When, in 1865, I bade my
loving friends and parents good-bye in America, and came to Ireland,
I was fully satisfied with the thought that I was coming to assist in
the liberation of an enslaved nation; and I knew that the greatest
sacrifices must be endured on our parts before the country could be
raised to that proud position which is so beautifully described by
the national poet as--
"'Great, glorious, and free,
First flower of the earth, first gem of the sea.'
"Well, it was with that only wish, and that only desire I came to
Ireland, feeling that to realize it were to an honest man a greater
reward than all the honours and riches and power this world could
bestow. I cannot boast of learning, my lord; I have not had much
opportunity of cultivating those talents with which Providence may
have blessed me. Still I have read sufficient of the world's history
to know that no people ever acquired their liberty without enormous
sacrifices--without losing, always, I may say, some of the purest,
bravest, and best of their children. Liberty, if worth possessing, is
surely worth struggling and fighting for, and in this struggle--of
which, although the crown-lawyers and the government of England think
they have seen the end, but of which I tell them they have not yet
seen the commencement--I feel that enormous sacrifices must be made.
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