Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1898-10-22

ana to be so Tar only obligatory as 1t pro
tects their rights and promotes their wei
fare; we think it our duty,as Irishmen, t,
come forward and state what we fee
to be our heavy grievance and what W,
know to be its effectual remedy.
1--WE have no national government
We are ruled by Englishmen and the
servants of Englishmen, whose objec
is the interest of another country; whose
instrument is corruption; whose strength
is the weakness of Ireland; and these mer
have the whole of the power and patron
age of the country, as means to seduce
and subdue the honesty and the spirit oil
her representatives in the legislature
Such an extrinsic power, acting with uni
form force in direction too frequently
opposite to the true line of our obvious
interests, can be resisted with effect
solely by unanimity, decision and spiri,
i'll the people, qualities which may be
exerted most legally constitutionally and
eficaciously, by that great measure es.
sential to the prosperity and freedom of
Ireland, an equal representation of all
the people in Parliament.
/ eve do not here mention as grievances
the rejection of place bill, Of pension
bill, of responsibility bill; the sale of
peerages in one house; the corruption
publicly avowed in the other; nor the
notorious infamy of borough traffic be-
tween both; not that we are insensible
of their enormity, but that we consider
them as but symptoms of that mortal
disease which cortodes the vitals of our
constitution and leaves to the people in
their own government but the shadow of
a name.
Impressed with these sentiments we
have agreed to form an association, to be
called the Society of United Irishmen;
and we do pledge ourselves to our coun-
try, and mutually to each other, that we
will steadily support and endeavor by
all due means to carry into effect the fol-
lowing resolutions:
II. Resolved, That the weight of Eng
lish influence, in the government of this
country, is so great as to require cordial
union among all the people OF Ireland,
to maintain that balance which is essen
tial to the preservation of our liberties
and the extension of our commerce.
"II. That the sole constitutional mode
by which this influence can be opposed
is by complete and radical reform of
the representation of the people in Par
Lament.
iii. That no reform is practicable, eff
ficacious or just which shall not include
Irishmen of every religious persuasion.
Satisfied as we are that the intestine
divisions among Irishmen have too often
given encouragement and immunity to
audacious and corrupt administrations
in measures which, but for these divis-
ions they burst not have attempted, we
submit our resolutions to the nation as
the basis of our political faith.
"We have gone to what we conceive to
be the root of the evil; we have stated
what we conceive to be the remedy.
With Parliament thus reformed every
thing is easy; without it nothing can be
done. And we do call on and most
earnestly exhort our countrymen in gen.
eral to follow our example and form
similar societies in every quarter of the
kingdom for the promotion of constitu-
tioual knowledge, the abolition of bigotry
in religion and politics, and the equal
distribution of the rights of man through
all sects and denominations of Irishmen.
"The people when thus collected will
feel their own weight and secure that
power which theory has already admitted
as their portion, and to which if they be
not aroused by their present provoca-
tons to vindicate it they desire to forfeit
their pretentions for ever.
"James Napier Tandy, Secretary"
Such were the principles of the first
United Irishmen. Their society was per-
fectly constitutional and in every re-
spect as legal as any of the numerous po-
litical clubs which at that time existed in
England and Ireland.
The grand principle of the society was
that of "union among all classes of Irish
mem" it was this which marked it as
as specially dangerous in the eyes of a
Government which, like every Irish Gov
ernment since the earliest English rule
in that country, relied on the contrary
principle of division among the people,
and it was this which gave the society so
much influence