The question whether the cause of Ireland would be advantaged or
injured by the struggle and its inevitable results, was differently
answered by different minds. Some saw in the conflict nothing but
defeat and suffering for the country--more, gyves and chains--more,
sorrow and humiliation for her sons, and a fresh triumph for the proud
and boastful power of England. Others, while only too well convinced
that the suppression of the insurrectionary movement was sure to be
speedily accomplished, viewed the position with a certain fierce and
stern satisfaction, and discerned therein the germ of high hopes for
the future.
But to certain of the Fenian leaders and Fenian circles in America,
the news came with a pressing and a peculiar interest. They were
largely responsible for the outbreak; the war was, in a manner, their
war. Their late head-centre, James Stephens, was chargeable with it
only in a certain degree. He had promised to initiate the struggle
before the 1st of January of that year. Conscious that his veracity
was regarded in somewhat of a dubious light by many of his followers,
he reiterated the declaration with all possible passion and vehemence,
and even went the length of swearing to it by invocations of the Most
High, before public assemblies of his countrymen.
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