THE "TRIANGLE" IN POWER.
It was not until 1881, when it had passed its first decade of existence, that the United Brotherhood first came prominently to the attention of people of all nationalities in the United States. In that year it held a national convention in Chicago. At this time its membership was at its height. Tens of thousands of men of Irish blood had become affiliated with it for motives of the purest patriotism, many others on account of the secret political influence which it was enabled to wield; and not a few because they thought they saw in it a source of livelihood and profit to themselves. Its treasury had swollen to large proportions, as a natural result of that section of the constitution which required every local camp to remit ten per cent. of its gross receipts to the Executive Board, and to faithfully keep the balance, save and except so much as might be required for running expenses, in its treasury for an emergency. It was from this convention that the troubles which afterward overwhelmed the order first dated. One of its actions was to so change the system of government as to confide the supreme control to an Executive Board of five men, of which number three formed a quorum. Alexander Sullivan of Chicago, Michael Boland of Louisville, and D. C. Feeley of Rochester, New York, were elected members of this Executive Board, and, working together, became both the majority and necessary quorum. This was the trio which was destined to become famous in after years as the "Triangle."
Almost from the day and hour that the convention adjourned, the "Triangle" commenced to rule the order with a rod of iron. Despite the fact that when it came into power there was in the treasury funds, according to the best data that has been obtainable, aggregating a quarter million of dollars, a new rule was promulgated which required nearly the entire receipts of each Camp, instead of the former ten per cent., to be forwarded to the National Executive Committee. In justification of this remarkable step, it was quietly given out that matters connected with the objects of the organization indicated that an imperative demand was very shortly expected, which would allow of no delay, and in which much money would be required. As the funds had been raised for the sole purpose of assisting in revolutionary efforts, which, from their very nature had necessarily to be conducted with the utmost secrecy, no great objection came from any quarter to the transfer of the funds. The amount thus placed in the control of Alexander Sullivan, as chief of the Executive Committee, and of Feeley and Boland, his aids, was subsequently stated by men who knew, men of honor and integrity, men whose word in commercial transactions was considered as good as their bond, as being in the immediate neighborhood of the enormous total of one hundred thousand dollars.
VICTIMS OF A "PHYSICAL FORCE" POLICY.
What followed in the next few years is a matter of history. At irregular intervals the news of dynamite explosions in different parts of England, was flashed over the wires that spanned the two continents beneath the broad waters of the great Atlantic. So, too, was the news of the death, or capture and subsequent imprisonment, of those supposed to have been primarily concerned in these affairs. Oftentimes the arrests were made under circumstances which could lead to no other belief than that the victim had been deliberately betrayed. Between 1881 and 1885 twenty-nine Irish revolutionists were sent from America into English prisons, and in almost every instance the suspicion was so strong as to almost amount to a certainty that these victims were betrayed to the government, against which their attack was to be directed, before they had left the vessel which had carried them across the ocean. This is the record:
| Date of Sentence. | Name. | Crime. | Sentence. | |||
| 1881. | ||||||
| May | James McGrath James McKevitt | Attempt to blow up Liverpool Town Hall. | Life. 20 years. | |||
| 1882. | ||||||
| Jan. 31 | John Tobin | Illegal possession of nitro-glycerine. | 7 years. | |||
| July 31 | Thomas Walsh | Illegal possession of nitro-glycerine. | 7 years. | |||
| 1883. | ||||||
| May 28 July | Thomas Gallagher A. G. Whitehead H. H. Wilson John Curtin William Tansey Pat Noughton Pat Rogerson James Kelly | Illegal manufacture of nitro-glycerine at Birmingham and transfer of it to Weston House in Galway. | Life. Life. Life. Life. 14 yrs. 8 yrs. 12 yrs. 2 yrs. H. L. | |||
| July 30 | Timothy Featherstone Dennis Deasy Pat Flannigan Henry Dalton | Illegal possession of infernal machines. | Life. Life. Life. Life. | |||
| Dec. 21 | James McCullough Thomas Dewanney Peter Callahan Henry McCann Terrance McDermott Dennis Casey Pat McCabe James Kelly James Donnelly Patrick Drum | Outrages in Glasgow in January, 1883. | Life. Life. Life. Life. Life. 7 yrs. 7 yrs. 7 yrs. 7 yrs. 5 yrs. | |||
| 1884. | ||||||
| July 29 | John Daly J. F. Egan | Illegal possession of infernal machines. | Life. 20 yrs. | |||
| 1885. | ||||||
| March | Patrick Levy | Explosion at Mill street barracks. | 1 yr. H. L. | |||
| May 18 | J. G. Cunningham H. Burton | Explosion at Tower of London, etc. | Life. Life. | |||
| Nov. 18 | J. Wallace, alias Duff | Murder at Solihall. | 20 yrs. |
This was a total of thirty-two men convicted of participation in dynamite explosions. The conviction of Wallace for murder grew out of his arrest on the charge of conspiracy. Two of the unfortunates died shortly after their conviction, one was pardoned, and of the remainder there were on October the 1st, 1889, twenty-two still confined in British convict prisons. Besides these, two other delegates from the United States, Captain Mackey Lomasney and a mysterious man, known only as Peter Malone, were supposed to have been killed in the explosion on London Bridge on the evening of December the 13th, 1884, while one more of the number, James Moorehead, better known as Thomas J. Mooney, who, with others, managed the explosion in Whitehall in 1883, was successful in escaping to New York. Some time after his return to the United State he made a full statement of the manner in which he was sent abroad for dynamite work, and furnished with money and methods of introduction to the agents of destruction on the other side of the Atlantic.
CRONIN TO THE FRONT.
For a time Irish fealty proved equal to the situation, and no outcry was raised because the treasure was wasted, the lives of brothers lost, and the sentiment of the whole world turned against the cause of the freedom of Ireland. Presently, however, a demand was made by the Executive Board upon the local Camps for more money, and dissatisfaction began to manifest itself. It seemed incredible that the immense sum which but a few years before had been at the disposal of the Triangle could have been absorbed, and that, as was claimed the order was thousands of dollars in debt. An investigation was demanded, and the Triangle responded with its rod of iron. It declared that opposition should be crushed out. Member after member, and then Camp after Camp was expelled. It was at this time that Dr. Cronin came to the front. He was a collossus. He insisted that the members of the organization had a right to know what was being done with their money, whether the immense amounts levied and wrung from patriotic Irishmen in America, had been well used, or whether it had found its way through other channels into the pockets of financial conspirators. The Triangle did not deign to notice him for a while, but his following increased from scores to hundreds and from hundreds to thousands, and it became evident that the bold, intrepid Irishman who had forged his way from poverty to an honorable position in the metropolis of the West was the man of all men of whom to be feared. The fiat went out that Cronin's expulsion from the order was necessary to the future safety of the organization. An opportunity was soon found. In his own Camp, Dr. Cronin had read a circular from one of the Camps that had been expelled, protesting against the action of the Executive Board. For doing this he was charged with treason. This was in 1885. He was brought to trial in Chicago before a committee consisting of Lawrence Buckley, Frank Murray, John O'Malley, Daniel Coughlin, the detective, who later was to be charged with participation in his murder, and Henry LeCaron, alias Beach, afterward a British spy, and who had been introduced into the order by Alexander Sullivan. The latter acted as prosecutor. With such a trial committee it was little wonder but that the physician should have been pronounced guilty of treason, and that his expulsion from the order should have been decreed.
The "treasonable" letter was as follows: