The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-07-21
Irish-Americ an Republicans.
The Address Issued at Indianapolis.

The Irish-American Republican Convention
adopted an address to their countrymen in In
dianapolis on Thursday, which we reprint be-
low. The address sets forth very effectively
the claims which the Republican party has
upon Irish-Americans, as being the party of
freedom, the party which has asserted and de-
Tended the rights of adopted citizens, and the
patty which has thrown open the public do
main to settlers, and has extended its fostering
care to manufactures and industry. Irishmen
who do not believe that the Democratic party
has a mortgage on their countrymen, and who
see no reason why the same independence and
individuality of action should not exist among
them as among other elements of our popula
ton, will read the address with sympathy and
interest, and should lend the movement in be-
half of which it is issued, their hearty coop
Grafton. The addres is as follows:
y Felloio COu7atlynaen With high sense of
the necessity of placing before the world in
their true light the motives which actuate us
with. tho Prinoiplos of tho Rap pablioan party. BY
distinct organization under the title of Irish
American Republicans, we feel called on to
state briefly the reasons..which prompt us there
to:
For many years in this country the support
OF the Irish for any cause or party was sought
through the channels of prejudice or affection.
Instruction was out of the question, and thus
an unreasOning adherence was given to the
Democratic party for period of years long
numbered with the past. With the advent
and rise of the Republican party in American
politics new era was reached. Intelligence
and critical examination into the arguments
why one or the other party should receive a
manly support, became the guides for political
action, and the Irishman, alike with his fell
low citizens of other nationalties, no longer
gave in his adherence to party action because
of the leadership of those whom they had pre-
viously trusted and followed.
This convention therefore has for its object
the initiatory action, which. with firmness and
energy, followed by promptness and industry
In sustaining the cause, principles and policy
OF the Republican party, shall show to the
world that the Irish of today are capable of
something more than being treated as mere DO
lltical slaves, that they are capable of indepen-
dent and intelligent thought and action, and
thot they are friends of that party which most
truly represents that liberty, equality and
equal rights which they have only found in
the land OF cir adoption. The claim of the
Democratic party that it is the only true
friend OF the foreign-born citizen is not sus-
ceptible of proof, as all students of American
history are we'll aware that during the entire
administration of the Democratic party it ut
terly failed to compel the acknowledgment of
those rights which the Constitution guarantees
to all who swear to support and maintain it.
The infamous and despotic British doctrine,
"once subject always a subject" was permit
ted to exist as principle of International law
until the accession to power of the Republican
party, when, and not until then, England was
compelled to recede from that insulting as
sumption, and thus the adopted citizen, for the
first time, was clothed with all the rights and
guaranteed the same protection (outside the
United States) as the citizen born on Ameri-
can sod.
So also to the Republican party do we owe
the enactment OF that most beneficial law
which has thrown open the public domain to
all actual settlers, tthus furnishing free and
happy homes to thousands of our oppressed
countrymen who are fleeing from the horrors
of British oppression.
successful ingenuity with which the English
government labored to destroy the manufac-
turing interests of our country-Ireland-
which had grown up in tlie midst of our des-
perate and persistent struggles for freedom
You cannot have forgotten the heroic efforts
made for their preservation by the great and
patriotic statesmen of the last Irish Parlia-
ment, under whose fostering care these indus
tries rose to such state of perfection as to riv-
al the best efforts of the most skillful artisans
OF Europe; nor can you ever forget that the
act OF the Union contains among its other ne
farious principles, one clause which entailed
more misery and destitution ON our country
than all the cruelties of Elizabeth or Crom-
well. That clause provides for absolute free
trade between Ireland and all outside coun-
tries. Nothing more was needed to complete
the fell work. Under that blighting legislation
all our industries, save and except the linen
trade alone, periShed never to appear again,
reducing us to the condition of mere agricul-
tural laborers, and leaving us to be the help
less victims of British rapacity and Unsuitable
hyr rInh IInCo Inx 90
abandon the home of our fathers. we again en-
counter here in America the same foe in the
Democratic party, whose ceaseless and persist
ent. attempts to engraft on our free institutions
the same English free trade doctrine which
wrought such disastrous results to our own
country, should quicken the indignation of
every consistent Irishman. In marked con-
tradistinction we invite your earnest consider
alton to the policy of the Republican party on
this subject, showing that, under its fostering
care, in less than quarter of century Amer
lea has created and brought to perfection man.
ufactures OF all the products which enter into
the profitable industry of people, and their
consequent prosperity and happiness. Thus
has the Republican party shown itself 10 be
the champion and protector of American in
dustry, to the discontinue of the avarice of
British capitalists.
We appeal to you, fellow countrymen, whose
history is long record of desperate struggles
for freedom, if your proper affiliations are
with party which sustained for many years
human slavery in its most degrading form, and
only rellnquished that relic of barbarism when
the Republican party, by the hands of our
martyred President, struck the shackles from
the limbs of the slave, wiped out the only blot
on the otherwise stainless escutcheon of Amer
lea, and extended the glorious principle of
free lands for free men over every acre of our
great Republic. We ask yon also whether you
are prepared to turn over this government,
with all its bright anticipations OF the future,
to the tender mercies of the very men who ex-
erted their best abilities for years to effect its
destruction, The accession of the Democracy
government, in the light of its past record of
treason and rebellion cannot but be regarded
as calamity, the magnitude OF which can
scarcely be imagined.