Charles R. Lowell to Benjamin H. Barrows, February 2, 1882

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Barrows.

Sir: I have your letter of the 30th ultimo in relation to the case of Mr. James White, who is confined in Naas jail under the so-called “coercion act,” and inclosing his certificate of naturalization and two letters written by him to you on the 23d and 28th of January last.

I have also your letter of the 31st of January in relation to the case of Mr. Philip O’Sullivan, who is confined in the same prison under the same act, and inclosing his certificate of naturalization and a letter from him to yourself, dated on the 30th ultimo.

Both of these gentlemen claim protection on the ground of being citizens of the United States, and you ask me for instructions in their cases.

In a communication which I addressed to you on the 1st of September last, in relation to the case of Mr. Joseph B. Walsh, I stated my opinion to be that the fact of being an American citizen confers upon a person no immunity from arrest and imprisonment under the “coercion act,” and that the only occasions on which I could properly intervene in behalf of such persons would be:

• First. Where such person, being in Ireland in the prosecution of his lawful private business, and taking no part in political meetings or partisan disturbances, has been arrested by obvious mistake; and
• Secondly. Where a distinction has been made to the disadvantage of the prisoner on the ground of his American nationality.

If British subjects are being arrested for no more illegal acts than those which the prisoner is charged with having committed, or of the intention to commit which he is justly suspected, it seems that, however arbitrary and despotic we may consider the “coercion act” to be, we are, nevertheless, bound to submit in silence to the action taken under it by the authorities even against our own fellow-citizens.

It should be observed that this act is a law of the British Parliament, the legitimate source and final arbiter of all law in these realms, and that, as it would be manifestly futile to ask the government here to make an exception on behalf of an American who had brought himself within the provisions of any law thus sanctioned, so it would be manifestly unbecoming in a diplomatic representative, unless by express direction of his superiors, to enter upon an argument with the government to which he is accredited as to the policy of such a law or the necessarily arbitrary nature of its enforcement.

I must repeat, therefore, in the cases of Messrs. White and O’Sullivan, the substance of what I wrote to you in the case of Mr. Walsh, that unless these gentlemen can produce to me satisfactory proof that they have been arrested under an evident mistake of the facts, or have been treated with exceptional severity on account of their being American citizens, I must decline to intervene on their behalf.

I herewith return their certificates of naturalization and the accompanying letters.

I am, sir, &c.,