January 1, 1847
A letter to Garrison, from Edward Search, in London. “Our English government and the Irish people are both at this time reaping the bad fruit arising from the love of rule in our aristocracy in times past, their incapacity to exercise it for the general good, and the little progress people make when not allowed to govern themselves, and gather wisdom from their own mistakes. Our aristocracy have managed the Irish and their affairs, that they have for ages reduced the people to semi-starvation upon inferior potatoes, and themselves, to the state, generally speaking, to a pauper aristocracy, and land-ocracy,…….and the English half-starved poor are taxed to feed and sustain the starving poor of Ireland …..The Irish are starving, and the English government are driven to spend large sums, to find the Irish people work and wages. ….” The letter then goes on to draw comparisons to what has happened in the United States….with slavery depriving people of liberty, and the right to govern themselves…”Slavery lowered the national character till it became sufficiently degraded to disavow its debts, and with all the power and means of payment, it sunk so low as to refuse payment; and this country is the sufferer, as the largest creditor…..
Comments are closed.