Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1901-05-08

prominent Irishman IN or out of Ire
land. He believed in liberating his
country by physical force, and at one
time he was all but successful in
launching well-developed revolution.
Stephens was born not far from Dub
lin and was educated at Dublin Uni
versity. He was a great lingust, a
fluent speaker, and is said to have been
the greatest organizer which the Irish
Nationalist ever had. He had a pe-
culiar faculty of convincing the masses
that what he said was right and that
what he promised would be fulfilled.
He was in the Young Ireland rebellion
of 1S4S, which began with n splurge
and ended SO ingloriously. Fired by
his association with Irish patriots at
that time, Stephens began, almost as
soon as the rebellion of '4S collapsed.
to plan for another. In ten years his
plans had so far matured that drill
classes We're meeting nightly in Dub
lin and vicinity, and young Irshmen
lndulged high hopes of freeing their
native land.
What the Irish patriots needed,
though, was skilled military leaders.
These they had not, but the civil war
in the United States furnished school
for Irishmen on this side of the Attain
tic in which to learn tile art of war and
the skill to command, which they hoped
to be able to practice in Ireland when
the civil war was over Under Ste
phens' direction active enlistment in
the various Fenian societies was un-
dertaken in 1864, and secret drillings
were carried on all over the island.
This activity had been preceded the
year before by convention in the
United States, at which Stephens was
proclaimed the practical head of the
Irish nation, or, as lie was called by
the Fenians, the central organizer of
the Irish republic. John O'Mahoney
was chosen head center for the United
States.
With the close of the Civil War. many
lrishmen who had won fame in the
Union army on Southern battletields re.
turned to Ireland, having been led to
| believe through Stephens representa-
ton that good-sized army of Irish
patriots had already been organized
and equipped, and was only waiting
for competent commanders. When it
was urged upon him that the time for
action had arrived, Stephens insisted
upon a delay, and he was openly ac-
cused of being n braggart, of being
vain o1t
What might have happened had the
revolution actually begun no one can
state. The fact isthat the British gov
crnment got wind of Stephens plans,
found him in Fairfield House, Sandy
mount, a suburb of Dublin, through the
skill of the famous detective, Dawson,
and OH the morning of Saturday, Nov.
II, 1865, the agitator was arrested and
lodged in Richmond Bridewell prison.
Three days later he was arraigned be-
fore Magistrate Stronge.
He was remanded for examination,
but before he could be brought into
court again he had escaped from prison,
chiefly through the efforts of Capt
John Kerwin, who is now in New York.
Stephens made his way to France and
thence TO the United States. He was
received with great honor in New York
by the Fenian brotherhood. In 1891 he
was unofficially Informed that if he
would give up all further Fenian agi-
tation he might return to Ireland He
accepted the offer and the closing days
of his life were spent in retirement in
Dublin