University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.

IN this phrenzy of the public mind, it is not to be
dissembled that the most active of the constitution menders,
were those who had ruined their own constitution,
or that of their estates. It was observable also, that
emigrants from beyond seas; and especially from the
green Isle of Erin, were the most forward in offering
themselves for this service. Not knowing the trouble
of making a constitution, they thought it light work;
being in the habit of calling out against the existing
government at home, they did not distinguish that partiality
which the people here must have for the work
of their own hands, and their unwillingness to have assistance
not asked but forced upon them. At all events,
supposing them justifiable in the innovation, it cannot
be maintained that the volunteers were altogether discreet,
in the time of undertaking it.

A number of these who had come from the county
Monaghan, and other places, being together singing Erin
go brah, and talking politics, the governor having actually
a regard for them, as a well meaning, but impetuous
multitude, thought proper to address them, and remonstrate
against their proceedings. A minute of his
discourse has been given me, and I have set it down
here to diversify the narration.

Gentlemen of the bogs, said he, or green hills of Erin:
for in the geography of your country, you talk of bogs;
but in your songs we hear of nothing but hills—For that
reason, I shall speak of hills—

Gentlemen of the green hills of Erin, when I cast my
eye over the Atlantic Ocean, or rather cast it upon the
map, I see your island like an emerald as you call it, set
in the waves. It is a pretty little spot, on the face of
the earth, I was going to say, but rather as I ought to
say, face of the water. Of the internal geography I do
not know much, but I have heard of Limerick, and Drogheda,
and Sligo, and other places—The Cunabula gentium
the birth place of your parentage. But as to

those, I have not much attended to them; my attachment
is chiefly to the history of the people. I know
your origin if I am to believe some, and I am inclined to
believe them, that you are of Punic origin, that you
have in you the blood of the Asdrubals, and Hamilcars,
and Hannibals of antiquity. But as the poet says,
I set more store by what has been done upon your island
in the persons of your immediate progenitors. I am
not unacquainted with the fame of many great characters;
Fin M`Coul, and Brian Borumy, and others. But
for your divisions in your own country, you might have
been England, and England Ireland. And though insinuations
have been made by writers of a proneness to
rob on the highways by some of you, I do not wonder at
there being some truth in this. It cannot be a matter of
surprize, if after the military spirit of a people has subsided
by subjugation, it should break out into petty robberies
of the proud victor, and a disposition should remain
for a long time, to indemnify ones' self at the expense of
the conquerors, for the loss of private fortune. What
could have been expected of those who were expelled
from the north of your country, the four counties of Ulster,
but that they would turn free-booters? I find no fault
with the opposition made to the government of England;
for you have been oppressed by it; and I do not
wonder that a reform was thought of, and zealously attempted
by the governor of the country. Though I do
not altogether approve the irregular, and consequently
useless, disturbances by hearts of oak, as they were called;
hearts of steel, white boys, break o' day boys, who
broke the peace of the country. For of what avail is
disjointed opposition; partial insurrections, which like
the struggles of beasts of burden, serve but the more to
intangle, and furnish a reason, or at least a pretence for
weightier chains, and stronger gearing for the future?
For you see that however good your cause, and I will
acknowledge that it is my opinion there could not have
been a better, yet from immature exertions, and a want
of concert, some of you have been under the necessity of
absconding, and others of you have been shot. Those of
you who have come to this country ought to distinguish
circumstances. You have no doubt meditated much, the
greater part of you upon political establishments; but
it is not a Lycurgus, or a Solon that is wanted so much
at this time, as cultivators of the soil. The constitution
that is already framed may do awhile until we get
more ground cleared, and fences put in repair. You
will not for a moment entertain the suspicion that I
undervalue your capacity for these things; but I make
a quere with regard to the expediency of the occasion.
You have all heard of what has happened in the neighbouring
country of France, from instability in government
and from a change of constitution. The guillotine
was the result, you have all heard of the guillotine.

The croud, or some one in the croud, acknowledged
that they had heard of the guillotine; but had not a perfect
knowledge or clear conception of what it was.

It is, continued the governor, a machine which works
as I understand it, something like a farmer's cutting box.
But the noise resembles that of a forge hammer, or a
slitting mill.

Governor, replied an orator, it is not the sound of
iron, or the working of hand saws, that would intimidate
an Irishman; nor is it that we think we can make a
better constitution than the one that is made, or set up
a better government than that of which your honour is the
worthy representative, and chief magistrate. But just
coming to the country, we like to be concerned in what
is going forward. When we see the game played we
like to take a hand. Nor is it we alone that are moving
in the matter. It is your own people that have been
bred and born in the country, that make the most ado.
We only come in to take a lift at the log; just as our
forefathers did in the war, that is past, where some of
us were shot as well as yourselves. Having cleared the
ground of the British, along wid you, we are entitled to
the raising a cabin on the spot; you may call it a constitution,
or what you please. But all we want is a bit
of ground to set potatoes and to plant cabbage, with the
free use of the shilelah into the bargain, as we had it in
our own country.

That being the case, said the governor, the constitution
that you have, will answer every purpose. It is for
securing you in your possessions; and the free use of the
shilelah subordinate to no law but that of the country,
that the constitution has been framed. But for the constitution
and the laws, what would you differ from the

racoons and opossums of the woods? It is this which
makes all the difference that we find between man and
beast.

This was an unfortunate expression of the governor, and
gave countenance to the theory that had begun to prevail
about this time, that there was no radical difference
between man and beast. And of this we may hear
more in the subsequent chapters of this book. But not
being in a hurry with this narrative, we shall not go
on with the history of this phrenzy of imagination just
immediately. It is time to rest a while; that is, to dip
the pen till one looks about and reflects upon what
has gone before, and may come after. What that may be
I cannot well tell; for though I have all the matter of
the book in my head, I have not arranged it in the series
and juncture of the particulars, so that I can tell before
hand what will come next. My pen moves almost involuntarily,
from the mere habit of writing; like people
that speak without being aware of what they say. And
this unconcern arises from a consciousness that I have
no harm in my mind, and therefore there can come none
out; I mean, actual and intentional harm. If the maxim
is true, quod non habet, non dabit, I can give no offence
to any one, for I mean none. For notwithstanding
all that has been said, or suspected, I never had a single
individual in my mind, in characters I have drawn, but
have been dipping my pen simply in the inkstand of human
nature. If any man sees himself in this glass, tanquam
in speculum, it is his own fault to put his face
near it. For, it is not my intention to put the glass to
him. I will acknowledge that a principal object with
me is amusement, and I would hope to keep it innocent,
if I cannot make it useful, and I do not see why it
may not be considered as having the like chance for
this, with the fable of Menenius Agrippa about the belly
and its members; or any of those which are called
Æsop's, under the similitude of beasts, and birds
speaking. But be as it may, if we should miss the
mark, all that can be said, is, that if we mean instruction,
we have but an aukward way of conveying it.

But call it even our own amusement alone that we have
in view. it is a picture of human nature, from childhood
to old age; from the baby-house to the laying out money
in bank stock; or the purchasing land for which
the owner has no occasion. It all goes to engage, and

employ the mind, whether it is throwing a long bullet,
or drawing up an address to the President of the United
States. Our hands must be employed, or our minds.—
And this I take to be a great cause of the restlessness of
a man in society, or out of it—the activity of the mental
powers. And in proportion as a man has less or more
of the vis inertiæ, in that proportion is he locomotive,
or stationary.

Thady O`Conor had taken the benefit of the insolvent act;
nevertheless he was an honest man, for he had nothing
that he did not surrender, never having had any thing to
surrender, unless his brogues in Ireland; which though
they might be considered as still his property, yet they
were not in his possession, having fallen from his feet, as
he made his escape from sheep stealing in the old country,
and so left behind when he came to this. He had
imposed upon the captain of a vessel, by telling him
that he was a nephew of general Washington, and would
have his passage paid for him three times over, the moment
he arrived. But no president Washington, or any
for him, appearing to claim him as a relation, the Captain
was at a loss what to do with him, and while he was
deliberating, Thady made a shift to do something for
himself; and making his escape from the vessel, had
been some years sojourning in the country, and at last
got into jail, from which he had not found it convenient
to escape, and so paid his debt with a ticket as the phrase
is and being liberated by due course of law, he set out
for the new settlement, of which he had heard. He was
for a new constitution, and swelled the squad of malecontents
with the administration of the government. He
was chosen for a convention, as soon as it had been agreed
upon, that there should be one.