The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-06-22
Iraland-Iohn Mitchell.

TO felon's DOOM He has been hurried from the
land he loved and suffers for. No hand has been
raised for his rescue; no blow struck In his re-
yenge. From the Courthouse to the transport
shin. the distance was small and the movement
rapid but between sentspce and execution some.
thing should have been done--something, at least,
attempted. But no-not even respectable mob
interfered between power and its VICTIM How
brave and generous men could hold their hands
when they beheld his heroic devotion, his deter.
mined resistance to OPPRESSION his sefdevotion to
the great principles of human liberty and his coun-
trys rights, and then beheld the penalty inflicted
upon him, surpasses our comprehension. How
his fellow-countrymen could see his parting from
his innocent and now fatherless children, his last
embrace of his great heroical wife, and yet not
burst forth into general storm of rage rebellion,
and revolution, is to us mystery. Better far had
it been for Ireland and mankind that the city had
been laid in ashes that its streets had been barr
caded by human corpses, and Its sewers run iiileo
with human gore, than that this vital oloW at the
rights and liberties of the people should be struck
in the broad light of day, and the tory chronlcier Oh
the event be enabled to say that the city OF Dub
lin was not materially disturbed" But so 1t Is.
We can only record the fact we can neither UNDER
stand nor explain it. Perhaps the people were
taken by surprise perhaps their generous ardor
was restrained by the cold calculations OF pretended
friends and inefficient leaders; perhaps they waited
to see how far tyranny would carry its reckless
disregard of right in order that they might have an
excuse for inhicting more terrible vengeance.
We know not But the vengeance must not be
long delayed. Irishmen cannot long bear the sight
of Mitchel's glorious wife, and gaze upon his I'm.
protected children, without either dying of shame
or riskng death in the effort, if not to restore the
husband and the father, at least to avenge his
wrongs and establish the glorious principles fol
which he suffers. Let us wait awhile 1t may be
that something will yet be done. We cannot be.
lieye that the men whose fathers, brothers, sons.
have been distinguished on every battle field in
Europe, Asia and America, will sit down in quiet
despair when their dearest interests, their honor
liberty, country-nay their very lives are assaed.
because they are overlooked by some hundreds Of
troops at home. 1t cannot be that the Irishmen is
brave and chivalrous every where but in Ireland.
The laws Of nature are not suspended IN this age
and for that land alone Theymust and will fight
when they can bear and hope mol longer. And now
the time has come. They must do or die. They
have no hope but in the sword. They may perish
by thousands in the attempt, but is better to die
freemen than to live slaves; they may be beaten
on hundred fields, but the slaughter of battle is
better than the chains of the prisonshp; their land
may be laid desolate and their families fall victims
to the rayages of war, but the devastation and death
will scarcely exceed that which follows in the foot
steps Of the taxgatherer or attends upon the march
Of famine; they may be unsuccessful for years
better so than to be hopeless for ages; they may
even fail altogether but still they should wage eter
nal strife, which If not victory is yet revenge"
Let no one say that this is language too strong
for the occasion. It is but the expression Of those
feelings which arise in the breast Of every mar
whose better nature has not been perverted by the
selfish sophistries Of a money-gettng and pow
er.worshipping age. What we recommend to Ire
land is what all men applaud and admire in othel
nations. The devotion of Leonidas at ThermopylB
the Swiss resistance to the Roman and the Ger
man sway, the eight centuries Of Spanish ane
Moorish warfare, form the brightest examples il
the history of the world Why should not Irish
men initiate their Iberian brothers, and wage ex
terminating war with the enemies of their land
their religion, and their race! Are the Englisl
better masters than the Moors, or are Irishmel
less brave, determined, and devoted, less fire,
in spirit and hardy in body than the people o
Spain! One thing is certain, Ireland must do thi
or worse-which will it do! The thing can no
be continued in its present form much longer. Or
atory and poetry, when not upheld by deeds, be
come filstian and bombast, and the most eloquen
speech at Cancellation Hall is scarcely worth tn,
utterance, when it is only rewarded by transporta
ton at the Four Courts. 1t IS time then to clos
the wordy warfare, and take to one more substan
tial and effective or to abandon the contest alto
gether. Muskets are more potent than metaphors
and sw ords will often work conviction where sylo
gisms fail. Let the Irish now try the more pow
erful and convincing arguments all nation
| will hope and pray for their success.