O'Connell spoke of being ready to die for
his country, he meant to suggest the notion of war in some shape; that
when he spoke of 'a battle line,' he meant a line of battle and nothing
else."[105]
Tom Steele having addressed the meeting for some time, Mr. Thomas
Francis Meagher rose and delivered what was subsequently known as "the
sword speech," a name given to it on account of the following passage:
"I do not disclaim the use of arms as immoral, nor do I believe it is
the truth to say that the God of Heaven withholds his sanction from the
use of arms. From the day on which, in the valley of Bethulia, He nerved
the arm of the Jewish girl to smite the drunken tyrant in his tent, down
to the hour in which He blessed the insurgent chivalry of the Belgian
priests, His Almighty hand hath ever been stretched forth from His
throne of light, to consecrate the flag of freedom, to bless the
patriot's sword. Be it for the defence, or be it for the assertion of a
nation's liberty, I look upon the sword as a sacred weapon. And if it
has sometimes reddened the shroud of the oppressor; like the anointed
rod of the High Priest it has, at other times, blossomed into flowers to
deck the freeman's brow.
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