-To O’Mahony from J. Hamilton (Stephens)-December 11, 1864
11 Dec.
1864, Dublin. 'Brother, As Mr.
C. [Philip Coyne]
leaves this tomorrow evening it must be manifest that even if I write all night
the present communication will be far from what it should be. But after what is
said in my last letter you can scarcely wonder at my having deferred writing
till the last moment. Such have been the trials of the past month especially
that but for your last remittance Mr. C. on leaving might have parted with a
dying man ; and if so he would, I fear, have
brought you news of a ruined cause. And this while our strength and discipline
were fully up to all that the most exigent at your side could possibly expect. I
mean of course that no man however exigent, capable of understanding the nature
of such a work, could, considering the means at our disposal, possibly expect
more than has been done. With a large knowledge of such work myself I
fearlessly assert that never till now has such a work been accomplished with
such means, and that by no other mode of action could anything comparable to it
be realised ; moreover I hold that Ireland
has never possessed such a power before—so large a number of men, with so many
of them trained to the use of arms and all of them bonded together by such a
strength of rule and unity. To such a power there is wanting but a single
essential to success— adequate funds.
This essential however has been
wanting from the very beginning, and the want has frequently brought us to the
brink of ruin. Remembering all the difficulties overcome— all the fiery ordeals
outlived—it is hardly too much to believe that Providence has been with us and
to hope for its protecting hand in this the last possible struggle for right
and liberty on Irish soil. As the soul takes hope from the past the future
brightens ; and so I will believe
that we are destined to pass triumphantly through the dark time on which we
have entered and in which we must struggle against terrible odds till you come
to our succour.
'Let there
be no misconception on this head. I am living the hardest time I have
yet lived through ; and unless you give me
comparatively large help soon I can answer for nothing.
You must realise this when I tell you that a week's delay in your last
remittance might and a fortnight's would have compromised us. I
should add that a remittance of ^200 a month
would henceforth barely enable us to hold our ground. We could
not give material extension to our work with that amount; and great as our power is we never needed
extension more. Considering we are bound to time, and that time so near, there
must be no suspension of work and no apparent want of funds. Stagnation or
a general knowledge of an empty exchequer would be ruin. With ^1,000 in hand I could work the whole machinery
powerfully for three months, adding many essential wheels. If I had been able
to devote even what I brought over from America to the organisation, there
would be no great difficulty and certainly no danger now. But I could not have
done so—rather I was only able to do so in
an indirect manner. The paper—The Irish People—would have died
without support; and convinced that we could
not now survive the death of the paper, I gave and have continued to
give it my large support.
'From this
date however my task became more and more difficult. "What do our American
friends want of us now ?" would be
asked by many on finding that no material aid was coming. "We have given
them as great a proof as men should need that we are a great power with the
right spirit. To give them such a proof we have subjected ourselves to risk and
calumny of all kinds. If, before giving them this proof, they
entertained doubts of us, have not we on the other hand strong
reasons for doubting them ever since ?"
Words to this effect used to be frequently dinned into my ear. I did my best to
defend our American friends, asking for time and patience. It was not easy to
satisfy even the best men at this time ; for
every hostile engine lay and clerical—altar, pulpit and pastoral, newspapers,
platform and reading room—had its sting and brand for us, and the government
had an eye and an ear for every scrawl and whisper. It was a time to try men's
souls, and every man who outlived it nobly was worthy to enter the subhmest legions [sic] of despair. Yet
almost all outlived it nobly ; as during all
that appalling storm of many months' duration we did not lose half a hundred
men. "Had their sacrifices been in vain—could anything convince
their American brothers ?" More and
more began to ask the question impatiently as month followed month without
anything worth the name of support. In truth, for the two years or so
succeeding the funeral the remittances were so wofully
inadequate to our necessities and, I must add, our just expectations
that it is a marvel how I was able to hold so many men together or even to
survive myself. It became clear that I could not do so any longer as I had been
doing.
'As this is
mainly a private letter—it is only intended as a whole for Mr. O'M. [John O'Mahony],
Mr. McC. [Henry O'C.
McCarthy], and the Central Council—I may be allowed a little egoism. The time
of which I speak was one of almost intolerable agony. I found that not alone my
life but what was infinitely dearer to me, the work to which in the teeth of
countless trials and sacrifices I had devoted myself for fourteen years, were
in extremest danger. Yet not through any
fault of mine. I repeat— no shadow of blame could attach to me. There should
have been solace in this some may say. Now, I hold it to be most utter nonsense
to say that a man is solaced or sustained by a consciousness of worth under such
circumstances. On the contrary it helps to embitter and break him down. For the
hardest thought of all at such times is that lie
is neglected or ill-used. I could not help asking myself then how I had
deserved such utter abandonment. I had found the cause of Ireland dead—at
least to all appearance ; and every man of
brain to whom you said it lived laughed at you as a dreamer. I awaked [sic]
the dead and gave it action and power. No man of brain could
conscientiously question this even then—I mean after such a manifestation of
life and power as was given at the McManus
funeral. But no sooner were the chief men of '48
and all they could influence, as well as almost all the bishops and priests,
convinced however reluctantly that we were a power and that I had
created this than I found myself the butt of such leprous calumny as few have
ever survived. And not calumny merely. "Honorable men," both lay and
clerical, were on the watch for where I stayed that they might set me
for the government. I have been for months at a time in daily expectation of
arrest from the fact of being compelled to reside in the same place all that
time. For I was receiving no aid from those who were bound to give it and so
had to remain in the one set place.
'It was
while this was at its worst, my friends most despondent and the whole work
ready to fall asunder, that I determined on sending a highly esteemed friend to
America in order to see what could be done. This was one of three courses
remaining to me at the time. The second was—to establish a paper. The third—to
go to America myself. The last was the most distasteful to me, the second next,
and the first the least objectionable. So I chose the first. Mr. L. [T. C. Luby] was
the esteemed friend appointed to go. And his titles to esteem were very high.
Naturally gifted and highly cultured, he was a rapid and effective writer and
speaker. He was after myself most conversant with our work, and because of his
well-known devotion as
well as talents and services he
had after myself more influence than any Irishman I knew. Most friends here
were sanguine of his success. I myself did my utmost to be equally hopeful, and
but for one doubt that would force itself on me I should have been quite
at my ease. This is not the time to explain the doubt in question, but it was
not owing to any known shortcoming on the part of Mr. L. Indeed it would be
difficult to account for his want of success. Nor has anybody yet been able to
give a plausible reason for his failure. Yet he did fail, most signally. After
the receipt of his first letter—in which he wrote most hopefully and flatteringly of the chief men he met—I saw that
his mission had failed. To have failed in something, to fall back on this,
would have been ruin. On his return Mr. L. would have been able to say
enough conscientiously to hold men together for six weeks or two months ; but his expressed hopes turning out illusions we
should have died in three months at farthest.
'Convinced
of Mr. L.'s failure and its consequences I
began to put out feelers about the paper long before his return. Those to whom
I spoke looked on the matter rather favorably ;
but as I did not press it few gave it any serious attention. It was necessary
however to take more active steps shortly after Mr. L. came back. His failure
became known to many sooner than he himself was aware of and occasioned alarming disappointment. Not that anybody had lost
the slightest faitli in him. The
faith of our friends was only affected in so far as our American brothers were
concerned. It became something like a settled conviction that they would
not realise our expectations and that to a great extent if not altogether we
should rely on ourselves. If this was discretitable
[sic] and unjust to the Irish in America, appearances at the time seemed
to justify it; and as our friends here
generally showed a determination to rely on themselves it was a healthy however
dangerous phase of mind. It was in any case a phase of mind favorable to the
newspaper project. Aware of this I urged the establishment of The Irish People.
'Looking
back on what had to be accomplished—that it was necessary to raise about ^700 or ^800 in
three months and secure a literary, business, and mechanical staff, all reliable—I
consider the establishment of the paper almost as hard a task as the revival of
the cause and the maintenance of our power since the McManus
funeral. Few or none even of my very best friends could believe it possible to
bring out the paper. Yet it appeared on the very day announced. Now mark
this—the very first service rendered by the paper was to save the
organisation. The proposal and the effort to bring it out kept us alive for
months. Had I failed to bring it out nothing could save us.
'Now I was
more than ever on the point of failure. For many a day before I began to work
for the paper my health had been giving way and I was very feeble when I set
out from Dublin to collect for it. Twice my health gave way, and my life on
both occasions was in danger. I made extraordinary efforts
to keep moving about, convinced that if inactive for a month or even half
that time everything would be lost. I was most active and most in danger while
you were holding the Chicago Convention [November 1863],
and it is by little short of a miracle that two reports did not cross each
other on the Atlantic—the one announcing your great success and the
other our irretrievable ruin. It would have been a woful and a shameful day to Ireland and our race
all over the earth. By my efforts solely we escaped the bitter woe and shame. I
held up even in the shadow of death and without aid from your side and beyond
the expectation of all at this I brought out the paper.
'The effort
to bring it out had kept life in us for months. Its appearance gave a new life
and color to the organisation. Its very first notes struck deep into the
national heart; and while men we could not
otherwise have reached began to rally round us, the old hands, many of whom
were beginning to grow apathetic or insubordinate, came back again to their
colours with renewed energy and cheerful obedience. Few of these knew at the
time how terrible the struggle we were then making—how much remained to be done
after having brought out the paper. We had barely enough to bring it out and
none at all to work it till we had secured a circulation to make it pay. I had
counted on a circulation of 15,000 in Ireland, 5,000 in England, Scotland, and
Wales, and 5,000 in America. All agreed that we had a right to count on this.
It would have given us a revenue of ^5,000 a
year. Even without the American circulation or by reducing it to 1,000 and the
English circulation to 2,000 we should still have had a clear profit of over ^3,000 a year. This would have been over ten times
more than we had received, one year with another, from America. But in
order to secure it we should have been able to send agents to all parts.
'Now we
could barely and by almost incredible efforts succeed in bringing out the paper
from week to week. In order to effect even this, I had during the first three
or four numbers to write from 50 to 78 pages of letters every day. Under such a
strain my health broke down before the fifth number appeared. I took ill on
last Christmas Eve, and on that niglit and
the following one I was in danger of death. For eighteen
days I was confined to my room. My
friends during this time worked might and main
to keep [the paper] alive. All
their efforts, all their devotion, their sacrifices however would not have
saved us but for a sum of money owing to Rossa.
He gave up all he possessed to us—about ^270—without
much hope of repayment or even of being able to keep us afloat. We were at
death's door when Mr. McCarthy [Henry O'C. McCarthy]
came to Dublin. Let there be no mistake about this. Even the announcement of
the Chicago Fair [March-April 1864] and all that could possibly be said about
its success could not have saved us without Mr. McCarthy's appearance in
Dublin. By this time our friends here had been driven to utter disbelief in the
American organisation. Mr. McCarthy however succeeded in giving partial
confidence to our friends ; and when it was
announced that / was going to America and
that the whole proceeds of the Fair would be placed in my hands, the faith and
spirit of all here were revived. Nothing short of absolute necessity
would have brought me to the States. I wish this to be clearly understood by
all; and so repeat that could I have
possibly avoided it I would not have undertaken a journey so trying to my
health and a labor so repugnant to my feelings. Besides, I was needed here. The
organisation needed me, and the paper on which the organisation now depended
needed me still more. But all would have gone down unless I went over.
'Before
going more into the services of the paper and the causes of its want of
the necessary circulation I must say a few words in connection with my visit to
America. Though treated in more than one place with more or less discourtesy
and even bourish [sic] rudeness I am
altogether above making any complaint. Such rudeness could not possibly affect
me beyond the moment and should ultimately tell against the poor creatures who
indulged in it. The only lasting impression made by this sort of thing was
owing to the effect it was calculated to have on my work. Let me add however
that on the whole I experienced from all men of any consequence genial
fraternity and earnest support. This said, I may speak briefly of the various
impressions made on me during my stay. It is true that every thing did not go
smoothly with me on my arrival in New York. I promised my friends here to send {,100, and if possible {,200, from that city. I found it very
difficult to realise the first sum and could only succeed in doing so by having
recourse to loans, one of which I procured from a party outside the
organisation. But I soon got over this.
'The first
serious shock I received in Chicago. I don't now allude to certain bickerings
and dissensions among the Circle of that city ;
the great feeling I found amongst the best
men of Chicago, and the spirit stirred up in its citizens generally by the
Fair, more than counterbalanced this. I allude to my having first
learned at the State Convention in Chicago that the Fenian Brotherhood was but
10,000 strong. Never having questioned Mr. O'M.
[John O'Mahony] on this head, the
announcement came upon me not alone with surprise but almost like the crack of
doom. I had given the Brotherhood credit for some 50,000 men and I was aware
that the number was generally estimated at a far higher figure. What could I
possibly effect with 10,000 men, even if it were possible to come in contact
with them all ? But under the circumstances
it was doubtful whether I could see even half this number. And unless these
5,000 were unusually devoted men I could not hope to realise what I had
promised myself or even the much smaller task I had promised my friends here to
accomplish. During the greater part of my stay in Chicago I felt like a man
stunned and stupified by a heavy blow, from
the consequences of which he might die. Along with this, I found it difficult,
owing to one party, to procure tlie money I
had promised to send home. My engagement was that immediately after my arrival
in Chicago I should forward to Dublin ^roo,
and that a week afterwards at the latest they should receive ^1,000 more from me. The first part of the
engagement I found it easy to fulfil, but owing to the party alluded to I had a
world of difficulty in carrying out the other part.
'When
leaving Chicago I also gave it to be clearly understood that I deemed my
engagements and the interests of the cause to involve the transmission of an
additional ^500 on the ist May, and a like sum on the ist June. I calculated on being back by the end of
July, but could I have foreseen that my stay—my most indignantly reluctant
stay—would have extended to August I should have urged the necessity of sending
home ^500 on the first of July and an equal
sum on the first of August. I knew the wants of our position ; and had they been supplied the paper would now
be paying and the work generally all-powerful and secure. Now, all this might
have been done, and its non-accomplishment has been mainly owing to the
shortsighted and selfish opposition of Mr. Sherlock.
'It was
only after my meeting with the men of Peoria
that I began to recover from the blow received in Chicago—began to see my
way. Not too clearly however even then, for the cheering success in that
city was mainly owing to the munificent subscription of a single man—P. W. Dunne. In
saying this however I feel bound to add that the spirited conduct of many other
men in "old Peoria" had a good effect on me. In Quincy also I was mucli
cheered, as well as in Hannibal. But it was only in St
Louis that I finally took full heart of grain and became convinced that all
might yet be realised. My letter to Mr. O'M.
from St. Louis was to this effect and must have given him, too, great cheer.
Indeed I have a vivid recollection of its having produced such an effect on him
when we met again in Indianapolis. In this city very serious annoyances
were in store for me. The State
Centre of Indiana, Mr. Redmond, had not, he
said, been made aware of the main reason for calling a State Convention there—
namely, to introduce me to the Centres and make arrangements with them for
receiving me in their various districts. This however was set right when Mr.
O'M. arrived in Indianapolis, Mr. Redmond has since asserted that I gave dissatisfaction
there. It is difficult to believe this ; as,
after having addressed the Circle of that city, the members of it subscribed as
liberally as those of almost any other Circle in the States. It is true these
subscriptions were not afterwards pair? up—at
least they were not when I left New York, and Mr. Redmond had written to say he
could not get in more than half the amount subscribed. He gave very
unsatisfactory reasons for this : one was
that I had been introduced under a name which, they had been informed, was not
my real one, and other reasons given would call in question the honesty of men
in various parts of the States, if not of the whole organisation.
'Now with
regard to my name, I had been introduced to many Circles in the same way, the
chief officers only knowing my real name.
This was so in Indianapolis, Mr. Redmond certainly and probably others
being aware of my name. You will recollect that I had been introduced to Mr.
Redmond in Chicago in my official capacity. If his friends then had any
reason to complain, it was solely on his account. The babble about what
became of the funds, of the Fair having realised double the amount, etc., the
fellows who indulge in it should have black skins and woolly heads with a
powerful cat-o'-nine-tails in perpetual motion on their buttocks. It was well to supercede Mr. Redmond, but this affair should be
thoroughly investigated, when .all concerned
may meet with their deserts. On the whole my visit to Indiana had a Idepressing effect. I
cannot help saying so, spite of the fine Circle at Lafayette and the healthy
spirit I found in some other parts of the State. Ohio, Massachusetts, and New
York more than did away with any despondency occasioned by my experience of
Indiana. By the way, I find it hard to couple the idea of despondency with the
State of Indiana, the home of Father O'Flaherty
[Rev. Edmund O'Flaherty], my dear and
esteemed friend, and so long the Banner State of the Union. Had he been
a living man few Fenians in Indiana would
dare to look on me with doubt or treat me with discourtesy. His loss was a
heavy one to our cause ; but at no time
perhaps was it more to be regretted than during my intercourse with the
men of a State to which he did such honor.
'Nothing
else of a painful nature occurred to me till I got back to New York.
I certainly experienced some disappointment and even pain in Pennsylvania ; but the clique who occasioned this were too
contemptible to call for more than a passing notice, and the good men of that
city were friendly and genial as man could desire.
'To sum up
then, my experience in America, though not without keen trials of various
kinds, left me in the faith that if thoroughly worked up we had the material of
an organisation that would certainly give us all that was required. That same
experience however proved to me that without certain essential modifications we
could not rely on the machinery then in action. And first, it was known to most
of the chief officers of the Brotherhood that Mr. O'M.
had a next to invincible repugnance to ask for money or visit districts without
a special invitation. Now, as it was not only necessary to get money but to
extend the work into as many new places as possible— as nothing short of the
collection of large sums of money and a vast extension of the work could give
us a fair chance of success or for any length of time stave off utter ruin—it
became a matter of life and death to give the H.C.
[Head Centre, i.e. John O'Mahony] an
assistant who would and could do what he
found so much in conflict with his feelings. Convinced of this I urged the
appointment of Mr McCarthy as Deputy Head Centre. Again, as the State Centres
are all men of business and consequently unable, even if willing, to travel
through their various States, I saw the necessity of appointing Deputy State
Centres whose duty it would be to devote themselves exclusively to the
extension of the work in the States in which they were appointed to act. This
too, I am glad to find, has been acted on. Lastly, as Mr O'M. could not bring
himself to urge our friends to collect money and that the Deputy, owing to Mr O'M.'s repugnance to visit strange places, was
sure to be much occupied in extending the work, I urged the necessity of
putting all the State Centres and the thoroughly active and reliable Centres in
direct communication with Ireland in the matter of finances.
'This, I
regret, has not as yet been carried out. Doubtless Mr O'M. and the Deputy have
good reasons for not having done so; but till I hear these reasons I cannot help
believing that my plan was for the welfare of the cause. The rough draught of a
document to the foregoing effect was drawn out by me and submitted to Mr O'M.
for his endorsement. Unfortunately he did not agree with me for a long time,
and our disagreement on this head involved a delay on my part of nearly six
weeks in New York. I don't mean to attach any blame whatever to Mr O'M. on this
account and it is far from my intention to give him any pain; but duty compels me to make the statement in
order to account for a delay for which some may have criticised me. Justice
also compels me to say that even if Mr O'M. had signed the document at once it
is not certain that I should have left much sooner. It was essential that I
should bring back with me the entire proceeds of the Chicago Fair. This
had been most wisely
promised
to our friends here. I say most wisely; for at the time it required such
a promise to give our friends here full assurances that all would go well with me
yonder. Let there be no further doubt or cavil on this head.
'Well, as
Mr. Sherlock was opposed to my getting the
Chicago Fair Fund, and that I did not receive the whole of it till a day or so
before I left, it is just possible that even if Mr O'M.
had signed the document in question I should
not have left much sooner. However this be, it has been my wish once the
document was signed to have it carried out to the letter. At the same
time I am willing to allow the best reasons to Mr O'M. for not having observed
the third article of said document. In short
my wish is to let all shortcomings and unpleasantness in the past be forgotten,
and to work on in future as if there had never been a jar in our feelings or a
hitch in the general machinery. I do so in view of the terrible responsibility
that has fallen on us and the liarmony that
such a res[pon]sibility should impose. Let
no man/or an instant forget that we are
bound to action next year. To forget this, and to try to check or evade the danger as if it might not be, would be not only the
veriest imbecility but the blackest crime. Mind this: there is no alternative
between battle or dissolution. And as I have often said, I should deem the man a dreamer, a coward, or a knave who
could lay the flattering unction to his soul that another move could ever more
be made for Ireland. Would that I had time to go into this. To me it is
demonstrable, and I could demonstrate it to
the brain of anything higher than a jackass that such a move is not within the
range of possibility. But I cannot lose time to do so now. Enough that I utter
a profound, a terrible, conviction and that few men cozild
pretend to a sounder and larger knowledge of
the subject than mine. Brothers, I ask you
in the name of God to believe that no others after us can bring this cause to
the test of battle and that our battle must be entered
on sometime in the coming year.
'A few
words now about the services of the paper and the necessity at any cost of
keeping it alive. I have already mentioned how it saved the organisation. It is
a debateable question whether, had we never
been put to the necessity of establishing it, we might not have dispensed with
such an organ. My opinion however on this subject is of some weight, and I am
thoroughly convinced that we could never accomplish the work done by the paper
in any other way for the same cost. It has opened up to us rich and important
veins which it would have taken us years and much money to reach. Besides, an
organisation which in its infancy or limited strength may escape hostile notice
and denunciation is sure to be dangerously and unscrupulously attacked once it
becomes [as] formidable as ours. It thus can hardly dispense with such an organ
; or, should it be deemed well to do so, it
could only be at an expence far exceeding
any we have hitherto been called on to meet. Many men—and important men too—may
be defended and enabled to hold their ground by a single article or letter,
whom without a paper you could only defend, and possibly ineffectively, by sending
several emissaries at great expence through the country. The paper, too, is a rallying-point for all who, ignorant of our move
or abandoned as sometimes happens by their officers, would otherwise fall off
or escape us.
'Many other
things might be said in favour of its being sustained, the only thing against
it being that it is a drain on our small resources. And what would follow from
its downfall ? In my eyes such an event
would involve absolute ruin. The moral defeat would be so great that we could
no longer raise our heads here. There would be a yell of triumph on the part of
our enemies, apparently well enough justified to drive away many from our
ranks. What arguments could our best men bring to bear against those who
mockingly would say "What ! talk of your organisation that cannot support a
two-penny newspaper !" ? At your side the jibe would tell even
more powerfully than here. For you could not prove as we could
that no more than one in twenty of the home organisation takes the paper. The
bearer can assure you that in a city where we are 3,000 strong but 100 papers
are sold. In Cork city, with perhaps the most intelligent and reading
population in Ireland, we sell no more than one paper to 14 friends. This matter can scarcely be at all
understood in America. Bear in mind however that newsagents are also
book-sellers and stationers and that they depend on the patronage of
shopkeepers, shoneens, the gentry and
nobility, to say nothing of the hierarchy and clergy. But why should not our
friends who are not newsvendors take
up the sale of the paper ? To do so would be
to have them set as Fenians, and
their actions as well as that of their visitors paralysed. It would take me more
time than I can give the subject to explain all the difficulties in the way of
a paying circulation. Mr C. can explain some
of the most revolting and at the same time tell you how essential to our very
existence the paper is. One word more on this head. Spite of all
opposition and spite of our want of success hitherto—I mean of course in a
pecuniary point of view—for otherwise we may claim for the paper not only
success
but absolute triumph—the paper is
making its way surely however slowly and before many months will pay. And
this, spite of the proverbial poverty of our people and though little or
nothing should be done for us abroad.
'Something
now with regard to the Cincinnati Convention [January 1865]. Aware of my position you cannot be surprised at
my inability to send over a representative. The truth is that I dare not expend
the price of his passage under the circumstances, not being quite certain of
holding my ground till I get an answer to this. In your last you say you will try
to send me another remittance by the middle or close of next (i.e. this) month.
Which ? And do you mean that I
should receive the remittance by the middle or close of the month or that you
would remit at that time ? This would make a
very serious and, it might be, vital difference. But however this be,
and though I cannot under the circumstances feel justified in incurring the
expense of a representative to Cincinnati, my views are sufficiently explained
in this letter to show what we require to give us faith in ourselves and you.
So, I am at ease about the Convention, convinced that it will have light enough
and truth and energy enough to guide it wisely at a time of such moment to our
race.
'Something
now about Mr. C. It would have taken from three to four months constant travel,
and involved an expence of from ^150 to ^200,
to have gone through the organisation here. In point of fact it would
have been all but impossible for Mr C. to have visited all the
organisation I could without any breach of confidence have shown him. But even
if this were possible it would probably have involved his arrest, as it
would certainly have compromised many good men. Under the circumstances
I had to adopt a course which has given perfect satisfaction to Mr C. There
happened to be some representative men here in Dublin besides the chief local
officers ; I summoned others up; and between them and certain men—a good number,
as he will tell you—Mr C. got his report for the chief part of Leinster and a small part of Munster. This done, I gave Mr C. some days to go
through the men here generally, talking to and inspecting them in various ways.
During this time he saw considerable numbers of men at drill and otherwise. He
himself will tell you of this. I then accompanied him to Cork city and brought
the chief men of the whole Cork district about him. There also he had ample
opportunities of seeing considerable bodies of men at drill and otherwise.
'By this
time my funds were out and his running low. Under the
circumstances I had to allow him to go home and lay on his own till I procured
supplies. His time however was not lost. He visited Kilkenny city, where he met
some men, Callan, Mullinahone, Carrick-on-Suir, etc. He will explain all this,
and you I am confident will be satisfied. His time running short and so much of
the organisation still uninspected, I made an effort to raise money here in
order that he should see as much of it as possible. I was not able to raise
enough and so, on Mr C. coming to Dublin, I
had to borrow from him the money he had reserved to pay his passage out. We
went to Belfast together. Here I had summoned the chief working men of Ulster.
Mr C. saw not only these but good numbers of others of all grades at drill and
otherwise. I leave him to enter into all these details. Generally, I may give you
the result of his investigations as follow [s]
:
'Reported
through Dublin—including the district of Dublin proper, very small parts of Wicklow, Wexford,
and Kildare, the town and a good part of the
co. of Carlow,
the city and a good part of the county of Kilkenny with the main part of the
South Riding of Tipperary, 28,729.
'Reported through Cork, being a
full report of that city and county, 15,536.
'Reported
through Belfast, being a full report of our strength in that city and, far as
could be collected, of our numbers in Ulster, 6,283.
'Reported for all Connaught, 3,764.
'This gives
a total, far as Mr C. has gone, of over 54,000 men. I
answered for 60,000 when in America. Now, since very important places have
given no report—were not asked to give one—I could easily have shown to
Mr C. 70,000 men ;
and besides this I answer for an additional 15,000 at least. So that we
can now rely on an organised power of from 80,000 to 85,000 men. Mr C. can tell
you that in every instance the numbers were over what I told him
before he examined them.
'A great
power, brothers. To keep such a power firmly in hand requires a very
large revenue. To keep it from utter dissolution will demand far larger
supplies than I have ever yet received. Who so small, after Mr C.'s report, as to say we don't deserve support,
and who so traitrous as to put any obstacle
in the way of its coming ? I trust no such
man shall find a seat in the Convention.
'It is
still my duty to observe that, besides the usual expenses of organisation, I
have established schools of engineering, musketry, etc., and that these are
expensive. You will be glad to hear that we shall be able to manufacture our
own percussion caps, patent cartridges and shells, and that if you don't
fail us I am confident of our being able to found our own cannon. Nothing
shall be wanting if our American brothers do their duty.'Fearing our ability to get returns in time I have omitted a
report for England and Scotland.
It is possible however that Mr C.
may be able to get at least a general report for England. Our agents have been
active there for a considerable time and at considerable expense. Bear all
these things fairly in mind and you will see how much we need and deserve
support. I will end by a calculation for all organisers : extension, so far from enabling us to effect a proportionate
saving, may safely be said to involve expenditure in a double ratio. I mean
that where we could work 30,000 men with say ^5,000,
it would take ^20,000 to work 60,000.
Everybody can't understand this because everybody can't understand the needs of
organisation. Would to God that the whole Irish race could understand these
needs today and that every man of our bonded brothers would feel it a
shame not to strive to supply them.
'I have
done for the present. Though sensible of never having written a letter on which
so much depends, I am but too conscious that I write under the most unfavorable
circumstances. I am aware too that while my brothers expect a comprehensive and
powerful document I can only give them the most hurried scrawl. Still, this
letter or whatever you may call it has much pith in it, however feebly
explained ; and it would only require time
to make it something that many might admire and none be ashamed of. You will of
course show it to Mr O'M. and the Central
Council. The substance of it might even be communicated to the Convention ; or for that matter you may read it all for the
Convention, such as it is. And this is not my opinion only, though no friend of
mine would take this as a sample of what I should write. There is no need of
withholding documents of this kind through motives of policy. It is likely
enough that we have lost considerably through this fear of telling too much and
shocking people. All that could possibly be told should be told to all
true men. With regard to Mr Bell [Rev. David Bell], it appears likely that he
will be at the Convention. I do not deem it necessary to send him special
instructions, knowing that you will be able to make his abilities serviceable
to Ireland. As this is not the letter I meant to write to Mr O'M. I address it
to you. Tell our friend however that he may rely on hearing from me soon as I
can possibly write anything worth sending to him.
'Brother,
long as I could well hold a pen I have gone on scrawling to you. Forgive my
shortcomings and try and make the best use of what I send. Yours as ever.'
Endorsed: P. 5,
Dec. n, 64 ;
pp. 9,17, 2i, 25, 29, 23, Dec. n, 1864 ; p.
13, Dr n, 1864; p. 37, ii
Dec. 1864; p. 40, No. i C.E., Dec. n, 1864. All written across the text of the
letter.