Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-20
The Fenian Troubles.


The hopes of Republican Ireland ar
growing darker and darker every day. Fe
nianism has been so grievously wounded il
the house OF its friends, that its GONZALES
cence will be slow at the best whilst tn,
chances of its recovery at all are so probe
matieal that the life of the Brotherhood
seems to hang, as it were, upon gossamel
thread. We have already stated that tht
Fenian Senate have deposed 0Mahony from
the Presidency, and have installed Vic,
President Roberts in his place. Our read
ers also know that OMahony, in turn, has
forbidden the Senate the use of his head.
quarters; but what has passed since then is
not so well known, and is quite deserving Of
being duly chronicled. The Senators, ten
in number, charge that OMahony and his
Secretary of the Treasury, Killian, were
leagued together ito bring about the ruin
"Of the Fenian Brotherhood and the rob-
"bery of a confiding people, that
OMahOny-as other Presidents have
done before htm-has disregarded the
| Constitution which he had taken sol
emn oath to support that he has refused
funds to the Secretary of War-General
| Sweeny-who was eager to measure swords
with the Sassenach, but found the Treasury
locked against him; that he, Mahony, has
hired palace for his headquarters, at rent
of twelve thousand dollars year, paying
the rent for year and half-eighteen
thousand dollars-in advance, besides, de-
posting five thousand dollars as security
against damage to the building, and laying
out five thousand dollars more in rosewood
furniture and carpets to match, and in pro-
viding sumptuous sleeping rooms, &C., &C.;
and, finally, that although a million of
dollars has been paid into the Treasury in
the aggregate, he was in the act of issuing
bonds for sixty-eight thousand dollars more
in an illegal and fraudulent manner. For
these reasons, and because he refused to plead
to the indictment, the Senate met and for
mally deposed him from his high office.
On the other hand, President O'Mahony
charges that O'Rourke-the former Treas
urer of the Fenian Brotherhood of the
malcontent Senators, who is foreman of the
press room in the office of the New York
Tribune, and one of the stockholders of the
Tribune Company, actually loaned to a noted
Republican journal of New York-was it the
Tribune 1.-TWO hundred and thirty thousand
dollars Of the funds of the Irish Rapublic,
and also that the same Senator speculated in
gold, and thus lost, irretrievahly, forty-seven
thousand dollars of the money belonging to
the Fenians. O'Mahony further charges
that another of the malcontent Senator'S
Patrick J. Meehan-was sent to Ireland on
business of the Brotherhood that he carried
with him draft for five hundred pounds
sterling, and also dispatches of importance.
That the draft in question and his letter
of instructions felI into the hands of the
British Government in some mysterious
manner, and that Meehan escaped in very
inexplicable sort of way, and returned to
America unmolested. 1t is more than him
ted also, that the immunity from arrest en-
joyed by Meehan, arose from the fact that he
betrayed his associates, and that his disclO-
sures led to the capture of Stephens and the
suppression of the Irish Fenian newspaper
organ, The People" Lastly, O'AlahOny
will arraign the ten mal-content Senators
for collecting si1ty-eight thousand dollars |
from Irish men and women in the rural |
districts, not a dollar of which, says the |
Cabinet" O'Mahony" and his Secretary
has been deposited in the Treasury 1t will |
be claimed by the latter that the sixty-eight |
thousand dollars of bonds about to be is
sued, were designed to protect the interests
of the Brotherhood by using the money to
cover up this default
All these charges and counter charges are
to come up for adjustment before the Fenian
Congress, which OMahoney has sum-
moned to assemble at New York on the
I'd of January next We believe that the
Senators, against whom OMahoney, taking
time by the forelock, has already pre-
ferred articles of Impeachment, have also
called the Fenian Congress together to meet
at somewhat later day. Iu the meantime,
both parties to the quarrel are preparing
for the struggle for supremacy
which is soon to take place. Both have is
sued addresses to the innumerable circles
throughout the States, and both have already
by telegraph quite a number of re-
'ponses and pledges ofadhesion and support
The Fenians of the Western district of New
\ Ork and of New England have announced
hat they will stand by the Senate, whilst
hose of the Department of Manhattan
New York city and Brooklyn-have rallied
Utmost to a man, to the support of Mahony.
The latter are eager for the fray. Their
delegates assembled in Convention, at New
York, on Saturday last, and in long ad-
lress to their brothers of North America,
repudiating "the sectional COM
bination of perfidious Irishmen," styling
themselves Fenian Senators, who are de-
CIlbcu as ITdiiOTS Vi lnt ueepeSI uyej |
Judases who have prostituted the high
position Of Fenian Senatorship to the most
ignoble purposes"
As for John OMahony his name Stands
like a star in the Heavens, receiving new
lustre from the clouds which obscure for
an instant, but vanish before its power"
The traitors, "slimy and snake-like," have
it is alleged, the holy stream of
patriotism in its course towards liberty"
nd they are admonished, with the most in
ense, melodramatic fervor to Beware !"
The reputation of O'Alahony is too well
known" they add, 20 be even dimly OBJ
scured by the wings of envenomed rancor
or petty jealousy" The figures are rather
mixed up in this part of the address, but
Then men-and especially Irishmeu-speak
trongly, they are not apt to be choice in the
election of their phrases, nor is it supposed |
hat the people of a country from which St.
'atrick banished all the serpent tribe four
cen hundred years ago, should know wheth-
r that species of reptile was gifted with en-
enomed wings, or was without any wings
t all. But the most marvellous part of this
hole matter is, that although a million Of
ollars has been paid into the treasury, il
-as so short Of funds when John Mitchell !
-as sent recently to Europe as an emissary
{ the Brotherhood, he had to tarry several
ays in New York before the necessary
leans could be procured to enable him to
roceed on his voyage. We shall await,
18th some curiosity, the explanation of this
ngular, but not altogether surprising state
affairs.