Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1882 — OUR IMPRISONED CITIZENS. [ARTICLE]

OUR IMPRISONED CITIZENS.

Their Cause Pleaded upon the Floor of the Senate—TheCourse ol the (Government and the Conduct off minister (.owe 11 Most Farnewlly Denounced. In the Senate of the United States, on the 14th of April, Mr. Voorhees made a speech upon the resolution recently introduced by him declaring that the conduct of the State Department, in relation to the arrest and imprisonment by the British authorities of Daniel McSweeney and other American citizens, is in violation of American law, inconsistent with the value of American citizenship, and derogatory of the honor of the United States. He said the Secretary of State failed to respond to the Senate resolution of M%fph 9, peremptorily instructing him to report upon McSweeney’s case at the earliest day possible, until March 20, although every item of information transmitted on the latter date was in the hands of that officer when the resolution reached him, and could have been sent in within twenty-four hours thereaf er. The American State Department, he asserted, of late years, had always proceeded very slowly when appealed to in behalf of an American citizen in a foreign prison. He continued: “Is the attitude of the American Government at this time on this momentous question one that inspires feelings of satisfaction and pride in the American heart? I appeal to the record. McSweeney, a naturalized American citizen, while temporarily residing in Ireland, was dragged from a bed of sickness by British constables, in the presence of his wife and children, and imprisoned, on the 2d of June, 1881—ten months ago. He has suffered in prison from that day to this. He was guilty of no crime, not even the shadow of a crime. If the Republican party has a friend on the floor of the Senate .who will risk his reputation in trying to point out the guilt of McSweeney, I want him to step forth and defend the policy of that party toward foreign-born citizens.” Detailing the history of the case, and calling particular attention to dates. Mr. Voorhees said that in her letter from Ireland of Aug. 3, 1881, to the Secretary of State (received at Washington on the 16th of that month), Julia McSweeney, the brave, high-spirited wife of this man, told how four years before she had come to reside temporarily in Ireland on account of her husband’s failing health ; that, although aware that England claimed the island, she thought that Americans might venture to travel or reside abroad under the protection of their flag, but that in this she had been mistaken. She then described the brutal arrest of her invalid husband, and added that it was not' pretended he was charged with crime ;that he immediately forwarded his naturalization papers, together with a solemn protest against the outrage, to Mr. Lowell, the American Minister at London. His answer was that the letter would be laid before one Granville, and that inquiries would be made as to the grounds of the arrest. She protested that she knew nothing of Granville; that she did know that she was entitled to the protection of the great American republic, and exclaimed, with all the lofty grace of the ancient appeal of a citizen of Rome when Rome was greatest. *‘lam an American. My husband is an American citizen, and he lias committed no crime.” But this cry of distress found no Roman spirit in Washington. It fell still-born in that department where American rights have so long been held cheapest. It was never answered. She also stated in the same letter that one Olphert, a tax collector of Donegal county, had sent his horses and ca’ts and carried away a poor woman’s crop, grown on her land from seed obtained from charitable sources ; that the same Olphert refused permission to erect school-houses on his 20,000 acres to educate his 6,000 serfs, alleging as a reason that if those people were educated a landlord could not walk out of his house; that her husband had expressed the opinion that these things were wrong, and for that expression of opinion was cast into a British dungeon. She added that she entertained the same opinion, and that, as this fact was known to the enemy, she was liable at any moment to be cast into a dungeon; and that, having eight American orphans on her hands, she appealed for protection. There was no response to this appeal. The un manly and pusillanimous silence of the State Department throughout the whole case was such that every American head would be bowed, and every American heart filled with humiliation as the facts became known. He (Voorhees) felt de graded in his pride as a citizen when compelled to state, as he now did, with the communication of the State Department in his hand, that for six months after this Government had received the letter of Mrs. McSweeney not a single step was taken by the authorities here for an inquiry into the circumstances of the arrest, and they were only then influenced to take action by considerations other than a just appreciation of the claims of McSweeney to protection.

Mr. Jones, of Florida, asked whether McSweeney was in prison now. Mr. Voorhees said he understood that he was, as no notice had been given of his release. He added that a letter from McSweeney, published on June 23, in the San Francisco Examiner, accom panied by an editorial statement that the correspondent was for many years a well-known and esteemed resident of that city, doing business in the cattle trade, was the first intimation to hi« former friends and neighbors of his incarceration. The letter, written from Dundalk jail, asserted the writer’s innocence of any crime; that he had been in jail for seven mouths; that his health was precarious; that he still held the certificate of citizenship he received upon renouncing allegiance to any foreign power; that the American Minister was snubbed and insulted when he asked any question about the imprisonment, and that the American Government took no more notice of it than would the King of the Sandwich Islands. A copv of the letter and an urgent appeal for the intervention of the Government was at once sent to the President by Mr. John Cuddy, a citizen of California; but there was no evidence before the Senate that the slightest attention was paid to this, nor to a subsequent note from a California Representative to the Secretary of State, calling special attention to the inhuman treatment of McSweeney in the Dundalk jail. ‘Meanwhile the California friends of the prisoner moved in the matter, and the Congressional delegation joined in a note to the Secretary demanding action. The fact that McSweeney had violated no law, and was not apprised of any charge against him, iipp< uied in Mr,' Lowell’a poyrespon-

dence. Upon this history of the case. Mr. Voorhees charged, there had been a gross and flagrant violation of the act of July 27, 1868, for which somebody ought to answer at the bar of the Senate under articles of impeachment. Mr. Voorhees then quoted the terms of the law, which retires the President to take action in such cases, and declared that a more monstrous i iolation of the law, a more deliberate betrayal of the value of citizenship, or a more complete degradation of the national honor than was here disclosed could hardly be found in the history of any first-class power, ancient or modern. Mr. Voorhees then sharply criticised the action that was finally taken by the State Department, and the pusillanimous conduct of Mr. Lowell. Mr. Voorhees spoke of the mother of the Irish agitator Parne’l as a daughter of Stewart of Old Ironsides, who saluted the British flag in 1812 with far greater propriety than the State Department recently saluted it at Yorktown. He said it was reported that this lady intended to visit her imprisoned son in Ireland, and he supposed she would be arrested as an American suspect, inasmuch as it was known she sympathized with the cause of liberty and good government. He predicted the early settlement of the question m accordance with American honor, as the sense of justice of the people of the United States, and their confidence in their glorious destiny, were too profound to permit them to submit longer to the policy of a party which permits the American name to be outraged with impunity by foreign nations. Mr. Voorhees’ speech was frequently applauded in the galleries.