Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-20
Irish-American Republicans.
AilOpte4Dy-4he National Conven
 tim nf Ins1fnnmnnIis

American Republic National convention in
 Indianapolis, Ind, on Thursday
 FELLOW CoUNTRY1rEN With high sense
 of the necessity of placing before the world
 in their true light the motives which actuate
 us in avowing our support of, and co-opera-
 tion with the principles of the Republican party by adistinct organization under the title of Irish American, Republicans, we feel
 called on to state briefly the reasons which prompt us thereto:
 For many years in this country the support of the Irish for any cause or party was sought | through the channels of prejudice or affec- | ton. I..Struction was out of the question, and thus an unreasoning adherence was giv- l en to the Democratic party for period of years long numbered with the past. With l the advent and rise of the Republican party | ineAmerican politics new was reached. l Intelligence and a critical examination into the arguments why one or the other party should receive manly support became the guides for political action, and the 1rishman, | alike with his fellow-citizens of other nation l alities, no longer gave in his adherence to party action because of the leadership of I those whom they had previously trusted and followed.
 This convention, therefore, has for it's ob- f ject the initiatory action which, with frmness ! and energy, followed by promptness and in l dustry in sustaining the cause, principles, and policy of the Republican party, shall show to the world that the Irish of to-day I are capable of something more than being l treated as mere political slaves, that they are | capable of independent and intelligent 1 thought and action, and that they are the ] friends of that party which most truly rep resents that liberty, equality, and equalrights ! which they have only found in the land of 1 their adoption The claim of the Democratic partyIthat it is the only true friend of for | eign-born citizens is not susceptible of proof, [ as all students of American history well l aware that during the entire administration 1 of the Democratic party 1t utterly failed to l compel the acknowledgement of those rights | which the Constitution guarantees to all who | swear to support and maintain it. The infa- ! nous and despotic British doctrine, ''Once 8 1 subject always subject" was permitted 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, I and guaranteed the same protection (outside | the United States) as the citizen born on ] American soil.
 So also to the Republican party do we owe 1 the enactment of that most beneficial law which has thrown open the public domain to all actual settlers, thus furnishing free and happy homes to thousands of our oppressed countrymen who are fleeing from the hor TOTS of British oppression.
 You are aware, fellow -countrymen, of the successful ingenuity with which the English Government labored to destroy the manufac turiug interests of our country-Ireland- which had grown up in the midst of our des- perate and persistent struggles for freedom | You cannot have forgotten the heroic efforts f made for their pres ervation by the great and patriotic statesmen of the last Irish Parlia- ! ment, under whose fostering care those in 1 dustries rose to such a state of perfection as E to rival the hest efforts the most ElxillfT1 I artisans of Europe nor can you ever forgetl that the act of the Union contains, among it's | other nefarious principles one clause which entailed more misery and destitution on our l country than all the cruelties of Elizabeth or l Cromwell That clause provides for abso- | lute free trade between Ireland and all outside ! countries Nothing was more needed to { complete the fell work. Under that blight ! ing legislation all our industries save and ex- cept the linen trade alone, perished never to f appear again. reducing us to the condition of I mere agricultural laborers, and leaving us to be the helpless victims of British rapacity and ! unsuitable greed Compelled by such merci- | less laws to abandon the homes of our fath- CTS, we again encounter here in America the l same foe in the Democratic party, whose I ceaseless and persistent attempts to engraft on our free institutions the same English free trade doctrine, which wrought such disas- trous results to our own country, should l quicken the indignation of every consistent 1 Irishman. In marked contradistinction we invite your earnest consideration to the poll, cy of the Republican party on this subject l showing that, under it's fostering care in less l than a quarter of a century America has l created and brought to perfection manufac | turers of all the products which enter into the
 profitable industry of people, and their con
 sequent prosperity and happiness. Thus has
 the Republican party shown itself to be the
 champion and protector of American indus
 try, to the discontinue of the avarice of Brit
 ish capitalists.
 ! We appeal to you, ellow-countrymen
 whose history is long record of desperate
 struggles for freedom, if your proper afilia
 tions are with party which sustained, fol
 many years, human slavery in it's most de ! grading form, and only relinquished that rel I ic of barbarian when the Republican party ! by the hands of martyred President l struck the shackles from the limbs of the
 slave, wiped out the only blot on the other ! wise stainless escutcheon of America, and ex
 tended the glorious principle of free lands fol
 free men over every acre of our great Re public. We ask you also whether you art | prepared to turn over this Government, witt
 all it's bright anticipations of the future, tc
 the tender mercies of the very men who ex
 erted their best abilities for years to effect it! destruction. The accession of the Democra cy to full power in all the departments of the
 Government, in the light of it's past record o1
 treoson and rebellion, cannot but be regarded
 as a calamity, the magnitude of which car
 scarcely be imagined.