We have many of the vices of a slave race, and we treat others as we
have been treated. Our national aspirations were overborne by material
power, and we in turn use cudgel and curse on our countrymen when they
differ from us in opinion and policy. Men, when they cannot match their
intellect against another's, suppress him and howl him down, putting
faith in their own brainlessness. I would make the most passionate plea
for freedom in Ireland: freedom for all to say the truth they feel or
know. What right have we to ask for ourselves what we deny to another?
The bludgeon at meetings is a blow struck against heaven. Those who
will not argue or reason are recreants against humanity, and are
prowling back again on all fours in their minds to the brute. It
matters not in what holy name men war with violence on freedom of
thought, whether in the name of God or nation they are enemies of both.
We are only right in controversy when we overcome by a superior beauty
or truth. The first fundamental idea inspiring an Irish polity should be
this idea of freedom in all spheres of thought, and it is most
necessary to fight for this because the devil and hell have organized
their forces in this unfortunate land in sectarian and secret societies,
of which it might be written they love darkness rather than light for
the old God-given reasons.





X.