The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-08-11

that some of your partially trusted lesders
have been seeking to bring you into an alli.
apce as strange as it 10 unnatural But
some of you say that you were by some one
encouraged to believe that this proclamation,
even il issued, would not be rigidly enforced,
whereas, the strongest possible efforts for
conviction have been made by all the ofnoers
of the law.
MY countrymen, let me assure you the
president had nc wish to Cypress. Inc or
dsrs he gave would have led to prosecutions
in the courts, of course, against those ON
| whom the laws would operate; but there was
| no harsh treatment, no unnecessary severity
contemplated, and if there was manifested
| any thing else, it was to carry out the gener-
al plan of the opponents of the president,
many of whom are in receipt OF salaries and
positions of trust under the administration,
and etill are covertly at work, In combina-
| ton with the avowed enemies OF the govern
! dent, to bring him into disrepute with the
| fenians, and through them with the Irish els
ment in the land.
| Countrymen, can you have forgotten his
kindness to our people; do you not remember
| how promptly, at the request OF the organl-
| yation. when ii was q unit, he released John
| Mitchell and permitted him to go on your
| account to France? Can you forget how
| promptly he caused transportation to their
| homes to be furnished from the frontier to all
| the men engaged in the late Invasion ?"
| The nresident is your friend and the friend
/ of vour race. but he is so situated as 10 be
unable to speak in behalf of his action and
vindicate the propriety of his views and the
| purity of his motives yet his opponents
| without stint can in all the land denounee
| his acts as wrong, while they know that he
could not do less than he has done and be
| blameless But be not deceived, my fellow
| citizens aud countrymen, by the apparent
! sympathy for you, now go artfully, so ardent
| ly protested by the radical element IN this
| country 1t il all for effect. They want
| your votes at the next election, and as | have
| before said, it looks to me as if they were the
| moving cause of this Canadian invasion, with
the hope something of il might inure to their
benefit and place the president In diem
ma But the trap was sprung too soon. The
scheme won't work. There will surely be
reaction. 1t is already working. The Irish
see the holowness of the protested friendship
And what else conld have been expected =
The Irish are not stupid. They can unravel
the pretense as quickly as any other people.
They know that there Is not now, there
never was, any fondness in the mind or
heart of the Puritan fer the Irish. From the
time that Oliver Cromwell, st the head of the
fanatical "Roundhead" Puritans invaded
Ireland, and abused, maltreated, robbed and
destroyed, while neither age or sex was safe
where be and his went, when his sole re-
Spouse to every appeal for pity was, TO
hell or Connaught with you" from that
time time till now, the same epirit of antag
onism to the Irish has manifested itself
wherever Puritanism gained even tempo
rary aecendenoy. See how the Puritsns of
Massachusetts, love the Irish and what, in
general he loves almost as his life--his reli-
gious opinions and faith How does Purl
tanism love them? See this fondnes for the
Irish illustrated by the light OF the burning
Charleston convent, aud In numerous other
wave Oh. yes, the Puritan loves the Irish
with all the fundness she wolf has for the
lamb, and would give him the same protec
ton and care; and the puritan is the master
spirit of modern radIcalism Can oil and
water mingle? Can light and darkness
dwell together? Then may radicalism, pur
itanism. and the Irish element commingle.-
Such union would be regarded as the eighth
wonder Of the world But this union can
never be brought about; II is only by deoep
ton that even the appearance can be pro-
duced
See how this j. illustrated in these passing
events The radicals in and out If congress
have protested very great sympathy with tho
Ir;sh-the feuians- because they were baulk
ed In the Canadian invasion by. as lie said,
Well, this was a consequence of the ''neu-
traIity laws upon the statute books" Mr..
Ancons, a democrat from Pennsylvania, in
troduced a resolution into the house, direct
f,lg the committee on foreign affairs who are
chiefly radicals, with one OF the sblest of
their number, General Banks, as the chair
man, to bring in a bill repeating all those
neutrality laws, 90 that there need he no le
gal obstacle to the invasion of Canada, and
even Ireland, of which they seemed so much
in favor, aud tor preventing which they 80
much blame the president. Did the radicals
of the house vote at once for the repeal! Oh,
no; but one of their number endesvored to
substitute some other useless Proposition
The previous question was called and sus
tanned by them, and then the whole matter
was referred to the comm ttee on foreign at
fairs "to sleep the sleep Of DEATH" and this
was done by the radicals almost in q body
voting for the reference, while every demo-
crst in the house. voted agaInstit. Thus they
lodged that matter, Notwithstanding all
their professions, and there. ever since, the
resolution has quietly slumbered.
| knew that many Of the men who went in
to Canada had been captured. | feared the
Consequences might be very severe punish
ment | had very good reason to believe, |
from the kindness of heart OF the president,
that he would promptly take msasures-only
of course by solicitation and interestingly
have those men released or the punishment
modified or mitigated. And what anxietiss
would be relieved If it were known that the
presidens was interesting himself in behalf
of these prisoners Mothers and wives Of
those captured and imprisoned ones would
feel better if they could only know that the
eye of the government was upon those. and |
it's good offices, its persistent efforts put forth
for their release or relief; and surely if the
party in the majority in congress were so
anxious for fenian success and enlargement |
and triumph, they would have been anxious 4
to know that the president was doing some
thing on this subject The democrats were
all anxious to know that something should |
be known as to the intentions and efforts of
the government in this matter. With the |
hope of having The correspondence between |
our government and England on this subject |
laid before the people, and that the ''fenians"
themselves might see what the president was
doing in this matter. l asked leave on Mon
dav Juno 25th, the day ohen resolutions
might be offered, to aohich no objection aoGs
made, to offer resolution requesting the presi-
dent (if not incompatible with the public inter
ests) to inform the house what steps, if any, had
1 u Il Il 4 /