Talking and fighting.
--
Thomas Francis Meagher, in a letter to a friend in
Hartford; declining an invitation to that city, says that he is going to the war, that ‘"talking is over fight is the word."’ and declares that the hope, of the oppressed of all nations depend upon preserving the integrity of the
United States and putting down this rebellion.
Mr. Thos. F. Meagher was a rebel in his own country against a Government which exercised no such lawless despotism as that of
Abraham Lincoln. Probably, it was in that relation that he discovered that ‘"fighting"’ is: better ‘"word"’ than ‘"talking."’ If ‘"talking"’ could have accomplished anything for a cause,
Ireland would have been independent long ago. That
Mr. Thomas Francis Meagher and his colleagues did not talk Queen Victoria and the
British Government to death, in the last Irish rebellion, is a clear demonstration, that the jawbone of an ass is only a dangerous instrument when wielded by a
Samson. An
Mr. Thomas Francis Meagrer is no
Samson, he did not break the cords which bound
Ireland to her old situation; he did not pull down the pillars of the
British polities temple and bury himself in its ruins.
He only resemble
Samson in having reclined his head with easy credulity in the lap of a political barlot, and in having his locks shorn, his eyes put out, and in Frandishing ferociously the jawbone afore said.
When the last Irish rebellion occurred, we recollect the dismay which seized us when we found that a waterspout of words was the principal obstruction that threatened the administration of the
British Government in that island.
The people were the bravest of the brave: as fond of a fight as of a frolic, and with wise and practical leaders, would give any Government against which they chose to rebel infinite trouble.
But the vast amount of rhetoric that was expended by
Mr. Thomas Francis Meagher, and some of his confederates, convinced us that
Ireland's opportunity had not yet arrived.
When men are in earnest they discard tropes and figures.
In a revolution metaphor is as much out of place as on a death had. We saw at once that
Mr. Meagher's rhetoric would not disarm even a policeman, and, in fact, it only excited contempt.
The British Government killed off
Mr. Meagher by refusing to exalt him to the distinction and honor of martyrdom. It virtually said to him and his class, ‘"Go, poor devil, there is room enough in the world for me and thee."’
Being always ready in the
United States to lionize every stray whelp from a European menagerie.
Mr. Meagher was made a great man of in the usual time required on this continent for such purposes, viz: twenty-four hours. He would have enjoyed the usual term of American immortality, which is about twenty-four hours longer, if a god-send had not come to his chances for notoriety, in the present war. The
Irish and
Germans, who had been denounced and persecuted in every Northern community, were now to be caressed and wheedled into the support of
Lincoln. They could fight, and they must be made to light, the battles of their oppressors against those who had always been their friends.
In this way, the services of the late Irish rebel,
Mr. Thomas Francis Meagher, came into immediate request.
He had naturally some influence among his countrymen it the
North, and he has been induced to exercise it for the benefit of that section and for his own promotion.
Accordingly, he induced a good many of them to enlist, and, in the
battle of Bull Run, led them where they were well peppered.
A good many of them were killed and some of them were made prisoners.
As for
Mr. Thomas Francis, or ‘"
Meagher of the Sword,"’ as he is sometimes dramatically described, he proved on that memorable occasion that be possessed one invaluable quality of a good military man — he was great at a retreat.
This we will say in his favor, even if he be an enemy, there is no better friend of human progress in
America than
Mr. Thomas Francis Meagher, if we may judge by the time he made from
Bull Run.
Even the prodigious speed of the L. L. D. who corresponds for the London
Times, and whose initials probably stand for Lie Like the D — I, was completely distanced by
Thomas Francis Meagher, of the Sword, the Harp and the Legs.
The beardless horseman described by Dietrich Knickerbacker was a snail in comparison with this winged courier of defeat and disaster, who arrived in
Washington in such hot haste that he had scarcely a shirt to his back, a sole to his boot or a soul in his body.
And now he says, in faith, that ‘"Fighting is the word."’ Yes, it is ‘"the word,"’ it has been ‘"the word,"’ and with a certain class of people it always will be ‘"the word,"’ till the hour of action comes, and then the difference between words and deeds is just the distance between Bull Ran and New York.
Let
Mr. Meagher know there is no terror for the
South in his brave ‘"words."’ The battle of the 21st of July established the fact that Southern men, defending their own homes, are more than a match in fighting qualities for the representatives of any nation on the face of the earth.
The bone and muscle and brate force that were expected to crush Southern men like so many egg shells cowered beneath the fiery blood and proud spirit of a patriotic people.
There is one allusion, however, in
Mr. Meagher's
Hartford letter which discloses one of the main springs that have been brought to act upon the foreign population of the
North.
It is not only the alternative between enlistment and starvation, but the idea, artfully and actively propagated, that if the
United States are overthrown, there is no longer a refuge or a hope for the victims of oppression in the Old World.
They have suffered abroad from injustice, want, and civil war, and they are made to believe that the only exemption of themselves and their posterity from such evils is the preservation of the
Union.
They do not, or will not, look beneath the surface of this pleasing sophistry.
They imagine that there is some magic influence in the
Union which preserves liberty even when the
Constitution is subverted, and every principle of civil and political freedom overthrown.
They do not see that ‘"the last refuge,"’ &c., if the
American Republic was such, was demolished when overthrew the
Constitution.
They delude themselves with the idea that Liberty, in the
United States, though dead and cold as an Egyptian , still lives, and will continue to live, so long as it is imbalance and preserved from putrefaction by the aromatic name of Union In order that they and their children may be free, we and our children must be enslaved; in order that
Europe only have a refuge for the oppressed, the
South must be subjected to oppressions for which
Europe has no parallel!
The land of
Washington,
Jefferson, Madi- son,
Marshall, the descendants of the men by whom that fabric of free government was formed which opened its only refuge to the appressed of
Europe, are to be despoiled of their freedom, as well as their firesides, their farms, and their lives; to be laid upon the altar of despotism, a whole burnt offering an astonish, expiatory, vicarious sacrifice, in order that the Meaghers, the Mazzinis, and the whole riff-raff of European Red Republicanism, who have neither the head, the heart, nor the hand, to achieve their own liberties in
Europe, may have a refuge in
America!
Did ever human impudence make a more gigantic pretension?
The
United States, once our country, built up and battled for by the blood of our fathers, was generously thrown open by ourselves to all the world.
We gave all mankind a shelter; here, under
our vine and fig tree, we bade the traveller rest; we brought out the fatted calf; we refreshed the stranger with milk and wine; we even shared with him our political birthright and opened up every gate of official preferment that was open to ourselves.
Virginia and the
South did more, for when the spirit of
Puritan intolerance threatened the civil and religions privileges of the emigrant, she drew her sword and threw herself in the breach for his defence.
What is the requital?
The South must be crushed and subjugated, that
Bull-Run refugees may have a place to run to in
America!
Thank Heaven, there are to that bargain two parties.
The South bids them dalliance, one and all. She has a country, she means to keep it, and keep it as her own and hers only, and before the hordes of in grate invaders ever take it, they must take every life among a people who regard life without country as not worth having.
