The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-09-08
wooing by Insult.

Governor Oglesby and Schuyler Colfax
and ''Dirty Work Logan" and divers abolI-
tionists of this city, attended fenian picnic
at Hsss' park, about eight miles from Chica-
60, on w ednesday, and did then and there
address those whom they have hitherto de-
lighted to call "d-mn-d red mouthed Irish
men," What the Irishmen have lately done
which should have won Tor them such
proof of affection from the men and the party
who ALWAYS pursued them with the most ven
emous hatred is a mystery. The sort of feel
ing which abolitionists entertain for Irish.
men was incautiously shown in the speech of |
Governor Oglesby. He said to his fenian /
"friends," 81 am glad to see that at last a |
glass of whisky will not buy your votss."-
And again, 81 didn't use to love the black |
man very much | found him at the south |
during the war praying for liberty; l then |
felt better about the black man. Well, now |
because think something of the black man,
am l to sleep with him or allow him to mar
~ my daughter"
What are we to infer from this, but that
the governor intended his Irish friends" to
understand that he didn't use to like Irish
men, but now he finds them praying for lib
erty for their native land, and he thinks
something of them, but he is not willing to
sleep with one of them or permit one to mar.
ry his daughter! He places them now on
| the same level with the negro. 1t is not a
year since it was general assertion by the
| abolition party that the negro was better
than an Irishman. The governor is magnan-
imous. He is now willing to admit that
fenian is equal to q negro. Think of this,
Irishmen. Think of the cool, deliberate in
| suits thrust in your faces by YOUR pretended
| friend while he was speaking TO you.
| Let the Irishmen who listened to the gov
ernor remember that that he charged them
with always having sold their votes for
| glass of whisky that he avowed his former
| hatred to them; that he compared them TO
| negroes and told them that he would not
sleep with one of them or permit one to mar
| rY his daughter. He thinks the Oglesby
blood would be contaminated by an Irish ad'
| mixture. 1t is not strange, for it has been
| the habit OF the party IN which Governor Og-
lesby is a prominent leader, to speak OF Irish
men as Cattle Who has not heard the
expression from abolitionsts and know moth
| ings of ''voting Irish cattle? He not only
compared you TO ringers" but he compared
you TO cattle. lie stood up before the thous
ands of freshmen assembled in Haas park
and said TO them: ''YOu have been driven TO
the polls like sheep" This was not enough.
| He could not avoid an insulting reference 10
the employ msnts in which many of you are
engaged He said "If you want to be hod
carriers and ditch diggers for Andrew John
son, you will never be thought we'll off,
| Suppose instead of saying hod-carrlers aud
ditch-diggers he had named two of the pro-
fessions esteemed to be the most honorable
and guarantee of what those who are in
the habit of sneering at nod carriers and
ditch diggers consider "respeota biiity,"
would il not have sounded differently? Is 1t
not plain that he meant to sneer at the lab
orers who support themselves and their fam
lilies by daily toll in the employments to
which he referred?
| Where was your manhood, Irish men, when
thousands OF you stood before that coarse,
vulgar, drunken demagogue, and patiently re-
ceived from him such studied, singing insults?
Had he spit in your faces had he showed his
fist under your noses and said to you that you
were meauer and more degraded than brutes
he would not have insulted you more grossly.
Did your fenian leaders betray you to well
come your enemies that you ght be thus
tertained? Could you not see from the begin
ming to the end of Oglesby's speech that you
were 10 him objects of derision and contet pit?
Read bis speech az reported IN the Times of
yesterday morning. The speech reported in
the Tribune his is not the speech he u ade.
Why did he heap on you all this vltupera-
ton and lnvective why did he charge you
with selling your votes for lass of whisky?
why did he compare you to negroes and
sheep? and why did he intimate that you,
like negroes, were not Ht to assoclateor inter-
marry with dacent white Americans? lie
told you why. 1t was because you were
mem bsrs of the democratic party. VIII he
tell why Irishmen belonging to that party are
more degraded than those of other nationali-
tee? He made distlction. Why did he
make it? 1t was simply because he has an
abolitionist's hatred and contempt for Irish
men.
What party in this country should Irish
men belong to but the democratic party p
What other party in this country has ever
maintained the rights of Irishmen and made
haste to bestow on them the privileges of cit
izenship? What has the abolition party ever
done for Irishmen that it now presumes to
ask their votes It has heaped on them Just
such vituperation as Oglesby employed
against them In his speech. 1t has mobbed
them. Il has burned their converts and their
churches. It has denied them the priv
! ilege of voting. 1t has charged them with
D every vice which humanity is capable. 1t
has alleged that Irishmen fill our jEils and
pententiaries that they are the cut-throsts,
thieves burglars, and highway robbers infest-
; ing society; and it was unanimous in de-
nouncing ths president for not more rigdly
enforcing tho neutrality laws. 1t ridi,uled
the invasion of Canada. 1t scofed at the
mseres of Ireland. Now it thinks it can
catch few Irish votes, and life long detam-
ers and vsnomous hatsrs of Irishmen call
them together and think that by insulting
them for being democrats, and making prom
ises as hollow as their pretended friendship
is hypocritical they will induce them TO join
+ the abolition ranks. Let feninns who relish
such insults rs Oglesby exulted in heaping
upon them turn out to welcome him when he
again visits Chicago. Those who Will do it.
f or fellowship with aboitionists who thor
, oughly hate and despise them Oglesby
does, are no better than he told them they
were. We want none such in the democratic
ranks Chicago Times.
JUDGE THOMPSON.