Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1854-02-03
From the (Dublin) Nation.
FREEDOM, WHITE AND BLACK.
TO THOMAS FRANCIS MEAaHER.


board, shall ask our friend Charles Gavan
Duffy, to give the letter a place in the Nation.
You read the Nation in your exile.
Last evening l read again, with renewed
pleasure, your beautiful expressions Of CRATE
full feeling to the citizens of Waterford, be-
cause of their cordial and affectionate recep-
ton of your wife. Glowing and manly feel
ings, set in richer or more appropriate words,
l have never perused. When your theme is
a high and holy one, your genius enables Won
tocarry all hearts with you, and it is little
less powerful to lead the multitude when its
dictates are less commendable.
This morning | have read Your sentiments,
expressed in no less fervid language, on a
different theme-on the occasion of an enter
tainment given by the New Jersey Grenadiers,
to which you were an invited guest. 1t is in
reference to your expressions at that assem-
blage that desire now to address you. |
differ from you, as | have ever done, as to the
value of physical force for the overthrow of
tyranny. l believe a resort to it has ever
tended to rivit the chains of Slavery more
tightly, and that, in the few instances in the
history of our race in which it has seemed to
be successful, mans happiness has not been
increased in reality, or his freedom secured
through its means; but do not mean to ar
que this p int with you at present. Your
"voice is still for war;" while, must confess
'my thoughts are turned on peace" But
am not about to test you on my principles but
bring you to the bar of public opinion upon
your own.
You profess to hate Slavery with deep
and intense hatred. You profess to love lib
erty with an affection so ardent and sincere
that even with all your eloquence-and it is
great-you find yourself unable to give full
utterance to its impressions on your soul.
Your hatred for the one, and your love of the
other, induced to peril your life, and cast you
forth an exile from your native land. Are
those feelings really rooted in yourh heart or,
ave they not rather the emanatiouS of dis
tempered patriotism, which limits your sens
Utilities, and prevents you from being the adj
vocate of universal liberty? | want you to
90 into your own soul, and, as an honest and
true man, answer the questions to your own
conscience | believe if YOU answer them
truly, and then determine to act out your con-
victions, that there is no peace for You, no
noisy, heaTtIess popularity for you, in the dis
honoured land Of your adoption.
1t is common to point to the United States
of America as triumphant evidence Of the val
ne of physical force resistance to tyranny
Men say that freedom was gained and secu-
red there, by resort to arms. | contend
that liberty was neither the aim nor the re
suit of tl@t contest which ended in their i'll
dependence. Whips and cha MS Cor four mil
Ions of mem include the free coloFed pee
pie, as war and victory have done little more
for them than the slaves-are the result, be-
fore the world, OF that system Of murder
which you still rely on; and while your sym
pathies and your eloluence 90 forth, in words
of power and beauty, in favor of the wronged
of your race in Europe, those four millions
of your brethren in the midst of whom YOU
have been uttcring your burning words OF
freedom, are forgotten by you, and their
wrongs, in comparison with which the tyr
amy OF other peoples rulers is mild in the
extreme, passed over as unworthy a moments
consideration. Are principles so baseleSs
Is truth of so little value that without dis
honor, we may palter with both, and make
them, too, our slaves, when we would use
their sacred names as stepping stones to
worldly honor and popularity? Or may We
in one hemisphere. and among one portion OF
Gods people, hold them up as a standard OF
mems actions, and, in another, cast them aside
and trample them under our feet Are the
Italians, and the Hungarans, and the Ger
mans, and the French, and the Irish people
10 IL
bloody means assert their freedom, and the
colored people Of America not to receive
word of sympathy from Thomas Francis Mga-
CHER, whose clo1ucnde is poured out like a
torrent TO stimulate the men Of other lands to
steep their hands in human gore, and TO call
into activity the fiery passions of our nature;
to redress wrongs which whole ages of en-
durance would not render equal to one hours
existence of the blasting curse of Chattel Sla-
very? l think this was a sentiment uttered
by Jefferson, who felt the horrors OF the svS-
TEN, but who had not the courage to shake
himself free from it. Is liberty less the right
of the black man than of the white man? If
it be so, prove it. Show by what charter
from God his rights are handed over to us,
that we may tyrannize over him and use him
as beast for our purposes. He is weak
we are strong; such is the relative position of
the tyrant and his victim everywhere. You
deny the validity of this plea-be consistent
then, and while you are in land Of slave
drivers sanction not their denial of civil and
social rights to the coloredpoople by your i
lenco or you will become a participation in
these wrongs, and all your oyertlowing words,
all those gifts of cloquence and genius of
which you are the undoubtod possessor in a
large degree, will, instead of crowning YOU
with honor, place YOU in the category with
other gifted men who have prostituted their
talents to base purposes, and who have been
bane and not a blessing to their race
But have better hopes Of you my friend.
trust you will distinguish yourself as an
American citizen-as the friend of freedom
freedom for alt Yea cannot stop short on
the threshold Of the tempie--you must enter
boldly into the interior, and there, in the face
of men and angels, paoclaim vourSelf a true