The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

JET. 34] SPEECHES IN AMERICA 201
movement. ' I believe in it',' lie said; ' give it a chance/ His path was not a smooth one in America. There were those in the Clan who said: ' Do not trust Parnell; he wrill use you for his own purposes, he will make our movement subservient to his.' This was particularly the opinion of the Fenian agent who had been sent to Europe in 1878. Then he was more or less favourably disposed to the ' new departure.' Now he was vehemently against it. He quarrelled with Parnell. ' Mr. Parnell/ he said one day with much warmth, f you are always making inquiries about the Clan-na-Gael. We don't like it. It shows you suspect us. I cannot work with a man who suspects me. The fact is, Mr. Parnell, you want to become the master of the Clan-na-G-ael, to use it for the constitutional movement. That is your, aim. "Well, I won't work on that basis.' It was Parnell's luck—if luck it is to be called—that he almost always succeeded in neutralising the hostility of the men who opposed him ; and this particular Fenian soon found himself in a minority.
The public platform is the breath of the nostrils of the ordinary Irish agitator. He loves it. Parnell detested it. 'I hate public assemblies/ he once said to a friend; ' it is always an effort for me to attend them. I am always nervous. I dislike crowds.' The public platform had, however, to be used, and,, despite his aversion to it, Parnell used it with effect in America.
At Brooklyn, on January 24, 1880, he said : ' We do not ask you to send armed expeditions over to Ireland (a voice, " That's what we would like/' Applause.) I know that you would like to do that very much. (Applause, " Eight.") I think I know what