Introduction. William Vesey Fitzgerald (1783–1843), landowner and Conservative member of Parliament for Co. Clare, ran for re–election in June 1828 when he accepted a post in Government. Daniel O’Connell challenged the election in opposition although, as a Catholic, he could not take his seat in Parliament. The Catholic Association had previously supported Protestant candidates who were sympathetic to Emancipation such as Vesey-Fitzgerald. It decided to run a Catholic candidate in 1828 because of the overwhelming support for O’Connell and for Emancipation. It hoped, if O’Connell was elected, to force the Government to change the la. In this speech, O’Connell appealed to the freeholders (those entitled to vote because they owned property) in Co Clare to support him as a Catholic candidate. This Address to the Voters was published in newspapers and on broadsheet posters. In spite of pressure from landlords O’Connell won by 2,057 to 982.
Source. A printed address to the freeholders of Co Clare, Dublin Evening Post, 24 June 1828.
Councillor O’Connell’s Grand Address to the Freeholders of Co. Clare
Fellow Country men—Your county wants a Representative—I respectfully solicit your suffrages to raise me to that station,
It is true that as a Catholic,—I cannot, and of course never will take the oaths at present prescribed to Members of Parliament, but the authority which created these oaths—the Parliament, can abrogate them, and I entertain a confident hope that if you elect me, the most bigoted of our enemies will see the necessity of removing from the chosen representative of the people an obstacle which would prevent him from doing his duty to his King and his Country.
The oath at present required by law is—‘That the sacrifice of the Mass and the Invocation of the blessed Virgin Mary and other Saints, as now practiced in the Church of Rome, arc impious and idolatrous’. Of course I never will stain my soul with such an oath; I leave that to my honourable opponent, Mr Vesey-Fitzgerald. He has often taken that horrible oath;—he is ready to take if again and asks your votes to enable him so to swear. I would rather be torn limb from limb than take it. Electors of the County Clare, choose between me, who abominates the oath, and Mr Vesey-Fitzgerald, who has sworn it full twenty times!
I do not like to give the epitome of his political life, but I cannot refrain.— He first took office under Percival, who obtained power by raising ‘the base, bloody, and unchristian cry of “No–popery’” in England.
He voted for the East Retford Bill, for a measure which would put two violent enemies of the Catholics into Parliament. In the case of the Protestant Dissenters in England, he voted for their exclusion, that is, he voted against the principle of Freedom of Conscience—that principle on which we found our right to Emancipation.
Finally, he voted for the suppression of the Catholic Association of Ireland!
And after this, Sacred Heaven! he calls himself a friend of the Catholics.
He is the ally and colleague of the Duke of Wellington, and Mr Peel; and is their partner in power.
If you return me to Parliament, I pledge myself to vote for every measure which can strengthen the right of every human being to unrestricted and unqualified freedom of conscience.
To vote for every measure favorable to radical reform in the representative system, so that the House of Commons may truly, as our Catholic ancestors intended it should do, represent all the people.
To vote for every measure of retrenchment and reduction of the national expenditure, so as to relieve the people from the burthen of taxation &c.
Electors of the County Clare, choose one who has devoted his early life to your cause—who has consumed his manhood in a struggle for your liberties, and who is ready to die for the Catholic faith.
Daniel O’Connell.
Gillian M. Doherty