"Ireland her
own, and all therein, from the sod to the sky. The soil of Ireland for the
people of Ireland"
THE RIGHTS OF IRELAND.
To found a paper like the Irish Felon
for the mere purpose, in whole or in part, of making a fortune or making a
farthing, would be a felon's crime indeed, deserving no hero's doom, lamented death
or honoured exile, but death on the scaffold, amid the scoff and scorn of the
world. For years we have seen men in Ireland alternately trading on the
government and trading on the country, and making money by both ; and you do
not imagine, perhaps, to what degree the public mind has been affected with a feeing
of suspicion by the circumstance — a feeling deepened, extended and justified,
by all we see or know of ourselves. For, indeed, the craving to get money — the
niggard reluctance to give money — the coward fear of losing or laying out
money — is the bad and coarse point that is most apparent in the character of
all ranks and classes of our people ; and I often fear it argues an utter absence
of all heroism from our national temperament, and of all the romantic passions,
whether public or private. In other countries men marry for love ; in Ireland
they marry for money. Elsewhere they serve their country for their country's
thanks or their country's tears — here they do it for their country's money. At
this very time, when Ireland, to all appearance, is stripping for her last
struggle on this side of ages, there are, I am convinced, many persons among
the middle classes who refuse to fall into the national march, or countenance
the national movement, merely from the hope — in most cases as vain as it is
vile — of obtaining some petty government place ; or from the fear of losing some
beggarly employment or emolument ; and I know myself in this country many and
many a sturdy and comfortable farmer who refuses to furnish himself with a
pike, merely and solely because it would cost him two shillings. For ourselves
— I say nothing of others — let us aim at better rewards than mere money
rewards. Better and higher rewards has Ireland in her hands. If we succeed, we
shall obtain these ; and if we do not succeed, we shall deserve none. In cases
like this, the greatest crime that man can commit is the crime of failure. I am
convinced it has become essential to our fame and our effectiveness — to the
success of our cause and the character of our country, to keep clear and secure
ourselves from the suspicion, that our only object may be nothing more than a
long and lucrative agitation. The Confederation pledged its members to accept
no office or place of profit from an English government. That pledge was efficient,
perhaps, for its own professed purposes, but not for others — for an
"agitation" has places and profits of its own to bestow. Let them say
of us whatever else they will — let them call us felons, and treat us as such,
but let them not, at least, have the power to call us swindlers. We may be
famous: let us not become infamous.
For these and other still more
important reasons, needless to be stated as yet, I certainly could have wished
that this journal had been established on a subscribed capital, and the effective
ownership vested in a joint-stock company of, say eight hundred or a thousand proprietors.
What is there to hinder that this arrangement should be made even now ? It would
contain securities, and create powers, which no other could offer or pretend
to. There are, indeed, some practical difficulties in the way, but they might
easily, I think, be overcome. Whether any such arrangement be adopted or not, I
believe, however, that I am fully warranted in desiring — and I think our own
true interest and honour concur in demanding — that the Felon office shall not
be a commercial establishment, but organised and animated as a great political
association. And, for my part, I enter it with the hope and determination to
make it an armed post, a fortress for freedom to be, perhaps, taken and retaken
again, and yet again ; but never to surrender, nor stoop its flag, till that
flag shall float above a liberated nation.
Without agreement as to our
objects we cannot agree on the course we should follow. It is requisite the
paper should have but one purpose ; and the public should understand what that purpose
is. Mine is not to repeal the Union, or restore Eighty-two. This is not the
year '82 this is the year '48. For repeal I never went into " Agitation ''
and will not go into insurrection. On that question I refuse to arm, or to act
in any mode ; and the country refuses. O'Connell made no mistake when he
pronounced it not worth the price of one drop of blood; and for myself, I regret
it was not left in the hands of Conciliation Hall, whose lawful property it was
and is. Moral force and Repeal, the means and the purpose, were just fitted to
each other — Arcades ambo, balmy
Arcadians both. When the means were limited, it was only proper and necessary
to limit the purpose. When the means were enlarged, that purpose ought to have
been enlarged also. Repeal, in its vulgar meaning, I look on as utterly
impracticable by any mode of action whatever ; and the constitution of '82 was absurd,
worthless, and worse than worthless. The English government will never concede
or surrender to any species of moral force whatsoever ; and the
country-peasantry will never arm and fight for it — neither will I. If I am to
stake life and fame it must assuredly be for something better and greater, more
likely to last, more likely to succeed, and better worth success. And a
stronger passion, a higher purpose, a nobler and more needful enterprise is
fermenting the hearts of the people. A mightier question moves Ireland to-day
than that of merely re- pealing the Act of Union. Not the constitution that
Wolfe Tone died to abolish, but the constitution that Tone died to obtain —
independence; full and absolute independence for this island, and for every man
within this island. Into no movement that would leave an enemy's garrison in
possession of all our lands, masters of our liberties, our lives, and all our
means of life and happiness — into no such movement will a single man of the
greycoats enter with an armed hand, whatever the town population may do. On a wider
fighting field, with stronger positions and greater resources than are afforded
by the paltry question of Repeal, must we close for our final struggle with
England, or sink and surrender.
Ireland her own — Ireland her
own, and all therein, from the sod to the sky. The soil of Ireland for the
people of Ireland, to have and hold from God alone who gave it — to have and to
hold to them and their heirs for ever, without suit or service, faith or
fealty, rent or render, to any power under Heaven. From a worse bondage than
the bondage of any foreign government — from a dominion more grievous and
grinding than the dominion of England in its worst days — from the cruellest
tyranny that ever yet held its vulture clutch on the body and soul of a country
— from the robber rights and robber rule that have turned us into slaves and
beggars in the land which God gave us for ours — Deliverance, oh Lord,
Deliverance or death — Deliverance, or this island a desert. This is the one prayer,
and terrible need, and real passion of Ireland to-day, as it has been for ages.
Now, at last it begins to shape into defined and desperate purpose; and into it
all meaner and smaller purposes must settle and merge. It might have been kept
in abeyance, and away from the sight of the sun — aye, even till this old
native race had been finally conquered out and extinguished, sub silentio, without noise or notice.
But once propounded and proclaimed as a principle, not in the dust of remote
country districts, but loudly and proudly in the tribunes of the capital, it
must now be accepted and declared as the first and main Article of Association
in the National Covenant of organised defence and armed resistance : as the
principle to take ground, and stand, and fight upon. When a greater and more
ennobling enterprise is on foot, every inferior and feebler project or
proceeding will soon be left in the hands of old women, of dastards, imposters,
swindlers, and imbeciles. All the strength and manhood of the island — all the
courage, energies, and ambition — all the passion, heroism, and chivalry — all
the strong men and the strong minds — all those things that make revolutions
will quickly desert it, and throw themselves into the great movement, throng
into the larger and loftier undertaking, and flock round the banner that flies
nearest the sky. There go the young, the gallant, the gifted, and the daring ;
and there, too, go the wise. For wisdom knows that in national action littleness
is more fatal than the wildest rashness ; the greatness of object is essential
to greatness of effort, strength, and success ; that a revolution ought never
to take its stand on low or narrow ground, but seize on the broadest and
highest ground it can lay hands on ; and that a petty enterprise seldom
succeeds. Had America aimed or declared for less than independence, she would,
probably, have failed, and been a fettered slave to-day.
Not to repeal the Union, then,
but the conquest — not to disturb or dismantle the empire, but to abolish it
utterly for ever — not to fall back on '82, but act up to '48 — not to resume
or restore an old constitution, but found a new nation and raise up a free
people, and strong as well as free, and secure as well as strong, based on a peasantry
rooted like rocks in the soil of the land — this is my object, as I hope it is
yours ; and this, you may be assured, is the easier as it is the nobler and the
more pressing enterprise. For Repeal, all the moral means at our disposal have
in turns been used, abused, and abandoned. All the military means it can
command will fail as utterly. Compare the two questions. Repeal would require a
national organization ; a central representative authority, formally elected ;
a regular army, a regulated war of concentrated action and combined movement.
On the other question all circumstances differ, as I could easily show you. But
I have gone into this portion of the subject prematurely and unawares, and here
I stop — being reluctant, besides, to trespass too long on the time of her
Majesty's legal and military advisers.
The principle I state, and mean
to stand upon, is this, that the entire ownership of Ireland, moral and
material, up to the sun and down to the centre, is vested of right in the
people of Ireland ; that they, and none but they are the land-owners and
law-makers of this island ; that all laws are null and void not made by them,
and all titles to land invalid not conferred or confirmed by them ; and that
this full right of ownership may and ought to be asserted and enforced by any
and all means which God has put in the power of man. In other, if not plainer words,
I hold and maintain that the entire soil of a country belongs of right to the
entire people of that country, and is the rightful property, not of any one
class, but of the nation at large, in full effective possession, to let to whom
they will, on whatever tenures, terms, rents, services and conditions they will
; one condition, however, being unavoidable and essential, the condition that
the tenant shall bear full, true, and undivided fealty and allegiance to the
nation, and the laws of the nation, whose land he holds, and own no allegiance
whatsoever to any other prince, power, or people, or any obligation of
obedience or respect to their will, orders or laws. I hold further, and firmly
believe, that the enjoyment by the people of this right of first ownership in the
soil, is essential to the vigour and vitality of all other rights ; to their
validity, efficacy, and value ; to their secure possession and safe exercise.
For let no people deceive themselves, or be deceived by the words and colours,
and phrases, and form of a mock freedom, by constitutions, and charters, and
articles and franchises. These things are paper and parchment, waste and
worthless. Let laws and institutions say what they will, this fact will be
stronger than all laws, and prevail against them— the fact that those who own
your lands will make your laws, and command your liberties and your lives. But this
is tyranny and slavery ; tyranny in its widest scope and worst shape ; slavery
of body and soul, from the cradle to the coffin — slavery with all its horrors,
and with none of its physical comforts and security ; even as it is in Ireland,
where the whole community is made up of tyrants, slaves, and slave-drivers. A
people whose lands and lives are thus, in the keeping and custody of others,
instead of in their own, are not in a position of common safety. The Irish
famine of '46 is example and proof. The corn crops were sufficient to feed the
island. But the landlords would have their rents, in spite of famine and defiance
of fever. They took the whole harvest and left hunger to those who raised it.
Had the people of Ireland been the landlords of Ireland, not a human creature
would have died of hunger, nor the failure of the potato been considered a matter
of any consequence.
There are, however, many
landlords, perhaps, and certainly a few, not fairly chargeable with the crimes
of their orders ; and you may think it hard they should lose their lands. But
recollect the principle I assert would make Ireland, in fact as she is of right,
mistress and queen of all those lands ; that she, poor lady, had ever a soft
heart and grateful disposition ; and that she may, if she please, in reward of
allegiance, confer new titles or confirm the old. Let us crown her a queen ;
and then — let her do with her lands as a queen may do.
In the case of any existing
interest, of what nature soever, I feel assured that no question but one would
need to be answered. Does the owner of that interest assent to swear allegiance
to the people of Ireland, and to hold in fee from the Irish nation ? If he
assent he may be assured he will suffer no loss. No eventual or permanent loss
I mean; for some temporary loss he must assuredly suffer. But such loss would be
incidental and inevitable to any armed insurrection whatever, no matter on what
principle the right of resistance should be resorted to. If he refuses, then I
say — away with him — out of this land with him — himself and all his robber rights,
and all the things himself and his rights have brought into our island — blood
and tears, and famine, and the fever that goes with famine.
Between the relative merits and
importance of the two rights, the people's right to the land, and their right
to legislation, I do not mean or wish to institute any comparison. I am far,
indeed, from desirous to put the two rights in competition or contrast, for I
consider each alike as the natural complement of the other, necessary to its
theoretical completeness and practical efficacy. But considering them for a
moment as distinct, I do mean to assert this — that the land question contains,
and the legislative question does not contain, the materials from which victory
is manufactured ; and that, therefore, if we be truly in earnest, and
determined on success, it is on the former question, and not on the latter, we must
take our stand, fling out our banner, and hurl down to England our gage of
battle. Victory follows that banner alone — that, and no other.
This island is ours, and have it
we will, if the leaders be but true to the people, and the people be true to
themselves.
The rights of property may be
pleaded. No one has a higher respect for the real rights of property than I
have ; but I do not class among them the robber's right, by which the lands of this
country are now held in fee from the British crown. I acknowledge no right of
property in a small class which goes to abrogate the rights of a numerous
people. I acknowledge no right of property in eight thousand persons, be they
noble or ignoble, which takes away all rights of property, security,
independence, and existence itself, from a population of eight millions, and
stands in bar to all the political rights of the island, and all the social
rights of its inhabitants, I acknowledge no right of property which takes the
food of millions, and gives them a famine — which denies to the peasant the
right of a home, and concedes, in exchange, the right of a workhouse- I deny
and challenge all such rights, howsoever founded or enforced. I challenge them,
as founded only on the code of the brigand, and enforced only by the sanction
of the hangman. Against them I assert the true and indefeasible right of
property — the right of our people to live in it in comfort, security, and
independence, and to live in it by their own labour, on their own land, as God
and nature meant them to do. Against them I shall array, if I can, all the
forcesthat yet remain in this island. And against them I am determined to make
war, — to their destruction or my own.
These are my principles and
views. I shall have other opportunities to develop and defend them. I have some
few other requisitions to make, but I choose to defer them for other reasons
besides want of time and space. Our first business, before we can advance a
step, is to fix our own footing and make good our position. That once done,
this contest must, if possible, be brought to a speedy close.
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The above is sourced from the following book:
