L.
The following year—1888—was my last in America, and ere its close I left for the purpose of attending the dying bedside of my father. I left for England in December with the full purpose of returning in a month, but as matters turned out I really left my home for the last time. I had written twice to Mr. Anderson, offering my services in connection with the Special Commission, but nothing had come of my proposal, and I had no idea that anything would happen in connection with the matter. My idea was, as I have explained, that the Government were really prosecuting the Parnellite party, and I could not understand how all the information which I knew them to be possessed of was not appearing. The charges and allegations had made a great stir in America, and the disclosure of the whole working of the Clan-na-Gael in the “Behind the Scenes” articles had created such a sensation as seemed to me to make a full disclosure imperative, so that the American public might have accurate and complete data for arriving at a proper conclusion regarding the foul conspiracy existing in their midst.
I must not, however, travel too fast; and so shall have to go back a little, in order to complete the story of the Cronin-Sullivan dispute, which, in a way, came to a conclusion in the year of which I write. As I have already stated, the history of the Cronin affair while it lasted was the history of the Clan-na-Gael for the time being, and thus in completing my statement of it I shall be bringing the record of revolutionary matters down to the date at which they and I parted. To return, therefore, to the Cronin matter, which I left at the point in 1886 where appeals from outside quarters failed to heal the breach. As a last resort, a conference was arranged in September 1887 between committees from each organisation, the Sullivan section and the Cronin section; and a final effort was made to settle the differences. Cronin was one of the committee from his section, but he did not help the settlement. The conference continued up to April 1888, when a basis of union was arrived at. The rock upon which the disputants invariably split was the demand made by the Cronin section for the appointment of a committee to try their charges of misappropriation against the Executive, and the expulsion of the Executive from the organisation if found guilty. In the end, this was conceded; and a united Convention was called in June 1888, which, meeting first in Maddison Street Theatre, was eventually moved to Green Baum, in consequence of the allegation that British detectives had gained admission to the former place of meeting.
Here was pandemonium let loose for eight days, during which the Convention sat morning, noon, and night. I was a member of this assembly, and I never heard such a row in my life. The Sullivanites had it all their own way at first; but the seceders, with Cronin at their head, threatened to “bolt” if they did not get fair play; and they appealed to the patriotism of their countrymen to give them a chance. They were, accordingly, given a representation on all committees, but were always in a minority. Cronin perhaps took as prominent a part in the Convention as any man, and his conduct naturally incurred the enmity, and eventually the vengeance, of his opponents. He and Devoy submitted formal charges of fraud, &c., against Sullivan’s executive.[5] Strong language was used, but Sullivan’s friends defended him warmly. Finally a Trial Committee was appointed to try the parties charged. Cronin, strange to say, was a member of this Trial Committee, though he was one of the persons making the charges. There was a terrible scene when his appointment was made known, but the Convention had to put up with him in the end.
All the Trial Committee were sworn by the oath in the ritual to truly and justly try the charges submitted to them. The committee consisted of seven members, and as subsequent events showed, four of them were Sullivan’s friends. They met in November 1888. Previous to this, however, Cronin had been playing a very objectionable part. He spoke against the accused whenever occasion offered, wrote to the papers in accusation of them, and in no way showed himself the unbiassed person he had sworn himself to be. Sullivan naturally felt very bitter over all this, and he fell out with a number of friends who sided with Cronin in the claim for full investigation. When the trial came on, it was found that all the vouchers, papers, and indeed every evidence of expenditure, had been destroyed, in accordance with the resolution which had been adopted at the Boston Convention. This increased the uproar, and after two weeks of inquiry the majority, consisting of Sullivan’s friends, expressed themselves satisfied with the statements made by the accused; while the minority could only admit the proper expenditure of 33,000 dollars, which left a deficiency of 85,000 dollars, or £17,000. The result of the trial was that Michael Boland was convicted of misappropriation; Sullivan was acquitted, but censured for the loose way in which the Executive had done its business, and D. C. Feeley was likewise acquitted but censured. The details of this finding were given me, by the way, by Sullivan.
At the time I left for Europe, the Trial Committee had adjourned, and Cronin was back in Chicago. The Executive had refused to sustain the action of the Trial Committee by a majority of one, and there the affair stood. But Cronin would not let well enough alone. He had been talking very plainly, and denouncing Sullivan right and left. I figured in this trial by furnishing Sullivan with affidavits for his defence. Cronin afterwards charged Sullivan with getting me admitted into the organisation, and with putting me into a position of trust. This did not help matters, and altogether Cronin proved himself to be a very dangerous man in the eyes of Sullivan. Doubtless he possessed much information, the publication of which would damn Sullivan for ever. What followed is a matter of recent inquiry. Cronin was foully murdered, and Sullivan, with others, was charged with participation in the crime. Sullivan was released, but three men, well-known members of the Clan, were convicted, and sentenced to penal servitude for life.[6] The inquiry was fruitful in many ways, and brought to light a vast amount of corroboration of the most important portions of my testimony. There were, however, no two more sensational incidents than those produced by the report issued by Cronin after the Trial Committee had dissolved, and the positive proof now supplied for the first time of the statement frequently made, that Sullivan had in May 1882 received in his position as chief of the Clan-na-Gael a sum of £20,000 from Patrick Egan, then Treasurer of the Land League in Paris.
The report issued by Cronin stated amongst other things—
“That the Trial Committee appointed at Chicago was unable to elicit all the facts connected with the charges placed before it, because of the refusal of several of the witnesses to answer many of the questions asked, and because of the inability of others to remember events and figures that might be supposed to be indelibly impressed on their memories. From the evidence presented, I am obliged to report—
“That the family of one who lost his life in the service of this order was scandalously and shamefully neglected, and continued to be neglected for two years after their destitute condition was known, and that Alexander Sullivan, Michael Boland, and D. C. Feeley are responsible and censurable for that neglect.
“That the defendants, Sullivan, Boland, and Feeley, issued a deceptive report to the Boston Convention, leading the order to believe that its affairs had been examined by independent committees, and that the order was $13,000 in debt; that, in fact, Alexander Sullivan and Michael Boland were on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and the Treasurer states that there was a balance in the treasury, and not a debt.
“That, prior to the Boston Convention, one hundred and eleven thousand ($111,000) dollars was expended without any direct or indirect benefit to the order, and most of it in a manner that could not in any way have benefited the order, and that the same three defendants are censurable and responsible for this enormous and wasteful expenditure.
“That the $80,491 reported to the district Convention as having been spent in active work was not spent for any such work, no such work having been done or contemplated during the eleven months within which this large amount was drawn from the treasury. The active work done between the Boston and district Conventions was paid for out of the surplus held by the agent of the “Triangle” at the time of the Boston Convention, and not out of the $87,491 drawn from the treasury months after such active work had ceased.”
I give these extracts in order to show the reader how matters stood between Sullivan and Cronin on the eve of the latter’s murder. Into the details of the £20,000 transaction I need not enter, beyond stating the fact that banking officials were called to prove by their books that on May 15, 1882, Sullivan cashed, through Monroe and Co. of Paris, two cheques amounting to the sum I name. This, I may state, was about the date when Sullivan, in response to Mr. Parnell’s request, crossed to Paris in order to settle the difficulty with the Revolutionary body on the British side. As the following extracts will show, the matter had been one around which a great deal of controversy had raged for many years:—
“The O’Donovan Rossa resents Mr. Patrick Egan’s imputation against his character for truth and veracity. The O’Donovan, when in this city a few days ago, intimated to a Chicago Tribune reporter that Mr. Patrick Egan, while Parnell, Dillon, Davitt, and other members of the Executive of the Land League were in jail in Ireland, was visited in Paris by Revolutionary Irish patriots from this country, who induced him to give 100,000 dollars of the money contributed to Land League purposes to them for revolutionary purposes, i.e. making war on the British Empire with dynamite and such things. Mr. Egan having seen or heard of O’Donovan’s statement, denied that there was a particle of truth in it, and sent the Tribune a telegram to that effect from Denver. Now comes O’Donovan with a rejoinder. We have received from him the following telegram:—
“‘Editor of the “Tribune.”
“‘Mr. Patrick Egan denies my statement. I say my statements are more worthy of belief than Patrick Egan’s. I stated in Chicago that money sent from America to support the no-rent movement in Ireland was followed over by some parties who got 100,000 dollars of it; that it was not used for any such work in Ireland, and that Patrick Egan knows all about it. I repeat my assertion. Will Patrick Egan meet me in the presence of John Finerty and Denis O’Connor of Chicago, or in the presence of Patrick Ford and Major Horgan of New York, both answering all questions under oath?
“‘O’Donovan Rossa,
“‘Editor “United Irishman.”
“‘New York, July 15, 1883.’”
LII.
Long before these final developments, however, I had sailed for England, and severed for all time my connection with Irish politics in the United States. I had come, as explained, to my father’s dying bedside. Unfortunately for me, I was not in time to find him conscious, and did not reach the house where he lay till the day on which he died. When the sad offices connected with his death had been fulfilled, I turned my thoughts again to home, and set about preparing for another voyage to the States. Everything had been completed for my departure, when I suddenly learned from Mr. Anderson that the Times had approached him with a view of obtaining a witness regarding the American side of the conspiracy. Before this point was reached, I had chatted over my proposal of going into the witness-box with Mr. Anderson, but he had very frankly told me that he had no intention of giving up such a useful informant of his own initiative; and as he had no connection with the Times case, he did not think it likely that any approach would be made to him on the subject.
Matters, however, turned out differently to what he expected, and on the eve of my departure for America I learned that my services might, after all, be utilised, and my desire to drive the truth home given full play. To be effective, however, my coming appearance should be kept a profound secret, and so I appealed to Mr. Anderson to make such arrangements as would allow of this being the case. As a result, I was informed a little later that the Times people had arranged that Mr. Houston should be the person with whom I should deal, and that to him alone should I be known pending my appearance in the witness-box. This was the first mention I had ever heard of Mr. Houston, and it was with no little curiosity I made my way to No. 3 Cork Street in search of the gentleman to whom I bore a single line of introduction. I remember well how, when I was first ushered into his now familiar room by his faithful “Rogers,” I gazed suspiciously at the tall youthful figure which met my view. As Mr. Houston took my letter of introduction from me and carelessly opened it, answering my suspicious glance with a slight smile hovering about his face, I could not help the remark, “Sir, you are a much younger man than I was led to believe I would meet.” The smile broadened into a laugh as the reply came back, “I am sorry, but I cannot help being young, you know. However, I am Mr. Houston.” And so we two people met for the first time.
I informed Mr. Houston that it was always an understood thing on my part that my letters to Mr. Anderson were private property, and that whenever I liked to ask for them they would be at my disposal. Accordingly I had, on learning that my evidence would be accepted, requested that Mr. Anderson should allow me to go over all my documents and select such as appeared necessary for the corroboration of my statements, as well as for the assisting of my memory. To this he had assented, excluding any of the papers which he had made official by passing them on at the time of their receipt. It was then arranged between Mr. Houston and myself that I should get the documents from Mr. Anderson, and go to work at once in the preparation of my evidence. Much to my disappointment, I learnt there was not time for me to make a last hurried trip home, and that if I was to carry out my intention of testifying I should have to be content with the many losses which would result from my stopping in England. One thing, however, I stipulated for, and that was the bringing over of all my family to England before I appeared in the box. I was willing to let all my private affairs go to ruin by my non-return; but I was not prepared to leave my wife and family to bear the brunt of the popular ill-will which would result from what was to follow.
One of the first things I did, therefore, was to cable for my wife and children; and having eased my mind on this score, I went to work with a will in the preparation of my evidence. For ten long working days, Mr. Houston and I waded through the hundreds of letters and Clan-na-Gael documents I had now at my disposal, he taking notes as he went along, and I dictating many items brought to my recollection by the letters I was perusing. We worked in this way from ten to six o’clock each day, undisturbed by visitors of any kind; and when I left him, Mr. Houston, with the assistance of his clerks, worked far into the night, copying the circulars, and transcribing the notes which remained at the end of our day’s work.
On Tuesday morning, the 5th of February 1889, the curtain was rung up, and throwing aside the mask for ever, I stepped into the witness-box and came out in my true colours, as an Englishman, proud of his country, and in no sense ashamed of his record in her service. On what followed I need not dwell. While I was under examination, my old employer, Mr. William Baber of Colchester, was brought into court by the well-known detective Meiklejohn, in order that he might identify me. Nothing, of course, came of the incident; but as I once more saw Mr. Baber, I thought to myself how little he knew of the part I had played at his father’s death-bed. It was in 1884 that I was hurriedly called one day to see a patient who was said to be dying. I found him an old man of eighty, surrounded by his family and friends. In a few minutes he was dead; and finding that all round about me were strangers to the grim monster, I performed the last offices for the body. As I was so employed, the poor people related to me their history, and then I learned to my surprise that the man whose eyes I was now closing in death was none other than the father of my former employer at Colchester, who had emigrated to America some few years previously.
Great as was the sensation produced by my strange and weird but true story, it was as nothing compared to that brought about by the perfect corroboration afforded by the assassination of poor Cronin, of whom I have said so much. Little did I think, when day after day I stood in the witness-box to tell my tale, and morning after morning read the scoffing references of those who believed it not, that in a little while the blood of a murdered Gael would cry out in judgment against those of whom I spoke, and that in the outcome truth would prevail, and the black foul conspiracy be dragged into the open light. Yet so it was; and to-day there are none who question the existence of the murderous alliance to which I testified, and of men within its ranks prepared to obey its leaders, even unto the shedding of blood.