In America, the society had been
revolutionized--it had found new leaders, new principles, new plans of
action; it had passed through the ordeal of war, and held its ground
amidst flashing swords and the smoke of battle; it had survived the
shocks of division, disappointment, and failure; treachery, incapacity
and open hostility had failed to shatter it; and it grew apace in
strength, influence, and resources. At home Fenianism, while losing
little in numerical strength, had declined in effectiveness, in
prestige, in discipline, and in organization. Its leaders had been swept
into the prisons, and though men perhaps as resolute stepped forward to
fill the vacant places, there was a loss in point of capacity and
intelligence, and to the keen observer it became apparent that the
Fenian Society in Ireland had attained to the zenith of its power on the
day that the _Irish People_ office was sacked by the police. Never again
did the prospects of Fenianism, whatever they might then have been, look
equally bright; and when the brotherhood at length sprang to action,
they fought with a sword already broken to the hilt, and under
circumstances the most ominous and inauspicious.
The recent history of the Fenian movement is so thoroughly understood
that anything like a detailed account of its changes and progress is, in
these pages, unnecessary.
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