Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-10-22
The Ireland of America.

States bayonets, the plundering of
carpet-baggers, nor war of races with
in our borders-who are blest with the
possession of self-government, and who
find ourselves unmolested in the enjoy
ment of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness-we say 1t is easy for us, far
removed from the theater of discords,
hatreds, corruptions and expressions of
the Southern States, to reply to every
tale of wretchedness and ruin which
comes to us from that woe-begone
region: "Good enough for rebelsl We
wish them JOY of it. The old stock in
trade of catch-words-those cries with
which, after the war, excited partisans
were wont just before every local cleo
ton to fire fhe Northern heart-are
easily trotted out upon such occasions !;
and Rebelsl" TRAITORS r. Treason"
aud Disloyalty !" are shouted now with
an alacrity and righteousness alto
gether too business-like.
Let us of the North take warning In
this matter from the sad example of
Ireland, which has been before the
| world for centuries, and yet remains to
this day as warning example of politi-
cal oppression inaugurated by the ruling
power of England after a short-lived re-
bellion, and In some sense perseyered in
even to this very hour. In the case of
that unhappy island, as in that of the
Southern States, the rebellion against
the dominant power was effectually
stamped out by military force, aud,
after contest as bravely fought as that
of our late rebellion, Ireland, like the
South, lay helpless at the feet of her
conquerors. England upon that occa-
sion made the same mistake of regard
ing the conquered inhabitants of Ire
land as insurgents who had forfeited
every right to generosity, or even to
consideration, and, in the blind, insane,
and foolish pursuit of this policy, she
so managed to ALLEVIATE and estrange the
affections of proud and generous ma
ton, that to this day the name of
England is kissing and a by-word in
the ears of every Catholic Irishman,
and probably into no possible enter
prise would the average Celt enter with
more vim and enthusiasm, and in none
would he pour out his blood more free
~, than in a war between his adopted
country and Great Britain.
The bone of contention which re-
manned in Ireland when her demand for
independent nationality, as in the case
of the South, had been negatived by
the sharp and stern logic of the sword,
was the question of religious supreme
cy. In the South it is negro equality.
Like England, we have sought by force
to compel our late enemies to love the
novel political system thrust upon them,
forgetting as she did that the senti-
ments of affection and the love of human
hearts can only be won by correspond
ing love and kindness. Losing sight
of the fact that no people can be sue
cessfully governed except by their own
free will and consent, we have proceed
ed to coerce them into acquiescence,
regardless of the fact that, the war once
over, the rights of the people of the
South were just az good, just as sacred
as our own. AS the question of religion
became the stumbling block to En-
gland in her efforts to coerce Ireland
into loyalty and love for British insti-
buttons, so the negro question became
an obstacle In the attempted reconstruc-
ton of the South. And just as in Ire-
land the English carpet baggers of that
day sought to cover up and hide all evil
dence Of their own tyranny, oppression,
wrong-doing, and mismanagement,
by loudly vociferating .sDisloy-
atty % "Papists - ''Treason so
ir our own time, and in our own
Ireland, have corruption, oppression,
fraud, and outrage been hitherto hid
den and concealed by cries as cheap,
as demoralizing, and as unjust.
At the close of the rebellion we hsd
more than gained all we sought for.
The question of Federal supremacy
was settled forever, and the right of
any State to secede at will from the
Union had been negatived by the sword.
The letters Of the Southern negro were
broken. No human being could agaiu
breathe the pestilent cir of slavery in
America! More than this. the right of
suffrage was bestowed freely by the
nation upon race who so recently had
bent beneath the yoke of bondage.
Centuries of inherited thralldom had
brutalized the negro, and for this, of
course, he was not to blame. We must
take facts as we find them, and here we
find that ignorance, brutality, and
degradation do actually, in many States,
lo-d it over education, refinement and
intelligence--with all which that i'm
plies. We will not particularize the
consequences, inevitable consequences,
of such condition which would make
us of the North exceedingly FESTIVE if
our lives had to be spent in it, and
which should bring the blush of shame
to the cheek of every demagogue who
makes that restiveness the subject of
political capital.
The last straw which has broken the
back of Southern patience has been the
idiotic policy of forcing upon the South
ern States law designed to compel a
species of social equality between for
mer master and recent slave. The me-
gro to-day stands invested by the law
of the land with every political right
which the law can bestow upon him.
Beyond this it is sepseless to attempt
to force a social equality which GER
tainly at the present moment cannot, in
the nature of things, exist. This mad
attempt has once more unsettled every.
thing in that already distracted region.
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