speculations will be made upon either the condition or the supposed weakness of the South. They will bring sad disappointments to those who indulge them. Rely upon her devotion to the Union, rely upon the feeling of fraternity she inherited and has never failed to manifest; rely upon the nationality and freedom from sedition which has in all ages characterized an agricultural people; give her justice, sheer justice, and the reliance will never fail you.

Then, Mr. President, I ask that some substantial proposition may be made by the majority in regard to this question. It is for those who have the power to pass it to propose one. It is for those who are threatening us with the loss of that which we are entitled to enjoy to state, if there be any compromise, what that compromise is. We are unable to pass any measure, if we propose it; therefore, I have none to suggest. We are unable to bend you to any terms which we may offer; we are under the ban of your purpose; therefore, from you, if from anywhere, the proposition must come. I trust that we shall meet it and bear the responsibility as becomes us; that we shall not seek to escape from it; that we shall not seek to transfer to other places, or other times, or other persons, that responsibility which devolves upon us; and I hope the earnestness which the occasion justifies will not be mistaken for the ebullition of passion, nor the language of warning be construed as a threat. We cannot, without the most humiliating confession of the supremacy of faction, evade our constitutional obligations, and our obligations under the treaty with Mexico, to organize governments in the Territories of California and New Mexico. I trust that we will not seek to escape from the responsibility, and leave the country unprovided for unless by an irregular admission of new States; that we will act upon the good example of Washington in the case of Tennessee, and of Jefferson in the case of Louisiana; that we will not, if we abandon those high standards, do more than come down to modern examples-that we will not go further than to permit those who have the forms of government under the Constitution to assume sovereignty over territory of the United States; that we may at least, I say, assert the right to know who they are, how many they are, where they voted, how they voted, and whose certificate is presented to us of the fact before it is conceded to them to determine the fundamental law of the country and to prescribe the conditions on which

other citizens of the United States may enter it. To reach all this knowledge, we must go through the intermediate stage of territorial government.

How will you determine what is the seal, and who are the officers of a community unknown as an organized body to the Congress of the United States? Can the right be admitted in that community to usurp the sovereignty over territory which belongs to the States of the Union? All these questions must be answered before I can consent to any such irregular proceeding as that which is now presented in the case of California.

Mr. President, thanking the Senate for the patience they have shown towards me, I again express the hope that those who have the power to settle this distracting question-those who have the ability to restore peace, concord, and lasting harmony to the United States-will give us some substantial proposition, such as magnanimity can offer, and such as we can honorably accept. I, being one of the minority in the Senate and the Union, have nothing to offer, except an assurance of co-operation in anything which my principles will allow me to adopt, and which promises permanent substantial security.

V-105

M

MICHAEL DAVITT

(1846-)

ICHAEL DAVITT has been one of the most forceful men of his generation, made so by the intensity of his hatred of oppression. He was born in the village of Straide, County Mayo, Ireland, in 1846. His father belonged to the humblest class of Irish tenant-farmers and Michael's career was determined by the eviction of the family from their holding. This forced them to emigrate to England where Michael, while still a boy, lost his arm in a Lancashire cotton factory. As he could not support himself by manual labor, his family managed to give him the rudiments of an education - for a mind like his, enough to serve as the key to all knowledge. He went from school to a printing office, and in 1866 began in the Fenian movement the career which has made him celebrated all over the English-speaking world. He has been without doubt the most effective Irish Nationalist of his generation and has paid for his effectiveness by undergoing repeated imprisonment. One of his convictions was for "treason-felony," and he served over seven years of the fifteen-year sentence through which it was sought to silence his eloquent protests against abuses.

IRELAND A NATION, SELF-CHARTERED AND SELF-RULED (From the Address in Mechanics' Hall, Boston, December 8th, 1878)

WHEN

HEN we appeal to mankind for the justice of our cause, we must assume the attitude of a united, because an earnest, people, and show reason why we refuse to accept our political annihilation. We can only do this by the thoroughness of purpose which should actuate, and the systematic exertions which alone can justify, us in claiming the recognition due to a country which has never once acquiesced in its subjugation, nor abandoned its resolve to be free. Viewing that country then, as she presents herself to-day, the problem of her redemption may be put in this formula: Given the present social and political condition of Ireland, with the spirit, national tendencies, physical

and moral forces of her people-together with the power, influence, and policy arrayed against them-to indicate what should be the plans pursued, and action adopted, whereby the condition of our people could be materially improved, in efforts tending to raise them to their rightful position as a Nation.

I confess to the difficulty of solving such a problem, but not so much as to the putting it into practice if theoretically demonstrated; but

"Right endeavor's not in vain—

Its reward is in the doing;

And the rapture of pursuing,

Is the prize the vanquished gain."

Let us see if we can discover a key to the difficulty of the Irish question. I will assume that there are certain matters or contingencies important to or affecting the Irish race which are of equal interest to its people (irrespective of what differences of opinion there may be amongst them on various other concerns), -such as the preservation of the distinctive individuality of the race itself among peoples; the earning for it that respect and prestige to which it is by right and inheritance entitled, by striv ing for its improvement, physically and morally, and its intellectual and social advancement, revival of its ancient language, etc.; and that there are past occurrences and sectional animosities which all classes must reasonably desire to prevent in future, for the honor and welfare of themselves and country,- such as religious feuds and provincial antipathies. I will also assume that the raising of our peasant population from the depths of social misery to which it has been sunk by an unjust land system would meet with the approval of most classes in Ireland, and receive the moral co-operation of Irishmen abroad, as would also the improvement of the dwellings of our agricultural population, which project, I also assume, would be accepted and supported by all parties in Irish political life. Without particularizing any further measures for the common good of our people, for which political parties cannot refuse to mutually co-operate, if consistent with their raison d'être as striving for their country's welfare, I think it will be granted that Nationalists (pronounced or quiescent), Obstructionists, Home Rulers, Repealers, and others, could unite in obtaining the reforms already enumerated by concerted action on and by whatever means the present existing state of

affairs in Ireland can place within their reach. Such concerted action for the general good would necessitate a centripetal platform, as representing that central principle or motive which constitutes the hold and supplies the influence that a country's government has upon the people governed.

A race of people, to preserve itself from destruction by a hostile race, or by partisan spirit and factious strife internally, or absorption by a people among which it may be scattered, absolutely requires some central idea, principle, or platform of motives of action, by which to exercise its national or race individuality and strength, with a view to its improvement and preservation. A people's own established government supplies this need, of course, but where, as in Ireland, there is no government of or by the people, and the dominant power is but a strong executive faction, the national strength is wasted: 1. By the divide et impera policy of that dominant English faction; 2. By desperate attempts to overthrow that power; and 3. By hitherto fruitless agitation to win a just rule, or force remedial legislation from an alien assembly by means repugnant to the pride of the largest portion of our people; while here, in this great shelterland of peoples, the Irish race itself is fast disappearing in the composite American. If, therefore, a platform be put forth embodying resistance to every hostile element pitted, or adverse influence at work, against the individuality of Ireland and its people, and a program of national labor for the general welfare of our country be adopted, resting upon those wants and desires which have a first claim upon the consideration of Irishmen - such a platform, if put forth, not to suit a particular party, but to embrace all that is earnest and desirous among our people for labor in the vineyard of Ireland's common good, a great national desire would be gratified, and an immense stride be taken towards the goal of each Irishman's hopes.

It is showing a strange want of knowledge of England's hatred and jealousy of Ireland to suppose that a government formed from any of the English parties would ever concede all that could satisfy the desires of the Irish people; and to ground an apprehension upon such an improbable contingency is a mistake.

Again, the supposition that the spirit of Irish nationality, which has combated against destruction for seven centuries, only awaits a few concessions from its baffled enemy to be snuffed out