Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1866-06-12
Who Are Fenians ?


The country asks, who are the
Fenians?" It is difficult to analyze
these people who are now making
war upon a neighboring British pos
session. The leading actors are
chiefly Irishmen, with perhaps a few
Yankees who prefer war to peace
any day. The sympathising ele-
mcnts, not Irishmen, are the English
reformers who are willing for the
Fenians to revolt, though not sue.
cessfully, but only in view of produ.
cling certain reforms in the landed
estate monopolies and the suffrage
question. Many of the old aboli-
~tionists in Europe and America are
sympathising Fenians, their hearts
being always devoted to oppressed
humanity-no regard for birth place
or color, and who contribute the only
democratic party On earth for opp
sing monopoly and tyranny. Were
the blacks of the United States so far
elevated politically and morally as to-
constitute a nationality Of their own,
as they will be in a few years, they
too would be sympathising Fenians,
and thousands Of them would shout
der the musket, fight by the side Of
Irishmen for Irish liberty.
Bat, "who are not Fcnians?"
We answer, the late rebels are not,
nor the copperheads-but only SO
far in sympathy with thcm as to hope
that Fenianism may some how pro
duce a war between America and
England, believing that such wal
might work a destruction Of the
American government and the re-es-
tablishing of slavery in the imag,n-
airy slave holding empire, The
American politicians, Or policy men
Of all parties, except the traitors at
heart, are not Fenians.
The masses of American farmers
and artisans are not Fenians, nor the
commercial and literary c~lassAs nor
do they sympathise with the move
ment to separate Canada or Ireland
from British rule.
The Irish catholic priests are not,
as an almost universal thing, Feni-
ans nor in sympathy with Irish sep
aration. That portion Of Irish Cath
Ole who hold that the pope and
priests should shape catholic politi-
cal sentiment as we'll as spiritual, are
not Fenians. Those who hold that
the Irish people are incapable in
their nature of selfgovernment,
arc not Fonians. And those
who hold that ignorance and
poverty + best tor ireland are not
Fenians. Tyrants throughout the
world, whether in high or low place,
are not Fenians. And it may as
well be set down on the credit col
umn that people of great, good heart,
of kind feeling for the oppressed,
wherever to be found, oil possess a
hope for the freedom, education, ele-
vation and Acknowledgement of Ire
land and the moral up building of
English oppressed and priest ridden
people. But the intelligence of the
whole country says, Ireland can
not be politically free-at the same
time spiritually a slave" In other
words, no people "a be free where
the spiritual leaders talk of religion
to the heart but neglect to educate
the head. This is the intelligent
belief-hcnce intelligent people do
not believe there is any use freeing
Ireland at present, because if freed,
the people would be incapable of
self-government, and would very
soon fall a pray TO their old rulers
who would rule them with a sever.
er rod than before. ireland must
first take to schools--to reading,
thinking and commerce.. Poverty
and even oppression are favorable to
education, but where, under pretense
o fcsring for the soul, the people are
led to man worship and to the cul-
tut of absolutism, there q be
no e. cation, no thinking, no free
dom. Ireland must first win her
spiritual freedom, and then the
world viii be Fenians so far as to
work for Triah fraadpm Frsnna