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EXILED IRISH PATRIOTS. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ( 
 
 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 11, 1852. 
 
 THE SENATE resumed the consideration of the resolution submit- 
 ted by Mr. FOOTE, of Mississippi, on the 2d December, expressive of 
 the sympathy of Congress for the exiled Irish patriots, SMITH O'BRIEN 
 and THOMAS F. MEAGHER, and their associates. 
 
 Mr. SHIELDS had offered the following as a substitute : 
 
 Strike out all after the enacting clause, and insert : 
 
 " That while we disclaim all intention of interfering in any way in the internal 
 affairs of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, we deem it our duty to express, 
 m a 
 
 by blood 
 
 dates restored to liberty, and permitted, if so disposed, to emigrate to this country. 
 We would regard this act of clemency as a new proof of the friendly disposition 
 of the British Government towards our Republic, and as calculated to strengthen 
 the bonds of affection now happily existing between the people of the United States 
 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.' 7 
 
 Mr. SEWARD had proposed to amend, so that the resolution would 
 read as follows : 
 
 " That while we disclaim all intention of interfering in any way in the internal 
 affairs of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, we deem it our duty to express, 
 in a courteous manner, our opinion that it would be highly gratifying to the people 
 of the United States, (many of whom are natives of Ireland, and connected by blood 
 with the inhabitants of that country,) to see Smith O'Brien and his associates re- 
 stored to liberty, and permitted, if so disposed, to emigrate to this country. And 
 that this act of clemency would be regarded as a new proof of the friendly dispo- 
 sition of the British Government towards our Republic, and as calculated to 
 strengthen the bonds of affection now happily existing between the people of the 
 United States and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." 
 
 Mr. SEWARD rose and said : 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : This resolution seems to me neither inconsiderate 
 nor unimportant. It is a resolution which must have the assent of 
 both Houses of Congress, and the approbation of the President of the 
 United States, and so will become a national act. It recommends I 
 
 BUELI, & BLANCHAXD, Printers. 
 
might, perhaps, say solicits clemency towards the patriots of Ireland 
 who are suffering imprisonment in a penal colony ; and it is designed 
 for the information of the British Government, and therefore must be 
 regarded as an appeal by the United States to Great Britain. 
 
 Sir, I think the proceeding is defensible upon the grounds of abstract 
 justice and propriety, as well as upon a due consideration of the rela- 
 tions of all the parties concerned. 
 
 I beg leave to say, in the first place, that it is not altogether novel 
 In character and principle. The patriots of Ireland, who are the sub- 
 jects of this debate, are suffering imprisonment in consequence of an 
 effort, honestly made, to restore their native land to liberty and inde- 
 pendence. The sympathy expressed by this resolution for them springs 
 from the same source from which the sympathy of the people of the 
 United States has sprung, which has been habitually exhibited towards 
 nations striving to assert the same rights the sympathy which was 
 expressed by the people of the United States towards France in 1793, 
 in 1830, and in 1848 ; towards Greece, towards the rising South Amer- 
 ican republics, towards Poland, towards Germany, and towards Hun- 
 gary. Even in form, sir, the measure assimilates itself to the action 
 of Congress in regard to Louis Kossuth, who has been, through our 
 interposition, released from imprisonment in Asia Minor, and brought 
 to our shores, received, and welcomed as a guest of the United States. 
 
 The interest which is expressed in this resolution for William Smith 
 O'Brien, like that which is expressed toward Louis Kossuth, is not 
 merely personal, but it is the reverential compassion indulged by the 
 people of the United States for a fallen nation "in a man compris'd." 
 It is not, then, the cause of William Smith O'Brien alone it is the 
 cause of Ireland. 
 
 The merits of a nation's cause, and of its defenders, involve not merely 
 the particular accidents or incidents which bring the cause before us, but 
 the whole life of the nation. So it was that our forefathers, in adopt- 
 ing the declaration of American independence, reviewed the entire colo- 
 nial experience in vindication of the act of abjuration of their allegiance 
 to the British Throne. 
 
 Ten centuries ago, sir, Ireland was an independent nation, possessing 
 the elements and the forces of national stability. Ireland was guilty of 
 one enduring crime it was the crime of proximity to England. Ire- 
 land labored under one enduring misfortune it was the misfortune 
 that, for many centuries, she had remained unconquered and uncon- 
 querable. The crime provoked the cupidity of England, the misfor- 
 tune begat divisions into septs and clans, and these civil distractions 
 favored an invader. At the very moment, sir, when Henry, a Norman 
 King of England the second of that name, I think was, as the chron- 
 icle relates, " casting in his mind to conquer the adjacent island, because 
 it seemed to him to be commodious, and because its inhabitants were 
 savage and rude," he was applied to by a deposed Irish prince to rein- 
 state him on the throne. The invader enjoyed one vast advantage : 
 England had been successively subjugated by the Romans, the Danes, 
 the Saxons, and the Normans, and in that rough experience she had 
 acquired the consolidation and discipline which, combined with the en- 
 ergy arising from a mingling of races, and an ambition springing from 
 
an insular position, have enabled her almost " to have the world in 
 empire." 
 
 The invasion, of course, did not result in restoring the Irish King, 
 nor did it result in the conquest of Ireland. It ended in only the estab- 
 lishment of a small colony upon the coast, enclosed with palisades, and 
 therefore called " The Pale." Within the " Pale " were Englishmen, 
 English lords, English manners, English customs, and English rule ; 
 and without the " Pale " were the entire nation of Irishmen, with their 
 hereditary princes, and their native language, customs, and manners. 
 
 Acting upon the law of nations, as it was then understood, these 
 races regarded each other as natural enemies ; and hence ensued wars 
 unsparing and unrelenting. The Reformation forced a new element 
 into this internecine strife. The Catholic Church in England had given 
 place to one which suited its Kings and people better. Considerations 
 of prudence, co-operating with a spirit of proselytism, determined the 
 Government of England to subvert the Catholic Church in Ireland. 
 The sword was the missal sent, and a ferocious soldiery were the apos- 
 tles of the new faith. The Irish preferred their paternal religion to 
 that which was so rudely recommended to them by their enemies. The 
 " Pale," although backed by England, was too feeble to subjugate Ire- 
 land ; and Ireland, distracted by the jealousies of her clans, was too 
 weak to crush the "Pale;" and so for four hundred years continued 
 wars, at the end of which both parties retained their relative positions 
 and power. And thus all that important portion of the nation's life 
 was worse than lost, in consequence of an imperfect conquest. At last, 
 five hundred and twenty years after the first invasion by Henry, and at 
 the close of the great battle fought on the banks of the Boyne, Ireland 
 capitulated ; and at that time the entire twelve millions of acres of til- 
 lable land were divided and parcelled out among the invaders and the 
 few apostatizing natives. Ireland capitulated, and, by the treaty of 
 Limerick, subjected herself to the government of the "Pale." But 
 she reserved, in the most solemn manner, the liberty of conscience. This 
 right the liberty of conscience was not only stipulated by the treaty 
 of Limerick, but was solemnly guarantied by William and Mary, now 
 the common sovereigns of the two countries. 
 
 England, nevertheless, persevered in her policy of subverting the 
 Catholic Church, changing only the means employed for that purpose. 
 She perfidiously broke the covenants of peace, though they had been 
 written in blood, and established a Penal Code, disfranchising the Cath- 
 olic Irish people of all civil, political, social, and domestic liberty, as 
 well as of their ecclesiastical rights, and thus substituted for invading 
 armies the sterner despotism of the law, and withdrew the sword to re- 
 place it with the scaffold. 
 
 Sir, I shall not detail that atrocious code, but will content myself by 
 giving a description of it, drawn by Edmund Burke, seventy years ago 
 a description which time has now proved prophetic : 
 
 " It is," says he, " a system full of coherence and consistency, well digested and well 
 disposed, in all its parts fitted for the impoverishment" (yes, sir, these are the 
 words,) "fitted for the impoverishment and the degradation of a people, and for de- 
 basing in them of human nature itself." 
 
 The after history of Ireland, Mr. President, is a record of frequent 
 
and generous, but unavailing struggles, by or in behalf of the People, 
 to cast off that code, and, more recently, to redeem the country from 
 its desolating effects. In the year 1778, Grattan, Burke, and Flood, 
 profiting by the enthusiasm awakened throughout the world by the 
 American Revolution, and by the embarrassment of the British Govern- 
 ment in consequence of it, succeeded in obtaining from the British Par- 
 liament a relaxation of the rigors of the code in regard to education and 
 the rights of property ; and, in the year 1782, when the exigencies of 
 the British Government had become more alarming, they succeeded in 
 wresting from the British King and Parliament a renunciation of legis- 
 lative and sovereign power over the Kingdom of Ireland ; and it was 
 expressed in these solemn and memorable words : 
 
 " The rights claimed by the people of Ireland, to be bound only by laws enacted 
 by His Majesty and the Parliament of thai Kingdom, shall be and are established, 
 and, at no time hereafter, shall be questioned or questionable." 
 
 Sir, Ireland exulted for a delirious moment in national independence 
 regained; but it was only for a moment, and that moment was delirious. 
 Ireland required the repeal of the penal code, and demanded a consti- 
 tution. The Parliament and the " Pale," constituted of a Protestant 
 representation alone, and being in the interest of England, refused both. 
 Discontent, wide and deep, pervaded the Irish people. Emmett, Fitz- 
 gerald, and their associates, in 1798, conspired to raise the standard of 
 insurrection ; but they were betrayed, and the rebellion was crushed in 
 the germ. 
 
 The Government of Great Britain now assumed that the people of 
 Ireland had tried, fully and fairly tried, the experiment, and had proved 
 themselves incapable of exercising the franchise of self-government. 
 The British Parliament, therefore, sent down to the Parliament of the 
 Pale what was called an act of Union, and in the year 1800 that 
 mockery of a legislature adopted it, and surrendered its own perfidious 
 and pernicious existence. By that act of Union, Ireland, in May, 1800, 
 was in name united, but was in fact absorbed, and became virtually a 
 province of the British Empire, with only the shadow of a representa- 
 tion of the Protestant minority of the Kingdom in the British Parlia- 
 ment. Daniel O'Connell, a jurist and advocate of surpassing genius, 
 eloquence, and learning, inferring, from the failure of the men of 1798, 
 that the time for a martial revolution had passed away, at least for the 
 present, conceived the bold purpose of obtaining a repeal of the penal 
 code and the restoration of his country to a place among the nations, 
 by a process of civil agitation, always within the restraints of the law, 
 and looking for the effect through the action of the King and Parlia- 
 ment of England. In the year 1829 he obtained a signal triumph in 
 the passage of the act of Catholic emancipation. There remained but 
 one step between this memorable act and the freedom and independence 
 of Ireland. That step was the repeal of the Act of Union. But the 
 ruin and desolation resulting from the penal code, which Burke had 
 predicted, pressed too hard upon the march of the Reformer. Ireland 
 could not wait the slow progress and doubtful success of civic agita- 
 tion. The nation divided between the parties of " Old Ireland," fol- 
 lowing the lead of Daniel O'Connell and his peaceful standard, and of 
 " Young Ireland," under the revolutionary banner set up by William 
 
Smith O'Brien. Now, in point of fact, it is possible that even if the 
 Irish people had remained united, neither of those policies would have 
 been successful ; but it is also certain, that when the nation divided 
 and broke, both efforts signally failed. Daniel O'Connell died of a 
 broken heart at Genoa, on a pilgrimage to Rome, and William Smith 
 O'Brien, the leader of the Irish rebellion, being found without attend- 
 ants, arms, or troops, was arrested, convicted of high treason, and sen- 
 tenced to an ignominious death. His sentence being commuted by the 
 Crown, he is now an exile in Van Dieman's Land. 
 
 Simultaneously with the failure of these, the last efforts hitherto 
 made for the redemption of Ireland, poverty and pestilence stalked 
 abroad through that ill-fated country, exciting the sympathy of nations, 
 and moving even the distant people and Congress of the United States 
 to send relief. Depopulation of the Island assumed a frightful momen- 
 tum, and, from that time to this, has continued to give the last con- 
 firmation, which the most skeptical could have required, of the conclu- 
 sion, that never on earth was a revolution more just or more necessary, 
 than that attempted by William Smith O'Brien and his companions in 
 exile. 
 
 Sir, it is not my object, in this review, to excite prejudices, here or 
 elsewhere, against England, or against the Protestant Church within 
 that Kingdom. I have no such prejudices myself. I disclaim and 
 disdain partisanship in regard to historic events. O'Connell was a 
 Catholic ; Smith O'Brien is a Protestant. The rage of the sects has 
 died away in the agony of the catastrophe which has involved the 
 people of both in a common desolation ; and wise and sagacious men in 
 England look on the decay of Ireland as an alarming presage of the 
 decline of the Empire. But, sir, on an occasion like this, Ireland is 
 entitled to, and from me she has received, her vindication. The policy 
 of England was the policy of the age, and of the times, and of sys- 
 tems ; and this is her sufficient apology. 
 
 The sympathy of the American people, then, in behalf of Ireland, is 
 just. 
 
 I proceed to remark, that this sympathy derives intenseness from the 
 conceded genius and proverbial virtues of the Irish people. The plains 
 of Waterloo, and the heights of Abraham, attest that they are brave as 
 well as sagacious in war. Like the Greeks, in their decline, they have 
 enchanted the world with their wit and song and eloquence. They are 
 confessedly confiding and generous to a fault, while their whole history 
 and traditions, reaching now a period of a thousand years, exhibit not cne 
 instance of unlawful aggression. Is not, then, the tribute proposed by 
 this resolution due to such a people 1 And if so, why shall it not be 
 offered 1 
 
 I am answered, that this is a question for the British Government, 
 and that it is they, and not we, who are to extend clemency or pardon to 
 the Irish exiles. I grant it, fully grant it. But men and nations are 
 moved by persuasion. What is asked here, is not an exercise of clem- 
 ency, but only a word of persuation whispered to the Power that can 
 grant it. 
 
 I am told that we may lawfully sympathize, as individuals, in the 
 misfortunes of these unhappy men, and of their more unhappy country ; 
 
but that to us as a political body a State or nation or as tlie repre- 
 sentatives the Government of a nation such sympathy is forbidden. 
 This seems to me equivalent to saying that we may indulge sentiments 
 of generous compassion, but we shall never carry them into beneficent 
 action. The s} 7 inpathy of the several members of this Senate, or of 
 this Congress, or of the individual citizens of the United States, will 
 be unavailing. If that sympathy is truly felt by the nation, it can 
 only be effectually expressed in the manner in which national sympa- 
 thies, and determinations of the national will, are always made effect- 
 ive by the action of the Government. And, sir, let me say, that there 
 is only one code of morals for mankind, and its obligations bind them 
 equally, whether they be individuals, subjects, citizens, States, or 
 nations. 
 
 I shall be told, that we may not intervene in this, which is a domestic 
 affair of a foreign Government. It is true that we may not intervene in 
 the affairs of any Government for unjust purposes, nor can we intervene 
 by force for even just purposes. But this is the only restraint imposed 
 on us by the law of nations. That law, while it declares that every 
 Government has the absolute right to deal with its own citizens, accord- 
 ing to its own laws, independently of any other, affords a large verge 
 and scope for the exercise of offices of courtesy, kindness, benevolence, 
 and charity. It is Montesquieu who says that " the law of nations is 
 founded upon the principle, that ever) 7 nation is bound in time of peace 
 to do to every other nation all the good it possibly can, and in time of 
 war, the least evil it possibly can consistently with its own real inter- 
 ests." It is upon this humane principle that diplomatic intercourse is 
 maintained among the civilized nations of the earth, all of whom are 
 by the law of nations regarded as constituting one great commonwealth. 
 
 Again, Mr. President, it will be said that if we adopt this resolution, 
 it will, however harmless it be in itself, furnish a precedent for mis- 
 chievous intervention, either by ourselves in the affairs of other States, 
 or by other States in our affairs hereafter. To admit this argument is 
 to admit distrust of ourselves. We certainly do not distrust our 
 own sense of justice. We do not distrust our own wisdom. So long 
 as we remain here, then, we shall be able to guard against any such 
 abuse of this precedent. Let us also be generous instead of egoistical, 
 and let us believe that neither wisdom nor justice will die with those 
 who occupy these places now, but that our successors will be as just 
 and as wise as we are. So far as the objection anticipates an abuse of 
 this precedent by foreign States, I have only to say, that if a foreign 
 State shall ask of us just what we now propose, and no more, we shall 
 have no difficulty and no ground of complaint. If it shall ask more, 
 we shall be free to reject what shall then be asked, as the British Gov- 
 ernment is free to reject our application. 
 
 Sir, this proposition involves a view of the relations of the parties 
 concerned. The people of Ireland are affiliated to us, as we are to the 
 people of Great Britain. . Surely there can be no offence given by a 
 younger member in offering mediation between the elder brethren of the 
 same family upon a point of difference between them. 
 
 But what if Great Britain should take offence at this suggestion ? 
 What tli fin ? Whv. then England would be in the wrons, and we in the 
 
right. The time has passed when this country can be alarmed, by fear 
 of war in such a case. No one will confess that he indulges any such 
 apprehension. Sir, Great Britain will not take offence. She knows 
 that her greatness and her fame are well assured. She has no motive 
 whatever to affect wounded sensibility. She will receive this sugges- 
 tion in the same fraternal spirit in which it is made. Nor will she 
 refuse the boon. She knows as well as we do, that rigor protracted 
 beyond the necessity of security to the State, reacts. She knows full 
 well, that for the present, at least, sedition sleeps profoundly in Ireland, 
 and that the granting of this appeal will protract its slumbers. Great 
 Britain will be thankful to us for our confidence in her generosity, for 
 her motto is, " Par cere subjectis et debellare superbos." 
 
 While it seems to me that it is certain that we may, with propriety 
 and success, make this appeal to Great Britain, the circumstances in 
 which we stand, in regard to Ireland, render the duty of making it 
 imperative. But for the instructions and example of the United States, 
 Ireland would never have attempted revolution in 1798, nor would 
 William Smith O'Brien now have been an exile ; for if it had not been 
 for those instructions and that example, Ireland would long ago have 
 sunk into the slumber of bondage that knows no waking. Again, sir : 
 the failure of Smith O'Brien and his associates resulted from the ex- 
 haustion of Ireland. That exhaustion has contributed largely to the 
 elements of our wealth, strength, and power. If we had not withdrawn 
 the political and physical means of self-defence and of resistance from 
 Ireland during the last sixty years, she would now have been able to 
 have maintained a successful rebellion. When O'Connell gathered the 
 populace upon the hill of Clare, he found that Ireland was deserted by 
 the vigorous, the young, the strong, and that he was surrounded by the 
 aged, the poor, and the spiritless. It is these reflections upon the pro- 
 priety of the act itself, and upon the relations in which we stand towards 
 the parties to it, that persuade my vote in favor of this resolution. 
 
 I have suggested to the consideration of the honorable Senator from 
 Illinois, [Mr. SHIELDS,] some verbal amendments, which seem to me 
 calculated to improve and perfect the resolution, in accordance with the 
 wish he himself expressed. Their design is to guard more safely the 
 dignity of Congress and of the United States. If rightly conceived, 
 they will have that effect. But I am not tenacious of them. I shall 
 not press them against the wishes of the Senator from Illinois. If they 
 shall be adopted, the resolution will have my vote. If they shall not 
 be adopted, it will have my vote. The resolution as originally intro- 
 duced would have received my support. Equally shall it have my sup- 
 port in the modified form it has assumed, through deference to the wishes 
 of other Senators. 
 
 And now, sir, when this resolution in any shape shall have been 
 passed, there can be but one wish of mine in regard to the subject, that 
 Congress would have power to gratify : That wish would be, that he 
 who is now entitled to be regarded as the mover of the resolution, the 
 honorable Senator from Illinois, [Mr. SHIELDS,] should be made the 
 bearer of this appeal to the " Soveraine Queene," in whose will and 
 pleasure the granting of it will rest. It is the remembrance of a scene 
 in one of the oldest and best of English poems which suggests this wish. 
 
8 
 
 It would be a goodly and a gracious sight to see that honorable Senator 
 returning to his native land, after his chivalrous and yet modest sojourn 
 here, the bearer of a proclamation of amnesty from the sovereign of 
 his native country thus obtained. And I should rejoice to see the 
 greeting of him by his countrymen, 
 
 " Shouting and clapping all their hands on hight, 
 That all the ay re it fils and flyes to Heavenc bright." 
 
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