The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-06-09
The Address that Caused the ArrestI
of Roberts, the President OF the
Fenian brotherhood. I

Fenian Brotherhood. ,
HEADo'Rs. FES1AN BRoTHERHooD,
TO6 BROADWAY, N. Y, JuneB. }
To tse Fenian Brotherhood:
Ny CouNrRYMEN, BROTHERS AND
FRIENDS: In the hours of doubt and
uncertainty I appealed to you to be
brave of heart and firm of purpose.
When towards quailed and doubters
sneered, YOU persevered and hoped on;
when inbecility and dishonesty placed
the cup of shame and bitterness to your
lips, and you were compelled to drain
il to the dregs, you still worked, and
triumphed over covert and open foes,
as well as difficulties which would have
made men suecumbin a less holy cause
Than ours.
It is the cause of oppressed Ireland,
OF humanity, Justice, liberty. aye OF
Divinity itself, and il cannot perish uu-
less we are false to all the nobler at
tributes which exalt the man above the
brute, and the possession of which ele-
Yates him to the highest dignity of Gre
ated beings. No, my countrymen, it
cannot perish, IL cannot fall, il will
succeed and triumph. Yes, even in
our times, by our own efforts, and at
the expense of our fortunes and our
blood, If necessary. The concentrated
wrongs of centuries are in our hearts,
and give strength to the passionate
longing for Irish freedom, which
neither time nor obstacles can Quench.
The calumnies and enmity of towards,
who, though born beneath the banner
of republican freedom, become the ly-
ing tools of English despotism, cannot
smite the detested foe of liberty
England fought this republic with
cannon, ships, guns and bullets.
She destroyed our mercantile marine,
she maligned our motives, she fslsified
our record, she rent the Union, and
drenched our land in blood. She reviled
America and Americans in her House
of Lords and scoffed at them in her
Parliament; and TO cap the climax of
her infamy, she nurtured a conspiracy
beneath her flag for the assassination of
the elected head OF our Republic. And
when the martyred patriots corpse was
borne through a land draped in mourn
| ing, the lamentations of a great nation
were blended with Indignation and re-
venge. How base then is the trucking
4 spirit that can forget these injuries,
these crimes against liberty, and would
place the heart hopes of n race beneath
4 the heel of n tyrant who Will feel less
grateful for the service than exlltant at
his power to inspire fear where
he knows there can be no love.
And yet 1 am as sure as that
live, leaving out few bigots and mer-
cenary tricksters, that the great body
of American born citizens despise Eng
land and her power, and appeal, as
some late American statesmen have
to higher laws than those which, ac-
cording to England's own interpreta-
ton, are obsolete and unjust. She Ger.
tainly cannot claim a different one in
her favor, from that which she SO sue.
cessfully pTacticed for the benefit OF
herself and the injury of America.
But no matter, fellow-countrymen
what may happen, how many obstacles
we may have to encounter, how many
of us may fall or perish, our cause will
triumph as sure as a just God lives,
and ITishmen and their descendants
remain true to the genius and valor for
which our race have ever been conspic-
uous. Yours, fraternally,
WILLIAM r. ROBERTS,
President Fenian Brotherhood.