John Cormick to consul at Belfast, June 7, 1881

Mr. Connick to consul at Belfast.

Hon. Sir: I respectfully beg leave to inclose you the naturalization certificate of Mr. Daniel Sweeney, a citizen of the United States, who is now lying under arrest in Dundalk jail. I also beg to hand you his own statement, and a copy of the warrant under which he has been arrested. He has asked me to send his papers to be forwarded to your minister, London, in order to have his case brought to a speedy issue, as it’s a hard matter that a respectable man should be dragged away from his family by an armed force upon mere suspicion. He now asks from your government that protection which every citizen of your glorious republic is entitled to, and only requires that if any specific charge can be brought against him that he will be brought to trial at once and tried as an American citizen, by a jury of half his own countrymen as well as an English jury.

Trusting that the country for whom our sons have fought and bled in the hour of danger won’t abandon their adopted children, and will show by the steps they take that no government will be allowed to violate the liberty of an American subject against whom no crime can be proved,

I have the honor to be, yours, most respectfully,