Excerpt from Liberty or Slavery?: Daniel O'connell on American Slavery

The famous letter of Daniel O'Connell on American Slavery, addressed in 1843 to a Committee of the Cincinnati Irish Repeal Association, who had rebuked him for his Anti-Slavery opinions, has recently been reproduced by the Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph. "The original document, " says the Telegraph, "has been concealed for twenty years by a well known Democrat, to whom we are indebted for it. We invite our Irish Catholic brethren to read it attentively, and if any one wishes to see the manuscript, which is beautifully written, and the signature of O'Connell, they can be accommodated at the office of the Telegraph."

The bold, manly, and indignant protest of the groat Irish Orator against the cruel injustice of American Slavery, and his eloquent reassertion of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, are opportunely reproduced in the present crisis of our affairs. The glowing words of the Liberator will be read with renewed interest by all lovers of human freedom, and not without increased admiration for that magnanimous soul which, in its love of Liberty, overleaped all barriers of nationality , and embraced all tribes and races of mankind.

It is also fitting that the admirable letter to the National Irish Repeal Association, written by the present distinguished Secretary of the Treasury-, should be republished as a companion-piece to the great letter of O'Connell. Strange as it may now seem, the Cincinnati Irish Repeal Association refused to O'Connells letter the common courtesy of reception. More consistent, "friends of Liberty, Ireland, and Repeal" in Cincinnati, feeling the injustice of that act, sought to vindicate, so far as possible, before the Irish Liberators, American love of Liberty and exact justice to all men, irrespective of race or color, by returning an appropriate reply to O'Connells letter. The duty of preparing that, reply was entrusted to Governor Chase. Mow well he discharged that duty, which to him was a "labor of love, " is attested by the fact that his words arc as fresh and opportune today as they were twenty years ago. Faithful to the logical consequences of his principles, he affirmed then what is equally true today:

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