Thomas Francis Meagher Quotes
Be it for the defense, or be it for the assertion of a nation’s liberty, I look upon the sword as a sacred weapon …. Abhor and stigmatize the sword? No, no, my lord, for at its blow a giant nation sprang from the waters of the Atlantic and by its redeeming magic, and in the quivering of its crimson light, the fettered Colony became a daring free Republic—prosperous, limitless and invincible.
For his seditious activities he was sentenced to penal servitude for life. He escaped and came to America where he entered politics
Thomas Francis Meagher, 1823-1867, Irish Founder of the Irish News and Co-Founder of the Irish Confederation, Irish Revolutionist, Organizer and General of the New York Irish Brigade of the American Civil War Union Army, Secretary of Montana, Appointed Governor of Montana but drowned before taking office, Debate with Daniel O’Connell, July 27, 1846
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In most revolutionary settings leaders have to persuade people who have voted with no success to turn to the rifle. In Ireland at this point, almost all the nationalsits knew that the rifle would help them but they were not sure that a vote would have the effect of a bullet.
He had been King of Portugal and then had come to the Portuguese colony of Brazil where he led a revolution against Portugal, declared independence from the “mother country, and was elected as Emperor of Brazil. The Colony was much larger and richer in natural resources than the “mother country.”
In 1837 and 1839 there were insurrections in Lower Canada against British rule. The British put down the rebellions and executed a few of the leaders.
British colonial economics imported raw materials to England which then exported them back to the colonies as manufactured goods. Gandhi correctly calculated that by minimizing purchase of English cloth, colonial control of India would not be as profitable. Gandhi not only called for the boycott, but called on Indians to spin their own cloth, set an example be spinning himself, and his Congress party adopted the spinning wheel as its logo and symbol which continues today. Narcotics, was at the time not only legal, but British economic interests controlled much of the world narcotics trade. Gandhi’s call for a boycott of narcotics was as much an economic tactic as it was a health measure.
Ultranationalist Secret Organization. Unlike the Italian Black hand for whom it was named, the Serbs were not interested in money. The were a right wing death squad that assassinated all who opposed a single, unitary, Serbian nation. Dimitrijevic was executed in 1917.
The organization sent 2,100 volunteers to fight for South American independence from Spain.
South America, invaded and colonized by Spain was a brutal combination of slavery and repression. Even the European colonists suffered under the terrible combination of exploitation, militarism and religious dictatorship. Independence from Spain was equally bloody as unlike in North America where the fight was against British rule, in South America the black slaves, the indigenous Indians and the white colonists all had scores to settle with the Spanish rulers. And the Spanish in turn realized that and brutally repressed all rebellion attempts. Atrocities were common, and committed by almost all, including even idealists like Bolivar.
Thomas Francis Meagher was an Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders in the Rebellion of 1848. After being convicted of sedition, he was first sentenced to death, but received transportation for life to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in Australia.
