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M.McNALLY, CHAIRMAN of the BALTIMORE REPEAL ASSOCIATION : 1841 RELIC OF IRISH-AMERICAN HISTORY BEING AN ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN LETTER SENT BY THE BALTIMORE REPEAL ASSOCIATION, ATTEMPTING TO BRING LECTURERS TO EDUCATE IRISH IMMIGRANTS IN POLITICAL ACTIVISM AGAINST THE BRITISH RULE OF IRELAND

Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. On offer is a unique document of Irish American history and Irish national freedom, a letter by the Baltimore Repeal Association, describing a series of lectures to be held on Irish History, in order to “sustain and stimulate the zeal of our class of Irishmen” and to “create an interest in repeal.” Repeal Associations, first began in Ireland by Daniel O’Connell in 1830, were an Irish mass membership political movement set up in 1830 to campaign for a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland, an agreement that ended Irish self-government. The letter is addressed to “Geo. O’Connor, Esq., New York” and written by a M. McNally, Chairman” of the Baltimore Repeal Association. It is dated “Baltimore, December 24, 1841.” The letter quickly states its purpose and intent: “The Association conceives it to be no less its duty then its interest to endeavor to reverse the prejudices, and bring over to the side of their country home at least of these Irishmen in race, Irishmen in language, Irishmen in habits...and whose prejudices have been made the instrument of holding their country, not ‘united’ but subjected to England. The letter presents other reasons for its lectures, mainly to gain the sympathy and moral aid of the U.S. “It believes a course of lectures on Irish history to be a means, at once natural and effective in correcting misapprehension and exposing misrepresentation.” Finally, the last paragraph of the letter lays out the practical aspects of the lectures, and request a quick answer back, “so as to enable us to announce it in our programme.” This letter is a fascinating and unique document of Irish and American history, before the potato famine and the huge surge of Irish immigration into America. Sample text: “The association has three objects before itself. 1. To sustain and stimulate the zeal of our class of irishmen. 2. To create an interest in Repeal with another. And 3. To reverse the prejudices of a large and valuable class of irishmen who, differing in religious opinions from the majority of their countrymen have been estranged from the interest of the country that gave them birth - an estrangement that most deeply to be lamented, and the most injurious, of all the evils, which the policy of England has created for the degradations of Ireland....Irishmen whose understandings have been artfully and wickedly abused and whose prejudices have been made the instrument of holding their country, not ‘united’ but subjected to England, a nation to which every thing Irish, its instruments as well as its victories, have ever been, and still are, objects of suspicion, of hatred, and of hostility open or secret. A fourth object with the Association, the first in importance is to place under the eyes of its american fellow citizens the justices and legality of its objects and proceedings, clawing, as it does, their sympathy and moral aid, for this all the aid it demands from others or endanger for from itself. It believes a course of lectures on Irish history to be a means, at once natural and effective in correcting misapprehension in exposing misrepresentation, in gaining for itself the weight which public opinion on this great Continent must assuredly have in returning to Ireland her domestic legislature - a right not devised by England to the smallest of her Indian colonies - a right claimed by Eight million of Irishmen as sole remedy for local evils, such as have no existence among any other European people...” The letter is one long piece of paper folded over once. This makes it 4 pages long, with writing on three of the four pages. It is in overall letter is in good shape. There are small tears along some creases, but they do not threaten the structural integrity of the letter, and some small discolorations on the paper itself. The handwriting is small, but very legible and readable in mostly unfaded black ink. There is also remnants of the red wax used to seal the letter and a small tear where the letter was opened. (Background: The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell in 1830 to campaign for a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland. The Association's aim was to revert Ireland to the constitutional position briefly achieved by Henry Grattan and his patriots in the 1780s, but this time with a full Catholic involvement that was now possible following the Act of Emancipation in 1829, supported by the electorate approved under the Reform Act of 1832. Groups were formed in America to support and educate Irish Immigrants. On its failure by the late 1840s the Young Ireland movement developed. Repealer candidates contested the United Kingdom general election, 1832 in Ireland. Between 1835 and 1841, they formed a pact with the Whigs. Repealer candidates, unaffiliated with the Whig Party, contested the 1841 and 1847 general elections.). Manuscript. Book Condition: Good

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