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[ IV ] Official Report of the Work Done PresentedtoaConventionin1876—TheArduousWorkof Raising the Money—How John Boyle O’ReillyGot a UnitedStatesNavalEngineertoInspecttheVessel The time had at last come for taking definite action. We appeared to have a good prospect of obtaining sufficient money and we must look out for a ship. Trustees had kicked and refused to draw funds which branches had voted and many most embarrassing delays had occurred in this way. Two very good old Fenians, now dead, who were trustees of my own branch, had refused to draw the $2,500 voted by an overwhelming majority, and had to be removed from office and replaced by others before the money could be obtained. Michael Boland,123 of Louisville, was a trustee there and held up a large sum of money in the same way. But eventually we got all the money voted, and I will give the financial account of the transaction before I close. In a report dated July 1, 1875, and issued by John W. Goff, who had worked very hard to raise the money in the district which included New York and New Jersey, and for which he was responsible, I find the amount was $8,379.10, and the following reference to the trouble in getting it: “Now that we have succeeded as far as it is possible, we can afford to be charitable , but we must not be forgetful; and while we are ready, if ultimate success crown our efforts, to share our joy thereat with the whole Irish race, we cannot but remember the patriots who neglected or refused to lend a hand when help was sorely needed.” 54 123. Devoy had few good words for this Boland. (Not to be confused with Michael C. Boland of Delaware.) He came from Waterford. During the Civil War, he served as an officer in the Union Army and later saw action in one of the Fenian Canadian incursions. It is thought by some that he was a British spy. John Devoy, “Story of the Clan-na-Gael,” [IV], GA, December 20, 1924, 5. What followed can be best told by quoting a portion of the report presented by the committee to a convention held in Philadelphia in August, 1876, after the cable had reported the complete success of the expedition. The Official Report “Philadelphia, August 9, 1876124 “To the * * * * “Brothers—The undersigned, appointed as the A. P. R.125 Committee by the Convention held in Providence, R.I., in July last year, on resigning into your hands the trust reposed in them, have the honor to submit the following report: “In the report submitted by the last Committee to the Providence Convention a requestwasmadethat,inconsequenceofthepeculiarlydelicateanddifficultnature of the undertaking, which was then in progress, and the serious risks incurred by the agents sent to take charge of it, the full details of the plan, the names of the agents and the ship and other particulars of the affair might not be asked by the Convention. The Convention, recognizing the necessity for secrecy and the fact that when operations of such importance are undertaken by an organization like ours it is absolutely necessary to trust some one and confide the management to a small number of men, was satisfied that a full account of the financial transactions with proper vouchers should be laid before the Committee on * * * *. The latter Committee , after a close and careful scrutiny of the accounts and vouchers and a personal examination of the committee, who had till then acted as the agents of the organization in the matter, and who were, and are still, responsible for all the steps taken— the plan, the choice of the executive agents and the financial outlay—made a favorable report to the Convention, and no further information was asked. The undersigned were then named as the committee to take charge of the affair and to direct whatever further operations in connection with it remained to be performed. “As the undertaking has, fortunately, been crowned with success, by the rescue of all the prisoners whom it was intended to wrest from the hands of the British jailers in Western Australia, and the men are daily expected to land on American soil, the time has come when all the details can be given to the organization. The Convention has a right to know the whole history of the undertaking from beginning to end, the difficulties that stood in the way and the means by which they...

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