Rights of God, and to vindicate the one is

to maintain the other. We must be free in order to serve Him

whose service is perfect freedom....

“‘Dieu et mon Droit’ (God and my right) is the motto of kings.

‘Dieu et la liberté’ (God and liberty), exclaimed Voltaire when

he beheld Franklin, his fellow-citizen of the world. ‘Dieu et

nos Droits’ (God and our rights)--let every Irishman cry aloud

to each other the cry of mercy, of justice, and of victory.”

_The Rights of Man in Ireland_ is almost an adequate definition of Irish

freedom. And the historic claim of Ireland has never been more worthily

stated than in these words: “_The inherent and indefeasible claims of

every free nation to rest in this nation--the will and the power to be

happy, to pursue the common weal as an individual pursues his private

welfare, and to stand in insulated independence, an imperatorial

people._”

The deep and radical nature of Tone’s revolutionary work, the subtlety

and power of the man himself, cannot be grasped unless it is clearly

remembered that _this_ is the secret manifesto of the movement of which

the carefully constitutional declaration of the United Irishmen is the

public manifesto. Tone himself, in a letter to Russell at the beginning

of 1792, admits his ulterior designs while at the same time laying

stress on the necessity of caution in public utterances. Referring to

the declaration of the United Irishmen, he says:

“The foregoing contains my true and sincere opinion of the state

of this country, _so far as in the present juncture it may be

advisable to publish it_. They certainly fall short of the

truth, but truth itself must sometimes condescend to temporise.

My unalterable opinion is that the bane of Irish prosperity is

in the influence of England: I believe that influence will ever

be extended while the connection between the countries

continues; nevertheless, as I know that opinion is, _for the

present_, too hardy, though a very little time may establish it

universally, I have not made it a part of the resolutions, I

have only proposed to set up a reformed parliament, as a barrier

against that mischief which every honest man that will open his

eyes must see in every instance overbears the interest of

Ireland: I have not said one word that looks like a wish for

_separation_, though I give it to you and your friends as my

most decided opinion that such an event would be a regeneration

to this country.”

In 1792 Tone became agent to the General Committee of the Catholics.

Before the end of the year his dream of a union between the Catholics

and the Dissenters was an accomplished fact. In December the Catholic

Convention met. Catching Tone’s spirit, it demanded complete

emancipation. The Government proposed a compromise to the leaders. Tone

was against any compromise, but the Catholic leaders yielded.

“Merchants, I see, make bad revolutionists,” commented Tone. The Act of

1793, admitting Catholics to the Parliamentary franchise, marks the end

of Tone’s “constitutional” period. He pressed on towards Separation,

adopting revolutionary methods. The United Irishmen were reorganised as

a secret association, with “a Republican Government and Separation from

England” as its aims. In 1795 Tone, compromised by his relations with

Jackson, left Ireland for America. It was out of settled policy that at

this stage he chose exile rather than a contest with the Government. He

had already conceived the idea of appealing for help to the French

Republic. Shortly before he left Dublin he went out with Russell to

Rathfarnham, to see Thomas Addis Emmet.

“As we walked together into town I opened my plan to them both.

I told them that I considered my compromise with Government to

extend no further than the banks of the Delaware, and that the

moment I landed I was free to follow any plan which might

suggest itself to me, for the emancipation of my country.... I

then proceeded to tell them that my intention was, immediately

on my arrival in Philadelphia, to wait on the French Minister,

to detail to him, fully, the situation of affairs in Ireland, to

endeavour to obtain a recommendation to the French Government,

and, if I succeeded so far, to leave my family in America, and

to set off instantly for Paris, and apply, in the name of my

country, for the assistance of France to enable us to assert our

independence.”

To the fulfilment of this purpose Tone devoted the three years of life

that remained to him. He landed in France in 1796. The notes in his

Journal of his conferences with the representatives of the French

Government and the two masterly memorials which he submitted to the

Executive Directory remain the fullest and most practical statement, not

only of the necessity of Separation, but of the means by which

Separation is to be attained, that has been made by any Irishman. In the

concluding passage of his second memorial Tone sums up as follows:

“I submit to the wisdom of the French Government that England is

the implacable, inveterate, irreconcilable enemy of the

Republic, which never can be in perfect security while that

nation retains the dominion of the sea; that, in consequence,

every possible effort should be made to humble her pride and to

reduce her power; that it is in Ireland, _and in Ireland only_,

that she is vulnerable--a fact of the truth of which the French

Government cannot be too strongly impressed; that by

establishing a free Republic in Ireland they attach to France a

grateful ally whose cordial assistance, in peace and war, she

might command, and who, from situation and produce, could most

essentially serve her: that at the same time they cut off from

England her most firm support, in losing which she is laid under

insuperable difficulties in recruiting her army, and especially

in equipping, victualling, and manning her navy, which, unless

for the resources she drew from Ireland, she would be absolutely

unable to do; that by these means--and, suffer me to add, _by

these means only_--her arrogance can be effectually humbled, and

her enormous and increasing power at sea reduced within due

bounds--an object essential, not only to France, but to all

Europe; that it is at least possible, by the measures mentioned,

that not only her future resources, as to her navy, may be

intercepted and cut off at the fountain head, but that a part of

her fleet may be actually transferred to the Republic of

Ireland; that the Irish people are united and prepared, and want

but the means to begin: that, not to speak of the policy or the

pleasure of revenge in humbling a haughty and implacable rival,

it is in itself a great and splendid act of generosity, worthy

of the Republic, to rescue a whole nation from a slavery under

which they have groaned for six hundred years; that it is for

the glory of France, after emancipating Holland and receiving

Belgium into her bosom, to establish one more free Republic in

Europe; that it is for her interest to cut off for ever, as she

now may do, one-half of the resources of England, and lay her

under extreme difficulties in the employment of the other. For

all these reasons, in the name of justice, of humanity, of

freedom, of my own country, and of France herself, I supplicate

the Directory to take into consideration the state of Ireland;

and by granting her the powerful aid and protection of the

Republic, to enable her at once to vindicate her liberty, to

humble her tyrant, and to assume that independent station among

the nations of the earth for which her soil, her productions and

her position, her population and her spirit have designed her.”

Finally--after Bantry Bay, the Texel, and Lough Swilly--Tone before his

judges thus testified to his faith as a Separatist:

“I mean not to give you the trouble of bringing judicial proof

to convict me, legally, of having acted in hostility to the

Government of his Britannic Majesty in Ireland. I admit the

fact. From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection

between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish

nation, and felt convinced that, whilst it lasted, this country

could never be free nor happy. My mind has been confirmed in

this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year, and the

conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes.

In consequence, I determined to apply all the powers which my

individual efforts could move in order to separate the two

countries.

“That Ireland was not able, of herself, to throw off the yoke, I

knew. I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found. In

honourable poverty I rejected offers which, to a man in my

circumstances, might be considered highly advantageous. I

remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country, and

sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions

of my countrymen from....”

Here the prisoner was interrupted by the President of the Court-Martial.