THE FENIAN MOVEMENT 



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In summary, then, we may say that the Fenian Brotherhood was 

 made possible by the fact that the great majority of the Irish in the 

 United States at the time were unassimilated and still insular in their 

 interests. Without the impetus given to the Brotherhood by the Civil 

 War the movement never would have attained international importance. 

 The conspiracies of the Brotherhood were against a foreign power with 

 which our relations were such that we could use the Brotherhood as a 

 menace if the power did not come to our terms, and so the activities 

 of the Brotherhood redounded to the advantage of our nation. Yet 

 there is something of a warning, after all, in the movement, for the out- 

 come of other such organizations — the work of unassimilated foreigners 

 in the United States — cannot always be so fortuitous. 



