Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-03-12
why on Earth Are Irlshmon Dcmocratsl

II gives me great pleasure To see so fine an
audience OF representative lrish-Amcrioans
before me, and J can see in this new move
ment the beginning Of a new era In American
politics. For the past twenty-five years, and
perhnps longer, our fellow citizens Of Irish
birth and parentaRe have almost sOlldly voted
the Democratic ticket, and they have In fact
constituted the substantial backbone Of the
Democratic party. Without the solid Irish
vote In It's favor, the Democratic party would
long since have ceased to cumber the earth"
Without that solid vote, the state Of New
H9tE Nor! would be overwhelmingly Republican.
States
such condition OF things is. TO say the
least of It, un-Amercan, Coming to the coun-
try and becoming one Of Its citizens, the Cti-
zen thus adopted will not, II he is wise, shape
his political course with reference to prefu-
dices which he should have left behind him,
nor vote with a political party because of his
foreign birth, but Will rather merge his old al
lcgiance into his present citizenship, and will
speak and vote with sole regard to the inter
ests Of his new home which has become his by
voluntary adoption. But this, in the main,
our Irish fellow-citizens have not done. Com
ing to these shores from a land blighted by
long generations of misrule and OPP
the party of oppression Coming here
fired with the idea of liberty to
secure which for their own land their patriots
have persisted at the stake, on the soaifold, in
prison cell, and on the field by thousands
they have at once allied themselves with the
party which made human chattelhOod and
slavery it's cornerstone. Interested above all
others OF our fellow-citizens in maintaining
the dignity and freedom Of labor and the ade-
quncy of its awards they nevertheless act
with party which has degraded labor, which
asserted the divine right of the master TO own
the laborer, aud 70 close OUT from one-halt the
country all its forms which were not servile
and unpaid. Coming hither to enjoy the bless
ings OF free institutions which united Nation
secures, the lrishman allies himself with a
party, one-haf of which was ia arms for It's
destruction, and the other half would do moth
ing to prevent it. Denied, in the stricken and
nUaTNW ann hon WI hn INN 1F
speech or Of thought, and where the right of
suffrage was never enjoyed, he allies himself
in the land Of his adoption with that party
which, i'm one half of the country, answers an
argument with shotgun, and terrOriZes the
voter, frightening him from the polls by mid
night raids, and unpunished and indis-
criminate assassinAtOns. Dreadlng, from
natural instinct, the enforcement of any
distinctions against hin. him by reason lsSn of
nevertheless, with an Inconsistency absO-
lutely ineXplicabe, acted with that party
which opposed an amendment TO the Constiul-
non making such distinctions impossible.
These inconsistencies cannot be attributed to
lack of intelligence in the Irish people, for no
people on the face of the earth are more nat
urally intelligent. They cannot be attributed
to dislike of liberty as such, for no people
have suffered more from oppression, or nat
urally love liberty more keenly and deeply.
They cannot be attributed to a desire to OPP
press, for, having been for generations of
time oppressed themselves, they know how
bitter is Its cup, and would not willingly place
1t to other lips. 1t is not from lack of devo-
ton TO, and love for, the country OF their
adoption, for when the hour of peril came
Irshmen by thousands hOcked to the stand
ard of the Union, and willingly met death in
vindicatiOn of the great principles of self-gov-
eminent, which had become theirs by adOp-
tion.
see, think, the harbinger of a better day,
and the existence of this club in this city, and
of kindred clubs elsewhere, leads me to the
belief that the days of the solid Irish vote for
the Democratic party may be considered as
numbered and that hereafter, with keener
sense of their interests and the interests of
the Nation, and with juster appreciation of
who the friends of free government really
are, the Republican party will number among
its adherents and followers our adopted Irish
fellow-oitizens, not because they are of
Irish birth and parentage, but because they
are now patriotic citizens of a great Nation.
Can it be supposed for moment-can
any lrishman suppOse-that had Curran, and
Grattan, and Emmett and Plunkett, and Shell
and Burke, risen from their graves, and could
they have been here, adopted citizens of this
country since 1885, that they would have acted
with the Democratic party, every instinct of
which was false TO freedom, and every pur-
pose of which was to perpetuate slavery?
What has the Democratic party done for
freedom and for the laboring MANI 1t re-
pealed, long years ago-it seems like an age
almOst-the Missouri compromise and there
by attempted to open up the great fertile
fields of the Northwest, which have since
been converted into magnificent States to
the blight of slavery, and to drive from il
every free laboring man. 1t carried the
prosecution of the great crime so far that II
finally became part of the Democratic creed
slavery was national; and vet. during these
dark and dsgracetul periods IN our history,
the Irish American citizen voted solidly the
Democratic ticket. 1t turned Kansas into a
battlefield, where the propagandists of
slavery fought against the friends of free
dom; the Democratic party aided the prOpa-
gandsts of slavery, and the Irish-Amerioan
citizen voted the Democratic ticket. Beaten
at the polls, beaten in Congress, the Demo-
cratic party assailed the judgment seat, and
secured from the Chief Justice of the highest
tribunal IN the United states the announce
ment of the astounding doctrine that three
millions OF human beings upon our soil were
not citizens, and had no rights which the
white man was bound to respect; and still the
irish fellow-ctizen voted the Democratic
ticket
Humanity could not thus be reversed. The
conscience of the world, shocked at such doc
trine, was stronger than arguments drawn
from dictionaries, and beat the propagandists
of slavery at the polls; beat the Chief Justice
at the polls; and then the Democratic party,
regarding the institution of slavery ns divine,
sought to establish an independent republic
of which this blistertng shame of human sla'
very should be the cornerstone. This the
Democratic party Of the South did, and the
Democratic party of the North, with almost
one accord, declared that the Nation had nC
power to save itself, and that while secession
was wrong, yet secession could not be coerced
and yet the majOrities in the city of New
York. made up in large part of the solid lrisf
vote, grew larger and larger for the Demo
cratic ticket,
The great contest went on, freedom on one
side, slavery on the other; and this Democratic
party of obstruction and destruction, denying
the right TO raise money TO save the Nation
denying the right to conscript men TO save the
Nation, organized riots throughout the eoun
try, and finally declared the war a failure
and would have called our soldiers home
with their banners trailing in defeat
leaving a dismembered Nation, and tn,
destruction for ages to come of al
hopes for the success of the expert
ment of self-government among men
Had the South succeeded had the Dem
ocratic party succeeded, the laborinl
man, Irish or German. or American bOrl
would have been the creates sufferer, TO
with slavery IN that new Confederacy fre
labor was as elfectually excluded from 1t as
an impossible wall had been reared betweel
people of the Union insisted that by constitu
tional amendment slavery should be eXtiI
pated from the soil of the republic, and It wa
thus eXtirpated. The loyal people Of the Unio
insisted, in language which no citizen of fOl
eign birth should ever forget, "Al person
born or naturaliZed In the United States, an
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizen
of the United States and of the State wherein
they reside" The Democratic party oppose
this great measure, making all Irish natura
lied citizens citizens of the United States an
covering them with its flag; and, TO the amaze
ment of everybody, suppose the Irish fello'
citizens thus guaranteed perpetual prOteI
tiOn, and clothed with all the dignity Of tn
citizenship of great Nation, Joined 1t the oI
position. Moreover, the Republican party, /
the same amendment, and In the same seettO
of the amendment, proceeded to declare
"NO State shall make or enforce any la
which shall abridge the privileges or in
nor shall any State deprive any perso
Of life, liberty, or property withou
due process Of law, nor deny to, any perso
within its jurisdiction the equal prOtectio
of the laws" This great charter of pOlitci
equality the Democratic party opposed. WIFI
portion of our fellow citizens were more II
terested in its adoption than the Irish fellO
citizen? But, voting solidly with the Dem,
cratic party, our Irish fellow citizens oppose