This was a small operation run by a group of volunteers but it nevertheless had a disproportionate influence that could not be ignored. As its name suggests, its raison d'être was to promote republicanism within Sinn Féin: [The Republic] has been started to gather together all that is best and greatest, most progressive and far-seeing in Ireland round the Republican banner and to build up, not a Republican party, but an independent Irish Republic. Criticising the objective of double monarchy fixed by Griffith, The Republic also questioned Sinn Féinism as defined in the pages of his newspaper. As a result of his tireless efforts to republicanise Sinn Féin, it was Hobson rather than Griffith who was chosen by Clan na Gael in 1907 to tour the United States and explain the movement to the Irish-American community. So successful was he in this that when he returned to Ireland he was considered by many Americans the leader of Sinn Féin. He also became the Irish correspondent for John Devoy's influential newspaper, the Gaelic American, and took full advantage of this position to further undermine Griffith's authority in Ireland. Griffith, however, had an ace up his sleeve that the republican faction never succeeded in neutralising: the SFPP was a limited liability company. This prevented any infiltration by the IRB and guaranteed the absolute independence of the board of directors. With both the name of the company and of its publications registered with the Customs House in Dublin, Griffith and his colleagues effectively owned the name “Sinn Féin” and their newspaper would be perceived as the official organ of the movement no matter how much the republican faction might protest. In 1910, P. S. O'Hegarty and some of his London republican allies attempted to dissociate the newspaper from the party. Although he praised the Sinn Féin Daily, and even called it the "best daily newspaper in Ireland", he was disappointed by what he perceived as the bowdlerisation of the Sinn Féin message. Both O'Hegarty and Hobson attacked him in the Irish Nation and Peasant which had replaced The Republic. With the aim of preventing any such incidents in the future, O' Hegarty proposed the following resolution at the annual Sinn Féin convention of 1910: That this convention wishes to dissociate the Sinn Féin organisation from the general policy of the Sinn Féin paper in its recent developments, and that, in view of the