Daniel O'Connell and the Committee of the Irish
Repeal Association of Cincinnati.

The Committee, to wTiom the Address from
the Cincinnati Irish Repeal Association,
on the subject of Negro Slavery in the
United States of America, was referred,
have agreed to the following Report : —
To D. T. Disney, Esq.,
Corresponding Secretary.
W. Hunter, Esq.,
Vice-President
****** *****¦» Executive Com-
* * * * * * * I mittee of the
***** **** \ Cincinnati
******** Irish Repeal
) As&omaiion.
Corn Exchange Rooms, Dublin, 1
11th October, 1843. J
Gentlemen : — We have read, with the
deepest affliction, not unmixed with some
surprise and much indignation, your detail
ed and anxious vindication of the most
hideous crime that has ever stained human
ity — the slavery of men of color in the
United States of America. We are lost in
utter amazement at the perversion of mind
and depravity of heart which your Address
evinces. How can the generous, the char
itable, the humane, the noble emotions of
the Irish heart, have become extinct amongst,
you ? How can your nature be so totally
changed as that you should become the
apologists and advocates of that execrable
system, which makes man the property of
his fellow-man — destroys the foundation of
all moral and social virtues — condemns to
ignorance, immorality and irreligion, mil
lions of our fellow-creatures — renders the
slave hopeless of relief, and perpetuates op
pression by law; and, in the name of what
you call a Constitution I
It was not in Ireland you learned this
cruelty. Your mothers were gentle, kind
and humane. Their bosoms" overflowed
with the honey of human charity. Your
sisters are, probably, many of them, still
amongst us, and participate in all that is
good and benevolent in sentiment and ac

tion. How, then, can yon have become so
depraved ? How can your souls have be
come stained with a darkness blacker than
the negro's skin ? You say you have no
pecuniary interest in negro slavery. Would
that you had I for it might be some pallia
tion of your crime I but, alas I you have in
flicted upon us the horror of beholding you
the volunteer advocates of despotism, in
its most frightful state ; of slavery, in ita
most loathsome' and unrelenting form.
We were, unhappily, prepared to expect
some fearful exhibition of this' description.
There has been a testimony borne against
the Irish, by birth or descent, in America,
by a person fully informed as to the^facts,
and incapable of the slightest misrepre
sentation ; a noble of nature more than of
titled birth ; a man gifted with the highest
order of talent and the most generous emo
tions of the heart — the great, the good Lord
Morpeth — he, who, in the House of Com
mons, boldly asserted the superior social
morality of the poorer classes of the Irish
over any other' people — he, the best friend
of any of the Saxon race that Ireland or the
Irish ever knew; he, amidst congregated
thousands, at Exeter Hall in London, mourn
fully, but firmly, denounced the Irish in
America as being amongst the worst ene
mies of the negro slaves and other men of
color. It is, therefore, our solemn and sacred
duty to warn you, in words already used,
and much misunderstood by you — "to come
out of her" — not thereby meaning to ask
you to come out of America, but out of the
councils of the iniquitous and out of the
congregation of the wicked, who consider
man a chattel and a property, and liberty
an inconvenience. Yea. We tell you to
come out of such assemblages ; but we did
not and do not invite you to return to Ire
land. The volunteer defenders of slavery,
surrounded by one thousand crimes, would
find neither sympathy nor support amongst
native, uncontaminated Irishmen.
Your advocacy of slavery is founded upon
a gross error. You take for granted that

— 2 —

man can be the property of his fellow-man.
You speak in terms of indignation of those
who would deprive white men of their '¦'¦pro
perty" and thereby render them less capa
ble of supporting their families in affluence.
You forget the other side of the picture.
You have neither sorrow nor sympathy for
the sufferings of those who are iniquitously
compelled to labor for the affluence of
others ; those who work without wages —
who toil without recompense — who spend
their lives in procuring for others the splen
dor and wealth in which they do not par
ticipate. You totally forget the sufferings
of the wretched black men, who are deprived
of their all without any compensation or
redress. If you, yourselves, all of you — or
if any one of you, were, without crime or
offence committed by you, handed over into
perpetual slavery ; if you were compelled to
work from sunrise to sunset without wages,
supplied only with such coarse food and
raiment as would keep you in working or
der; if, when your "owner" fell into debt,
you were sold to pay his debts, not your
own ; if it were made a crime to teach you
to read and to write ; if you were liable to
be separated, in the distribution of assets,
from your wives and your children ; if you
(above all) were to fall into the hands of a
brutal master — and you condescend to ad
mit that there are some brutal masters in
America — if, among all those circumstances,
some friendly spirits of a more generous or
der were desirous to give liberty to you and
your families — with what ineffable disgust
would not you laugh to scorn those who
should traduce the generous spirits who
would relieve you, as you now, pseudo-Irish
men — shame upon you I have traduced and
vilified the Abolitionists of North America !
But, you come forward with a justifica
tion, forsooth I You say that the Constitu
tion of America prohibits the abolition of
slavery. Paltry and miserable subterfuge !
The Constitution in America is founded
upon the Declaration of Independence.
That Declaration published to the world its
glorious principles; that Charter of your
Freedom contained these emphatic words :
'''We hold these Truths to be self-evident
" — that All Men are created equal; that
" they are endowed by their Creator with
" certain inalienable Rights ; that amongst
" these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit
" of happiness ;" — and the conclusion of
that Address is in these words :
" For the support of this Declaration,
" with a firm reliance on the protection of
" Divine Providence, we mutually pledge
" to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and
" our Sacred Honor."
There is American honor for you I There
i? .* profane allusion to the adorable Crea
tor I

Recollect that the Declaration does not
limit the equality of Man, or the Right to
Life and Liberty, to the White, to the Brown,
or to the Copper-colored Races. It includes
all Races. It excludes none.
We do not deign to argue with you on the
terms of the American Constitution ; and
yet we cannot help asserting that, in that
Constitution the word "Slavery" or "Slave,"
is not to be found. There are, indeed, the
words — "persons bound to labor;" but it is
not said how bound. And a Constitutional
Lawyer or Judge, construing the American
Constitution with a reference to the Declara
tion of Independence, which is its basis,
would not hesitate to decide that, "bound to
labor" ought, in a Court of Justice, to mean
"bound by contract to labor ;" and should
not be held to imply, "forced, or compelled
to labor," in the absence of all contract, and
for the exclusive benefit of others.
However, we repeat that we do not deign
to argue this point with you ; as we proclaim
to the world our conviction that no Consti
tutional Law can create or sanction slavery.
Slavery is repugnant to the first principles
of society ; but, it is enough for us to say,
as regards Americans, that it is utterly re
pugnant to that Declaration of the Equality
of all Men, and to the inalienable Right of
all Men to Life and Liberty. To this De
claration the free citizens of the United
States have, in the persons of their ances
tors, solemnly pledged their "sacred honor."
We shall, at once, shew you how that "sa
cred honor" is basely violated ; and also
demonstrate how totally devoid of candor
your Address is, inasmuch as you rely on
the Constitution of the American States as
precluding the abolition of slavery; whilst
you totally omit all mention of one District,
which the Constitutional Law, alleged by
you, does not reach. We mean the District
of Columbia.
In the District of Columbia there is no
Constitutional Law to prevent the Congress
from totally abolishing slavery within that
District. Your Capitol is there. The Tem
ple of American Freedom is there — the Hall
of your Republican Representatives — the
Hall of your Republican Senators — the Na
tional Palace of your Republican President
is there — and Slavery is there too, in its
most revolting form I The Slave Trade is
there — the most disgusting Traffic in hu
man beines is there — human flesh is bought
and sold, like swine in the pig-market — aye,
in your Capital — your Washington ! Yes.
Let Americans be as proud as they please,
this black spot is on their escutcheon.
Even under the shade of the Temple of
their Constitution the man of color crawls
a slave, and the tawny American stalks a
Tyrant.

3 —

notthere — itgoes muchfarther. Thewretch-
ed slaves are totally prohibited even from
petitioning Congress. The poor and paltry
privilege even of prayer is denied them ;
and you, even you — pseudo-Irishmen I are
the advocates and vindicators of such a sys
tem. What I would not you, at least, insist
that their Groans should be heard I
It is carried still farther. Even the free-
born white Americans are not allowed to
petition upon any subject including the
' question of slavery: or, at least, no such
petition can be read aloud or printed. And,
although the Congress is entitled to abolish
slavery in Columbia, the door for petition,
praying that abolition, is closed without the
power of being opened.
We really think that men, who came from
generous and warm-hearted Ireland, should
shrink into nonentity rather than become
the advocates and defenders of the system
of slavery. But we trust that the voice of
indignant Ireland will scatter them, and
prevent them from repeating such a Crime.
In another point of view, your Address
is, .if possible, more culpable. You state
that before the Abolitionists proclaimed
their wish to have slavery abolished, several
slave-holding States were preparing for the
gradual emancipation of their negroes ; and
that humane individuals in other States
were about to adopt similar measures.
We utterly deny your assertion, and we
defy you to shew any single instance of pre
paratory steps taken by any State for the
emancipation of the negroes before the abo
lition demand was raised. You violate
Truth in that Assertion. There were no
such preparations. It is a pure fiction, in
vented by slave-holders out of their unjust
animosity to the Abolitionists. It is said
that the fear of abolition has rendered the
slave-holders more strict, harsh and cruel
towards their wretched slaves — and that
they would be more gentle and humane if
they were not afraid of the Abolitionists.
We repeat that this is not true, and is mere
ly an attempt to cast blame on those who
would coalesce to put an end to negro sla
very. It is in the same spirit that the criminal
calumniates his prosecutor, and the felon
reviles his accuser. It is, therefore, utterly
untrue that tho slave-holders have made the
. chains of the negro more heavy through
any fear of abolition.
Yet if you tell the truth ; if the fact be,
that the negro is made to suffer for the zeal
of the Abolitionists ; if he is treated with in
creased cruelty by reason of the fault of the
friends of abolition, then, indeed, the slave
holders must be a truly Satanic race. Their
eonduct, according to you, is diabolical.
The Abolitionists commit an offence, and
*¦ . ¦  — ~.,.,;oLor] The

Abolitionists violate the law of property,
and the penalty of their crime is imposed
upon the negro I Can any thing be more
repugnant to every idea of justice? Yet
this is your statement.
We, on the other hand, utterly deny the
truth of your allegations ; and where we
find you calumniate the slave-holders we be
come their advocates against your calumny.
You calumniate everybody — slaves — Aboli
tionists and slave-owners — framers of Con
stitutions — makers of laws — everybody I
The slave-holders are not favorites of ours,
but we will do them justice, and will not
permit you to impute an impossible crime
to them.
You tell us, with an air of triumph, that
public opinion, in your country, is the great
Law-giver. If it be so, how much does it
enhance the Guilt of your conduct, that you
seek to turn public opinion against the slave
and in favor of the slave-holder! that you
laud the master as generous and humane,
and disparage, as much as you can, the un
happy slave; instead of influencing, as Irish
men ought to do, the public mind in favor
of the oppressed. You carry your exag
gerations to a ludicrous pitch, denoting your
utter ignorance of the history of the human
race. You say that "the negro is rfeally in-
" ferior as a race ; that slavery has stamped
" its debasing influence upon the Africans;
" that between him and the white almost a
" century would be required to elevate the
" character of the one, and to destroy the
" antipathies of the other." You add — we
use your own words — "The very odor of the
" negro is almost insufferable to the white ;
" and however much humanity may lament
" it, we make no rash declaration when we
" say the two races cannot exist together
" on equal terms under our ' Government
" and our Institutions.' "
We quote this paragraph at full length,
because it is replete with your mischievous
errors and guilty mode of thinking.
In the first place, as to the odor of the
negroes, we are quite aware that they have
not as yet come to use much of the Ovto of
Roses or Eau de Cologne. But we implore
of your fastidiousness to recollect that mul
titudes of the children of white men have
negro women for their mothers ; and that
our British travelers complain in loud and
bitter terms of the overpowering stench of
stale tobacco-spittle, as theprevailing "odor"
amongst the native free Americans. It
would be, perhaps, better to check this nasal
sensibility on both sides, on the part of the
whites as well as of blacks. But it is, in
deed, deplorable that you should use a lu
dicrous assertion of that description as one
of the inducements to prevent the abolition
of slavery. The negroes would certainly

— 4

Bmell at least as sweet when free, as they
now do being slaves.
Your important allegation is, that the
negros are, naturally, an inferior race. That
is a totally gratuitous assertion upon your
part. In America you can have no oppor
tunity of seeing the negro educated. On
the contrary, in most of your States it is a
crime — sacred Heaven I a crime to educate
everf a free negro ! How, then, can you
judge of the negro race, when you see them
despised and contemned by the educated
classes ; reviled and looked down upon as
inferior ? The negro race has, naturally,
seme of the finest qualities. They are
naturally gentle, generous, humane, and
very grateful for kindness. They are as
brave and as fearless as any other of the
races of human beings ; but the blessings of
education are kept from them, and they are
judged of, not as they would be with proper
cultivation, but as they are rendered by
cruel and debasing oppression. It is as old
as the days of Homer, who truly asserts that
the day which sees a man a slave takes away
half his worth Slavery actually brutalizes
human beings. It is about sixty years ago
when one of the Sheiks, not far South of
Fez, in Morocco, who was in the habit of
accumulating white Blaves — upon being
strongly remonstrated with by an European
power, gave for his reply, that, by his own
experience, he found it quite manifest that
white men were of an inferior race, intend
ed by nature for slaves ; and he produced
his own brutalized white slaves to illustrate
the truth of his assertion. And a case of
an American, with a historic name — John
Adams — is quite familiar: Some twi'ii.'y-
five years ago — not more, John Adams was
the sole survivor of an American crew,
wrecked on the African Coast. He was
taken into the interior as the slave of an
Arab Chief. He was only for three years
a slave, and the English and American
Consuls having been informed of a white
man's slavery, claimed him and obtained
Wb liberation. In the short space of three
years he had become completely brutalized ;
he had completely forgotten the English
language, without having acquired the na
tive tongue. He spoke a kind of gabble,
as unintellectual as the dialects of most of
your negro slaves; and many months elapsed
before he recovered his former habits and
ideas. It is, also, a curious fact, as connected
with America, that the children of the
Anglo-Saxon race and of other Europeans
born in America, were, for many years,
considered as a degraded and inferior class.
Indeed it was admitted, as if it were an
axiom, that the native-born American was
in nothing equal to his European progeni
tor; and so far from the fact being disputed,

many philosophic dissertations were publish
ed endeavoring to account for the alleged'
debasement. The only doubt was about the
cause of it. "Nobody doubted," to use your
own words, "that the native-born Americans
were really an inferior race." Nobody dares
to say so know; and nobody thinks it. Let
it, then, be recollected that you have never
yet seen the negro educated. An English
traveler through Brazil, some few years ago,
mentions having known a negro who was a
Priest, and who was a learned, pious and
exemplary man in his sacerdotal functions.
We have been lately informed of two ne
groes being educated at the Propaganda and
ordained Priests — both having distinguish
ed themselves in their scientific and theo^
logical course. The French papers say that
one of them celebrated Mass and delivered
a short but able sermon before Louis Phi
lippe. It is believed they have both gone
out with the Right Rev. Dr. Baron on the
African Mission.
We repeat, therefore, that to judge pro
perly of the negro, you should see him edu
cated and treated with the respect due to a
fellow-creature — uninsulted by the filthy
aristocracy of the skin, and untarnished to
the eye of the white by any associations
connected with his state of slavery.
We next refer to your declaration that
the two races, viz., the Black and the White,
cannot exist, on equal terms, under your
Government and your Institutions. This is
an extraordinary assertion to be made at
the present day. You allude, indeed, to
Antigua and the Bermudas. But we will
take you to where the experiment has been
successfully made upon a large scale —
namely, to Jamaica.
There the two races are on. a perfect
equality in point of law. There is no mas
ter — there is no slave. The law does not
recognize the slightest distinction between
the races. You have borrowed the far
greater part of your Address from the cant
phraseology which the West Indian slave
owners, and especially those of Jamaica,
made use of before- emancipation. They
used to assert, as you do now, that abolition
meant destruction ; that to give freedom to
the negro would be to pronounce the assas
sination of the whites; that the negro, as
soon as free, would massacre their former
owners and destroy their wives and families.
In short, your prophecies of the destructive
effects of emancipation are but faint and
foolish echoes of the prophetic apprehen
sions of the British slave-owners. They
might, perhaps, have believed their own as
sertions, because the emancipation of the
negroes was then an untried experiment
But you — you are deprived of any excuse
for^°-  -':- " "
Th* .,^.:,:.:.-

— 5 —

compensation given by England was not
given to the negroes, who were the only per
sons that deserved compensation. It was
given to the so-called "owners." It was an
additional wrong — an additional cause of
irritation to the negroes. But, gracious
Heaven I how nobly did that good and kind
ly race — the negroes — falsify the calumnious
apprehensions of their task-masters I Was
there one single murder consequent on the
emancipation ? Was there one riot — one
tumult — even one assault? Was there one
single white person injured either in person
or property ? Was there any property spoil
ed or laid waste? The proportion of ne
groes in Jamaica to white men is as 300 to
60 or eighty per cent. Yet the most perfect
tranquility has followed the Emancipation.
The Criminal Courts are almost unemploy
ed ; nine-tenths of the jails are empty and
open ; universal tranquility reigns. Al
though the Landed proprietors have made
use of the harshest landlord power to exact
the hardest terms by way of rent from the
negroes, and have also endeavored to extort
from him the largest possible quantity of
"labor for the smallest wages, yet the kindly
negro race have not retaliated by one single
act of violence or of vengeance: the two
races exist together, upon equal terms, un
der the British Government and under Bri
tish Institutions.
Or shall you say that the British Govern
ment and British Institutions are preferable
to yours? The vain and vaporing spirit of
mistaken Republicanism will not permit you
to avow the British superiority. You are
bound, however reluctantly, to admit that
superiority or else to admit the falsity of
your own assertions. Nothing can, in truth,
be more ludicrous than your declaration in
favor of slavery. It, however, sometimes
rises to the very border of Blasphemy. Your
words are, "God forbid that we should ad
vocate 'human bondage in any shape.' "
Oh ! shame upon you I flow can you
take the name of the All-Good Creator thus
in vain 1 What are you doing I Is not the
entire of your Address an advocacy of hu
man Bondage?
Another piece of silliness. You allege
that it is the Abolitionists who make the
slave restless with his condition, and that
they scatter the seeds of discontent. How
¦can you treat us with such contempt as to
use assertions of that kind in your Address ?
How can you think we could be so devoid
of intellect as to believe the negro would
not know the miseries of slavery, which he
feels every hour of the four-and-twenty, un
less he were told by some Abolitionist that
slavery was a miserable condition ?
There is nothing that makes ns think so
badly of you as your strain of ribaldry in

The desire to procure abolition is, in it--.
self, a virtue and deserves our love for its '
charitable disposition, as it does respect and
veneration for its courage under unfavor
able circumstances. Instead of the ribaldry
of your attack upon the Abolitionists, you
ought to respect and countenance them. If
they err by excessive zeal, they err in a
righteous and a holy cause. You would do
well to check their errors and mitigate their
zeal within the bounds of strict propriety.
But if you had the genuine feelings of Irish
men you never would confound their errors
with their virtues. In truth, we much fear
or rather we should candidly say, we readily
believe that you attribute to them imaginary
errors for no other reason than that they
really possess one brilliant virtue — namely,
the love of human freedom in intense per
fection. Again, we have to remark that you exag
gerate exceedingly when you state that there
are fifteen millions of the white population
in America whose security and happiness
are connected with the maintenance of the
system of negro slavery. On the contrary,
the system of slavery inflicts nothing but
mischief upon the far greater part of the;
inhabitants of America. The only places
in which individual interest is connected
with slavery are the slave-holding States.
Now, in those States, almost without an ex
ception (if, indeed, there be any exception),
the people of color greatly exceed the whites;
and thus, even if an injury were to be in
flicted on the whites by depriving them of
their slaves, the advantages would be most
abundantly counterbalanced and compen
sated for by the infinitely greater number
of persons, who would thus be restored to
that greatest of human blessings — personal
Liberty. Thus the noble Benthamite maxim
of "doing the greatest possible good to the
greatest possible number," would be amply
carried out into effect by the Emancipation
of the negroes.
You charge the Abolitionists, as with a
crime, that they encouraged a negro, flying
from Kentucky, to steal a horse from an in
habitant of Ohio, in order to aid him, if ne
cessary, in making his escape. We are not,
upon full reflection, sufficiently versed in
casuistry to decide whether, under such cir
cumstances, the taking of the horse would
be an excusable act or not. But, even con
ceding that it would be sinful, we are of this
quite certain, that there is not one of you
that address us who, if he were under simi
lar circumstances, that is, having no other
means of escaping perpetual slavery, would
not make free with your neighbor's horse
to effectuate your just and reasonable pur
pose. And we are also sure of this, that
there is not one of you who, if he were com
pelled to spend the rest of his life as a per-

Bonal slave, worked, and beaten, and sold,
and transferred from hand to hand, and
separated, at his master's caprice, from wife
and iamily — consigned to ignorance — work
ing without wages, toiling without reward —
without any other stimulant to that toil and
labor than the driver's cart-whip — we do say
that there is not one of you who would not
think that the name of pick-pocket, thief or
felon, would not be too courteous a name
for the being who kept you in such thraldom.
We cannot avoid repeating our astonish
ment that you, Irishmen, should be so de
void of every trace of humanity as to be
come the voluntary and pecuniarily-disin
terested advocates of human slavery ; and
especially, that you should be so in America.
But what excites our unconquerable loath
ing is to find that in yaur Address you speak
of man being the property of man — of one
human Being beingthe property of another,
with as little doubt, hesitation or repug
nance, as if you were speaking of the beasts
of the field. It is this that fills us with ut
ter astonishment. It is this that makes us
disclaim you as countrymen. We cannot
bring ourselves to believe that you breathed
your natal air in Ireland — Ireland, the first
of all the nations on the earth that abolish
ed the dealing in slaves. The slave trade
of that day was, curiously enough, a slave
trade in British youths — Ireland, that never
was stained with negro slave trading— Ire
land, that never committed an offence
against the men of color — Ireland, that
never fitted out a single vessel for the traf
fic in blood on the African Coast. '
It is, to be sure, afflicting and heartrend
ing to us to think that so many of the Irish
in America should be so degenerate as to
be amongst the worst enemies of the people
of color. Alas I alas I we have that fact
placed beyond doubt by the indusputable tes
timony of Lord Morpeth. This is a foul blot
that we would fain wipe off the 'scutcheon of
•expatriated Irishmen.
Have you enough of the genuine Irish-
Man left amongst you to ask what it is that
we require you to do ? It is this :
First — We call upon you, in the sacred
iname of humanity, never again to volunteer
on behalf of the oppressor ; nor even for any
self-interest to vindicate the hideous crime
of personal slavery.
Secondly — We ask you to assist in every
way you can in promoting the education of
the free men of color, and in discounte
nancing the foolish feeling of selfishness —
of that criminal selfishness which makes the
¦white man treat the man of color as a de
graded or inferior being.
Thirdly— We ask you to assist in obtain
ing for the free men of color the full benefit
of all the rights and franchises of a Freeman
in whatever State he may inhabit

Fourthly — We ask you to exert yourselves
in endeavoring to procure for the man of
color, in every case, the benefit of a Trial by
Jury; and especially where a man insisting
that he is a Freeman is claimed to be a
slave. Fifthly — We ask you to exert yourselves
in every possible way to induce slave-owners
to emancipate as many slaves as possible.
The Quakers in America have several so
cieties for this purpose. Why should not
the Irish imitate them in that virtue ?
Sixthly — We ask you to exert yourselves
in all the ways you possibly can to put an
end to the internal slave trade of the States.
The breeding of slaves for sale is, probably,
the most immoral and debasing practice
ever known in the world. It is a crime of
the most hideous kind ; and if there were no
other crime committed by the Americans,
this alone would place the advocates, sup
porters and practisers of American slavery
in the lowest grade of criminals.
Seventhly — We ask you to use every exer
tion in your power to procure the abolition
of slavery by the Congress in the District of
Columbia. Eighthly— We ask you to use your best
exertions to compel the Congress to receive
and read the petitions of the wretched ne
groes ; and, above all, the petitions of their
white advocates.
Ninthly — We ask you never to cease your
efforts until the crime of which Lord Mor
peth has accused the Irish in America, of
"being the worst enemies of the men of
color," shall be atoned for, and blotted out
and effaced forever.
You will ask how you can do all these
things ? You have already answered that
question yourselves ; for you have said that
public opinion is the Law of America. Con
tribute, then, each of you in his sphere to
make up that public opinion. Where you
have the electoral franchise, give your vote
to none but those who will assist you in so
holy a struggle.
Under a popular Government, the man
who has right, and reason, and justice, and
charity, and Christianity itself at his side,
has great instruments of legislation and le
gal power. He has the elements about him
of the greatest utility; and even if he should
not succeed he can have the heart-soothing
consolation of having endeavored to do great
and good actions. He can enjoy, even in
defeat, the sweet comfort of having endea
vored to promote benevolence and charity.
It is no excuse to allege that the Congress
is restricted from emancipating the slaves
by one General Law. Each particular slave
State has that power within its own pre
cincts; and there is every reason to be con
vinced that Maryland and Virginia »r,nU

— 7 —

and long ago abolished slavery but for the
diabolical practice of "raising, ' as you call
it, slaves for the Sourthern market of pesti
lence and death.
Irishmen and the sons of Irishmen have,
many of them, risen to high distinction and
power in America. Why should not Irish
men and the sons of Irishmen write their
names in the brightest pages of the chapter
of humanity and benevolence in American
Story? Irishmen I our Chairman ventures to
think, and we agree with him, that he has
claims on the attention of Irishmen in every
quarter of the globe. The Scotch and
French philosophers have proved by many
years of experiment that the Irishman
stands first among the races of man in his
physical and bodily powers. America and
Europe bear testimony to the intellectual
capacity of Irishmen. Lord Morpeth has
demonstrated in the British Parliament the
superior morality of the humbler classes of
Irish in all social and family relations.
The religious fidelity of the Irish nation is
blazoned in glorious and proverbial cer
tainty and splendor.
IrishmenI sons of Irishmen! descendants
of the kind of heart and affectionate in dis
position, think, oh think only with pity and
compassion on your colored fellow-creatures
in America. Offer them the hand of kindly
help. Soothe their sorrows. Scath their
oppressor. Join with your countrymen at
home in one cry of horror against the op
pressor ; in one cry of sympathy with the
enslaved and oppressed,
" 'Till prone in the dust slav'ry shall be hurl'd, —
Its name and nature blotted from the world."
We cannot close our observations upon
the unseemly, as well as silly attacks you
make upon the advocates of abolition, with
out reminding you that you have borrowed
this turn of thought from the persons who
opposed Catholic Emancipation in Ireland,
or who were the pretended friends of the
Catholics. Some of you must recollect that
it was the custom of such persons to allege
that but for the "violence" and "miscon
duct" of the agitators, and more particularly
of our Chairman, the Protestants were about
to emancipate the Catholics gradually. It
was the constant theme of the newspaper
press, and even of the speeches in the Houses
of Parliament, that the violence and mis
conduct of agitators prevented Emancipa
tion. It was the burthen of many pamph
lets, and especially of two, which were both
written, under the title of "Faction Un
masked," by Protestants of great ability.
They asserted themselves to be friends. of
Emancipation in the abstract ; but they al
leged that it was impossible to grant Eman
cipation to persons whose Leaders miscon
ducted themselves as the Agitators did.

They gratified their hatred to the Catholics
as you gratify your bad' feeling towards the
negroes, by abuse of the Catholic leaders as-
virulent as yours is against the Abolition
ists. But they deceived nobody. Neither
do you deceive anybody. Every humane be
ing perceives the futility and folly of your
attacks upon the Abolitionists, and under
stands that those attacks are but the exhi
bition of rancor and malignity against the
tried friends of humanity. . '
You say that the Abolitionists are fanatics -
and bigots, and especially entertain a viru
lent hatred and unchristian zeal against
Catholicity and the Irish. We do not mean
to deny, nor do we wish to conceal that there
are amongst the Abolitionists many wicked
and calumniating enemies of Catholicity and
the Irish, especially in that most intolerant
class — the Wesleyan Methodists; but the
best way to disarm their mailice is not by
giving up to them the side of humanity,
while you, yourselves, take the side of sla
very. But, on the contrary, by taking a
superior station of Christian virtue in the
cause of benevolence and charity, and in
zeal for the freedom of all mankind.
We wish we could burn into your souls
the turpitude attached to the Irish in Ame
rica by Lord Morpeth's charge. Recollect
that it reflects dishonor not only upon you,
but upon the land of your birth. There is but
one way of effacing such disgrace, and that
is by becoming the most kindly towards the
colored population, and the most energetic
in working out in detail, as well as in gen
eral principle, the amelioration of the state
of the miserable Bondsmen.
You tell us, indeed, that many Clergy
men, and especially the Catholic Clergy, are
ranged on the side of the slave-holders. We
do not believe your accusation.
The Catholic Clergy may endure, but they
assuredly do not encourage the slave-owners.
We have, indeed, heard it said that some
Catholic Clergymen have slaves of their
own ; but, it is added, and we are assured'
positively, that no Irish Catholic Clergyman
is a slave-owner. At all events, every Cath
olic knows how distinctly slave-holding, and
especially slave-trading, is condemned by
the Catholic Church. That most eminent
man, His Holiness, the present Pope, has,
by an Allocution published throughout the
world, condemned all dealing and traffic in
slaves. Nothing can be more distinct nor
more powerful than the Pope's denuncia
tion of that most abominable crime. Yet
it subsists in a more abominable form than
His Holiness could possibly describe, in the
traffic which still exists in the sale of slaves
from one State in America to another.
What, then, are we to think of you, Irish
Catholics, who send us an elaborate vindi
cation of slavery without the slightest can-

— 8 —

sure of that hateful crime ? a crime wlyich
the Pope has so completely condemned —
namely, the diabolical raising of slaves for
sale, and selling them to other States.
If you be Catholics you should devote
your time and best exertions to working
out the pious intentions of His Holiness.
Yet you prefer — oh, sorrow and shame I to
volunteer your vindication of everything
that belongs to the guilt of slavery.
If you be Christians at all, recollect that
slavery is opposed to the first, the highest,
and the greatest principles of Christianity,
which teach us "to love the great and good
God above all things whatsoever ;" and the
next "to love our fellow-man as ourselves ;"
which commands us "to do unto others as
we would be done by." These sacred prin
ciples are inconsistent with the horrors and
crimes of slavery ; sacred principles which
have already banished domestic bondage
from civilized Europe, and which will also,
in God's own good time, banish it from
America, despite the advocacy of such puny
declaimers as you are.
How bitterly have we been afflicted at
perceiving by the American newspapers,
that recently in the city which you inhabit
an opportunity was given to the Irish to ex
hibit benevolence and humanity to a color
ed fellow-creature, and was given in vain I
We allude to the case of the girl Lavinia,
who was a slave in another State, and
brought by her owner into that of Ohio.
She by that means became entitled to her
freedom, if she had but one friend to assert
it for her. She did find friends — may the
great God of Heaven bless them I Were
they Irish ? Alas I alas I not one. You
sneer at the sectaries. Behold how they
here conquer you in goodness and charity.
The owner's name, il seems, was Scanlan ;
unhappily a thorough Irish name. And he,
it appears, has boasted that he took his re
venge, by the most fiendish cruelty, not upon
Lavinia or her protectors, for they were not
in his power, but on her unoffending father,
mother and family I
And this is the system which you, Irish
men, through many folio pages of wicked
declamation, seek at least to palliate if not
justify. Our cheeks burn with shame to
think that such a monster as Scanlan could
trace his pedigree to Ireland. And yet you,
Irishmen, stand by in the attitude rather of
friends and supporters, than of impugners
of the monstrous cruelty. And you prefer
to string together pages of cruel and heart
less sophistry in defence of the source of
his crimes, rather than take part against
him. Perhaps it would offend your fastidious
ness if such a man were compared to a pick
pocket or a felon. We respect your preju

dices and ca:U him tio reproachful name.
It is, indeed, unnecessary.
We conclude by conjuring you, and all
other Irishmen in America, in the name of
your fatherland — in the name of humanity
— in the name of the God_ of Mercy and
Charity ; we conjure you, Irishmen and de
scendants of Irishmen, to abandon for ever
all defence of the hideous negro slavery sys
tem. Let it no more be said that your feel
ings are made so obtuse by the air of Ame
rica that you cannot feel as Catholics and
Christians ought to feel this truth — this
plain truth, that one man cannot have any
PROPERTY IN ANOTHER man. There is not
one of you who does not recognize that
principle in his own person. Yet we per
ceive — and this agonizes us almost to mad
ness — that you, boasting on Irish descent,
should, without the instigation of any pecu
niary or interested motive, but out of the
sheer and single love of wickedness and
crime, come forward as the volunteer de
fenders of the most degrading species of
human slavery. Woe I Woe I Woe I
There is one consolation still amid the
pulsations of our hearts. There are — there
must be genuine Irishmen in America — ¦
men of sound heads and Irish hearts, who
will assist us to wipe off the foul stain that
Lord Morpeth's proven charge has inflicted
on the Irish character — who will hold out
the hand of fellowship, with a heart in that
hand, to every honest man of every caste
and color — who will sustain the cause of
humanity and honor, and scorn the1 paltry
advocates of slavery — who will shew that
the Irish heart is in America as benevolent
and as replete with charitable emotions as
in any other clime on the face of the earth.
We conclude. The spirit of democratic
liberty is defiled by the continuance of ne
gro slavery in the United States. The
United States, themselves, are degraded be
low the most uncivilized nations, by the
atrocious inconsistency of talking of liberty
and practising tyranny in its worst shape.
The Americans attempt to palliate their
iniquity by the futile excuse of personal in
terest ; but the Irish, who have not even that
futile excuse, and yet justify slavery, are
utterly indefensible.
Once again — and for the last time — we
call upon you to come out of the councils
of the slave-owners, and at all events to free
yourselves from participating in their guilt
Irishmen, I call on you to join in crush
ing slavery, and in giving Liberty to every
man of every caste, creed and color.
Signed by order, Daniel O'Connell,
Chairman of the Committee.

YALE UNIVERSITY I