Fenian History
Description: Conspiracy Theory: The ‘Chinese Colleagues’ and the William Seward-Frederick Bruce Anglo-American Secret Détente to Contain the Fenian Invasion of Canada, 1865-1866. Historians have always argued that U.S. President Andrew Johnson and his Secretary of State William Seward either secretly conspired with Irish American Fenian insurgents in their attempt to invade Canada in 1866 or at least “looked the other way” as the Fenians mobilized for their incursion. A review of the diplomatic despatches of Fredrick Br
ireland (3897) fenian brotherhood (3) fenian raids canada (2) william seward (1) anglo-american relations (1) fenians history (1)
Peter Vronsky, Ph.d.
Historians have always argued that U.S. President Andrew Johnson and his Secretary of State William Seward either secretly conspired with Irish American Fenian insurgents in their attempt to invade Canada in 1866 or at least “looked the other way” as the Fenians mobilized for their incursion.
A review of the diplomatic despatches of Frederick Bruce, the British envoy in Washington at the time, reveals a conspiracy indeed; not between the United States and the Fenians to invade Canada but one between Britain and the United States to secretly contain the Fenians without Irish American voters finding out. According to one of the plan’s architects, William Seward, stopping the Irish Fenians was in “the interest of the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race on opposite sides of the Atlantic.”
Fenian History