New Britain herald., 1921-10-17
COMMUNICATED
A Little History

Editor Herald:
 quotation;
 ! De Valera appears to have started something he can't Sin Feinnish." I will quote some American history for your benefit. MT. Cullen, between '61 and '65 the United States passed through such terrible experience that a nation has ever gone and come out alive. President De Valera and his government in 1916 to 1921 has gone through the same experience and come out alive. We fought our battle for our national existence for four long Iperilous years of our Civil War. Pres ident De Valera and his people fought l their battle for their national exist ence for almost six long perilous years. | When President Lincoln sent Charles l Francis Adams to be our minister in London he realized that he had given Adams difficult task. When President De Valera sent his ministers to Lon don he realized that he had given them a difficult task. On reaching Lon- don Adams was greeted with the news that England had declared her neu- Itrality. Under the circumstances neu- ltrality meant hastily it Vas almost a ! acy as a nation. On reaching London the Irish ministers representing 90 per cent of the people of Ireland are greeted with the news that England had established a government in the northern part of the nation represent ling 10 per cent of the people of the na- tion. Under the circumstances which means haStely the following history is repeating itself in the case of the lRepublic of Ireland Two vessels known as Florida and Alabama were built English shipyards and their effectiveness was proved against the United States.s MT. Adams, after fruit less protests against these two vessels, was thrown into a janic by knowledge that at Laird's shipyard two powerful lironclad rams were under construc- tion. He knew that no United States Ivessel would be a match for either of them. If these rams left England the | Union was apparently doomed. Adams |told Lord John Russell that it would mean war. Adams brought copies of the commissions of the officers who were to sail on the rams. They were signed by Jefferson Davis. The evil dence of the real mission of the mys- terious irOnclads was so strong that it could not be absolutely disregarded Adams was told that the rams would be detained if he would build a proper deposit to cover possible damages to the owners. The sum of $5,0OO,OOO in gold was named as the amount neces- Isary. At that time it was quite impos- isible for the United States to raise Ieven $1,0O0,000 in England. In the United States Secretary Chase was
 hard put to it to find money to pay
 
 by the Englishmen seemed equivalent to victory for the Confederacy
 Adams and the United States were ap-
 parently defeated. A quiet, unassum- ing gentleman came to see the United States Minister. He explained that he would be very glad to deposit the $5,- 100000 in gold on condition that his
 name should not be made public His
 name is still a secret. MT. Adams sent
 at once to the United States govern
 ment for securities with which to
 cover the generous rescuer There
 were only $7,5O0.0O0 in s1,OOO bonds
 authorized. Tn order to send $1O,00O- 900 in bonds it was necessary to make l up the amount in small denominations |, None of the bonds had been signed by the Registrar of Treasury. There
 were only 70 hours before the steamer ISdllSu " It'll ct pIly ySlCldIl III attendance,
 the Registrar, MT. Lucius E. Chitten- den, the only man who could legally sign the bonds, set to work He finish ed in the allotted time, but his health
 was so impaired that he was a nervous
 wreck for the following five years and he was never we'll again. It was not until April, 1864 that the British gov
 ernment notified the Confederates that
 they need expect no more help
 from the English shipyards.
 ', The attitude of England toward the
 Irish Republic of today closely lparalleled the attitude of England to-
 ward the American Republic during
 the Civil War. MT. Quillen in the light
 of history England has much for ! (which to be thankful
 Yours Truly MARTIN J. KELLY