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The Rise and Fall of Repeal: Slavery and Irish Nationalism in Antebellum Philadelphia
| During the summer of 1843, the Irish leader Daniel O'Connell's nationalist campaign reached a fever pitch in his homeland. Pressing for the Repeal of the Act of Union, which incorporated Ireland into Great Britain, O'Connell and his supporters staged enormous rallies, which the London Times derided as "monster meetings." In the beginning of 1843 O'Connell had solemnly assured his followers that this would be the "Repeal Year," and after one million supporters cheered him on at a rally in August, it seemed that Ireland might very well have its own parliament before long.1 |
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In the United States, however, the Repeal movement was in turmoil. While branches of the Loyal National Repeal Association had been established throughout the country in 1840–41 and thousands of dollars had been sent over to O'Connell's headquarters in Dublin, by 1843 many Irish American Repealers had grown disenchanted with O'Connell because of his repeated attacks on American slavery. An ardent abolitionist, O'Connell had time and again drawn parallels between the oppressive conditions endured by Irish farm laborers and American slaves. These statements placed most Irish Americans in an awkward position. They were generally affiliated with the Democratic Party, which was proimmigrant but also proslavery and antagonistic to free African Americans. Few Irish Americans wanted to disturb their alliance with the Democrats and fewer still wanted to heed O'Connell's call to unite with the abolitionists, who were viewed as fanatics by most Americans.2 |
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In some southern cities, Repealers were so enraged by O'Connell's speeches that they disbanded their organizations. In northern cities, Repealers soldiered on with the cause, either ignoring O'Connell's statements on slavery or publicly disavowing them. Only in Philadelphia, a stronghold of Repeal, did Repealers make any effort to defend O'Connell's pronouncements on slavery. Philadelphia had a large, religiously mixed Irish community and its leaders held a range of views on political questions.3 Consequently, when O'Connell intensified his attacks on American slavery in 1843, the Philadelphia Repeal Association split into two factions. One group, led by Judge Joseph Doran, backed O'Connell on slavery, while the other organization, led by William Stokes, a lawyer and Democratic politician, and Robert Tyler, the slaveholding son of the president, sought to distance itself from O'Connell's abolitionism.4 O'Connell was pleased to hear of the Philadelphia split: at last some Irish Americans were endorsing his views on slavery. However, the support would prove short-lived, as Irish Catholics in Philadelphia soon found themselves under fierce attack from nativists in the "Bible Riots." In the wake of the riots, the city's Irish community turned away from O'Connell and Repeal and focused on its own preservation. |
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O'Connell's Campaigns | |
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O'Connell's career was at its peak in the early 1840s. He had gained immense popularity throughout Ireland in the 1820s as a result of his tireless campaigning for Catholic Emancipation.5 In 1829 his long struggle had come to an end when Great Britain's prime minister, the Duke of Wellington, grudgingly allowed Catholics to sit in the British parliament. O'Connell immediately took advantage of the legislation and became a leading figure in the House of Commons. |
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