American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-06-27
What the Fenian War Really Is,

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There is no question that very large
portion of the apathy with which the
Fenian performances are regarded by the
public is due to the not unnatural enjoy
ment which people take in the spectacle
of the Canadians suffering from raids
The St. Albaas affair and the state OF
alarm in which the inhabitants OF the
American border were kept for nearly two
years, by. the threats of bands Of Con-
federate yagabonds congresated IN the
Canadian towns, have made deep i'm
preston on the public mind, aggravated,
of course, by the judicial proceedings
at Montreal in which Judge Coursol fig
ured. 1t would be difficult to fnd in
modern history case of more wanton
and shameless counivance at a great crime
ON the part of highly civilized and
professedly Christian com munity- Cour-
sol was, no doubt corrupt and Ignorant
man but he would never have ventured
to parade his ignorance and corruption as
he did if he had not well known that his
proceedings had the secret sympathy of
his neighbors The Canadians tried to
tatter themselves that when Gen. Dix's
order was overruled by Mr.. Lincoln and
the Young affair blew over, that all was
over. But the press here warned them
of the real mischief of the st. Adams af-
fair, and of the impunity enjoyed by the
rebel conspirators on Canadian soil, did
not lie in the amount of material damage
suffered by the United States, but in the
fact that they laid the foundation for
endless trouble in. the future. The Cana
dams laughed at these warnings then;
they now know what they mean. There
may be powers in the world strong enough
to treat all international obligations with
contempt; but even Great Britain is not
amongst the number, though she have Can
ada at her back The retribution may not
always come in the shape of open war,
but it generally comes somehow. Rob
erts and Sweeney are rather contemplate
instruments to serve as avengers of inter
national peridy; but in this instance
they do the work pretty faithfully.
That this feeling of soreness on the
part of the public here is pretty deep
may be inferred from what we have been
submitting to for the past month or two.
We have witnessed, without the slightest
formal indication of dissatisfaction, the
creation of an avowedly foreign govern
ment IN this city, with the various de-
partments and bureaus necessary for car
ryiug on military operations against a
power with which we are at peace. We
have seen it commission officers, issue
bonds, and actually raise an army, open
recruiting offices, and collect arms and
ammunition, and assemble great bodies Of
men at rendezvous on our soil, for the
purpose of commencing hostilities, We
have had the commander-in- chief Of this
army travelling to and fro on our railroads,
with large bodies of men marching on
our territory under his command, and
have actually seen our lines of telegraph
cut by his orders, in order to prevent our
officers and police obtaining information
of his movements. We have seen one
district-attorneyo finch from arrestipg
him, fearing he could not summon force
sufficient for his purpose, and have heard
the same geueral-in-chief, when actually
engaged In the breach Of our laws, warn
him that he would come to grief if he
lneddled with him. We have seen hos.
tile column leave our soil invade that of
our neighbors, fight ON it, and then fall
back into our territory again, and the for
eigu government which he profcssed to
obey issuing general order, in N. York,
promoting the man to brigadiership for
his gallantryss srsd a1a's zaa oH ft
These things are hard to bear. No
civilized government ever bore them be-
fore from any power not vastly stronger
than itself Austria used to do this sort
of thing in the small Italian States, and
Napoleon used TO do it in those European
Kingdoms over which he had set vioeroys
of his own OF course, we should not
have borne with it il the absurdity of
the performance had not been so mon
strous. Most Americans who paid any
attention to the Fenians duriug the last
year, thought itwas ''little game" with
which Irishmen not troubled with much
occupation were amusing themselves
We think it very unfortunate that this
impression prevailed SO widely, because
It enabled the Ro5ertses and the Swee-
peys to persuade their dupes, who are
mostly ignorant persons who have no
means of getting at the real STATE Of
american feeling, that the apathy they
witnessed on the part of the public and
of the law loffieera Indicated stynnatbv