Both bodies agreed in creating a commission to proceed to Europe, and endeavor to harmonize the conflicting claims for the control of the home organization," and to secure a governing body on the American elective principle, which would represent officially all the "nationalists" in Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. Savage was chosen for this mission, and proceeded at once to Paris, where in a conference held in January, 1869, the project was successfully carried out. It now became the purpose of the Fenian leaders in America and Ireland to obtain the release of their imprisoned friends, and to induce the United States government to interfere in favor of several of them who were naturalized citizens. The corporation of Dublin proceeded to London in a body, and appeared, with the lord mayor at its head, at the bar of the house of commons, with a petition of amnesty for the prisoners. The English government, yielding to these solicitations, granted a free pardon to several. The combined and persistent efforts made in favor of amnesty for the prisoners were coupled everywhere with a demand for tenant right.

This double agitation assumed such proportions that in the autumn the government sent additional regiments to Ireland. In the United States the Fenian brotherhood was legally chartered in August, under the act incorporating benevolent societies. The eighth congress assembled in New York, Aug. 25,1869. Mr. Savage reported the union effected between the branches of the brotherhood in Great Britain and Ireland, and the progress both in numbers and character made by it in the United States. He also denied officially a report that Fenianism had entered into a league with European socialism. This year 1869 was rendered memorable by the disestablishment of the Irish church, and this measure was followed up by the passage in 1870 of an Irish land bill. The Fenians claim both these measures as the legitimate offspring of their efforts; and some English statesmen avowed that they were the necessary consequences of the Fenian agitation. The rigors to which the Fenian prisoners were subjected furnished a fertile topic for continued agitation. The subject had been brought before congress in December, 1869; and on Feb. 10,1870, the house of representatives by resolution condemned such cruelty, and urged the president to interfere in behalf of the victims.

In Ireland J. O'Dono-van-Rossa, while a prisoner, had been elected to parliament for the county of Tipperary; the election was declared void, and Mr. C. J. Kickham, a recently released Fenian convict, was proposed for the vacancy, but failed of election. Thus was the popular sentiment kept in continual effervescence among the Irish in Great Britain, while in the United States the senate party on May 24 assembled another expedition on the Canadian frontier. President Grant lost no time in issuing a proclamation against the raiders, and Gen. Meade hastened to the border to enforce it. Col. O'Neill and several of his officers were imprisoned, and the men and arms were seized by the United States authorities. The ninth congress of the Fenian brotherhood assembled in New York on Aug. 30. O'Neill, in his prison in Windsor, Vt., signed an agreement on Sept. 7, in the name of his adherents, by which they were reunited to the parent society. The British government, after witnessing this last impotent effort at invasion, and passing the Irish land bill, granted in December a partial amnesty to the political prisoners, on condition that they should quit British soil for ever.

In February, 1871, Mr. Savage insisted on laying down his charge in the brotherhood; his resignation was accepted by the tenth congress on March 21, and the office was abolished, and the direction vested in an executive council. A committee appointed to investigate the past financial affairs of the brotherhood reported that the total amount received in a little more than 12 years was $626,043, of which $425,254 were expended for Irish revolutionary purposes direct," and $197,669 were expended in America." The report states that of the amount expended in America, at least two thirds were not for organizing purposes and office salaries, but "for objects indirectly connected with the cause of the revolution in the British islands, such as the purchase of arms and vessels, the pay of armorers, the rent of armories, the support of men sent here on duty from Ireland, the relief of refugees (a vast sum), and the support of the families of some of the officers and men sent on duty to Ireland and England." The 11th Fenian congress, which met Aug. 20, 1872, reduced the number of the executive council to 10, to be elected by congress, including a chief secretary who is the executive officer of the organization, a position at present (November, 1873) held by John O'Mahony.