What might be almost called a "tidal wave" of sympathy with the Irish National League, and with him as its ally, made itself felt throughout the United States.

Had I witnessed the drama from the far-off auditorium in New York, I might doubtless have shared the conviction of so many of my countrymen that we were about to behold the consummation tunefully anticipated so many years ago by John Quincy Adams, and-- "Proud of herself, victorious over fate, See Erin rise, an independent state." The moment seemed propitious for a resolute forward move in America of Mr.Henry George, and the other American believers in the doctrine of "the land for the people." It would have been more propitious had not the political managers of the Irish party, misapprehending to the last moment the drift of things in the British Parliament, and counting firmly upon a victory for Mr.Gladstone, either at Westminster or at the polls, insisted upon holding a great convention of the Irish in America at Chicago in August 1886.

A proposition to do this had been made in the spring of 1885, and put off, in judicious deference to the disgust which many independent Americans of both parties then felt at the course pursued by Mr.Parnell's friends, Mr.Egan and Mr.Sullivan in 1884, when these leaders openly led the Irish with drums beating and green flags flying out of the Democratic into the Republican camp.
As it was, however, Mr.Gladstone having gone out of power a second time, on the second day of June in 1886, the non-parliamentary and real leader in Ireland of the Irish revolutionary movement, Mr.Davitt, came overtly to the front, and crossed the Atlantic to ride the whirlwind and direct the storm at the Convention appointed to be held in Chicago on the 18th of August.
In New York he found Mr.Henry George quietly preparing to put the emotions of the moment to profit at the municipal election which was to occur in that city in November, and Dr.M'Glynn more enamoured than ever of the doctrine of "the land for the people," and more defiant than ever of the Propaganda and of his ecclesiastical superiors.

It was resolved that Mr.George should come forward as a candidate for the mayoralty in November, and Dr.M'Glynn determined to take the field in support of him.
VI.
We now come to close quarters.
Dr.Corrigan, as I have said, had become the Archbishop of New York in October 1885.

The Irish-American Convention met at Chicago, Mr.Davitt dominating its proceedings by his courageous and outspoken support of his defeated Parliamentary allies in England.