JOHN WARREN AND WILLIAM NAGLE.

were arrested on the 1st June, 1867, on the bridge crossing the Blackwater from W aterford into Youghal. They were kept in Youghal until the morning of the 4th, when they were sent to the Cork County Jail, being marched through the streets handcuffed like felons. The gallant soldiers, who had distinguished themselves in the late war, were greatly incensed and insulted by such treatment, and communicated with their relatives and friends in this country, invoking the aid of their Government. As Colonel Nagle, writing from jail, says : " This is not exclusively an individual case, but becomes a question of right, involving the liberty of every American citizen that sets foot on this soil. I ask the Government of my country, which I have faithfully served, whose laws I have never violated, to secure to me that liberty which is my birthright, and of which I am now deprived without any cause or plea of justification, by an authority I do not recognize—a government to which I owe no allegiance, and whose laws I have in no way infringed upon."

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Colonel Warren wrote a statement of his case to the Hon. Fernando Wood, who presented the matter in a very strong light to President Johnson. The President placed Mr. Wood's letter before the Cabinet on Monday, the 20th August, and Mr. Seward was directed to confer at once with Sir Frederick Bruce, the British Minister, on the subject, and to reply to Mr. Wood. In his reply, Mr. Seward said :
" The subject has already received the attention of this Department, which understands that those persons are citizens of the United States, and that there are no sufficient grounds to charge them with the commission of any offence against the laws of Great Britain ; and has good reason to believe that they have already been, or will without further delay be, discharged."
On the 23d of August Sir Frederick Bruce telegraphed to his Government recommending the immediate discharge of Colonels Nagle and Warren from imprisonment, and sent to Mr. Seward a copy of the dispatch.
On the 23d September, they were removed to Mountjoy prison, Dublin, and on the same day received a letter from Mr. Adams, United States Envoy at London, in which he says :
" I have been endeavoring to do my best in your behalf, to secure you a trial, if not an absolute release. I doubt not it could have been accomplished before this but for the unfortunate revival of the excitement produced in the public mind by the late event at Manchester. I very much regret the suffer-

452 FENIAN HEROES AND MARTYRS.

ing to which you are subjected, and shall continue to do all in my power for your relief."
Colonel Nagle takes the position which every spirited American citizen, native or adopted, must indorse, when he says :
"I have not desired Mr. Adams nor Mr. West to petition for my liberty. I scorn to receive as a favor what I demand as a right. Aside from the individual, physical and moral injury done me, there is another great question involved, before which all personal matters sink into insignificance. The reputation and character of my country is involved in it. Will the United States maintain its own honor among the nations of the earth by defending the liber- ties of her citizens abroad ? Or are they to De subject to the oppression and caprice of every government in Europe in which they may chance to roam ; deprived of all that man holds dear in life, and no redress V If so, let the fact be proclaimed, that all may act accordingly."
Notwithstanding the apparent interest shown by our goverment, and the seeming good faith of the British Minister in telegraphing to his Government, nothing has been done in behalf of the outraged prisoners. The latest intelligence concerning them was conveyed by a cable dispatch of 21st October, stating that they would be brought to trial before a Special Commission, to commence on the 25th, coupled with the humiliating addition, "it is said that the United States Government will provide for the defence of Nagle and Warren."
It is full time the people should know what is the meaning of the phrase American Citizen, or if it has any meaning at all, and having a meaning, does it em-
 

DARING ESCAPES. 453

brace a distinction between, and a difference of protection to, a native and an adopted " citizen." If the Government had its mind made up as to what constitutes a citizen and his rights, its Minister and Consuls in Great Britain would no doubt have shown some prompt dignity and decision, when the national sentiment and character were outraged by the wanton arrest and contemptuous treatment of American citizens so-called, both native and adopted.

THE END.