The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-07-22
THE IRISH VOTE.
Some Considerations for Irishmen.

To the Editor of the Press:
Your editorial of the 21st inst. was to the
point, and furnishes food for thought to cur
fellow citizens of Irish extraction. AS read
it took into consideration Ireland's history,
what she has suffered for liberty, how her sons
poured out their blood for the liberties of this
country in the war of the Revolution, in 1912,
and in the late war. Thousands of this pa-
triotic race laid down their lives for tine cause
OF human sreedom with the same heroic spirit
that caused their fathers to sacrifice their
property and lives in the attempt to liberate
their native land from bondage. reflect that
England ruined Ireland with "free trade" and
ruled her by creating divisions among her peo-
pie upon questions of religion and that that
grandest of men, Daniel O'Connel, hated
slavery so badly that he would not accept aid
for his country from SHAREHOLDERS;
that the Catholic church has al
ways done all it could for the ex-
tinction of human slavery; that it has always
held to the equality of man and admitted to lis
affairs the king and peasant, tho master and
the slave, thereby recognizing no distinction
in Chrsts kingdom. The Irish race has been
pow erful factor in working out human free
dom and has worked grand results in the
worlds history. With these facts known to
all intelligent men the course of the Irish voter
in this country has been mystery to me. For
the 30 years that have been voter the so
called Democratic party has uniformly advo-
Gated free trade, the result of which would
help England at our expense and place our la
boring men upon level with the poor evicted
tenants of WrOnUA0 and OUTRAGED Vra1an6
This Democratic party was and is controlled
by men who owned slaves, and belief in Slav-
cry was its test of orthodoxy. man who
opposed the doctrine of the right of one man to
own another and to buy and sell his own flesh
andIbloodlwas read out ofhis party at once When
the Southern or controlling wing of the party
undertook to destroy the liberties of this coun-
try the Northern Democrats who gave tone
and We're the leaders of their party, were so
welded to slavery that they sympathZed with
their Southern brethren in their treason. Dur
ing all this time the solid Irish vote was cast
with this party. So strange has sthis incon-
SiStent action been that it has reused in many
Republican minds great prejudice against
the Irish, and thousands have held that it was
in consequence of their religious faith that
they were found among the enemies of free
dom. 1t was said that the Irishman wanted
liberty in his own land and slavery here; that
he could see nothing wrong in buying and SELL
ing black men, and that his pretence of love of
freedom was sham. Is it any wonder, my
Irish friend, that men whom you have SO SOL
idly opposed should feel sc? True, this Demo
cratic party has always appealed to your relig-
ious prejudices and lyingly asserted that the
Republican party sought to disfranchise you.
They charged our party with being politically
hostile to your church and claimed that we
would abridge your liberties. We have been
in power in nearly all the states as we'll as in
the national government for twenty years.
Has any Catholic or Irishman suffered any
way in his rights by any act of the Republican
party during this time? Has not the Republi-
can party done what the so-called Democratic
party never could? Has it not compelled
England to abandon her doctrine of ''once a
subject always subject" Has the Catholic
church not the fullest freedom in the country?
Is this Democratic party any more friendly to
thelrish race thanIthe Republican? Is not Hen
ry1J. Gardner, the Know-Nothing, who a. gov
ernor of Massachusetts so slandered your peo-
pie, member of the Democratic party today?
James and Erastus Brooks poured out more
SANDER against you than any other two m en- in
this country. James died a Democratic m en-
Der of Congress and Erastus is today leading
Democrat in the state of New York. Mlillard
Fillmore, who was "a Know-Nothing candi-
date for President, died in full standing
in the Democratic party. Right here in this
were oath bound to oppose them for their re-
ligion and their race. 1 have heard
Democrats pour the vilest abuse on our
Catholic fellow citizens. They look
upon them as so much stock In trade,
and, feeling sure of their votes they
court the Germans and Scandinavians by Civ
ing them offices, but the Irish are put off with
the husks. The Democratic party having sup
ported slavery and being used to buying and
selling black men have come to entertain a
feeling of contempt for poor white men. Let
the Irishman look around him and see who
are his best friends. Suppose the Irishmen
had divided their votes like the Germans;
think you you would have been shut out Of
political power as you have been by voting
solidly this slavery-loving, copperhead, Demo-
cratic ticket. 1 tell you for race as shrewd
as yours, you have made great mistake, and
| am glad that many of you are beginning to
discover it. A mans religion should have
nothing to do with his holding office or with
his vote. The Democrat who appeals to your
religious preiudices is a demagogue. 1 should
not have alluded to the religion of any one, but
for the fact that men belonging to the Demo
cratic party are the most fanatical of zealots
Let me close by saying to Irishmen who re-
we're the memory of O'Connell: Vote with
the party which exterminated human slavery
in this country and which hold that England
shall not take the bread from the mouths of
our laboring men by crowding out our manufac-
lures with the products of its pauper labor.
A REPUBLICAN
lover of civil and religions liberty