Adopted at the Meeting held March 15, 1848.
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: A slander has gone forth against you. It is rumoured, by your enemies, that the blind and anarchical riots, which have disgraced the great towns of England and Scotland, are to be imitated among us.
Wilfully confounding your passionate ardour for the deliverance of your country, with these sordid offences against property and order, they dare to affirm that your aggregate meeting puts in peril the safety of your fellow-citizens.
And the English Government, which rules this island, ignorant of your character, or indifferent to it, have thronged the metropolis with troops, and sworn in their English soldiers as magistrates of the city, to overawe and dishonour the native citizens.
Fellow-countrymen, we must disappoint the malice of our enemies. We must guard our sacred cause against surprise or stratagem.
The Council of the Irish Confederation appeal to you, in the name of our coming liberty, to watch over social order. They admonish you to be alive to the designs of your enemies, and to permit no provocation to tempt you into the most trifling disorder.
Riot and rashness are the vices of slaves; free men, or men worthy of freedom, are calm, orderly, and resolute. Let us be so. Let every good citizen regard himself as one of a future NATIONAL GUARD, bound to watch over the order and tranquillity of the metropolis.
It is not to the vicious excesses of a mob, but to the heroic struggles which illumine the Continent, that your eyes are turned. It is there you look for examples of how liberty may be won, without outrage upon religion, property, or order.
A majority of all the European states have exacted native independence, or free institutions, from their rulers, while we have been struggling in the agony of famine. Many of them conquered by the mere aspect of the angry people, before which Tyranny trembled and gave way; some of them seized their rights with armed hands; but all have attained their demands. It is beside them we ambition to take our place.
For Ireland, too, has a great part to play—if she do not prove unworthy of it. Of all the nations, none has suffered so deeply—none has made out so clearly her charter to independence, by the multitude of her wrongs, and the hopelessness of all other remedies. Fellow-countrymen, it will be some criminal blunder of her own, if Ireland is not free as Sicily, and tranquil as France, before a single year has passed away.
But we do not labour for the elevation of class or creed, but for all Irishmen; and our countrymen must be made to feel universally that no just interest is periled by our success. This is all that remains to be done. Death has raged among us like an invading army—emigration has drained our land of wealth and strength; we are justified before God and man in refusing to endure our wrongs any longer. Our sole duty is to assure and unite all our own people who desire the independence of our country. That done, we can resume our ancient constitution, though all the foreign nations of the earth forbid it. AND WE SHALL.
But we must prove we are worthy of liberty. By forbearance, by self-control, by respect for property and order, we must combine with us all the good men of Ireland, who desire independence unsullied by crimes or excesses.
Riot or tumult at this moment would disgrace our cause, and deliver it into the hands of our enemies. Be peaceful, then, fellow-countrymen, and patient. Trust to the Confederation to point the time and the way to liberty. Day to day we shall advance toward it, and step by step. Give our enemies no advantage by rashness, and there shall be no backward step in the face of any peril, till our end is attained.
[Signed]
On behalf of the Council,
CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY, Chairman.