The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-01-16

Next to downright treason there is nothing
more execrabe in political leaders and wire
pallers, than attempts to array one class of
citizens against another in the same communi-
ty; the poor against the rich, Tor example, or
the ignorant against those who have been fa-
vored with better educational advantages.
Those who appeal to the blind prejudices of a
class, and particularly the prejudiees of those
whose means of becoming acquainted with our
institutions have been limited,-who have but
recently found an asylum from poverty and
oppression on our soil,-with view to array
them against our native citizens, cannot be
too severely denounced. Such men would ex-
cite negroes to instruction and murder on a
Southern plantation, if by so doing they could
promote their neiarious schemes. They are
worse than the burglar the midnight assassin
or the incendiary, and sink as far below these
in maniness as does the vile baek-bter and
slanderer below the man who meets you face
to face in open daylight, and draws revolver
upon you. We have been led into this train
of remark by reading in that pattern paper, the
Argus, the following:
CHARITY.-That "Charity," which the Sa-
vior set down as the cardinal virtue, seems to
be counted out from the list by at least one
prominent clergyman. On the last Sabbath
in New York, the Rev. Mr.. rockingham,
(Unitarian,) preached against such practical
charity as giving to the poor-which the New
Testament says is lending to the Lord. The
Express says that the reverend aristocrat de-
clared that the Irish laborers in New York
ought to bow down to the aboltionists wher.
~ fhay M fhan, ont a hierhuar nd N
kiss their feet! When a clergyman can begin
a sermon by preaching against relieving the
necessities of his fellow men. according to the
precepts and teachings Of Christ, this man
worship. which is against direct command of
God, is but the natural sequence of those who
begin with abolitionism and end in infidelity.
When, too, we see the Irish kissing the feet of
the abolitionists, as recommended by Mr..
rockingham. we shall expect to see the world
considerably more mad than it is.
Rev. Mr.. rockingham is gentleman of es-
tablished reputation, which can no more be in
jured by such vile sheets as the Argus and
Express, than could the reputation of an OBJ
erin or Howard by the rawlings of "a London
fish-woman. A paper that has acquired so I'M
enviable a reputation that even its own party
leaders have held it up in legislative debate,
eeaiA NchouhScu IL dS a OldCic. tdlHOb Dt
very mischievous where it is best known.
But it is the base attempt to cheat and mis-
lead our adopted Irish citizens, that is worthy
of special notice in the above. The Argus no
more believes the SANDER it publishes against
Mr.. rockingham, than it believes its own un-
manly insnuations against President Lincoln;
but it will stoop to the miserable business of
exciting blind Irish prejudice, hoping there
by to gain few votes. And what is the char
acter of the New York ally of the Argus, in
this dies picable business? The New York Ex-
press is the organ of the anti-Irish or know
nothing sentiment of New York. Its editors
staked the last dollar of their political capital
upon the issue made up by the know nothings
against the Irish, and heralded and reioiced
over the church-burnings and other barbarites
which, not over six years ago, they labored to
excite. the two Brookses are covered all
over with what they now call the 'slime of alb
olition,' as well as the infamy of know moth
ing persecution, which we all know was kin
died mainly against the Irish and now they |
turn short corner, and think to cajole the |
same Irish, and to harness them to their polit-
ical car by ndaming their minds against those
who rebuked the mad spirit which they so re-
Gently kindled into a flame. The Brookses |
will never forgive the Republicans because |
with them hostility to negro slavery is more
intense than hostility to observation-disclosures
in their political action they have favored the
of the African rather than the en-
slavement of the Irishman. And the Argus
of this city descends to the low, dirty bust
ness playing second-fiddIe to this brace of
New York worthless, in circulating their vile
venom among the Irish, TO excite their preiu-
1ces against the native citizens, even as few
years since they labored to inflame the latter
TO deeds of wickedness if not blood against the
former.