Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-11
OgIo STATESMAN.
President johnson and the Fe.
niAnS.

|
mans.
The Tribune assails the Presidents proc
lamation as having been too long deferred /;
alleging that the forbearance and presumed
cOnnivant g of the Government have emticed
the Fenians into an enterprise for which
they are now to be punished. That we may
do our COtempOrary no Injustice we copy
the substance of its remarks:
But the proclamation comes late. Fe-
nian meetings have been held all over the
country for many months. One powerful
branch of the organization openly avowed
its purpose to attempt the liberation of
Ireland via Canada, and to that end raised
money and set on foot wel-known enter
prises without Il whisper OF opposition
from the Government. 1t will not be
strange if the numerous body whose pro-
cecdings received in this manner the tacit
approval of the Government should now
complain that they were lured on to their
destruction. They will have some ground
for asserting that they were encouraged to
expect federation in every act not openly
hostile to the law, and they will criticise
the proclamation OF yesterday as the late
avOwal of a purpose on the part of the
Government to stretch its prerogative for
the suppression of movement it had
nursed into activity. Hdd Tie Government
tnteTpOsed 11hen Colonel Roberts collected his
FOLLOWERS in public meetings, the enterprise must
necessarily haze been arrested at The outset, and
would never have grown into a military
organization, nor ever have alarmed the
householders of Canada by an incursiOn
across the border. The lives Of the men ,OhO
l1ere sacrificed in an dttenlp; that assumed tie
Indifference Of the President, might hare been
SaUed had the mask Of Indifference been MrOwR
| off earlier or worn a little later. Now, it
need not amaze anybody If the thousands
| of men who. in this Fenian effort, have put
at hazard their lives and fortunes, demand
to know the motive of what will seem to
them an unaccOuntable vacilation in nolicy,
and an unexpected uncertainty of EXecu-
tive purpose"
| 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 mere military
| arcastle, it would have groped 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 self-deIeating, and the other eXpen-
sive. The President might, at any time
within the last eight months, have issued Il
| proclamation; but the only effect of an
earlier prOclaTatiOn would have been to
envelOp the whole movement in secrecy
The Fenian organization embodies. we sup
pose, at least hugdred thousand able
bodied adults; brave, Jealous, and stung
with an intolerable sense of British wrong.
So long as they hal violated no law. the
Government could have interposed only by
words of warning-a warning which could
have conveyed no information, as the Ee-
N,,ll ,fg,s
was illegal. The Fenians would thereupOn
have shroudPd all their movements and in
tentiOns in darkness, and their enterprise
would have been all the more dangerous
from the impossibility Of estimating its
magnitude.
IT Il proclamation had been issued earlier,
and the organization had, in cOnseq renee,
skunk intO cOncealment the only preventive
measure thereafter in the power of the
Government, 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 tor 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 a tangible shape. By pursuing
to act with intelligence, and with compare
lively little expense, to eXtinguiSh the
whole enterprise as soon as it became dam
gerOus.
These are sufficient reasons why the Gov
ernment should not have iuterfered earlier;
the Fenians will he more inclined to ask
why it should have intertered at all. They
need not be Informed that the law they
have violated was passed too long ago to
have had any particular reference to them
Nor has it been a 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 SOL
diers who had served in Canada under Gen.
eral Scott, in the preceding war with Eng
land. General Scott was sent to the bOr-
der to restrain our citizens, and he told the
soldiers who had served under him that
they should not 90 into Canada without
passing over his body. Mr.. Van Buren, is
sued "A proclamation as Mr.. johnson has
now done; he sent troops to the frontier,
chartered steamboats, on thclakes, and call
ed upon the State Governors for their ac-
tive 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 matter, the
Government knows no difference between
Irishmen and native Americans. In
communication to Congress on this subject
Mr.. Van Buren concluded by saying:
But this Government recognizes still
higher obligation to repress all attempts on
the part Of its citizens to disturb the peace
of country where order prevails, or has
been re-established. Depredations by our
citizens upon nations at peace with the
United States, or combinations for commit
ting them, have at all times been regarded
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 ofvio-
lence on the members thereof, in order to
effect a change ia its Government, or under
Gny pretext whatever, have, from the COM
mencement of our Government, been held
equally criminal on the part of those en-
gagged in them, and as much deserving of
punishment as would be the disturbance of
the public peace by the perpetrat;on Of
similar acts within our own territory
To show that the party relations OF the
Government have had as little to do with
such measures of repression, as the nation
ality of the adVenturers, we will recall an
instance which occurred under Whig ad-
ministration, Mr.. Van Buren having been
one of the abest of our Democratic Presi-
dents. Irishmen who have not been long
in this country may never have heard of