Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-05-18
THE IRISH PATRIOTS IN AMERICA

respectable of the Irish exes of 1S49, was
the hero of an ovation in Boston, on Monday
evening last. At the close of an extended
journey in every section of the United States,
and on the point of returning to Europe, where
the war againt absolutism and tyranny is now
raging, an excellent opportunity was given
him to avow his sympathy with the liberal
cause at home and abroad, and to destroy the
prevalent impression that the Irish regard for
liberty is a narrow and selfish passion, found
ed upon hatred rather than upon decent APP
probation of the rights of men. 1t was the
golden opportunity in which he might have
conferred honor upon the Irish name, and i'm
perishable lustre upon his own. He chose,
rather, to confirm, by his silence, the
Judgment which the American people have
passed upon the Irish patriots of 1889,
that they were unworthy of the independence
for which they struggled, and which they for
tunately failed to obtain. They may have
suffered much and unjustly. But they have
no voice of sympathy for those who suffer as
they have. "Ireland' said Patrick Donahue,
'has for centuries been the victim of an op-
preston exceeding that of Austria over Italy
as the cedar ofLebanon towers above the 'hys-
sop that cometh out of the WALL" Yet the
living champions of her liberties have only
escaped from their own chains to throw in
their lot with the common oppressors of man
kind.
When the Young ireland party was in the
.l-A-~ -
if not its wisdom, by seeking the blessings of
liberty amidst the perils of revolution, the SYM
pathy of free people throughout the world
was with them. For every struggle of humanity
against ancient and oppressive privilege, the
American heart warns with deep and earnest
sympathy. 1t was not alienated when the at
tempted revolution proved to have been a
ridiculous and foolish blunder. The faults of
the leaders were covered with the mantle of
charity, and their virtues were magnifed be-
cause their motives were believed to be pure
and their intentions reasonable and lust The
oppressed nationality of Ireland" with sim
cere and competent defenders, would have ex-
cited according to its necessities, the same en-
thusiastic interest and assistance as Greece
Poland, and Hungary excited in their years of
trial and disaster. When the Irish Patriots
went into exile, as it was then thought for life,
they were regarded as the representatives and
martyrs of liberty. By heroic endurance
and patient self sacrifice, it was then in
of that regard, and prepare the way for
an early and more successful struggle,
by making themselves more worthy of it.
But the reputation which they had, they took
little pains to justify or maintain. 1t would
be difficult to find an equal number of men, at
any time brought into notice by similar calam-
tiles, who have shown so little heroism, so lit
tie magnanimity, so little disinterested regard
for the great principles in behalf of which they
accidentally suffered, as the Irish patriots of
1889
The history of those who earliest escaped
from their parole to this country is known to
all who are familiar with current events. 1t
was not any superiority of intellectual or NOR
al power which distinguished them but twas
the astonishing effrontery with which they in
suited the legions of sympathizing friends who
welcomed them to this asylum of the Cypress
ed.' With no conceivable provocation, other
than the instinct of depravity, they dsavow-
ed the opinion that they had ever dreamed of
contending for the eights of men, and fastened
to a scandaous espousal of the cruelest oppres-
sion under which Gods poor are bowed down.
They have reaped as they planted. They lost
the confidence of those friends whose conf
dence was of any value to them. And when
we have been called upon to resist the narrow
and bigoted prescription of foreigners, the ugly
fact has stared US in the face that those to
whom we looked for cooperation and support
in establishing the republic upon the principle
that all men are equal before God and under
the constitution, have been the advocates and
supporters of the absolutism of this continent
Smith o Brien came among us just as the know
nothing epidemic was passing out ofourpolitics.
There were no facts of actual prescription
to prejudice him against one party or in favor
of another The overshadowing question, at
once moral and political, which assaied him
in every State through which he travelled,
was whether the theory of selfgovernment
which underles our political system should
be a reality or a mockery. With a single
word he might have lifted the burden of con-
tempt which one of his comrades in exile has
brought upon the name of Patriot. He chose
to be silent.
But certainly we shall find some expression
of sympathy for the Oppressed nationalites"
of Europe, upon whose struggles the eyes
of the whole world are concentrated A
European, whose name is nothing aside from
its association with kindred struggle, cannot
in the midst of ten thousand OF his friends
and countrymen ignore the fact, that though
Ireland is "tame enough" Sardinia is planting
the tree, whose fruits she may live to enjoy,
0'Brien finds nothing here of concern to him
self or countrymen. He carefully avoids any
phrase which might by any construction, CRATE
upon Austrians ears. The only wrong percep.
tible to the Irish Patriot, who has certainly seen
enough of the world and enough of disappoint-
ment, to give him wisdom, is the petty local
folly of Massachusetts.
Mr.. Smith O'Brien has very poor idea
of his mission, if he INDUCES the hope of
ever securing the independence of Ireland
while encouraging the subordination of others
TO more wicked and unjust expressions He
has made a vain and fruitless journey to the
United States, if he leaves them with the i'm.
preston that Know Nothingism is the great
evil uuder which we suffer, and the only one