FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Irish Times'anonymous correspondent in New York in 1866 did not hide his dislike of the Fenians after their first series of armed raids into Canada earlier that year, as is evident from this report about the splits in their ranks between what were known as the Senate wing and the Savage wing. – JOE JOYCE
IT IS singular how often the Fenians make their appearance, not in the field of battle, but in the columns of American newspapers. To be more correct and definite, it should be stated that the Fenian leaders are constantly saying disagreeable and offensive things of one another. The New York papers might be searched for the past two years without failure in the discovery of Fenian criminiation and recrimination. O’Mahony fell out with the Senate. The Senate deposed O’Mahony whom Killian has duped, and O’Mahony has been thrown into the cold shade of forgetfulness. Formerly it was all O’Mahony and Killian. Now it is Stephens, Roberts, and Sweeney. Stephens “has nothing to do” with Sweeney or Roberts. The two latter are “independent” of Stephens, and at war with each other, and they are all utterly at variance with common sense. As the Fenians will force themselves on public attention, and as there can be no doubt that their doings have caused considerable apprehension both in England and in Canada, we must notice them, not so much for their own sakes, as for the harm they are doing to great public interests. In the first place, they are deluding those who may be foolish enough to believe in their promises and hopes of success, and in the next, they are prolonging a swindle which has disgusted even a large number, both at home and abroad, who conscientiously maintain that the government of Ireland by England is far from being as just and fair as it should be. One of the great misfortunes of the people of Ireland is the readiness with which they permit themselves to be dragged at the tails of demagogues and schemers. They never give themselves the trouble of thinking over the character of the men whom they passively permit to become their leaders. A revolution, just or unjust, can never be effected by a set of brainless fools, whose vanity is boundless, and who think more than half their object is accomplished if they write rubbish to the public journals about what this one does not feel and what the other is reported to have said at some “caucus” of Fenian rowdies. Men who are determined to be free do not put their trust in convicted swindlers and rogues; and it is a fact that fellows noted for swindling, and against whom convictions for offences against the law have been recorded, have taken a leading and prominent part in the Fenian movement in this country. This is a fact beyond dispute. The name of the individuals can be given. They are well known. They are political loafers who have as much intention of fighting for the independence of Ireland as they have of fighting for the independence of Siberia.
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