Note 9 — Chapter VI
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Since the above was written, I have heard it said that a report, current about the time of Mr. O'Brien's conviction, had been recently received here. The report was, that I promised Mr. O'Brien to have 50,000 men to meet him; which was his principal inducement to act as he did; and that I not only had not one man, but was myself absent when he came. The absurdity of the rumour was sufficiently proved by the fact that Mr. O'Brien did not come to me, or my part of the country, in the first instance. The real truth is that I never directly or indirectly, by word or letter, counselled the outbreak. Nay, more: I was as ignorant of Mr. O'Brien's purpose as the President of these States. At the time of Mr. Mitchel's trial, I believe I expressed a very strong opinion in favour of rescuing him; and that opinion was grounded on the belief that the whole people would rise up en masse, and in one wild burst of vengeance, sweep their oppressors from the land. But neither then nor afterwards, did Mr. O'Brien give me the least reason to believe that he was prepared to resist the government in arms, save as far as he concurred in acts which had a tendency to that end.
When first the report above referred to was circulated, I wrote the strongest contradiction of it, and Mr. Meagher, with Mr. O'Brien's sanction, addressed the following note to the editor of the Tipperary Vindicator. I am sorry it should be in any way necessary to produce it here; but as this is the last time I shall ever refer to this subject, I thought it best to add this testimony to my own.
CLONMEL GAOL
"MR. MEAGHER fully authorises his friend, Mr. Lenihan, to state that the exculpation which appeared in a recent number of his paper, from Mr. Doheny, is the perfect truth.
"Mr. Meagher is most anxious to have this stated, for he has felt for a long time deeply pained at many of the false reports that have appeared against his friend—his dear and trusted friend, Michael Doheny.
"One of the most grievous of these reports has been that very false one, charging Mr. Doheny with having invited Mr. Smith O'Brien to the county Tipperary. Nothing could have been more false than this.
"Mr. Doheny, so far from inviting Mr. O'Brien to Tipperary, did not, in fact, know of his being in the county at all, until Mr. Meagher told him, and that was on Tuesday, July 25th.
(Signed) "THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER.
"Written a few hours after the passing of the sentence of death.
"October 23, 1848."