New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-05-28
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the IRIsB CHIEF AND Taa IRIsH GAUSS.


THE IRISH ozrEF AND THE IRisH GAUSS
We have rarely risen from the pernsal Of any
thing calculated to effect 10 deep an impression as
the speech Of James Stephens, the Fenian chief
at JONES' Wood, near New York, few days ago
and we place it in full before the readers of the
CRESCENT today,
Upon the arrival of Mr.. Stephens on our shores,
the cause, of which he is so noble an apostle, had
been brought, it might be said, without ex-
travaganee, into public contempt by the mis-
conduct and weakness of the men at the
head of the Fenian organization in this coun-
try Their greatest aim seemed to be the
possession of q nominal dignity in government
yet without country, and the rescue of country
to goYern appeared, with them, secondary con
sideration. Their vanity, their boastful proclama
tons, their ludiorous faseos, and their unseemly
feuds had rent the organization and reduced il tc
impotence. It was in this state of Fenian affairs
Mr.. Stephens made his advent among us. As il
the waive Of his hand was magical, all yield il
his presence, and the seIf-suficiency that ruled
when he came obey his commands, as the direc.
tons Of an acknowledged superior, mentally and
morally. The organization under his guidance is
again being broughtto that efficiency, needful for
the great end it has to accomplish. He who has
SO readily brought about this marvellous change,
who has effected so thorough a reformation in SO
brief space, is not common man. A key to his
character. a measure of his Abilities are to be
found in the speech we publish. He is not, accord
ing to common estimation, an orator His address
is void ofretorical ornature of imaginative flights
It is the plain talk of an intrepid man, bent on
grand and patriotic achievement and disdaining
the study Of fine phrases. He is far better quail
fed for revolutionist than the finest orator or the
finest writer He is emphatcally man of action,
largely endowed with practical good sense, and pos
sessing the courage and perseverance, without
which no man can be great. He is prophetic, too,
not merely from hope, but from consciousness Of
power, and points nearly to tile very hour when he
will commence to reap the harvest of his sowing
What are his prospects Of success? We con
fess, notwithstanding the seeming odds he is
about to encounter, that we share in the hopes of
this intensely earnest man He neither speaks nor
acts as visionary. His statement of the re-
sources he counts upon has no appearance of ex-
aggeration. On the contrary, his exposure of the
inef6eieney Of the Feuian organization in Amer
lea, 50 frankly made, prepares US to receive
NA%S
as the assurances of truthful man. He an
nounees that there are 100000 men now in
Ireland, fit for soldiers, included in the or
ganization, of which number $4,000 are
well drilled, $4,000 indiferently, and 10000
without drill, and that all be wants from abroad
are arms and munitions. What soldiers Irishmen
are, the Southern people need not be told. Gle
burne, Finnigan, Nolan, Bowling, and thousands of
Others who shouldered muskets or drew swords in
the Southern cause, illustrated the martial aptitude
the proyerbial courage and the enduring fidelity
of the race, side by side, with our own chiyalrous
warriors, and won the esteem and admiration of
every SoutherneF. Two hundred thousand such
men, ably led, will, if not successful, shake
British power from its center to its farthest
reach.
The historical England is not the England Of to-
day. The supreme domination of the commercial
spirit has destroyed her martial spirit. Her peo
pie have ceased to be a martial people. The CON
tngent Of France at the siege of Sebastopol was
100000 men; the contingent of England so ,O00
Every man in the Gallo host was Frenchman.
The proportion of England would have been but
about three per cent. of the population of the
kingdom, yet she could not raise 1t at home, but
sent her recruiting officers to nearly every country
in western Europe, to her possessions in North
America, and even to the United States. The
gains Of trade and stock jobbing are now dearer
to her people than the laurels Of soldier She
is old, rich and tnid. She is i4sensf6fe to insult,
unless it is entirely safe and asuredly profitable to
resent, Mr. Seward, ia his diplomatic correspond
ence, treats her with contempt, the more marked
because lis deferentia politeness in his inter.
coarse with The French government She exhibits
hat Walch, in either individuals or nations, fore
shadows speedy downfall-a want of self-re-
peot. She has arrived at that period in the
,areer Of nations when the colossal Goliath may
,e er-matehed by the STRIPPING David.
The nations have too long, beheld with indiffer,
1nce the struggles of the Irish people. For seven
hundred years has England had her foot upon the
leck Of that gallant people. The history Of Brit
sh rule in Ireland during that woful period is the
history Of a tyranny that has no parallel in
authentic records. Despite Of that long bondage,
The high spirit, the quick mind, and the love Of
Of the Irish race yet live, to con
front the calumnies with which English historians,
sssayists and playwrights have flooded the
world, to excuse the wiekedness Of their
government. That the Irish are still a
people conspicuous for courage and are ready
% strike for their freedom, after centuries of
bondage, is one Of the highest proofs of their
light to the liberty they claim and their capacity
o enjoy it. An island that has contributed o'Don-
ellis to Spain, o'RiIey's to Austria, Laceys to
sussia, McMahons to France, Grattans and Burkes
. an English Senate Jacksons, Cleburnes and
,'Connors to America, cannot want for soldiers,
or jurists.
We have faith in James Stephens. We have
lith in what he says of the spirit of Ireland, and
lall give whatever influence we can to aid him.
nd his cause. We believe him to be the man for
lie occasion, and we believe the occasion is at
and. The cause is just. The government about
be struck has no claim upon the respect or
iendship Of the Southern people, and they will
,joice the day they hear that the harp and sun
urst float over Dublin Castle, as the banner of
zee people, who, to the scandal Of civilization,
ave, during nearly half the duration of the chris
an era, been robbed, tortured and butchered with
lpunity, by power whose downfall will be a
essing to mankind,
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