The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1845-01-30

her adversely end sher ssfsty and prosperity, viii be
found among ~ fcssmo ranks Of those Tho Z" lonn
TO sacrifice hss live and fortune. ON the altar OF mat
nation which has generously numberod them snsng
lis own children.
Tbi. A.,oei.tion cannot but feel confidence M
The fact thai IL has now succeeded in relieving the
subject of repeal from much intrinsic matter which
has boon urged n the shape Of misrepresentation OF
against tr agitation and success in this UNI
on; and wc now approach with but little oabsrsass-
IN. Of the grounds upon which ask the sympathy
nd support of all Iiberamnded American citizens,
To the movement in favor Of Irish freedom
The Association presents the claim Of Ireland to
leg i.latve independence in the first place, on The
broad ground Of right. According 10 the principles
laid dow by the best commentators on the laws Of
nations, by Inst great writer Vs.tel particularly
Ireland il at this day of right an independent and
sovereign power. The lesoiog principle Is distinctly
nd peslcdy asserted that sovereignty can neither
DO seoaled destroyed as long the power OF body
10 which the vital act on OF sovereignty gives rational
life, exists. And the Irish people who were once II
i. mil asree and independent any Other ma ION
in Europe, still continue TO flourish In much more Than
,hor pristine strength, In much this their former
civilization. They have Denher amsigamaicd with
the English been ertsIDinsted in their many wars
by them They show, as their fathers did before
them pure Celtic race unadult1rated by Saxon ha-
bits blood. A nation once sovereign cannot even
bind itself in e,ler. if at ALL beyond the period Of
one generation of men. The freedom Of poseny
AN neither be cancelled ,obiteraled mogaged by
any act Of any preceding generation The size can
not sell the into bondage. Such an Idea .. To
poignant alike 10 common sense and TO nature, anu Is
the doctrine Of reason, but the rule OF power "A
nation may fall victim TO the sword Of conquest, the
sovereign authority may be preciptaied to The sarh
by The strong hand Of armies and ce,s the legitimate
forms OF prc-existing government may disappear be
fore the scepe Of the conquero The general people,
amidst The carnage of lost battle deld-, the rum and
alton OF their houses and lands the diseases and
famine Of prolraeted war, and the thousand cruetet
petrsied upon conquered .oil by brutal soldiery
may humbly sue for peace, but the solemn laws OIL
nature, the voice of reason, and the argument OF
right snf tbs eternal principles OF God all declare lhA
usurpalion, tyranny, and The monstrous honofs ol
c Iterminaung wars, cannot destroy the Sosefegf
strength Of a nations life, which Almighty Powei
alone can give, and the same Almighty Power aon'
can take away. The will Of nation may be oPp[esS
ed and denied utterance; IL may be apparently LOST
when the conqueIor standing at the door oil the caPoh
surrounded by his followers, by fraud accompshes
by force demands, the registry of edicts which sp up
purposes. The forms Of sovereign existence may 70
thus Temporarily sacrificed by the unwilling act ola per
pie most interested in their preso alton. But humanr
y, civilization Christianity and reason equally asset
that such act not binding even upon the person
who commits 1t, much less upon the long SUCCESSION
OF their posterty whose indeieasibc rights, not dt'
rived from man, but from God, cannot destfoyei,
however impaired, by the fraud or force OF the oP-
pressor. The sovereign will Of nation may be PN,
by irresistible circumstances, into abey MY
exist for long period Of time in the body OF The m
tion as insensby as the Promethean fire in the tp-
som Of the cold and nty rock, but let the kindreo
steel be applied Of successful effort TO achieve n
dependence, and the nation again stands forh, ie-
splendant with form attribute Of sovereign
ty but reassertng its old and unex,ingushable pow
Of national life, presents itself to the world with
the dignity and right acquired from nature ans Gto
through sgcs stamped upon its brow. These, THIS
Association conceives the doctrines of all hnmsne
men they are at least the doctrines Of all men VINO
are truly republican in spirit If on lo-morrtw me
dismemoered fragments Of unhappy POLAND, torn
asunder by the "unhallowed" hands of the ruthless
invaders Of her life, could by almost impossible
event be again united, aud Poland we're to proclaim
herself independent Datios her right to do SO, not
arising from that of proclamation, but from the
indesrucbe character of sovereign life, could not
be questioned II would not be the Poland Of to-day,
but the Poland of thousand years past. These, we
assert are the first among the cardinal principles OIL
the laws Of nations and they apply with singularly
convincing force to the case Of Ireland.
Thus the Association contends that when Ireland
presents herself to the American people for the sup
port which their moral influence may give her IN her
movement for Independence that she occupies in re-
ference to her oppressor, the British Government,
precisely the same position maintained towards that
government by the American Colonies just before
the Revolutionary war; with the powerful additional
fact that she is of right sovereign Power. ln this
view if she chooses to dispense with supreme exec
utve power, and to pay allegiance to the British
crown, she does not choose to be denied any mo-
tnan the American colonies did supreme legislative
Department. She chooses that her revenues shall
be raised and that her trade shall be conducted in
way conducive to her interests and that her taxes
shall be- laid and collected in a mode least burden
some to her people Every people admitted to be ar
integral portion of the States whether recognised al
.uch by actual condescension and favor in which
their situation at the time gave them no voice By
their own original or subsequent consent, have {
right to demand thus much of every government
But this Association begs leave to examine briefly
into the history Of Ireland to discover il possible
what period her rights of sovereignty have been lost
About the latter part of the twelfth century England
made the first important effort towards the conques
of ireland, conquest marked at every sep by NJ
voluntary submission on the part of any portion
her people, but by the most desperate resistance AM
conducted amidst all the horrors of the faggol ant
the sword. For four hundred years, with shor
spaces Of breathing time, this spirit Of conquest wa
both nsdiousIy and vehemently prosecuted, but I'M
first quarter OF the seventeenth century had arrived
before the English power had mastered even moiet
of tue Irish territory. At this time in the reign
James LIST the statute Of 1912 $50 called was passet
by the English Parliament as act of favor toward
the Irish, by which the Irish, previously regarded a
enemies (their country never recognised by any pub
lie act as an integral portion of the British Empire,
we're then regarded as slaves. This is the pla
meaning of thar statute although almost every pro
mise made to Ireland, and almost every advantag
pretended to be conferred her under tina, statute
were shamelessly violated. For the following eight
years the conclusion of which brings us to the cad
| the 18th century, whether during the reign OF tn
House Of Stewart, or during the protectorate o
Cromwell did Ireland by word or deed, nor did tn
Enplish perform any act TO destroy the ndividuat
of ireland az a nation. The Irish people on the con
trary still retained Of the FORMS at least whic
sovereign power has alone the right to exercise
They still possessed their independent Legislature
| And when James the second Of England was drive
from his throne by that people, and William Of Orang
was invested with the sceptre OF royal authority t
de,hroned King fed 10 Ireland, and the Irish rallie
around him as the Irish King, and raised ahIes an
fought many bloody battles in his cause , Amor
Others they fought the great battle in which Wil'laf
Ill was driven with defeat and disgrace from befot
Limerick, and which led to the ratification OF the 81
Tenn treaty of Limerick, that may well be regard4
as an instrument, not ordinary in its provisions ar
intent but of sacred compact between the nations