Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1882
No. 51.
Mr. West to
Earl Granville.
My Lord: I have the honor to transmit to your lordship herewith articles from the New York Tribune on the proceedings taken with regard to the Irish-American suspects. The tone of these articles is, on the whole, satisfactory, and would seem to indicate the general opinion that an unnecessary importance had been attached to a matter which was capable of an amicable arrangement.
I have, &c.,
The Irish-American Suspects.—The mass meeting at Cooper Institute calls upon the President to demand forthwith the prompt release of American citizens now unjustly deprived of liberty by the British Government. It bases its action upon section 2001 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, namely:
“Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen of the United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty by or under the authority of any foreign government, it shall be the duty of the President forthwith to demand of that government [Page 263] the reasons of such imprisonment; and if it appear to be wrongful and in violation of the rights of American citizenship, the President shall forthwith demand the release of such citizen, and if the release so demanded is unreasonably delayed or refused, the President shall use such means, net amounting to acts of war, as he may think necessary and proper to obtain or effectuate the release; and all the facts and proceedings relative thereto shall, as soon as practicable, be communicated by the President to Congress.”
Now, in the case of the Irish-American suspects, this statute—one of the most irrational acts ever passed by an incoherent Congress—is practically inoperative. These, men have been legally arrested, whatever may be said as to the justice or injustice of the charges. They have been imprisoned under the coercion acts, which are now the public law of Ireland. Legally arrested, they have not been tried; and accordingly there has been no judical investigation which would enable the President to determine whether they have been justly or unjustly deprived of their liberty. It is utterly impossible for the President to decide whether the arrest of these suspects has been “wrongful” and in “violation of the rights of American citizenship,” and consequently he cannot demand their release. Congress never has given and never can give the Executive the right to demand the unconditional release of an American citizen, naturalized or native-born, who has been legally arrested in another civilized state. If he has been illegally arrested, or if his innocence has been established after a judicial investigation, his release may be demanded, but not otherwise.
What, then, is it in the province of the Executive to demand in the case of the Irish-American suspects? Let their naturalization be assumed, and they must be held by Great Britain to be entitled to all the rights which have been guaranteed to citizens of the United States under the naturalization treaty. A fair and impartial trial in accordance with the local law that has been violated is one of those rights, and the Executive is justified in demanding it, for the suspects have been in prison many months. But in the proclaimed districts of Ireland the local law has been suspended. The government does not grant to its own subjects the privilege of a jury trial in those districts; and, indeed, a jury trial would not be a judicial process under the circumstances, for each and every suspect would be acquitted without regard to the facts of the case. A fair and impartial trial, by which the innocence or guilt of the accused can be ascertained, is simply out of the question. That is the one demand which our government is competent to make and it is one with which the British Government think it impossible to comply. They might as well discharge the American suspects outright.
Mr. Lowell, who has been denounced by Mr. Randall for his “sickening sycophancy to English influence,” has treated this matter not as an English, Irish, or American question, but purely as a point of international law. He has had no sympathy with the coercion legislation, and has even taken pains to characterize it as exceptional and arbitrary. In his letter to the suspects who applied for his intervention, he says: “The chief object of these measures is to enable the authorities to arrest persons whom they suspect of illegal conduct, without being obliged to produce any proof of their guilt. Its very substance and main purpose are to deprive suspected persons of the speedy trial they desire. This law is, of course, contrary to the spirit and foundation principles of both English and American jurisprudence. But it is the law of the land, and it controls all persons domiciled in the proclaimed districts of Ireland, whether they are British subjects or not; and it is manifestly futile to claim that naturalized citizens of the United States should be exempted from its operation.”
That law legalized the arrest of the suspects in districts where the writ of habeas corpus had been suspended, and where the natives were not allowed the privilege of a jury trial. To have demanded their unconditional release, when no discrimination had been made between them and the natives, would have been an open affront to a friendly power. What Mr. Lowell did was to follow the best precedents of criminal jurisdiction in international cases, several of which had been established during the American civil war, when British subjects were arbitrarily arrested and denied the privilege of trial. At the same time, he has conducted the negotiations with the foreign office with so much tact and decision that we are inclined to expect a speedy clearance of the Irish jails from suspects whose citizenship in the United States is authenticated. Whatever may be the privileges of the natives, the British Government are not likely to incur the odium of imprisoning foreigners for indefinite terms without trial. They will be glad to release them, if they can be assured that their naturalization papers shall not be used as a safe-conduct for conspiracy in the proclaimed districts of Ireland.
Mr. Lowell’s Success.—Mr. Lowell’s negotiations for the release of the Irish-American suspects have been crowned with partial success. Before the mass meeting at Cooper Institute disgraced itself by heaping reproaches upon him, the Department [Page 264] of State had received official information that all but three of these prisoners had been set at liberty in response to the request of the United States minister. The three suspects who have not been released are McSweeny, McEnery, and O’Mahoney. Two of these are undoubtedly naturalized citizens, and as such are entitled to a fair and impartial trial. The British Government is either unable or unwilling to order a judicial investigation, but it will not incur the odium of imprisoning the citizens of another state for an indefinite period. The leading English journals concede that any suspect whose naturalization in the United States can be established will be released if he agrees to leave the country; and the State Department has every reason to expect that this action will be speedily taken in these two cases. There is some doubt as to the validity of O’Mahoney’s naturalization, but the chances are in favor of his release, as the British foreign office does not seem to be disposed to make an exception in his case on technical grounds if he will promise to leave Ireland as soon as he is released.
Mr. Frelinghuysen reports that the negotiations have been carried on between the two governments for sometime “in a spirit of entire friendship.” This result has been promoted by the cordial relations existing between Lord Granville and Mr. Lowell. The fact that our government has been represented in these negotiations by one of our foremost men of letters has been a most fortunate circumstance. Mr. Lowell had won the respect and admiration of the best men in English public life, and when he came to plead for these suspects his personal character and popularity were of direct service to them. Bluster and bad manners would have prolonged their imprisonment and disturbed the relations of the two countries. Mr. Lowell made, as our special cable dispatches have stated, every effort consistent with diplomatic usage, and at the same time performed a most delicate duty with such consummate tact as to remove all sources of irritation. The result has been that as soon as the formalities of proving the naturalization of the suspects have been complied with, all but three of them have been released, and the liberation of the remaining prisoners is confidently expected by the State Department.
The delicacy of Mr. Lowell’s task will be better appreciated if the fact be borne in mind that the British Government is struggling hand over hand with a formidable conspiracy which has been directly promoted by the Irish citizens of the United States. The passage of the land act would have paralyzed the League if the Parnellites had not been forced by pressure from this side of the ocean to denounce it and to proclaim the repudiation of rent-paying. It has been moral and pecuniary support from the American base of supplies which has enabled the agitators to defy the Liberal Government and to prolong indefinitely a blustering period of lawlessness and anarchy in Ireland. Not a week passes but there are cowardly assassinations and revolting crimes committed in every quarter of the island. Tenants whose sole offense is a disposition to pay their debts and to live in peace with their landlords are murdered in cold blood. Land agents are fired at from hedges, and innocent women are butchered in the high roads. We do not say that the Land League organization and its American contributors are responsible for the shocking crimes; but it cannot be denied that they have delayed the pacification of the island which might have been effected under the beneficent clauses of the land act, and by prolonging the agitation have multiplied opportunities for agrarian horrors.
Is it to be wondered at that the British Government should have hesitated before releasing suspects whose only claim for consideration was a questionable citizenship in the United States? The money contributed for the cause could not be intercepted; if the patriotic sympathy and moral support could not be counteracted; but those who came from America to instigate revolution and crime must share the risks with native conspirators. This being the English view of the case, diplomatic intervention in behalf of the suspects was extremely likely to excite intense irritation. If, therefore, Mr. Lowell has dispatched the business, rescued the prisoners, and asserted the rights of American citizenship, without causing bitterness or estrangement between the two governments, he is entitled to the gratitude of Americans and Englishmen alike. If his intellectual attainments, his graces of manner, and his personal friendships in English society have contributed to that end, it was not a mistake to send to the court of St. James an American gentleman.