tish rule in Ireland, We have taken
up the sword to strike down the oppressors' rod, to deliver Ireland from
the tyrant, the despoiler, the robber. We have registered our oaths upon
the altar of our country in the full view of heaven and sent up our vows
to the throne of Him who inspired them. Then, looking about us for an
enemy, we find him here, here in your midst, where he is most vulnerable
and convenient to our strength... We have no issue with the people of
these Provinces, and wish to have none but the most friendly relations.
Our weapons are for the oppressors of Ireland. Our bows shall be
directed only against the power of England; her privileges alone shall
we invade, not yours. We do not propose to divest you of a solitary
right you now enjoy... We are here neither as murderers, nor robbers,
for plunder and spoliation. We are here as the Irish army of liberation,
the friends of liberty against despotism, of democracy against
aristocracy, of the people against their oppressors. In a word, our war
is with the armed power of England, not with the people, not with these
Provinces. Against England, upon land and sea, till Ireland is free...
To Irishmen throughout these Provinces we appeal in the name of seven
centuries of British iniquity and Irish misery and suffering, in the
names of our murdered sires, our desolate homes, our desecrated altars,
our million of famine graves, our insulted name and race--to stretch
forth the hand of brotherhood in the holy cause of fatherland, and
smite the tyrant where we can. We conjure you, our countrymen, who from
misfortune inflicted by the very tyranny you are serving, or from any
other cause, have been forced to enter the ranks of the enemy, not to be
willing instruments of your country's death or degradation. No uniform,
and surely not the blood-dyed coat of England, can emancipate you from
the natural law that binds your allegiance to Ireland, to liberty, to
right, to justice. To the friends of Ireland, of freedom, of humanity,
of the people, we offer the olive branch of peace and the honest grasp
of friendship. Take it Irishmen, Frenchmen, American, take it all and
trust it... We wish to meet with friends; we are prepared to meet with
enemies. We shall endeavor to merit the confidence of the former, and
the latter can expect from us but the leniency of a determined though
generous foe and the restraints and relations imposed by civilized
warfare.

"(Signed) T. W. SWEENY.