Ireland, deprived of its protection and overborne by more
than six to one in the British Lower House, and by more than a hundred
to one in the Upper House, is summoned by England to submit to a
hitherto-unheard-of decree against her liberties.

In the fourth year of a war ostensibly begun for the defence of small
nations, a law conscribing the manhood of Ireland has been passed, in
defiance of the wishes of our people. The British Parliament, which
enacted it, had long outrun its course, being in the eighth year of an
existence constitutionally limited to five. To warrant the coercive
statute, no recourse was had to the electorate of Britain, much less to
that of Ireland. Yet the measure was forced through within a week,
despite the votes of Irish representatives, and under a system of
closure never applied to the debates which established conscription for
Great Britain on a milder basis.

To repel the calumnies invented to becloud our action, we venture to
address the successors of the belligerents who once appealed to Ireland.
The feelings which inspire America deeply concern our race; so, in the
forefront of our remonstrance, we feel bound to set forth that this
Conscription Act involves for Irishmen questions far larger than any
affecting mere internal politics. They raise a sovereign principle
between a nation that has never abandoned her independent rights, and an
adjacent nation that has persistently sought to strangle them.

Were Ireland to surrender that principle, she must submit to a usurped
power, condone the fraudulent prostration of her Parliament in 1800, and
abandon all claim to distinct nationality. Deep-seated and far-reaching
are the problems remorselessly aroused by the unthinking and violent
courses taken at Westminster.

Thus the sudden and unlooked-for departure of British politicians from
their past military procedure towards this island provokes acutely the
fundamental issue of Self-determination. That issue will decide whether
our whole economic, social, and political life must lie at the
uncontrolled disposition of another race whose title to legislate for us
rests on force and fraud alone.

Ireland is a nation more ancient than England, and is one of the oldest
in Christendom. Its geographical boundaries are clearly defined. It
cherishes its own traditions, history, language, music, and culture. It
throbs with a national consciousness sharpened not only by religious
persecution, but by