Thomas Davis - Selections From His Prose and Poetry #226524

This enquiry is designed to rescue eminent men and worthy acts from calumnies which were founded on the ignorance and falsehoods of the Old Whigs, who never felt secure until they had destroyed the character as well as the liberty of Ireland. Irish oppression never could rely on mere physical force for any length of time. Our enormous military resources, and the large proportion of fighting men, or men who love fighting, among our people, prohibit it. It was ever necessary to divide us by circulating extra vagant stories of our crimes and our disasters, in order to poison the wells of brotherly love and patriotism in our hearts, that so many Of us might range ourselves under the banner of our oppressor.