Editing John Mitchel (section)

==The ''United Irishman''==
[[File:John Mitchel c 1848.jpg|thumb|right|John Mitchel c. 1848]]
At the end of 1847 Mitchel resigned his position as leader writer on ''The Nation''. He later explained that he had come to regard as "absolutely necessary a more vigorous policy against the English Government than that which [[William Smith O'Brien]], [[Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)|Charles Gavan Duffy]] and other [[Young Ireland]] leaders were willing to pursue". He "had watched the progress of the famine policy of the Government, and could see nothing in it but a machinery, deliberately devised, and skilfully worked, for the entire subjugation of the island—the slaughter of portion of the people, and the pauperization of the rest," and he had therefore "come to the conclusion that the whole system ought to be met with resistance at every point."<ref name="William Dillon Ch VI"/>

He was convinced too, that rendered acute by the famine, the agrarian question had the potential to surmount the north-south sectarian division, and to realise the unity that had been sought in [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|'98]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Buckley |first=Mary |date=1976 |title=John Mitchel, Ulster and Irish Nationality (1842-1848) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30089986 |journal=Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review |volume=65 |issue=257 |pages=(30–44) 38 |jstor=30089986 |issn=0039-3495}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Flann |title=The Dissenting Voice: Protestant Democracy in Ulster from Plantation to Partition |publisher=The Blackstaff Press |year=1991 |isbn=0856404578 |location=Belfast |pages=235–236}}</ref> As "An Ulsterman for Ireland", he ridiculed the [[Orange Order|Orangeism]] of the landed [[Protestant Ascendancy|Ascendancy]], reminding "the farmers, labourers and artisans of the north of Ireland" that:<blockquote>My [[William Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen|Lord Enniskillen]] . . . is apprehensive not lest you be evicted by landlords, and sent to the [[poorhouse]], but lest [[purgatory]] and the [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|Seven Sacraments]] be down your throats.. . . The Seven Sacraments are, to be sure, very dangerous, but the quarter-acre-clause [conditioning access to [[poor relief]]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=POOR LAW (IRELAND)—THE QUARTERACRE CLAUSE. (Hansard, 9 March 1848) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1848/mar/09/poor-law-ireland-the-quarteracre-clause |access-date=2023-04-27 |website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref> touches you more nearly . . . [B]end all your energies to resisting the "encroachments of Popery" you thereby perpetuate British dominion in Ireland and keep the "Empire" going yet a little while. Irish landlordism has made a covenant with British government in these terms—"Keep down for me my tenantry, my peasantry, my 'masses' in due submission with your troops and laws, and I will garrison the island for you and hold it as your liege-man and vassal for ever."<ref>{{Citation |last=Mitchel |first=John |title=Letter 3 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Ulsterman_for_Ireland/Letter_3 |work=An Ulsterman for Ireland |access-date=2023-04-27}}</ref></blockquote>While decrying the "fatal cant of moral force",<ref>Campbell (1991), 240.</ref> and admitting no principle that distinguished his position from the "conspirators of [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|Ninety-Eight]]" (the original [[Society of United Irishmen|United Irishmen]]), Mitchel emphasised that he was not recommending "an immediate insurrection": in the "present broken and divided condition" of the country "the people would be butchered". With Fintan Lalor he urged "passive resistance". The people should "obstruct and render impossible the transport and shipment of Irish provisions" and, by intimidation, suppress bidding for grain or cattle if brought "to auction under distress"—a method that had demonstrated its effectiveness in the [[Tithe War]]. Such actions would be illegal, but such was his opposition to British rule that in Mitchel's view, no opinion in Ireland was "worth a [[Farthing (British coin)|farthing]] which is not illegal".<ref name="William Dillon Ch VI" />

The first number of Mitchel's own paper, ''[[United Irishman (1848 newspaper)|United Irishman]]'', appeared on 12 February 1848. The Prospectus announced that as editor Mitchel would be "aided by [[Thomas Devin Reilly]], [[John Martin (Young Irelander)|John Martin]] of Loughorne and other competent contributors" who were likewise convinced that "Ireland really and truly wants to be freed from English dominion."<ref>{{Cite book |last=United Irishmen |url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000534373 |title=The first number of a Dublin weekly journal entitled |date=1848 |publisher=National Library of Ireland}}</ref> No other object defined their purpose: if he was a republican now, Mitchel privately confessed that it was "only because this spirit democratic spirit is the most formidable enemy to British dominion in Ireland". He was "no bigot as to forms of government".<ref>Russell (2015), p. 47</ref>

Under a masthead that included [[Theobald Wolfe Tone|Wolfe Tone]] caution that "if the men of property" failed in their allegiance to the national cause, it could yet triumph with "the aid of that numerous and respectable class of the community, the men of no property," ''The United Irishman'' declared:<blockquote> That the Irish people had a distinct and indefeasible right to their country, and to all the moral and material wealth and resources thereof, ... as a distinct Sovereign State ...;

 That the property of the farmers and labourers of Ireland is as sacred as the property of all the noblemen and gentlemen in Ireland, and also immeasurably more valuable;

 That the custom called ‘Tenant Right,’ which prevails partially in the North of Ireland, is a just and salutary custom both for North and South ...;

 That every man in Ireland who shall hereafter pay taxes for the support of the State, shall have a just right to an equal voice with every other man in the government ...

 That all ‘legal and constitutional agitation’ in Ireland is a delusion;

 That every freeman, and every man who desired to become free, ought to have arms, and to practise the use of them.

 That no combination of classes in Ireland is desirable, just, or possible, save on the terms of the rights of the industrious classes being acknowledged and secured; [and]

That no good thing can come from the English Parliament, or the English Government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sillard |first=P. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZGM8GwAACAAJ |title=The Life of John Mitchel: With an Historical Sketch of the '48 Movement in Ireland |date=1908 |publisher=J. Duffy |pages=87 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-27 |title=Prospectus of The United Irishman - Cartlann |url=https://cartlann.org/authors/john-mitchel/prospectus-of-the-united-irishman/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=cartlann.org |language=en-GB}}</ref></blockquote>In the first editorial, addressed to "The Right Hon. the [[George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon|Earl of Clarendon]], Englishman, calling himself Her Majesty's [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland|Lord Lieutenant]] – General and General Governor of Ireland," Mitchel stated that the purpose of the journal was to resume the struggle which had been waged by [[Theobald Wolfe Tone|Tone]] and [[Robert Emmet|Emmet]], the Holy War to sweep this Island clear of the English name and nation." Lord Clarendon was also addressed as "Her Majesty's Executioner-General and General Butcher of Ireland".<ref name="The United Irishman">''The United Irishman'', 1848</ref><ref>''For the full text of the letter see [[s:Letter to Lord Clarendon, United Irishman, 1848|here]].''</ref>

Commenting on this first edition of ''The United Irishman'', [[Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Lord Stanley]] in the [[House of Lords]], on 24 February 1848, maintained that the paper pursued "the purpose of exciting sedition and rebellion among her Majesty's subjects in Ireland..., and to promote civil war for the purpose of exterminating every Englishman in Ireland". He allowed that the publishers were "honest" men: "they are not the kind of men who make their patriotism the means of barter for place or pension. They are not to be bought off by the Government of the day for a colonial place, or by a snug situation in the customs or excise. No; they honestly repudiate this course; they are rebels at heart, and they are rebels avowed, who are in earnest in what they say and propose to do".<ref name="P. A. Sillard">P.A. Sillard, ''Life of John Mitchel'', James Duffy and Co. Ltd, 1908</ref>

Only 16 editions of ''The United Irishman'' had been produced when Mitchel was arrested, and the paper suppressed. Mitchel concluded his last article in ''The United Irishman'', from Newgate prison, entitled "A Letter to Farmers",<blockquote>[My] gallant Confederates ... have marched past my prison windows to let me know that there are ten thousand fighting men in Dublin— 'felons' in heart and soul. I thank God for it. The game is afoot, at last. The liberty of Ireland may come sooner or come later, by peaceful negotiation or bloody conflict— but it is sure; and wherever between the poles I may chance to be, I will hear the crash of the down fall of the thrice-accursed [[British Empire]]."<ref name="final issue">{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:150943#?c=&m=&s=&cv=8&xywh=-8803%2C0%2C22254%2C7526|title=United Irishman (Dublin, Ireland : 1848) v. 1 no. 16|website=digital.library.villanova.eduUnited Irishman (Dublin, Ireland : 1848) v. 1 no. 16|access-date=20 August 2019|archive-date=20 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920011525/https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:150943#?c=&m=&s=&cv=8&xywh=-8803%2C0%2C22254%2C7526|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>