MF – 1866.05.19 – Fenians – Campobello – #148 – F12251

Fenians! Fenians!! With the Anti-Responsible Government party now it is all Fenians and Fenianism. You look in vain in their papers for any defence of the Governor, or of the men who are responsible for the Governor’s conduct – if Responsible Government is not dead, – or for any argument in favour of Confederation on any terms. Al these they have abandoned. Beaten completely in argument, they try it no longer, but fill their columns with abuse of Mr. Smith, whose pure patriotism and generous, self-sacrificing conduct are so hateful to them, and of Mr. Anglin, whom they would represent as a monster, and of other persons whom they regard as obstacles in the way of their fell designs against the liberties and rights of the people. These they endeavour to crush under a mountain of lies and misrepresentations, and beside this you get nothing but Fenianism. They seem to imagine that the people of this Province will not only do their duty and repel and punish any attempt at invasion, should it be made; but that they can be persuaded to destroy its very existence by their own hands, and surrender all their rights and liberties by their own act, in order to prove how much they abhor Fenianism, by doing precisely what the Fenians themselves are said to wish and work for.

The Globe of Tuesday evening, reviewing a manifesto published by Col. O’Mahony in defence of his conduct, shows from it that the late movement on our frontier was entirely the work of Mr. Killian, the quondam partner of Mr. D’Arcy M’Gee. The Globe concludes: –

“If the object of Mr. Killian’s expedition was to assist Confederation, he worked it up admirably, and it was not a failure. His speeches on the border, and his presence there, have been made capital of to a great extent by the Confederation party.

“The most remarkable thing in the whole affair is this. O’Mahoney in his document begins thus (we quote from the Journal’s reprint): “ ‘ During the session which commenced on the 17th of March last, a joint meeting, composed of the C. C. and the chiefs of the bureaus, an expedition to Campobello was proposed by B. Doran Killian, and warmly advocated by Mr. P. A. Sinnett * * * The Majority of the Central Council and myself were opposed to the raids made upon Campobello as an isolated movement, though in favor of it as a movement co-operative with a descent upon Ireland and the launching of privateers. It was, also, the unanimous opinion of those present that no movement should be made until after the arrival of James Stephens, then and still daily expected on these shores. General Wm. C. Halpin, who had recently landed from Ireland, most forcibly insisted upon this point. So did Messrs. Rogers, Kavanagh, Col. Downing, and Captains Tobin and McCafferty. A resolution to this effect was actually passed before the Council adjourned.

“Yet on the 10th March, just one week before the Central Council met, and before the attack on Campobello was proposed to that Council, the editor of the Colonial Presbyterian announced in his paper that a Fenian attack was contemplated on that Island, and he has since stated that the information came from the British Consul at New York or the British Minister at Washington, or both. On the 16th March the day before the Council met, and before an attack on Campobello was agreed to, by that body, the Governor of New Brunswick, also acting on [advices] said to be received from persons in authority, asked and received from the Legislature the whole revenues of the Province for defence purposes, and he had, it was understood, previously made some communication to his Council on the same subject.

“How is it then that between the 10th and 17th of March, when the idea of attacking Campobello had not been broached by the [Fenians leaders] and when they had not discussed it, or agreed to it, and when they might never agree to it, – how is it, we ask, that the informants of the editor of the Colonial Presbyterian and of the Lieutenant Governor were in possession of the knowledge that the attack was to be made? Why was it that after the Central Council had agreed to make the attack, but decided [to] put it off until the arrival of James Stephens, that the mysterious somebody (who can be no other than Mr. Killian) called out the ‘fighting material and precipitated the whole thing, determined that it should come off according to previous agreement?

“We should like to, be enlightened on these points!”

The Journal makes no attempt to shed the necessary light.

MF – 1866.05.05 – Fenians – By Telegraph – Eastport – #146 – F12251
BY TELEGRAPH.

EASTPORT, ME., May 2.
A schooner said to be a Fenian Privateer, was boarded by the Custom House officers this morning.
A large number of armed men were on board, and she had Fenian arms on board.
A Custom House officer just arrived from Lubec reports that armed Fenians left there in a small fishing vessel this morning, but were put on board a large schooner back of Grand Manan, N. B.
The United States steamer Winooski has just left the harbour in pursuit of the Fenian privateer.
Gold 128.

MF – 1866.05.03 – Fenian as a Scare Tactic – #145 – F12251

The sole hope, the only reliance of the foes of Responsible Government, and of the people’s rights, is the Fenians. Without the aid of the Fenians they know they can do nothing. We have already drawn attention to the remarkable coincidence that although the telegrams had been silent about the Fenians for some weeks, the bands under Killian began to make their appearance on the border just about the time that the Governor and his backstairs counsellors concluded to trample the rights of the people under foot. The declaration of Killian to the Mr. M –––– of the Telegraph that he knew long before what pranks the Governor was about to play, and the assertions of Major Sinnott to others of our newspaper correspondents that he knew what was coming, &c., were not more significant than Killian’s declaring at his public meetings that he would not allow Confederation to be carried, a declaration which he knew well was calculated to help the Confederates, a declaration which, we doubt not, he was paid by the Canadian party for making.

It was too expensive to keep even a few hundred men on the border for months. An expenditure of some hundreds of thousands of dollars can not very well be concealed even in the Canadian public accounts. When the back stairs Imperialists first determined on the grand stroke they believed that a general election would not be necessary. Some members of the majority was to be induced to accept the vacant seat in the Legislative Council, and make room for Mr. Tilley. This would give the backstairs party 18 votes. The single elections of the new office holders they calculated would not be opposed, as the friends of Responsible Government, expecting a general election, would husband their strength and resources for that; so the members of the new Government would get back without difficulty, and when back they could buy three or four members of the majority although they had already endeavoured in vain to corrupt them, and so while the people were looking for another general election they would find their independence destroyed, and their right sold as in Nova Scotia. The firm attitude of the 22 who signed Mr. Otty’s resolutions, and the quarrels which followed the scramble for office amongst themselves, dispelled all these anticipations, and they found a general election inevitable. They found also that if they dissolved at once they must be beaten, notwithstanding the Fenian sham, and that they must take time to blunt the people’s keen sense of right, and to bury the love of liberty under the prejudices which they labour to inflame. For this work some weeks at least will be required.

And so the Fenians disappear from the frontier as strangely as they came. Will they turn up again in the nick of time just when the elections are about to come off? Let our readers ask themselves this question and wait a little while for the answer. Meantime an old well known mode of keeping up the excitement at much less cost is again resorted to, and papers purporting to emanate from a Republican Committee of St. John, which, we believe, has no existence, save in the imagination of the enemies of the people, are scattered about profusely. No sensible man can imagine that any anti-Confederate, any friend of Responsible Government, would take any part in a proceeding which is so manifestly calculated to do service to the enemy. It is their own work; plainly and [unmistakeably] theirs, as was the scattering of bogus ballots on the morning of the last County