American Slavery, Irish Freedom: Abolition, Immigrant Citizenship, and the Transatlantic Movement for Irish Repeal

APPENDIX: Biographical Sketches of Select American Repeal Leaders

appendix Biographical Sketches of Select American Repeal Leaders Binns, John and Benjamin Brothers who were members of the Philadelphia repeal association. John Binns was a former United Irishman who emigrated to the United States following the failed rebellion of 1798. He served as a Philadelphia alderman and often spoke on behalf of repeal. In 1841, he proposed that repealers promote the import of Irish goods to the United States and eschew British goods in favor of American and Irish manufactures. His brother, Benjamin Pemberton Binns, edited the weekly repeal paper, the Philadelphia Irish Citizen. Benjamin Binns presided over a meeting of Philadelphia repealers in 1843, which issued resolutions asserting that Irish Americans did not participate in significant numbers in the 1842 Moyamensing race riot, at which whites attacked a black temperance parade in Philadelphia. Brosnan, Cornelius M. President of the Albany repeal association. Delegate at the Philadelphia Repeal Convention. Brosnan was an Irish-born lawyer who attended the Catholic Maynooth College in Ireland. As a young man, he immigrated to New York, where he taught science before going into the legal profession. At the first repeal convention, he urged that it avoid the topic of abolitionism, which would be a distraction from repeal. He also wrote a letter on behalf of the Albany repeal association to O’Connell in April 1842 rejecting the sentiments of the Irish Address, which would encourage O’Connell’s May 1843 address on American slavery. In 1852, Brosnan moved to the Pacific coast in order to apply his legal expertise to disputes surrounding the mineral rushes of the region, spending time in both California and Nevada. He served on the two constitutional conventions that framed the government of the new state of Nevada in 1864 and subsequently served as a justice on the Nevada Supreme Court. 222 biogr aphical sketches of american repeal leaders Chaisty, Edward J. Secretary of the Baltimore repeal association. Delegate to both National Repeal Conventions. Chaisty, one of the repeal movement’s native American participants , was a Baltimore medical doctor. After the Irish Address was circulated in the United States, he offered resolutions at the Baltimore repeal association that the organization would not tolerate foreign interference in any state or federal policy of the United States. He represented his association at the Philadelphia National Repeal Convention in 1842 and at it urged that the association not adopt any resolutions critical of O’Connell, despite his position on slavery. He nevertheless participated in the framing of the Baltimore “indignation resolutions ” in response to O’Connell’s antislavery speech of May 1843. That same year, he served as one of the secretaries to the National Repeal Convention in New York. In 1845, he opposed the dissolution of the Baltimore association in response to O’Connell’s “American Eagle” speech, and he led in the effort to reconstitute his city’s repeal society in the aftermath of the dissolution. In the 1860s, Chaisty became active in city politics, serving on the House of Delegates for the city of Baltimore. Corcoran, Dennis Secretary of the Irish repeal association of Louisiana. Corcoran was a New Orleans journalist who sold stories regarding the city’s Irish American community to various newspapers, including the New Orleans Picayune. In 1839, he published a book entitled The Other Half of Old New Orleans in the Eighteen Forties as Reported in The Picayune. Corcoran wrote to O’Connell on behalf of the Louisiana repealers following the Irish Address, explaining why they felt they could not attack the institution of slavery. Corcoran’s letter, along with similar missives from other sources, helped to encourage O’Connell’s antislavery appeal to Irish repealers, made in May 1843. Disney, David T. Corresponding secretary of the Cincinnati repeal association. Disney was a Cincinnati Democratic politician who, from the 1830s through the 1850s, served in biogr aphical sketches of american repeal leaders 223 both the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives. During his service he spent time both as Speaker of the House and president of the Senate. Between 1843 and 1845, during the time of his participation in repeal, he served in the Ohio Senate and lobbied on behalf of Texas annexation and assertion of American control over Oregon. In 1843, Disney penned a letter to Daniel O’Connell that issued a vehement defense of American slavery, prompting O’Connell’s “Address to the Cincinnati Repealers,” one of the Irish leader’s most...