Staunton vindicator and general advertiser. (Staunton, Augusta County, Va.) 1858-1860, 1858-03-27

Gov, WiSe's SDeecb.

Gov. Wisc's Speech.
At the anniversary dinner of the Hiber-
MAN Society of Richmond, given at the St.
Charles Hotel, among the regular toasts
was the following:
| 5th. The Governor Of Virginia: A gal
liant representative Of the old lady who still
presides with her accustomed dignity, and
that salutary admonition of Sic Sempe'
Tyramnis. -
Mr.. Wise being loudly called for said
that he felt bound to acknowledge that for
many year he had not met with SO hospi-
table gentleman as st. Patrick Within
the last week St. Patrick had prepared for
him plate at three different tables. He felt
honored and proud that the old gentleman
had thought SO much about him. In Wash
ington and Petersburg plates were laid for
him, and there was one for him at home,
and he felt at home" indeed in being here.
Cloud Cheers) A friend Of his Oh the
right (Col. August had with his usual wit
reminded lin that he could not put in the
plea of not having timely notice to prepare
speech. He did not prepare one, but,
Irishman like. trusted to the spontaneous
effulgence Of his nature on the moment :"
Oppressed though Ireland is, though the
attempt be made to degrade her by those
who affect to despise her, he stilled loved
Ireland, and to be with Irishmen. Ireland
is oppressed, but not degraded. Her ma
tionality, twas true, was gone but her dis
tinctive sclf-Ireland in all in the panoply
and in all the greatness of her genius, still
, lives IF any should point to her and say
! how fallen, he would say to such, what
other country was endowed with such innate
vitality as to suffer so much and still live !;
TO-. she had been ground between the upper
and neither milestone of English and Scotch
competition He himself was half English
AMI half Scotch, by extraction, but he was
all Virginian and whole American
Had England ever given sweeter song !;
has she surpassed Ireland in poetry and
oratory? No. And while England's heel
was on Ireland's neck. she gave from her
womb for the benefit of her oppressor that
Iron Duke to whom in those days SO much
of her material renown was DUE But,
blessed be Providence, Columbus was born,
and born, too, for Ireland's sake. And in
what he was about to say now, be meant
no political allusion whatever. If naturali-
cation had no other commentator than
this. that it showed if Ireland could not
politically live, though she did live in poe
try and the arts, yet her sons could lice
here. Then that in itself would be COM
mendation enough When the Irishman
first press nts himself on these shores, Brother
Jonathan sometimes finds fault with him
but when he took unto himself wife and
a child was born to him, then he was. all
that ought or could be desired. Bring the
Ii~Iman here, bring the Englishrnan, bring
the Portuguese, bring the Spaniard, bring
whom you will, and then take the Irishman
from the spade up to the tended field, and
lie could not be excclled. He did not say
that they were not as good blood as the
! ish, but he loved the Irishman for his
whole souled devotion. When be grasped
the hand of an Irishman, it was not brawny
muscle alone he felt, but the electric tele-
graph from the heart lie reelected that
when he was in C4ristiansburg, in Mont
gcr,orv county, when he was called upon
fer his reasons in defence Of the uaturali-
zstitn laws; he told them. go, dig up the
Isishnian after whom your county is named.
c the his bones in flesh, breathe into his
no>trls the breath Of life. and then ask bin,
and tie answers he shall give You Will be
III NJ. tremendous cheers. Mr.. Wise then
alluded to Grattan, Curran, Burke, and
other distinguished Irishmen. lie ALLUDED
i'll thrilling language to the bravery dis
played and the suferings endured during
the revolutionary period Of '98 in Ireland,
and concluded by giving ireland: Her
emerald is set in North America"