Mccormacic to Benjamin H. Barrows, February 23, 1882

Mr. McCormack to Mr. Barrows.

Dear Sir: I beg to bring under your notice that I am an American citizen, suffering imprisonment under the English coercion act. I am guiltless of any crime punishable by law, and what I request is that, in pursuance of a resolution passed by the United States legislature, you use your office in securing for me that protection which I claim as a citizen of the United States, and that justice which, only through your government, I can obtain. If the government of this most unhappy country has a charge against me, all I ask is that I be brought to trial and given a chance of refuting the charge before one of the legal tribunals of the country. If there be no charge against me other then, perhaps, that of fallacious suspicion, founded upon the whisper of an ambitious policeman, or grounded on the elastic information of a hireling informer, then I think it is no more than ordinary justice to demand my release or my trial. It is not necessary, however, that I should here enter into a discussion of the injustice which I am suffering at the hands of a rather strange government and the action, nay the duty, of that magnanimous government which you represent, and which I have sworn to maintain. For the present I think it sufficient to inform you of my position, and to request that you will see to it.

I am, &c.,