An organization so wide-spread and so numerous as that of the Fenian
Brotherhood, it was not to expected that all its members, without an
exception, were good men and true; yet so rarely were traitors found
among its ranks, that no patriotic confraternity of its magnitude had
ever, in ancient or modern times, presented so pure a record in this
relation. When we take into consideration the fact that, the insidious
and subsidizing gold of England was brought to bear upon the frightful
poverty of the masses that composed the organization in Ireland, as well
as the temptations to treason held out by the government, through their
agents in the Republic of the United States of America, the wonder is
that there were not more Corydons and Masseys to do the work of the
usurper, and betray the cause to which they had sworn fealty. However,
there were traitors sufficient at work to cause great damage in
individual cases, and send many a brave fellow into the gloomy depths
of a British dungeon. Nearly all the injury in this connection, however,
appears to have been done at home, as treason of this character was
totally powerless under any foreign flag--or at least not so capable
of direct mischief. From the first moment of the inception of the
organization, the British and the Canadian governments had their paid
spies in and outside the American press, who kept the authorities well
informed as to all the particulars that transpired within the range of
their observation or through other channels; but these disclosures were
necessarily meagre and, in many cases, totally unreliable; from the
circumstance that those disreputable parties, for the purpose of
magnifying their importance, and securing further the patronage of their
employers, colored and distorted facts so terribly, that scarce a
line from their pens or a sentence from their lips was worthy even
the slightest credence. Still, from time to time, some little rumor
struggled to the surface, which pointed to treachery somewhere; and
thus it was that the authorities of the organization were often
placed awkwardly in relation to the idle though dangerous gossip which
occasionally singled out this individual or that, as the party who had
betrayed his trust. In the various cities along the American frontier,
there was from time to time a good deal of this gossip--a circumstance
that might have been quite easily accounted for; seeing that the
inhabitants of some of these places were in what might be termed hourly
intercommunication with the people of Canada; giving, in some cases,
rise to suspicions, which were in the main without any foundation. This
distrust, although affecting the stability or growing prosperity of the
Brotherhood in scarcely any degree, had yet the effect of strengthening
the hands of British sympathizers in the Union, and inducing them
to resolve themselves into little coteries or societies--such as was
hurriedly formed not long since under the influence and guidance of
Mr. H----, of Buffalo, for the ostensible purpose of aiding destitute
Canadians, but with the real design of keeping an eye upon Fenianism,
and disclosing, as far as the members could divine, all its intentions,
hopes and prospects, to the British government. Occasionally an
emissary, direct from Great Britain, in the guise of a lecturer or
tourist, visited these associations and received their report, which, as
far as was practicable, he verified by personal observation, and
through whatever reliable channels, he believed to be open to him. These
emissaries have been supplemented by others of a somewhat different
character, but all bearing upon the interests of England. In this latter
case, however, it has been the direct unfriendly relations between the
American government and that of Great Britain, which had stimulated the
pilgrimages of certain individuals of this class to the shores of the
great Republic. England perceiving that she had Fenianism to deal with
on the one hand, and American hostility, regarding her infamous course
during the late war, on the other, in her cowardly fears for the
consequences, backed up her anti-Fenian agents, by sending out such
persons as Mr. Charles Dickens and Mr. Henry Vincent, to prove to the
citizens of the Commonwealth how friendly the sentiments that England
had always entertained for them, and how disasterous a thing it would be
to both peoples, should a war, under any circumstances, be permitted to
take place between them. Both these gentlemen, and others, distinguished
and popular in their respective literary shades, went forth preaching
peace and good will between the Saxons on the one side of the Atlantic
and their so-called American cousins on the other. With an audacity
the most barefaced and unaccountable, upon every possible occasion,
opportune or otherwise, they wore the olive branch at their button-hole,
and described in periods the most eloquent, the identity of blood and
interests which characterized both nations, and which it were heinous
to ignore. Notwithstanding that for ninety long years their infamous
government had been indulging in the most heartless sneers, insults and
injustice towards the press, the people and the executive of the United
States--notwithstanding that during the late war every reverse of the
arms of the Republic was hailed with heartfelt joy by the English party,
both at home and in Canada, and that pirates were built and fitted out
under the very eyes of the British Cabinet, and with the secret sanction
of that corrupt horde, to make war upon American commerce and destroy
the Union in the hour of its extremity--notwithstanding all this, we
say, and maugre the kindred circumstance of subsidizing the South with
money and arms so as to prolong the fratracidal conflict until both
parties lay bloody and broken at the feet of English despotism, these
able and smooth-tongued gentry had the accursed assurance to stand up in
most of the principal cities of the Democracy, and assert broadly, that
England was the true and tried friend of republican institutions and of
the people who sustained them on the free continent of America. Under
the liberal laws which accord freedom of speech to every man who touches
the shores of the Republic, these men had, we know, a right to express,
publicly or otherwise, their sentiments in this connection, how
treacherous and untenable soever; but what we could never fathom, was
the daring of any journal professing to be true to the interests of
freedom or those of the Union, in endorsing those sentiments and setting
them forth to the world as truthful and worthy the acceptance of every
genuine American, no matter what his creed or party. An attempt so
monstrous to stullify all past experience and ignore all history has
never been made in any relation whatever; and the wonder is, that,
few as they are, so many Americans have been led astray by it. To any
individual, of even the most ordinary penetration, it must be obvious,
that the present cringing and treacherous attitude assumed by England
towards the American people, is but the mask of a foul and dangerous
spirit, snatched up in a moment of mortal fear to be worn only until
some opportune moment arrives when it can be thrown aside with safety,
revealing the old, familiar, demoniacal scowl which lurked unaltered
beneath its smiling exterior. America, to be true to herself, must
beware of such false lights, of the press as these. They are for
the most part subsidized by English gold, or so imbuded with English
sentiment, that the interests of the Union are quite a secondary
consideration with them. In evidence of the truth of this assertion, we
have only to dwell upon the apathy with which these journalists regard
the building up of a dangerous despotism upon our borders, in the very
teeth of American traditions and sentiments, and in opposition to the
feelings of the masses whom it effects more immediately, and who were
not permitted by their tyrants to express a single opinion at the polls
on so grave a subject as the total disruption or remodeling of the
constitution under which they lived. Look at the expression of Nova
Scotia on this head, and see how it reflects upon the course pursued
by the great American people in relation to the confederation of the
adjoining Provinces. Not long since the inhabitants of that section of
the New Dominion set forth, in a memorial to the British government,
that this same confederation was forced upon the people of the Canadas,
through falsehood, bribery and the vilest fraud. And, yet, free and
generous America, who assumes to be the day-star of freedom on this
continent, and to the world, permitted this despotic measure to be
enforced at her own threshold, and in relation to a people, thousands
upon thousands of whom sympathized with her interests and institutions,
and looked forward with longing eyes to the hour when the Stars and
Stripes should float from every flag-staff and tower throughout the
whole of the English possessions in the New World. Surely the missionary
spirit of the Republic has not been best illustrated in this instance;
nor can we discover now, how it is, that the authorities of the Union
sit quietly playing at thumbs, while the Parliament of the Dominion
is voting millions for the defenses of the new despotism, and framing
projects that are intended to result in a line of impregnable forts
from Sandwich to Gaspe, and at every point where it is possible for
an invader to set foot upon their shores. Wait until false, foul and
treacherous England can sit beneath the shadow of the guns of her infant
monarchy, on the Canadian frontier, and then see if she does not begin
to show her cloven foot anew. Let her once get a permanent foothold
among the newly projected fortresses along the St. Lawrence and the
Lakes, with Quebec as their key, and the peace and prosperity of
America, as well as the stability of republican institutions, cannot be
counted as secure, for a single day, from petty annoyance, or perhaps
inroads of a more formidable character. This idea may, we know, be
scouted by those who have a well grounded faith in the destiny of the
American people and the power they undoubtedly possess in a naval and
military point of view; but, after all, a gun is a gun and a garrison
a garrison; and to allow an implacable and formidable enemy to possess
herself of either, within range of our fire-sides, when we can prevent
it, is what we should call courting the presence of a bombshell on our
borders, that may at any moment be thrown into our midst.
Without dwelling further on this particular point, however, we may
observe, that through some of the channels already referred to, the
English government became aware, in 1865, that it was the intention of
the Irish Nationalists in the United States to make a descent, at no
distant day, upon Canada, and seize it as a basis of operations, with
a view to carrying out their projects for the redemption of Ireland. In
connexion with this information, they found, also, that the troops in
Canada were largely interspersed with Irishmen, and it was consequently
deemed necessary to send a secret agent to the Provinces to look into
the case and report upon it, or rather upon the sentiment of the Irish
element in the colony, whether in or out of the army, in relation to
Fenianism. This they thought could be best accomplished through the
instrumentality of a tried emissary of their own, as even from the
Provincial Cabinet conflicting accounts were arriving constantly in
relation to the all-important subject. In furtherance of this view, the
Castle of Dublin was, of course, applied to, and a creature selected
to do the work, who was not himself fully aware that his position was
recognized by the imperial Cabinet so decidedly, but simply fancied
himself in the capacity of a sort of trusty policeman, appointed by one
of the Castle authorities, who was anxious to know for himself how the
case stood on the other side of the Atlantic. This agent was one of the
cleverest of his class, and possessed of the most consummate cunning,
and a spirit of reckless daring but seldom evinced by members of his
tribe. Already he had rendered substantial service to the Viceroy and to
England, as an inveterate spy, and a scoundrel who had, on more than one
occasion, distinguished himself in the witness box. In addition to his
investigations in Canada, he was instructed to extend the line of his
observations to the United States also, and to move from point to point,
as his own judgment might dictate in the premises. He was, of course,
furnished with ample means to carry out successfully the project
intrusted to him; and although but little faith could be placed in his
integrity, so far as the disposal of the funds put in his hands were
concerned, yet, by an opportune circumstance, connected with his own
personal interest, and overriding any sum that was entrusted to him,
the Castle was enabled to hold him in check, no matter how he might be
tempted, or where he chanced to move. With his activity and fidelity
thus insured, this miserable wretch, who went in Dublin by the name
of Philip the Spy, was despatched on his mission, and, in due coarse
arriving at Quebec, set about it in his usual cautious and conning
manner. He visited the Citadel as a stranger, under the ordinary pass
from the Town Major, and soon made himself agreeable in the dark, low
canteen among the soldiers. Whenever he thought he discovered a young
and inexperienced Irishman among the rank and file, he was unusually
pleasant and communicative. With such a companion he always moved about
the garrison, descanting upon its force and power, and imperceptibly
stealing into his good graces, until he found some opportunity of
making an apparently accidental enquiry touching the information he was
desirous of obtaining. In this way he became possessed of the knowledge
that even Quebec held within its impregnable walls many a man who was
far from being the true friend of England, and who, as he surmised,
waited the opportunity of not only deserting her flag, but betraying
her stronghold into the hands of her enemies. In this state of things
he could not but discover the truthfulness of the beautiful line of
the poet, “_Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt_,” for he
perceived that the mighty waters of the great Atlantic were insufficient
to wash out the blood stains from the skirts of England in relation
to Ireland, or to remove the deep hatred of the exiled children of the
latter, towards a tyrannical power that had held them in bitter thrall
so unjustly and so long.
Satisfied of this, and of the additional fact, that the garrison was
invulnerable from the river side only, and that much of the artillery
that manned the citadel was all but worthless, on the pretense of being
a friend to the cause of Irish freedom and a deadly enemy to England,
he learned that not only were there many Fenian sympathizers within the
walls of the garrison, but that the city outside was literally alive
with similar friends, some of whom were to be found among the French
population, who had never forgotten England’s treatment of the First
Napoleon, or her conquest of Canada in the days of Wolf These he knew
himself were sore points with the Lower Canadians, and likely to bear
bitter fruit in relation to English interests in America, one day or
other. He perceived also that these facts, taken in connection with the
unfriendly feeling which England had engendered in the United States,
through the Alabama piracies and secret subsidies to the South during
the war that had just closed, would, tend to both foster and embolden
Fenianism, until it grew almost into an institution in the New World, or
became, at least, a leading idea with no inconsiderable portion of both
the Canadian and American people. He knew that every civilized nation
on the face of the earth, save England herself, sympathized with the
lamentable condition of the country to which he himself was a traitor;
and such being the case, he felt how easy it would be on the part of
these sympathizers, to find a means of justifying almost any measure
that might be adopted against the usurper, by the organization at home
and abroad. He saw and felt all this, and thus it became him to be
doubly cautious, as he could not but understand, that were his mission
divined by those whom he was now hourly betraying into positions of
death or danger, it would go hard with him indeed. In fact, the idea
struck him, that England, with all her boasting, was but little better
than a camp in America; and that, as in Ireland, she was surrounded here
also, by a hostile although a less demonstrative population.
And, certainly, a truer deduction than this has never been drawn from
any premises whatever. The nine tenths of the loyalty of Canada towards
the British Crown, is superficial and terribly unreliable. Subtract the
official and the Orange element from the masses, and they would drift at
once into the arms of the United States. The events of 1837 prove that
a strong undercurrent of American feeling exists in the colony, and
various subsequent disclosures prove that it is even now only restrained
by circumstances. When we find Canadian representatives on the floor of
the House of Assembly, threatening England with an appeal to Washington
in a certain connection, and when we see Americans filling some of the
highest offices in the Dominion, and sitting at the Council Table with
the representatives of royalty, we may be sure that the interests of
Great Britain are not in safe keeping in such an atmosphere, and that
such persons can always be brought to see how necessary it is to the
_material_ welfare of the inhabitants of the Canadas that they should
become part and parcel of the free and prosperous Republic of the
United States. They cannot fail to see, that in their present dependent
position,--lying, as they are, in the grasp of an English aristocrat,
unacquainted with their wants and wishes, and who sympathizes only with
the Crown, their trade, their commerce, and their internal resources
must suffer to a frightful extent. So long as they are outside the pale
of the Union and under the British flag, so long will a mighty war cloud
hang upon their borders, that is liable to roll in upon them at any
moment. The fact is fixed and unalterable, that the people of Ireland
have secured for all time a permanent footing on this continent, where
their numbers, wealth and influence have become irresistible, touching
any project that they may entertain within the limits of the American
Constitution. We say the American Constitution, for to this they have
sworn fealty, and its maintenance is to them a matter of the first
importance--a matter of life and death; from the fact, that it is to
its generous provisions and the liberal spirit of its framers and their
descendents, as well as to the kind sympathy of the American people in
general, that they now owe their all. Were it not for the noble stand
against tyranny taken by the heroes of 1765, and the subsequent glorious
career of the country they had freed from the grasp of the English
tyrant, Ireland should be still laden with chains the most hopeless;
but, now that free America has influenced her to higher aspirations than
she had ever felt previously in relation to human liberty and just and
enlightened government, it is probable that she shall become the first
fruits of American institutions on the despotic side of the Atlantic,
and raise her bright republican head, in the midst of the hoary
tyrannies of Europe, a glorious monument to the genius of American
liberty and power, as well as to the memory of the immortal heroes of
the war of Independence, who first taught manhood to the nations, and
hurled to the dust, beneath their feet, the foul and blood-stained
braggart who had sought to build up her despotic rule upon their virgin
shores. In no way can America so justify the purity and sincerity of
her soul in relation to her institutions, as by hurling them against the
despotisms of the old world, and diffusing amongst its peoples,
wherever she can with any degree of propriety, the blessings they are so
eminently calculated to impart. And no point stands more invitingly open
at the present moment for an experiment so indispensable to the true
prestige of her power and greatness, than Ireland. Self-evident as the
fact is, that that country has for generations been kept in slavery
at the point of the bayonet, and plundered and starved by an accursed
despot and her own deadly enemy, too, she can with the greatest
possible ease move in the direction of breaking those galling bonds, and
wreathing the poor, fleshless limbs, so long lacerated by them, with the
flowery links which so bind her own glorious children in one harmonious
and invincible whole. So long as Ireland lies groaning beneath the heel
of the usurper, so long shall America have failed in her mission, and
her duty towards God and man. She cannot be truly great, and sit down
beneath her own vine and fig tree, listlessly enjoying the blessings of
liberty, peace and plenty, while her kindred and friends lie in chains
on the opposite side of the Atlantic, or while the infamous flag of the
despot who oppresses them, and who but recently sought to stab her
to the heart, floats in triumph on her very borders. Both heaven and
humanity demand something more at her hands; and if actuated by no
higher motive than that of mere self-preservation, or of providing
against a rainy day, we would advise her, in view of the powerful
armaments and the ingrained antagonisms which characterize Europe in
every direction, to assist in establishing one friendly power at least
on the shores of the Old World, which, in the hour of need, would make
common cause with her in the interests of freedom, justice and truth.
This, and the fact of the attempt now being made by England to build
up an armed despotism in the New Dominion of Canada, are, in our humble
opinion, matters of the deepest moment to the great American people;
while we are equally convinced, that, should they neglect to avail
themselves of their right to interpose wherever human suffering of the
most heart-rending character obtains under the sway of a tyrant, or
where the peace and security of a whole continent is threatened, by
portentous and aggressive undertakings on its confines, the day
will arrive, and that speedily, when they will be afforded a bitter
opportunity of regretting their criminal apathy and neglect, without the
power of atoning for either.