Fenian Notes

I am not an American patriot and do not offer myself as such because I am too critical of the flaws in the system and the hypocrisy in many of the unthinking portion of the population. But let me ask the reader's indulgence while I assume the role of a true American Patriot.

Prior to our revolution, the British use us to produce goods for their gain and benefit letting us poor colonists think we were benefiting from their gracious rule over us. In addition, they over-taxed us and allowed no members of parliament to be elected to speak on our behalf.

When we challenged this activity, they sent occupying troops to be housed by us as they ruled us directly from London. The British thought we should be grateful to them for permitting us to be part of their empire. We were not grateful.

In 1776, our patriots decided you cannot negotiate with the British, so they took up arms against the King of England, setting up a group called the Sons of Liberty considered by the British to be cut throats and murderers.

Our people did not use non-violent means, instead they used fire, explosives and other means to destroy British and loyalist property and in the process taking lives.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

We set out our grievances in a Bill of particulars called the Declaration of Independence which we intended to be and was justification for the use of "violence" to overthrow the government. Our leaders were spoiling for a fight with the British, and we gave them hell from Lexington to Yorktown.

The British didn't like our means and methods of fighting them because we didn't abide by their rules, but created our own. They stood and fought in rigid rows and we cut them down while we hid in trees and behind hedgegrows. We were not gentlemen at all.

After our successful revolution, the British wanted revenge upon us, so they hired the Indians on our borders to attack settlements and loot and kill settlers. It was a British revenge war perpetrated upon innocent civilians trying to carve a life in the wilderness.

For years thereafter, British naval vessels intercepted American vessels and kidnapped sailors to be forced to serve the British Navy.

This practise of impressment of American sailors was promulgated under their theory that once an Englishman always an Englishman. The campaign also served notice the British did not regard the former colonists as equals.

We took it only so long and we struck back in 1812 when we fought the British again. As an act of cruel disdain they burnt the White House to ashes. We stood up to them and our Irish American General, Andrew Jackson, massacred them at the Battle of New Orleans.

They kept up the frontier campaign against settlers and stirred up trouble whenever we acquired new territory. There was almost another war in the Oregon territory over the proper mark of the Border. We fought two wars with the British over the principle of national sovereignty and national self-determination which was an ideal that London did not recognise or respect.

Britain believed in Empire and colonies and that their colonies should pay homage and financial tribute to the mother country. They feared that if they gave up one colony each and every one would follow. In the beginning of our country, we had the right idea and we recognised the right of other peoples to overthrow tyrants which is the natural inclination for a revolutionary people.

The Declaration of Independence was meant to be a living document that other peoples might adopt and apply to their own situations. We felt bound to recognise other revolutions and to encourage them.

The British fought us diplomatically among other nations and harassed our settler families on the frontier by employing terrorists and kidnapped our sailors on the high seas. This was a continuation of war of attrition hoping to weaken us. They continued to treat us as a colony.

Psychologically, we were no match for seasoned British diplomats whose intrigue was well known, but we could match or surpass them in physical courage.

In its first decades, the US kept alive its foundation of freedom through violent revolutionary means by being in support of the French Revolution in the 1790s and recognising the struggle of the United Irishmen in 1798.

The scribe of the American revolution was Thomas Jefferson who viewed independence and revolution as being a state of mind of the people and imbedded in that state of mind was the right to challenge every authority which stood in our way.

He felt Providence made men free and he appealed to the higher law of nature to give men the right to use any means to challenge unrighteous authority, like Britain.

We wondered how justifiable was our Declaration of Independence and we know its validity because it has stood the test of time. For two centuries many have used it by adoption in struggles to secede from an imperial master.

LIVING IDEAL

Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues believed freedom, independence and self-determination must of needs be a living ideal.President Abraham Lincoln said: "Jefferson introduced a revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men at all times that today and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to any reappearing tyranny and oppression.

"Jefferson's words should make tyranny tremble in any age, but some people unfortunately have regretted that the new Republic was dedicated to such radical doctrines at its birth."

Mr Lincoln had it right that tyranny today should be fought by Americans just as hard as they did in 1776. As other nations seek full and complete independence against tyranny, it behoves Americans to seek pride of place and be first in line to support them in order to be consistent with Jefferson's intent to keep freedom and independence a living ideal.

When the United States government supports tyranny, we have a duty to challenge this policy which is hypocritically unAmerican in the sense that American should be synonymous with revolution. We should be ashamed of some of our foreign policy objectives over the past few decades.

The British foresaw that America would replace it as chief world power so it had to recreate America in their image as a source they could draw upon and control.

The British lured the US into two world wars to bail out its empire when the US would have been better served with neutrality

We need to be a proponent of revolution and not its conqueror because our founders set that precedent.

We need to recapture that faith of our Founding Fathers and denude ourselves of special relationships with the British.

When Jefferson enunciated; "we hold these truths to be self-evident", he stated the most important line in the Declaration of Independence.

Grounded in reason, "self-evident" truths invoke the long tradition of natural law, which holds that there is a "higher law", of right and wrong, from which to derive human law and against which to criticise that law at any time. It is not political will, then, but moral reasoning, accessible to all, that is the foundation of our political system.

It is self-evident to me that we are on the wrong course in our foreign policy. We need to rejuvenate ourselves close to the ideal image set forth by our founding rebels.

Our founders would feel eternal shame over the support given the British in two world wars which the British would have lost had it not been for the United States.

If justice had spoken Britain would have been crushed and centuries of its cruelty and abuse of many peoples would have partially been satisfied.

We in the United States should be proponents of revolution for justice if we had maintained the founders' faith; but we were seduced by Britain and were brought under the banner of tyranny. For many years, we have been on the side of those who would crush the revolution.

In Iran, we supported the Shah rather than those seeking change. If we had supported their revolution, we would have a friend there rather than an unnecessary enemy.

In Grenada and Panama, we invaded because we did not like the rulers who were not toeing our line. In the latter case, we had put Manuel Noreiga in power and were fully aware of his actions and questionable activity.

Another bizarre move we made was to arm Saddam Hussein of Iraq in order that he might fight the revolution in Iran. In Kosovo, we started a policy of intervention when human rights were flagrantly disregarded saying it is the duty of the international community to do so.

We held in Bosnia and Kosovo that brutal human rights violators cannot claim the sovereignty to protect them.

But wait a minute.

For thirty years the US said we could not intervene in the North of Ireland because that was strictly a domestic matter of the "United Kingdom" and even if there were rights abuses, the US and the world community could do nothing.

Now, along with the Americans, the British maintain there must be intervention when there is inhumane treatment of the domestic population. Ironically, it has been Tony Blair pushing Bill Clinton on this new outlook.

REPAINT PARTITION

Blair would not have pushed such hypocritical behaviour until he allowed America to assist in solving the problem in the North, but the so-called solution is to repaint Partition so that the Border is not merely Orange, but Orange and Green.

Let's face our history and realise the British have never had our best interest at heart, and for that matter, in many instances neither have we.

Remember that the British supplied the North Vietnamese with half their weaponry while holding on to a special relationship with the US.

Remember that at many critical points in our history the British have meant us harm. During our Civil War they used their infamous divide and conquer as they played North against South hoping, of course, the latter would somehow be victorious.

Let us renew the faith of our founders which is anchored in revolutionary tradition and reach out and support those people who are involved in the struggle against tyranny.

This would aim us directly at Ireland where we should end the charade of the "peace" process and assist the British in an honourable withdrawal.

It is never too late to do the right thing and we must all read or reread the American Declaration of Independence which justifies the use of violence to overthrow a tyrant. It is a living document and a living legacy so long as it is used to help ourselves and others.

The Declaration is justification of the struggle of the true Republicans in Ireland to overthrow British rule just as it was for us to overthrow British rule.

One simply underscores the validity of the other and let us not be ashamed of our radical doctrine but proud of it as Abe Lincoln was, and then we are real patriots.
— Peadar Mac Fhínín