Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-06-12
PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND THE
FENIANS.

The New York Tribune having assailed
the Presidents proclamation as having been
too long deferred, and contended that the
forbearance and presumed connivance of
the Government have enticed the Fenians
into an enterprise, for which they are now
to be punished, the World replies:
This censure seems to us ill-considered,
for reasons which we proceed to state. If
the Government had attempted TO suppress
this enterprise while it was a mere military
air-castle, it would have CROPPED in darkness
at every step. While no law had, as yet,
been violated, or violated in such guarded
way as to admit of no tangible proofs, there
were only two things the Government could
have done; one of which would have been
selfdefeating, and the other expensive. The
President might, at any time within the last
eight months, have issued proclamation /;
but the only effect of an earlier proclamation
would have been TO envelopthe whole move
ment in secrecy. The Fenian organization
embodies, We suppose, at least hundred
thousand able-bodied adults; brave Jealous,
and stung with an intolerable sense of Brit
ish wrong. So long as they had violated no
law, the Government could have interposed
only by words Of warniRg-a warning which
could have conveyed no information, as the
Fenians were fully aware that their enter
prise was illegal. The Fenians would there
upon have shrouded all their movements
and intentions in darkness, and their enter
prise would have been all the more danger
Gus from the impossibility Of estimating its
magnitude.
If proclamation had been issued earlier,
and the organization had, in consequence,
skunk into concealment, the only preventive
measure thereafter in the power of the Gov
eminent would have been TO post strong
military force along the line of the frontier.
Having no means of knowing what number
of men would be sufficient, nor for what
length of time they would be needed, the
Government might have been burdened for
years with entirely useless precautions. 1t
was therefore better to let the thing proceed
in open day, and come to head in tangi
bic shape. By pursuing this method, the
Government has been able to act with intel
ligence, and, with comparatively little ex
pense, to exting'lish the whole enterprise as
soon as it became dangerous.
These are sufficient reasons why the Gov
eminent should not have interfered earlier;
the Fenians will be more inclined to ask
why it should have interfered at all. They
need not be informed that the law they have
violated was passed too long ago to havehad
any particular reference to them. Nor has
it been dead letter during the nearly fifty
years it has been in the statute book.
Thirty years ago, under Mr.. Van Buren's
administration, it was called into full vigOr
along the same Canadian border which has
now been disturbed; but, at that time
against excited citizens of American birth
Among the active sympathizers with the
Patriots" were many old soldiers who had
served in Canada under General Scott, in
the preceding war with England. General
Scott was sent to the border to restrain our
citizens, and he told the soldiers who had
served under him that they should not go
into Canada without passing over his body.
Mr.. Van Buren, issued a proclamation as
Mr.. johnson has now done; he sent troops
to the frontier, chartered steamboats, on the
lakes, and called upon the Stale Governors
for their active cooperation. We recall
these facts to show the Fenians that no more
is done in their case, than has been done in
similar cases before; and that, in such a
matter, the Government knows no difference
between Irishmen and native Americans. In
a communication to Congress on this subject,
Mr.. Van Buren, concluded by saying:
But this Government recognizes 4 still
higher obligation to repress al attempts on
the part of its citizens to disturb the peace
Of the country where order prevails, or has
been re-established. Depredations by our
citizens upon nations at peace with the
the United States, or combinations for COM
hitting them, have at all times been regard
ed by the American Government and people
with the greatest adherence. Military in
cursions by our citizens into countries so
situated, and the commission of acts of vio-
lence on the members thereof, in order to
effect change in its government, have been
held equally criminal on the part Of those
engaged in them, and as much deserving of
punishment as would be the disturbance of
the public peace by the preparation of
smaller acts within our own territory"
ouIp fRGguf5esst of re repression. as the nation
atty of the adventures, we will recall an
instance which occurred under Wing ad-
ministration, Mr.. Van Buren, having been
one of the abiest of our Democratic Presi-
dents Irishmen who have not been long in
this country may never have heard of the
famous Lopez expedition fitted out in our
Southern States, in 1850, against the Island
of Cuba.
Its motives were almost identical with those
of the Fenian movement against Canada.
The Cuban patriots wished to release their
beautiful island from the control of
the mother country. Their cause
was highly popular in the Southern States,
and Lopez received encouragement from
many eminent citizens. When the expedi-
ton was about to sail from New Orleans,
President Fillmore issued strong proclama-
ton against it, and caused the arrest of Gen.
Quitman for having aided it, although Gen
eral Quitman was, at the time, Governor Of
the State of Mississippi. The Fenians will
therefore see that they are treated precisely
as others have beed treated in similar cir