The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-03-18
Why on Earth Are Irishmen Democratsi

At q recent meeting in Chicago
Emory A. Storrs delivered an interest
ing address upon this question: "Why
on Earth are Irishmen DemocratsP"
Mr.. Storrs said:
1t gives me great pleasure to see SO fine an
audience Of representative Irish Americans
poiitics. shi ae For the past fwentyve years, and
perhaps longer, our fellow citizens OF Irish
the Democratic ticket. and they have in fact
constituted the substantial backbone Of the
DEMOCRATIC party; without the solid Ole n,i, arisa
long since have ceased to '.cumber the earth"
without that solid vote, the State of New
without that vote, Connecticut would never
be a doubtful State. and so of many other
such a condition Of things is, to say the
least of Il, un-American. Coming to the coun-
try and becoming one OF Its citizens, the citi-
his political course with reference to preju-
dices which he should have left behind him,
birth @ 1ssef old ais as
s speak and % vote % With sole regard to the inter
voluntary. adoption. But this, in the main,
our Irish fellow-citizens have not done. Com
long os - gene senerations s Of misruie and ep-
preston. they have solidly acted with
the party Of ,se here
secure which for their own land their patriots
have perished at the stake, on the scaffold, in
tney have su at % once allied themselves with the
party which made human chattelhood and
slavery its cornerstone. Interested above all
the dignity and freedom OF labor and the ade-
quacy of Its awards, they nevertheless act
asserted the divine right OF the master to own
the laborer, and to close out from one-half the
and unpaid. Coming hither to enjoy the bless
inss OF free institutions. which united Nation
secures, the Irishman allies himself with a
party, onehalf of which was In arms for its
destruction, and the other half would do moth
ing to prevent Il. Denied, in the stricken and
oppressed home whence he came, freedom Of
in the land Of his adoption with that party
srs1%ent % WITH sA q 81 shotgun, y and ierrosnes the
voter, frightening him from the polls by mid
eliminate os ssssssinationRs s1G preadins from
natural instinct, the enforcement of any
distinctions against him by reason Of
mes wiss an iSconsssency ns absoo
lutely inexplicable, acted with that party
ton making such distinctions impossible.
These Inconsistencies cannot be attributed to
@ people on the face OF Z the he earth % are more nat.
to dislike Of liberty as such, 70. no people
n ose mSTe snd
| They cannot be attributed to a desire to op.
press, for, having been for generations OF
time oppressed themselves, they know how
bitter Is Its cup, and would not willingly place
/ IL to other lips. II Is not from lack Of devo
| tion to-, and love for, the country of theiI
4 adoption, for when the hour of peril came
| Irishmen by thousands fOcked to the stand
ard of the Union, and willingly met death In
vindcation of the great principles of selfgov
ernment, which had become theirs by adop
| ton.
see, think, the harbinger of better day
and the existence of this club in this city, ant
| Of kindred clubs elsewhere, leads me to the
belief that the days of the solid Irish vote fol
/ the Democratic party may be considered q.
numbered; and that hereafter, with a keenel
sense OF their interests and the interests 0
the Nation, and with a juster appreciation o.
| who the friends of free Government really
| are, the Republican party will number among
its adherents and followers our adopted Irisi
fellow-cftixens, not because they are o.
| Irish birth and parentage, but because the,
are now patriotic citizens of q great Nation
Can II be supposed for q moment-caI
any Irishman suppose-that had Cur-an, ant
i Grnttan, and Emmet, and Plunkett, and Shei
and Burke, risen from their graves, and coult
they have been here, adopted citizens of thi
country since 1856, that they would have actet
with the Democratic party, every instinct o
which was false to freedom, and every pur
pose Of which was TO perpetuate slavery
What hes the Democratic party done 70