The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-06-07
A Warlike Document.
General sWeeney's Proclamation TO
the People of Canada.--The Fenians
Bound TO Do or Die.

General SWeeney's Proclamation TO
the People of Canada...The FenianA
Bound TO Do or Die.
To the People of British America:
We come among you as the foes OF
British rule in Ireland. Exiled from
that native land of ours by the oppres-
sion of British aristocracy and legisla-
ton; our people hunted down TO the
emigrant ships; or, worse, to that char
mel of Government institutions, the
poor house; our countrymen torn from
their families and friends and hurled
in droves to the prison pens of England
and Ireland; our country subjected 10
foreign army, which disfranchises the
mass of the Irish people, and makes
misery and poverty the sad rule of their
conditions; covering our fair land with
paupers' graves and wretched novels,
eliciIing from the liberal minds of Eng
land herself expressions of shame for
the Government, and Indignation for
the people. We have taken up the
sword 10 strike down the oppressor's s
rod-to deliver Ireland from the tyrant,
the despoiler, the robber.
We have registered our oaths upon
the altar OF our country in the full view
of Heaven, and sent up VOWS to the
throne of Him that inspired them.
Then, looking about us for the enemy,
we find him here, here in your midst
where he is most vulnerable and con-
venient to our strength, and have
sworn to stretch forth the wide hand of
Ireland to grapple with him. The bat
tie has commenced, and we pledge our
selves to all the sacred memories OF
struggling liberty, to follow it up at
any cost to either of two alterna-
tives, the absolute political independ-
ence and liberty of ireland, or the de-
molition of our armies.
We have no issue with the people OF
these provinces, and wish to have none
but the most friendly relations. Our
weapons are for the oppressors of Ire
land Our blows shall be directed only
against the power of England, her
privileges alone shall we invade, not
yours. We do not propose to divest y0u
ofa solitary right you now enjoy. We
will assaiI and asperse only the rights
that are claimed and enjoyed by the
government of Great Britain, the right
to make her American possessions the
field and buse of operations in war
against an enemy.
We come u install ourselves in her
possessions, and turn them against her
in war for Irish freedom. We are
here neither as murderers nor robbers,
for plunder or spoliation. We are here
as the Irish army of liberation and the
friends of liberty against despotisIn; of
democracy against aristocracy; of the
people against their oppressors; of the
ballot against the privileges of class; of
progress and development against right
and wrong, TO conduct the contest ac-
cording to the laws known to honora-
BILE warfare, in n manner worthy of the
high object we aim for, and the sublime
sentiments that actuate us.
In u word, our war is with the armed
power of England, and not with the
people, not with these provinces.
Against England upon land and sea,
until Ireland is free. And all who raise
an arm to defend her, to Illustrate or de-
feat US, belong to the common enemy,
and as such will be dealt with. As we
know how to recognize the services OF
our friends,,S 80 also do we know how to
punish the depredations of our foes.
Our work for Ireland accomplished,
we leave to your own free ballots to de-
termine your natural and political
standing and character, and shall re-
ioice to see, and assist to make these
limitIess colonies spring from the foot
of foreign throne, as free and indie
pendent, as proud as New York, Mas
sachusetts or Illinois. That yeArning
for liberty, and aspiration after natural
independence, which swells in the
breast of every true son of every land;
to your own manlineSs we leave these
questions for settlement, confident that
the dwAried development of your vast
resources and natural wealth, amid the
chilling influences of English suprem-
acy, in wretched contrast with the ma
ti0nal dignity, and stupendous mate
rial prosperity of your neighboring
people of the United States, under the
stimulus of State government and
Democratic institutions, constitutes a
stronger argument in favor of CO.
operation with us, end of the revolu-
ton in your political condition which
this comparison suggests, than any dis
cussion of these questions involved,
which we could offer here.
To Irishuen throughout these prov
inces we appeal in the name of seven
centuries OF British iniquity and Irish
misery aud suffering; in the name oil
our murdered sireS, our desolated
homes, our desecrated altars, our mil;
lions OF famine graves, our insulted
maine and race, to stretch forth the
hand oGbrotherhood in the holy cause
of fAtherIand, and sInite the tyrant
where we can in his work OF murder
ing our nation and exterminnting our
people. 1sf
We conjure you, our countrymen,
who, from nisfortunes inflicted by the
very tyranny you are serving, or from
any other cause, have been forced to
enter the ranks of the enemy, not to be
the willing instrument of your couu-
try's death or degradation. II ireland
still speaks TO you in the truest impul-
ses of your hearts, Irishmen, obey her
voice.
If you would not be miscreants, re-
creant 10 the first principles of your
| nature, engraven upon The very corner
stone of your being, raise not the hand
of the matricide TO strike down the
banner of Erin. No uniform, and
surely not the blood-dyed coat OF Eng
land, can emancipate you from the
natural law that binds your allegiance
to Ireland, of freedom of humanity OF
the people, we offer the olive branch OF
peace and the honest grasp OF friend
ship. Take II Irishmen, Frenchmen,
| Americans; take il all and trust il.
To all who marched to the call of the
enemy, and rally under his standard
| to aid or abet his cause, we give the
sword in as firm and earnest grip as
ever did it's work upon foeman. We
| wish to meet with friends, we are pre-.
| pared to meet with enemies. We shall
| endeavor to merit the confidence of the
former and the latter can expect lroI
US but the leniency of determined
though generous. foe, and the restraints
and relations imposed by civilized war
fare. (SignedJ T. W. SwEESEY,
| Major Gen. CONG the Armies OF Ire
land.
"sATXN WILL sooS APPEAR IN YoU1
I