, 1880-02-22
PARNELL,


and notwithstanding the "remorseless per-
! sjstence" Of the sensation-loying New York
Herald, the pap-fed and otherwise fed Bour-
| bon New York World, and that doctrinaire
| Journal of pseudo-culture the New York
Nation, there is no doubt but Chicago
will greet the agltator tomorrow evening
with large, enthusiastic, and Impressive
audience. Many will 20 doubtless through
mere curiosity to see the man who has had
the temerity to brave the opinion Of the
whole English and pro-Brilish American
press; who has stood unmoved in the British
House Of Commons amid the jeers and groans
OF the!s" first assembly Of gentlemen in the
world u; man who, while yet in early man-
hood, has attracted the attention Of the civil
ICED world; who, to use the language of the
veteran agitator, Wendell Phillips, has
bearded the British lion in his own den.
But. aside from motives of-.mere curiosity,
Americans will be glad to greet the grandson
Of one of their greatest naval heroes, and to
express sympathy with struggling nation
ality with whom they have many ties
Of interest They cannot forget that
Mr. Parne1l's Irish ancestor voted for a
motion in the Irish Parliament expressing
sympathy with the American struggle over
100 years ago. The idea of agitation, too,
will not be so odious to them when 1t is re-
membered that the agitation led by Patrick
Henry, and John Hancock, and Samuel
Adams 'culminated in their own freedom;
and that, still later, agltators such rs Wendell
Phillips, Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley,
Thurlow Weed, and Owen Loyejoy reused
this Nation to the enormity Of negro slavery
and led to the emancipation Of that race
whose bondage made free nation misnomer
as applied to this country.
His own countrymen will, Of course, con-
stitute the largest and most enthusiastic por-
ton of the assemblage. For them he has
broken through the artificial barriers Of race
and religious prejudice; has estranged him
self from the aristocratic society into which
he was born; abandoned his legitimate hopes
Of preferment, the ease which is the accom-
paniment of a large income, and those dis
tinctions which loyal servility brings to men
of his class in Ireland. He has abandoned
all these to become the leader Of dis
couraged and disorganized, half-clad and half
fed people In the effort to rid themselves from
themore than Egyptian bondage in which they
have been kept for centuries. And in doing
this he has had to brave the fnvectiyes, the
contumc]y, and the s1anders Of the English
press and the greater portion OF the English
public, the hatred and malignity Of enyious
politicians in his own country, the scorn Of
society and its pandcrers, and purse-pride and
its votaries; to contend against the timidity
begotten OF easy circumstances, the servillty
born of slavery, and the treache1y purchased
by place and pelf.
He could not but have seen the path that
lay before him when he took up the cause of
the oppressed. It has too often led to exile
and ruin, to the dungeon and the scaffold.
"Brave and good men tried to snap the rusty
chain ~ in which feudalism has bound the
tenantry Of Ireland, only to fail miserably.
The landlord power had every engine of
corruption and power ready to do service in
its cause.
Under these circumstances, Irish-Americans
would be unworthy the freedom which the
laws Of this country confer if they did not
turn out to do honor to the champion Of their
kindred and country, of the victim against
the despolIer: The Tory press and the Tory
leaders Of England may not be so blind to all
the signs OF the times as not to read In
great demonstration such as we predict for
Chicago an Indication that free peoples abhor
and detest the system OF legalized robbery,
and the plunder Of a people under d feudal
code such as the land laws of Ireland.