Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1856-01-02

J
of Corporals and Colonels who could not head
assault against an ant bill in scientific
manner of Adjatants whose knowledge of
tactics have never scared above the making Of
shoes. or the selling of quack medicines
There is but one man. Oliver Byrne. in the
gathering who could shipa gun, or superin-
tend the projected salute to Dublin all the
rest are, at best, batch of obscure men mis-
led BY narrow judgments aud false idea of
patriotism, or worthless scribblers who point
| their pens in Spruce-street, and torture their
little minds devising political PerhaIn Lot
teries % to raise the wind"
Not one of these latter is known by reputa-,
ton to five hundred of our countrylnen on
either side nf the Atlantic--nct oae Of these
has ever written or spoken ten sentences in
accordance with good morality or the religion
ofour people. On the other hand, ever since
they came into life under the shade of John
Mitchell, they have eschewed all the nicer
amenities of life-indulged in the most ex-
travagant disrespect for the Church, and sick
ened and saddened our best men, clerical and
lay, by their literary burlesques upon Irish
politics and Catholic principles. These are
the Fathers, the Sponsors, the Alpha and
Omega, of this movement. Possessing no
spark of patriotism or religion themselves,
they make a precarious livelihood by carica-
turing those of better men. Without Past
to which they can look back with pleasure
without Present, such as an honest man
would live-without prospective Future.
such as a virtuous conscientious mind
might hope for, they drag out their lives strut
ting in a small way with the spurs which
Mitchell shed in his sets-to1 with Christian
ity, and wheedling their countrymen by pat
riotic pretences. These, we say, are the
prime-movers in this matter: now look ut
their victims.
Those good-hearted men. such as-of Bos-
ton, ,-of Brooklin, and-of this city, have
every man of them, been seduced into this IL
Legal cabal by misrepresentation. They do
not think, as they sit there, that they are con-
spring against the country they have sworn
to protect; they do not think, as they grow
giddy and young with the passing excitement,
that ten millions of their countrymen viii
blush at their folly or curse their recreancy
and they cannot, would not. believe that the
Church disowns them and shuts them out
from her sacraments. Yet all this is, or will
be, true They are cut off. in their old age,
from the preceptor of their youth and the con-
soler of their manhood. They are on the
high road to the States Prison and disgrace.
| They are on the eve of reaping crops of cur
ses from ALI the patriarchsof their emigration,
and all the spectators of their fight. We
pity and we respect these men. They are
dupes persons who mean well, but ACT badly.
Their goodness lies in their weakness. If
+" good intentions" justified or palliated crime
they could no: be criminals We repeat, we
are grieved to see good men tricked by sharp
ers; but the fault is theirs, if they lciU be
victims in spite of our warnings.
These two classes, Reader, schemers and
earnest dupes, comprise the body before US.
Answer-are the Irish in America represen-
ted by them?
In any other country than this we would
treat this Convention with ridicule we would
kill it with kindness; we would take away Its
powers of mischief by quiet opposition But
here at this time we are compelled against
our wish to treat it with seriousness, which
under other circumstances, it could not de-
serve.
Within a week it will be used as jibe
word and an argument against US by our enc
mics. 1t will be quoted as an evidence of
Irish sentiment, as an earnest of Irish irreli-
gion, as another sad parody upon the previous
struggles of our countrymen for their unhap-
py mother land. We desire to anticipate
these judgments, and to put in our demurrer
in advance, to any and all deductions hurtful
to the Irish Exodus. which may be based up
on them. Both in its objects (Which are So
cialistic and subversive of the historical Irish
cause) and in its means, (Which set aside the
duty of citizens and the discipline of the Cath
olic Church. } it is LIE upon the Irish of
America, and as such, we protest against it.
| 1t represents them in the same manner that a
check-forger represents the man whose name
he forges 1t filches reputation not its own.
| 1t trades in borrowed character. 1t is, in
short, creature of a badly prosecuted swindle,
| in which some persons have sacrificed portions
of Their little savings, without any security for
the repayment of their investments, and with
out entei tanning any reasonable hopes of ever
seeing them expended for a feasible object
/ We write this to show that it is not in any
manner creation of the Irish mind Of Amer
lea, or in syiaphony with Irish American SEN
| timent.
Whoever mistakes its import and influence
| after this explanation mistakes it wilfuliy and
knowingly. Whoever after this attempts to
mete out the condemnation and odium which
it has earned, or VIII earn, TO the Irish of A
merica, must assume that they learn nothing
from conference.-the they are heathens and
publicars-that they disregard the Law aud
| defy their Pastors that this Convention
| itself is sustained by Bishops, Priests, Laics,
and is fair index of Irish respectabillty and
talent-all preposterous assumptions
A camel will viii pass through the eye of a
needle, oil and water afiliate-and a tadpole
swallow hypogriff before the Irish degener-
ate into disciples of the Iufdels and Socialists,
who planned this Know-Nothing Conventicle.
| Reader---ttrrn your eyes from the Astor and
the FiIlbnsiers-we have now done with
them.