The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-10-14

my duty to be soldier then But, American
and Protestant as I am, / should be an ingrate
did not bear testimony to the services of
Catholic sisters in the hospital, on the march,
and on the field of battle during those terri
bic years. F
They nursed the sick. They bathed the fever
ish. They fed the famishing They held the
saving, cooling draught to the lips of the
scorched and thirsty. They soothed the dying,
and stole his cruel terrors from death. Heaven
only can reward their labors commensurately;
and the tongue must have more than human
inspiration which can acknowledge their sacri-
fees.
1t remained for the man who fled from
the battlefield, where they remained, to demand
what creed they professed who never asked the
soldier his creed before they ministered to him!
1t remained for the bigot in politics to vote
public money to charitable organization repre-
senting his creed, and to refuse it to these ntr-
ses Of his country's soldiers because their creed
is not his 1t remained for that runaway from
the battlefelds, and that ungrateful bigot in
politics. to ask the suffrages of the Irish-Amer-
can voters to make him President.
In the Forty-fifth Congress. q few months
before the death of brave old James Shields
juT1st, statesman and soldier man whose
long years of fidelity to his adopted country,
and of bravery in her defense should have
made all men forget where he was born, and
remember only the country and cause for
which he fought-a bill was introduced in the
House authorizing the President to appoint tHe
hoary and intrepid veteran Brigadier General
in the United States army, on the retired list
with rank and pay from and after the passage
Of the act. 1t was then known that that hero
of three wats-the ex-Supreme Court Judge of
Illinois, the only man who had ever represented
three States in the United States Senate-was
fast approaching his end. The bony hands of
the grim specter were stretching forth to clutch
the valorous frame that had defed foreign foe
and domestic traitor the once strong body,
riddled with balls and Scared and scanned with
wounds, was not to hold together much longer.
He had been stricken with paralysis. To
wounds and disease was added one more mis-
fortune poverty. On the bench as Judge !; in
the camp and on the march as q soldier; in the
halls of public deliberation as a maker of his
country's laws, he had been what all ages and
all nations have agreed is Goods noblest
work an honest man. He had never robbed
the enemy he conquered. He had never de-
spoiled the people who reposed their trust in
him. No bribe had stained the hands that had
drawn patriots sword. No improper induce
ments, thinly disguised as "fees," had pro.
cured the exercise of his influence with heads
of corrupt and corrupting combinations. He
never bought nor was he ever presented with
stock in corporations whose interests required
legislation to be modified by his voice and
his vote. For all these reasons he was poor man
and his poverty extreme. The bill to place him
on the retired list would have furnished, at a
very small cost to his country, comfort and Sc
CuIlIy IOr tne very bnOrI perlOu WHICH, LIB
wounds would permit him to live; and against
that bill was recorded the vote Of the soldier
who ran away from the battle-felds to the poll
tician's spoils of the Know-Nothing who op-
posed the resolution sympathizing with the eff
forts of the Irish people to obtain for them
selves in their own land the liberty they fought
and died to secure for us ; and of the bigot who
| voted to give public money to religious organ
| ization of Protestants and withhold it from a
charitable organization of Catholic women
| whose benevo1ence was administered without
regard to creed. James A. Garfield crowned
his unworthy record by voting against the bill
which would have made comfortable and con-
| tended the few remaining days of aged, brave,
| honest, noble poor and sick James Shields For
this, fellow citizens, make him President of the
| United States
You, especially, ny Irish-American fellow
| citizens, you, especially are haranguedby DEM
| now. 1t was always consistent toward you. From
| agogues to vote for him. You know his record
| 1867 to 1879 he never missed an opportunity to
| scorn your race and TO pour out his contempt
| on your aspirations. His record is before you.
| The people of the United States abhor into.er-
ance, no matter who may practice it. The ex-
ecutive functions dignifed by the elevated and
liberal spirit of a Washington shall never be
disgraced by KnowNothing and bigot.