The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1863-09-03
THE IRISH and SLAVERY.
Daniel O'COnnell's famous Let
ter to the Irish Repeal Assocs-
afiQn of Cincinnati.

at1VA O1 SIHCIHudt1s
This great antislavery document. the
bitter protest of IrelaLd's greatest leader
against the pro-slavsry sentiment of SO
many of his countrymen in America, is
again brought to light in the Catsoh;c
Telegraph, of Cincinnati, August 9Th. A
more severe aud searching review of the
evil of slavery and its sympataies has
hardly ever been written The paper in
which it is published is edited by Father
Purcell, brother of the Archbishop, and
intimate friend Of General Rosecrans.-
The letter is prefaced with the following ::
1--WE publish TO day, to the exclusion of
much Important matter, the famous letter
Of O'Connell to a committee OF our citi-
zens who rebuked him Tor his anti>slavery
opinions. The document has been con-
cealed for twenty years by well-kuown
Democrat, to whom we are indebted for
it. Weinvite our Irish Catholic brethren
to read it attentively, and if any one wishes
to see the manuscript, which is beautifully
written, and the signature of O'Connell,
they can be accommodated at the Office of
the Telegraph. We intend to have the
letter published in pamphlet form, and We
respectfully invite all friends of the good
cause of liberty against bondage to aid Us
in its circulation.J
THE LETTER.
GENTLEMEN We have read. with the
deepest affliction, not unmixed with some
j IL II
tailed and anxious vindication of the most
hideous crime that has ever stained hu-
manity-the slavery of men of color in
the United States of America. We are
lost in utter amazement at the perversion
of mind and depravity of heart which
YOUR address evinces. X *
1t was not in ireland you learned this
cruelty. Your mothers were gentle, kind
and humane. Their bosoms overfowed
with the honey of human charity Your
sisters are, probably, many of them, still
amongst Us, and participate in all that is
good and benevolent in sentiment and ac
ton. Ho,c, then, can you have become
so depraved How can your souls have
become stained with darkness biacker
than the negro's skin You say you
have no pecuniary interest III negro sla-
very. Would that you had for it might
be some palliation of your crime but,
alas /. you have inflicted upon Us the horror
of beholding you the UOf'0ateer advocates
of despotism, in its most frightful state
of slavery, in its most loathsome and un-
relenting form.
We were, unhappily, prepared 20 expect
some fearful exhibition of this descrip
ton There has been testimony borne
against the Irish, 5y birth or descent, in
America, by person fully informed as to
the facts, incapable of the slightest mis-
represe ntation noble of nature more
than Of titled birth man gifted with
the highest order of talent and the most
generous emotions of the heart-the great,
the good Lord Morpeth-he who, in the
House of Commons, boldly asserted the
superior social morality of the poorer
classes of the Irish over any other people
he, the best friend Of any of the Saxon
race that Ireland and the Irish ever knew
he, amidst the congregated thousands at
Exeter Hall, in London, mourntully, but
firmly, denounced the Irish in America as
being amongst the worst enemies OF the
negro slaves aud other men Oh color.
.
PROPERTY IN MAN.
Your advocacy of slavery is founded
upon gross error. You tohe tor granted
that man can be the property Of bic fellow
man You speak in terms OF Indignation
of those who would deprive white men of
their "property," and thereby render them
less capable of supporting their families
in affluence. You forget the other side
of the picture. You have neither sorrow
nor sympathy for the sufferings OF those
who are iniquitously compelled to labor
for the afluence OF others those who
work without wages-who toll without
spend their lives in
procuring for others the splendor and
wealth in which they do not participate.
You totally forget the suferings of the
wretcbed black men who are deprived of
their ALL without any compensation or
redress If you, yourselves, all of you, or
if any one of you, were, without crime or
offence committed by you, handed over
into perpetual slavery if you were com
PEELED to work from sunrise to sunset
without wages, supplied only with such
coarse food and raiment as would keep
you in working order; if, when your
''oaoner" fell into debt, you were sold to
pay has debts, not your own; if it were
made crime to teach you to read and