The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-05-12
A Great Document.
DanieI O'COuneH md tsre Committee of
the Irish Repeal Association al Gin
cInnafi.

egrGpb Of August 5,te the exclusion OF much
important matter, the famous letter of o.
ConnelI to committee of our citizens who
rebuked him for his anti-slavery opinions.
The document has been concealed for TWEEN
ty years by well known Democrat, to whom
we are indebted for it, We invite our Irish
Catholic brethren to read it attentively and
if any one wishes to see the manuscri pit
which is beautifully written, and the sigma
ture of O'ConnelI, they can be accommoda-
ted at the office of the Telegraph. We in
tend to have the letter published in pamph-
let form, and we respectfully invite all friends
of the good cause Of liberty against bondage
to aid us i'll it's circulation:
The Committee to whom the address from
the Cincinnati Irish Repeal Association,
on the subject of Negro Slavery in the
United States Of America, was referred,
have agreed to the following report:
To D. T DISNEY, ESQ.,, Corresponding Sec
rotary, w. Il. HUNTER, Esq, Vice-Presi-
dent.
And the Executive Committee of the Gin
cinnati Irish Repeal Association.
CORN EXCHANGE Rooms, DUBLIN, Oct. II,
1S43.
GENTLEMEN: We have read, with the
deepest afflictioa, not unmixed with some
surprise and much indignation, your detail
ed and anxious vindication of the most hid
eous crime that has ever stained humanity
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 evinc-
es. How can the generous, the charitable
the humane the noble emotions of the Irish
heart have become extinct among you p
How can your nature be so totally changed
as that you should become the apologists and
advocates of that execrable system which
makes man the property of his fellow man
destroying the foundation of all moral and
social virtues-condemns to ignorance, i'm
morality, and irreligion, millions of our fell
low -creatures-renders the slave hopeless Of
relief, and perpetuates oppression 10y law;
and in the name Of what you call a Constl-
tuition
1t was not in Ireland you learned this cru
city. Your mothers were gentle, kind and
humane. Their bosoms overlooked with the
honey of human charity. Your sisters are,
probably, many of them, still among us, and
participate in all that is good and benevo-
lent in sentiment and action. How, then,
can you become so depraved? How can
your souls have become stained with dark
ness blacker than the negros skin? You
say you have no pecuniary interest in ne
gro slavery. Would that you had for it
might have been some palliation of your
crime! but, alas you have inflicted upon
us the horror Of beholding you the volunteer
advocates Of despotism, in its most frightful
state; of slavery in its most loathsome and
unrelenting form.
We were, unhappily prepared to expect
some fearful exhibition of this description.
There has been a testimony borne against
the Irish by birth or descent, in America,
by person fully informed as to the facts,
and incapable of the slightest lnisrepresenta-
ton; 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 i'll 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 Sax
on race that Ireland and the Irish ever
knew; he, amid the congregated thousands
at Exeter Hall, in London, mournfully, but
firmly, denounced the Irish in America as
being among the worst enemies of the negro
slaves and other men of color.
1t is, therefore, our solemn and sacred du-
ty to warn you, in words already used, and
much misunderstood by you-''to come out
of her"-not thereby meaning to ask you to
come out of America, but out Of the congre-
cation of the wicked, who consider man a
chattel and property, and liberty an incon-
venience. Yes. We tell you to come out
of such assenblages butNwe did not and dc
not invite you to return TO Ireland. The vol
unteer defenders of slavery, surrounded by
one thousand crimes, would find neither SYM
pathy nor support among native, uncontam-
mated Irishmen.
Your advocacy ofsIavery is founded upon
a gross error. You take for granted that mai
can be the property Of his fellow man. You
speak in terms Of indignation of those who
would deprive white men of their property,
and thereby render themselves capable Of
supporting their families i'll af1lueuce. You
forget the other side of the picture. You have
neither sorrow nor sympathy for the suffer
lDgs of thase who are iniquitously compell-
ed to labor for the affluence of others; those
who work without wages-who toll without
recompense-who spend their lives in pro-
curing for others the splendor and wealth in
which they do not participate.
You totally forget the sutferings OF the
wretched black men, who are deprived OF
their all without any compensation or re
dress If you, yourselves all Of you--or If
any one of you were, without crime or offence
committed by you, handed over into perpet
ual slavery if you were compelled to work
from sunrise to sunset without wages, sup
piled only with such coarse food and raj
ment as would keep you in working order ;
| if, when your "owner" fell into debt you
were sold to pay his debts, not your own; il
it were made crime to teach you to read
and to write; if you were liable to be sepa-
rated, in the distribution of assets, from your
wives and your children; if you above all,
were to fall into the hands of a brutal mas
ter-and you condescend to admit that there
are some brutal masters in America-if
among all these circumstances, some friend
ly spirits of a more generous order were de-
sirous to give liberty to you and your fami-
ies-with what ineffable disgust would you
not laugh to scorn those who would traduce
the generous spirits VINO would relieve you,
as you now, pseudo Irishmen-shame upon
you-have traduced and vilifed the Adolf,
tionists Of North America.
But, you came forward with a justifca-
ton, forsooth! You say that the Constitu
ton of America prohibits the abolition o.
slavery Paltry and miserable subterfuge
The Constitution i'll America is founded up
on the Declaration of Independence. That
Declaration published to the world its glori
GUS principles; that Charter Of your Free
dom contained these emphatic words:
"We hold these truths to be seIf-evident
that all men are created equal that they
are endowed by the Creator with certain IN
alienable rights; that amongst these are life
liberty, and pursuit OF happiness )" and the
conclusion Of that address is in these words:
'For the support of this Declaration, with
firm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence,w we mutually pledge to each 9th
] hon