THE FENIAN MOVEMENT 



209 



removing the causes of ill will between the two peoples. This meant 

 the settlement by Great Britain of certain questions in the way the people 

 of the United States thought they ought to be settled. 



The first concession that Great Britain was forced to make was to 

 recognize fully the right of expatriation. The controversy arose over 

 the status of the American-Irish, claiming to be naturalized American 

 citizens, who were arrested at and after the suspension of the writ of 

 habeas corpus. The British government held that Irishmen born in 

 Ireland were still subjects of the British Empire and their taking out 

 naturalization papers in the United States had in no way destroyed 

 their British citizenship. The United States held, of course, that these 

 naturalized citizens were no longer subjects of the British crown but 

 citizens of the United States and as such entitled to her protection. 1 



At first the British authorities in Dublin refused to allow the American 

 consul even to visit those Ireland-born Americans who claimed his 

 protection on the grounds that they were citizens of the Great Republic. 

 Seward insisted that this attitude of the British government "awakened 

 a general feeling of resentment" in the United States and " deeply 

 wounded our pride of sovereignty." He pointed out, too, that over 

 this very problem the Fenians were hoping to involve the two countries 

 in war. For Great Britain to insist upon the application of her theory 

 of citizenship meant to give greater sympathy for and impetus 2 to the 

 very conspiracy she was trying to quell, so she yielded the principle at 

 issue and tacitly accepted our theory of expatriation. 3 All citizens of 

 the United States, native or naturalized, not too deeply implicated in 

 the uprising of the conspiracy, were liberated upon proper evidence of 

 their citizenship. 4 Even the death sentences of those found guilty of 

 treason were mitigated 5 upon the plea of our Department of State that 

 the offenses were political in their nature and that executions would but 

 arouse anew American sympathy for the defeated cause. 6 



1 Diplomatic Correspondence, 1866, Vol. I, p. 6g. 



' Diplomatic Correspondence, 1867, Vol. I, p. 144. 



> Diplomatic Correspondence, 1866, Vol. I, pp. 119, 136; 1867, Vol. I p. 132. For details, ibid., 1867, 

 Vol. I, pp. 94, 97, 98, 99, 129, 131, 139, 144, 152, 155, 156, 189, 1200; 1868, Vol. I, pp. 21, 31, 136, 174, 191. 



* By November 22, 1867, but ten persons claiming to be citizens of the United States were still held in 

 Irish prisons (Diplomatic Correspondence, 1868, Vol. I, p. 21). 



s Diplomatic Correspondence, 1867, Vol. I, p. 64. 6 Digest 0} International Law, Vol. VI, p. 329. 



