The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-08-11

But now that the war is over, what should
DO the duty of every citizen to the national ex-
ecutive, seeing that the war was the violent
denial Of that reverence and subordination
which was due to the chief magistracy of the
nation, and without which the power Of the
people, vested in the executive, Is previously
compromised if it be not fatally impaired. I
care not upon what platform he may have been
elected-I care not what party may have
placed him at the head of the national affairs
contend that the chief magistrate should have
the unqualified support of every citizen of the
republic, and that this support should be indie.
sideration. It is tame and begesrly patriotism
indeed, which processes to support the execu.
tive as long as the executive Is right, that is
as long as it pleases certain parties and makes
certain nominations, but WithdraWs its sup
port and goes into opposition when the exec
utive fails to satisfy the politicians of one de-
scription or another and overlooks the i'm.
mense service of Shocks and Sniggins in the
distribution of the Federal patronage.
Had we less criticism Of the men weset over
us in office, and heartier chivalry In our rela.
lions with them, it would be all the more ad-
vantageous for the commonwealth, all the hap
pier for the public servants, and all the more
creditable to ourselves.
Had Abraham Lincoln, in the terrible DAYS
in which he bore with patient heroism the
weightiest burthens that have ever been i'm.
posed upon public officer, been cheered in
the agony of his official cares by moiety of
that love and homage which his assassination
called forth, and which with the bounteousness
OF the waters, set free in the desert by the
prophets wand, overflowed the country, max.
ing it fertile in noble thoughts and loftier re-
gard for the administrators of the national es.
tate-had this been the case think how much
easier his great task would have been, how
much less confident and defiant the rebellion
would have proved, and how much more re-
other end of the Atlantic cable would have de-
meaned themselves towards us during the diff
fculties of the nation. If venture to impress
these views with special force upon my fellow.
citizens of Irish BIRTH it is for the reason that
devotion to their political leaders and fidelity
to party obligations is of more intense char
acter with them than with any other people,
is usually " Controlled ps1 by their par
tialities for the political school to which
they devote themselves, and their fabulous
faith in its impossibillty ever tUgO wrong. So
far, then, for what conceive should be the re-
lations of every citizen to the national execu-
tive, and the spirit in which these relations
should be maintained.
The next question suggested by the events of
the day, and the new condition in which the
lation to the terms and disposition which the
people of the loyal States should extend to the
former, and the good will and honest friend
ship they should manifest towards those whose
manly acceptance of what they consider to be
their adverse fate, entities them to the respect
and consideration of their more fortunate rivals
in the field. The answer to this question Is
already set forth in the conditions Of the sur.
render at Appomatox Court House. 1t be-
comes the people of the North, and it seems
to me it should be a sacred obligation with
them, to treat the people of the South with an
honorable propriety and gallant generosity.
A policy or bearing other than that indicated
in the military surrender, will counteract the
success of our arms, keep the wounds of the
ton, and overshadow with opprobrium the
laurels of the North. Defeated, as the South
has been, in its great scheme to install another
government and nationality on this continent,
and win the royalty of the Mississippi
having fought in the teeth of the most crush.
ing odds and disabilities with o soldiership
that establish them in history as the most mas.
terly !revolutionists of any age or country
now that this dazzling project has been defeat
ed, and the National Government resumes its
sway with weightier authority than ever it
held before and an admitted superiority over
the Oldest and grandest powers, it should be
the aim and object of the people of the North
cial and political relations with the South, that
the latter even in the hour of their capitula
ton, and amid the havoc that has swept their
fields end cities, shall be induced 10 entertain
one regret only and that the manly and gener-
GUS regret that they ever struck blow against
the United States and coveted the humiliation
of our flag. Nor should we be less liberal
less just in fact-to our black comrades of the
battle field. By their desperate fidelity to the
fortunes of the nation in many fierce tempest
of the war-a fidelity all the more heroic that
they fought in chains and with the devotion of
the noblest martyrs repaid with torrents of
generous blood, the prescription and wicked
bondage inwhich under the sanction Of the Stars
and Stripes they had been for generations
held-by their desperate fidelity and splendid
soldiership. such as at Fort Wagner and Port
Hudson gave to their bayonets an irresistible
electricity, the black heroes of the Unian army.
have not only entitled themselves to liberty
but to citizenship, and the democrat who
would deny them The rights for which their
wounds and glorified colors so eloquently plead
is UNIV orthy to participate in the greatness of
the ration, whose authority these disfranchis-
ed soldiers did so much to vindicate.
In speaking thus / am well aware that | run
counter to the prejudices Of the conservative
politician, the great end and aim of whose
craftsmanship, or whatever else their public
talk and labOrs may be called, is to consecrate
the errors or misfOrtuneS OF the past, and in-
woke the sanctions of public law and an austere
patriotism to stamp the civil disabilities and
social prescription of the black with fatal i'm
mortality. But in speaking of what conceive
should be the duties and relations of Irishmen
to the United States q reference to the new DO
litical conditions, upon which the Irish have to
plant themselves squarely, is unavoidable: and
ifIincur the disapprobation of any enlie htened
and patriotic gentlemen in giving a frank ex-
preston to my convictions, all / can say is,
that believe the world moves, and don't in
tend to stand still ard be overwhelmed as a
fossil in its progress. The independence as
sert for myself, 1 earnestly entreat every one of
my countrymen in America to cultivate. 1t is
full time for them to emancipate themselves
from the control of the politicians who have
held them in an ignoble captivity for many
years, and to whose vulgar dictation they sur
render the intelligence and high spirit which