By 1783, threat of prosecution had blown over and Carey returned to Ireland. He found a position as editor of the Freeman’s Journal, the mouthpiece of the Volunteer’s Movement.[1]  In October 1783, Carey’s father provided Mathew and his younger brother Thomas with the funds to start a newspaper, the Volunteer’s Journal.[2] Carey was its editor.

In the Journal Carey railed against British political and economic policies oppressing the Irish. He denounced the Anglo-Irish government, rallying his readers with patriotic sentiments. He was a nationalist who favored civil and religious liberties and a republican form of government for Ireland.[3] He argued for economic rights, especially protection of Irish manufactures from British control.[4]

“…the grand measure of PROTECTING DUTIES, the only one adequate to counteract our blasting connexion to England” [5]

                                                                    Volunteer’s Journal

In the Volunteer’s Journal, writing under the pseudonym of Hibernicus the author (probably Carey) argued that British manufactures were backed by skill, advanced machinery and capital. As a result, British manufactures would always be cheaper than Irish goods.[6]

“We are in extreme poverty in every part of this kingdom, except in the North, and having no capitals, we can give no credit; not being able to give credit, we cannot export to foreign markets, as we cannot wait for the return of the produce of our goods in our present circumstances, therefore, we can have no markets but our own.”[7]

                                     Hibernicus in the Volunteer’s Journal

The Journal proved to be popular, garnering the second largest readership of any newspaper in Dublin.[8] Carey exchanged his newspaper with the Pennsylvania Packet and General Advertiser, Rivington’s New York Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal. He reported on developments in America to his readers.[9]

The ability of the Volunteer’s Journal to incite mobs started to attract the attention of the authorities in Dublin and Parliament. In 1784, Carey attended a play at the Crow Street Theatre. Although the play was the work of an Irish playwright, Carey was shocked to see an Irishman portrayed as a coward.   In the Volunteer’s Journal, he criticized the play. Despite the manager’s pleas to stop the attacks, Carey refused. Instead, he appealed to his readers to disrupt the next performance.   They showed up in force at the theatre. As the curtain rose, the first actor appeared on stage.   Carey’s supporters booed and hissed, trying to interrupt the performance. The manager outwitted Carey issuing free passes to his friends and associates who quelled the disruption.[10]

As was the custom, the viceroy of Ireland, the Duke of Rutland, ordered a play to be performed at the same theatre. The formerly popular aristocrat had angered the Irish with some of his decisions.   Organizers distributed hundreds of tickets to disrupt the performance. The theatre’s manager countered them, offering hundreds of tickets to his friends. In the Volunteer’s Journal Carey urged his readers to show up in force. As the viceroy entered the theatre, the Orchestra played “God save the king,” and the curtain rose. As the actors began to deliver their lines, a chorus of drums, rattles and whistles accompanied by cries of “three groans for the degenerate son of the illustrious Marquess of Granby,” creating uproar.   Hoping to quiet the crowd, stagehands lowered the curtain. A few minutes later, they raised the curtain and the racket resumed. After the curtain was raised and lowered two more times, the Duke and his associates left the theatre. The mob followed him clamoring through the streets of Dublin, chasing him all the way to his residence.   Authorities dispatched horse guards to break up the riot.[11]

                                  

“[The Volunteer’s Journal] partook largely of the character of its proprietor and editor [Mathew Carey]. Its career was enthusiastic and violent. It suited the temper of the times…”[12]                                                                                                                                                         Mathew Carey

                               

Dublin’s authorities were willing to bide their time as long as Carey attacked Great Britain, or the Duke of Rutland. They looked the other way, waiting for him to break the law or take on the Irish parliament.[13] Soon they had their chance.

Irish weavers were imperiled. During the Revolution, they lost their market in America. British policies prevented the artisans from selling their goods in Europe.   Then the British flooded Irish markets with cheap English-made textiles. In the Volunteer’s Journal Carey promoted a protective tariff for fabric imported from England. When Luke Gardiner, M.P introduced a bill to the House of Commons for a protective tariff, John Foster, an MP in the Irish House of Commons, and the Lord Lieutenant’s key advocate there, opposed it.   On April 2, 1784 a mob entered the House of Commons and ranted in favor of trade protection. When the Parliament defeated Gardiner’s bill, the mob loudly denounced the vote.[14]

Some of the artisans had joined the Volunteers and had access to arms. Riots broke out in the streets. Carey used the power of his words coupled with some provocative cartoons to attack Foster. On April 5 and again on April 9, 1784 Carey published two controversial depictions of Foster, slated to become Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer later that month. Carey characterized him as a bloodsucker and traitor for failing to treat the tariff bill as significant. Cartoons in the Journal suggested that Foster ought to be hanged.[15]

On April 8, 1784 Foster introduced a “Bill for Securing the Liberty of the Press.” He stated “the manifest design of that will was to preserve the liberty of the press by curbing its licentiousness, which of late had grown to such a degree of enormity as to become a national reproach.” The House of Commons passed the bill.[16]

Traitor’s Calendar and Epitaph. The cartoon suggested John Foster, also known as Jacky Finance, ought to be hanged. Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Mathew Carey with a copy of the April 5 issue of the Volunteer’s Journal. Friends sold copies of this print in Dublin and Belfast to support Carey’s cause.[17] Private collection.

The threat of angry armed artisans motivated by Carey’s articles to assassinate Foster was intolerable. The government offered a bounty for Carey’s arrest, and sued him for the libel of Foster.

The incident produced outrage throughout Ireland. Sympathizers in Belfast raised money for Carey’s defense, and lawyers offered to represent him.[18] While in hiding he continued to provoke authorities. He published an article predicting the French would invade Ireland with the help of the Volunteers. He suggested the Lord Lieutenant should be captured because of the conduct of the British army.[19]   Carey evaded authorities for several days. At one point, he jumped out of a second floor window at his newspaper office at 196 Abbey Street to avoid capture. [20]   Then, early one morning he imprudently decided to return. The Dublin police arrested him. When he appeared in civil court the sergeant-at-arms of the Irish House of Commons removed him from civil custody placing him under arrest by the House of Commons. The sergeant personally imprisoned Carey, locking him in a room in his house and posting a guard outside the door. [21]

When Carey appeared before the House of Commons, he refused to answer questions because of the improper and inhumane treatment he had received at the sergeant’s home. The House of Commons allowed Carey to produce proof against the sergeant, but after some debate, they found the sergeant’s conduct to be humane. They incarcerated Carey in Dublin’s Newgate Prison. When the Irish parliament adjourned, it no longer had the power to detain Carey. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, a civil authority, released him.[22]

ERA OF A REVOLUTION | Carey Sailed to America and Its New Republic

[1] Mathew Carey, Autobiography, (Brooklyn: Research Classics, 1942) 6.

[2] M. Pollard, Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550-1800, (London: Bibliographical Society, 2000) 86.

[3] Edward C. Carter II, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey, Nationalist, 1760-1814,” PhD Dissertation, Bryn Mawr College, 1962. 19-20.

[4] Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 25. For arguments in favor of Carey’s early advocacy of protectionism, see Stephen Meardon, “’A Reciprocity of Advantages:’ Carey, Hamilton, and the American Protective Doctrine,” Early American Studies, V.11 N. 3 (Fall, 2013) 431-454.

[5] “Protecting Duties,” Volunteers Journal or Irish Herald, March 1, 1784, 2, quoted in Meardon, “’A Reciprocity of Advantages’” 436.

[6] Meardon, “’A Reciprocity of Advantages,’” 437.

[7] Hibernicus, “Thoughts on the State of Infant Manufactures of this Country,” Volunteer’s Journal, March 31, 1784, 1, quoted in Meardon, “’A Reciprocity of Advantages,’” 437.

[8] Carey, Autobiography, 6.

[9] Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 26.

[10] Carey, Autobiography, 18-9.

[11] Carey, Autobiography, 18-19.

[12] Carey, Autobiography, 6.

[13] Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 28.

[14] Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 29, Maurice J. Bric “Mathew Carey, Ireland and the ‘Empire for Liberty’ in America,” Early American Studies, V. 11, N. 3 (Fall, 2013) 414.

[15] Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 30.

[16] Maurice J. Bric, “Mathew Carey” 416.

[17] Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 33.

[18] Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 33.

[19] David A Wilson, United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998) 18.

[20] Pollard, Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade, 86; Carter, “The Political Activities of Mathew Carey,” 32.

[21] Carey, Autobiography, 7.

[22] Carey, Autobiography, 8.