APPENDIX IV.

THE REBELLION IN IRELAND IN 1798.

The means of communication between the United States and England were so uncertain and dependent on the time occupied by sailing vessels between the two countries-several months often intervening between the sending of a despatch and the reception of an answer-that, as has been said in the course of this correspondence, Mr. King was obliged on many occasions to exercise the discretion he was permitted by his government to use, when the necessity of prompt decision and action forbade his awaiting definite instructions. The new questions constantly arising in the troubled and almost daily changes occurring in European politics, and especially as they affected American interests, could only be met by general instructions from the United States; while much must be left to the minister in England, requiring his careful watchfulness and wise judgment. It was requisite that he should not only have the confidence of his government in his ability, judgment and fidelity to his country's welfare, but that he should maintain in a courteous but decided manner the positions which, either as directly instructed, or acting upon his own convictions of duty, he felt himself called upon to take. While under these circumstances, Mr. King was ever vigilant of events, and kept his government fully informed on the special business of the mission, he gained the confidence of those with whom he had to deal, by his intelligent handling of the questions before them, by the honesty and integrity of his character, and by the conviction that he sought only the best interests of his country, whose history, people, and wants he thoroughly understood.

Among the matters he was unexpectedly called to decide was one which presented entirely new features, for the settlement of which no instructions could have been prepared. It was consequent upon the suppression of the rebellion in Ireland, the disposal of the leaders in that unfortunate and unwisely planned revolt against the English government. Before engaging in the examination of the record of Mr. King's agency in preventing the British government from sending the leaders to banishment in

the United States, it will be well to ascertain and show why he acted as he did; and to do so it will be proper to bring forward some matters, relating to the earlier history, in which he had taken a conspicuous part.

It has been shown in the correspondence how he had been impressed with the crafty and impudent designs of France, through her emissaries from abroad and treacherous sympathizers at home, to bring his country under the control of that government, and to excite the people against the wise administration of Washington by discrediting the motives under which he acted. While recklessly striving to win the people over to French ideas, they denounced the treaty recently made with England as a violation of our treaties with France, and an insult to her. Mr. King, whose especial instructions in conducting his mission were to settle the commercial relations with England, found that the hostility between that country and France was constantly a hindrance to reaching any definite results. France, while professing to be a friend, was plundering our vessels, insulting our ambassadors, and using all the arts of a subtle diplomacy to blind the eyes of the American people, and endeavouring to engage them in the war she was waging against England. While England, to protect her own interests, and claiming that her action was due to French decrees and aggressions, in part, embarrassed the commerce of the United States, suffering her naval officers to detain and capture American vessels, engaged in legitimate commerce, permitting her admiralty courts to condemn them on the most frivolous pretences, and impressing American seamen in her seaports and from American vessels.

The recent insult to the envoys in France, and the duplicity with which the rulers sought to cover their plans, only increased Mr. King's horror and disgust at the demoralizing tendency of French principles, and to the possible danger to his own country from the dissemination of them,-a feeling and conviction which were not likely to be changed by the views of those with whom he consorted in England, but were strengthened by the efforts there made to resist the machinations of France to bring the English people also under her control.

Ireland was the only side on which England could be attacked with any hope of success; and the disturbed condition of that

island, seeking to gain independence, gave to the French an opportunity of embarrassing England by plotting with the discontented Irish to wrest their island from her control and establish a hostile government upon it. Formidable as was the threatened danger to England, the plans of assistance were unsuccessful. The expeditions were injudiciously planned, inefficiently carried out, through the watchfulness of the British navy and the want of proper support on the Island, and failed to accomplish their purpose. The rebellion was overcome at last by the power of England, and the leaders were captured. The government, howover, consented to spare their lives, which had been forfeited by their acts, on the condition that they should be transported to, or voluntarily emigrate to some other country. Choosing the latter course they selected the United States as that to which they would go. Upon the first hint of such a disposition, and of the intention of the British Government to send them there, Mr. King felt himself called upon to protest against any such action on the part of the government, for reasons which are contained in the correspondence elsewhere presented, but are here brought together for a full justification of his action, viewed in the aspect of the times. On May 11, 1798, Mr. King wrote to the Secretary of State :

Ireland is in a wretched state; martial law prevails throughout the country, and every day supplies new proofs of the intimate connection that subsists between the Chiefs of the Malcontents and the Directory. Several persons have been taken up and confined. . . . The government are said to have obtained proofs of a conspiracy formed by some of the Members of the Corresponding Societies to assist the French in case of a descent, to set fire to London, The trial of O'Connor and the other persons indicted for Treason, will come on the week after next; after which the Government will publish the proofs of the conspiracy."

Again, on June 14th, he directed the Secretary's attention to the probable early suppression of the rebellion, and to the opinion

"that thousands of the fugitive Irish will seek an asylum in our country. Their principles and habits would be pernicious to the order and industry of our people, and I cannot persuade myself that the Malcontents of any country will ever become useful citizens of our own."

After saying that in this communication he had discharged his duty, he remarked that it belonged to others to decide what was to be done.

In a private letter to Mr. Pickering, of July 19, 1798, Mr. King recalled to him the intimation of his official letter of the 14th of June, and said :

"I perceive that members of the disaffected Irish will be expelled and that they will be disposed to plant themselves among us. It was the practice of the Emigrants from Scotland to bring with them Certificates from the religious societies to which they belonged, of their honesty, sobriety and generally of their good character. Why should we not require some such document from all [italics by the Editor] Emigrants, and it would be well to add to the testimonial that the person, to whom it was granted, was not expelled from his country and had not been convicted of any crime. I am, I confess, very anxious upon this subject. The contrast between New England and some other parts of the United States is in my view a powerful admonition to us to observe greater caution in the admission of Foreigners among us. If from the emigrations of past time we have suffered inconvenience, and our true national character has been disfigured, what are we to expect from the Emigrants of the present day."

Again, on the 28th of July, he writes to the Secretary of State:

"In Ireland the rebellion is at an end, a general amnesty with a few exceptions, will soon be proclaimed; many of the inferior chiefs will be permitted to go into exile. I have before intimated the probability of such a measure and hope the President will have power to exclude from our country all such foreigners, whose residence among us would be dangerous."

The same views are repeated in a letter to Colonel Hamilton, July 31, (p. 376 of this volume) and, on the 3d of August, he wrote the private note to Colonel Pickering a portion of which follows.

Private.

LONDON, 3d., Aug., 1798.

It appears from the accounts from Ireland that nearly 100 persons, including Lawyers, Physicians, Merchants and others, who have been engaged as Chiefs in the late Rebellion are to go into Exile for Life. A Bill for this Purpose has been brought into the Irish Parliament. Although I do not hnow

it to be the intention of the Exiles, I have many reasons to suspect that they expect to find an asylum among us.

I do my duty in apprising you of the probability of the Measure, it belongs to others to make those Regulations that will enable the President to take care of the public safety.

Yrs. &c.

R.K.

Having thus discharged his duty in reporting to his government the facts above noted and awaiting instructions, he writes on the 5th of September of an ill-conceived landing of French troops, on the 22d of August, at Killaloe in Ireland, with military stores from three frigates, which had driven back a corps of British troops, but against which Lord Cornwallis had gone with a considerable force. Without speaking further of this, or of a subsequent expedition from Brest to the Irish coast, which was broken up by the capture of the vessels engaged in it, or giving any further details of the events which led to the putting down of the rebellion and the surrender of the leaders, he says in a letter to the Secretary of State September 13, 1798:

"The Invasion of Ireland has ended in the Surrender of the Invaders. As yet we have no returns of their numbers nor of that of the Irish who joined them; both are supposed to be inconsiderable. The Reports of the Secret Committee of the Irish Parliament, which I send to you, fully disclose the principles and views of the leaders of the Rebellion. These are so conformable to those which have prevailed in France, so false and so utterly inconsistent with any practicable or settled Government, that I have taken occasion to express my wishes that the United States might not be selected as the country to which any of the State Prisoners should be permitted to retire."

The letter to the Duke of Portland will show the manner in which Mr. King's "Wishes" were communicated to him, and the answer of the Duke will show how they were received.

R. KING TO THE DUKE OF PORTLAND.

Private.

MARGATE, Sep. 13, 1798.

MY LORD:

The publication of the Reports of the Secret Committee of the Irish Parliament relative to the late Rebellion seems to put beyond all doubt the object and expectation of its Leaders; the princi