American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-05-06
WASHINGTON Cry, Mau IS, 1876

40 He fEdstorS 0f he daerscln telegram. 4.
GENTLEMEN: The communication to which
you gave place yesterday, signed "F. Men," is
quite too bad to be passed over in silence. In
the first place, it seems to me your caption was
unjust, for it has not been shown yet wherein
any English insults have been passed, to Justify
or excuse these frantic Irish resentments The
universal American press, yourself included, so
far as it has spoken on the subject, has vindi-
Gated. Sir Henry Bulwer from any the smallest
impropriety in what he said at the St Georges
dinner it was therefore wrong in you to set
the words English insults at the head of the
article; it was conceding what, still, you denied
My principal object In writing now is to call
attention to what Sir Henry really did say, 80
as to give the quietus to the blunders Of people
whose passions and violence have run away with
their power Of judgment. The exposition at
tempted by your red-hot correspondent, "F.
Men" is as wide of the true mark as Cape
Clear is distant from NIalin Head.
What is the state Of the case? Sir Henry
Bulwer took the occasion offered by his address
to give public denial to the forgery committed
by the editor of the Boston /" Cch,'' which, as
an injured party, he had the, most eundoubted
right to. do. That he did this business but too
well, leaving small triumph to his unprovoked
assailant, is evident from the resentments''
which have followed the occasion. What he
said (withal not angrily) was directed to that
assailant alone, and had no reference whatever
to any people now existing upon the face of the
earth. Nothing but stupidity, or inability to
comprehend the meaning Of language, can come
70 any other conclusion.
The drift and substance of Sir Henry's re-
marks was play upon the name "CeIt,"
designation appropriated by no people now living
on the globe. The Boston editor took this old
mol m for 20; nd tbora
fore, for Sir Henry to press home upon him all
that was historically attachable to it. He had
voluntarily assumed a character; he must carry
along with that character all its acknowledged
qualities and properties.
How can anybody, not a candidate for luna
tic asyl lum, understand that living Scotch, Welsh,
Irish, French, or Spanish descendants of the
ancient Celts were pointed at by Sir Henry?
The truth is, that the ancestors of all the now
civilized nations were g semi-barbarous and
semi-clad," to say the very least. But whoever
thought himself dishonored by that, or was
blockhead enough to complain of it before
Messrs. Doheny & Coz As well might the
people, of England complain of the Irish Oliver
Goldsmith, who in his history represents the
aborigines of England as not clad or civilized at
al But it is useless to reason with irrational
people; the whole fuss at the indignation meet
ing was got-up humbug: an occasion made to
vent unconscionable loads of venom, malice
hatred, and all uncharitahleness In their blind
fury they outraged all decency, disregarding
the handsome disclaimer of Sir Henry as If it
had never been written or submitted. They
could not have hit upon a better way of proving
to the world what they nllege Sir Henry to
have intended, than they did in their behaviour
at that meeting. So far as the meeting was
concerned, 1t was semi-barbarous and sans
cuioae throughout. aH
1 And nowlet the theatre Of the war be changed
TO Africa. What sort of return for the hospi-
tality of American law and protection do any
class of adopted foreigners show, who set up,
in this country, party designations, with their
slogans and badges reviving the recollection Of
old-country divisions, and quarrels, and antipa-
thies? We, in this country are descendants Of.
all sorts Of people, ,--of Saxons, Danes, Celts,
Milesians Franks, Israelites, Romans Greeks,
Sclavons, Scythians and what not? Once here,
however, collected under the broad agis of the
American eagle, we own but one appellation,
we have but one set of interests and one desti-
ny: the appellation, the destiny and the inter
ests Of AMERICANS
1t was in bad taste, and not good citizenship,
to start a paper with the name Of "Celt." 1t
meant distinctiveness it had clannish, eIclu-
sive import; was intended to foment partizan-
SNIP py appealing to old impulses and passions,
which,, on the other hand, should have been
smothered to death in the waves of the ocean
that divides the Old World from the New.
We must have in this country no special in
terests. Neither English interests, Irish inter-
ests, Dutch interests, nor any interests but
American interests. They include and swallow
up the whole. What means the oath Of natu-
ralization, if it means not this
| would advise adopted citizens, Of whatever
birth, who feel desirons to revive old-country
quarrels here who would make this Republic
the field in which to fight their old battles over
again, to pause and beware. A course like
this would soon revive the died-out fires Of Ma
t'oe A'nsrtcdt,sm, and give it new and irresist-
Bile force They would have themselves to
blame for it. Such indisereet and rabid gen
tlemen as +. Mon" would be very small fry
in 9 contest Like that, and little could bs done