Henri Le Caron

“ I have heard it urged that the thought of Secret Service is repugnant to the British heart, wherein are instilled the purest principles of freedom. The argument has sounded strange in my ears when I remembered that London, as somebody has said, is the cesspool of Europe, the shelter of the worst ruffians of every country and clime. America is called the Land of the Free, but she could give England points in the working of the Secret Service, for there there is no stinting of men or money. ”

“ Where his personality will not thrust itself upon the scene, his shadow will darken every act and incident. From this time onward, for a period of twenty years, I used the man as my dupe. Feeding his vanity, assisting his ambition, helping him in the hundred and odd ways in which it was possible for me to do, I gained his friendship and his confidence to such an extent, that no man in the whole course of my career in the Secret Service proved a more valuable, albeit an unconscious, ally than he. ”

“ The object aimed at by the Irish National party—the recovery of Ireland’s national independence, and the severance of all political connection with England—is one that would require the utmost efforts and the greatest sacrifices on the part of the whole Irish people.... I am not one of those who despair of Ireland’s freedom, and am as much in favour of continuing the struggle to-day as some of those who talk loudest against constitutional agitation. ”

“ Always you must remember that you are dealing with Irishmen, who in their wildest and most ferocious of fights still retain that substratum of childishness of character and playfulness of mood, with its attendant elements of exaggeration and romance, which make it as difficult for an ordinary House of Commons member to rightly understand his Irish colleague when he launches forth in description or invective, as it is for the civilised foreigner to know where the actual grievance now comes in. ”

“ He was a young man then, but then as now he was the same Alexander Sullivan, clever, unscrupulous, careful only of himself, subordinating everything to his personal ambition, using Irish politics as a stepping-stone to advancement in American affairs, and reckless who or what suffered if but he did succeed.
The “Arch Fiend” of Irish-American politics, as he has been dubbed, and the alleged chief conspirator in the brutal murder of Dr. Cronin, is no ordinary man; he is an individual with a history, and that not by any means a creditable one. ”

“ Hence I am in favour of the torch for their cities and the knife for their tyrants till they agree to let Ireland severely alone. London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Bristol in ashes may bring them to view it in another light.”
And so the talk goes on, and seven hundred years of grievances find expression from the lips of excited patriots, while quarrelsome delegates destroy all decorum. There is little purpose in our waiting further. One hour will be but the repetition of the other. As we rise to leave, however, one figure catches the eye and impresses itself upon us. ”

“ I trust that what I have penned, and what the sad murder of Cronin has writ large upon the page of history, may not be without its effect; and that to-day men may pause ere they continue in such a way as I have pictured, the mere tools of an unscrupulous faction, the miserable dupes of a reckless and improvident executive. Gallahers, Dalys, and Mackay Lomasneys there always will be—men inspired with fanatical hatred of all things English, and ready at all times to risk freedom and life in working out their designs ”

“ Parnell in America. In the view of the conspirators scattered throughout the States, Mr. Parnell had given himself over, body and soul, to the chiefs of the Clan-na-Gael. At every point, under every circumstance, without a single exception, well-known and trusted men of the secret councils were by his side and at his elbow, pushing him forward into prominence here, bespeaking a welcome for him there, and answering for his thorough fealty to the grand old cause at all manner of times. ”

“ Some day, however, a big thing will happen, about which there will be no leakage beforehand, and then the affrighted and indignant British citizen will turn on his faithful band of thirty and rant and rave at them for their want of capacity and performance. The fault will be the want of a perfect system of Secret Service, properly financed. If plots are to be discovered in time—and already there are some whisperings of coming danger—they can only be discovered through information coming from those associated with them. ”

“ It is that of the arch-plotter Sullivan, who, through all this din and turmoil, sits and makes no sign. He knows that later on he will be the candidate for the highest place amongst them, and so he takes no side. There is no possibility of your missing him as you pass him by. There he sits, quiet, watchful, and alert. You cannot mistake the man. There is a sense of power and intelligence in that clean cut, clean shaven face of his, lit up by its bright daring eyes. ”

“ Remembering, as I do, the number of innocent victims who in the sad history of our country have been handed over to the gallows by wretched informers, in order to earn the coveted blood-money, and foreseeing the awful danger that in the present excited state of public feeling crime may be added to crime by the possible sacrifice of guiltless men, I am determined that if one penny of the Land League Fund were devoted for such a purpose I would at once resign the treasurership. ”

“ American judicial proceedings are, however, framed to work in a society which habitually indulges itself in debauches of partisan fury, even while prisoners stand at trial for their lives, and accordingly the most elaborate safeguards are employed to secure the impartiality of the jury. The State and the prisoners exercise the right of challenge both peremptorily and for cause, in a degree undreamt of in this country. ”

“ Here I shall drop Rossa and his Skirmishing Fund for the moment, to say a few words about Ford. The opportunity seems a favourable one for dealing with a man whose name has been so prominent of late years, and clearing up a few of the many misconceptions which appear to exist regarding him. Like O’Donovan Rossa, his colleague at this time in skirmishing matters, Ford’s position in Irish revolutionary affairs has been quite misunderstood in British quarters outside the Parnellite party. As a matter of fact Ford is not, and never has been, a member of the Clan-na-Gael. ”

“ It is hard, I know, to expect people in this cold prosaic age of ours to fully understand how a man like myself should, of his own free will, have entered upon a life such as I have led, with such pureness of motive and absence of selfish instinct as to entitle me to-day [v] to claim acceptance at the bar of public opinion as an honest and a truthful man.
Yet such is my claim. When years ago, as these subsequent pages will show, I was first brought into contact with Fenian affairs, no fell purpose, no material consideration prompted me to work against the revolutionary plotters. ”

“ Like all proceedings from which the general public are shut out, a Clan-na-Gael assembly becomes interesting in proportion to the amount of secrecy by which it is attended. Not indeed that a Clan-na-Gael Convention is anything very exciting or terrible after all. It possesses none of the weird features of that scene in which our three old friends of Macbeth figure. It is on the contrary very Irish—very Irish indeed. But what it is and what it is not can best be demonstrated by some few details by way of description ”

“ Old Europe is threatened with a general convulsion. War on the most tremendous scale cannot much longer be staved off by all the artifices and subtleties of all the diplomatists in the world. Russia and Turkey are equally resolute to fight the inevitable fight.... The rest of the Great Powers of Europe will be drawn by an irresistible force into the arena. ”

“ Soon after I left London for Ireland, not, however, before I had seen a good deal of Egan, and spent several pleasant evenings in his company, at the house of Mr. A. M. Sullivan, M.P., who now, poor man! is no more. I well remember Egan’s impressing upon me the necessity for my covering my revolutionary sentiments whenever Mr. Sullivan was near. It would never do, I was told, to talk of revolutionary matters, for he was ultramontane. This advice I followed, noting the fact in my own mind to Mr. Sullivan’s credit. ”

“ It acquits the Triangle of wilfully omitting to supply the actual authors of the dynamite explosion with funds to fly from the law, but it severely censures their “agent” for the omission. Both wings of the Clan-na-Gael were engaged in the same devilish plots, and while every one must rejoice that the assassins even of a dynamiter should meet their lawful doom, Cronin merits no more sympathy as an individual than “Captain Mackey” himself. He was brutally murdered, while himself engaged in plotting the wholesale murder of others. ”

“ From him in the secrecy of conversation, undisturbed by the [180] presence of a warder or fellow-prisoner, I learnt that the Land League had placed the Fenian or National cause in a far stronger position than ever in Ireland. Could the Clan-na-Gael only see the national spirit which had been developed all over Ireland, they would never oppose it, he believed. In counties where the Revolutionary organisation had been dead for years, continued he, there was now material for work, and men ready to go as far as any one. All these men wanted was organisation and leaders. ”

“ His line of defence was an exceedingly clever one, and is well worth recording here, as showing how in these early days Sullivan had carefully mapped out his policy in regard to Irish affairs, and their connection with American matters. He contended that, in all he had done, he had had the best interests of Ireland at heart. He did not, he said, consider that the Irish people in America had ever occupied the position in the body politic to which they were fairly entitled. The Irish vote, argued he, had been hitherto solidly cast for the Democratic party. ”

“ They are a funny crowd, as lolling with arms akimbo, and thumbs resting in their waistcoat arm-holes, they hang their feet on the chairs in front, which for comfort’s sake are tilted to an angle of some 40 or 45 degrees, and puff their cigars—on such an occasion there is nothing so vulgar as a pipe indulged in—high up into the air, changing their position now and again in order to have a pull at those interesting-looking black bottles, or to disrobe themselves of coat or waistcoat, the better to cool their heated frames. ”

“ My adventurous nature prompted me to sympathy with the idea; my British instincts made me a willing worker from a sense of right, and my past success promised good things for the future.
I returned, therefore, to the States in the Government service; and, taking advantage of an early meeting with O’Neill in New York, I proffered him my services as a military man in case of active warfare. O’Neill, delighted at the idea, promised me a position in the near future, and I returned to my home in the West, pledged to help the cause there meantime. ”

“ I never had any sympathy with Irish Revolutionists. Quite the opposite. Nor have I been an agent provocateur. Although I always voted for politic reasons on the side of the majority, even to the joining in the vote which meant dynamite, on no single occasion was I instrumental in bringing an individual to the commission of crime. True, I had to take many oaths. But what of that? By the taking of them I have saved many lives. Which counts the weightiest in the balance of life? And who is it that sneers at me for my conduct in this regard? An honest man’s criticism I can accept ”

“ Every true Irishman in Ireland (and shall we not say in America too?) once more believes in the old creed of our gallant fathers—that the sole way to free or regenerate Ireland is by total separation from England; and that total separation can only be achieved by desperate sacrifices, daring enterprises, and the strong hand.
[139]
The names of the trustees will, of course, be familiar, as being amongst those regarding whom I gave some details some few pages back, and who were all remarkable for their past Fenian records and present prominence in the Clan-na-Gael ranks. ”

“ This may seem strange language coming from one who, for over a quarter of a century, has played a double part, and who to-day is not one whit ashamed of any single act done in that capacity. Men’s lives, however, are not to be judged by the outward show and the visible suggestion, but rather by the inward sentiments and promptings which accept conscience at once as the inspirer of action and arbiter of fate. ”

“ All the world must surely know by this that almost from time out of mind there has existed in America a body of discontented and rebellious Irish known as Fenians, who, working in harmony with so-called Nationalists in this country, seek the repeal of the Union between Great Britain and Ireland. ”

“ At any rate, the people of Illinois are to be congratulated on their victory—a victory which, in spite of endless “exceptions” taken on behalf of the prisoners throughout the case, and the endless series of appeals allowed by American law, will hardly be affected in the long run by any fresh proceedings. On the other hand, the convictions may not improbably result in some of the convicts turning informers more patrio, and thus bringing the real prime movers in the murder, whose existence is widely believed in in America, in turn to their doom.—The Times, 17th December 1889. ”

“ It is true that at first, flushed with their almost bloodless victory at Fort Erie, the Fenians advanced fiercely upon their opponents, and for the moment repulsed them; but in the end the Canadians triumphed, and succeeded in putting the invaders to flight, driving them back to Fort Erie a frenzied, ungovernable mob, only too thankful to be taken as prisoners by the United States war steamer Michigan, and protected from total annihilation at the hands of the, by this time, thoroughly aroused and wrathful Canadian citizens. ”

“ A demonstration had been arranged at Milwaukie, Wisconsin, in honour of Patrick Egan, and at Sullivan’s pressing invitation I accompanied him in order to participate in it. We travelled together and conversed almost all the way, Sullivan, as was his wont, supplying me with very interesting details. He told me that the management of the secret warfare was entirely in the hands of the Revolutionary Directory in America. Men, it appeared, could not be obtained at home to do the work, for from some lack of courage or discipline they could not be relied upon. ”

“ He is as hot a dynamitard as any, but he wants no personalities. If they are to accomplish anything, they really must be more practical. And so he proceeds, winning applause and spreading enthusiasm, till Devoy and Condon, and their personalities, are swept into forgetfulness, and all are engaged in applauding revolutionary sentiment spiced with religious quotation, and served up in the most orthodox of fashions. ”

“ The theory of the prosecution was that he was murdered in pursuance of a conspiracy, and that the accused, together with other persons not in custody, were members of that conspiracy. The jury by their verdict have [292] declared that Dr. Cronin was so murdered, and that all the prisoners save Beggs did conspire to murder him. This conspiracy arose from a bitter quarrel within the ranks of the United Brotherhood, or Clan-na-Gael. The history of that organisation was sketched by State’s Attorney Longenecker in his opening speech. It was founded in 1869, to “free” Ireland by open warfare. ”

“ England, above all, whether she likes it or not, must draw her sword once more [138] or meanly confess herself a third-class power. She is too proud of the part to yield her high place without a blow. She must first be beaten to her knees.
“England’s difficulty then has all but come; in other words, ‘Ireland’s opportunity.’ Is Ireland prepared to seize that opportunity?...
“In view of the altered circumstances of the time, ‘big with fate to us and ours,’ we propose to enlarge the basis of the ‘Skirmishing Fund,’ established by Rossa, and of the plans it was intended to further. ”