The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-06-07

Canada.
To the People of British America.
We come among you as the foes of British
rule In Ireland. Exiled from that native
land of ours by the oppression of British
sristocraoy and legislation; our people hunted
down to the emigrant ships, or, worse, to
that charnel of government institutions, the
poor-house our countrymen torn from their
families and friends and hurled in droves in
to the prison pens of England and Ireland :
our country subjected to a foreign tyranny,
which distranchises the mass of the Irish
people and makes poverty and misery the
sad rule of their condition, covering our fair
land with paupers' graves aud wretched how
els, elicIting from the liberal minds of Eng
land herself expressions of shame for the
government and Indignation Tor the people,
we have taken up the sword to strike down
the oppressor's rod, TO deliver Ireland from
the tyrant, the despoiler, the robber. We
have registered our oaths upon the altar OF
our country IN the full view of heaven, and
sent up our vows 70 the throne of Him who
inspired them. Then, looking about US for
the enemy, we find him here-here in your
midst, where he is most vulnerable and con-
venlent 10 our strength and have sworn to
stretch forth the armed hand of Ireland and
grapple with him. The battle has commence
ed, and we pledge ourselves by all the sacred
memories of struggling liberty, to follow it
up at any cost to either of two altsrnatives-
the absolute political independence and lib
erty of Ireland, or the demolition of our
armies.
We have no issue with the people of these
provinces, and wish to have none but the most
friendly relations Our weapons are for the op-
pressors of Ireland. Our blows shall be directed
only against the power of England; her priviL
eyes alone shall we invade, not yours. We will
assai and asperse only the rights that are claim
ed and enjoyed by the government of Great Brit
ain-the right to make her American possessions
the field and base of operations in a WET against
an enemy. We come to install ourselves in her
possessions, and turn them against her IN war
for Irish freedom. We are here, neither as muir
derers nor robbers, for plumber or spoliation.-
We are here as the Irish army of Liberation the
friends OF liberty against despotism, of democra-
cy against aristocracy, of the people against
their oppressors of the ballot against the pri-
vileges of class, of progress and development
against right and wrong to conduct this con-
test according to the laws known to honorable
warfare, in manner worthy of the high object
we aim for and the sublime sentiments that
actuated us. In a word our war is with the
armed power of England, and not with the peo-
pie not with these provinces. Against England,
upon land and sea, until Ireland is freet And
all who raise an arm to defend her, to Illustrate
or defeat us, belong to the common enemy, and
as such will be dealt with. As we know how to
| recognize the services of our friends so also do
| we know how to punish the depredations of our
| foes. Our work for Ireland accomplished, we
! leave to your own free ballots to determine your
own national and political standing and charac-
ter, and shall rejoice to see, and assist to make,
these limitless colonies spring from the foot of a
| foreign throne free and independent, proud
| as New York Massachusetts, or Illinois. To
that yearning for liberty and aspiration after ma
| tiona independence which swells the breast OF
every true son of every land, to your man.
| illness, we leave these questions for settlement,
| confident that the dwarfed development of your
vast resources and national wealth-under the
| chilling influences of English supremacy in
| wretched contrast with the national dignity and
stupendous material prosperity of your neighbor-
ing people of the United States, under the stimu-
lous of selfgovernment and democratic institu-
| tions--oonstitutes stronger argument in favor
of cooperation with us and of the revolution in
your political condition which this comparison
suggests, than any discussion of the question in
| volved which we could offer here.
To Irishmen throughout these pr ovinces we
appeal, in the name of seven centuries OF British
iniqulty and Irish misery and suffering in the
name of our murdered sires, our desolate homes,
our desecrated affairs, our millions OF famine
graves, our insuted name and race-to stretch
forth the hand of brotherhood in the holy cause
of fatheriand, and smite the tyrant where we can
in his work of numbering our nation and cxter-
minating people. We conjure you, our
countrymen, who from misfortunes inflicted by
the very tyranny you are serving, or from any
other cause, have been forced to enter tlte ranks
of the enemy, not to be the willing instrument OF
your country's death or degradation. If Ireland
still speaks to you in the truest impulse of your
hearts, Irishmen, obey her voice It you would
not be miscreants, recreant to the first princi-
pies of your nature, engraven upon the very cor
oE-stone of your being, raise not the hano o,
the matracide to strike down the banner OF Erin !
No Nc uniform, and'surey not the sblood-sssd coat
OF England can emancipate you from the natur-
al al law that binds your allegiance to Ireland, to
liberty, to right, to Justice : To the friends of
Ireland OF freedom, of humanity, of the people,
We offer the olive branch of peace and the honest
grasp of friendship. Take it. Irishmen, French