From Words of the Dead Chief, published in 1892, edited by Jennie Wyse-Power.
[In December, 1879, Mr. Parnell left Ireland on his first public visit to the United States. The purpose of his journey was to raise funds for the famine-stricken people at home, and to secure the sympathy and active support of the Irish race in America for his active policy.]
Replying to the presentation of an address from his admirers in Chicago, January, 1880, Mr. Parnell said:—
Our task is of a double character. We have to war against the system which produces discontent and suffering in our country, and we have to endeavour to break down that system, and, with God’s help, we are determined to break it down. We have also to see that the victims of this system are not suffered to perish in the meanwhile. We are to take care that the unity and strength of our people is not broken, and that now, when the opportunity has really come for the settlement of one of the leading questions in Ireland, that opportunity may not be lost.
During an interview with a New York Herald reporter he said:—
Ireland never won any great reform except by agitation, and this agitation, like obstruction, has been necessary in order to gain the attention of the Government. When a Government or a country totally disregard you, you must use strong and even disagreeable measures to get their attention. The methods may be distasteful, but they are imperative…
Experience has shown that England will not pay any attention to Irish affairs until the position has become unbearable to herself…
A true revolutionary movement in Ireland should, in my opinion, partake of both a Constitutional and an illegal character. It should be an open and a secret organisation, using the Constitution for its own purposes, but also taking advantage of its secret combination. But the leaders of the Fenian movement do not believe in Constitutional action because it has always been used in the past for the selfish purposes of its leaders.
At Madison Square Gardens, New York.
January 4th, 1880.
While we take care to do the best we can—and the best we can will be but little—to relieve the distress, we must also take care that we take advantage of the unexampled opportunity which is now presented to us for the purpose of sweeping away the bad system. In ’47 America came forward first among the nations with unexampled liberality. But did that liberality prevent the famine? Did it prevent the millions from dying of starvation, or of the pestilence which follows famine? Did it prevent the scenes in Ireland in those years—the scenes on board the emigrant ships? No. No charity which can be given by America will avail to prevent Irish distress. That must be the duty of the British Government, and we must see that we shame that Government into a sense of its obligations. Are we to be compelled continually every 10 or 12 years to appear as mendicants before the world…
Now it was proved in years gone by, and it has been proved frequently since that, that the Irish tenant will die in the ditch rather than enter the poorhouse. And he is right. The Irish Poor-law system is the most fiendish and ingenious system of all those that we have received from England, for the purpose of slowly torturing our country to death. The ties of a family are broken up. The father is separated from his children, the children from their mother, the wife from the husband, and the wretched inmates of the workhouse from the day they enter it are consigned to what is for many of them but a living death. ‘Ye who enter here leave all hope behind’ might aptly be written upon the portals of every workhouse in Ireland…
If, as we have been so frequently advised, we allowed the present opportunity to go by without any attempt at organisation, we should have had a repetition of ’47 and its terrible scenes. Government neglect would have been the same as ever, the hearts of the people would have been broken by physical suffering and distress, they would have been disorganised and exasperated, evictions in multitudes would have taken place, retaliatory action would have been adopted by the frenzied masses, we should have had another ineffectual rebellion, and ‘the wild justice of revenge’ would have been invoked against Irish landlords. But what a contrast have we. Instead of chaos and disorganisation, the Irish people now present a remarkable aspect, firm, confident, and self-reliant with death literally staring them in the face, they stand within the limit of the law and the constitution, and the first to set them the example of breaking that law has been the very Government of the country, which has sworn to do only that which is right. The attention of the whole civilised world is centred upon Ireland, and very shortly the merits of our question will be known in all parts. We have saved the lives of the landlords, and we have saved the lives of the people.
At the Grand Opera House, Newark, New Jersey.
January 6th.
We are not permitted to have a single regiment of volunteers. The Government know very well that if there were Irish Volunteers in Ireland, the land system would not be in existence—and the police and soldiers would not be allowed to shoot down women and children.
In reply to an address from a deputation of the men of Meath, who waited on him in New York, Mr. Parnell said:—
When other counties in Ireland have gone wrong, Meath has always been remarkable for the steadfastness with which she has stood by the true political faith. When the priests and electors of Athlone condoned the treachery of Judge Keogh, and by that condonation assisted the English Government to wake up the independent opposition movement of 1852, the priests and people of Meath assisted Lucas and Duffy in their great work.
At Philadelphia.
January 11th.
We must push the cause in Ireland, in England, and in America. We must push it everywhere, for all the world over are to be found our countrymen, and the heart of every one of them beats true to Ireland. We must encourage the people at home to stand firm and not be afraid. We must show them sympathy. We must let them see that we are determined to break down this odious land system which hangs like a horrible miasma over Ireland, and has prevented the development of energy and made the people listless and despondent.