Yale University Library.

NEW YEAR'S GIFT;

OR, AN

ADDRESS TO THE IRISH CONSTITUENTS,

SHOWING THE ONLY MEANS FOR THE

SPEEDY REDEMPTION OF IRELAND.

THE CLERGY CALLED TO THE FIELD.

BY

J. B. McMAHON, Priest, M. D.

Hf

BOSTON:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR.
1850.
I

TO THE IRISH CONSTITUENTS.

While yet under oppression, and the most calamitous
afflictions, I conceive, my countrymen, that it is the duty of
every Christian patriot, of every well-wisher of Ireland,
freely to offer his opinion, not so pointedly concerning the
tyranny by which she is despoiled, as effectually indicative
of the remedial means by which, at length, she may achieve
her emancipation, and the national independence to which
she is justly entitled.
Why should not Ireland be an independent nation ? The
wisdom, the justice, and martial prowess of her former
monarchs, stand unrivalled and unequalled on the pages of
her history. The sufferings and sacrifices, the unexampled
intrepidity of Irishmen, have become proverbial in adding
victory to the standard and lustre to the escutcheon of every
other nation but their own. The virtue and piety of her
daughters have never been called into question, even by the
profligate historians who bartered their talents for bribery,
lying before God and belying human nature, while they
fawned on the English tyrants, and whet the sword of
oppression for unhappy Ireland.
The climate of Ireland is remarkably salubrious. The
soil is rich, and of easy culture. She has her mines of coal,
of copper, of silver and gold, her quarries of slate and mar-

ble, &c. &c. ; her lakes, her rivers, her canals^ her estuaries,
and her most safe and convenient harbors. The American
merchant vessels must skirt her coasts, before they reach
the ports of her tyrant oppressors. Ireland is peculiarly
adapted, by nature, for keeping up a commerce with all the
nations of the world. With such internal resources, and
numberless other advantages peculiar to the clime, the
country, and its inhabitants, it must be rationally concluded,
that Ireland should be a free and independent nation. Why,
therefore, is she not both free and independent 1
In order succinctly to answer this important interrogation,
"which Ireland has long anticipated, many paramount reasons
can be very justly assigned. I answer first, Because, at an
early period, the ruthless invaders of the country designed,
and made it a point, to tarnish, to misrepresent, and to blot
from the pages of her history, and from the archives of the
nation, the virtue, the piety, and memorable achievements of
the sixty and one kings, who governed that country from
the time of St. Patrick to the ill-fated year of 1170, and yet
the more blighting and disastrous year of 1172. O, would
that the saintly Island had sunk for a time in the western
ocean, until her Saxon invaders had been ingulfed in her
waters, or that the lamp of heaven had refused its light to
the unchristian and merciless despoilers on that eventful day,
so pregnant with centuries of national calamities.
Secondly. Because there they beheld, and could not but
admire, the beauty of that fine country, the virtue and valor
of the native inhabitants, the salubrity of the climate, the
fertility of the soil, and the prosperity of the people. Being
totally unaccustomed to scenes like those, or to the hospi
tality which they received, they determined per faset nefas
to possess and enjoy those parts of the country which they
deemed the most worthy of appreciation ; nor were they
sparing in making room for their friends, at the expense of
the lives and properties of their too credulous and unsus
picious entertainers, the hospitable and chivalrous inhabi
tants of the country.

Thirdly. It was quite consistent with the subsequent
"wicked policy of the British ministry, after laying every
possible source to elementary education under the infidel re
strictions of a parliamentary interdict, to deprive the Irish
people of their commerce, their manufactories, and every
other source of national aggrandizement. Mark, after all,
with what hellish effrontery and superciliousness, the bloated
myrmidons of a trice-perjured monarchy, and the ministerial
sycophants of the bantling puppet of petticoat government
can, even at this day, whine out a sentence of bad English,
and terminate by hypocritically bemoaning the pestilence,
and poverty of the power and hignorant Hirish. For which
pestilence and poverty, their own wicked policy has amply
laid the foundation, by notoriously unconstitutional and un
just taxations ; by annually receiving the fruit of the poor
man's labor, the cream of the whole country with the fat of the
land, which are yearly drained from every harbor in Ireland,
to fill the exchequer of rapacious England, while her own
population remains in utter want and destitution. And this
is the justice to Ireland, which the English monarch swears
to administer when taking the coronation oath. During that
solemn ceremony, the archbishop puts the following question
to the person about to be crowned, viz.
" Will you to your power cause law and justice, in mercy,
to be executed in all your judgments?"
Answer. — "I solemnly promise to do so."
And then shall kiss the book.
But the plunder of her poor and hard-working inhabi
tants, is the justice to Ireland which she annually receives,
notwithstanding this most solemn protest to govern accord
ing to law and justice, and not to despoil and enslave one
portion of the community for the aggrandizement of any
other. Hence, it is quite evident that Ireland cannot reason
ably expect her share of national justice from an English
sovereign, nor a fair representation, from a truckling, delu
sive, and profligate ministry. Because, as I have already
said, and, I hope, sufficiently demonstrated, they found it

6

their interest to keep the nation in slavery, in order to fatten
on the produce of the country, and to prey when necessary,
like vultures, upon the very vitals of its prostrate inhabi
tants. Fourthly. Her oppressors discovered also, at an early
period, that disaffection and disunion amongst her members,
were the most plausible as well as the most effectual means
which they could employ for her final subjugation. This
abominable policy, the last subterfuge of the insidious min
istry, was artfully encouraged and very widely diffused by
select delegates for that anti-Christian embassy.
"Of the English clergy," says the historian, "who when
settled in this country, there were many whose lives were a
reproach to their sacred calling. These, we are assured,
had scarcely taken up their abode in Ireland, when several
of them were found to live in the violation of the solemn
obligations which are annexed to the priesthood. That,
under the pretence of introducing a more strict morality, the
country should have been made tributary to England, was
of itself sufficiently mortifying to the Irish clergy. But
that such spiritual instructors as had been imposed by the
invaders, should be employed to enlighten the piety of the
Irish people, provoked their utmost indignation." — Carew,
Ecc. Hist. p. 172.
Add to this scheme, the patronage and governmental pro
tection invariably given to Protestants, and the mighty efforts
every where made for the total suppression of the religion of
the Irish people, and the utter extinction of its Catholic
members. Yes, by hanging, quartering, disembowelling,
by imprisonment, banishment, confiscation of property, in
ability to fill or enjoy any office or place of trust or emolu
ment under or at the disposal of the English government.
Undeserving men and many apostates, who were justly
detested by the people, immediately received places, pen
sions, favor and protection. The ferocious Orangemen, who
swear to wade knee deep in Catholic blood, taking their
blasphemous oath from the text of the lxvii. psalm, v. 24,

were patronized by the government, headed by some mem
bers of the royal family, armed to the teeth, and having the
tails of scorpions when about to sting a man. And thus
were those infidel bloodhounds, these apocalyptic locusts
let loose upon an innocent, unsuspicious and unoffending
people, for the sake of maintaining the disunion already engen
dered amongst them, and to afford a specious pretext for the
most unwarrantable, the most notoriously uncalled for, and
the most wantonly infamous acts of coercion. I presume
the abundant cause of Ireland's present depressed and deplo
rable condition, will be found sufficiently to result from this
exposition of systematic tyranny, and the protracted minis
terial profligacy, to which, at length, unhappy Ireland was
forced to succumb. Thus, therefore, I answer the question,
why she is not found on the list of nations, or, as she might
have been, free and independent.
Fifthly. The fifth reason which I am now about to assign
for the present calamitious state of Ireland and her over
whelming population, is of all others, and superlatively
beyond all others, the most poignantly absorbing, the most
extensively desolating and brutal act, which human nature,
in her degeneracy, was capable of devising, or the parlia
mentary annals of any nation had ever before on record. In
this alone is found, to a mathematical demonstration, the
rounded sum of ministerial turpitude, the magnetism of
bribery and governmental patronage, the damning venality
of parliamentary delegates, the blighting tornado of Ireland's
nationality, the quick prostration and lasting disgrace of her
people. You are already aware, that I allude, with sorrow
and high indignation, to the nefarious and most unnatural
act of Union. Because, before that fatal hour, Ireland had
her place on the roll of independent nations. Well, indeed,
and worthily, by her matchless orators and invincible volun
teers, did she seek to maintain that independence. Witness
her contentions with Portugal, and the non-interference of
the British government. " An explicit and detailed declara
tion of the people's rights," says Jonas Barrington, "was

8

now demanded, in every part of the nation. The press
teemed with publications on the subjects best calculated to
call pa-triotism into activity. The doctrines of Swift, of
Molineux and of Lucas, were republished in abstract
pamphlets, and placed in the hands of every man who
could read them. Their principles were recognised and
disseminated; the Irish mind became enlightened, and a
revolution in literature became auxiliary to a revolution in
liberty. Delegates from all the armed bodies of the people,
became regularly assembled by their respective corps, and
met, for the purpose of giving weight and importance to their
resolves, by conjointly declaring their sentiments and their
determination. Nothing, (says he,) can more clearly speak
the determined spirit of the volunteers, than the following
resolutions entered into, about this time, by the volunteer
corps of the city of Dublin, published in all the newspapers,
and circulated throughout every part of the kingdom, viz :
"Resolved, That the king, lords and commons of Ireland
only, are competent to make laws binding the subjects of
this realm ; and that we will not obey, or give operation to
any laws, save only those enacted by the king, lords and
commons of Ireland, whose rights and privileges, jointly and
.severally, we are determined to support with our lives and
fortunes. " Resolved, That we do not acknowledge the jurisdiction
of any parliament, save only the king, lords and commons
of Ireland.
" More than two hundred Resolutions to the same effect,
many stronger, were quickly published, by corps and regi
ments of volunteers throughout Ireland. Then it was, that
the British ministry and parliament began to feel their own
weakness. Their intolerance degenerated into fear, and
responsibility began to stare them in the face. The loss of
America had been got over by their predecessors without an
impeachment, but that of Ireland would not have passed
Over with the same impunity. The British cabinet had
already signed the capitulation, and thought it impossible to

carry it too soon into execution. Bills to enact the conces
sions demanded by Ireland, were, therefore, prepared with
an expedition bordering on precipitation. The 6th of George
the First, declaratory of and establishing the supremacy of
England, and the eternal dependence of Ireland on the
parliament and cabinet of Great Britain, was now hastily
repealed, without debate or any qualification, by the British
legislature, to the following effect, viz :
"And be it enacted by the king's most excellent majesty,
by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual
and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament as
sembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and
after the passing of this act, the above-mentioned act, and
the several matters and things therein contained, shall be
and is, and are hereby repealed."
While England thus drooped, Ireland raised her head, and
for a moment was arrayed with all the insignia of an inde
pendent nation. This is then precisely the independence
which she has an undoubted right to hold, which is justly
her inheritance, and of which, nevertheless, she has been
literally robbed by an insidious ministry, and by the corrup
tion of her more perfidious delegates. Hence the infamous
Pitt, and the yet more detestable Castlereagh, found it pos
sible, by expending one million and a half of the people's
money in bribes and largesses, to corrupt fifteen or twenty
of the Irish members, and thus to affix the seal of poverty
and degradation on the Irish people, as well as on the Irish
nation, by the introduction of the unconstitutional compact
called the Union.
A most remarkable proof of the shameless lengths, at that
period, resorted to by the viceroy and minister, to gain over
a sufficient number of the anti-unionists against the ensuing
sessions, occurred immediately after the close of the session
of 1799. " A public dinner of all the patriotic members was
had in Dublin, to commemorate the rescue of the country
from so imminent a danger. One hundred and ten members
of parliament sat down to that splendid and triumphant en-
2

10
tertainment. Never was a more cordial, happy assemblage
of men of rank, consideration, and proved integrity, col
lected in one chamber, than upon that memorable occasion.
Every man's tried and avowed principles were supposed to
be untaintable, and pledged to his own honor and his coun
try's safety; and amongst others, Mr. Handcock, member for
Athlone, appeared to be conspicuous. He spoke strongly,
gave numerous anti-union toasts, vowed his eternal hostility
to so infamous a measure, pledged himself to God and man
to resist it to extremities, and to finish and record his sen
timents, he had composed an anti-union song, of many
stanzas, which he sung himself, with a general chorus, to
celebrate the spirit of the cause, and the patriotism of the
meeting. This was encored more than once by the com
pany; and he withdrew towards day, with the reputation
of being, in 1799, the most pure, unflinching opponent of
the measure he so cordially resisted. From that day Lords
Cornwallis and Castlereagh marked him out as one of their
opponents who should be gained over on any terms. Human
nature is the same in every part of the globe. Wherever am
bition, vanity, or avarice, take root, or become ruling pas
sions, their vegetation may be checked for a day, but the
root is perennial, and Ireland had no reason to suppose na
ture would favor her by an unqualified exemption of her
representatives from those alluring vices, which she had so
profusely lavished on and exemplified in the British parlia
ment, that, at length, it became so politically vicious, and
intolerably corrupt, that the remedy of a democratic reform
in the commons, or, more properly, a recurrence to the theory
of the constitution, was found indispensable, to preserve the
remnant of that constitution against the overwhelming influ
ence of the press, and the oligarchy which menaced its anni
hilation. It was, therefore, the very summit of British
egotism and injustice, to pretend that the corrupt state of
the Irish parliament formed a leading and just ground for
altogether extinguishing its existence. Although it appeared
in full proof that, in proportion to its respective members,

11
the British commons at the time of the Irish union contained
one fourth more corrupt, corruptible, and influenced mem
bers, than that of Ireland, at any period ; and that the Brit
ish minister, on the regency question, intimidated, influenced
and corrupted the British house of commons, when that of
Ireland was found pure enough to resist all his efforts. "
From my answers to the question, Why is not Ireland an
independent nation'? the reasons which I have assigned, and
the documentary proofs which I have amply adduced, it
will appear quite evident to any reflecting mind, that if cor
rect inferences can be drawn from the close analogy of
things, if instruction can be obtained from precedents, if the
desolating experience of past centuries of deep delusion and
legalized misrule, can have any weight in the scale of com
parison, you have no tangible argument, no semblance of
reason to expect justice from England in any possible shape
or form. No, I repeat it, until bribery cease to corrupt, or
perjury to betray, never can you reasonably expect justice
from a British parliament. A renewed attempt, therefore,
by means of your representatives, to obtain a redress of
grievances from so corrupt and so unconstitutional a body
as the British ministry, would be evidently, on your part,
and in the face of the world, an egregious prostitution of
intellect, an utter debasement of your reasoning powers, and
a broad seal affixed to your national degradation.
Have you not tried every possible means that wisdom,
seasoned in forbearance and long-suffering, that justice, and
common honesty, could suggest? You demanded your
rights in the time of peace ; then you were called turbulent
and seditious. You demanded them in the time of war;
but you were told that was no time. You demanded hum
bly, and you were spurned with contempt. At length you
demanded boldly; then your leaders were proscribed, and
your only redress was the panacea of a coercion bill.
Such, truly, is the even-handed justice which Ireland can
reasonably expect from the infamous whig ministry; and
the only answer to your demands will be, forsooth, that you

12
have not yet hit exactly on the proper time to make them, that
the Greek calends, which have not yet arrived, belong pecu
liarly to Ireland. Look around, you may find some of your
pretended representatives already chained to the car of despo
tism, wanting in integrity, and totally unworthy of your
confidence. Look back, and you can see the contract of
union blackened with the detestable names of the traitors
who sold their country, but could not suppress or dispose of
the vindictive and just indignation which such venality was
to excite in the souls of the coming generation. Look then
before you. What have you to expect from the future, but
what your Grattans, your Currans, your Sheils and O'Con-
nells, I say what the Irish martyrs, Mitchell, Duffy, O'Brien
and:0'Gorman vainly endeavored to achieve? Yet until this
hour Ireland has received no tangible benefit, no permanent
hope of prosperity, no future expectation of her national in
dependence, though her advocates have used their best, their
greatest exertions, though they have written and have spoken
in season and out of season.
No doubt they have all acted from a pure spirit of the
most sterling and incorruptible patriotism; and there is as
little doubt, notwithstanding all these mighty efforts for her
redemption, that our country still lies prostrate, and at the
lawless mercy- of her ruthless and tyrant oppressors. If her
present condition be not wbrse in many degrees, it is cer
tainly not better than at the passing of the act of union.
How far has the poor man, who stands most of all in need
of immediate assistance, profited by all that has been done?
He did not want a place of honor, nor a situation in the
army or the navy ; these are not the doors by which he
wanted to look at the constitution, which have been so gra
ciously thrown wide open to the middling man, and to those
desirous of offices under the infidel government. He only
wanted to receive just value for his hard labor in tilling the
ground, or in other means of industry for the support of his
family. What have these received, but a compulsory no
tice from their landlords to visit either of the four corners

13
of the globe in quest of a future residence, because they
dared to vote against the interest of the anti-repealers? Does
not all this sufficiently prove that the great evil clearly
emanates from the very act of subscribing to the iniquitous
contract, by sending members to an alien parliament, where
they have never effected the least service for the poor of the
country ? This has proved to be the curse of the country,
the ruin of Ireland's hardy peasantry, the aggrandizement,
at their expense, of many a worthless upstart, who betrayed
the interests of his constituents after battening year after
year on their purblind credulity.
What, then, my countrymen, is there no hope for the
future prosperity of our unhappy country? Has she no
alternative left for her emancipation ? Yes, Ireland has yet
a remedy, which, after distinctly pronouncing all former
efforts and remedies, as they have proved, worse by far than
useless, I trust in God, will be found not a but the sovereign
remedy. May God in his omnipotence forefend but my bleed
ing country would yet have all I anticipate it to be, i. e. the
only sovereign and effectual remedy.
There is seldom a case found so_ desperate as not to admit
of some peculiar means for redress or alleviation, or a nation
so brutified as not to be made amenable to the laws of hu
manity, at some period or under some circumstances. But
instead of looking around for another succession of years at
your representatives, who may have it in their power to
represent, or eventually to misrepresent you in a foreign
land ; instead of looking back on past grievances, or looking
forward in the anticipation of unchristian revenge for the
wrongs you sustained, — raising your heads, look rather to
Heaven, where eternal justice reigns, and in the presence of
the God of justice, propose to yourselves collectively the fol
lowing important questions, viz.
First. Have not we, men of Ireland, repeatedly asserted,
and is it not historically notorious, that the act of union, by
which our country is enslaved, of which we so bitterly and
so justly complain, to which we can fairly date the griefs

14
and calamities of the whole nation, was passed, or more
properly forced upon us, by the corruption and bribery of a
portion of our representatives, by ministerial intrigue, contrary
to every species of international justice, contrary to the neces
sary conditions of every legal contract, and totally against
the will and most strenuous efforts of a vast majority of the
Irish people?
Secondly. Have we not repeatedly sent forth our formal
denunciations of the iniquity of that act?
Thirdly. Have we not sufficiently experienced that by it
the nation is enslaved, and brought to the most abject
misery, want, and starvation ?
Fourthly. Have we not sufficiently proved, that not the
least good can be effected by sending our most strenuous
members to a foreign parliament, and that many have been
driven to want and misery by voting against their landlords
in order to elect repealers, who confess they could not real
ize the objects they intended for the national welfare, or, in
real fact, any good at all ?
Fifthly. Should we not feel, and at length become sensi
ble, that by sending our members to an alien parliament, we
virtually consent and subscribe to the very contract which
we conscientiously believe to be fraudulent, iniquitous, and
essentially invalid, to which we shall never become parties?
Yet this we have been doing all along, complaining bitterly
of the contract of union, and notwithstanding our complaints
we have yearly subscribed to the desolating ruin which it
continues to inflict upon us.
Sixthly. Shall we, therefore, stamped with tlie impress
of God's eternal and immutable justice, and possessing the
nature, the fortitude, the courage and perseverance of other
men, shall we thus longer trifle with ourselves, with the
nation, and entail degradation on our future generations ?
Time, wisdom, reason, experience, the sacrifice of many
lives, the expatriation of our most worthy, most persever-
ingly intrepid and most efficient citizens, the deplorable and
abandoned state of many helpless, homeless families, now in

15
a foreign land, — nay, fraud, perjury, bloodshed, murder and
massacre, all, all prove not only the utter uselessness and
folly, but also the incalculable injury, which we inflict upon
ourselves, on the entire nation, as well as on our posterity,
by sending members to the British house of commons, to
lisp a ministerial accent, or to quarrel with the bloated and
ruffianly aristocracy of infidel England, who have neither a
will, nor a genius or capability to legislate for Ireland or
the Irish people. Then you will say — truly, our own con
duct hitherto, on this vital point of national prudence and
patriotic circumspection, has been strangely inconsistent.
Having calmly and maturely deliberated upon the force
and extensive meaning of these interrogatories, which are
thus submitted to your united consideration, then I trust and
do most sincerely hope, that you will unanimously come to
the solemn, the truly patriotic and determined resolution, of
never sending another member across the Channel of St.
George. You tried them too long at the expense of the
country. Away then, with that partisan humbug for ever.
Let this be the solemn, the fixed, the eternal and unalterable
determination of every man who can vote ; let it be inculca
ted by every honest member of parliament. Remember,
that the man who opposes this determination, which should
be sworn to, in every parish and on every altar throughout
the kingdom, I say that man has not the interest of Ireland
at heart, so much as his own ambition, which proves his
unfitness ; because it will appear evidently clear and con
clusive, that you owe this sacred resolve to yourselves
individually, you owe it to your posterity, and it is a na
tional debt, which on your part should be promptly paid to
the justice and integrity which by your mock representa
tives have been insulted and betrayed. How can you call
for aid in your constitutional struggles, on the almighty
Arbiter of nations, against whose eternal justice, the very
act of subscribing to so iniquitous a contract, by sending
your members to a foreign parliament against all interna
tional right and constitutional law, is, unquestionably, a

16
heinous offence ? Be no longer parties to it, lest you share
in the iniquity which it entails on its abettors.
Make this sacred resolution at the altars of your afflicted
country, and on the tombs of your saintly and illustrious
forefathers, never to send another member to the British Par
liament, cost what it may. Let it have the sincere hearts
and determined souls of all the pure and noble of the king
dom. You have only to organize one parish properly, to
insure success. The becoming dignity of this sacred deter
mination, the justice attached to it, its truth and excellence,
will sufficiently recommend it to every conscientious and
patriotic mind, — to every true-hearted Irishman, — until it
will be heard and felt bounding on the breeze, from the Lakes
of Killarney to the Giant's Causeway, and from Slieve-na-
manne to the papps of matane in the new world. Then let the
unanimous voice of the Irish nation, with their bishops and
clergy at their head, be distinctly heard, on the other side of
the British Channel, calling for the immediate restoration of
the Irish Parliament, in peals of thunder, of national indig
nation, not to be mistaken for the roar of ten thousand British
cannons. Will England then refuse what the indignant voice of
Catholic Ireland, with her prelates and clergy, so impera
tively demand? No, no. That will be her appointed time;
there may be some juggling amongst the ministers of the
Queen, for a time, doubtless, but they cannot, dare not, con
tinue to withhold the inalienable rights of nine millions of
Irishmen but for a very short time, if the demand be thus
simultaneously made by the clergy and the people, and if
they be men worthy of freedom. No, no; the thing is
physically impossible. But if they have not yet learned to
appreciate the dignity of their manhood, — if by English
misrule and domestic tyranny, they have become so far
brutified as to be unmindful of the piety and valor of their
ancestors, — if, in their piety, they can tamely suffer the
purity of God's unsullied justice to be trampled under foot
with impunity, and without the fire of that sacred indigna-

17
tion which aroused the valiant sons of Maccabeus-, the patri
archs themselves, an archbishop of Dublin, and many Chris
tian soldiers since their day who have been obliged, at the head
of armies, to withstand the lawlessness of tyrants, when all
other means proved unavailing, and when they possessed all
the necessaries for a just aggression, — if, I say, the Irish
people can no longer maintain such a spirit, they become
unworthy the commiseration of any nation, unworthy of
their sires and of the land of their nativity.
I am already well aware that many futile objections will
be every where raised against the plan of action which I
here submit, and to the arguments which I have adduced to
maintain it. It will be objected, first, that although the
Catholics do come to the resolution of sending no more mem
bers to England, — which in itself may be considered practi
cable, as being opposed to no law respecting the Irish mem
bers, and this was openly avowed by O'Connell, who then
declared he would not return there, and that he would induce
all the Irish members to remain in Dublin, — still it is alleged,
the Protestants would send their members, who are invaria
bly opposed to the Catholic interest. I, answering, do as
sert, that that man has but a slight knowledge of the tyranny
of the English government, who is not yet aware that the
Irish Protestants and the Irish Orangemen are the pets and
working tools of the ministry, kept in place, pension and
office for the purpose of dividing the people, and crying out,
wolf, wolf, when the sheep are in no danger whatever. Still
the minister feigns to believe it, because he would have it so.
Yet I say, if the Orangemen send their representatives, then
let the Catholics protest against them, so that their iniquity
may become the more notorious. This will not affect the
great body of the people, who are still unrepresented, and no
person can say that the representatives of a very inferior
number, (as the Orangemen are in every county,) can be
called the representatives of the vast majority who justly
opposed their nomination. Put it under what legal construc
tion you please, or you can invent, the proceeding in snch
3

18 /
case would be utterly absurd, iniquitous and unconstitu
tional. " Secondly. It will be objected, that Ireland would become,
in a short time, comparatively worse than she is at present,
if no member should be sent to represent their grievances,
&c. &c. To this objection I scarcely deign to reply. Ireland
infinitely worse than she is at present, indeed ! ! ! Such a
state cannot be even admitted in the scale of contingencies,
except that the inhabitants be made food for the starved and
ignorant peasantry of Northumberland.
Thirdly. It will be said by designing men, that such a
movement would be called a rebellion, and the people would
be again harassed and goaded down by coercion laws, as if
in a state of warfare. My answer is, that no people can be
treated as rebels who do not disturb the peace of the com
munity ; who do not appear in arms against their govern
ment. But that every man should use the privilege invested
in him by the constitution, viz. to vote or not to vote, is by
no means an act of rebellion. The English themselves
would soon feel obliged openly to oppose such overhanded
tyranny as that. No, no, there must be a real, or an inter
pretative violation of some compact or existing law, to
constitute an act of rebellion. For a whole nation thus
peaceably, yet unanimously and determinedly to express
their grievances by an act of disfranchisement, by which
they forego certain privileges, in order to expose the delusion
which covers, obscures or obstructs their just demands, to
which they have a better right than the monarch to a throne,
is by no means even an interpretative act of rebellion.
To cause Ireland to rebel, in order to establish a pretext
for coercion, oppression, and plunder, was invariably, and is
yet notoriously the detestable policy of the British ministers.
This antichristian policy was, by the way of experiment, in
the Colonies, practised in Canada by the legal fiction of
Lord John Russell's six blood-spilling resolutions. Yet it
was found to be an utter failure, and proved to be detestable
policy. If he were now again to try his hand with the Irish

19
people, by an attempt to coerce them for peaceably avowing
their grievances, and their want of confidence in his truck
ling administration by not sending their members to a cabal of
ruffians, which they call the Imperial Parliament, they are not
the Irish, but Lord John and his whig ministry, who would
really become rebels, and should be treated as such, both by
the English and the Irish people. Because, it is the doc
trine of the most approved writers on national jurisprudence,
that when either the legislative power is changed, or the
legislators act contrary to the end for which they were
constituted, those who are guilty, are guilty of rebellion.
For if any one by force take away the established legisla
ture of any society, and the laws by them made pursuant
"to their trust, he thereby takes away the umpirage which
every one had consented to for a peaceable decision of all
their controversies, and a bar to the sta.te of war amongst
them. They who remove or change the legislative, take
away the decisive power which no body can have but by
the appointment and consent of the people, and so destroy
ing the authority which the people did, and no body else
can, set up, and introducing a power which the people hath
not authorized, they actually introduce a state of war, which
is that of force without authority ; and thus by removing
the legislature established by the Society, (in whose decis
ions the people acquiesced and united as to that of their
own will,) they untie the knot, and expose the people anew
to a state of war. And if those who, by force, take away
the legislature, are rebels, the legislators themselves, as has
been shown, can be no less esteemed so ; when they who
were set up for the protection and preservation of the people,
their liberties and properties, shall, by force, invade and
endeavor to take them away; and so they, putting them
selves in a state of war with those who made them the pro
tectors and guardians of their peace and property, are, with
the greatest aggravation, rebellantes, or rebels. But if they
who say that it lays a foundation for rebellion, mean that it
may occasion civil war, or intestine broils, to tell the people

20
they are absolved from obedience, when illegal attempts are
made upon their liberties or upon their properties, and may
oppose the unlawful violence of those who were their ma
gistrates, when they invade their properties, contrary to the
trust put in them, and that, therefore, this doctrine is not
to be allowed, being so destructive to the peace of the world ;
they may as well say, upon the same ground, that honest
men may not oppose robbers or pirates, because they may
occasion disorder or bloodshed. If any mischief come in
such cases, it is not to be charged upon him who defends
his own right, but on him that invades his neighbor's. If
the innocent honest man must quietly quit all he has for
peace sake, to him who will lay violent hands upon it, I
desire it may be considered what kind of peace there will be
in the world, which consists only in violence and rapine,
and which is to be maintained only for the benefit of robbers
and oppressors. The end of government is the good of
mankind ; and which is best for mankind, that the people
should always be exposed to the boundless will of tyrants,
or that the rulers should be sometimes liable to be exposed,
when they grow exorbitant in the use of their power, and
employ it for the destruction, and not for the preservation of
the properties of the people ? Although I do not subscribe
to the theory of Montesquieu, of Ward on the Law of Nature
and of Nations, or altogether of Locke on Civil Government,
in all their items, yet I must admit, one would imagine
that that celebrated metaphysician and political instructor,
was taking a note of all the detestable intrigues of Russell,
Pitt, Castlereagh, &c, since the concoction of the Union
bill. What I say, and emphatically assert, is, that if it ever
were sanctioned by holy writ, if the three conditions found
necessary by theologians and canonists for a just war, and
to render aggression no crime, were ever rightfully claimed
by an oppressed people, in order to oppose force to force, for
the defence of their lives and properties, the Irish are un
questionably and avowedly that people. Yet, notwithstand
ing the plan laid down, if the clergy and people do not

21
closely unite, for the attainment of the one great object,
unless perfect and a national union be established, your best
efforts will be paralyzed, your fairest hopes blasted by con
tending parties. No matter who the parties may be, there
is but one great object to be attained, and that is justice for
Ireland; the voice of the nation for a nation's rights must
achieve that paramount object, and not the voice of contend
ing parties. There is no man of the present day sufficiently
schooled in the politics of his country, to enable him to hold
the position which Daniel O'Connell held over the Irish
nation. As an individual, respecting his mode of acting,
in many particular cases, my opinions are peculiarly my
own, they are held as private property, neither do I con
ceive that their development would be at all necessary on
the present subject. He was an Irishman and a Catholic.
The comprehensive and mighty mind with which he was
gifted, sufficiently proves that, by the superintending provi
dence of an All Wise Being, there is, in the order of creation,
one of each peculiar genus more excellent than its fellows of
the same species. Thus of gems, the diamond is the most
appreciable ; of metals, gold ; of fish, the dolphin ; of flow
ers, the rose ; of beasts, the lion ; of birds, the eagle ; amongst
men, the king, if the most upright ; but above the kings of
his day was Daniel O'Connell. Suffice it, therefore, to say
now, in the language of our silver-tongued countryman,
" That the star of the field which so often had pour'd,
Its light on the battle is set :
But enough of its glory remains on each sword,
To light us to victory yet.
Then forget not the faithful companions who stood
In the day of distress by your side :
When the moss of the valley, was red with their blood,
They stirred not, but conquered or died."
Remember, my countrymen, the piety and valor of your an
cestors, both at home and abroad. Forget not, that the noble
escutcheon of Irish intrepidity which waved over the walls

22
6f Badajoz, and was triumphant at the memorable battle of
Pampeluna, had for its motto, Union in action. Let it also
be your motto, my countrymen, to unite for the redemption
of your country. The day may shortly arrive when you
will find the deep necessity for a close and a holy union,
when those who babble in our ears of rebellion, riots, rock-
ites, &c, &c, and talk of peace and submission to an infidel
government, will be sent to rehearse their theologies ; while
the justice of God, the wisdom and courage of their prelates
and clergy, shining over the Irish arms, will make them
invincible in the field of fight, the scourge of tyrants, and
the terror of their enemies.
I remain, my Countrymen,
Your very sincere friend,
J. B. McMAHON, Priest, M. D.
Boston, November 29, 1849.

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