To the Executive (or F.C.) was intrusted, amongst other things, the arrangements regarding the places and dates for holding the biennial and annual conventions of the order; and their decision in this respect was carefully guarded, and only at the very last moment communicated to the high officials, in order to prevent any spies or agents of the British Government from becoming acquainted with their proceedings. The head of each subordinate body was informed a week in advance of the date and place of the convention; and he was instructed to arrange for the immediate election of a delegate from his camp. So close was the secret kept, that the delegate, if other than the presiding officer, did not know till the very hour of his starting where he was bound for. Like convicts, the members were known by numbers, never by names. Camps (known as D.’s) were also numbered; and, in order the better to cover their doings from the outside world, each camp had a public name by which it was known. For instance, my own camp was known as the “Emmet Literary Association.”
During the early years of its existence I was not a member of the Clan-na-Gael. Although, as I have stated, I was one of the “Knights of the Inner Circle,” I did not take any prominent part in the early days, when the V.C. succeeded, or rather absorbed it. There were reasons for my not doing so. My prominence and action in the ill-fated Canadian raid had not been altogether forgotten, and I was still held responsible, in certain minds, for the premature undertaking of it. Another reason affecting my action was the difficulty introduced by a clause in the new constitution in regard to the question of nationality. This clause read as follows:—
“All persons of Irish birth or descent, or of partial Irish descent, shall be eligible to membership; but in cases of persons of partial Irish descent, the camps are directed to make special inquiries in regard to the history, character, and sentiments of the person proposed.”
In view of the whole situation, I determined that I should live down any ill-feeling which might exist regarding my previous exploits, and that I should take advantage of the interval thus brought about by arranging some plan for my election later, on the ground of my partial Irish descent. I had, of course, hitherto passed myself off as a Frenchman, strongly sympathising with Irish affairs, though never laying any claim to connection with the country. Now I had to change my tactics a little, and so I gradually got it put about that my mother—poor lady, she is living to-day, and will probably never know till she reads this of the liberty I took with her birthright—was of Irish descent. Of course, as the people out there had never seen or heard of my mother, and it was quite a common thing for French and Irish to intermarry, the deception was not likely to be discovered, as indeed it never was.
There was still yet another reason for my being cautious. The most insane and implacable enemy of O’Neill’s—and through my friendship for O’Neill, of myself—Major William M‘Williams, of old Fenian fame, was now high in the councils of the new organisation. In the O’Neill régime, presumably jealous of my position, he had denounced me as an adventurer, and the ill-feeling he had for me had culminated during the sittings of a Fenian congress in an open attack, reported in the New York papers as follows:—
“The Fenian Congress and a Fenian Row.
“The Fenian Congress was in session yesterday. A quorum of the Executive Committee appointed in Chicago was in session all day. They say they intend to commence work as soon as they obtain possession of the munitions of war. Major M‘Williams and Major Le Caron, two of the delegates, had a little onset in front of the Whitney House last eve, and blood might have flowed had it not been for the interference of several delegates.”
The altercation, I may add, on this occasion involved the use of revolvers, and created too pronounced a feeling between us to allow of my ever after expecting anything but the bitterest opposition from M‘Williams. To my relief, however, M‘Williams eventually got into a personal altercation with a fiercer antagonist than myself, by whom he was shot in Columbia, S.C., being killed on the spot. His exit cleared the way of the only difficulty which existed at the time of his death, and so I considered it prudent to accept the invitation, often extended to me, to join the Clan-na-Gael. I joined, and an appointment upon the Military Board of the organisation quickly followed. It must not, however, be thought that I had been “out of things” meantime. Not at all. Possessed, as I was, of more than one confiding friend, I secured information about everything that took place.
XXIII.
Slowly but surely the Clan-na-Gael was gaining ground, despite all the forces arrayed against it. Triumphing over Church opposition, conscientious scruple on the score of joining secret societies, and the single opposing Revolutionary faction still faithful to the memory of Stephens, it had, in 1876, a membership exceeding 11,000, which included amongst its leading names those of Alexander Sullivan, John Devoy, O’Donovan Rossa, Thomas Clarke Luby, Thomas F. Burke, Dr. Carroll, James Reynolds, Frank Agnew, Colonel Clingen, Wm. J. Hynes, P. W. Dunne, Michael Boland, Denis Feeley, J. J. Breslin, Michael Kirwen, and General Millen.