Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-09-09
IRISH REPUBLICANS.
An Address to the Irish Voters of
the United States.
Adopted at the Convention of the Irish
Republicans, Held at Indian
apOlis, July 14-15.

FELLOW oUNTRYMEN With high sense
of the necessity OF placing before the world in
their true light the motives which actuate
US In avowng our support and cooperation
with the principles of the Republican party by
distinct organization under the title of Irish
American Republicans, we feel called upon to
state briefly the reasons which prompt Us there
to. For many years in this country the sup
port of the Irish for any cause or party was
sought through the channel OF pr. judice or af
lection. Instruction was out of the question,
and thus an unreasoniDg adherence was given
to tie Democratic party for a 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 CT. teal examination into the arguments
why the other party should receive
manly support became the guides of
political action, and the freshman, alike
with his fellow. citizens of other nationalities
no longer give his adherence to party action
because Of the leadership of those whom they
had previously trusted and followed. This
convention, therefore, has for its object the
lnltlatory action. which, with frmness and en-
ergy, followed by promptness and industry in
sustaining the cause, principles, nd policy of
the Republican party, shall show to the world
that the Irish OF to-day are capable of some
thing more than being treated as mere political
slaves, and they are capable of independent
and intelligent thought and action, and that
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 their adoption. The claim
of the Democratic party that it is the
only true friend Of foreign-born citizens
Is not susceptible of proof, as all students of
American history are well aware that, during
the entire administration Of the Democratic
party it utterly failed to compel the acknoWl-
edgment OF those rights which the constitution
guarantees to all who swear to support and
m q hn info oy1l1 +:a y
trlne ''once SUI ject always subject was per-
united to exist as principle of international
law until the accession to power of the Re-
pablican party. Then, and not until then,
England was compelled to recede from that
insulting assumption, ana thus the adopted
citizen for The first time was clothed with
all the rights and guaranteed the same pro-
lection outside the United States as the citizen
born on American soil. So, also, to the Re-
publican party do we owe 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, Whe are fleeing
from the horrors of British oppression. You
are aware, -countrymen, of the successful
ingenuity with which the English Government
labored 70 destroy the manufacturing inter-
ests Of Ireland, which had grown up in the
midst of our desperate and persistent strug-
giles for freedom. You cannot have forgotten
the heroic efforts made for their preser-
walton by the great and patriotic statesmen of
the last Irish Parliament under whoae fostering
care these Industries arose to such a state of
perfection as to rival the best efforts of the most
skillful artisans of Europe. Nor can you for
get that the act of the Union contains among
its other various principles one clause which en-
tailed more misery and restitution in our couD-
try than all the cruelties of Elizabeth or Crom-
well. That clause provides for absolute free
trade between Ireland and all outside countries
lad 70 70 ha fell
work. UAder that blighting legislation all our
industries, save and except the linen trade
alone, persisted, never TO appear again; reduc-
ing us 10 the condition Of mere agricultural la
berers, and leaving us to be the helpless vic
TINS of British rapacIty and Unsuitable greed.
Compelled by such merciless laws to abandon
the lines of our fathers, We again encountered
here IN America the same foe IN the Democratic
party, whose ceaseless and persistent attempts
TO engraft IN our free institutions the same
English free-tr&de crrine which wrought such
disastrous results TO our own country should
quicken the indignation of every consistent
1rishman.
In marked contradistinction. We invite your
earnest consideration to the policy Of the Re-
publican party on this subject, showing that
under its fostering care IN less than quartec
OF a century, America has created and brought
to perfection manufactures 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 to be the champion and protector
of American industry, to the discontinue of
the ayarice of British capitalists.
We appeal to you, fellow-countrymen, whose
history Is a 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
relipuuished that relic of barparism when the
Republican party, by the hands of our martyred
president, struck the shackles from the limbs
Ct the slaves, wiped out the only blot on the
otherwise stainless escutcheon Of America. and
extended the glorious principle OF free lands
| for freemen over every acre OF our great re-
public.
! We ask you also whether you are prepared 10