James Nagle to Charles Francis Adams , United States, November 22, 1867

Mr. Nagle to Mr. Adams

Sir: I respectfully call your attention to the following statement, and request that it may be forwarded to the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State:

After five mouths’ imprisonment without any charge or evidence of crime being brought against me, notwithstanding my continued protest and repeated demands for liberty, I was on the 25th of October indicted by the grand jury of the county of Dublin for treason-felony. The commission of oyer and terminer, before whom the indictment was brought, adjourned on the 16th of November, after a session of three weeks, without bringing me to trial. The attorney general had promised to bring up my case in the first week of the commission, but failed to do so. On the last day of its session I asked through my counsel for an immediate trial, or that I might be released on bail. This was denied me, and I stand committed for trial at the Sligo assizes, which will be held in March next.

It appears the court acknowledges my claim as an American citizen, of which fact the Crown officials were informed before my indictment, although the same court denied the rights of other American citizens, and tried and condemned them as British subjects upon the same indictment which was found against me, and under the very law of England which, as announced by the lord chief baron, holds them perpetually bound to their natural allegiance, and further declares that “all children born out of the realm, whose fathers are natural-born subjects of England, shall themselves be natural-born subjects to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatever.” If one portion of the law can be enforced, as it has been against Warren and Costello, denying the rights of naturalized citizens, then we may expect, as a legal and logical consequence, that the balance of it, claiming the children of those citizens as British subjects, will be enforced in my case. I call attention to this now, that our government may not be surprised at the position likely to be assumed by the Crown, should I be brought to trial.

The reason assigned for the postponement of my trial to Sligo is, that my status as an American citizen being recognized, I cannot be held accountable as a co-conspirator for the overt acts committed on the 5th March last, for which Warren and Costello were tried and convicted. It would appear, therefore, that I am to be held and tried on the statement of the witness Gallagher, who swears that I administered an oath to him on board of a vessel in Sligo bay, with a pistol at his head, if he refused to take the oath.

I suppose Mr. West will forward an official report of the trial, as he had a special counsel watching the case, aside from those engaged for the defense; so I will not enter upon the details of it. As this story of Gallagher is the only foundation for a prosecution, the only pretense of an overt act, and the plausible excuse for keeping me a prisoner, I deem it necessary to call particular attention to the character of this man’s testimony, and the circumstances connected with it. It appears Gallagher was first examined in Sligo in the latter part of May, when he swore that the vessel he boarded in the bay was to the best of his knowledge a Spaniard, and bound to Glasgow. He told a plain, simple story, and said that was all he knew about her. On the trial the coast guard swears he told him the same.

Gallagher was brought to Kilmainham jail early in July, and remained in prison about one month, seeing me every day, exercising in the same yard, becoming well acquainted with my name and appearance, but never recognized me, or made any pretense of having ever before seen me. He left the jail in August. On the 12th of October I was brought before a magistrate, and Gallagher was produced and told the strange story he swore to on that day. During the trials of Warren and Costello he was placed upon the witness-stand and repeated his story, with many variations and contradictions, sticking, however, to the main point. I will not here attempt to analyze his evidence, trusting that the counsel employed for that purpose by Mr. West will not fail to point out the contradictions, inconsistencies, and improbabilities of his conflicting statements— his probable and undoubted perjury. Colonel Warren solemnly declared, before sentence was pronounced upon him, that he never saw the man until he came to Kilmainham jail. I declare, before God and the world, upon my honor as a man and a soldier, that his whole statement about me is an infamous lie. Yet, upon the unsupported and uncorroborated story of this miserable perjurer, this government has the effrontery to hold me subject for an indefinite period to the torture of this lingering death, to which I have been already so long subjected upon mere suspicion. I am now under the treatment of the medical director, who can certify to the debilitated condition to which I am reduced, after being shut up in this bastile all summer. My health is now seriously affected; a continuance of this confinement will cost me my life. Is this the penalty I must suffer at the hands of a merciless, tyrannical government for having dared to express in my native land my abhorrence of a rule which seeks to expatriate a race, and would exterminate every vestige of a nation? I again appeal to my country and her representatives for justice, for freedom—aye, for life. I again repeat and declare that I have done no act, offended no law within British territory, which should subject me to the wrong and injury I have already suffered, much less to a continuance of it. The Crown officials have attempted to show cause for my arrest and imprisonment. They have made up a case, and a Dublin grand jury have indicted me for acts committed on the 5th of March, (proposing to deal with me as a British subject,) but there they stop. After five months of search and labor, they produce three perjured informers to swear away my liberty. How they were procured may be inferred from the persistent efforts made to procure others to do likewise, which will be made public, notwithstanding the attempt made to suppress the facts. The attorney general finds it is not safe to proceed, and at the last moment sets aside my trial for four months, trusting that in the intervening time, by proper manipulation, some wretch may be found willing to barter soul and honor and tell a tale to support Gallagher.

To sum up the whole matter in a few words, I, a citizen of the United States, a stranger in Ireland, having committed no offense, am arrested in mid-day upon a public highway by the first policeman I meet; put in irons; placed in close and solitary confinement; subject to all the humiliations and privations of the worst class of criminals; and thus deprived of my liberty for several months, to the serious injury of my health; from the commencement protesting against the outrage, and constantly demanding my freedom. Compelled at last by my persistent demands and the action of my government, a charge is preferred against me, for acts committed in Ireland, by some parties to me unknown; and to sustain it, the evidence of Corydon, Buckley, and Gallagher is produced, and an attempt is made to try and pass judgment upon me as a British subject, by finding a true bill of indictment against me upon the bribed and perjured testimony of these men. The Crown lawyers, finding there is not corroborative evidence to insure my conviction, suspend proceedings and return me to the gloom and misery of my prison, there to linger on for months to the great danger of my life.

I now most respectfully appeal to you, honored sir, earnestly and firmly demanding my immediate release. This government has had ample time to justify its action against me, and has failed to do so. I have already received the punishment due established crime, by six months’ confinement. I have suffered irreparable injury, and a continuance of my imprisonment would, in all probability, be fatal to my life. My life may be of small consequence to a power whose whole career and existence is marked by cruelty and the sacrifice of human life, hut I am of some value to my family, and I trust my rights and liberty are worthy the protection of the American government.

I have the honor to remain, sir, your obedient servant,