Taken from Memoirs of General Thomas Francis Meagher by Michael Cavanagh, 1892.
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:—
If your efforts to procure a mitigation of the penalties to which we are about to be subjected had been as successful as you desired, we could not have offered you more sincere and grateful acknowledgements than those which we now tender, for the sympathy and solicitude which you have displayed in our behalf.
At this moment, whilst we are bidding our last sad farewell to our native land, the reflection that our fellow-countrymen have not witnessed with indifference our removal from amongst them is a sweet source of consolation; and, be assured, that this remembrance will hereafter be a soothing alleviation to whatever sufferings it may be our lot to endure.
Knowing that we address many who do not concur with us in political opinions, we do not feel ourselves at liberty to offer any observations upon the policy by which this country is governed—upon the policy which gave occasion to our resistance to British power—upon the policy which now consigns us to exile. We are compelled to repress even the emotions which we feel in reflecting upon the awful condition in which we leave the land that we have deeply loved; nor is this a fitting occasion to point out the means by which its disasters may be repaired; but we cannot refrain from the expression of a hope, that you will not despair of your country; and we may be permitted to offer to our fellow-countrymen a parting exhortation, that they will lay aside those unhappy dissensions which have so long paralysed the intrinsic strength of the Irish nation, and henceforth learn to love and confide in each other.
We feel that it is not necessary to say anything to you in vindication of our motives. Even those who most condemn our conduct know that we have not been animated by considerations of a personal nature in hazarding all that was dear to us for the sake of our native land; but we owe it to our feelings to declare that, whatever may be the sacrifices we incur by devotion to its interests, our latest aspiration will be a prayer for the prosperity, the honour, and the independence of Ireland.
WILLIAM SMITH O’BRIEN,
THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER,
TERENCE BELLEW MCMANUS,
PATRICK O’DONOHOE.
Richmond Prison.