The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-01-30
THOS. F. MEAGHER,
An Interesting Sketch Of the Life
and Character Of a
Patriot
WHO LOVED HIS COUNTRY

WHO LOVED HIS COUNTRY
He Escapes from Australia to Amer
lea and Dies in Montana's
Service.
With regard to the life and characte
of Thomas Francis Meagher, writes Johr
T. Goolrick in late issue OF Donahoei
Magazine, there is an aphorism OF the
great Roman historian, which is as noble
in itself as it's application to Mragher il
appropriate. Tacitus said that "whilst
other nations went to battle, the Bata.
vians went to war; And surely the
whole career of the hero of our tale was q
glorious warfare. Nv"
BY most interesting and notable coin.
cidence, Thomas Francis Meagher first
saw the light of day the very year in
which that grand man, Daniel O 'Connell
became the recognized leader of the Irish
Emancipation Party, the year 1923. He
had, from the first, the advantage of an
education under the fostering care of his
own Church, both in Ireland and in Eng
land. Snbseq to his academic
course, he pursued the study Of law, at
Dublin; and here, though as yet stu
dent, he became the leader of the young
Ireland Purity" Those who reflect upon
the stern sanctions that for centuries
have attended liberal ideas in Ireland,
and attend them to-day, will see already
the stuff Of which Meagher was built.
Yet a little while, and, in 1886, he assisted
in the organization of the "Irish Con-
federation" From henceforth his career
became as auspicious as it was stern and
sober. This year and the following three
years were years in which beautiful Ire
land lay under the shadow of mighty
.sorrow. For two years famine stalked
with grim and ghast'y tread athwart the
land. But neither pestilence nor famine,
nor the shadow of death dismayed his
constant soul. And now the news came
across the waters from sunny France,
that glorious land of Celtic enthusiasm
and aspiration, like his own, of the over
throw of Louis Philippe and the estab-
sishment Of the Republic.
Already had the inspiration Of the
struggle been caught at home, and he,
with such men as William Smith O'Brien
and John Mitchell. men like himself,
rarely gifted and of consuming patriotism,
and, like himself, destined to have glori-
GUS but checkered careers, had openly
advocated revolutionary ideas. Their
careers, as we shall see, were curiously
linked together. They all three came
under the shadow of the gallows, and it
wac chen that Smith O'Brien wrote these
immortal lines:
Whether upon the scaffo'd high
Or in the battles van,
The noblest death that man can die.
Is when he dies for man,
In 48 Meagher was the head of dele
gatioD. Of which OBrien was member,
which was sent to France to announce
that the heroism of the Republic "taught
enslaved nations that emancipation ever
awaits those who dare to achieve it by
their own intrepidity."
And now the day of false but fatal
reckoning had come. Upon their return,
both Meagher and O'Brien we're arraign-
All For co1;f;oo or1 coo&oroo1 RI 1oo&b
The sentence was subsequently COM
muted into transportation to Australia.
Mitchell was also expatriated thither, for
the promulgation of seditious doctrines
IN has newspaper. Surely, he should
need have a prophetic soul, sas we'll as
poetic vision. who could see future civil
and literary distinction awaiting these
lonely exiles, at the ends Of the earth.
1t would, indeed, be dramatic narra-
tive, to record such heroic natures hold
ing high converse in that lonely land.
Meagher and O'Brien escaped and came
to America. Mitchell was next comDre-
hended in q general amnesty, and he, too,
came. We regret that we can no further
run the remarkable parallel in5the lives
OF these gifted and distinguished men;
but our space admonishes US TO follow
rapidly IN the footsteps Of him who,
dying in the home Of his adoption at the
age of forty-four, had filed the varied
role-and flledit Well-of scholar, sol
der, statesman, diplomat, and patriot
stern as Brutus. sss q. ], - ,s.ssI
Meagher landed in New York il 1852.
Upon bis arrival, he at once resumed the
thread Of his Lies discourse; and for two
years delivered lectures, ii al Of our
large cities, upon Irish Independe
! Those who will consult those speeches
VII discover the germs q which have fruc-|
tlfied INTO more ratiohal eptionle ct ct
human liberty and hnl man herhood,
r and catch the ans Iofs stlae q aY- spring