My dear brother--I have been intending to write to you
for some time, but having seen a letter from a Mr. Moore,
addressed to the governor of this prison, and knowing from
that that you must be in a disagreeable state of suspense, I
may therefore let you know how I am at once. With reference
to the trial and all connected with it, it was unfair from
beginning to end; and if I should die in consequence it will
injure my murderers more than it will injure me. Why should I
fear to die, innocent as I am of the charge which a prejudiced
jury, assisted by perjured witnesses, found me guilty of? I
will do judge and jury the justice of saying they believed
me guilty of being--a citizen of the United States, a friend
to liberty, a hater of relentless cruelty, and therefore
no friend to the British government, as it exists in our
beautiful island. I must say, though much I would like to
live, that I cannot regret dying in the cause of Liberty and
Ireland. It has been made dear to me by the sufferings of its
people, by the martyrdom and exile of its best and noblest
sons. The priest, the scholar, the soldier, the saint, have
suffered and died, proudly, nobly: and why should I shrink
from death in a cause made holy and glorious by the numbers
of its martyrs and the heroism of its supporters, as well as
by its justice? You don't, and never shall, forget that Peter
O'Neill Crowley died only a short time since, in this cause.

"Far dearer the grave or the prison,
Illum'd by one patriot name,
Than the trophies of all who have risen
On liberty's ruins to fame."