Arizona republican., 1914-04-08
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 History
TRIAL OF WOLFE TONE

All Irishmen look upon Theobald Wolfe Tone as one of their greatest
 of patriots and martyrs He may be said to have been the founder of the United Irishmens party. This was at first a purely political and con- stitutional movement, but later in 1194, it became secret society, com- bining men of all beliefs for the pur-
 pose of throwing off the yoke of England
 Tone was born in Dublin, the son of coachmaker, on June 20, 176S.
 decree of the Court of Chancery
 in 1790 had ruined his father. and abandoning his profession of the law
 he took to politics. From this on he
 worked ultimately for the cause of
 the United Irishmen, but the Eng
 fish government, having extended it's
 hand to break up the organization of
 the revolters. Tone was compelled to flee to America to escape arrest He
 was but short while in this coun-
 try when he sailed for France to seek help from the Directory for the forthcoming struggle. He was suc- cessful. A fleet under Hoche set out for Ireland, but a storm scattered
 them. Tone, nothing daunted next appealed to the Dutch Republic for assistance. Again his efforts were crowned with success, but again he was disappointed on account of the elements.
 Finally Tone appealed again to
 France, and a force of one thousand Frenchmen under General Humbert sailed for Ireland The ship with Tone on board was attacked by five English battleships. The Irish pa triot fought with undaunted bravery and seemed to bear a charmed life. It was only when the vessel was full of dead and sinking that fight ing ceased. Wolfe Tone, who had fought like demon, was taken pris- oner.
 When Tone was arrested he said: For the cause I feel prouder in my chains than if I was decorated with
 the Star and Garter of England,"
 He was carried to Dublin and was there court -martialed, convicted of
 treason and condemned, all within forty eight hours.
 When Tone appeared for trial in the room set aside for that purpose
 in the Royal Barracks of Dublin, on
 November 10, 179S. he appeared in
 his French uniform. He made an eloquent and touching speech, avow-
 ed everything and declared his love
 fer Ireland and believed in the ne-
 cessity of separation from Eng
 land. For it I became an exile: I
 submitted to poverty; I left the
 bosom of my family. my wife, my
 children and all that rendered life desirable. After an honorable com bat, in which I strove to emulate the bravery of my gallant comrades, was forced to submit and was dragged in irons through the coun- try, not so much to my disgrace as to that of the person by whom such ungenerous and unmannerly orders were issued"
 For the reason that he had been tried by court martial as a soldier, he demanded soldiers death by shooting, but this his judges refused
 and he was condemned to be hung. Then rose complications. The French government, in whose service Tone was a Brigadier General, is said to
 have threatened, if he were hanged to hang two British prisoners of equal rank. Moreover, as Wolfe Tone had not been British soldier nor | acknowledged by England to be a
 French officer, his trial by military court martial was declared illegal When the votes of the Court which sat in his case were collected and submitted to COrnwalls. he paid no
 attention to any criticism of interna- : tional right, but immediately con- firmed the verdict of guilty. and dir
 ected that Tone should be hanged
 within forty eight hours. This was on Saturday.
 The following day Tone was in formed that the Lord Lieutenant had refused his last request to be shot. On Monday Curran moved before Chief Justice Kilwarden for a habeas
 corpus tp bring him up for civil trial before the Kings bench then sitting. This was granted, but the authorities at the barracks refused to surrender him.
 All efforts to save him were too late, however, for during Sunday
 night Tone had, with penknife, opened an artery in his neck. The
 morning found him Wetering in his
 own blood, but still living The
 wound was not immediately mortal,
 nor was it supposed to be very seri- ous. Yet, oddly. enough, the Govern ment took no steps to hang the in jured man. He was allowed to re-
 main in prison suffering great pain for eight days; then he died on Mo- vember 19. 179S
 It was believed by thousands of Irishmen during the excitement of the time that he had been killed in order to avoid the entanglements that might otherwise arise, and that the suicide story was trumped up by some one in power. However, his son, who was later an officer in the United States army, thought his father might have committed suicide to avoid the disgrace of hanging.
 Tomorrow-Trial of Holmes,