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repair of arms or of atnm unit ion , when call ^ i upon by a brother , if I have it . 6 . I hereby swear never to have a shilling , and a brother to want sixpence , without giving it to him . 7 . I hereby swear never to pity the moans or groans of dying children , but always to wade knee-deep in Orange blood , and to keep down land-jobbers and tithe-jobbers . 8 . I hereby swear never to see a brother in danger of
transportation or the gallows , if I am able to make up money for him . 9 . I hereby swear never to have two coats , two shirts , two pair of stockings , or anything belonging to the body , but will give a brother one , if he requires it . 10 . 1 hereby swear never to sit in company , and hear a brother spoken ill of . If I am not able to fight or resist , I will walk out and tell the next brother I meet what was said , who said
it , and in what company . 11 . I hereby swear to go fifteen miles on foot , and twenty-one on horseback , when called upon by a brother , upon a lawful occasion , or unlawful , for fear it might be unlawful before we could come back . 12 . I hereby swear never to give the secret to bishop , priest , or minister , or any other body , only to a friar , and to never tell the man who made me a Whitefoot , and keep up to the Knight of St . Patrick . '
As I purpose making a short analysis of this oath , I would wish the reader to be divested as far as possible of all prejudice , either for or against . Let him think of the Irish people , not in the light in which the late Lord Castlereagh caused them as far as possible to be regarded , but simply as human beings , just as the Greeks or Poles are regarded . There can be little doubt that both amongst the Greeks and Poles there exists much ignorance , and that there also exist many evils , arising from bad passions , yet there is no one who pretends to be an
advocate for human imurovement . who would therefore arffue . that advocate for human improvement , who would therefore argue , that they should still remain under a system of tyrannical misrule . That would only serve to perpetuate the evil . The fact is , that the Irish people have been suffered to remain in a state of deplorable ignorance , by the sins of omission , both of their landlords and the Government , and the usual results have been produced . Yet the Irish Whitefeet , ought not to be classed with the thieves and murderers who commit
outrages in England . This is not the character of the Irish malecontents at present . The only articles they plunder are weapons . The poor Irish are accustomed to regard the law only as an instrument of oppression . They have never found it otherwise . Legal justice in Ireland has been a synonymous expression with the strong triumphing over the weak . The law has afforded the poor no redress for grievances , and consequently , they regard the law , and all who
enforce it , only as oppressors , whom they have a moral right to resist by every means in their power . The law gives no quarter to them , and they give no quarter to the law or its agents . I am far from defending the acts of outrage which are committed , —no man can deplore them more than I do—but , in estimating crimes , it is necessary to take into consideration , motives as well as facts . We pity a bijjot
while we condemn his bigotry ; and even a child would point out the distinction between the crime of the robber Turpin , who broiled alive an elderly female , in order to make her discover her money , and the crimes of Bloody Mary , who broiled people alive , because she believed it necessary for the eternal salvation of human souls . The Whitefeet 2 C 2
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The Whitefoot Oath . 3 . V 5
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 355, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/67/
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