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people, and to be only so far obligatory as it protects their rights and promotes their welfare; we think it our duty as Irishmen to come forward, and state what we feel to be our heavy grievance, and what we know to be its effectual remedy.
We have no National Government; we are ruled by Englishmen and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of another country, whose instrument is corruption, and whose strength is the weakness of Ireland; and these men have the whole of the power and patronage of the country, as means to subdue and seduce the honesty and the spirit of her representatives in the legislature." They resolved therefore:
"That the weight of English influence in the Government of this country is so great, as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce…"
"That no reform is practicable, efficacious, or just, which shall not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion." Therefore they called upon all Irishmen "in general to follow our example, and to form similar societies in every quarter of the Kingdom, for the promotion of constitutional knowledge, the abolition of bigotry in religion and politics, and the equal distribution of the rights of man through all sects and denominations of Irishmen."
This Declaration was transmitted to Napper Tandy, Dublin's earliest Republican leader, and was printed and circulated widely.
The first Dublin Society of United Irishmen was formed on November 9th, 1791. It adopted the resolutions of the Belfast Society, and declared: "The policy of our rulers has always been to keep the different sects at variance, in which they have been but too well seconded by our own folly."
By this time the Catholics were making great strides in their demand for the removal of the burdens of the Penal Laws, and presently a determined Catholic Committee emerged, of which Wolfe Tone was to become Secretary.
Among the most vigorous opponents of the policy of pressing the Catholic claim to equality were Lord Kenmare and "the Sixty-Eight " Catholic clergy and gentry, all once members of the Committee. The Catholic bishops in general were by no means well disposed towards the
