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
people, vested in the executive, Is previously
compromised If it be not fatally impaired. I
care not upon what platform he may have been
electedL 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
alteration. It is tame and beggariy patriotism,
indeed, which processes to support the execu.
tive as long as the executive l. right, that Il
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 oyerlooks 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 adj
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 tie
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 bounteoumess
of the waters, set free in the desert by the
prophets wand, overfowed the country, max.
ing 1t 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-
spectah certain important personages at the
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,
ana a. their action upon public Questions
tialities for the political school to which
they devote themselves, and their fatuitous
faith in it's impossibility ever to go 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
Southern States now find themselves, is in re-
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
already set forth in the conditions Of the sur.
render at Appomatox Court House. It be-
comes the people of the North, and it seems
to me it should be sacred obligation with
them, to treat the people of the South with an
honorable propriety and q gallant generosity.
A policy or bearing other than that indicated
in the military surrender, win counteract the
South infamed, produce an ireparable alien
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 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 a 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
and West SO to conduct themselves in their So
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 o 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 disfranchisr
ed soldiers did SO much to vindicate.
In speaking thus l 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 enlig htened
and patriotic gentlemen in giving 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
fossil in its progress. The independence as
sert for myself, / earnestly entreat every one of
my countrymen in America to cultivate. It 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