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Title: Draft Resolution of the General Council on the Conduct of the British Government in the Irish Amnesty Question (1869)
Description: Resolution drafted by Marx for the General Council of the International denouncing Gladstone’s refusal to amnesty the imprisoned Fenians and saluting the Irish amnesty movement.
Author: Karl Marx
Date: 1869-11-16
URL: https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/originales/1869%20Draft%20Resolution%20of%20the%20General%20Council%20on%20the%20Conduct%20of%20the%20British%20Government%20in%20the%20Irish%20Amnesty%20Question
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*Moved by Karl Marx at the meeting of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association on November 16, 1869, as entered in the Minute Book; the first paragraph was adopted on November 30 without the word “deliberately”. Attributed to Karl Marx by MEW (vol. 16). Text from* The General Council of the First International, 1868-1870. Minutes*, Moscow, Progress Publishers, n.d. [1963-68], p. 183, which prints the Minute Book. [Traducción al español](https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/1869%20Proyecto%20de%20resoluci%C3%B3n%20del%20Consejo%20General%20sobre%20la%20conducta%20del%20Gobierno%20brit%C3%A1nico%20en%20la%20cuesti%C3%B3n%20de%20la%20amnist%C3%ADa%20irlandesa).*

Resolved,

That in his reply to the Irish demands for the release of the imprisoned Irish patriots (in a reply contained in his letter to Mr. O’Shea d.d. Oct. 18, 1869, and to Mr. Isaac Butt d.d. Oct. 23, 1869) Mr. Gladstone has deliberately insulted the Irish nation;

That he clogs political amnesty with conditions alike degrading to the victims of misgovernment and the people they belong to;

That having in the teeth of his responsible position publicly and enthusiastically cheered on the American slave-holders’ rebellion, he now steps in to preach to the Irish people the doctrine of passive obedience;

That his whole proceedings with reference to the Irish amnesty question are the true and genuine offspring of that “*policy of conquest*” by the fiery denunciation of which Mr. Gladstone ousted his Tory rivals from office;

That the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association express their admiration of the spirited and high-souled manner in which the Irish people carry on their amnesty movement;

That this resolution be communicated to all the branches of, and working men’s bodies connected with, the International Working Men’s Association in Europe and the United States.