Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana . dilfered from OConnell, as he said OConnellhad differed from Henry Grattan. He differed from OCon-nell because he thought the eight million of Irish people,by an appeal to arms, might, under certain conditions, burst11 the chains of their country, and when OConnells son intro- duced the peace resolutions which declared against re-sistance to tyrants by force of arms, no matter what theprovocation, Thomas Francis Meagher raised hiseloquent voice in that speech which is immortal,that speech which gained him the epithet ofMeagher of the Sword,
Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana . dilfered from OConnell, as he said OConnellhad differed from Henry Grattan. He differed from OCon-nell because he thought the eight million of Irish people,by an appeal to arms, might, under certain conditions, burst11 the chains of their country, and when OConnells son intro- duced the peace resolutions which declared against re-sistance to tyrants by force of arms, no matter what theprovocation, Thomas Francis Meagher raised hiseloquent voice in that speech which is immortal,that speech which gained him the epithet ofMeagher of the Sword, a companion piece in sublimestprose to the Sword Song of Koerner. (Great applause.)Then, My Lord, he said, I do not condemn the useof arms as immoral, nor do I conceive it j)rofane to say thatthe King of Heaven, the Lord of Hosts, the God of Battles,bestows his benediction upon those who unsheath the swordin the houi- of a nations peril. Frof that evening on which, in the Valley of Betlmliahe nerved the arm of the Jewish girl to smite the drunken ^. JOHN F. FINEHTY L DEDICATION OF THE STATUE OP THOMAS FRANCIS MEAGHER. 129 tyrant in his tent, down to tliis, our day, on which he hasblessed the insurgent chivalry of the Belgian priest, his Al-mighty hand hath ever been stretched forth from his throneof light to consecrate the flag of freedom—to bless the pa-triots sword! Be it in defense, or be it in the assertion ofa peoples liberty, T hail the sword as a sacred weapon;and if, my lord, it has sometimes taken the shape of theserpent and reddened the shroud of the oppressor with toodeep a dye, like the anointed rod of the high priest ,it has atother times, and as often, blossomed into celestial flowers todeck the freemans brow! Wliile pursuing his majestic argument in still more elo-quent terms, he was rudely interrupted by John OConnell,who was himself the author of the Peace Resolutions, andwho, in the absence of his father, renewed the quarrel withOBrien and his friends becaus
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