Archive Highlights: An Original O’Connell Manuscript

Working in the archives at AIHS, a sense of awe is a familiar feeling. The number of times my breath has been taken away by a new discovery is as great and unquantifiable as the number of items housed within the building. This number is so large, that we rarely have time to pause and marvel at any individual item. But this time, we couldn’t wait.

Original, 126-page Handwritten Manuscript by Daniel O’Connell, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 1775-1847

Since May of this year, a small archival team has been completing the unimaginable, yet highly enviable, task of cataloguing AIHS’ immense archive. With limited prior documentation on hand to aid our work, we are operating relatively from scratch. We locate items, document them, clean them (when it is safe to do so), and rehouse them carefully, with the ultimate goal of making them accessible to researchers, AIHS patrons, and the wider public. 

AIHS is believed to have the most complete private collection of Irish-American history in the United States. However, the value of this collection is not limited only to the Irish diaspora within the US, but Irish history as a whole.

Nothing could attest to this more than this week’s highlight: an original, handwritten manuscript from Daniel O’Connell, sharing his observations on the Corn Laws.

Frontpage: ‘Observations on Corn Laws, on Political Pravity and Ingratitude, and on Clerical and Personal Slander , in the Shape of a “Meek and Modest” Reply to the Second Letter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, Waterford and Wexford, to Ambrose Lisle Phillipps, Esq.’ Signed by Daniel O’Connell

Five years before his death in 1847, which coincided with the height of the Great Famine (known as Black ’47), the Lord Mayor of Dublin took pen to paper to berate the Earl of Shrewsbury, and share his unfiltered opinions on the Corn Laws. A digitised version of the printed text is in circulation, and widely accessible through platforms such as Google Books. However, prior to our recent rediscovery, a handwritten manuscript was not widely known to exist.

Despite the essay’s full title, the opinions expressed in O’Connell’s 126 pages are anything but “meek and modest.” Tellingly, in his own hand, O’Connell places this phrase in quotation marks - an indication of sarcastic or satirical intent that is not represented in the printed version. O’Connell, a man later quoted to ‘speak truth always with a poet’s power,’ (Margaret Fuller, The Liberty Bell for 1845), had a gift for implied sentiment. He likens the Earl’s actions to that of a fool, and calls out his famously ‘generous and benevolent’ character in context of his support of Poor Houses.

In other cases, subtlety of language was certainly not the goal:

Image reads: ‘I have beaten my poor wits into powder, to discover your meaning […]’ and ‘by that silliest of the silly — poor Lord Anglesey.’

While O’Connell’s wording may at times be humorous, the grave importance of this text is undeniable when viewed in its historical context. O’Connell makes gravitational statements about the Corn Laws’ contribution to Ireland’s dwindling population - statements which predate the onset of the Great Hunger. This, he argues, can only be attributed to the harsh Corn Laws and Poor Laws imposed on Ireland by the British Government.

On the sixty-second (written) page, O’Connell states, ‘You may sneer at me for saying that 50,000 of the Irish perish yearly of cold, famine and disease. But how else can you account for this diminution in our population?’ He goes on to write, ‘Ireland has not ceased to be fertile and naturally productive. No blight has come upon her plains.’

Within five years of making this statement, the potato crop failed. Over one million Irish people died, while over two million emigrated. 

‘You cannot deny that they perish’: O’Connell’s rebuttal of the Corn Laws predates the height of the Great Hunger.

During the same period, the world observed the largest influx of Irish people ever to come to America. Without this tragedy, and more specifically, the system which allowed it to take place, it is highly likely that the Irish diaspora would not have spread so far and wide, and the Irish-American community would not see such strength in numbers today. 

Reading O’Connell’s observations in his own hand, new inferences can be made. Where the printed versions may italicise words, O’Connell underlined them - once, twice, even three times. 

Underlined thrice: ‘Were it not for O’Connell, we should never hear of Repeal.’

Additions, revisions, and words stricken through - even the paper on which the text is written gives us a deeper insight into his sentiment. The first five pages are written on standard letter-size sheets, but the remaining 121 pages appear to have been extracted from a much larger book. This may imply that his intention was to write a much shorter response, deciding after he had already begun to write, that he had more to say.

Clippings from the Earl of Shrewsbury’s pamphlet, which O’Connell cut and pasted into his manuscript.

I spent a total of four hours with this document, before deciding to return to the ongoing project of cataloguing our expansive collection. As we make sense of the wonders within our walls, my hope is that a future researcher will be able to sit in my position, making similar inferences, and give this priceless piece of history the time and attention it deserves. 

We have found no evidence that this 1842 manuscript is widely known to exist - not to mind, that it remains in such good condition. In the spirit of AIHS’ founding fathers, with future efforts to digitise, catalogue, and make this information accessible, we hope to facilitate the sentiment of our motto: ‘That the World May Know.’